Washington hiking trip 2025

A few years ago a group of us went on a hiking vacation, and we've continued going each year. This year we headed to Washington.

We flew Detroit to Seattle, and met up with our friends at Ram in Tacoma. Gage, Kris, and I stopped by to see our Aunt Pat and cousin Tuc in Port Angeles, and then we went to our Airbnb in Forks (3.5 hours from airport.) The drive there was really pretty. We quickly got some groceries at the Forks Thrifty Mart, ate at Hood Canal Brewery, and went to bed early.

Day Two
We left the house at 8 and traveled to the trailhead inside Olympic National Park.

There was no service on the way to the park, and there was zero service in the park, so I had to start keeping a list of answers to look up after we left. (Q: What drug did Layne Staley die of? Can you OD on Benadryl? What's the word for the smell of earth after it rains?) (A: Speedball, yes, petrichor.)

First we went on the Hall of Mosses loop, and it was magical. It felt like we were in an enchanted forest, like something out of a fairy tale. The trees were giant, both tall and wide, and they were draped with moss. Everything was so green and alive. The sun was shining through, making everything in a perfect light. We all took pictures and then commented on how pictures didn't do justice, since it didn't show the depth or color or vastness of it all. So we decided they were just reminders of how amazing it all looked. I personally have never seen a place like this, and I loved it so much.

After that two-mile loop, we started on an out and back to 5 Mile Island on the Hoh Trail. We all decided that a 10 mile hike sounded good.

It was along the river, and at one point part of the group went to the river, and at another point some others, and we missed each other. You wouldn't think that you could lose people on an out and back, but one group was together, Gage was alone, and Kris and I were in a group of four. We didn't meet up until we made it to the 5 mile point. But we all saw the same things! Gage, Heidi, and I all separately even took a picture of the same mushroom.

The trail was beautiful. Trees! Moss! Water! Mountains! The trail changed a lot the entire way, and it was continually interesting seeing the different plants, trees, mushrooms, scenery.

On the way back, Gage told me he had climbed the waterfall. So Andrea, Matt and I stopped to climb up it. It was a lot of scrambling and holding onto roots and vines. So pretty to be up close!

Right at the end we saw a herd of elk grazing close to the trail,  which was cool to see.

The 10 mile hike really flew, and we loaded back into our cars at about 3:30. Right then, it started raining, and we were so happy with our timing!

We drove to the Tree of Life, and it stopped raining. We left our cars and...the ocean! It was like a sigh of relief seeing it. We talked about why people always want to look at water. The Tree of Life hung on long enough for us to see it. We were kind of hungry, but Heidi suggested we stop at Ruby Beach, which was about two miles away. I am so glad we did! Ruby Beach was stunning, because it had giant mountainous rocks coming out of the water. They made little tide pools, and Jared showed us some sea anemones. We walked all around it and loved it. The rocks were particularly beautiful on the beach too, and I found one that fit my fingers like a bowling ball, much like Cinderella's slipper.

We went to Blakeslees in Forks to eat and watch the Tigers vs the Mariners. It was lively, the Tigers unfortunately lost, and I had an elk burger that I liked.

Day Three
We were out the door by 8:30 with the destination of Rialto Beach. (Suzie said, "Matt I just learned to read tide maps, but can you doublecheck my work?" It always pays to bring oceanographers on trips. Kate and Matt then left for her sister's house, so we had to find another one.) This meant we drove back into Olympic Park and by Crescent Lake, which is the beautiful mountain and water scene I particularly like.

Rialto Beach was even better than Ruby Beach! First, we walked about a mile to the huge rocks. The beach was lined with giant white driftwood, but not in pieces, like the entire tree. The rocks had multiple tide pools, and we saw super bright and colorful sea anemones, starfish, algae, crabs, and more.

One rock is called Hole in the Wall, and it makes an arch. We scrambled along it to get to the arch. You actually had to climb a part of it, but the rock had good handholds. It wasn't dangerous, just if you fell you'd fall in and get wet. We slipped on the wet rocks but not far. The view from the arch was impressive and showed how giant of a rock wall it was.

We saw some people using a rope to climb down a steep trail up to the top of the arch. Once they were down, we used it to pull ourselves up the very vertical trail. At the top was a tiny path with sheer cliffs on each side to a little spot on the arch. It was really cool, since there was no one coming from the other direction! I wouldn't go on it if I had to share...definitely a single path.  The view from up there was great, and we looked at our friends spread out below.

We walked back to our parking lot, and it started to rain. It was blowing into us and despite wearing rain gear it was a persistent driving range, and we got soaked. My feet were especially wet.

We drove 1.5 hours to Sol Duc Hot Springs, and bought access to the hot springs in the 2-3:30 time slot. The springs were similar to public pools, with a locker room, towel rental, and lots of people. There were 4 pools with temperatures of 59, 98, 102, and 105 degrees.

It smelled strongly of sulfur, and the pools felt great, especially going from the 59 to the 105. It would have been nice if it was just my friends, but there were too many people and it was hard to move around and stay dry in the locker room. Kris and I left and went for a quick walk on the Lovers Lane trail out of the parking lot. The scenery was very similar to our first hike, with moss blanketing everything.

We said goodbye to half of our group, and Andrea, Chris, Kris, and I drove to stay in Seattle for the night due to an early flight. We decided to eat, return the rental car, get an Uber to the hotel, and take the 4:00 a.m. shuttle in the morning. We all wanted pizza and Kris found a good looking place called Ulysses near our hotel. Outside it there was a very official sign that read: "Designated area of high prostitution activity. Vehicles used to further prostitution will be impounded." Don't say I don't take you anywhere nice! We saw no illicit activity and while the service was great, the food was not the gut punch Chris was hoping for.

We slept at the Best Western Seattle Airport, got the shuttle in the morning, and headed home.

As Andrea said, she's never gone to a bad national park. Olympic was unlike any other place I've been, since I've never seen a rainforest quite like that before. The ocean, rocks, difficult vertical climbs, and sea creatures were an added bonus.

That's the travel part of it - the other part of it is that these people are so great to travel with. Always saying funny things, totally up for anything, flexible, cheerful, adventurous, and really appreciative of nature. I laughed out loud so many times. Thank you Heidi, Gage, Kate, Matt, Kris, Andrea, Chris, Suzie, and Jared. I was missing Moriah on this trip, but I know we'll have another one next year - we already started talking about it!

Lincoln, Nebraska

I'd never heard of "Nebraska Nice," but we experienced it to the fullest on our trip to see MSU vs University of Nebraska football!

We try to go to one away football game a year, and this year Kris and I we met up in Lincoln with our friends: Kevin (from Nebraska originally), Jill, Andrew, Emily, Kris, Laurie, Jess, Peter, and Gage. Happily, it's within driving distance from Tracy and John, so they came too!

We fly into Omaha, rented a car, and drove to Lincoln. It was unseasonably hot (90 degrees), so we were able to go downtown and sit outside to eat. We chose McKinney's Irish Pub, and there were lots of Spartans and a lively atmosphere. The entire downtown is walkable and has lots of places close together. Some people went on to Brewsky's, but Jess and I walked to the capitol building to see it. I try to visit the capitol building in every state I'm in, and they are usually really impressive and built to last. This one was no exception. Solid and pretty, and artistic, too.

We checked into our Airbnb on D street, and it was lovely. Games, a really nice backyard area, and tons of bedrooms. Kris and Kevin went to get groceries from Russ's Market, I worked, some people took a quick nap, and Gage arrived! We all hung out in the pretty backyard and played games in the house, and then we went to dinner downtown. It was packed! Tons of people, and a lot of them watching the #1 University of Nebraska women's volleyball team. 

We put our name in Lazlo's, where there was an hour wait. We went to a rooftop place - Bierhaus Maisschäler - got a big pretzel, and joined them in cheering on their volleyball team. They even had the audio of the game on, which is rare even for the biggest sports at home. Everyone was very enthusiastic, and it was great. 

Our table was ready then, and we ate a really good meals. It was still hot, and only two miles from our house, so Jess and I walked most of the way home. Great atmosphere, lots of people, nice night. And so warm, you didn't even need a jacket!

Day Two

Jess and I ran around our neighborhood, which seemed to be adults, not university students. We were close to a pretty congregational church that played their bells. 

We had purchased a parking pass for the Pinnacle Bank Festival lot online for $35. Unlike at MSU, you get a lot and a specific parking place, so you don't have to get there early. We arrived at about 9:00 a.m. and walked to the stadium to see the lay of the land. Some really new buildings, nice campus, nice stadium. As we walked over, all in our MSU clothes past Nebraskans, we started seeing the Nebraska nice up close. People didn't just welcome us to campus. They invited us into their tailgates, apologized for the hot weather, actually wanted to have long conversations with you. It wasn't just one or two places, it was seemingly everyone. A parking lot attendant asked to take a picture with us. A guard chatted with us about the building and our team. The tailgaters called out to us things like, "Thanks for coming to campus! Good luck at the game! Welcome!"

We went back to our tailgate and met Kevin's Nebraskan friends who had the whole tailgate setup - grill, tent, tables, etc. Our friend Jan who is from Nebraska and lives in St Johns stopped by with her friends. Her earrings were little ears of corn. I asked a woman from a different tailgate if she would take a group picture. She hesitated, and I thought maybe she didn't want to do it. No, she walked back to get a chair to stand on so she could take the photo from a better angle. My goodness!

Gage just turned 50, so Tracy and John drove in with a big cake, and I'd brought stickers of his face that we all wore. Gage's friend Jen from the Academy came with her family, and we all had a lovely celebration. It was great being with my family!

We packed up and headed into the game. It was crowded getting there, but it was comfortable in the stands. They had a lot of really cool traditions - letting go of red helium balloons after the first touchdown, driving a tractor on the field, having a surprise guest turn on a siren in the middle of the field (Adam Devine, this week), taking one shoe off when there was a kick, and putting their arms together like an X for their defensive line called the Blackshirts. Every ad was for an agricultural company, and we felt right at home. 

We were close to some other MSU people, and one of them argued with young Nebraska fan, and he kept turning around and yelling at him when Nebraska scored, challenging the niceness we'd seen from other people. His friends kept trying to smooth things over, and we eventually surmised the hothead wasn't from there. 

Kevin told us that when there's a game, the stadium turns into the second biggest city in Nebraska. At the game they also celebrated the 407th straight sellout. AMAZING statistic. Everyone was really into the game, too. They beat MSU, which was a bummer, and we walked out into the masses of people in downtown Lincoln. 

We were able to secure a table in the basement of Brewsky's, and they had dueling pianos and volleyball on again. We went afterward to Screamers, which we originally thought was karaoke when we walked in, but instead featured servers who took turns singing. We sat outside and were treated to a parade of people who looked at our MSU clothes, stopped, and talked to us. Such a variety of people! A guy walking his dog, a group of young men, couples, a girl who offered to take our picture and apologized for beating us. 

"What is wrong with everyone else in the world?" Laurie joked.

We were delighted. It was such a nice night.

We walked back to our car parked in the original parking lot and walked past the Railyard, which was a huge open area filled with college students. They had a giant screen showing the Detroit Tigers game, so we watched it (outside the barriers) for a little while. I thought it was nice they had an entire open area for college students to gather.

Day Three

Gage flew home from Lincoln, and the rest of us flew home from Omaha. As we got in the rental car, the church next to us was playing their bells as a nice goodbye.

We got a text from Jill to our group chat: "Getting ready to board our last flight. We feel safer traveling with Gage."

She sent a picture of her backpack with Gage's face sticker prominently displayed on it.

As we left the Omaha Airport, a man wearing a Christian Brother Construction shirt asked if we had been to the game. We talked a little, and then he said, "Thank you for being here. We're so glad you came."

So that's how it feels to be in Nebraska! Five stars, definitely recommend going there for a game - win or lose!

Wisconsin Dells

I love national parks and hiking and nature. So when it came time for our family vacation, we were trying to decide where to go. Max said, "Can't we just go to a water park?" The answer is...yes! We went to the land of water parks.

Day one

We drove to Wauwatosa, Wisconsin to visit our friends Jodie and Matt and their family. They own Wing Zones and Little Ceasar's locations, so she let the boys make their own food. We played pickleball, went to The Landing at Hoyt Park which had a great climbing tree and river, and then they had us back to their house for dinner. Wonderful hosts, great town, great time!

Day two

We left early and checked into our Airbnb, which was named Sandrift Resort on Lake Delton. It was a little house across the road from the lake, and the people who owned it (and the rest of the resort) were very friendly. We bought tickets from them to Mt Olympus Water & Theme Park, and it was only $10 per person! We arrived at the park as it opened. The best rides were Icarus, the highest water slide IN THE COUNTRY. I was very scared but it was exciting. I loved Medusa, which is the country's first rotating slide. It was like being in a washing machine, with people screaming above you and below you - very disorienting and very fun! We rode Hades, which was the most painful roller coaster we have ever ridden. It actually hurt my vertebrae. How painful was it? They had a single and needed people to go on it again and NO ONE wanted to do it. I couldn't get off fast enough. Ha! We did everything here - giant wave pool, go karts, slides, everything. So fun.

We got ice cream on the water at Wisconsin Dells Ice Cream, overlooking a foamy waterfall.

Ty joined us later, and we took out the (free) rowboat and paddleboats available at the resort. They were old and there was no check out process and they were available every time we wanted to use them - perfect! They also had a ping pong table where the table was outside all the time and presented a defense. We also had fun on that! 

We went to Grateful Shed to eat, and this place was great. Music, twinkly lights, so many people, cool setup with buses and cement cornhole and pullup bar and lots of fun. We chose different places to get food from and ate outside. Later we wandered through the fun candy shop next door - Pure Sugar. Then we did the exciting task of grocery shopping on vacation, and we went to Walmart. I don't like grocery shopping in general, and I really hate doing it on vacation, but obviously it's a necessary task. So much better when it's all five of us since everyone can help! We were checking out and the cashier said to me, "You have a beautiful family." This made me tear up and hate grocery shopping a little less.

Day three

This day was the whole reason we came - to go to the biggest waterpark in the US - Noah's Ark Water Park! It was huge, but not so big you can't go on everything, so there's not any stress. You can also go back to your car, so we packed lunch and went back to eat it at noon. We also got a locker (here and at Mt Olympus) so we could reapply sunscreen and take clothes and phones and keys. 

I loved this park. Our favorite ride was Black Anaconda, but there were tons of great ones. Some were so scary I couldn't even go on them, like Stingray, where the bottom drops out and you go upside down. The boys went on it though - you could tell who did in the park because everyone had two red marks on their backs where they had rubbed on the slide! We went all around the park together and rode everything we wanted to ride, and the best ones twice. 

They advertise that this park has 2.5 million gallons of heated water. This is also the amount of manure our manure lagoon holds. So funny to compare!

After the park we went on the boats again, then walked to Avazzi Shoppe & Sweets for ice cream and Lake House for dinner. There was an engagement party in the bottom of it, and with just a little internet searching we found out everything about them. We also saw the owner of Mt Olympus there. We had seen him in his house in the middle of Lake Denton. Impressive business owner and great mansion, complete with lions guarding the gate. 

We got to eat outside, which we love. We walked home. The house we stayed at had an old-school Nintendo and the boys played some ancient game with terrible graphics and were very happy.

Day four

We drove to Devil's Lake State Park Visitor's Center, and asked directions to a trail I wanted to go on. She gave us verbal directions and we found it - although there was no sign. We then got lost on it and went a really long way out of our way and had to turn back. A common issue when hiking!

This hike was really pretty - really rocky and steep and you are rewarded with great views over Lake Denton. We hiked to Balanced Rock and saw lots of people hiking down the rocks with ropes. Then we kept going and were surprised by Devil's Doorway! It was so cool. I don't like to look at pictures of things before I see them so this was a real surprise - on the way home we saw it's literally on the sign of Baraboo, WI, the city it's in. So other people there were likely not surprised! 

We had taken food and water on the hike and by the time we got back to the car we had hiked five miles and been gone three hours. No one ever complains or says they don't like it, but only Kris and I ACTUALLY like hiking. The boys actually talk and jump around and stand on steep things and climb up dangerous things, but when asked they all put hiking far down on the list. Hiking with my family is one of my favorite things to do ever, so it's nice they go for me! But I'm also glad this vacation was water park-heavy.

We went to Devil's Lake South Shore, which was a lovely beach. We ate there and got ice cream. (It's July, I eat it every day to celebrate July being National Ice Cream Month. Also it's delicious.)

The boys went to play mini golf and Kris and I went to River's Edge on the water. He tried fried cheese curds, because we were in Wisconsin, after all. 

Kris and Cole left because Cole had to leave for MSU Summer Business Institute Camp in the morning. Ty, Max, and I ate at Taqueria Mexico, took the boats out again, played ping pong, and sat in the porch swing in our yard until dark. Cole and Kris got home at 1:00 a.m., and the drive home the next morning only took a quick seven hours, with one stop for gas.

I really loved the Wisconsin Dells, and I can see why people go there. So many touristy things to do, really nice lakes, great water parks, great places to eat, and lots of fun. All within driving distance! It was also reasonably priced everywhere we went. Great summer vacation for a family that loves hiking (some of them) and water parks (all of them!)

Ty and Cole are moving to college next month, and I don't know how all our vacations and work will line up in the future. I'm so glad we had this trip together. Back to 2.5 million gallons of manure!