Pacific Northwest: Last Days (May 18-20)

Even though our trip was drawing to an end, we needed some downtime. I did sneak out for an hour or so to visit the Museum at the Carnegie on Saturday, the last day it would be open before we left. It is a small but very nicely done museum that offers some great information about Clallam County. I bought two raffle tickets for a silk painting of red tulips to benefit the museum and thoroughly enjoyed visiting with the docent volunteer who was born and raised in the area.

With so little time left, on Sunday we hit the road to take in as much as we could.

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We wanted to do a hike at Lake Crescent, the beautiful lake we'd driven by so many times on our way to other places. So we hiked part of the Spruce Railroad Trail along the lake's shore, just to the Devil's Punchbowl, a beautiful spot with incredibly clear and impossibly blue water. It reminded us a lot of Lake Tahoe or Crater Lake.

Lake Crescent

Surprised to see touring type bikes instead of mountain bikes on the muddy trail

Mike at the bridge over Devil's Punchbowl

Susan above Devil's Punchbowl

Falling water, but hardly a waterfall :-)

After our 2.5 mile roundtrip hike, we decided to drive back to Port Townsend again, taking a most circuitous route to see more of the northeastern part of the Olympic Peninsula. We actually left the Olympic Peninsula and set foot on the Kitsap Peninsula briefly by crossing the Hood Canal Floating Bridge. The bridge is the third longest floating bridge in the world, and the longest in a saltwater tidal basin.

Driving across the Hood Canal Bridge

Then we drove up through Port Ludlow to bag Ludlow Falls as our 10th and final waterfall of the trip. The town seemed very tidy and we had read that the trail to the waterfall was meticulously maintained by volunteers, but still we did not expect see one of them sweeping the stairs and handrails along the trail!

Ludlow Falls

A very well-maintained trail to the falls by proud Ludlow locals

Ludlow Falls, near Port Ludlow

Heading north, Mike accommodated my desire to look around and we detoured across Indian Island all the way to Fort Flagler State Park at the tip of Marrowstone Island.

View from the northeast point of Marrowstone Island and Ft Flagler SP,
looking across Puget Sound to Whidbey Island

Finally we arrived in to Port Townsend, stopping again at Sirens Pub for our last dinner. On our way back to our car we observed two colorful young women at their steampunk tarot card reader booth. Unfortunately, we did not photograph them, but I doubt that the memory will fade any time soon.

Our last day was filled with packing and cleaning up, in preparation for a long day of travel Tuesday. It rained a lot which made it a little easier to say goodbye to this place that we called home for the past month.

The view from our "home" in Port Angeles

Next time we visit the Olympic Peninsula we hope to:

• Hike to Shi Shi Beach
• Stay at Lake Quinault Lodge & explore the surrounding area
• Hike in the Olympics in summer
• Kayak
• Visit Protection Island
• Visit Damon Point in winter to see Snowy Owls

And on the nearby mainland and islands:

• Visit the Skagit Valley at tulip time
• Drive the Sea to Sky Highway to Whistler, BC
• Visit North Cascades NP and Mt Ranier
• Whale-watch and kayak around San Juan Islands
• Return to Butchart Gardens in mid-summer, fall and tulip time
• Explore more northerly parts of Vancouver Island

We travel to a lot of places, but this part of the country, with its mountains, lakes, rainforests, ocean, lighthouses, beaches, waterfalls and wild places, will definitely be one of our favorites. 

Pacific Northwest: Ozette Triangle Beach Hike (May 14)

We had rested the past two days specifically to be ready to take the early Tuesday morning ferry to Victoria. We got up super-early as planned, but made a last minute call to delay our trip until Thursday. So now what?

As long as we were up, we packed a big lunch and headed west, with a loose plan to stop at Clallam Bay via our 9th waterfall. Beaver Falls is located immediately off of Hwy 113, and after recent rains, the steep trail down was a bit more challenging. I went part way down, but Mike bushwhacked all around the muddy base of the falls looking for the good vantage points to shoot the falls. While he was shooting, I loaned my trekking poles to a mother/daughter pair who wanted to get closer to the falls.

Mike bushwhacking in to shoot Beaver Falls

Thick rainforest near Beaver Falls

Beaver Falls

Clallam Bay is said to have great sunsets, but I guess we'll have to go back because at 11AM in the rain we weren't inspired to hang around. With me still at the wheel, we decided to drive the 21 miles out to Ozette Lake just to see what it was like and maybe get a better feel for the 9 mile triangle hike on a future visit.

Swan Bay was our first stop and we encountered several Wilson's Warblers close by. Not much else going on there so we drove on in to Ozette.

Driving on Swan Bay Road; elevation 5 feet

Swan Bay

Wilson's Warbler

Expecting quiet remoteness, we were surprised to find more than one bus in the parking lot. Two or three middle school groups were preparing to backpack along the west coast trail. We were impressed with the great experience these kids were getting. One of the leaders chatted with us, suggesting this was a great day for a hike, "if you've got 9 miles in ya." Hm, well let's eat our lunch and think about this.

We didn't plan to do a big hike and it was already after 1PM. But as we mentally went through our supply list, there was nothing major we'd need that we didn't have with us. I picked up a tide table from the ranger station and we calculated we could make around the headlands and be out before dark it if we kept up our pace. Plus, we had our headlamps with us. Looking up at blue skies, we made the decision to go for it.

Susan, after checking notices and tide tables at the Ozette Ranger Station before the hike

We went to the right

Typical "trail" of boardwalk for the next 3 miles to Cape Alava

The groups had a good head start because we encountered no one on the 3.3 mile forest trail until it suddenly opened up to an unexpected grassy green hillside overlooking the ocean at Cape Alava. Another couple inappropriately dressed/equipped for hiking warned us of the difficulty getting down the muddy hillside. But it wasn't that bad and even if it had been, we were not about to turn around now!

Coming out of the forest at the beach of Cape Alava

The difficult part lie ahead as we gained an insight about what a wild beach really is. Gigantic timbers criss-crossed the width of the beach, and as the tide was rising we had to go over, under or through them. I had serious doubts about my ability to complete the hike at this point, but forged on after Mike's lead. When we got to the rocky headlands after about a mile, the water was too high and we had to go up rather than around. For the first time I took advantage of the rope placed for hikers to pull myself up the slippery slope.

Timber-strewn beaches made for a tough hike

The next headlands was not bad even as the tide rolled in, and we were able to relax a bit and pat ourselves on the back after the halfway point of the hike.

Susan on the rocky beach

Mike on the rocky beach

View from one of the headlands we climbed

The rest of the beach hike was easier, and we even extended a little past the trail back into the forest to climb up onto a narrow grassy headland at Sandy Point from which we could see Ozette Beach to the north and another beach to the south.

View from Sandy Point

Banana Slug

A lone Indian Paintbrush at Sandy Point

As we turned back to the forest trail, we shared some chocolate and homemade oatmeal cookies with a park ranger who was "babysitting" the school kids camping a little ways away. As we hiked the final 3 miles through the forest, Mike realized that we were in such a hurry to get over those headlands at Wedding Rocks, we completely forgot to look at the Ozette Petroglyphs. Oh well, we'll have to see if we still have 9 miles in us next time....

Heading back into the woods for the last 3 miles of boardwalk

Pacific Northwest: West Coast Beaches (May 6-9)

From Portland, we drove straight home to Port Angeles Monday morning, regrouped and made a plan to drive the 1.5 hours to the west coast beaches around La Push, Washington the next day.

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Accommodation choices in the area are quite limited for non-campers like us, but we thought the affordable motel unit at the Quileute Oceanside Resort looked good. We were glad we had booked two nights when we arrived late Tuesday morning at our second story room with a balcony overlooking First Beach. There was a lot to check out around here and we were happy to be staying so close.

The view of First Beach from our room in La Push

We started by driving east a few miles to pick up Mora Road on the north side of the Quileute River. We stopped first to visit James Pond, but must have scared away most of the birds on our approach.

James Pond

The main attraction of the day was Rialto Beach and the Hole in the Wall natural arch at its far end. As we got out of the car, we heard music and discovered a lone guy playing his trumpet on the beach with his little boy. There was a handful of parked cars, but no other people around.

Susan on Rialto Beach

Rialto Beach, north of the Hole in the Wall

After the two mile walk to the end of the beach, we climbed to the top of the headlands behind the arch to look around and came down on the other side. Our timing was perfect with low tide at 5PM, exposing our first sightings of colorful starfish and anemones in the many tide pools.

Sea stacks on Rialto Beach, viewed from above the Hole in the Wall

Sea Star in a tide pool

Hole in the Wall

Sea Star, orange variety

Mike "shaking hands" with a sea star (without touching it)

Susan is dwarfed by the sea stacks of Rialto Beach

We prepared a simple dinner in the mini-kitchen of our room and called it a day.

Wednesday we decided to hike to Third Beach, but took our time getting there as the morning was overcast. The forest approach was not difficult, and the clouds lifted as we arrived at the beach. Low tide was at 6:10PM so we had all afternoon to play and observe the bald eagles soaring and chattering above.

The easy hiking path to Third Beach

Sea stacks along Third Beach

Our goal was to get close to Strawberry Falls, which empties into the Pacific Ocean. As the tide continued to fall, we worked our way around successive rocky outcroppings getting ever closer to our seventh waterfall until we could go no further, then walked back enjoying the dramatic late afternoon light. The days were getting longer.

Strawberry Falls on Third Beach

Petey Pika is introduced to a sea star near Strawberry Falls :-)

We caught the sunset back at First Beach not far from our room, and again prepared a light dinner in our room.

Sunset on Third Beach

Thursday started out overcast as well, but the clouds and morning fog gave way to a very sunny day. We arrived at the Second Beach trailhead a little after 11AM and the approach was even easier than Third Beach.

Second Beach

Susan on Second Beach

We emerged from the forest to photo ops of sea stacks in every direction. This beach was also about 2 miles long, with tidepools at the southern end. A short distance to the north was a natural arch that proved very photogenic at sunset.

Panorama of our private spot on Second Beach

Sculpted sand on the beach

Mike visited and shared notes with a couple of other photographers who were there to shoot the sunset. We hadn't planned to stay all day, and the drive home was long, but well worth the memories and photos from this great day!

Sunset at Second Beach