Monday, October 5, 2020
October weather in the Pacific Northwest isn’t always conducive to pleasant camping and/or exploring outdoors on foot. But sometimes the weather this time of year is ok for that. This year it looked promising.
In fact, weather reports looked very good for this October, 2020. A friend of mine, Jan, wanted to go with me on this next trip, but wanted to stay in a cabin closeby where I was camped with the trailer, so we researched the options, made a plan, made reservations for one campsite and one cabin at the Rain Forest Resort Village on the edge of Lake Quinault on the Olympic Peninsula, and off we went. It was super!
With my friend Jan riding shotgun in the truck, and with Towhee the Trailer in tow, here’s where we went …
From my home near Olympia, WA, we headed westbound out Highway 12, then joined up with Highway 101 in Aberdeen as that highway comes up from Oregon. We continued on 101 westbound, then turned right at Hoquiam staying on Highway 101, and headed north to Lake Quinault still on Highway 101.
We drove through beautiful wooded countryside with a few small towns along the way (including the small village of Humptulips, more on that later), with hardly any other traffic on the road.
Eventually, we arrived at the western end of Lake Quinault, and turned off onto a small two-lane road for the final short jaunt up along the southern shore of the lake to the Rain Forest Resort Village, right on the shore of Lake Quinault.
The photo below, taken as we first pulled onto the grounds of the resort, will prove my point about the weather being absolutely perfect this October. There was a bit of mist out on the lake because the air was cool-ish, it was late afternoon, heading towards evening, but what a glorious sunny day.
I pulled in a little further then pulled off to the side so Jan could check in and get her stuff out of my truck and into her cabin.
Boy, I sort of almost wished I had rented a cabin! Each had a view of the lake, each had a full bathroom, heat, TV, fireplace, frig/freezer, microwave, queen size bed, a couch and table and chairs … and a front porch.
And they each had privacy from their neighbors … the porches were screened … and there was enough space between the cabins to allow for noise privacy.
We got all of Jan’s things unloaded and into the cabin, and then I pulled the trailer down into the campground. My campsite was only about 100 yards away from the cabin so we walked back and forth often during the week we were here to talk about our daily plans, and for some of our meals, and just because we’re best friends and we wanted to check in on each other.
I backed onto the grassy plot assigned to me, right next to my electrical pedestal and my potable water faucet.
With showers and garbarge cans and a recycle bin right next door, I was happy.
The photo below shows my view off to the port side of the trailer, the left side of the trailer. The campground was almost empty. The mist was rolling in a little more as the late afternoon progressed.
And the photo below shows my view off to the starboard side of the trailer, the right side of the trailer. I had hoped that the very end spot right next to the lake would be open and I could snag it, but no luck there. The folks in that end spot stayed there the whole week. On the other hand, how gorgeous and how quiet the spot was that I did get … I was really happy.
After spending the whole day together driving and riding in the truck, just getting out here, dealing with all the details, and the time it took for each of us to get unpacked and set up and settled, Jan and I decided to each have our dinners separately just because of the timing, etc. That worked well. But later in the evening, one of us wandered over to the other one’s “home” and said “hey what’s up”. We took just a short walk since it was cold out by that time of the evening. What a wonderful sunset we found across the lake. What a perfect day.
More adventure coming tomorrow. Stay tuned. 🙂
Oh goody, another camping trip! We sure miss going camping and love that you take us along in this blog Ann.
Well I love that you come along, Wanda. And when my friend said she’d like to go along on another camping trip even this late in the year, I said “oh goody”, too. 🙂
Beautiful location! Looks like a great place for a camper and for a cabin-stayer. 🙂
It was perfect! 🙂
oh gosh what a lovely place. Your maps are great Ann, someday I hope to get back up there and with your maps I’ll know where to go. Your friend Jan was smart. I’ll be renting a cabin too. 🙂
Most other RV blogs I’ve looked at don’t put maps up , but I always want a map when I’m following along on someone else’s adventure, so I can see where they went. Yep, renting that cabin was a very smart thing to do, Jan is one smart cookie. 🙂
How do you find these great places, Ann? Is every campground in washington state this gorgeous? Everywhere you go is gorgeous! I have more questions too, like how come you don’t RV fulltime since there are so many extraordinary places to go camping in Washington? Would our 42-foot motorhome fit in one of those campsites at Lake Quinault? We love your blog, please don’t stop ever. Thank you.
So far, it seems to me that every campground in Washington State is absolutely gorgeous. I suppose that eventually I’ll find one or more of them that I’m not too fond of, but so far, they are all wonderful.
Ah, full-timing. I’ve thought about that, Tim, although winters here can get so cold … not as cold as Montana winters, but cold enough that I want to be in my home. But indeed, I have thought about taking off for a full summer one of these years … maybe from May through September. I’ll keep you posted.
And for your last question … yes indeed! Your 42-foot motorhome would fit nicely in any of the campsites here at the Rain Forest Resort Village. There are a couple of State Park campgrounds on the lake, but they are older and smaller such that even my 21-foot trailer is too big for them. So best to avoid those.
Thanks for the very nice words about the blog, Tim. Greatly appreciated!
Hooray!
Another adventure.
I believe there are some massive huge trees to be found near that campground – the Redwoods shouldn’t get all the top billing!
Again, Washington has so much packed into one state… can’t wait for the next blog post.
And kudos to the trailer right next to the lake. Or phooey. I am sure they are quite nice, but……
In fact (you are so smart, Robin), while we’re here at Lake Quinault, we do visit one of those “largest trees ever” and indeed it isn’t a Redwood. It won’t be in the next blog post, but it’s coming soon, stay tuned. 🙂