Potlatch State Park, Washington - July 23rd to 25th, 2024
Potlatch State Park was not on our original itinerary. After we failed to reach Coho Campground in Olympic National Forest due to bad road conditions, we booked three nights at Potlatch at the last minute. Of all of the Washington state parks we’ve stayed in, Potlatch was our least favorite. It wasn’t a bad park, but the others were better.
Potlatch State Park straddles highway 101. On one side of the highway is the day use area along the Hood Canal shoreline. The campground is on the other side of the highway. Some of the camp sites are extremely close to the highway. We were glad to see our site was set back a little ways, so the traffic noise was not quite so annoying.
After dinner, we walked over to check out the day use area. A crosswalk signal helps pedestrians get across the highway. However, we found out that not all cars on the highway stop for the flashing light. Luckily, we were being cautious and waited for the traffic to stop before crossing.
Scenic Beach State Park, which we camped in the week before, was also on the Hood Canal, but about 25 miles to the northeast and on the other side of the canal. Ann got her paddle board out at Scenic Beach and was hoping to do the same at Potlatch. However, the water looked much rougher at Potlatch and not as interesting as Scenic Beach. So she decided to not get her board out while we were there.
Wednesday we drove up to the Staircase area of Olympic National Park, which we covered in our previous post (Olympic National Park: South, Washington - July 22nd to 24th, 2024). We returned to Potlatch in the afternoon and spent the rest of the day hanging out in the state park.
In the late afternoon, Ann strolled across the highway to the shoreline again. This time it was at low tide, whereas we were there at high tide the day before. What a difference that made. There was about 30 yards more of beach, exposing all of the shells and barnacles. It made the shore much more interesting than the day before.
Ann also discovered a short nature trail at the north end of the beach. The trail ran through a clump of trails back towards the highway. Informational signs lined the path, explaining the local flora. It was rather interesting. Earlier, we had seen trees that reminded us of the gumbo limbo trees we saw in Florida and the Texas Madrone trees we saw in Guadalupe National Park. Ann learned that the one here along the west coast is the Pacific Madrone. They all have a red peeling bark that reveals the trunk beneath it.
Thursday we just hung out at camp. We needed a chill day. Ann checked out the short half mile trail in the park. It wasn’t anything special, just a nice little trail through the woods. Surprisingly, it had a little bit of elevation gain, about 140 feet.
She also walked down to the shore a couple of times. One of those times Keith joined her. It still felt like we were taking our life into our own hands to cross the highway. A little pedestrian bridge across the highway would be a great improvement to the park.
Keith putzed around Red Tail (our Winnebago EKKO). He added another command hook in the bathroom, to move our hand towel to. Before, we had it hanging from the mid-point of the towel. Keith thought it should be hanging from one end, so that it could dry out faster and take longer to mildew. However, when we did that from the little “W” hook that came with the EKKO, the towel hung over the water pump switch, covering up the little light indicator, making it harder to tell if it was on or not.
Keith also replaced the little bracket holding the top of the Starlink dish in its storage spot. The original bracket only had one screw, so it liked to turn and swivel out of place. So he replaced it with a bracket that is attached with two screws. No more swiveling.
There was a reason there were still open camp sites at Potlatch at the last minute. The highway running through the middle of the small park did not make it ideal, especially if you have children with you. However, it was in a great location to head into the Staircase area of Olympic National Park for a day.
Check out our related video: Potlatch State Park, Washington
(Ann)