Mental Detours: Northwest Washington

Monday morning Jennifer and Eric decided to forego hiking down to the spit so instead we drove to Lake Crescent and hiked to the Devil's Punchbowl. We had lunch there, then hiked back to the parking lot. We drove to our next campsite in Bear Creek and discovered our coach batteries were not charging while we drove. The Bear Creek campground did not have electric hookups so we spent the night conserving our power to ensure we had enough for the refrigerator and water pump.

Hike to Devil's Punchbowl

Devil's Punchbowl

Devil's Punchbowl Bridge

Jennifer

Bear Creek Campsite

We made it through the night without depleting our batteries, only dropping to about 40%. When we started up the RV Tuesday the engine charge appeared to be working again. The previous night I had tried several remedial actions recommended in the Thor Facebook group we follow, but I wasn't sure any of them helped. Eric theorized that maybe letting the battery get below a certain level allowed the charging system to reset and begin working again. Whatever it was, we were glad to see our batteries climbing back to 100%. We still worried that the charge problem might return so Jan and I moved to a different campground with electric hookups, while Jen & Eric continued to stay at Bear Creek.

Jan and I drove to the new campground to secure our site while Jennifer and Eric started out for Sol Duc Falls. We caught up to them without much time lost. Along the drive we stopped at the Salmon Cascade where in the summer salmon can be seen leaping to make their way to the spawning pools upstream. There weren't any leaping salmon in October however. We continued to the falls parking area and hiked about 3/4 miles to the falls and back. Afterward, we stopped to eat at the Sol Duc Hot Springs Resort but the restaurant wasn't open for a couple of hours yet so we changed the plan and drove back to Bear Creek campground where I made some hamburger patties and Eric cooked them. After dinner I got my guitar out and played for a while. Finally we left Jennifer and Eric at Bear Creek and drove to our campground about 6 miles away.

Salmon Cascade

Sol Duc Falls

Jennifer

Sol Duc Hot Springs Resort

Wednesday we left the campsite around 9:15 and headed to Neah Bay. The drive took us along the coast of the northwest tip of Washington state and offered some beautiful views of the Salish Sea and Canada's Vancouver Island. We stopped a couple of times and at one of the stops we were fortunate enough to see a whale. We met up with Jen and Eric in Neah Bay and stopped at a small restaurant for a lunch including fish & chips and chicken fingers. We continued on to the planned campground and were pleased to find it was beachfront with a beautiful view looking west over the ocean. We decided to just enjoy the campground and spend the afternoon relaxing and watching the ocean. Jan & I drove to town and back for some supplies. In the evening I took out my guitar again and gave Eric some introductory guitar lessons. We watched the sunset and I played a few tunes on my guitar again. Some friendly nearby campers came over and brought out a guitar to entertain us some more. We sat around the campsite until way past dark.

Salish Sea & Vancouver Island

Humpback Whale

Whale Tail

Neah Bay Restaurant

Campground Beach

Beachfront Campground

Chillin' in a Chair

Thursday morning we made the coffee and Eric made pancakes & eggs for breakfast. After breakfast we drove to Cape Flattery and hiked the trail to the point lookout at the Northwesternmost Point of the United States. The views there were awesome, but we were a little disappointed there were no whales. We hiked back and drove to town for lunch and firewood, then back to camp to enjoy another afternoon watching the waves on the shore from our RV. Eric made a campfire and cooked dinner on their grill. We sat around the campfire until it burned down to coals, then called it a night.