Tuesday, September 3, 2024
Day 1 — Olympic National Park Date: Tuesday 9/3/2024 Destination: South Beach Campground, Olympic National Park Travel Time: 4h 24m Miles: 213 Notes: Planned to head west to Astoria then north from there, but left later than expected so headed up I-5 to US 12. I’ve driven/ridden that stretch of I-5 hundreds of times (starting in 1993). It’s boring and I hate it. South Beach CG is first-come-first-served. I didn’t have issue getting a site. There is a long, tight loop of sites along the coastline, but I chose one of the sites further back near the bathrooms due to wind concerns. The bathroom building provided a sort of wind shelter for my site. I used the heated grips on this leg; it was pretty chilly along the coast in the Olympic Peninsula. I almost didn’t install them, thinking I was being paranoid about the cold. I ended up using them a lot.