Camping on the Washington Coast
One of my best friends from back home came to visit me last week! We explored almost every inch of Seattle, ate insane amounts of food, and took advantage of the beauty of Washington by going on a mini camping trip to the coast for a few days. We stayed in Olympic National Park at Rialto Beach. I've done a fair amount of camping in my life, but I think beach camping is by far my new favorite way to camp. Falling asleep to the sound of the ocean is magic, and waking up to incredible views from our tent was so wonderful.
We took the ferry from Seattle over to Bainbridge Island and then drove the rest of the way to the coast from there. I love taking the ferry and really need to get out and explore Washington's islands more often. There are so many hidden gems in this state and it's a shame that I still haven't visited a lot of them!
The coast was perfect. We were sort of expecting bad weather, but we were pleasantly surprised by how awesome it turned out to be. We walked a little over a mile until we found a place to set up camp. We were situated in a way that felt private and hidden from the people who would occasionally walk by along the water, but it was still open enough to give us amazing views of the ocean.
We made a fire, boiled some water for dinner, and devoured our backpacker meals. I had the vegetarian chili which filled me up for the rest of the night. The only thing we were all bummed we forgot about after dinner were the s'mores of course! Not sure how I dropped the ball on that one. It's rare that I forget to pack dessert...
I guess it rained a ton overnight, but I was passed out and didn't hear a thing. Adam tossed and turned a bit because the waves were crashing so loud and he was worried we weren't set up far enough away from the water, but luckily we picked a good spot and the tide never made its way to our campsite. That would have been an interesting thing to wake up to. :)
Early the next morning, we wandered out in search of tide pools and critters. From sea anemones and crabs to starfish and snails, the ocean was most certainly alive with tiny creatures that morning. We were even lucky enough to spot a seal bobbing around in the waves.
We spent the rest of the morning lazing around, eating oatmeal, flying a kite, playing with seaweed, and making stone cairns. We packed up around noon and headed back to the car. The weather was soooo nice!
On our way home, we decided to stop in Port Angeles to visit Hurricane Ridge. The mountains were gorgeous and the sky was a beautiful blue. It was a great way to end our trip. We had so much fun on the coast and I already can't wait to go back!