This article is reposted from a reader in a WeChat group, from the WeChat public account 懒人 33 的吃喝玩乐. Original link.

Back when the pandemic was still quite serious last year, my kid’s school required quarantine after out-of-state travel, so we booked Sol Duc Hot Spring Resort for the Memorial Day long weekend nearly a year in advance. It’s supposedly one of the hardest lodges to book in Olympic National Park. For a family like ours that prefers comfortable, warm trips, national parks really aren’t our usual style—but since we had already booked it, we figured we might as well go experience it.

Seattle still hadn’t really entered summer yet this year. A few days before departure, I saw sleet in the weather forecast and felt pretty depressed—we were going to end up freezing in the mountains in the rain. Right before we left, I checked again: the sleet was gone, replaced by rain, and the temperature was also a bit higher than previously forecast.

Day 0: Arriving at Sol Duc Hot Spring Resort

Since I wasn’t all that excited about the trip, I barely packed anything on the day we left. Good thing my partner was on top of it and packed everything according to our travel checklist. We picked up our kid from school around 3 or 4 p.m. and headed out. Fridays before a long weekend are always packed with traffic, and what should have been a three-and-a-half-hour drive ended up taking almost 5 hours total. On the way there, our kid watched Peppa Pig the whole time…

We passed through the famous lavender town of Sequim right around dinnertime. I searched on xhs to see what was good to eat and drove over, only to find that the restaurant had closed unexpectedly. Then we randomly searched Google Maps and found a nearby Italian place called TEDESCO'S, which turned out to be surprisingly good.

For the appetizer, we ordered calamari. It wasn’t the crispy battered kind—it was a little soft and floppy—but the seasoning was excellent. We were so hungry we almost cleaned the plate.

The bread came with an oil-and-vinegar dipping sauce that was also very nicely seasoned—not too acidic, and just right for cutting the richness.

The butter was just regular butter, nothing special.

This dish was Cannelloni Tradizionale. My kid liked it and ate quite a bit, but I thought the sauce was a little too rich and got heavy after a while.

This place had a Kids Menu, and the menu was printed on a coloring sheet. They also provided crayons, so it was quite kid-friendly. We ordered spaghetti and meatballs for our kid. The pasta was probably adjusted for kids and cooked very soft. For adults, it felt a bit underwhelming.

Gnocchi with pepper cream & soft shell crab. I really loved how the soft-shell crab was prepared; dipped in the sauce, it was absolutely delicious. Personally, I thought this was much better than the soft-shell crab burger at shrimp shack. The gnocchi itself wasn’t especially remarkable, but because the sauce was so good, my partner and I polished it off quickly.

After dinner, we got back on the road and finally arrived at Sol Duc Hot Spring Resort around 9 p.m. The resort is tucked away in the mountains and forest. You turn left off US101 onto a small road, then drive about 20 minutes to get there. The rainforest along the way was absolutely beautiful—not just the same dark green of conifers over and over, but endless variations of light and dark green. My favorite sight was the tree branches draped with thick, bright green moss, almost like tassels hanging from them.

There’s an RV campground and campsite near the resort, and it’s only a few minutes’ drive from the Sol Duc Falls trailhead. The resort also has a natural hot spring, which overnight guests can use for free. That said, there’s no cell signal at this resort (neither Verizon/ATT worked), and there’s no wifi, so it really feels cut off from the world.

We booked a two-bed Cabin with a kitchen. There was no dishwasher, but otherwise the kitchen was well stocked with cookware and tableware.

The bathroom was very small, but it had a bathtub, a hair dryer, and a full set of toiletries and towels.

The bed was listed as queen size, but it didn’t seem quite that big. My partner and I felt a little cramped sleeping on it. Also, there were scattered stains on the bedding that looked like they wouldn’t come out in the wash. We disinfected everything as best we could, tried to forget about it, and slept on it anyway.

Even though there was no internet at all, I had brought my Kindle. When I opened it, I found that I still hadn’t started the copy of Twilight I had downloaded earlier. As a casual fan of the Twilight movies, I was planning to check out the Twilight spots in Forks on this trip. So seeing the novel on my Kindle felt perfect. Reading it before bed in the middle of these woods made it feel like the story was happening all around me.

Day 1

Forks - Ruby Beach - Kalaloch Beach 4 - Hot springs

We got up early and made a simple breakfast with the food we had brought. The hotel gift shop also sold basics like milk and eggs, but the selection was very limited. The morning outside the cabin had a wonderful atmosphere too, with little squirrels running around on the lawn.

After breakfast, we headed straight to Forks. The resort looks like it’s close to everything on the map, but because it takes 20 minutes just to drive back out to the main road, every outing effectively adds 40 minutes round trip, so it still feels pretty far.

The next section is all about Twilight, so feel free to skip it if you’re not interested.

Our first stop in town was the Forks Chamber Of Commerce, where we picked up maps and other visitor information for the related sights.

This page was the map. If you’re only a casual fan like me, don’t worry about not knowing what’s what—there are explanations in the following pages. Still, even though I already knew the movie wasn’t filmed in Forks, I had previously assumed at least some of it had been shot there. After reading these handouts, I can honestly say it had basically nothing to do with the place…

There was also a small exhibit with some movie props and similar items on display.

This was also a Gift Shop, with some themed merchandise, but most of it was pretty hard to look at. I couldn’t help complaining to myself: for such a visually iconic movie, couldn’t they make the merch a little nicer? I reluctantly bought a mug to take home.

The map pins completely shocked me. Even Xinjiang, which is huge and sparsely populated, was already covered in pins, almost to the point where you wouldn’t know where to start—let alone Seattle, so I just gave up.

The male lead’s dad’s clothes.

Right outside the entrance to this center was Bella’s red truck, with a BELLA license plate too, so you can take a photo with it. I’ll skip posting our photo.

Our first stop was Bella’s house. It’s Private Property, so we just parked by the side of the road and snapped a few quick pictures. It really has nothing to do with the movie at all...

Then we went to the Transit Center to photograph Charlie’s police car. We had to circle around for a while before we found it. There are really so few people in this town—everything felt empty, like it would be very easy to get attacked by vampires...

Then we went to Forks High. According to the introduction, even though the school has been renovated, they intentionally kept this sign. Of course, the movie wasn’t filmed here either.

Then we went to City Hall. Since it was Saturday, it was closed, but the introduction said there are also some exhibits in the lobby. There was a police car here too.

There was even a Red Cross blood donation bus? The scenery in the distance was still just as beautiful. I feel like a place like Forks is better suited to cloudy or rainy weather; in bright sunshine it somehow seems less atmospheric.

Then we went to the house. All of these spots are very close to each other, and the house isn’t tucked away deep in the woods like it is in the novel. The male lead’s house is now an inn, with several guest rooms inside; supposedly there’s even Edward’s room. The yard is pretty big, and for a small town it really does count as a mansion.

Next we went to the Forever Twilight exhibit. We waited in line for what felt like almost an hour before getting in. There were posters of Jane and Aro at the entrance.

Once inside, someone helped explain things and answer questions. The exhibition space was very small, but there was actually quite a lot in it.

This display case had the letter Jacob wrote to Bella, plus the invitation Jacob received.

These are the benches the wedding guests sat on.

This was made by the restaurant from Edward and Bella’s first date: the mushroom ravioli Bella ate.

The green outfit Bella wore when she first appeared.

Costumes worn by the three main characters.

Jacob’s in particular was especially ragged. The purple one in the back is Bella’s “dad-style” bedding.

Charlie’s uniform.

The one on the left is Alice’s outfit; I forgot whose the one on the right was...

The outfit Bella wore the first time Charlie saw her after she became a vampire.

I didn’t even remember this scene. I asked a staff member, and they said it was from Bella’s nightmare before the wedding.

The outfit on the right should look familiar—it’s one Bella wore after becoming a vampire.

Outfits from the Italian family.

This thing is Renesmee... I was honestly stunned. Couldn’t they have just used a real baby actor...?

Books published in various countries, though there wasn’t a Chinese edition here.

Wedding items. Supposedly this wedding dress is the dream dress of many girls.

The wedding ring.

Our last stop was the hospital where Edward’s dad worked, which has his designated parking spot. It was a bit hard to find, though—it’s by the registrition office, not the main hospital. But in the spirit of responsibly checking in at every Twilight spot, we found it anyway.

We had originally wanted to go to La Push, aka the werewolf reservation, but I really don’t care that much for the werewolf part, and it would have added an hour round-trip, so we skipped it.

That wraps up the Twilight portion of the trip.

For lunch, we had fresh-baked pizza at HOME SLICE TAKE N BAKE. It was pretty good. Worth mentioning: they also had ice cream, and the packaging looked exactly like the kind used for Chinese hot pot dessert bowls...

From Forks, we headed to Ruby Beach. If the rainforest suits cloudy, rainy weather, then the beach is definitely better with sunshine. A beach on a rainy day can feel gloomy in seconds.

The beaches in northwestern Washington—and even northern Oregon—seem to share this same style: lots of branches and driftwood, huge sea stacks, grayish sand, and a grayish sea.

Ruby Beach requires a short trail, plus climbing over some logs, to reach it.

Maybe because there’s been so much rain this year, a fast-moving creek was emptying into the ocean. Visitors were dragging over logs on the spot and building makeshift log bridges, then testing them out. It looked pretty nerve-racking. As a total scaredy-cat, I absolutely did not dare cross.

The improvised log bridge on the other side looked a little sturdier, so my partner took our kid across.

Boys really never seem to get tired of throwing rocks. Between tossing rocks and running around, time passed pretty quickly. But wow, it was cold—and I hate the cold.

I love that glossy, lush green, especially the bright spring-green shade.

My partner said this was lingzhi mushroom...

After Ruby Beach, we went to Kalaloch Beach 4, but we didn’t go down. From a distance, it looked pretty similar to Ruby Beach, the weather was bad there too, and the trail to this beach looked long and steep. We were too lazy to do the walk, so we headed back to the hotel.

We had dinner at the hotel and ordered the ELK burger plus a few other things. Everything was pretty bad—just enough to fill our stomachs. Around 7:30 p.m., the hot spring pool was packed like dumplings in a pot. We asked a restaurant staffer, who said it’s basically like that all day, from morning to night.

The hot spring runs in sessions, with a half-hour break between each one, and each session lasts 1.5 hours. The last session is shorter, only 1 hour. We did that final one-hour session. Hotel guests get a bright blue wristband, the prestigious symbol of unlimited hot spring access (kidding...). You can also use the wristband to get towels for free; wristbands in other colors require towel rental. There’s a locker room—but no locks. There are showers with hot water, but no full partitions, so people across from you can see you. It felt a bit like an upgraded college communal bathhouse. The shower setup is pretty basic: fine for a quick rinse, but think twice if you’re planning a real shower.

This is a natural hot spring with three pools: one regular, one hotter, and one shallower. We soaked in the hot spring while wearing masks. The minerals gave off a pretty strong rotten-egg smell, but oddly enough, once we took off our masks, we couldn’t smell it anymore.

After the soak, we walked back to the cabin, which reminded me of freshman year, walking back to the dorm in pajamas after showering at the communal bathhouse.

Day 2

Olympic Game Farm - Hurricane Ridge - Port Angeles - Lake Crescent

It actually cleared up that day, which was not easy to come by. We didn’t finalize the day’s itinerary until the night before. We could either head south to Lake Quinault or backtrack toward Port Angeles. Following the principle of going first to the place we wanted to see more, we chose the Port Angeles direction.

On the way, we happened to spot a small Airstream—the “Hermès of RVs.”

Starting from farther out and working our way in, our first stop was Olympic Game Farm. It’s been a popular internet-famous attraction for a long time. You can’t bring your own bread; you have to buy it on-site. At $3 for a big bag, it wasn’t expensive. We bought 3 bags, which turned out to be a little too few—by the end, the little deer and cows didn’t get any.

Some of the animals were inside enclosures, so you couldn’t feed them.

At the beginning, you can feed the birds—just break the bread into small pieces. Then come the cows. The first cows seemed like they’d already been fed plenty, and they were pretty indifferent to the bread.

There were zebras in the middle too, but you can’t feed them.

There was a black bear (?) very close by.

There was also a brown bear.

At the end, you enter the Bison & ELK area, where there are also some small spotted deer. The bison were super aggressive, constantly sticking their heads into the car window and even ramming the car with their heads and horns. I only cracked the window open a tiny bit to feed them, and having the window licked all over was pretty gross. My kid was thoroughly scared by the bison shoving its head into the car, and every time one came near, the window got shut immediately.

The sika deer were much cuter, and my kid loved feeding them. We had been worried earlier that we wouldn’t use up all the bread, but that was clearly unnecessary. In this area, it was gone in no time.

After coming out of the drive-through area, there was a section that only opens in the summer. (In Seattle, the official summer runs from Memorial Day Long Weekend to Labor Day Long Weekend.)

This summer-only area was tiny, with a very, very small petting zone where you could touch the sheep.

There was also a little “train engine,” which my train-obsessed kid absolutely loved and played on for a long time.

There was also an “aquarium” that took just a few steps to reach the end.

There was also a pond where, supposedly, you could feed ducks? But it was all fenced off. This whole play area was free.

We spent about 2 hours at Olympic Game Farm. By the time we came out, it was too late to eat at a restaurant, so we picked up McDonald’s drive-through in Port Angeles and ate while driving up the mountain.

We drove all the way to the parking lot at Hurricane Ridge Visitor Center. The snow on the mountain was half-melted, half-not, and it looked really dirty and black.

But it was still beautiful.

There was a kids’ area inside the Gift Shop, with cute little backpacks, plus all kinds of national park merchandise, handmade items, and books. I wanted to buy a lot of it.

My kid absolutely loved playing in the snow and didn’t mind that it was dirty at all. On the other side of the parking lot was a big slope that wasn’t too steep, so my kid could run around without worry.

The visitor center closed at 5, and then we headed back down the mountain to Port Angeles.

We had originally wanted to go to the Italian restaurant where Bella and Edward had their first date in Twilight, but it was incredibly busy. When we went in, they told us the whole evening was fully booked, and without a reservation there was no seating. So we could only take a photo outside the door. The restaurant is called Bella Italia.

Then we kept checking off more Twilight spots: the little shop where the girls went to buy prom dresses in Port Angeles (closed), and the bookstore Bella went to (also closed).

We went to SONGOKU Sushi, and it was pretty bad. The staff forgot to give us menus, and the food came out very slowly. The taste was just standard American-style sushi.

After dinner, we passed by an anime/gaming geek shop.

On the way back, we stopped at a few pullouts along Lake Crescent. There were a few spots at Lake Crescent that were especially beautiful at certain sun angles, with the water glittering beautifully. But those spots didn’t have anywhere to park.

Back at the cabin, we casually reheated some leftovers we had packed up earlier, then went back to soak in the hot springs. After learning our lesson on the first day, we wrapped ourselves in towels and went back to the Cabin to shower. The hot spring water felt kind of slippery, and with so many people soaking in it, I couldn’t help feeling like it was body oil from other tourists...

Day 3

Sol Duc Fall - Wild Waves

On the last day, we didn’t want to drive all the way down south again, so we’ll save that for next time. Since we were already nearby, we decided to do the Sol Duc Falls Trail. I’m the kind of person who really hates walking, running, hiking, and that sort of exercise, so I rarely go hiking. My kid seems to have inherited that from me. This stretch wasn’t long, just 1.6 miles round trip. I really do love the rainforest.

The trickling stream, the damp tree trunks, the water-washed rocks, the fresh green moss, and the branches were so refreshing and relaxing.

The waterfall may not be especially grand, but it still feels awe-inspiring. Standing on the viewing platform, you can feel the spray thrown up by the falls splashing across your face.

Continuing uphill, there are a few spots where you can climb down and sit by the rushing stream, letting yourself completely zone out.

On the way back, we happened to pass by Wild Waves. Since we bought season passes this year, we stopped in for a bit of fun.

Since we were stopping in Federal Way, we had to get Korean food. We wanted to go to our usual spot, Jin Kook, but the line was way too long. So we turned to this place, Agit. There were hardly any people there, and at first we thought it might not be good. But it actually turned out to be pretty solid. The side dishes were basically all tasty, with a nice balance of sweet and salty. The beef small intestines were just okay; the large intestines were better. We also ordered budae jjigae. It didn't come with cheese, but it was still quite good—just very thirst-inducing afterward. Special shoutout to the seafood pancake: airy and very crispy, with a strong scallion aroma, though a bit oily. I thought it was even better than the one at Jin Kook.

This was our first real national park trip, and my takeaway was that the conditions were still a bit rough. This year's weather was also hard to complain about enough—we wore down jackets the entire time. Still, I absolutely loved the rainforest! Hopefully we'll have a chance to come back next year and stay on the south side.

About the Author

This article is reprinted from the WeChat public account of a reader from our WeChat group, Lazy 33's Food, Drinks, and Fun. All of the articles are original and well worth reading, so feel free to follow if you're interested.