Hurricane Ridge and Port Angeles

Our last day in the Olympic National Park was not as busy as the first two days. We all woke up a little before 6 AM. Penelope slept a lot better the second night, but she woke up around 4:30 AM and had trouble falling back to sleep. With the bunting on, she couldn't roll around and sleep on her side like she likes to do. To help her sleep, we took her out of the bunting, and then I slept with her half in my sleeping bag and half covered by a blanket.

In the morning, Penelope had some baby time in the tent while Katie started packing stuff up and I made breakfast. After we ate, we broke down our campsite and packed everything back in the car. Since we were all tired from our previous hikes and it was time for Penelope's nap, we decided to skip the hike we had planned to do at Marymere Falls. Instead, we drove to Hurricane Ridge. Penelope fell asleep well before the turnoff we would have taken for the falls hike, so we were glad we didn't stop and have to wake her up.

The drive to Hurricane Ridge was about an hour, up a steep and winding road in the fog. We went up hoping to get a view of Mt. Olympus, but the top was completely fogged in. There was also tons of snow on the ground, so we couldn't walk around. We stopped at the visitor center, and we bought Penelope a book, but overall it was a bit of a dud. The weather did not want to cooperate with our plans.

We drove back down and stopped at the main visitors center. We bought Penelope a National Parks Passport so that she can collect stamps of the parks with the date that she visits them. We stamped it with Olympic National Park for her. Then we had lunch at a picnic table outside.

Since Penelope doesn't like being trapped in the car all day, we walked around Port Angeles, the city near the main park entrance. There wasn't much to see, but they had a nice waterfront path. By about 1PM, we figured Penelope would be ready for her nap soon, so we gave her a bottle, strapped her into the car, and drove back to the ferry. Penelope and Katie both fell asleep.

There was about a 1 hour wait for the ferry, so we entertained Penelope in the car with her toys and walked around a little bit. On the ferry, Penelope had a snack. We also saw dolphins from the boat, which was cool. Then we got off the boat, drove home, and cleaned up all our stuff.

Overall, it was a really fun first camping trip. We learned a lot of important lessons, and I think it will be easier the next time we go. I would have like to get more hiking in, but it is hard to fit everything in around Penelope's nap schedule and also give her the all important baby time. Penelope did make the trip a lot more fun and exciting, and I look forward to more camping trips with her and watching her get more excited about the outdoors.