PLAYING MUSICAL CAMPSITE CHAIRS.
Day 223 – It was very cloudy all day in La Push. We did not go inland to see if it was sunny and warm there. We were up early again to fight for a reservation at Provincial Parks in British Columbia. The third try was a charm.
Last night we checked availability at the two campgrounds we’d picked to reserve a campsite on July 22 to July 28. We’d already decided on the sites that would fit the RV and weren’t like, right next to a playground. Today was the opening day for reservations beginning on July 22. We were logged on and ready at 7 a.m. Both campgrounds filled up before either of us could push a button that said “Reserve this site”. Anyone wanting to travel this summer, that’s how bad it is out there. We quickly pulled out the maps to find other Provincial Parks not too far from where we’d be coming from, hoping not to have to travel too long to reach the next Park, found a campground, and as fast as we could, checked availability of sites. We grabbed one and successfully reserved it. All before our coffee! It did change our plans some, because we were already staying at this Park earlier in July, but if we’ve already done all there is to do, we’ll just do it again.
Next we did two more loads of laundry, baked a loaf of bread, and changed campsites here at this campground, all before lunchtime. (We had originally booked a site at this campground for three nights, then when the campground we were going to before this one was full of deep, muddy potholes, we called and reserved four other nights, so we moved from site #2 to site #18. Any time we do this, the girls get very confused.)
Campsite #18 (pictures below) was on the other side of the campground from site #2. It brought us closer to the beautiful sea stacks that we’d seen from the other site, and it also gave us a view of another smaller set of rocks facing a different way. Both have their advantages. The best view is from the row that faces the beach directly, but that’s where everyone wants to camp and has been consistently full.
There was a mass exodus from this campground today. Yesterday, we’d come back from a rainforest drive to find the campground absolutely packed. This morning 60 mountain-bike riders, part of a club we think, took off on a day-long race/ride. Along with the fishermen going out in their boats and the weekend vacationers departing, the park became eerily quiet. Later, the guys in site 16, two down from us, had a fish cleaning & cook-out celebration. They’d caught a HUGE salmon. Never a dull moment!
Just a correction: I saw in some literature we picked up at the campground office that the popular “Twilight” book series was based in Forks and in this area. I don’t know if it’s true that the movies were also filmed here.