East side of Olympic National Park..............

We moved again...this time to the east side of Olympic National Park. It has been very hot and dry in Washington this summer, and from what we understand from everyone, this is an exceptionally bad year. Worse than people ever remember. Yikes!

Our new backyard is in a quiet, cozy campground which is very well maintained. A great location between Glacier National Park and Seattle. There are only about 30 sites here, and its just perfect for us! Our neighbors on both sides of us are also full-timers, so its great to chat it up about the lifestyle. Its always great to share experiences...we learn so much from each other!  Across from us is a "tiny house"!! I am just fascinated by them. This one has a sign on it, near the front door....seattletinyhomes.com, which I checked out online. I am not sure if its just a model, or someone actually lives there. Its on a trailer, so it can be towed to a different location. Interesting! Hope we get a chance to talk with the owners.

new neighborhood

using our new stepladder to adjust the awning

"tiny house"    (you never know what you will see in a campground!)

Since we are NOT on vacation (right Tom?), we did some errands and explored our new town for  a bit. Its lovely here, though much more congested than what we've been used to for the past couple of months. Hahah. We had a great shopping trip to Costco, as you can see by the supersized bag of tostitos, so we had our favorite salmon dinner here. Yum! We rarely eat out, so we love it when we find a Costco to get our fix of stuffed salmon, a special treat for us. (Usually we have salmon fillets, which are much healthier.....honest)!

The town of Poulsbo is a port town, with a very strong Norwegian presence. The Norwegians were the first settlers to this area, and you can see by some of the shops and street names that this is so. We had a great time window shopping in town and checking out the marina. Lucky for the yarn shop owner....I stopped in just to look and made another "baby" purchase. I am trying to knit my way through the stash that I brought with me, so when I buy more yarn, I immediately start on that project so that I am not adding to my stash. I am so weak......why don't I just stay out of yarn shops? Hahah.

movie night....do we have enough chips?

nice little marina here

isn't that a cute place?

waiting for me - the window shopper

flowers are gorgeous here

well lookey here!

charming little waterfront town

famous chocolate shop

Olympic National Park is huge, as I think I've mentioned before. The Hurricane Ridge section is located between Forks (where we came from) and Poulsbo (where we are now), so we "saved" this section to explore so we could spend more time on the beach last week. For more information on Hurricane Ridge, click here. Hurricane Ridge is the highest point in the park that can be easily accessed. There is a Visitor Center, complete with a gift shop/restaurant/bathrooms, and the Olympic National Park movie is shown here as well. We love the movies!! There are several short hikes across the meadow that we enjoyed. However, due to the smoke from a wildfire in another section of the park (the Paradise fire), the air quality was poor and the visibility was terrible. We were advised to limit hiking. Just to go easy and not do anything strenuous. And to forgo the ridge hike, which is strenuous (OK!). The smell of smokey pine was pretty strong. Very sad! We were also expecting to see lots of wildflowers, but really only saw them along the roadside. The meadows are all parched...the historic drought/heat in the area has taken its toll. Hopefully we get rain soon!

its pretty smokey!

the three tunnels looked new!

looks more like the Great Smoky Mountains than the Olympic Mountains....sad :(

the park is beautiful though...check out the healthy looking trees

the fire is on the other side of the park, but its been cooking for a few weeks now

lovely flower-lined roadway through the park

very hot and dry (and smokey) at the top of the mountain here

so much smoke

the meadows are parched

it you look very closely, you can see Mt. Olympus with the snow....very hard to see in the photo

sad

smells like burning evergreen

really bad here

aawww...the deer is curled up next to the garbage  (seeking shade?)

this is just not natural...poor thing!

another aimlessly wandering in the dry grass by the parking lot

ready for a slow short hike

We did go on a short hike to stretch our legs, and we noticed that the air was a lot clearer on the other side of the Visitor Center. We took our time walking, since it was also very hot and we were in altitude of about 5500 feet. Plus the smoke situation was not good.

much clearer on this side of the mountain

its beautiful

smell that pine?? (actually,all we smell is burning pine)

smokey here too, but not nearly as bad

its really hot today, and that poor deer is sitting right out in the sun

I wonder if its ok?

walk slowly now

aahhh...a bit of shade

its really hot!

this is the ski patrol lodge in winter

this is the best photo i was able to manage of Mount Olympus...much clearer in person, but really difficult to photograph

see the snow?

Mount Olympus is right there-and its huge

a few wildflowers

more

The ranger thought the sun might burn off some of the smoke so we could get a better view of Mount Olympus, so we took  our time here and ate our lunch too. I had to chase a deer away. I really thought it was going to come and sit on the bench right next to me. Not sure what is up with the deer. One was hiding next to the garbage, and then we spotted another meandering near the parking lot. They look skinny and hot, so not sure if the weather/drought/smoke conditions right now are causing them to act weird, or if they are always like that. After about an hour, we decided the smoke would not clear much more, so we went on our way.

salmon leftovers for lunch.....the best!!!

that little guy walked right up to us...i really thought he'd sit down right next to me so I yelled at it to leave(felt bad, but wild animals need to stay wild)

still so much smoke

we were hoping it would clear a little-can you see the snow on the mountain over my head

a tinderbox

sad to see a wildfire

very very smokey....unhealthy air quality and all hiking was discouraged by the ranger

so sad

Driving through Port Angeles and other nearby towns, a couple of signs caught my eye. Its amazing how different areas in the country have their own character. I missed getting the picture of the "cannabis shop" that we passed several times already. Not sure what that is about...if you just make a purchase for fun, or if its a medicinal type shop.

i guess that's a camping list??

there are also plenty of "Please Don't Drink And Drive" signs as well, but this was new to us

On our way back, we noticed that it was 20 degrees cooler near the water, and when we saw the "wildlife" in the sign for Dungeness Wildlife Refuge, we decided to check it out. The Dungeness Spit is the longest in natural sand spit in the U.S. Its 5.5 miles long, and you can walk out to the lighthouse at the end if you have the time. You must be cognizant of the tides here though, or you could get yourself in trouble. The spit is not that wide. There was a thick fog when we were there, so we never saw the lighthouse until we finished our hike (about an hour), and headed back up the long hill for the parking area. For more information on Dungeness Wildlife Refugee, click here.

We did not see too many birds or ducks, or any other wildlife, but we enjoyed walking in the coolness of the waterfront area. The bay was beautiful, and the fog was right there as well. The walk down to the start of the trail was really nice too! It reminded me of nicely landscaped areas in theme parks for some reason. It was cool and quiet, and we enjoyed the walk after the heat and smoke at Hurricane Ridge, at the top of Olympic National Park that we encountered earlier. It was actually cool, and I was glad I threw my jacket in the car. The park rangers had on double sweatshirts! There were quite a few other visitors there as well, which surprised us. Maybe they were also seeking relief from the heat?!

its so lovely and cool right here!!

really nice walk

and pretty flowers too

we enjoyed this walk, and it went downhill to the beach

amazing that this environment grows right up to the beach

signs of wildlife

aahhh...this is so refreshing,especially compared to the heat on the mountaintop

This sign is sobering! Not sure if you can read it that well. maybe some of these packaging materials should be illegal?

heading down to the beach now

nice and cool down here!

its pretty foggy too

need to be aware of the tides here!!!

this is a nice refreshing area...with cool logs and stones everywhere

of course, we are looking for birds, ducks, seals.....anything

the logs are enormous

a great blue heron in the bay on the other side of the logs

this is a rich habitat....off limits to people...birds only

nature's art

another masterpiece

so many different colored stones too...all really smooth

good thing we have hiking shoes on, and not bare feet

there's the light house now!!!!

another look at Dungeness Spit with the fog lifted a bit

a nice hike down the beach (but bring your shoes and your jacket!)

sailing away

another view of the lighthouse from the trail up