My friend Estelle and I spent four days camping in her van on the north end of the Hood Canal. I just love going up here because first of all it’s absolutely gorgeous, second I can catch oysters and clams to my heart’s content and lastly, it isn’t very crowded yet. There are quite a number of both state campgrounds and forest service campgrounds.

So here’s a bunch of pictures of Estelle and I clamming. Estelle made an incredible paella with the clams and mussels we gathered. We actually ate some of the clams as a pre-lunch treat. All you need to do is steam them open and have some melted butter for dipping. First some pictures of the tidelands where we rake up the clams. This location is Quilcene Bay, an arm of the Hood Canal.

Estelle and I hard at work and our bounty from the sea.

How to enjoy fresh clams.

Next up was gathering oysters. They need to be shucked right on the beach and the shells left so baby oysters can grow on them. I cooked the oysters simply in butter with garlic. So yummy. We gathered on Triton Cove tidelands. You just need to pick them up off the beach. The hard part is shucking them.

We also did quite a bit of exploring. We checked out other campgrounds. We took some short hikes to a couple of waterfalls and we drove up to the top of Mount Walker for some incredible views. I just love the Hood Canal.

Here are the pictures taken from the top of Mount Walker. We could actually see Seattle from the top. Unfortunately, it was overcast. I imagine when the sun is out the view of the Olympics would be spectacular from here.