Whirlwind Washington – Part 2: Hurricane Ridge, Point Wilson, Mount Rainier, and Billy Frank Jr Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge

Time to wrap up talking about my busy week and a half I spent in Washington in May 2022! (Yes, I blogged these incredibly after the fact, and I do not even have an excuse!). You can read Part 1 here, which covered fun stuff like the Hoh Rainforest and Rialto Beach.

Let’s first talk about the day spent wrapping up the adventures around the Olympic Peninsula…

This day we would wrap up some things in Olympic National Park and then make our way back to my friend’s house. It really was a random hodge-podge of activities.

Breakfast ate, we headed to the Olympic National Park Visitor Center in Port Angeles to grab Junior Ranger books to work on when we got to Hurricane Ridge. Sadly we missed grabbing them at the visitor center at Hoh Rainforest, so we were going to have to rush through completing these. We chatted up a great ranger who told us about some hidden gems in the park to explore, and also talked about adventures in other national parks. Then we headed on the road up to Hurricane Ridge, the most accessible mountain area in the national park.

Our visit to Hurricane Ridge mostly consisted of completing the two Junior Ranger books and wandering through the visitor center. Due to the snowy conditions and not having snowshoes with us, we were not able to do any hiking, though there is plenty of it in the area. We’d have to settle for some photos and souvenirs!

It was already lunch time, so we grabbed burgers at Fat Smitty’s, and Eric turned the truck towards Port Townsend to see what adventures we could find along the Puget Sound.

We ended up at Fort Worden Historical State Park, driving out to Point Wilson Lighthouse. This lighthouse sits at the end of the Quimper Peninsula and marks the entrance to Admiralty Inlet from the Strait of Juan de Fuca. The present lighthouse was built in 1913. It was closed at the time of our visit, but they will resume tours in 2023.

We briefly poked around more of Fort Worden. This fort was one of three that made up the coastal defense system known as “The Triangle of Fire.” Lots of old restored buildings remain, and on site there is a conference center, campground, and hiking trails. A Discover Pass (Washington’s state park pass) is required for vehicles.

To finish out this day, we decided to jaunt over to Mount Rainier National Park in hopes of catching a sunset. I had never been to this park, so even though it would be just a brief visit, I was game! I mean, I am not going to turn down the chance to do a handstand on an active volcano!

We went up the road to Paradise, one of the park’s five developed areas. Paradise is mostly known to the general public for its abundant wildflowers in the summer months, and to climbing enthusiasts as one of the main ways to begin a summit push. But alas, since it was the beginning of May, everything was still covered under a lot of snow, so there would be no wildflowers for me.

We missed sunset, but still took a few minutes to take some photos and use the restrooms. This was just such a crazy short trip, but I still count it as a visit, even though it is apparent I need to come back one day! I won’t lie, I want to climb Mount Rainier eventually one day soon!

The rest of the week in Washington was dedicated to remote work and agonizing over the increasingly awful weather forecast that would cause the trip to Mount Saint Helens to be called off. I was pretty damn sad about this, but not much you can do when that much snow falls.

On the weekend that was suppose to be Mount Saint Helens, alternative plans were made with Eric and Jen. We headed back to Port Townsend (snagged the Point Wilson Lighthouse passport stamp while we were there) to explore a beach known for its sea glass before heading to camp near Mount Rose, our stand in mountain for the weekend.

Next up was a stop at Rocky Brook Falls, reached by a very short walk near Brinnon.

After driving around Fort Worden again, we met up with Jen at North Beach Park to hike out to Glass Beach, which is just past McCurdy Point. This is a very popular area for finding sea glass, which is glass (that often was dumped as trash in the ocean) that has been smoothed by tumbling around in the water. It is a trek of about 3.5 miles out to get to the best caches of glass. Two old car axels will mark your arrival at Glass Beach, though we were finding sea glass before that point

The hunt for sea glass was pretty captivating, and I found myself enthusiastically joining the others in the hunt for little clear, brown, green, and blue specks. Though none of the glass pieces were big, We all managed to collect quite the bounty. Overall, we walked over seven miles, which was a lot more than I was expecting to do. Luckily most was on packed sand, but it was still quite the evening! Time for dinner and heading to camp on the Olympic Peninsula.

I blogged about the hike up Mount Rose here. This was a tiring affair, especially coupled with the seven mile trek to Glass Beach. So on Sunday (Mother’s Day), we agreed to keep the adventures pretty tame. The choice was exploring the Billy Frank Jr. Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge near Olympia.

Billy Frank Jr Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge was established in 1974, and protects the area where the Nisqually River flows into the Puget Sound. Over 250 species of birds and other wildlife call this area home. There is a visitor center, but it was closed during our visit (forever thwarting me from getting my first stamp in my Blue Goose Passport Book).

There are several miles of hiking trails at the refuge, so we out to explore the inner loops and then ventured all the way out on the Nisqually Estuary Trail. Though my legs were screaming in protest, we covered a little over five miles!

And that wraps up my week and a half in Washington last May! Plenty of exploring, though it was sad about the whole climbing plans not working out. Every time I go, I walk away with so many other things I want to see!