August 2024 was the first time we stayed at Evergreen Coho SKP Park in Chimacum, Washington, and we thoroughly enjoyed it. Chimacum is on Puget Sound’s west side and the Olympic Peninsula’s east side, about 10 miles south of Port Townsend. The weather was fantastic the entire month we were there. Although we only had one day of heavy rain, we had drizzle on several days, which made the temperature perfect. We only had one day when the temperature reached 80° Fahrenheit, and most days were in the 60s—perfect for me!
Chimacum is right on the edge of the Olympic Mountains rain shadow and only gets 29.5 inches of rain a year as opposed to Forks, Washington, just a few hours away, which gets nearly 119 inches of rain, and Mount Olympus, which is even closer and receives a whopping 220 inches a year.
No trip to the Olympic Peninsula is complete without a visit to the Olympic National Park. Our visit can be found on our post, Olympic National Park and Port Angeles.
We also visited Port Townsend, where we had lunch at Sirens overlooking Puget Sound. Port Townsend, a town of less than 10,000, is home to over 300 Victorian homes, many of which have been restored. In the mid-1800s, town planners believed that Port Townsend would become the busiest port in Washington state. They built for a large influx of people, but that dream came crashing down when Seattle was selected as the railroad hub.
Fort Worden Historical State Park is a short drive from Chimacum and overlooks Admiralty Inlet, the entrance to Puget Sound. Along with Fort Casey and Fort Flagler, Fort Worden was part of the “Triangle of Fire” defense system, designed to protect against sea invasions. 
The fort was named after Admiral John Worden, who commanded the ironclad warship, the U.S.S. Monitor, during the American Civil War’s Battle of Hampton Roads. Fort Worden was featured heavily in “An Officer and a Gentleman.”
Evergreen Coho is an SKP Co-op where you can purchase a lifetime lease on an RV plot. This allows you to live there full-time with only an annual maintenance fee. As an Escapee member, we can stay at any Co-op park depending on availability without purchasing a lifetime lease.
Evergreen Coho has a very active social activity calendar. While we were there, there was a pet parade, an ice cream social, and a nacho and margarita fundraiser to support the landscaping committee, and this didn’t include the crafting and committee meetings.
Our timing coincided with the plum harvest at the RV park, and we enjoyed several plums picked from the park’s colossal plum trees every day. The apples weren’t quite ripe yet.
Our favorite amenity in the park was the well-manicured walking trail through the moss-covered, shaded forest surrounding the park. Penny and Little Bit loved their multiple daily walks along the roughly half-mile, woodchip-covered path that nearly fully encircles the RV park.
While in the park, I utilized their well-stocked woodworking shop to drill holes in five copper busbars for the 48v, 300 amp-hour battery I’m building. Unfortunately, I could not finish drilling all the holes, so I will have to finish them at a later stop. There will be a later blog post on the entire project when I finish, likely around March 2025.
One afternoon, we rode our e-bikes through a nearby city park to Indian Island and Marrowstone Island. We intended to visit Kinny Point State Park, but following Google’s direction took us to a dead-end in a neighborhood, and we could not access the park. It turns out that Kinny Point State Park is only accessible via the water. One of the friendly residents of Marrowstone Island told us about the beautiful East Beach County Park about five miles north. This beach was about halfway up to the island’s north end. I didn’t find it that nice, as the beach was covered with smelly, fly-infested, rotting seaweed. It was a 20-mile bike ride, and we barely made it back to the RV park with any juice left in our e-bike batteries.
