Laura Haslett presenting to the National Parks Club about her National Parks trip in Washington state
Linda Harvey
On June 10, Laura Haslett of the National Parks Club presented a community sharing program with photos of her Washington state National Parks trip from July 2021. Members enjoyed seeing beautiful photos and hearing an informative talk about the diversity of Olympic, North Cascades, and Mount Rainier National Parks.
She started off from Portland, Ore., picking her girlfriend up from the airport. They visited The Astoria Column in Astoria, Ore., with a 164–step climb to the top! From there, they drove on to Olympic National Park where they spent most of their time.
The town of Forks has lodging while the park has a bare bones lodge. Laura discussed such sites within the park as the Tree of Life, Quinault Rain Forest, Ruby Beach, Hoh Rain Forest, Sol Duc Falls, and Hurricane Ridge. The wildflowers were simply gorgeous!
After taking the ferry to Port Townsend, they arrived in North Cascades. The road was closed to the frontier town of Winthrop so an extra six–hour drive was in store! They did get to see Diablo Lake, the Ross Lake Trail and Dam, and Lake Pearrygin State Park.
Getting to Mount Rainier was tricky because the GPS was not working. A paper map or an atlas are good items to pack! Two million visitors come to Mount Rainier between June and August because of the snow the other times of the year. At a little over 14,000 feet high, it is the tallest mountain in Washington and the Cascade Range.
Laura’s travel tip was to be flexible and have patience when on the road!