Washington Photo Diary

I am so excited to share the photos from my recent trip to Washington. I love the Pacific North West so much. I have discovered over the years that I am a true mountain girl so this is the perfect vacation for me. I have a bestie that lives near Washington, so it was a great opportunity to spend some time with her on an adventure in the wilderness.

I have been a HUGE fan of Twilight for many years and I was very excited to be visiting Forks during this trip as well. Since my whole family went on this trip and it wad my daughters’ first time on the west coast, I wanted there to be something to do for everyone.

I planned some waterfall hikes, some time on the lake, a day in Forks (of course) and a time where we could meet up with my husband’s best friend. Thankfully for us, everything went according to plan and we didn’t have a single bad experience while we were there. In fact, Washington was truly breathtaking and I absolutely want to come back and explore some of the locations that we didn’t make it to.

Olympic National Park is so large that it is almost overwhelming, but there is something about being out in nature that is so good for the soul and recharges my energy. I don’t love being without plumbing though (which I was multiple times on this trip)

Waterfall hikes

I love waterfalls. We didn’t see as many waterfalls as we saw in Oregon, but the ones we managed to see were beautiful. It was difficult because we traveled during the busy season. A lot of the popular locations were severely crowded…even the ones we visited were. Still, we basically narrowed it down to what was top of our priority list and that was Sol Duc Falls.

This was a little waterfall that we came across on the way to Sol Duc Falls. It only had a few people and the water was insanely clear. It was so beautiful I just had to stop and take it all in.

Our Second waterfall was Merymere Falls. For this hike we managed to meet up with my Husband’s best friend. This trip was honestly good for the soul. This hike started off strong with one of the most beautiful trees I’ve ever seen in my entire life.

Forks and what they don’t tell you…

I was SO excited to visit Forks. In fact, I basically named this our ‘Twilight Trip’. I couldn’t wait to see all of the places from the movie and take all of the pictures. Upon further research, I discovered that most of the scenes in Twilight the movie are filmed in Oregon and that everything that is mentioned in the book is in Forks.

Our first stop was the welcome sign and the welcome center. They gave us a map of Forks and told us that most of the locations here are from the book and not the movie. It was still awesome to visit the souvenir shop and get some goodies from there. We also stopped by the treaty line and Dr. Cullen’s Parking spot as well. Then, it was time to head to La Push, Baby

La Push Beach & Second Beach

La Push was exactly how I imagined it would be. Very calm, and since it was only in the mid 60’s outside, I wasn’t tempted to put my feet in the water. We honestly didn’t spend much time at La Push but we did stop at the food truck there and were pleasantly surprised when we were served a very large amount of food and it was delicious! I will insert photos when I find them.

Second beach was definitely an adventure. This was on our list because I have never been tidepooling before and I wanted to give it a try. In order to access the beach we had to do a hike of about a mile. At the end of the hike the trees open up to the beach and it is truly beautiful. I wish I took a photo but there were other people on the trail.

Second beach did not disappoint. I took off my shoes, rolled up my pants and went looking for starfish. They weren’t hard to find because they were everywhere!

We really took our time here because we didn’t want to miss anything. We found urchins, crabs, and lots of starfish! It was truly magical and the best experience for all of us.

Lake Crescent

Where do I even begin? Lake Crescent is BEAUTIFUL. My bestie and her husband camped at the lake for 2 days, so we were able to meet them there and use their paddleboards. There is nothing more calming and freeing as being in the middle of the lake on a paddleboard. When the sun comes out, it turns the water the most beautiful shade of blue. The photos do a little bit of justice, but this is a place you need to see in person.

The water was a little choppy for paddleboarding, but I still had an amazing time and I managed to avoid falling into the water. This would have been a disaster as I was fully clothed.

Hurricane Ridge

Whenever I go on a trip that is nature focused, it is always hard for me to pick a favorite spot when I get home. I love waterfalls and I love incredible views. I also love beautiful trees. And on this trip I got to experience it all. But perhaps the most beautiful place I visited was Hurricane Ridge.

It is funny that I ended up here because when we were driving from the airport my daughter pointed out Mt Rainier (which is STUNNING) hopefully I can find a picture… I said to her “Knowing my friend, we will be on the very top of a mountain just like that before this trip is over”.

And indeed we were.

She told me the Hurricane Ridge was a non negotiable for our trip, but that we had to go when it was clear outside because we wouldn’t be able to see anything otherwise. This means that we had to check cameras before we drove 45 minutes straight up the mountain to get there.

The weather was great on our last full day, so we definitely took advantage of it. The drive up was a little anxiety inducing, but we made it.

Once we reached the top, we had the most incredible views of the mountains, but that wasn’t enough for my friend. She insisted we take some weird side road for 8 miles to reach an even better location called Obstruction point.

It was worth it.

Obstruction point was where we were able to play in the snow in the middle of July.

It was FREEZING at Obstruction point. At the point where this photo was taken it was only 49 degrees!

Port Angeles

Port Angeles was our home base for this trip. We had an air BNB 3 minutes from downtown. It is a very small town indeed. I know they say it in Twilight, but they weren’t kidding. It is very cute though.

My initial plan was to have dinner at Bella Italia. In Twilight, this is where Edward takes Bella for their first date. She ordered the mushroom ravioli. I love ravioli, so I was excited to order the same thing. You can imagine my surprise when I went there and they were completely booked for the rest of the night! And then for some reason the whole restaurant was closed for the rest of the weekend. I was only a little disappointed. I had no idea that this was a place I needed a reservation for!

We visited a store called Moss, which is an upscale souvenir shop and I absolutely loved this place. I purchased a couple of stickers but my husband really did the shopping here. It is a very cute store that I visited multiple times.

I also loved that this very tiny town had not one, but TWO bookstores! I could have spent hours in each of them. There was so much to see! I did take the opportunity to purchase my copy of Midnight Sun from Port Book and News. I still haven’t read that book yet and I figured this was the perfect time to buy it!

A couple of things to note about Port Angeles…

Shops close EARLY. There were so many places I couldn’t visit because I went hiking during the day and didn’t make it back to town in time. Stores close at 7 or 8pm there…which is a bit early to me. One day I wanted a sweet treat and we BARELY made it to the chocolate shop in time to snag something before they closed.

Additionally, I had to learn this the hard way, but the houses there do not have air conditioner. This is because it doesn’t get very hot. Our air bnb had AC in the living room, but not in the bedroom. I was definitely very uncomfortable at night while I was there because it was too hot for me. Definitely something to consider.

Final thoughts

If you enjoy being outdoors and need somewhere cool to escape during a summer heatwave, Washington might be just the place for you! I honestly had an incredible time and would certainly visit again. I hope you can get some inspiration for your future trips from this post.