Alpaca Ranch #2 through Olympic NP – 7/14/24 – 7/25/24
From our second alpaca ranch, one of the most disheveled Harvest Host properties, we went to the most beautiful.
Courter Country Farms – Wow describes the property! Kevin and Denise have owned and worked these 20 acres for 10 years. Denise said after she planted and labored over all her veggies, she would then allow herself to plant what she really loved – flowers. They would harvest the vegetables, take them to market, and then wonder what to do with the goods that weren’t sold. After all was said and done, Kevin said they figured they were making $1/hour. Enter their new marketing plan. A father with 5 daughters loved their property and wanted a wedding there. Now, they do weddings, sell flowers, have “you-pick” flower nights, and host family gatherings. There were seating areas scattered around the property to hang out and visit. It was one of the most peaceful settings we have ever enjoyed. Paula told Denise the only place prettier she had ever seen was Butchart Gardens…and we decided to stay an extra night.
The Sequim Lavender Festival was the weekend of July 19-21. When we mentioned we wanted to go to the festival but were having trouble finding a place for WOW, Kevin suggested checking out the 7 Cedars Casino. Sure enough, after we left the next morning, we were able to get the last of 8 powered sites at the back of the property. Nothing fancy, but only $15/night. Sequim (pronounced “sqwim”) was only 6 miles from there, so we hooked in, paid for 3 nights (the max) and toured the eastern side of the Olympic NP while waiting for the festival 2 days later.
Hurricane Ridge at 6,100 feet was the highlight of that side of the park. The view of Mount Olympus at almost 8,000’ was spectacular (as was looking over the water into Canada in the other direction). As we were about to leave, we stopped to take one last picture at a road marked “Road Closed.” Tom started talking with the ranger standing there and was told the road was about to open for the first time after 3 weeks of grading and we could be the first ones to take the 8-mile dirt road to Observation Point Trailhead. What a road! Narrow, very steep in places, wooded in areas, and without guard rails. If you zigged when you should have zagged, you would have fallen several thousand feet before even beginning to decelerate.
When Tom told her, Paula thought this road was 8 miles to connect back to the paved road. When we got about 6 miles in and Tom informed her it was an out-and-back, Paula was not happy. She said, “Hopple, you did it to me again!” The inside joke is that a friend of ours, whose last name is Hopple, took his wife on a hike and when he told her how much farther it was, she thought he meant back to the car; when she found out that was how far it was to the turnaround point, she told him, “Hopple, you’ve done it to me again.”
Click here for some info on Olympic NP
Back to Sequim. Why does Sequim have so much lavender? The crop is successful thanks to the rain shadow created by the Olympic Mountain Range. As one of the driest places in Western Washington, Sequim gets an average annual rainfall of 16 inches per year compared to 129 inches in the Hoh Rainforest (the wettest forest in the contiguous US) on the western side of the park, less than 50 miles away.
The 28th annual Sequim Lavender Festival had 131 artisan vendors + 21 food vendors. We had wanted to taste lavender ice cream and had our chance with a scoop of raspberry lavender and a scoop of blueberry white chocolate lavender. It was good, but not worth a drive to WA. We also purchased some strawberry curd from The Unsweetened Tooth (made with allulose) and blueberry vinegar from Wild Heart Sipping Vinegar.
We met Gregg “Viz” Visintainer who had hand-drawn artwork that used hidden pictures and words to relate to each theme using ink and gel pens. His story is told on a TED talk. Here’s a picture of a card we bought. It has hidden pictures of 24 crosses (his age at the time), 2 angels, a heart, and a Jesus fish as well as these hidden words: God, White Light, have faith, Christ, Roman numerals I through X, his signature and the finish date (8/6/08).
We then biked the Sequim Lavender Trail, which appeared to be about 5-6 miles. (But our map wasn’t to scale!!!) We actually biked 15 miles and we didn’t ride it all! Some shoulders were wide and protected, but one section was too narrow for Paula’s comfort. The first lavender farm wanted $10 to tour. We continued on and instead toured In Bloom Lavender Farms, which Paula had heard was one of the most beautiful – and was free. The loop continued along Marine Drive which provided awesome views of the water along with stunning houses with yards full of beautiful flowers. It made the whole ride worthwhile!
The next morning, while we were getting ready to depart, Tom was casually talking with Bob from a nearby rig who told him about a cool hike at Cape Flattery overlooking the Pacific Ocean, one of his favorite hikes in the PNW. Paula thought that was much preferable to camping in a rainforest, so with a quick search on RV Trip Wizard (our trip planning app), we secured a place to camp, changed our plans, and headed to the Cape Flattery Trail. (Score one point for the side of not planning every camp for months in advance!)
The road to get there was terrible. WA route 112 was curvy, bumpy with bad pavement, and narrow, often with no shoulder; we even had fog mid-day in July. Tom said, “We’ve been on dirt roads better than this” and “It reminds me of the road to Hana in HI.” (In case you haven’t driven that, it is a prescription for carsickness.) Then when we got to Neah Bay, we saw the sign to the right but decided to ignore it…WRONG! So, we drove unnecessarily on a dirt road when we could have been on paved…a fitting end to a stressful 70-mile drive that took 3 hours.
After we settled in and got a nap, we decided to drive to the trailhead and hike that afternoon rather than wait for the next day with the possibility of fog. We were glad we did since the next day was low overcast with rain. The Cape Flattery Trail gets a 4.8 (out of 5) on All Trails. It began with a very wide well-maintained path through old-growth trees, then onto boardwalks with spaces between the boards so big Whisper’s little feet could easily go through the cracks. The trees were so unique, overgrown with many weird shapes. It ended at several points overlooking the Pacific Ocean and if it hadn’t been foggy, we could have seen Canada. The convergence of many currents made the water alternately rough and smooth, and we saw 2 otters. There were many hikers enjoying the trail. The trail gets a 5.0 on the Vail rating!
We’re still learning as we go. We wished we had only booked 1 night near the Cape Flattery Trail since the next day was rather miserable weather. But we had already paid for 2 nights and there was no getting money back. So, for Paula’s birthday, we had a very lazy day, driving around a little, though there was nothing to see in the no-stoplight town of Neah Bay, other than the oldest general store in WA. But she had her birthday lunch at the nicest restaurant in town (nicest, maybe, out of 3).
The next day, we drove to the Hoh Rainforest and left Whisper behind after parking WOW so we could do several hikes. (No dogs on Olympic NP trails.) Every limb on the trees on Upper Hoh Road were covered in moss. We had to wait 48 minutes at the Olympic NP entrance station to get in as the cars were metered due to small parking lots. We first hiked the Hall of Mosses Trail (.8 miles) with old-growth very dense trees and moss hanging everywhere. Then we hiked the 1.2-mile Spruce Nature Trail, similar but a bit more open with lots of ferns, and open to the Hoh River at one point. Both were great trails and really cool. We even met a family from NC who knew a family Paula knew.
We left the next morning not knowing where we were going to spend the night. After Kalaloch (pronounced “Kla-lock”) Campground was full, we got the only spot that would hold us in the NP campground at South Beach and had a great view of the ocean right from our couch (right). We liked it so much we decided to stay a second night. That afternoon, we took a walk on the beach and found several sand dollars, which Whisper enjoyed digging up from the sand (see video).
As we were parking, Paula noticed a lady next to us knitting in her little cabana. She immediately went over and introduced herself and the two talked knitting for a while. (On a side note, we later found out her daughter has some of Tom’s books and used them for homeschooling her children!) Kathleen was designing a beautiful beaded “shoulder cozy” and Paula is even going to “test knit” it for her after the pattern is completed. (This is when someone unfamiliar with the pattern knits it to see if there are any mistakes in it.) The following day, Paula met another knitter behind us, Andrea, also an excellent knitter and designer. The three of them got together the second day and shared an enjoyable afternoon. Emails have ensued, which included not only knitting ideas but also great suggestions for camping. And both of them RV to AZ occasionally, so we may get to see them in the future.
Tree of Life
The next day, we went to check out the Tree of Life and Ruby Beach, which was supposed to have great tide pools and ruby red sand in some light…we found neither.
The following day, although the weather was not great, we thought we might kayak Lake Quinault, an hour south. We turned into the Quinault Rain Forest and though the lake was beautiful, the road was terrible! Tom said, ‘This road is just as bad as the road to Cape Flattery, only narrower and slower.” We took Whisper on a short walk down to lake but decided kayaking was not a good option.
Then we spent a very noisy night in Aberdeen, WA right on US 101, as it was within 20 feet of the road. But they had a great laundry room so although we didn’t sleep too well, we had clean sheets!
For our last night in WA, we drove to a Harvest Host cranberry and blueberry farm, Cranguyma Farms, in Long Beach, WA. It was nice and quiet, but we were disappointed there weren’t many blueberries ripe enough for picking.
Oregon…here we come.
Below is a slide show of random images of our travels.
Thanks for joining us!
