The Olympic Peninsula is big and diverse, and has so much to explore. We could easily take a week to really enjoy it, but for us it will just be a day trip.
Our first stop today was Sequim Bay State Park. All of the state parks in Washington require the Discover Pass, but they also have free 15 minute parking at the restrooms so people without a pass can still stop in and use the restrooms.
There is a pier and small boat launch ramp at this park. The man in the picture below had just come in from crabbing. He had great success, but unfortunately had to throw back all but one.
There is an area for tent camping and a separate area for RVs, and they were all either in use, or marked as reserved. It was really nice to see people out enjoying nature.
As we drove through the town of Sequim, we noticed so many beautiful lavender farms. They all had roadside stands for selling their lavender products, but none of them were open when we went through.
Just outside of Sequim is an area called the Dungeness Natural Wildlife Refuge. It wasn't on our list of things to do, but it's signs attracted our attention and we decided we needed to take a look.
An overlook on the way in.
There is usually a fee for this area, but because of Covid, they have all of the trails set up for one way hiking with a round trip loop and no entrance fees to the park. It was a beautiful hike in on the primitive trail.
This tree had such pretty eye lashes!
As we got down near the sound, they had the most amazing overlook of the Dungeness spit.
The signs keeping us moving in the right direction.
After leaving the Dungeness Spit, we made our way to Port Angeles.
Several years ago, our kids found us a piece of land, high on a cliff, overlooking Juan De Fuca inlet to the sound. It has the most spectacular views! And a 300 foot sheer drop off.
Then we made our way toward the Olympic Mountains. Our only view of the mountains for today. It's just too cloudy.
There are several beaches along the western coast of the Olympics.
So we parked and made our way down to one...beach 4.
A beautiful hike to and from the beach.
Our favorite part of being in the Pacific northwest is being able to spontaneously explore islands, peninsulas and forests. It is such a unique area. Today's exploration took us across the Tacoma Narrows Bridge to the Kitsap Peninsula with it's gorgeous views.
And then to the north end of Fox Island. We made our way south, to the Fox Island Fishing Pier, which is a public park, fishing pier and beach access.
From the pier, we had a beautiful view of the the Tacoma Narrows Bridge. We also watched several dolphins, harbor seals, and huge schools of bright blue herring boiling on the surface in a feeding frenzy.
We stayed on the pier for a long time, just enjoying the peaceful views and sunshine. Then we walked back up to the top for a picnic lunch we brought along.
There was a crazy pretty sundog while we ate lunch.
When everyone was done eating, we walked over to the beach access path and made our way down.
And lucky me, I got some baby time!
When we left the fishing pier, we made our way back to the north side of the island to the Tacoma DeMolay Sandpit Nature Preserve.
How precious is this?
Like many of the parks and preserves in Washington, the nature preserve butts right up next to a housing area.
It was just the perfect sized outing for the new family, and we all got to see some views that we had never seen before. Another perfect day of exploration.
