Olympic Wilderness Basecamp

I like to watch Evening (Magazine) for cool ideas on places to eat or visit. One that popped up recently was Olympic Wilderness Basecamp, so I decided to make a reservation.

OWB is about 1-1/2 hours away from home, but off the beaten path pretty substantially. I chose the weekend of the new moon to take advantage of the clear night and potentially get some Milky Way photos in. It's only about 30 minutes away from Staircase at the Olympic National Park, and about 25 minutes away from Hoodsport and Hood Canal where I would have a clear view to the south.

We left at 1pm on Sunday and I had decided to take the slightly longer route through Kitsap County instead of diving I-5 the whole way there. Turns out that was a bad idea. Thank goodness for Google Maps, because they had closed parts of Hwy 3 due to a fire, and we were being rerouted on a long detour to get around it. We sat in line waiting to turn off of Hwy 3 and luckily Google knew what was up so it was trying to reconnect us back to Hwy 3. But once we got back to the stop sign that led us back to our road, another backup had formed and we quickly learned that it was still closed. A State Trooper told us to take a different route - luckily we could still reconnect with Hwy 3 later, and Google helped us majorly in getting back on track. All in all, it only lost us about 20 minutes, so not too bad.

Review of Olympic Wilderness Basecamp

I really liked this place. What is cool about it is that it bridges the gap between camping and a hotel. It's like glamping, but I don't think it's as fancy. There's no electricity (they do provide a Jackery battery) and no running water, but you do have your very own porta potty, and it was as clean as a whistle. I was actually quite impressed. 

There was a queen bed inside a geodesic dome, raised up on a wooden platform, with two comfy chairs and a clear plastic side with a view of the campsite and the wilderness beyond. It also comes with a wood stove for cold nights, a 2 burner propane stove for cooking, and a sparkless metal firepit. The bad news was that there was a severe burn ban in effect so we weren't allowed to use it. They had called us to let us know ahead of time (and provided free propane for the stove) which was super awesome of them. 

I just love that fact that most everything was provided. It gives us urbanites the ability to camp without having to find a place to store (and pack!) tents and sleeping bags etc. They sold propane and firewood on site so you didn't have to pack that either.

They have 7 geodesic domes at the campground, and some are spaced quite far apart in order to give you plenty of privacy. It's down a very well maintained NFD (national forest development) dirt road. The place itself was very well hidden though, and a small sign pointing to the driveway would have been quite helpful as it's basically a 180 degree turn to get onto the driveway, and nothing but a small gate; you would think it was somebody's property because there's no sign. 

The only other confusing thing is that there's nowhere to like, check in. I think it would be helpful if each of the domes had a sign with their names on them (We stayed in the Chinook dome) so we knew for sure we were in the right place, since there was no check in. We just kind of pulled up and started unpacking! But to their credit, they had the propane waiting for us (and then a new bottle was waiting when we got back from Staircase), so they were definitely around. Somewhere. lol

The geodesic dome itself had no insulation, so because it was 80 degrees outside, it was probably 90 inside the dome as it retained the heat like plastic windows tend to do. Luckily that also meant that as the temperature dropped outside, it quickly dropped inside. It was about 60 during the night so that was the perfect sleeping temperature for me. The bed was memory foam and actually quite comfortable. I was very impressed with the whole set up and want to go back for sure.

As soon as we got there, we set up to cook dinner, which was a tri-tip roast from Costco that was already pre-seasoned and sealed. Once we finished dinner, we headed out to Staircase to hike the 2 mile trail that followed the river. I wasn't sure if we were going to have to pay as I couldn't find any information; The hike was inside Olympic National Park but it didn't state if there was a fee because the only access to the Park was that hike and the campground itself. It was a 30 minute drive and yes, we had to pay. I didn't want to waste an hour driving back and forth again because it was already 6pm and I didn't want to lose anymore daylight. Patrick spoke to the ranger and got his permission to come back after the hike to drop off the payment info (thank goodness! The ranger was very nice).

I got some really good pics along the hike. 

We took the hour to drive back and forth again to drop off payment and once we were done with that it was time for quick s'mores (on the propane stove, lolz) so that we could take a nap before heading out for milky way photos. 

We found 2 spots along Hwy 101 for photos and I think they turned out pretty well - it was a lot brighter than I was thinking it was going to be, as the Milky Way was positioned right above a city glow.

We got back around 230 and went straight to sleep. We made a quick breakfast the next morning and headed back home around 10. We stopped at what used to be my favorite winery - Hoodsport Winery. Unfortunately, they closed production and now just sell other people's wines. They still had a lot of fruit wines though so I'm pretty excited to try the 3 that I bought. Once we were done we went straight home. It was a good trip and I'm excited to share the photos.