Wynoochee, the drive up from Montesano

September, 2025

Today, I drove south/down the road from Wynoochee, south, away from Lake Wynoochee, away from the Coho Campground, and down to the town of Montesano (it’s the closest town and it’s about 30 minutes away). In Montesano, I filled the truck’s gas tank, checked the air pressure in the tires, grabbed a burger for lunch, and then I headed back north/up to the campground for my last afternoon and evening and night here.

It’s such a delightful, relaxing drive up the road from Montesano and up the road to Lake Wynoochee. The Wynoochee River is often visible from the small country road on that drive. I’ve seen so much wildlife, deer and eagles, and gorgeous horses and lovely cows on the farms, and other wonderful critters on my drives back and forth, on each of the two different camping trips I’ve had here. So I always just slow down and enjoy the drive. If another vehicle comes up behind me and seems intent on getting around me, I always pull over as soon as I can, as soon as there is space, and let those folks go on their way. But that’s rare, there is very little traffic on this road.

So today, on this drive from Montesano back up to Lake Wynoochee, about half way back up the road I pulled over and I stuck my cell phone camera on top of the dash board, and set it to “video” and pushed “go”. I stopped a few times thereafter to make sure it was working, to make sure it had enough battery power, and to re-set the memory so it didn’t automatically shut off, so in the end I had eight separate video files for this drive. The video below is all of those video files snugged up together. They show the last half of the drive from Montesano up to Lake Wynoochee, so about 15 minutes.

I added a few bits of music to the video, so turn your sound on, the first music piece is fairly quiet so adjust your volume appropriately. Then sit back with a nice beverage, put your feet up, and come on along with me on the back country road from Montesano then up to Lake Wynoochee in the Olympic National Park, in the foothills of the Olympic Mountains.

Much of the forest beside the road on this drive had been clear-cut in past years. Most of that is growing back, but still it isn’t what it used to be. But it still is beautiful. And, thankfully, some of the land is still old growth forest, luscious.

The third piece of music is a bit louder, turn your sound down a little bit. But then the fourth piece of music is soft again, so turn your sound back up. My apologies too for the out of focus trees and shrubs along the way. I had forgotten to bring my big camera, so maybe my cell phone had trouble focusing on all of the plant life. And my windshield had a few spots on it too, that didn’t help. 🙂 Don’t forget to look up at the mountains.

The last couple of minutes of the video show the drive into the campground, then through the campground, and finally … finally, back to Towhee the Trailer and my home in the woods. So good to be home.

And yes, later that afternoon, Douglas (the squirrel) came for another visit and enjoyed chomping down on another few propeller leaves that I had gathered for him. Tomorrow I head home.