I have a family reunion the weekend of July 4th at Olympic National Park in WA - we're staying in some cabins at Lake Crescent. I plan on flying up from UT at the beginning of the week. Haven't picked the route yet, but the vague plan so far is to head over to the Oregon coast and follow it up to Olympic NP for a few days, then after the reunion fly back to UT by way of either Tri-Cities then Boise or fly over to Cavanaugh Bay then south to Utah.

Any suggestions on places to go, airports to use, better routes, people to meet, etc? I need to stash the airplane for a couple of days near Olympic NP, I was thinking William R Fairchild International Airport. I also may make a day trip over to Vancouver.

I've never flown in Oregon or Washington so any ideas of cool things to do would be greatly appreciated.

A couple of must do coastal airports are Nehalem Bay State in Oregon (camping on field and good food in town) and Copalis Beach State in Washington.

Contact the Washington and Oregon Depts of Aviation. They both have pretty decent public airport directories they will send out for a small fee. The directories include airfield photos, radio info and other pertinent stuff.

-Matt

Thanks for the good advise! I had planned on going to Copalis, but I hadn't thought about the Spruce Goose. I'll check out the state aviation depts. for more info. Thanks!

Port Angeles/Fairchild is indeed the closest airport to lake Crescent. The Spruce Goose at Jefferson County (Port Townsend) is the best airport cafe in the Puget Sound area. And Copalis Beach is lots of fun to land on. You don't wanna go on a high,high tide-- low tide's better, a "minus" low tide gives you the most beach.
The San Juan islands are good flying-- Friday Harbor is the best bet for touristing, Orcas the next best. Nothing's nearby the airport at Lopez, and all the other island strips are private.
On the ground- you might wanna drive up to Hurricane Ridge in the national park. It's south of Pt Angeles & features nice views, scenics walks/hikes, etc. There's some nice hikes & places (Marymere Falls, Spruce Railroad,Sol Duc hot springs,etc) near Lake Crescent. Seeing the Hoh Rain Forest near Forks might be fun. If you have youngsters, the Twilight novels/movies are set in Forks and they might enjoy seeing the place-- there are several Twilight-themed shops there, along with an airport.
A final thought-- if you can extend your stay a few days, the big Arlington fly-in runs July 7-11 this year.

Hey Bean,

I did a similar trip last summer. Here are links to my trip report, as well as the thread with all the info that I got from people on here.

http://www.backcountrypilot.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=34&t=4125

http://www.backcountrypilot.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=3870

Hands down it was one of the best trips I've ever done. Nehalem Bay and Copalis are a must. We'll be running up to Orcas Island this summer if we can fit it in since we got weathered out of it last year. McKenzie was a great place to spend the night too. Don't miss flying around Crater Lake if you've not seen it before.

Feel free to PM me if you have any questions. BTW, Lakeview had a good price on gas and Lebanon, OR had the cheapest of the trip. Great GA airport with courtesy cars. Just the kind of place you hope to find on a GA trip.

GSP

If you have the time Stehekin http://www.airnav.com/airport/6S9 is a great place to fly into at the top of Lake Chelan. Only way into Stehekin is by boat, plane, foot, or horse.

If you are camping you can set up your tent a short ways from the strip by the river. Carts for hauling your gear. You can get a room at the lodge or one of the other places in the valley. They all will probably pick you up or you can flag down the bus on the road. You can rent bikes at the lodge.

Rnwy 31 is uphill and has grass on the touchdown area but is over some pretty high trees, Rnwy 13 has no obstructions, but you will be landing downhill and there is a fair amount of gravel and rocks in the touch down area.


Ok, bigger version in my Gallery

Tom

Thanks for the great ideas! I wish I had more time to fly to all these destinations. Ok, I'll put together a few different routes and post them here. You guys are awesome, thanks!

Lana's airport cafe at Hoquiam. Bowerman Field. Good food. 10 min south of Copalis. Gas.
http://www.airnav.com/airport/KHQM