Olympic National Park/Mt. Rainier
What. An. Adventure.
When you can combine work and pleasure; take advantage of it. Bonus when you are able to bring your favorite travel partner. In September of 2024, that’s exactly what I had the opportunity to do.
If you’ve read by bio, you know that this isn’t my full-time job. If you haven’t, it’s a great time to read it. 🙂 It’s a hobby that has turned into an opportunity to capture memories for those in my community and around the world. As part of my day job, my travels took me to Washington state, specifically in the Tacoma area. Well, when you’re in the area, have a camera, a love for National Parks and adventure, you make plans to stay the weekend in the area and capture the beauty of what the Evergreen state has to offer.
The trip started (for work) in Yakima, Washington and concluded in Tacoma, Washington. Once the work week responsibilities concluded, my wife and I extended our stay and headed directly towards Olympic National Park – another post that that will talk about our goal of visiting all National Parks is hopefully coming soon. Stay tuned! Okay, back to extending our stay. The main focus of the trip was work (obviously), which didn’t leave a whole lot of time for planning the time we would have remaining in the Pacific Northwest. There were goals of hitting all three National Parks in the area; Olympic National Park, Mount Rainier National Park and North Cascades National Park, but no itinerary was really planned or executed. Yes, now I know what you’re thinking, “That’s a lot of ground to cover in only three days…”, while it’s true, the timing would have allowed us to experience each park for a full day. We’ve realized that we don’t really rest on our time away. Unfortunately, due to some sickness that hit me near the weekend, we weren’t able to experience North Cascades NP, but the desire to already go back and explore more of Washington and cross off another National Park has already been discussed.
Ruby Beach, Washington | Photo by Jesse K Photography + Film
Long story short, our trip to Olympic NP included driving around the whole park and getting to experience the Visitor Center in Port Angeles, Hoh Rainforest, Ruby Beach and the small towns along the path back to Tacoma. In all honesty, it was a lot of a time in the car but the sights that we were able to experience along the way made it worth it. It was also fun to learn from locals at a gift shop and meet others on the trail and hear about their adventures.
One of our favorite things to do when we explore a new area is to try out one of the local coffee shops. For this trip, our choice was Fogtown Coffee Bar. Great coffee and a tasty bagel with cream cheese made for the perfect pick-me-up before hitting the trails!
After our Olympic road trip which felt like forever (and it was), we stayed the night in Tacoma, Washington and after 2 days battling sickness from our hotel, we headed out to see Mount Rainer. It was beautiful! The vastness of the mountain and the mix of snow, greenery and tall ledges was incredible. Unfortunately, due to the season that we visited, the Sunrise Visitor Center was closed but that didn’t stop the adventures to still make the drive towards the top of the mountain and still explore the trails in the area. Sadly, at this point in the trip, I was still recovering from being sick and lacked the energy to take on any of the trails, but noted that we’d like to return in the future and experience more of that Mount Rainier had to offer.
While the trip wasn’t as long as we’d hoped for and sickness that restricted the rest of our itinerary, we’re thankful that we got to experience the West coast a little bit and look forward to when we get to experience it a little more in the future. When that will be, we don’t know. But what we do know is that #adventureisoutthere and we cannot wait to explore more of God’s creation.
Get a Glimpse
Mount Rainier, Washington | Photo by Jesse K Photography + Film
Banana Slug, Hoh Rainforest, WA | Photo by Jesse K Photography + Film
Lake Crescent, WA | Photos by Jesse K Photography + Film
