Plans are subject to change, nothing is for sure. At times it’s best to just have ideas, loose dates and hope something comes of it. This time it’s a Sunday morning when I get notification I can depart my responsibilities same day around 4pm. Challenged by limited phone connections with Sitkan friend and travel companion Chris, we are finally able to realize our ideas and agree to meet this evening at Millersylvania State Park, just south of Olympia. And so this adventure begins!
March 12, 13 & 14. Millersylvania State Park. After a night of downpour and multiple rain-made ‘lakes’ to navigate the sun shone bright and cheery. We explored the miles of trails in the ancient forest among CCC shelters and cabins. We also had the benefit of diversion in Olympia’s consignment shops, a newly found vegan cafe and bananagrams at The Park Side Cafe. And oh yes! Movies and popcorn in Lulu when darkness settled in.
What’s in the name? Miller is the family name of those who donated the property to the state in 1921 for perpetual use as a park. The definition of sylvania is ‘the forest’. MillerForest. Forested it is, along with a large lake and miles of trails. But no vampires were sighted nor felt.
The tree here shows evidence of woodpeckers in the woods. On a trail walk our chatting upset a resting owl whoooo let us know our noisiness was not appreciated.
March 15th – I spend the day at Millersylvania while Chris takes Blue Pill to SeaTac, picks up her husband Pat and they secure a hotel room in Olympia. Late afternoon Lulu and I venture to their hotel parking lot where we’ll spend the night. We imbibe at the Irish pub across the way for fair Irish fare and decent dark beers. Hotel shower for me before saying good-night!
Next morning, after dropping Pat at the train station in Olympia we began our road trip. With Lulu leading the way and Chris following along in Blue Pill we leave Trader Joe’s in Black Lake and begin the trek up the northern half of Washington’s coast and the Olympic Peninsula. Bypassing Aberdeen and Hoquiam gave us an off-the-beaten-path windy road thru the country-side on Wynoochee Valley Rd. It proved to be a lovely alternative.
A much needed stop and walk-about at the majestic and rustic Lake Quinault Lodge provided a bit of history including the fact the lodge was privately funded and built in 1926 in under 2 months time. A feat which makes me wonder how hard the laborers labored to meet that deadline. The setting is gorgeous on this sunny day. Mysterious when in mist, or shrouded in fog one can sit in the huge and peaceful Great Room sipping wine near the fireplace (so large one could feed any noisy children into it’s great maw) and read a book. Lake Quinault Lodge is worth the few miles drive off of Hwy 101.
March 16 (night 4). Up the road we tuck in to one of my favorite campgrounds of long ago: Kalaloch. A short walk to the beach makes this a favorite of many campers. With only 1 loop open this lovely March day we are fortunate there are still several sites available from which to choose.
Winter storms have some of the open sites still strewn with windfall debris. Perhaps that’s the reason there’s no place to pay for the night nor does a ranger come around to collect. The restrooms were clean and in good working order, always a plus. Camping in shoulder seasons have benefits. One night here and onward we go to the land of Twilight.
March 17 & 18 Our home base is now Bogachiel State Park, located a 10 minute drive south of Forks, the (formerly) long-established logging town of the Peninsula is now known for the filming location of the Twilight Series in 2008. A quasi cult classic, Forks still draws ‘Twihards’ for photo-ops and Twilight Merch. We passed up these opportunities and skipped updating ourselves into psyche of the 21st century teenage fanbase. We even neglected to watch the movie.
Day 1 – Bogachiel SP is conveniently situated to access multiple activities. While leaving Lulu at the campground and driving Blue Pill to explore we headed to La Push on the ocean. La Push is a village within the Quileute Indian Reservation and home to the Quileute tribe. It’s been a popular camping and cabin-ing location for scores of PNWesterners over the years including my family and me as a young girl. The ocean can be wild but was serene enough on this day to enjoy a picnic on the beach. Exploring more in the area we checked out Mora Campground and Rialto Beach across the river. Most folks come to Rialto Beach to walk the 2 miles to Hole-in-the-Wall for it’s majestic beauty and tide-pools. Photo here is of the beach at La Push, sans the spectacular sea stacks that adorn the near-shore. Chris’ 12 yo pup Scruffy cut loose in the sand with Sasquatch chasing her.
Day 2 – Neah Bay was high on our list of places to visit. With over an hour drive to get there we left the campground early to enjoy breakfast at the Warm House Resturant in Neah Bay. Decent food, friendly atmosphere, beautiful view and abundant eagles especially at low tide on the beach outside the windows.
Onward to Cape Flattery on this sunny day for a trail walk to look out over Tatoosh Island and the Pacific Ocean from the most north-western point of continental United States. It was a busy Sunday at the Cape, but the views were spectacular. A venture to Hobuck Beach for me to reminisce surf and coastal kayaking before spending the remainder of the afternoon at the Makah Cultural Center.
This museum is exceptional and well worth the effort to get here. Opened in 1979, it houses artifacts from the Ozette Indian Village’s archeological site which was a Makah village partly buried by a mudslide at Lake Ozette around 1750. It wasn’t until the late 1960’s when time, weather and surf began to erode and expose remnants of the buried village. Subsequently an 11-year excavation began and the museum built.
Sancho Panza pictured here accompanied us on this journey and is feeling safer in my company. There’s a story to why this is Sancho Panza III and doesn’t often get out and about.
We stopped at The Food Co-op in Clallam Bay where we found a variety of healthy picnic goodies and yummy cookies along with a couple of unusual store curators. It is a lovely location to stop as one leaves the Strait and heads inland. We picnicked across the street from the co-op at the County Park.
Day 3 from Bogachiel SP.
Our final day of touring this area took us for a drive into the Hoh Rain Forest. A sunny Sunday = PEOPLE! But we also viewed elk, walked a trail and stopped at an awesome shop named Peak 6 where Chris picked up a souvenier t-shirt. The rainforest was not as magnificent as I remembered. Also, a realization emerged that the famous Olympic National Park’s awesomeness can really only be experienced by trekking into the park or driving up Hurricane Ridge. A history tidbit: we learned about the amazing life of Minnie Peterson. She was known as “The Packer” where she lived off the land, worked for over 50 years as a guide, outfitter and packer for trips into the Olympics and lived to 91 years of age. She’s memorialized in a nearby campground named after her. Love getting some local history!
March 19 & 20 – After 3 full days of exploration at the NW tip of the peninsula, we finished this day by driving to Salt Creek County Campground for some R&R. The Google Maps route gave us 10 miles of scenic shoreline along Lake Crescent, then down the windy, picturesque, quite narrow East Beach Road before plopping us out on the Strait of Juan de Fuca, again! No photos from this campground. However, there were few campers/RV’s and we had front row seats looking out over the Strait to watch shipping vessels coming and going as well as twinkling nightlights from Victoria, BC.
Port Townsend: Historic Victorian town, historic maritime port, a maritime center well known for it’s School for Wooden Boats as well as the jump-off location for the wild, crazy, annual Race to Alaska. And an eclectic town of individuals, shops and scenery.
March 21 – Port Townsend at the Jefferson County Fairgrounds – Our hopes to stay at Fort Warden in Port Townsend were dashed: Campground Full. Must not be fully opened. Around the corner is the Jefferson County Fairgrounds and Campground where we pulled in and settled. A meal on the deck (it’s still sunny, unbelievable!) of Sirens where the atmosphere, view and historic building makes up for the mediocre refreshments. A walk to Point Hudson Marina, jump-off site of the infamous, annual 750 mile Race to Alaska and a stop in the Williams James Bookseller shop at the end of their day. This is a bookstore not to be missed! Our ferry journey was postponed to 5pm the following day so we were fortunate to return next day to the bookstore. Chris left with an armload of books while I restrained myself and just purchased two. Also, the bookseller directed us to a coffee shop around the corner which we’d been judging negatively by it’s name the day before: Better Living Through Coffee. Really? Well, yes. The coffee was excellent and again, seated on the patio out in the sun it was hard to complain.
March 22 Fort Casey on Whidbey Island – enroute to meet and visit friends for the evening, that date was cancelled. It was late in the day, and we were lucky to get a campsite next to the ferry terminal at Fort Casey State Park on Whidbey Island. Great views of the Salish Sea and a beautiful sunset just a short jaunt away.
March 23 – Early departure has Blue Pill carrying Chris and Scruffy south on Whidbey Island, on the ferry to the mainland and down I-5 to Portland while I head north to Bellingham for a dentist appointment of all things!
I notice a high whine coming from under the hood once I exit I-5. ohhhh nooooo. But perfect timing! The road trip is complete and this sets the stage for my next adventure!
what a great trip and excellent descriptive writing Kay. It brought back memories from my truck driving days, travelling over to Port Townsend to pick up very large industrial loads of paper for the LA Times. That was always an enjoyable 1200 mile trip for me down to LA, good money too. I always took my time driving up the 101, such beautiful scenery.