Olympic Peninsula, Washington

After we left North Cascades National Park, which is located northeast of Seattle on Hwy 20 off of I-5, we drove south on I-5 to Rockport, then to Elma. It was a long drive, mostly because of the traffic on I-5 through Tacoma into Olympia. It was mostly stop and go for about 20 miles and not much fun. Elma is a small town with not much in it, and the park we stayed at was small, with small spaces and no good places to walk and let the dogs loose. Our final destination was Sequim, Washington on the Olympic Peninsula.

Sunday we drove to Westport, a small town on the southern peninsula from Aberdeen on the Pacific coast. We visited the Grays Harbor Lighthouse, said to be the tallest in Washington.  I walked to the top, but Jim did not.  I think he could have made it OK, it was not that bad. There were two workampers at the top that told about the lighthouse.  

Had lunch at Bennett’s Fish Shack – it was good but pretty expensive. I do think everything is expensive in this part of the country.

We drove down to the Pacific Ocean and walked there for a short time. Let the dogs loose; Lucy had a great time running up and down the beach. It was very windy and chilly so we did not stay long. 

When we left Elma, we drove up Hwy 101 along the peninsula to Diamond Point RV Park in Sequim on the Diamond Point Peninsula.  Even though the park is part of the Coast to Coast system, the park is not one we would stay at again; the sites are really small, they did not have a laundry room, and the internet service was virtually nill. 

Diamond Point RV Park

There was no good place to walk the dogs in this area; however, I did find a dead end undeveloped cul de sac to let them loose. I also found a trail into the state park system, but I just went there once as I was told to watch out for wild animals, and I did not want to walk there by myself.

We also made a trip west to Port Angeles to check it out. This area has a lot of Native Indians, which we saw evidence of by the street signs:

On our way toward Port Angeles, we saw this sign and of course had to stop and get a picture of Jim:

We walked along the peninsula and admired the biking trails, restaurants, water district, and buildings.

One of the stores we stopped in had these trinkets for sale, showing which animal our Spirit Totems represent. I am the Owl, and Jim is the Salmon.

Gayle -- November 29

Jim -- July 27

One thing we found fascinating was our view of Mt. Baker in Canada. It is very beautiful, however, by the end of our time here, fires started in Canada and obscured our view of Mt. Baker. I was able to get some pictures of it before the smoke took it away.

As you can see, I tried to get almost the same position as the picture showing the mountain so you can see how much smoke there was to totally obscure the mountain.

When we went to Olympic National Park, Hurricane Ridge on August 1, the day began clear and by the time we left, the smoke was coming down and covering the area.