Olympic Peninsula

Today we plan on trying to catch the 10:30AM ferry to Port Angeles on the Olympic Peninsula, Washington State. We get up at 6:00AM and are in the RV by 7:00 AM. We drive the couple blocks to the ferry terminal and get in the line for cars without reservations. We are the first vehicle in the second line. We purchase our ticket and walk to breakfast. We don’t have to be back until 9:30 for the US Customs to do their pre-check prior to boarding the ferry.

First in line

After breakfast we head back to the RV to clean up and put things away. We check in with US Customs. After all the vehicles with reservations board the two full lanes of vehicles without reservations are loaded on, or should I say squeezed on the ferry at the tail end. I think the waiting lanes at the dock match the capacity of the ferry.

Had to go out the sliding door

Leaving Victoria

Arriving Port Angeles

We have a calm 1-½ hour ride across to Washington State. We sit with 3 women from a tour group and have a fun conversation. Once we get off the ferry we have lunch at local seafood restaurant on the water. I keep trying to find another restaurant that has smoked salmon chowder like the one we had in Fairbanks, Alaska. I had to settle for their clam chowder which was OK, lots of clams, but made without cream. At least it wasn’t the usual potato soup with a clam in there, somewhere.

We drive to Sol Duc within the National Park, hoping to get a campsite without a reservation. No luck, mostly tent sites. There were a few RV sites with power, available, but the sites sucked.  We drive beyond the entrance booth and park in a rest stop just beyond the entrance for the night. Beautiful area, except we get a visit by the rangers around 11:30 PM telling us we can't stay there overnight. I said find we will move and they said just be gone early in the morning.