If you’re looking for a wonderful place to go camping, I highly recommend the Hobuck Beach Resort. It’s located in the very Northwest corner of Washington State on the Makah Indian Reservation. You need a Makah Reservation pass (about $10), which you can purchase at the office when you arrive at the campsite. All campsites are first come, first served, and you can pretty much set up tent wherever you want!

My favorite part of the Hobuck Beach Resort? Easy access to a beach that is just for guests there. This isn’t your typical Washington Beach. In fact, we had a hard time believing we hadn’t just swapped our location for Southern California!

And when I say the beach is easily accessible, I mean it. We just found a little path through the trees by our campsite and it was MAYBE 100 yards to the beach. I recommend checking the forecast and heading to the Hobuck Beach Resort on a day when it’s 85 degrees or above. You’ll be able to fully enjoy the water (which is, of course, pretty frigid) and you won’t have to bundle up too much at night!

And as a really amazing plus: you can literally hear the ocean waves from your campsite. I cannot tell you how much I loved falling asleep in a tent listening to the ocean. My only regret: that I never had the chance to go back with my husband!

Hands-down, no contest: my favorite place in the entirety of Washington State is Cape Flattery – aka, the most Northwestern point of the Continental United States of America. I’m not sure any picture could truly do it justice – and for sure my phone camera could not capture the absolute BEAUTY of this place.

The hike to Cape Flattery is relatively easy – although we had a very exciting time hiking with eight children and only two adults. The trail is absolutely NOT stroller friendly – ditch the strollers and go with the baby carrier instead. It’s also important to know that there are some narrow boardwalk areas to walk across – so watch your little ones. In addition, once you get to the top, there are some areas without railings at the edge. For the most part, we felt pretty safe, but I give doing this hike with TWO three-year-olds zero out of ten stars. To be fair, I give doing MOST things with two three-year-olds zero stars.

Just down the beach from Westport State Park (very close geographically, but actually quite the driving distance because you have to drive around an ocean inlet) is Ocean Shores – which if you are living in Washington, you’ve probably heard of. This is just another classic, typical beach, but I don’t think that kind of adventure ever really gets old. Like Westport State Park, you can drive right on the beach so you don’t have to lug all of your belongings a long distance. That being said, if you drive a sedan or a minivan, I recommend parking at the State Parks parking lot a ways up from the beach instead of trying to drive onto the sand.

It took pretty much the full three years of living in Washington for us to make it to Mount Rainier – and I’m not proud of it. Honestly, there are so many BETTER or more adventurous ways to see Mount Rainier, but there are only so many options that are possible with five children… and only one adult. So instead of trying to embark on some intense hike with my kids, I settled for a ride in Crystal Mountain Gondolas to see the summit of Mount Rainier.

This, to me, was kind of a one-and-done experience. I was very glad we did it. But I probably wouldn’t do it again, even if we were to end up in Washington again. Up at the top, they’ve got a gift shop and snack bar, a restaurant, and a bunch of different hiking trails. Again, had I not been by myself with five kids, we would have explored some of the hiking trails. Instead we just enjoyed the view and prayed we wouldn’t get sunburnt (we did, by the way). So there’s my big tip for heading up to the top: pack sunscreen.

Leavenworth falls into the category of “things Ashley thought were awesome, but the rest of the family couldn’t care less about.” And that’s unfortunate, because I really could have spent days in this quaint, adorable Bavarian-themed town and been totally content. However, we spent only a mere two hours in the town because we only hit it up on our way to our final destination: Lake Wenatchee (more on that later). That being said, I did get a little taste for the town and if we ever make it back to Washington, you can bet that I’ll be back to Leavenworth (even if my family doesn’t want to come). Having been to Bavaria myself, I loved the VERY German feel of the whole town. It was hard to believe we hadn’t just stepped into Germany – except that everyone was speaking English and not, well, German.

Another “must visit again” location for me is Wenatchee State Park (more specifically: Lake Wenatchee), located just outside of Leavenworth, Washington. The North Campground where we stayed had easy access to the lake, decent campsite sizes, and easy access to bathrooms. The campsites WERE all pretty close together, but there were enough bushes, trees, and other plants between sites to feel like you had some privacy. My one big tip for the campgrounds here: bring sleeping pads for under your sleeping bags. We honestly don’t go camping hardly ever, but when we do, we don’t ever bother with any kind of sleeping pad. Which is totally fine when you are camping on grass – which is what we have always done. But here, the tent sites were gravel – which is pretty darn uncomfortable without some kind of pad underneath. I’d still give this area a 10/10 rating for camping: it’s not THEIR fault we were ill-prepared!

Located on Joint Base Lewis-McChord, McKay Marsh Trail is exactly what you would expect: a marsh. My advice: bring the bug spray because the mosquitos will have a HAYDAY if you don’t. Besides the OODLES of mosquitos, this simple loop is perfect when you’re wanting to get out of the house, but you don’t want to do anything too crazy. All of the kids (besides H who wasn’t walking at the time) were able to handle the loop without an issue (other than the occasional whining that occurs literally anytime you go anywhere with so many kids).

Mount St. Helens feels like it sits in its own category of “things that we never really did, but felt obligated to do because we lived in Washington.” Honestly, I would have loved to spend some actual time at Mount St. Helens. But with all the stress of solo parenting and then moving, we didn’t really have time to give it a real shot. Instead, we decided to hit it up really quickly on our way down to Idaho to see family for one last hoorah before our big move to South Korea. And honestly: it was crazy disappointing. But TO BE FAIR, it was VERY smoggy that day. So, while you could TECHNICALLY see Mount St. Helens (including the destruction) from the visitor’s center, it was hard to see it very well and impossible to get a picture of it.

If you go into the visitor’s center, they have a lot of really cool things to see about Mount St. Helens – including viewers so you can see the destruction a lot closer. The visitor’s center does cost money to visit – which we didn’t want to pay since we literally had about 20 minutes to spend there. My advice: go on a clear day and if you’re not satisfied with the sight from the viewpoint, then pay to see what the visitor’s center has to offer.

And thus concludes the final installment of “Things to do and see in the Pacific Northwest.” Our time in Washington State held some of the best memories I have ever made. We truly loved the area and I wouldn’t be mad if we ended up there again someday.

’til next time…