Olympic National Park

Next, we headed out of Oregon and into Washington. One thing that has come out of traveling full-time is that I am being educated geographically regarding the western side of the country. For example, I didn’t know Portland, Oregon, and Vancouver, Washington, are basically the same metropolitan area, separated by the Columbia River. Although it was interesting to discover this, as usual these days, I am quite happy to leave big cities in the rear-view mirror.

Olympic National Park was probably the biggest surprise for me to this point, as far as national parks are concerned. I found it to be the most diverse of all the ones I’ve visited – from beaches with amazing low-tide creatures to towering snow-capped mountains.