June 14, 2015. Olympic National Park, beach-side

CAMPGROUND: Kalaloch Campground inside the Olympic National Park.  This national park has 14 campgrounds.  This one is on the coast.  Like most national parks, no hook-ups. Dump station. Mostly small sites, but private. Grills and picnic tables. 4 stars. $9/night senior pass.

LOCATION:  West central Washington, near town of Forks

WEATHER:  Sunny and cool. Highs in 50s

We had only about a 100-mile drive up the coast.  Our destination was Kaloloch Campground which was highly recommended.  This national park is very big and has 3 distinct parts....the coast, the rain forest and the mountains.  We will follow highway 101 that follows the perimeter of the park to visit each section.

We arrived at Kalaloch, where the  dreaded "Campground Full" sign greeted us. My heart sank.

The nice ranger suggested we scout around to see if someone was leaving.  Sure enough, we snatched a premium site with our own private view of the beach.  Here is the view from our bathroom window.....

The site is reserved for tomorrow, so we will just stay tonight.

We got set up, had some soup to warm us up for lunch, then hit the road.  We explored several beaches in the park.  Lots of climbing up and down!  There are signs everywhere warning hikers of floating logs. When the tide comes in, the logs along the beach sometimes start moving, and can crush people.

We returned to our campsite to enjoy our view.  The fog had lifted, so it was gorgeous!

You can see how close our Airstream is to the edge.

George made a campfire.  Who ever heard of grilling wood?  This was some damp driftwood we found that George decided to dry out.  Worked well!

DINNER:  Once the wood was dry enough to burn, we cooked dinner in the iron skillet over the fire.  I made a new recipe with meatballs and "fiery' bell peppers.  The meatballs were a combo of beef and pork, with bread crumbs, garlic, parsley and asiago cheese.  I added a hatch pepper, just because.  Then, we grilled the peppers adding (per the recipe) a "copious amount" of hot sauce.   Even though I halved the recipe, we have lots of leftovers.