Washington National Parks - Planning and First Day - July 2024

Washington state National Parks - Planning, First Day - July 10, 2024

Stays

We did not start planning this trip early enough to book the National Park camping. I booked the first campsite in Mt. Rainier's Cougar Rock Campground on February 20, 2024 and was only able to get the first night (Site E 26), of our two planned nights, reserved with the second night with no availability. I signed up for the Recreation.gov Alerts to be emailed an alert if there was a cancellation for our second night. This did work, and after forwarding the alerts to another email address that went to my Fitbit, I grabbed one fast enough, where 200-300+ others also received the alert, to get E 18). Before getting this, we did book an expensive site outside of the park as a backup. It was booked on hipcamp.com, and we knew it would cost the $8 hipcamp fee to cancel if we were able to get into the park campground. 

Next, I was only able to get Staircase Campground in Olympic National Park; Hoh Rainforest and Sol Duc Campgrounds were not available. I signed up with these alerts, but in the end decided to stick with the expensive backups that I booked -- more on that later. It also would have required speed to book an open one first. There were many alerts for canceled and now available on July 9th, the day before we left. So, we booked Staircase in the park and outside the park: 3 Rivers Resort between Rialto Beach and Forks and Fort Townshed on the east side of the Peninsula for our Olympic exploration. More on these sites later. 

Finally, for North Cascades, I easily got a spot for two nights...our only night where we could keep the tent up for more than one day. We wanted to travel around to all, and Olympic is spread out, but not having to take down and setup the tent each day would definitely be better. The trade off, I guess. North Cascades had more campgrounds than either Mt. Rainier and Olympic.  

Really finally, I later booked a hotel near the airport, SEA-TAC, for the last night to get well cleaned up and packed up.

As a first step, I had found camping and hotel prices for each place along the route to determine if we should camp or stay at hotels. Of course, camping was 2/3rds the cost of hotels/motels. 

Packing

We first planned to buy camping supplies, except for Travis's small down sleeping bag. Then, I checked Delta's checked bag price. The website only had an estimate ahead of time, which was $30 or 3000 miles, and said that the final price and ability to purchase a checked bag would only be available at check in, 24 hours before the flight. 

Comparing the cost to buy a tent and another sleeping bag, $60 was about the same and allowed us to take the trekking poles too and save Travis room in his carry-on suitcase, not having to pack his sleeping bag. We did go with this option and used our miles to check. We have a 25" hard side case. We put his sleeping bag, the tent, and a camp pillow for Travis on one side, and my sleeping bag in a compression bag, the trekking poles, and some washcloths and camping towels on the other side. For other needed items, we found Walmarts on the way with aisle numbers and prices for the first one. 

Eating

We looked at eating options that required cooking vs. did not require cooking. We opted for not cooking, so did not need to pack our stove and pots and did not need to buy fuel or a lighter. We had peanut butter sandwiches, bread, lunchables of crackers/cheddar/pepperoni, chips and queso, trail mix, Chex mix, peanuts, muffins, donuts, granola bars, cereal, chips, cookies, pudding cups, and candy. 

Traveling

We checked into Delta right after 24 hours before our flight. We had an early flight at 7:54 am on Wednesday. We got the bags and a warning that our seat would be assigned at the gate, hum...before it was promised to be assigned at check in. This made me nervous. We were in basic economy. I found it was assigned as we were driving into the airport. We were in the last row, but it was still very good because we were in a row of 2 seats so had both the window and aisle and no one else to bother. This plane was 2 aisle 3, and we had a 2 on the way back too. Definitely awesome; I have been on too many 3 aisle 3 in the middle seat lately.  

At the airport, we checked our bag that we paid for the day before. Everything went smoothly, and we were in terminal E at DFW.

Delta was awesome on both flights -- on time departure/early landing, no issues, flight attendants were wonderful, nice entertainment system to not need to use a cell phone, good app, luggage fit despite being in Basic Economy and boarding last, and of course, both the aisle and window seat. First WA mountain sightings from the plane after great Rocky Mountain views too. Mt. Rainier and Mt. Saint Helen above, and I believe, Mt. Baker. 

After landing, our luggage came quickly. There were no restrooms in the baggage claim; I had to go back upstairs. There were some construction in the airport too. Delta was in the South Terminal; we found the rental car bus easily. Rental cars are off site. We had an Avis rental booked, a Toyota Corella or similar. I had downloaded the app at their recommendation. On the bus, I could see that we were assigned a Chrysler minivan. What? I don't want to/can't drive a minivan and the bad gas mileage in WA where gas is more than at home. The app also allowed a complimentary upgrade to a choice of 2 full sized pickups -- worse gas mileage and also big. We also needed to fit into national park hiking trail parking lots. Waited a long time at the desk behind slow people just to be directed to the Preferred desk in the garage. I did not know that we were preferred. In the garage, he quickly and easily hooked us up with a Chevy Malibu, not as small and fuel efficient, but better. I don't know why they don't hold the car that we booked; maybe just a generous upgrade that I should see as a generous upgrade. We just also had trouble in Vegas before where they were out of the small car that we rented, and we had to wait for another sedan, which the lady said that he (the guy washing the car) was kind to get something this small for us. In contrast in Montana, they were awesome; there we did rent a full size because we had the kids with us. Maybe everyone wants fuel efficient.

Next stop was our first Walmart in Renton for camping gear and meals. We found an air mattress but no air pump to air it up. It was crazy; all of WA was out of pumps! We found them all at the end of the trip in the North Cascade's General Store...sigh. We stopped at 2 Walmarts before Rainier and 3 stores in Ashford, 2 noted that they ordered or will order more. At the campground, Travis asked a few people that were at their site and near us (only one guy freaked out). I asked outside the restroom, and a lady loaned us a battery powered one -- so sweet, and the other lady really wanted to help because she said they had been in the situation before. (When we camped in Yellowstone/Glacier in 2022, we found a pump but no mattress.) Travis had done some manual blowing already but finished with it. The next night, it had enough left that manual blowing was reasonable. We would look again on our way to Olympic.

We wanted to enter the park before 3pm when the time entry tickets end (timed entry required 7am-3pm to the Paradise and Sunrise Corridors, independently), and everyone, without a ticket that has been waiting, shows up. We arrived about 2:30 pm and found no line. The campground reservation gets you in the Corridor in place of a timed entry ticket, just for the corresponding campground. Cougar Rock campground and the Longmire/Paradise park inns got you into the Paradise Corridor, and the campgrounds and inns in Sunrise will get you in that timed entry Corridor of the park. With this entry, you can enter after 1pm.

We were very luckily the mountain was out the full time that we were there. Our first stop was Longmire seeing the Wilderness Access Center (NP Passport stamp, wifi, and asking about the snow on the Skyline trail), visited the historic gas station, we missed the museum, and the historic one lane bridge -- good view of Mt. Rainier and the Nisqually river. We were planning to hike the Skyline trail the next day, and it had snowed June 17th and 25th with online maps of the snow coverage and snow hiking prep. I was asking about snow cover at WAC, and she recommended asking in Paradise instead that they would be more up to date since they are closer. However, Visitor Centers do not open early enough for when we need to start early hikes.  

Longmire Suspension Bridge in the last photo. 

After this stop, we checked into the campground. They had a print out with names and site numbers hanging up; however, a Ranger was available though did not seem to be required for check-in. I asked if by chance anyone had any left air pumps. He noted bear spray and couple of other things but no air pump. I also noted that we had a different site the next night and did we need to come back to check in. He said no and that if the other people had left that we could just move our stuff over the next morning. They did, and we carried the tent and then air mattress from E 26 to E18, trying to be quiet since it was still early. This saved up one tent take down and setup. I did not expect it to work since we were planning an early leave to get to the Skyline trail for a parking spot and to start the hike. 

After we finished camp setup, we drove further east to Christine Falls with the iconic waterfall under a bridge. 

Next, we went back to Longmire to hike the Trail of the Shadows. This was previously a cold/hot springs resort in 1800s owned by the Longmire family. Signs also pointed out the valley and forest meeting. 

Iron draining left a trail

The trees were big!

Spring water

Then we went back to the campsite for dinner, got ready for bed, and went to bed early. We stayed on Central time and went to bed by 8:30 pm and got up 5:30 or 5am, which is good for hiking. The bathrooms were pretty nice, but we were far away the first night and the farthest away the second night. They could use more than one restroom per loop. 

Next up...Mt. Rainier - Paradise - Skyline trail

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