Olympic National Park Trip Recap

At the beginning of October, Tyler and I headed north to meet up with his family for their vacation. We flew up to Portland, Oregon and from there we drove the coastal highway up to Olympic National Park. It was my first official national park trip and boy, was it just such an amazing experience!

Amidst all of the chaos and change that came with moving to California, it was really nice to have the chance to step away from it all and reconnect with the peace only found in nature.

Highlights:

• Spending quality time with Tyler's great aunt who lives in Oregon and being able to celebrating her 80th birthday together

• Hiking up to Multnomah Falls (before all of the tourists)

• Stopping at the Tillamook HQ and eating ice cream for lunch

• Staying at the Hallmark Resort in Cannon Beach (HIGHLY recommend, they had everything - free bike rentals, fresh baked cookies in the lobby, all of the supplies needed to make fires and roast s'mores on the beach, endless saltwater taffy, sauna and pool, perfect location and the list goes on and on)

• Spotting a few elk one morning in Cannon Beach

• Seeing various locations from The Goonies (Haystack rock, Ecola State Park, driving through Astoria)

• Seeing the Tree of Life

• Driving through the Rain Forrests of the Pacific North West

• Seeing bear tracks but no bears (or much wildlife at all besides deer)

• Staying at the Lake Crescent Lodge

• Hiking and/or going for long walks just about every day

• Eating at the Fairmount Diner (and regretting we didn't find it sooner)

• Getting in one good hike in the rain

• Spending a ton of quality time in the car together

• Spending an afternoon in Seattle on the way back to Portland - Pike Place Market was awesome, and HUGE. Probably could've spent a whole day there

• Finding out after the fact that we spent some time in two of the most dangerous towns in Washington State

If you get the chance to go to a National Park, DO IT - whether you've been to one before or not. Your mind will be blown and you will make memories that will last a lifetime. Just to add some context, I consider a lot of these photos below to be some of the best I've ever taken... and they don't even do justice to the real thing.

Here's to taking advantage of all of the opportunities we're given in this life and taking a moment to appreciate God's creation in the beautiful nature all around.

Sending love always,

J.S.