Camping at Kalaloch / Ruby Beach

Olympic National Park Map - If you have no idea where I'm talking about.

Sunday July 5 Kalaloch Campground

I got up at 7am and started packing. I packed all our camping gear, clothes, and downed a smoothie on my way to meet Jeff and Ruben in Brownsville. Ru got loaded up and we headed north. Apart from a small traffic jam on I-5 it was a pretty easy 5 hour drive to the Olympic Peninsula. We didn't stop much, we just listened to music and podcasts (Stuff You Should Know) and cruised. Ru is a great passenger most of the time. At some point just after we hit highway 101 cell service disappeared and I felt kind of bereft. I hadn't gotten to talk with Fred for 10 minutes since he was on the boat with us five days ago.

Most of the trip up I had expected to see big trees but it had all been heavily logged. 

We arrived at our home for the next two nights.

 We got to the campground easily enough, it was huge. I booked our site at the last minute (a month ago) and there were only two sites left for these dates. Our site is beautiful, but its only about 40 yards from highway 101. I was reminded of the scene from Blues Brothers when Jake asks Elwood “How often does the train go by?” and he replies “So often you don't even notice it.” Well I notice it. Log trucks and rows of cars, all the time. The campsite we got was shady and had lots of space. Many of the other sites were much smaller. There are no showers here, but they do have drinking water and flush toilets. We had delicious sandwiches for a late lunch, and set up the camp kitchen.

Campground /Coast map

Our roomy campsite.

Pretty trees and no close neighbors

Ruben in a tree... its a theme.

We want to go!

Being photogenic

Likewise

the weather was cool but not cold, and foggy but not dark. 

Ruben and I showing off our toesies

After that we got our tent set up, and headed for the beach. The temperature at the coast was in the high 60's. I'm glad I bought coats. It was actually warmer on the beach than in our shady campsite. We explored, along with every other camper, because the beach was crowded. We came back to camp, made soup for dinner, and I played cards with Ru. I taught him three games, War, Slapjack, and Speed. He liked Speed best, and we played about 8 rounds of it. He beat me a few times, but I'm still champion. We washed ourselves the best we could without a shower and went to bed around 9pm. I hadn't brought wood and Ru was disappointed that we didn't have a fire. I promised tomorrow we'd pay too much for a small amount of wood for him. We both fell asleep quickly, but I woke several times to the freeway noise. Finally I took an ibuprofen to counter the headache that had been building all afternoon, and found my earplugs, and didn't wake up till pee thirty.

Monday July 6 Ruby Beach

We had a mission today, to catch the low tide and check out the creatures at Ruby Beach. Our whole point of coming to the Olympic Peninsula, and the reason for staying at this particular campground was to go to Ruby Beach, Ru saw it on the map of the Olympic peninsula and said it was the place to go. So that’s enough reason for me! We saw yesterday that the ranger was giving a tidepool tour at 9:30 am (low tide was 10:30am) at the Ruby Beach trailhead. We met up with the group after I made a makeshift belt for my pants out of a bungee cord, and we finished our eggs and sausage (I had forgotten my belt, and also syrup and sugar much to Ruben's dismay).

Ruby Beach was as beautiful as the pictures. It had everything, driftwood, small round rocks, a pond, a stream, large rocky islands, climbing areas, tide pools, in short it was a boys dream beach. The ranger Danielle was great, we learned a lot about the types of anemones, mussels, hermit crabs, sea stars (some of which had wasting disease) and shrimps. The coolest thing we learned was that we could listen to the mussels. Try it sometime. They whistle and pop.

So we explored, and explored, and took pictures of Ruben climbing on things, and explored. We snacked, poked stuff, explored, and then we headed back. We were almost to the trail head when Ru asked “Where does the creek go?” So we explored some more. I sat down and read a book for a while, and Ru came back and sat by me. I told him that if he put his shoes back on we could go, but he was “Toooo tiiired” and wilted to the ground. So he took a nap, right there by the creek on the sand. I read my book.

That was my dream vacation really. Go somewhere nice away from people in nature, and read a book. Napping and exploring child, that was a bonus. :)

Our first view of Ruby Beach

Danielle our ranger

Listening to mussels

Sometimes I just have to look away. 

Back at Kalaloch beach

Sand crust Stonehenge

Reading while Ru climbs

I spy a boy in the roots

Eventually I woke up Ru, and he put on his shoes, and we went back to camp (a 7 minute drive) and ate another delicious sandwich. Then we played about 9 more rounds of speed. He's really getting better, he won at least two of them. After lunch he went exploring in the campground while I typed up blog posts, and he found a slug. A blue jay came by to say hi, and I almost got a picture but he was camera shy.

We ventured out after our late lunch and found the little store where we paid $10 for a small bundle of wood and a bag of ice. We were just leaving when Ru decided he wanted something to drink, and what about the lack of syrup. So we spent $10 on some honey and a small milk.

I was getting really bothered by our smell so I filled up the solar shower and put it on the back of the car and parked in the sun. I noticed that Ruben's phone still had service so I made a few calls and sent a few texts, then we went to the beach again. The beach at the campground has a cool tree that is suspended in air by its roots. Ru used it as a jungle gym. We played frisbee for a little while, and Ru built things and buried things in the sand. I read some more.

Our dinner of leftover curry (it finally thawed) was great, and we roasted marshmallows over the fire after dinner. We tried to use the solar shower but without something to hang it on it wasn't very useful, or very warm. Somehow I am going to have to wash my hair soon.

We slept as best we could in the noisy campground, and woke up too early from the crows. We were grumpy as we packed and it was good we were gone by 10am.