Hi Guys! It’s Liv (aka Girl). This post is about Sequim Bay. I hope you like it!
Sequim Bay (pronounced Squim) is amazing. There are many opportunities to hike, bike, boat and be outdoors. Our camp site was really close to the bay. So when I got to take Stella on walks I took her down to the bay. I was looking at the ocean with binoculars and saw an otter. One morning I woke up really late and my dad told me that an otter was teasing him. I told him I wasn’t surprised because otters are funny.
I went on a hike and it was so beautiful. When we got back from the hike we went to the river. There was a really good swimming hole. The water was the prettiest color teal and I liked that I could cross all of the river rocks. My mom did something amazing. She built this tall rock pyramid. She put tiny rock stacks on the rock pyramid. It looked like a rock castle!
After the hike we went biking on the Olympic Discovery Trail. There were many different color leaves on the trail and we could peek at the bay through the trees. At one point we got to get off our bikes and pick blackberries. Everyone of them were a different flavor. They were the best blackberries ever! I felt like a black bear grabbing blackberries and stuffing them in my mouth. It was so delicious. When we finally stopped eating blackberries we kept on riding. After a few minutes down the path we saw some people picking blackberries and putting them in a bucket. It was a great idea!
Not everyone can visit Sequim but if you go to Washington go to Sequim Bay!
The Redwoods have always been awe-inspiring to me. It is truly one of my favorite places on Earth. I always remember some of my first big camping trips when I was kid at Jedediah Smith State Park among the ancient giants. I felt such pure happiness and excitement to be able to share the experience and grandeur of these trees with Gal, Girl and Dog. Hearing Girl tell me “The Redwoods are the coolest things ever” and “this is one of my favorite places” makes me one proud Guy. The time spent in the presence of these trees, hiking with my family down fairy tale like paths, dropping beats with our sporks while free-styling awful lyrics and rhymes around our nightly fires (Girl’s idea and it was a blast), biking loops around our Mill Creek campground and relaxing on massive old growth stumps catching rays of Redwood filtered light into our campsite was a magical time that we will reminisce about for years to come.
Always hard to capture the scale of these living giants, but we think this kind of shows it!
We camped in Del Norte State Park at the aforementioned Mill Creek campground. Jedediah Smith was totally booked, but I was pleasantly surprised by Mill Creek. The forest was mostly second generation growth, but there were definitely some spectacular old growth trees. The stumps of the ancients around the campground with the giant ferns and Sitka Spruces really made us feel like we were in the land of dinosaurs. The campsites here were awesome, there were many really private sites but we were able to land the best of them all. We got site 109, which is typically used and reserved for research scientists. We had more room than we knew what to do with under a canopy of trees that were as giant as any other ancient grove.
The sweetest of sitesFun hike off the beaten path
I’m pretty sure I drove Gal and Girl crazy by constantly pointing and saying “Wow, look at that tree” on our incredible hiking adventures, my neck is still sore from all that looking up. I have Redwood bark stained t-shirts and shorts from hugging as many giants as could. Until next time Redwoods! We have been diverted a bit on our adventure due to some crazy West Coast wildfires. We were planning on a few nights near Ashland, OR and on towards Mt. Hood. We ended up staying an extra night in our special Redwoods spot and went to Portland to visit Gals sister and Girls awesome aunt Moya and some childhood friends of Guys. Thanks for the hospitality Mark and Margarita, so fun to see great old friends and family!
Rainy day at the beach in Crescent City didn’t stop us from having one of many beach days after hiking!
A pass-through spot for our first night off the road turned out to be a nice little gem. We camped at Firehole Canyon Campground, South on the 191 from Rock Springs. It was Friday evening, (on Labor Day weekend) and the campground was pretty empty. We had a great spot, site #22, with a pathway down to the lake. Girl, Guy and Dog swam and chased sticks (all 3 of us) while Gal was still trying to recuperate from a cold.
Word to the wise, this campground was great, but had it been full it would not have been such a great find. Unbeknownst to us when we picked this spot, 2 sites share one spot. So 20 and 22 are RIGHT next to each other. Our fire rings were maybe 6′ apart. If you came with a couple of families this would be great, though we prefer much more privacy and space with strangers. As much as we love people, we also love to love people from a distance while we are relaxing at camp.
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Great start to our journey! We are looking forward to seeing and experiencing our beautiful country and will update when we can. If we are slacking on our posts, be certain there will be an influx in November!
We installed the Tepui tent on the Tacoma, packed the truck and made plans to meet our friends, the Hemburys, at a place Bob map scouted and pinged. Bob’s dad (GrandGuy) was visiting us in Colorado for a few weeks so he came along for this first Tepui tent test! Three nights in the Northern Colorado mountains provided us a good dry run for our new equipment.
The area was more crowded than we expected as we rolled in on a Thursday afternoon, but we found a beautiful spot along a stream, an offshoot of the Laramie River, just north of Poudre Canyon. Water often means mosquitoes, but it also offers a place to play, cool off and obtain water, so we choose a spot near water every time if it’s available.
Setting up the tent for the first time in the woods was a breeze. It didn’t take long and if we needed to we could have been napping up among the trees in 10 minutes. All said and done with the annex attachment and opening all the windows, we were around 20 minutes to full home build out!
The tent design is great, though it can be a little awkward to set up, especially if you’re alone. The Annex, which is an enclosed area below the tent, is a pretty heavy attachment and you need to have some foresight to attach it prior to opening the tent up. Once you open the tent all the way, it is frustrating to have to fold it back up and readjust the ladder to add the annex. Note to self: “DO THIS FIRST”!
To set up, first you unzip the driving cover to access the tent. Then you need to take the cover off by sliding it out of the small groove on the frame. The annex slides into this same groove to attach.
Tepui tent annex groove
The cover slides out easily enough, but it is much lighter than the annex. If it seems to get stuck, one may need to file down any small burrs in the track. The annex (as stated) is heavy and would be a task for one person to set up. Depending on how tall you are and how tall the tent is on your vehicle possibly a step stool or small ladder will be needed. Keep this in mind as it is one extra thing to remember to pack! Once we got the annex slid into the groove, we unfolded the tent and then attached the annex to the base of the tent with a very heavy duty zipper attachment. Dog’s home built! As our first setup in the field, it took longer than we assume it will once we’re pros. It didn’t take any longer to get set up than it did for GrandGuy to set up his traditional tent.
I can honestly say we have never slept better while camping. It got chilly at night. GrandGuy says he slept in thermals, wool socks, a long sleeve shirt and beanie. We were all warm and comfortable in shorts and summer PJ’s. We even opened up a window in the middle of the night to let some cool air in. Dog was so happy to be in the annex on her bed. It was cool, dark and an escape from the mosquito’s. She took reprieve in the annex many times throughout the day and she slept like a log in there at night. We didn’t hear her once and it looks like she may never have moved.
While on this camping trip we realized that with the Tepui Tent on top of our truck we are kind of stuck at our campsite. With the tent attached to the rig, a new challenge becomes how to get to a far off hiking trail or sight? Unless we snag a sweet spot very close to a trail head we are either forced to pack up the Tepui each time we want to leave camp or not go at all. Though it doesn’t take too long to pack it up, it seems like a bummer to have to pack up every time we want to drive somewhere. As much as we don’t want to tow anything, maybe we will need to look into a small, basic trailer system that can house the Tepui and leave the rig free to roam…
Our camp spot worked well for the kids to loop around on their bikes while the parents hung out in hammocks and down by the river. Fishing was a fun activity for all, although we didn’t catch anything. The water was so crystal clear we could see minnows swimming. Stella (Dog) learned how to catch a Frisbee before it floated down stream. She’s never been much of a water dog in the past, but she seems to be enjoying it more with each trip.
The most memorable moment happened on our last night at Red Feather Lake. As the sun was contemplating it’s departure and the campfire was raging, three moose walked through the edge of our campsite! Seeing the male moose in person was humbling and awesome. Luckily Stella was tucked away in the Annex of the Tepui so she didn’t see the moose and we didn’t have to worry about her safety. Keeping a safe distance, we were able to admire these massive animal’s beauty. A moment later we had another visitor, a red fox slunk through the trees near us. Olivia (Girl) took the fox as a sign of good things to come.
Moose family near the Rawah Wilderness. Photo Credit Jeff Okun
Hi Guys! It’s Liv (aka Girl). This post is about Sequim Bay. I hope you like it!
Guy Gal Girl Dog Adventures 