{"id":3547,"date":"2017-08-05T08:10:26","date_gmt":"2017-08-05T14:10:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/adventuresoflupe.com\/?p=3547"},"modified":"2023-09-24T23:36:44","modified_gmt":"2023-09-25T05:36:44","slug":"lake-quinault-on-the-olympic-peninsula-iron-creek-campground-washington-8-23-12","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/adventuresoflupe.com\/?p=3547","title":{"rendered":"Lake Quinault on the Olympic Peninsula & Iron Creek Campground, Washington (8-23-12)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Day 16 of Lupe’s 2012 Dingo Vacation to the West Coast.<\/em><\/p>\n

After Lupe’s first day at the Pacific Ocean on the Washington coast, when she had visited both Rialto Beach and Beach 4; Lupe, Lanis and SPHP had ended up camping near the end of the day at Lake Quinault.\u00a0 Lake Quinault\u00a0is a fairly large lake some distance inland from the ocean.\u00a0 The lake is partly sandwiched between the Quinault Indian Reservation, and the south border of Olympic National Park.<\/p>\n

The SE side of Lake Quinault is in the Olympic\u00a0National Forest.\u00a0 Lupe had spent the night with Lanis and SPHP in her tiny house at the Falls Creek campground.\u00a0 In the morning,\u00a0Lupe and SPHP were up before Lanis.\u00a0 Lupe and SPHP started out the day sharing the remaining corned beef hash left over from the previous evening.\u00a0 SPHP then did some camp chores.\u00a0 Lanis still\u00a0wasn’t up\u00a0by the time they were done, so Lupe and SPHP used the opportunity to do a bit of exploring.<\/p>\n

Naturally, the first thing to go look at was Lake Quinault itself.\u00a0\u00a0Lupe and SPHP followed a trail through the heavily forested campground down to the lake.\u00a0 Soon Lupe arrived\u00a0near a beach where people could rent kayaks or canoes.<\/p>\n

\"Lake<\/a>
Lake Quinault. Photo looks NNE.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"A<\/a>
A pontoon boat went by. Photo looks W.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Kayakers<\/a>
Kayakers on Lake Quinault.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

From the beach, a broad park-like lawn led up a hill to the Lake Quinault Lodge<\/a><\/span><\/strong>.\u00a0 Near the lodge were bushes\u00a0featuring striking large flower clusters.\u00a0 The flower\u00a0clusters\u00a0came in\u00a0either light blue or lavender.\u00a0 Lupe and SPHP had never seen flowers like these before.\u00a0 SPHP had no idea what kind of flowers these were, but they were really pretty.<\/p>\n

\"Lake<\/a>
Lake Quinault Lodge.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Large<\/a>
Large flower clusters like these bloomed in impressive profusion near Lake Quinault Lodge. Some of the bushes had light blue flowers, like those shown here, others had lavender blossoms.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\"Flowers<\/a>Across the main road\u00a0going by\u00a0the Lake Quinault Lodge, Lupe and SPHP found a trail.\u00a0 There was a great deal of heavy undergrowth\u00a0on both sides of\u00a0the first part of the trail, almost as if it was lined by hedges.\u00a0 To Lupe, the trail was kind of like a path in a maze.\u00a0 The undergrowth was so dense, she couldn’t leave the trail, and so tall, she couldn’t see over it.<\/p>\n

At first, the trail switch-backed repeatedly up a hillside.\u00a0 Farther on, the trail leveled out.\u00a0 Lupe passed a couple of small waterfalls.\u00a0 The trail then entered what signs said was a cedar bog.\u00a0 The bog wasn’t very wet, due to drought and the late August season, but it was full of moss and ferns.\u00a0 Tall cedar trees shaded most of the area.<\/p>\n

Lupe came to a point where there was a sign that indicated she had come 1.7 miles from the road.\u00a0 The trail went on, and Lupe and SPHP would have liked to explore further, but it was probably time to be getting back to see if Lanis was up.<\/p>\n

When Lupe reached the road again, instead of going past Lake Quinault Lodge, she took a different trail through Falls Creek campground back to her tiny house.\u00a0 On the way, Lupe and SPHP saw some pretty neat campsites.\u00a0 The best one\u00a0was close to a beautiful pool of water at the base of a small waterfall.\u00a0 Other\u00a0campsites were near a creek.\u00a0 There were some interesting footbridges crossing the creek, too.<\/p>\n

\"This<\/a>
This awesome forested trail went right through the Falls Creek campground near Lake Quinault.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Footbridge<\/a>
Footbridge in the Falls Creek campground.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"This<\/a>
This sweet little waterfall and clear pool were right next to one of the campsites in the Falls Creek campground at Lake Quinault.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Lanis was up, when Lupe and SPHP returned.\u00a0 He was ready to continue his duties as Lupe’s chauffeur!\u00a0 SPHP was glad that Lupe had gotten to see Lake Quinault and go to the cedar bog.\u00a0 It wouldn’t have been right to leave this pretty place without having a look around.\u00a0 As it was, though, more adventures were awaiting Lupe elsewhere.\u00a0 SPHP planned to take Lupe to see Mt. Rainier next!<\/p>\n

As soon as everything was packed back up\u00a0in the Honda Element; Lupe, Lanis and SPHP headed out.\u00a0 Lupe went S to Hoquiam, and then turned E.\u00a0 By the time she reached Olympia, the capitol of Washington state, she had almost completely circumnavigated the Olympic Peninsula since leaving Tacoma just 2 days before.<\/p>\n

While Lupe was traveling from Seattle on the way to Tacoma a few days ago, SPHP had spotted Mt. Rainier in the distance.\u00a0 The snow-capped peak had looked huge and most impressive.\u00a0 SPHP wanted Lupe to get to see it.\u00a0 From Olympia; Lupe, Lanis and SPHP headed ESE on a series of small highways all the way to Elbe.<\/p>\n

Lupe didn’t get to see Mt. Rainier.\u00a0\u00a0A\u00a0big cloud bank hung over the area where Mt. Rainier was supposed to be.\u00a0 It was disappointing, to say the least.\u00a0 The small town of Elbe was as close to Mt. Rainier as Lupe got.\u00a0 SPHP had Lanis just turn S at Elbe, instead of continuing on to Mt. Rainier National Park.\u00a0 Since Lupe\u00a0wasn’t going to\u00a0get to\u00a0see Mt. Rainier, SPHP at least had another destination in mind.<\/p>\n

By the time Lupe, Lanis and SPHP reached the Iron Creek campground S of Randle, Lanis had done a lot of chauffeuring.\u00a0 It was getting late in the day, and time to stop.\u00a0 The campground was large and had a lot of loops.\u00a0 There were quite a few open campsites.\u00a0 Lanis and SPHP were able to find\u00a0an open site\u00a0well away from other campers.<\/p>\n

Lupe’s tiny house was soon set up in a forest different from any others she had visited so far.\u00a0 Iron Creek campground is situated in a forest of Douglas firs.\u00a0\u00a0A few of the trees were ancient and\u00a0gigantic.\u00a0 In some places, huge ferns grew on the forest floor.\u00a0 Moss was everywhere, and clung to everything.\u00a0 In the fading light; Lupe, Lanis and SPHP explored around a little bit near Lupe’s tiny house.\u00a0 This place was going to be worth seeing more of in the morning!<\/p>\n

\"Iron<\/a>
Iron Creek campground, Washington state.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\"Iron<\/a>It was Lanis that suggested making a campfire.\u00a0 In all the camping Lupe had done, SPHP had rarely, if ever, made a campfire for her.\u00a0 Tonight it happened.<\/p>\n

After dinner, Lupe lay beneath the picnic table watching the flickering flames light up the deep darkening forest.\u00a0 Lanis and SPHP chatted, and played cards.\u00a0 Who knows what thoughts went through the American Dingo’s mind, as darkness closed in on the dying embers in that primeval place?\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Links:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Next Adventure<\/span><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Prior Adventure<\/span><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Want more Lupe adventures?\u00a0\u00a0Choose\u00a0from\u00a0Lupe’s 2012 West Coast\u00a0Adventure Index<\/strong><\/span><\/a>,\u00a0Dingo Vacations Adventure Index<\/a><\/strong><\/span> or Master Adventure Index<\/a><\/strong><\/span>.\u00a0\u00a0Or subscribe free\u00a0to\u00a0new Lupe adventures<\/strong><\/a><\/span><\/span><\/span>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Day 16 of Lupe’s 2012 Dingo Vacation to the West Coast. After Lupe’s first day at the Pacific Ocean on the Washington coast, when she had visited both Rialto Beach and Beach 4; Lupe, Lanis and SPHP had ended up camping near the end of the day at Lake Quinault.\u00a0 Lake Quinault\u00a0is a fairly large … Continue reading Lake Quinault on the Olympic Peninsula & Iron Creek Campground, Washington (8-23-12)<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3536,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[429],"tags":[105,106,26,519,518,104,511,501],"class_list":["post-3547","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-2012-west-coast","tag-american-dingo","tag-carolina-dog","tag-dingo-vacations","tag-iron-creek-campground","tag-lake-quinault","tag-lupe","tag-olympic-peninsula","tag-washington"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/adventuresoflupe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/P1030750.jpg?fit=1651%2C1238&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/adventuresoflupe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3547","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/adventuresoflupe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/adventuresoflupe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adventuresoflupe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adventuresoflupe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3547"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/adventuresoflupe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3547\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":49427,"href":"https:\/\/adventuresoflupe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3547\/revisions\/49427"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adventuresoflupe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3536"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/adventuresoflupe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3547"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adventuresoflupe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3547"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adventuresoflupe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3547"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}