Exploring Washington’s Olympic Peninsula

When we left Florida in the heat of summer, we set our sights on the Pacific Northwest, with hopes of cool weather and a much needed reprieve. Unfortunately, it was during a heat dome and temperatures were well over 100 degrees while we were there. It didn’t take long to find that it was cooler on the Olympic Peninsula with the cool weather trapped between the Pacific Ocean and the mountains, so that was where we headed for the week.

Be sure to do your research on campgrounds as many of them along the Olympic Peninsula are older, so may have fewer large rig friendly sites or have fewer amenities. Since we travel on a budget and use our Thousand Trails Membership whenever we can, we were thrilled to find the Thousand Trails Oceana campground. We could do day trips to areas we wanted to visit, be close enough for walks on the beach every day, and pay $0 a night, courtesy of our membership. We booked a week there.

As with many northern campgrounds, the sites do not have full hookups, so have a tote or a plan (we tend to just conserve). They have tent camping, so we were able to wash dishes there every day, and the bathhouse is well maintained and there is one in both of the 2 larger loops, so it’s a short walk.

This is a choose your own parking style campground, like many Thousand Trails, so if you are a smaller rig, do the courtesy of leaving larger or large rig accessible spots for those bigger rigs. We lucked into one at the edge of the back loop, near the trail to the beach. Backing in can be tricky since they use large rocks as edging for the road and marking the site boundaries, and we did see a few vehicles make contact, as much for the limited space as for the sea fog that was there most of the time–use your spotter! Strangely, I didn’t snag a photo of this campground, or our spot–not sure what was wrong with me that week, other than being captivated by the Pacific Ocean!

We enjoyed walking the trails, including the trek to the beach several times a day, but it is a half mile walk and is beach sand, so may not be ADA friendly, if you have mobility issues. There are activity areas in the middle and it is a pet friendly campground, including the beach! Our pup loved her walks near the ocean that week!

This was a good location for us to make day trips to explore Olympic National Park and Seattle. We spent a day circling the Olympic Peninsula seeing the Tree of Life, Ruby Beach (that’s the first photo in the blog above), Forks, spotting Canada across the river, and hiking and wading at Lake Crescent Beach. We geocached our way around the loop, but spent the bulk of our time at Ruby Beach exploring and wandering around Lake Crescent Beach since both were pet friendly and it was a beautiful day.

Unfortunately, many of the trails in the National Park weren’t dog friendly and we brought Luna, so we didn’t get to hike as much as we’d hoped, but it was still an incredible day! It feels like a magical place and I can see why it’s been so popular for many movies.

We spent another day venturing into downtown Seattle. We lucked into a great public parking area close to downtown and that fit our large vehicle, AND wasn’t really expensive–I forget the name of it, but it was at the corner of Western Ave and Elliott Way, if that helps (see photo).

We spent the day walking around to see the Space Needle (no MIB to be seen), Pikes Place market for lunch, the notorious Gum Wall and the geocache hidden there (gross–hint in photo, though), and saw the original Starbucks and it’s insane line. For a big city, I was pleasantly surprised with their attention to green spaces and unique ways to bring nature in, and being so pet friendly. It was one of the less claustrophobic big cities we have visited and we enjoyed our day there!

As with most places we visit, we have plenty of things to go back for, either to see again, or that we missed. Especially friends and family that are in this area that we just didn’t have enough time or overlaps in our calendar to see.

Be sure to check out the Travel Map on our home page for other campground and attraction reviews! You can also find FREE resources on the Printables page, or order your copy of Our Travel Planner to have all the resources conveniently at your fingertips!