Cabins on Camano

Really I had very little hope of that any cabins at Cama Beach State park would be available.  You can’t book them online and calling the park has been on my to-do list for months.  Yet here it is days before the ‘summer’ starts and they had a night available in July – yipee!

Cama Beach State Park is a restored family fishing resort with rustic cabins right on the beach and it’s only 25 miles from Seattle.  I can’t wait until July! Can you see the huge smile on my face? Trust me it’s there.  

Almost too late for planning ahead

Forget black Friday sales, I was up at 6:45 this morning to reserve what I’m guessing must be the the most popular campsite in the state – and didn’t get it!  Booking started at 7AM and it was reserved 7:01. I guess I just didn’t hit send quite fast enough.

Washington State Parks allow you to reserve many of their sites exactly 9 months ahead, so if you book this week you can get (or try to get) popular sites for the end of August 2010.  (and last year I thought I was so on the ball by booking before Memorial Day). 

OK so I did get an adjacent site but it’s not as big or as private as the one I wanted.  Sayonara Southend Site 8 at Moran State Park on Orcas Island – maybe next year . 

Friday Pictures: Dungeness National Wildlife Refuge

 

  

Photo credit to my lovely sister, Anastasia Andrews

Dungeness a dud

We got back from our second camping trip of the year and it was decidedly mediocre.  The fun stuff was what the fun stuff usually is – the fire, the food, cousins. 

The big let down for me was the beach.  First, it was a 20 minute walk from the campground and you had to pay a daily fee, $3 a family, neither of which were onerous, but still an annoyance.   Second, the water was pretty rough with breakers big enough to knock the kids down. Third, collecting rocks, shells and driftwood is frowned upon because it’s a wildlife preserve.  I do understand the rationale for this but combined with the lack of tide pools for exploration, I found it kind of boring. 

Of course enterprising parents are sure to find stuff to entertain their children, but I’m looking for some WOW when we go camping.  Next time I’m on the Olympic Peninsula I’m going to check out the Salt Creek Recreation Area.

Kalaloch and Salt Creek Campgrounds

Just as I suspected – my attempt to shame myself into getting prepared early for the Spencer Spit trip didn’t work. I did however get a great campsite recommendation…we haven’t been there yet but it sounds fantastic. I’ve quoted Kathie directly below. Thanks Kathie!

I would add that both of these sites are on the west coast of the Olympic Peninsula. My mom has just moved over there and man we can’t get enough! The region is stunning – and we’ve barely begun exploring the coast and National Park. Kalaloch is at the top of next year’s camping list.

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Olympic National Park Campground Info

If you are up for a little drive (about 3-4 hours), Kalaloch (on the coast) is absolutely the best camping…especially for kids. There are lots of trees for climbing around on, pathways to hike on, and you are on the beach so you can never get bored. There is a little convenience store nearby with ice-cream and lattes. It can rain like crazy, so we always come prepared, but when the sun is out, it is beautiful. We always bring the boys’ scooters too as people tend to drive slowly through the campground and there are lots of nice long stretches for scootering where you can still keep an eye on them so that they are not out of sight. I have done a ton of camping over the years, and this is probably at the top of my list. If you go there, I suggest the A loop…it’s my favorite combination of trees and sun.

The other place I would recommend is Salt Creek Campground…it’s a really fun campground too, although not quite as beautiful as Kalaloch.

Spencer Spit Planning Week: Day 1

Well spring has sped away faster than i imagined it would and here i am, after all my talk of planning, planning, planning, and not having done a bit!  Well i suppose since we are not going until the end of the month i still have some time but June is shaping up to be crazy – what with preschool graduation (kindergarten here we come!), field trips, the occasional tennis match – June will be gone in a snap.  So in an effort to concentrate efforts and focus my thoughts – June 8-14 – is officially devoted to planning the trip.

Why Spencer Spit?

Spencer Spit State Park is on Lopez Island in the San Juan Island.  To quote it’s website its key features are:  “excellent crabbing, clamming and ‘car-top boating.’ This is one of the few state parks in the San Juan Islands that is accessible by automobile. A sand spit encloses a saltchuck lagoon”.  Translation – preschooler heaven!

More objectively – it was recommended by a few friend and the write up in my trusty guide book “The Best in Tent Camping: Washington” was great.  One feature that attracted me was that they have campsites right on the beach. They are not accessible by car but are not far from parking, which could be wonderful however i did not book early enough to secure one of these coveted sites.  Still after considering these sites more thoroughly i decided they weren’t going to be for us this trip anyway.  We are in the midst of potty training the 3 year old and close access to toilets and running water unfortunately trumps a tent door view.  I’m going to scope it out for next year though….

now i need to think about gear – what does one need for crabbing? Bing.com – here i come – time to prove yourself!

Reservations at Dungeness Spit

The summer is set. I just received my confirmation for our July trip to the Dungeness Recreation Area on the Olympic Peninsula. While I know some people like to fly by the seat of their pants, and at one time I would have too, but these days I can’t imagine traveling into unknown territory, boys in tow, without a confirmed place to pitch the tent.

Reservable sites at Dungeness are new. Thank you Clallam County! They don’t have an on-line reservation system like Washington State Parks, but you can mail in a reservation, requesting your preferred site. The turn around was fairly quick – i got my confirmation about a week after I mailed in my reservation request. They do have a function on the website that allows you to check which sites are available on the days you want. However, even after checking their availability list and putting three alternate sites down I still didn’t get any of the campsites I requested - so don’t get your hopes up. But still I am grateful that at least we got one and it’s NOT next to the toilet – phew!

Dungeness Recreation Area - Info and Reservations

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