Along the Hood Canal (Dosewallips State Park and Hama Hama Oyster Company)

We follow the Hood Canal home from the Olympic National Park and National Forest.  The Hood Canal is a long, narrow fjord in Washington State that is one of the five main basins of Puget Sound.  With an average width of 1.5 miles (2.4 km) and a length of 220 miles (343 km), it separates the Kitsap Peninsula from the Olympic Peninsula.  The Hood Canal (and the rest of Puget Sound) was created about 13,000 years ago by the Puget Lobe of the Cordilleran Ice Sheet.  The canal has a large population of salmon and pods of killer whales.  We follow its shoreline for most of the north to south length, stopping twice along the way.

Our first stop is at Dosewallips State Park, a year-round camping park with five miles (8 km) of shoreline on the Hood Canal and the Dosewallips River.  Freshwater activities are found on the banks of the river and saltwater activities on the Hood Canal.  The park encourages visitors to bring fishing poles and shovels to collect freshwater or saltwater fish, clams, oysters, and crabs.

Discussion of the park ecosystem

Hood canal shoreline

Shellfish

Seasons

Looking back at the Olympic Mountains

Our next stop, a short ways down the road along the canal is the Hama Hama Oyster Company, a sixth-generation family-run shellfish farm.  Their beds are located at the mouth of one of the shortest, coldest, and least developed rivers in Washington State, giving a clean, crisp flavor to beach-grown Hama Hama Oysters and tumble-farmed Blue Pools.  They also source oysters from other locations in Washington State, including Sea Cows and Hove Coves from South Puget Sound.  We stop at the store to source some oysters for our dinner.

Oyster shells at Hama Hama

Oysters in Puget Sound

Dining area for eat in

We continue home with our newly acquired oysters and cook them on the grill for a fabulous dinner.

Oysters ready for grilling

On the grill

Served

Another great day of more exploration and a fabulous dinner with ingredients from our travels.