One of my absolute favorite things about living in this part of Washington is that we are so close to Olympic National Park. It is seriously wonderful to be able to leave a little early on Saturday, drive roughly an hour, and be able to walk through old growth forrest in the shadows of mountains.
Except when we fail to do our research and show up when things are closed.
Over the past couple months my family and I have tried to visit Hurricane Ridge only to have all our best laid plans (and by best laid plans I mean we woke up and thought, “Hey, let’s go to Hurricane Ridge today”) be foiled by the government shutdown or the road in being closed for some other reason I have yet to uncover.
Thankfully, we aren’t the type to simply give up and drive back home. On our first attempt we ended up visiting a small picnicking spot near Lake Crescent. (We may or may not have had to walk around a closed gate to do this.) We had lunch, did a bit of walking and my husband taught our son to throw rocks in the lake. A talent he has now applied to everything he can fit in his little hand.
On our second failed attempt we ended up doing a little hiking through the Heart O’ the Hills. It was a great little walk amidst some seriously big trees. Our little guy had so much fun stretching his legs and tackling terrain that is a little challenging for a 1 & 1/2 year old. He was quite mad when he figured out we were walking back towards the car.
The weather is starting to shift so our outdoor excursions will likely now be shorter and a bit closer to home. Not only is it getting a bit chilly but currently the sunsets at about 4:30PM in Washington and the days are still getting shorter.
If you have any recommendations for some great Washington outings please leave them in the comments below!
