Running with the Hurricane (Ridge)

 

After all those problems at the start, it was time to, what I feel is the true meaning of traveling, experience some nature; like animals, mountains and trees! So, the next destination was the Olympic National Park with its surrounding which you can see on the following pictures. But it wouldn’t be this trip if there wouldn’t be a solid: But. And that came in form of, what I want to call: Late camping capitalism…

Dungenes Spit Wildlife Refuge

 

… It was more or less clear to us, that if we go to certain places in the »holiday season«, we possibly would have a hard time finding accommodation, campgrounds in this case. So booking in advance seems to be the thing to do! But we underestimated this whole business, so to speak. In fact, as soon as we reached Port Angeles with the connection to the Hurricane Ridge, it was impossible to find a spot for our tent, not to mention that we tried to find a payable hotel room. The trick, as I learned much later, is booking and reserving in advance without even knowing if you are going to make it to that particular date. Also, in the early stages of this trip, we didn’t really know how to behave ‘correctly’: Should we just walk to a campground (there was hardly any staff) and, depending on the time of day, just pick a spot – not matter if it was reserved?! This problem came up again (and again). Back then, it wasn’t time to give it its name yet (late camping capitalism) …

The Hurricane Ridge

 

… For now, we had to go back on our route to pick a spot that wasn’t attractive for most people. And then, for the upcoming days: Cycle Camp near Forks and La Push deserves a honorable mention! Practically, it was all about the same all over again, we couldn’t find a place and started to get desperate. Then we reciefed a recommendation in a store and went to this place, a little hidden on the side of the road. Basically a private property with a campsite on it, run by these two super nice old hippies. They »took care of us« as they stated. And the whole place runs on donations! Relieved, it’s time to enjoy some more nature:

The beauty of light at Hoh Rainforest

 

Much more Hoh Rainforest