I spent this past weekend (Friday - Sun) camping at Dosewallips (dose-wallips, not dos-e-wallips) on the Hood Canal. This is my first camping trip in 5 years - my wife and the girls camp two, three times a year with Girl Scouts so they're the big experts. So they took me camping.
We missed the first ferry over, and so of course we arrived at 8:30 as dusk was falling. Nothing like putting up the tent just-in-time! I had no particular desire to put it up in the dark.
The campground is on the Hood Canal in the Olympic National Forest (or surrounded by it, I wasn't quite clear on that). Lots of trees surrounding the campground and some of the camping spaces are buried in the trees. In the area we stayed, they had cleared out much of the trees and it was quite open with nice views of the sky at night. The campground is quite level and easily walked.
Our campsite was in the B-area at campsite 62, with a broad field between us and the loop behind us. Looking around at others, I think 63 would have been a slightly better choice because it backed onto trees, not another campsite. Pretty much all of the campsites in the B-area had good flat tent pitching areas. We have a huge 8-person size tent (18 x 8) so that's important for us. And that big field was a great place to play frisbee and toss a football.
The Dosewallips River is your typical fast running 50-75 foot wide type of river. Lots of people were fishing it. You can also walk down to the Hood Canal itself and dig for clams. We saw quite a few people doing that.
It rained much of Saturday but not on Sunday. We had a great time. Lots of conversation with the kids, lots of fun camp chores, like making sausage (OK, Brown N Serve) with my youngest daughter Lana who is 9. I'm glad Lisa (my 10 year old) likes them burnt and crispy because that's how several turned out despite our best intent. Propane stoves take a bit of getting used to...
We rode our mountain bikes around the campground loops, kids loved that. Some guides say that Dosewallips has mountain biking trails but I couldn't find anything of the sort. I was a bit disappointed about that, but my girls weren't. They spent a lot of time just riding the loops and hanging out. Easy, safe riding.
We also went on a hike through the woods on the trails. The trails are easily walkable for my 9, 10, and 14 year old girls. They might be a bit trickier for kids under 5, though. I wish I remembered more Northwest trees and plants. I run out after maples, oaks, cedars, Douglas firs, and of course sword ferns. I'd love to find a small, kid-friendly field guide - I'd learn from it and so would my kids.
All in all, a very pleasant family camping trip. We'll be coming back to Dosewallips.
