RV Blog Tour Leg 39 – Rainier, Grapeview, and Olympic National Park: Family, Forests, and a Little Rain
- Judy Carmein
- Jun 30, 2025
- 7 min read
Updated: Dec 17, 2025
June 18-30
Mount Rainier National Park
It’s hard to believe it’s been almost a year since I sat down and mapped out the route for this adventure. I knew the parks and people we wanted to visit—I just had to figure out how to connect them all with sensible driving distances and book campsites accordingly. That meant making a lot of decisions with limited knowledge and a hope for luck. For some reason I still can’t remember, I booked us into Alder Lake Park (a park run by the Tacoma Power Company) for our Mount Rainier visit. It’s a lovely park, but a full half-hour drive from the park entrance, followed by a long wait to get in. We definitely spent more time in the truck than on the trail.
It rained the first two days—no surprise, given we were in a temperate rainforest. While we waited out the weather, we explored Alder Lake Park and walked to the dam that forms the lake. Built in 1944, the Alder Dam generates about 50 megawatts of electricity—enough to power thousands of homes in the Tacoma area. The engineer in me was impressed. The nature lover in me had mixed feelings about what the reservoir does to the local habitat.
We caught one brief glimpse of Mount Rainier on that first day in the National Park but it played shy behind the clouds the rest of the trip.
We hiked to Christine Falls and Narada Falls and visited the Paradise Visitor Center—yes, that’s the real name—where we’d hoped to find alpine meadows. Instead, we found deep snow and inaccessible trails. The next day, we drove around to the other side of the park and hiked Box Canyon and the Bench Lake section of the Wonderland Trail. We also stopped at scenic overlooks like Inspiration Point. Glorious!
When we left, we were already talking about coming back. This part of Washington has a hold on us, and with more time and strategic camping spots, we’d love to explore it more thoroughly.
Grapeview: Cousins and Connection
Next, we had the absolute pleasure of visiting my cousin Connie and her husband Jan in Grapeview, Washington. Connie has always been my super-cool cousin. She’s a bit older, and I’ve looked up to her since I was a kid. When she married Jan—a funky, smart artist with a bit of a hippie streak—she somehow got even cooler. Check out Jan's art here.
They had just moved into their newly finished house on a ridge overlooking a mountain range in Grapeview, Washington, outside of Tacoma. Although they had only been living there for two weeks, the process of building the house had taken well over a year. We were their first guests! During construction, they lived on the property—first in a fifth wheel, then in the ADU studio they built before the main house. That studio is now set to become Jan’s art space.
Their Grapeview house is stunning, and they even had a spot for our RV—with hookups! Inside, the décor is eclectic and joyful, full of art and personality.
The prairie surrounding their home on the ridge is being painstakingly restored to native plants, and it’s already looking amazing. Jan had searched for a property with mountain views that would still give Connie her beloved big sky—something we both appreciate, with our Kansas roots and mutual love of wide-open views.
We had a lovely dinner with two of their three adult children, Reid and Maya (yes, they’re in their 40s!), at Duke’s on the Tacoma waterfront.
Earlier that day we toured the city, including their first home and a stop at the Museum of Glass. The exhibits were breathtaking, and we watched a live glassblowing demo. Fascinating—and slightly terrifying. It looked like a workplace with zero OSHA compliance.
On our first night, Connie cooked a full Swedish dinner—Swedish meatballs, mashed potatoes, peas, homemade rye bread, and lingonberries—using her mother’s recipes. Our mothers were sisters and 100% Swedish, and as we sat down to eat, we found ourselves reminiscing. My mom passed away in September 2022, and Connie’s mom just a few months ago. We talked about how grief sneaks up on you, and how we like to think our moms were looking down on us, smiling to see their daughters and husbands enjoying each other’s company.
Connie and Jan also took us on a tour of their property on remote Lake Cushman, which they’ve owned for over 30 years. It’s only accessible by boat and includes several lovingly built structures, including a deck built specifically for Maya’s wedding. Reid is now building a cabin next door on adjacent land. That lake is right on the edge of Olympic National Park, and we were charmed by its beauty and serenity. This whole visit filled my heart.
Olympic National Park
Back when I was reserving sites for this trip, I researched over 60 places to stay. With so many options, I sometimes had to pick and move on. That’s how we ended up with a coveted reservation at Sol Duc Campground in Olympic National Park. It looked great on paper—centrally located, as the crow flies. But the park is huge and full of ridges, rivers, and few through-roads, so driving anywhere took time: Another delightful adventure with lots of truck-time.
We arrived in the pouring rain and found our site: gorgeous but nearly impossible to back into. Tight spaces are a challenge as we need to protect all four corners of the truck as well as all four corners of the trailer (think trees, posts and other obstacles), the top of the trailer (think low branches), all the wheels (4 on the truck, 4 on the trailer - we can't drive over stumps) and even watch that the trailer doesn't smash into the truck (think jackknife). This requires lots of running around on my part and screaming to David as he tries to back his way into the site. We had all possible obstacles at this site. We tried and failed, went back to the ranger station to see if any other spots were open (nope), and finally returned to the site. Inch by inch, we got the rig in. And it was worth it! Once parked, it turned out to be one of our favorite sites of the trip—surrounded by towering hemlocks and firs, centuries old.
The trees were gorgeous, but they also meant no Starlink signal. We were truly unplugged for a few days. David, who has a Duolingo Spanish streak of over 400 days, had to drive down to the Sol Duc Resort parking lot daily with the Starlink dish to get internet and maintain his streak.
Olympic National Park is vast, featuring waterfalls, alpine lakes, coastline, rainforests, and mountain ridges—all hours apart. From Sol Duc, we soaked in the mineral hot springs and hiked to Sol Duc Falls. We also ventured out to Lake Crescent and hiked to Marymere Falls. While the waterfall was lovely, it was the old-growth forest, carpeted in moss, that truly stole the show.
We celebrated our 38th wedding anniversary in the park with a hike on the aptly named Lover's Lane Trail, followed by a fancy-ish dinner at Lake Crescent Lodge and a return to the hot springs. A perfect day.
On our final day, we had to choose: the coast, the high ridges, or even rainier rainforest. We chose the coast—and we’re so glad we did. It was low tide, and the tidepools were bursting with sea stars. Massive rocky sea stacks—tall, isolated islands of stone—rose dramatically offshore. These stacks were once part of the mainland, but erosion from wind and waves wore away the softer rock, leaving these harder remnants standing tall.
Washington has truly wowed us. There’s so much left to see, and we’re already talking about a return trip.
Up next: North Cascades National Park and a quick detour to Seattle to meet up with friends Scott and Theresa—who decided last-minute to fly out and meet us on their boat. Adventure awaits!
So glad you have discovered Washington. Please return soon.