Olympic National Park, just a couple hours from our home in Bellingham, Washington, is the 10th most visited national park in the United States. And though we’ve been in Washington for nearly 5 years now, we are just getting around to exploring the Olympic Peninsula. We left early Monday for the beginning of a 2-week … Continue reading
As I mentioned in my last post, the westernmost point of the contiguous United States is Cape Alava, about 15 miles due south of Cape Flattery. To get there Tuesday, we returned southeast on SR-112 to the Hoko-Ozette Road, taking that road southwest through private timber land to the drive’s terminus at the ranger station … Continue reading
The main attraction in Neah Bay is the museum, the Makah Cultural and Research Center, that houses and displays the artifacts retrieved from the dig at Ozette on Cape Alava. Taking photographs of the artifacts in the museum is prohibited, but they can be seen on the Washington University Libraries website here and here. The … Continue reading
Once again we’re staying on Indian lands; this time, the Quileute (or Quillayute) Reservation. Like the Makah of Ozette, the Quileute settled on the coast at the mouth of a river and found sustenance from the sea as fishermen and whalers. According to Wikipedia: The Quileute believed that each person had an individual guardian. They … Continue reading
Grover Cleveland is not remembered for many things, but here are the highlights: he was the third Presidential candidate to win the popular vote, but lose the electoral vote, and, therefor, the election (you probably know who the next two were); he was the only U. S. President to serve two terms non-consecutively (1885-89 and … Continue reading
After lunch Friday, we left LaPush and headed back inland, taking US Hwy 101 north and then east around the southern shore of Lake Crescent (where the road is currently being resurfaced). At the east end of Lake Crescent, we turned north on the fun-to-drive-and-very-scenic-but-not-for-the-faint-of-heart county roads: East Beach Road – Joyce Piedmont Road – … Continue reading
While we were camped at Crescent Beach for the week (map, below, top left at arrow), we drove through Port Angeles and up Hurricane Ridge Road several times, once visiting the main Olympic National Park Visitor Center to talk to the rangers about recommended hikes on the north side, and twice to go hiking from … Continue reading
The goal of our second hiking day from the Hurricane Ridge Visitor Center was to get to the base of Mount Angeles (elev. 6,454), lost in the clouds in the photo below. From the parking area, we first hiked up High Ridge Trail, the first half of which is paved. From a vantage point below … Continue reading
Before leaving Crescent Beach, we decided to hike out to Tongue Point on the north end of the adjacent county park, Salt Creek Recreation Area. Although the tide was out far enough for us walk along the beach and shoreline all the way to the Point, the manager of our campground suggested that we drive … Continue reading
At the end of July, we headed off in our RV to the Cascade mountains to celebrate our anniversary. Driving south from Bellingham (orange star) on I-5, we took the exit to Sedro-Wooley, then continued east on WA-20, following the Skagit River uphill toward its modern source, Diablo and Ross Lakes, collectors of glacial and … Continue reading
On the way back to the campground, we stopped at Diablo Lake Overlook to see what was in store for us the next day. The water in Diablo Lake is milky, rather than translucent like that of Ross Lake, because Diablo is fed by silt-carrying glacial meltwater from the Neve and Colonial Glaciers via Thunder … Continue reading
The Road Less Traveled 