Olympic Vacation Days Four and Five - Cape Alava to Sand Point and Back to Ozette Backpack

Waking up and enjoying a beautiful view and breakfast. We got packed up, the kids were super helpful, and hit the trail. Today was all beach hiking - which is not easy!

But we saw deer!!! That was fun. We did not, however, see the mama bear and cubs that people hiking the other direction told us about. Trying to decide if it was good to miss them - probably!

Looking south towards Sand Point - our destination and second camp spot.

We climbed up the rock at the point of Sand Point and enjoyed a really cool 360 degree view. At this point on the coast, the beach shifted to beautiful soft sand.

Edison and Charlotte had scouted ahead and found this amazing campsite, complete with custom rope swing and an ingenious sink!

Getting ready for another beautiful sunset.

We set the alarm for 6:15 AM Thursday. We had to start our hike early in order to make it back to Seattle for afternoon doctor appointments. It was worth it though, to spend one more night on the coast! Reed had another super star day of hiking and Edison and Charlotte trucked right on ahead!

We did it! 10.0 miles!!!

Olympic Vacation Day Three - Lake Ozette Triangle Backpack First Day - Cape Alava

Tuesday morning we flip-flopped our car camping gear with our backpacking gear and got our things all packed up. The kids were great at helping organize our food and supplies and sharing the load between our packs. We then drove to the trailhead at the north end of Lake Ozette and hit the trail.

Looking out at the serene view of Lake Ozette from the start of the trail.

The Ozette Triangle trail is about 3 miles each day. First day was to Cape Alava - the most western point in the continental U.S. It is mostly flat and much of it is through deep woods and up on boardwalks which was fun. Reed and I measured the longest stretch of boardwalk at a whopping .6 mile!

A rare - double headed fern frond that the kids spotted.

We made it to the Pacific Ocean!

A fun feature of camping along the coast is that people have taken these buoys washed up on the shore and turned them into rope swings. This one was at our campsite.

Charlotte and Reed spotted a bridge to the island and wanted to see if they could make it out there. What a fun challenge! We made it!

An interesting feature of Cape Alava is that just north of it - on the other side of the island we hiked to, there are waves crashing on the beach - but at our campsite area, it is protected by islands and rocks that create the feeling of a bay. The loudest thing we could hear were the seals barking.

The best rope swing on the beach!

Our beautiful campsite!