Olympic National Park Trip

Visit 2, Day 2

Sept 1, 2026

Hurricane Ridge

Started off this day driving up to Hurricane Ridge (about an hour from where we stayed). Unfortunately the lodge up there is still gone after it burned down in the last number of years.

We did a short little hike out to further on the ridge. But this one feels more like a get out of the car and look around stop. Most of the scenery is basically visible from the parking lot (from what I've seen), and you're not really rewarded for going further out to the ridges.

Couldn't really see Canada on the day, too many clouds.

Salt Creek Tide Pools

Next up we drove out to the Salt Creek Recreation Area. We forgot to check the tides before planning this day, so we got super lucky when we found that the tide was basically as far out as it was going to be that day when the sun was up. We ended up using this site to track the tides.

They were at about ~3 or 4 feet high, but we still saw lots of good stuff. There were slightly different things at both closer to that cool island, and more on the side by the Strait of Juan de Fuca.

Elwha River Casino

Lucas loves to gamble, so we stopped by the Elwha River Casino on the way to our AirBnb. Jade hadn't seen one before in the states, so she got to try a couple slots. In the end she was unlucky, but Lucas hit it big and won like $250.

Joyce General Store

We stopped for fresh veggies at the only store open for an hour basically in any direction in Joyce. This was a super cute place, it even has a post office inside!

I bought a book here 'Fish Tales of the Tri-Hamlets Port Crescent Gettysburg and Joyce' about the local history, and it turned out that the book had a picture of the general store from 100+ years ago, and it's one of the longest running general stores in the state, if not the longest.

'Captains Quarters'

We stayed at this super cute Air BnB called 'Captains Quarters', link here.

It had a real nautical vibe, and was right on the water. We ate breakfast and dinner on the porch looking over the ocean, and did a couple watercolor paintings with some paints that Jenna brought. I painted the coffee news guy sitting on a log by the water.

I read my new book for a while until I finished it (it was pretty short), and then I read a copy of the 'coffee news' for that week. (Side note, I'm a huge fan of the coffee news francises, and have a soft spot for them from reading them as a kid)

Gumboot Chiton

We also found this crazy dragon scale looking thing on the beach. It turned out to be a gumboot chiton. A pretty crazy looking sea creature, unlike anything I've ever seen

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National Parks Log

• ✓Mount Rainier National Park(Washington)
  Rank #1
• ✓North Cascades National Park(Washington)
  Rank #8
• ✓Crater Lake National Park(Oregon)
  Rank #10
• ✓Olympic National Park(Washington)You are here
  Rank #12

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