Olympia National Park North

As I type this I’m just north of Olympia National Park, looking over the Strait of Juan de Fuca, watching various ships go by. We are in a county park campsite right on the ocean with Victoria Island, Canada on the other side of the strait. Unfortunately I can’t share pictures as we left the camera at Aunt Phyllis’s.
I never new counties had their own campgrounds but we’ve stayed in two now and they have both been superior to commercial, federal and national parks. Most of the federal and national stuff was built in the depression, prior to motor homes and trailers, so they tend to be 21’ long (way too short for us) and if you get a flat one you are lucky. The commercial stuff has all the amenities but views are hit and miss. The county parks on the other hand were built after the war and even get updated once every decade or so. They tend to have nice, long, flat spaces with some pull throughs, some full hookups and always, at least so far, fantastic views. What’s even more important they are not publicized so they tend to be empty except for a few locals? I’m going to try them whenever I kind find them.
We spent yesterday mountain biking on the Spruce railroad trail along Crescent Lake. Crescent is a beautiful, clear water lake cut out by glaciers with mountains rising straight up from the water almost all around. It’s a large lake but believe it or not on two separate occasions I actually saw trout in the lake while riding the trail. Still haven’t tried fishing from the kayak, this may be the place if we have time (so much to do, so little time). Most amazing of all Tracy mountain biked over 10 miles and didn’t hurt herself.
Today we went to Sol Duc Hot Springs. (You know you are a snob if you automatically pronounced that with a French accent; it’s pronounced Sole Duck). We did an easy 6 mile round trip hike from the springs up to the Sol Duc falls and back. The falls are pretty cool the river runs down, simultaneously splitting into four separate fingers taking a sharp right and dropping into a narrow rock crevice. The bottom of the crevice is very tumultuous, throwing a fine mist of spray up a hundred feet to the walking bridge from which you are overlooking it all. At the end of the hike we enjoyed a long soak in the natural hot springs followed by dinner at the campground restaurant. I had an excellent stuffed portabella mushroom with a roasted chile reduction sauce. The chef of this particular State Park Restaurant is a Texas Culinary Academy graduate who just happens to love the location.
However being the gourmand I am, I still must say nothing beats a beef hotdog roasted over an open campfire, with sweet, hot, mustard, a bun and nothing else!