June 8th though 11th, 2026
We weren't in the Seattle area for long, and we'd already had such a nice time. Monica still had a couple days off, so we headed off to see the mountains and the shores. First, we got up early and headed east to go to North Cascades National Park. We're from Colorado, so we can be a bit snooty about mountains, but these mountains were GORGEOUS! They still had snow on them in many spots, and it ended up being the highlight of our trip. Just beautiful.
We did a few short hikes and stopped at a lot of the pullouts on the road to check out the sights. On a whim, we stopped to take a picture of the Gorge Powerhouse we saw on the way in. What a cool and unexpected place to stop! After we parked in the small lot we realized there was a foot bridge that crossed the water to the powerhouse. We were too late to check out the visitor center there, but not too late to appreciate how beautiful it was there. We were running low on time so we didn't explore too much of that area, but it looked like you could spend all of an enjoyable day there.
We were staying in Anacortes, and many of the sights along the shore were easier (or even possible) to get to by taking a ferry part of the way. The day after we were in the North Cascades we headed a little east and south to get to Olympic National Park. After taking a few ferries in the area, we realized that taking our chances with the ferries that don't require reservations took less time and was much less stressful than the ones that require them.
These mountains were also beautiful, but not as easily accessible as the North Cascades. The visitor center at Olympic was also not as friendly or nice. They told us not to bother going up the mountain road because of the clouds, but we decided to go anyway. We were glad we did -- the clouds opened up to blue skies at the top.
Unfortunately, the Hurricane Ridge Visitor Center at the top was destroyed by fire in 2023. They have a temporary visitor center but the one at the base of the mountains is better. It was a bummer to never have seen the big one. However, the views of Hurricane Ridge were just lovely (and windy). The views from a pullout on the way down let us see all the way to the San Juan Islands and where we were staying. Wow!
Mike and Cindy came to camp with us, which was fun. It's nice when we get to "camp" with friends, hang out, and catch up.
On our last day there we took the afternoon to go to Ebey's Landing National Historical Reserve on the island next to ours. On the drive there, we crossed a high bridge over Deception Pass that was really cool. We visited a couple spots in the reserve and hung out in the town of Coupville for a bit. It was a cute seaside town and we could really see spending a week there in a little Bed and Breakfast. Apparently, the good Pacific Northwest mussels come from that area, so Monica tried them -- delicious! We also got some ice cream, so the day was perfect.
We took off the next day to head east. We were going to miss the Pacific Ocean! It's so pretty on the west coast, but there is always more for us to see and do.
