We love traveling. Traveling with kids can be an exciting and enriching experience for the whole family. Exploring new cultures, trying different cuisines, and creating lasting memories together can be a wonderful way to bond.
This time, we decided to go to one of the national parks in Washington, Olympic National Park, for the first time. In general, we love exploring nature, especially my boys. They love animals, insects, or any living creatures in nature. They can spend hours finding crabs on the beach, finding any insects in the forest, or just walking around the forest.
We had one full day and a half day to explore Olympic National Park. We went to number 1, 3 and 4 in the picture.
We definitely want to come back to explore Ozette and Mora in west sometimes in summer!
Table of Contents:
Port of Angeles
We stayed at a hotel in Port Angeles for two nights. We left Saturday afternoon (after my boys’ Japanese language school) and arrived in Port Angeles around 7 p.m. After we checked in at the hotel, we went to a restaurant, Kokopelli Grill (https://www.kokopelli-grill.com/), for dinner. Overall, all the foods were great, although some of the dishes were a little too salty for us. It also took more than 1 hour to get all the foods. Our waitress was great, though. It was a very busy Friday night with a huge group of people, so I understand. If you have time and just want to enjoy the great atmosphere of the restaurant and great seafood, it is a go-to restaurant!
My husband and I shared a dozen local oysters. They were so fresh and creamy. My husband and I finished them in 10 seconds! They were very good.
We got the Kokopelli seafood combo (a picture on the right). It had large scallops and shrimp, grilled salmon, and Dungeness crab cake. We also got smoked salmon fettuccine, and Kokopelli steak. My favorite was the crab cake.
For both Sunday and Monday brunch, we went to this restaurant, The Cottage (https://thecottagebothell.com/). We had to go back on Monday morning just because everything was so good, and E also requested going back.
We got crème brulee French toast, eggs Benedict with croissants, bacon scramble eggs, Greek yogurt parfait, and Belgian waffles with ice cream. (These are brunches for two days, just for your information!) My favorite was crème brulee French toast. There was creamy crème brulee inside French toast, which was a great combination. I am already craving it!
Port Angeles is a small, cute town. There were few selections for hotels, and I thought they were a little overpriced. There are many restaurants and small, cute shops you want to stop by. I think I added the restaurant “The Cottage” to my list to go back to.
Lake Crescent
We went to the Spruce Railload Trail for biking. Although it was cloudy and rain was on and off, it was one of the best lake views we have ever seen. The lake was so calm at first that we were able to see beautiful reflections of mountains on the lake. It was just so nice biking right next to the beautiful lake. For a round trip, we biked for about 10 miles. Great job, boys!
If you are interested in reading more about bikes, you may want to read BEST TIME WITH MY CHILDREN: BIKES
Because the reflection of the lake was so clear and beautiful, boys were trying to see it upside down through their legs and they were saying “I cannot tell which is the real one!”
Spruce Railload Trail is a great trail, even for kids. There was no steep hill or anything, so it was easy for my boys to bike all the way. And again, the view is just so beautiful.
Sol duc hot springs
After biking, we went to Sol Duc Hot Springs located in Sol Duc Hot Springs Resort (https://www.olympicnationalparks.com/lodging/sol-duc-hot-springs-resort/) to soak ourselves. I was glad that the hot springs were actually hot since it was pretty cold outside.
You are able to pick a time for hot springs: 8 a.m., 10 a.m., 12 p.m., 2 p.m., 4pm, 6pm and 8 p.m. You have 90 minutes from the time you pick.
We got there around 3:30pm so we picked 4p.m one. It was very crowded, but we were still able to get into the hot spring pools. It seemed like 4 p.m. was one of the busiest times in general.
There were two big hot spring pools, one small hot spring pool for little ones, and one swimming pool. I was staying in the hot spring pool the whole time, but the boys were going back and forth between the swimming pool and the hot spring pool.
You can check the price in the picture.
On the way back to the hotel, we stop by to see Sol Duc river. It was beautiful. We could not see but you can see Chinook and Coho salmon ascend in late summer in this river.
Hurricane Ridge
For Monday, we went to Hurricane Ridge for hiking. On the way to Hurricane Ridge, we also stopped by at Olympic National Park Visitor Center (https://www.nps.gov/olym/planyourvisit/visitorcenters.htm) to get some information. All the rangers at the visitor center were very nice and helpful.
Let me share some pictures I thought helpful.
You can check out the prices for Olympic National Park in the left picture. (We got an America the Beautiful National Parks Annual Pass which is $80)
On the way to Hurricane Ridge, it was very foggy and hard to drive. Please have a safe drive!
It was cold up there, so we had a few thick layers and gloves (Boys’ gloves ended up getting wet because they were just too excited to see all the snow and ice left).
When hiking, we were able to encounter some deer, Olympic marmots, and squirrels with stripes on their bodies. The boys were just quietly staring at them, but I could tell that they were super excited.
We hiked about 4 miles in total. The view boys got excited about the most was when they were looking down the clouds.
Olympic Game Farm (Sequim)
On the way home, we stopped by at Olympic game farm (https://olygamefarm.com/) in Sequim.
At Olympic Game Farm, you can see lots of animals, and you can feed some of them bread you buy. You have to stay in your car the whole time.
The boys were just so excited for the whole ride.
We took a ferry on the way back. The boys were super excited about taking a ferry. They found Mt. Rainier and got even more excited. It was the perfect view to wrap up our great trip!
We all had a wonderful time exploring beautiful nature on this trip. We were not sure about the weather, but we were glad we brought all the bikes because biking along the lake was such a calm and fun time.
The boys were super tired, but we are glad they were able to see all the beauties of nature! We will definitely go back!
