Me (17), my brother (19), and our father (60) go on vacation every summer. It usually isn’t something big: anywhere from a few days to a couple weeks. We’re leaving on Friday. This Friday. The problem? We still don’t know where we’re going.
We like good food (not fancy, just good). We like hikes, and nature. In the past, we have gone to see Mt. St. Helens and the Columbia River Gorge. We have been to Long Beach, Washington (very fun). We have gone to Northbend multiple times. We went into a cave once, and it was fun.
What we don’t like too much: surfing (father’s age, and no experience), sports (mainly me, not a fan), and excessively long car rides (2 hours is okay, 7 is not).
Can any Washingtonians (or anyone else who might know) suggest a good vacation spot that we haven’t thought of? We just called Bellingham (and the Mt. Baker area) and every hotel seems to be booked up. We’ve considered just spending a few days enjoying the Seattle area, but we already live there, so it wouldn’t seem like a “vacation”.
Any thoughts of going up into Canada? Victoria, Vancouver, and other places? Presumably you’ve been all through the Olympic peninsula -? Seen the rain forest? Doesn’t have to be camping; there are motels around. You’ve been to Mount Ranier?
It’s been a couple of years since me and my GF did it. Take the ferry over to Port Townsend, itself a wonderful old town. She loved the shopping there, but it’s a pretty great place to just look at the old buildings. When you’ve had enough of that, keep driving west past Port Angeles and the other towns; pretty ordinary as I recall. I’m guessing that the furthest you’d want to go would be Forks, a small town in the middle of the woods. There’s at least one Great Western motel there, so I think that might be where you’d want to stay.
Just east of Forks is the turn-off to the Hoh Rainforest State Park. It’s a pretty exotic place, spooky in it’s own way. Wonderful. Various nature hikes, mostly pretty easy. Um, it could well be raining while you’re there, but that can’t be a surprise to you.
As I look again at this crummy map I’ve got here, I can’t be sure exactly where the turnoff to the state park is. Look for it and / or ask when you get to Forks. Or maybe look it up on the Web.
From Wikipedia, Hoh Rainforest - Wikipedia , it looks to be national forest, but I think there might be a state park there as well. If not, sorry for the confusion. Wiki also looks like it’s got great links to the surrounding area as well - but no good maps (!) - well, not very good.
I’ll second the suggestion on the San Juan Islands - except I wouldn’t fly but drive to Anacortes and take the ferry over. You could spend a day on each of the major islands on the ferry route, or even stay on the mainland and ferry-over each day.
Also, I’ll second the suggestion on Mt. Rainier - you might see if there is hotel availability in Packwood. This is a nice small logging/retirement town on the southwest side of the park, and there is good hiking all abouts, not just in/around Rainier but in the hills around town. There’s also an animal park on the way down from Seattle, so that could break up the trip. I’ve got the link now, it’s Northwest Trek.
San Juans are great. Rosario Resort on Orcas Island might be a good option. You can go up Mt Constitution and see a great view of the islands, into Canada, etc. There are a bunch of lakes and hiking trails.
One of my other favorite places to go is deception pass. If your not camping it’s more of a day trip.
Birch Bay is pretty laid back. It’s about 20 miles north of Bellingham. Lodging would be in cabins, but you’d have to check to see if any are available. There might be lodging in Blaine. (Birch Bay is, according to the Post Office, Blaine.) Mt. Baker is about 50 miles east. (Mt. Baker as seen from Birch Bay.) You can rent kayaks from Ocean Kayaks in Ferndale, not too far off of the freeway on Grandview. I read in the Bellingham Herald a couple of months ago that Whatcom County is one of the best places in the country for kayaking according to a national magazine. (Sorry, couldn’t find a link.) Birch Bay is shallow, so it’s fairly warm in the summer. For a day trip, Vancouver, BC is 35 miles away.
Check out Buchart Gardens in Victoria in Canada - it’s huge, and beautiful, and fits in with the nature and hikes you mentioned in your OP. Also, if you can hit there at the right time, they have an awesome fireworks show. Buchart is good for several hours at least.
Gorgeous, plus then you can make all the tired old jokes about having been to see the Hoh and what a beautiful Hoh it is, and not too expensive for a Hoh etc. etc.
My only warning is that if you go to the peninsula, which is a great idea, you may want to call around to make sure you can find a place to stay. You won’t be the only one to have that idea. Same potential problem (probably worse) with the San Juans.
Same potential problem (probably worse) with the San Juans.