Aberdeen, WA

After driving up the Oregon coast, we crossed the highway 101 bridge from Astoria into Washington, and followed the highway north into Aberdeen.

Driving along the Washington coast

We had originally planned for Aberdeen to be just a place to park the trailer while we drove the truck further north to Rialto Beach. We had visited Rialto Beach two years ago when we accidentally stumbled onto it after driving through Twilight-Mania town of Forks. The day we visited the beach it was very foggy, and the fog gave the beach a very mysterious air. The beach is also littered with massive fallen trees that were blown down many years ago in a huge windstorm. The trees fell into the ocean and were churned about until they came back to land. So not only was the beach covered in fog, but there were HUGE tree bones everywhere, and it was like we were walking through a dinosaur graveyard.

Rialto Beach, from two years ago.

Me, on Rialto Beach, two years ago.

So, on this trip we'd meant to make the drive north to visit the beach again, but Seaside turned out to be such a pleasant experience that we overstayed our original planned time there, and cut our time in Aberdeen too short. Although we missed getting to see the epic beach again, we enjoyed our time in Aberdeen non-the-less by hiking at a local rain forest and spending time with our Couch Surfing host Rocky.

Washington's landscape is quite different from the other states we've visited on this trip. Most of the west side of the state is bog ridden, and we crossed numerous sloughs on our trip. Slough was a new word for me and I had to look it up after we passed several signs stating that we were crossing through one. Turns out a slough is a swamp or a muddy marsh. So yes, lots of awesome bogs and marshes. Also, the state contains numerous rain forests (which in my mind exist only in exotic places like Brazil), so all in all its probably accurate to say Washington is a very wet state.

Rain Forests in Washington

During our time in Aberdeen, we hiked the Quinault rain forest loop trail with the pups. It was an easy hike beside waterfalls, over a small bog, and along the pretty lakeside of Lake Quinault.

Hiking in the Quinault Rain Forest

Crossing a bog

Waterfalls on the Quinault Loop Trail

Sailboats on Quinault Lake

After the hike, our host Rocky invited us to his family's house for dinner. He and his wife prepared us some very yummy steak dinner and we got to watch the Olympics! (also epic, since we don't normally have access to television). His daughters joined us for dinner, and it was very nice to sit down to a family dinner and watch tv together. We polished off the night by eating freshly baked pie, made from local little wild blackberries. NUM!

Rocky and his family!

To see more pictures of Aberdeen and the Quinault Rain Forest, click here.

Happy Rain Forest Hiking,

M.