Lewis and Clark National Historical Park spans the border of Washington and Oregon where the Columbia River meets the Pacific Ocean.  When Lewis and Clark made their epic journey across the United States, the finally spotted the Pacific Ocean from the Washington side of the river.  But the coast there wasn’t a good place to …

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After moving the RV further south, we started exploring southwest Washington. Our first stop was Fort Vancouver National Historical Site. We applied to work at Fort Vancouver, but they had a turnover in staff.  Currently they do not have any RV volunteers. Fort Vancouver is our favorite kind of National Park site because they have …

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After hiking up Hurricane Hill in the most-visited part of Olympic National Park, we headed for the a more remote section of the park.  We drove to Sol Duc Falls. Olympic National Park is huge with many disparate parts including coastal, forest, and mountain ecosystems.  There are no roads through the park, making it a …

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Continuing our tour of the National Park sites in Washington, we headed to Olympic National Park.  We stayed on Whidbey Island and took the Washington State Ferry from Coupeville to Port Townsend.  Taking the ferry saved us five hours of driving around Puget Sound.  We wanted to hike Hurricane Hill so we didn’t have time …

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There is one National Park site in downtown Seattle:  Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park, Seattle Unit.  A unit of Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park is also located in Skagway, Alaska.  Tom and I went visited that park almost 20 years ago, but we had never been to the Seattle unit. The Seattle unit …

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After all the hiking up and down mountains in the North Cascades, we needed a day with less vertical challenge.  So we stayed on Whidbey Island (our current home) and toured Ebeys Landing National Historical Reserve. Ebeys Landing was the first National Historical Reserve in the National Park Service.  A national reserve is an area …

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When Tom and I were on San Juan Island, we thought we were pretty remote.  However, we still had cell phone service, internet, and a grocery store 12 miles away.  We didn’t know how good we had it!  Compared to Stehekin, Washington, San Juan Island is the middle of civilization. Although Stehekin is in the …

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Tom and I (with fellow RV adventurers Johnny and Val) explored the North Cascades complex for a few days after we left San Juan Island.  The area has jagged, snow-covered peaks and beautiful lakes in the valleys.  After we left the Ross Lake area, we continued on Washington State Route 20 until we hit Twisp, …

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Ross Lake National Recreation Area is a part of the North Cascades complex that I started to write about yesterday.  Because Ross Lake actually encompasses the road that passes through the complex, it has a much higher visitation than North Cascades National Park.  North Cascades gets 29,000 visitors a year while Ross Lake gets 905,000. …

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Last week Tom and I headed to a new National Park – a place we have never been – North Cascades National Park.  While we are still in Washington, we are visiting as many national park sites as possible.  Because there are so many, we have to hit about one every day before we head …

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