Category: Pacific NW Tour

Just when I thought I’d get away with a few shared pics on what was essentially only a transitional day, I realized we saw LOTS of cool stuff that day, too.

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Sunday, September 8 was the day we left the fabulous Olympic Peninsula. Our ultimate destination that day was San Juan Island, Washington, where we’d rented a house for several days. To get there required taking a ferry to Vancouver Island, BC, Canada, then transferring to a different ferry to get to San Juan Island, WA, USA. Yes, it was the scenic route. We could have gone a different way, but it would have meant a LOT of driving and still at least one ferry ride. Besides, we wanted to see Victoria and say we’d been in Canada. Even if it was only half a day. I wish we’d had more time and could have stayed longer on the island. It was absolutely gorgeous.

Maybe we were just lucky with the weather, who knows? But I think you’ll agree, once you see these pics, that it was a lovely place to visit.

This was not Yves’ favorite day. He is NOT a morning person. We had to get up at about 5:30 so we could get out of the house and on the road. Our ferry left pretty early. And the ferry terminal was at least 30 minutes away.

Really, I thought Yves was going to cry when, upon seeing me unplug the coffee-maker, he asked whether we were going to have coffee and I said, “No. No time.”

It was a quiet ride to the ferry terminal…

Lucky for us, Smuggler’s Landing was open and serving breakfast. The meal was good, but rushed. And immediately afterward, we had to hustle over to the ferry. Which means I didn’t have time to pose with this guy…

It’s a shame that I missed that photo op. But I was really looking forward to getting some cool pics of the Olympic Peninsula from the water.

It looked promising at first. But if you look at the lower right-hand corner of the previous image, sort of behind the flag, you’ll see a bit of fog.

Shortly, there was lot’s more fog to see.

I was disappointed. But the fog actually made for some cool captures.

 

 

 

The ferry ride was actually quite pleasant, if a little eerie what with the fog horn blowing because the Captain couldn’t see A THING…

We were all glad to reach Victoria.

In no time at all, we drove off of the ferry, found a place to park, and discovered the Float Home Village at Fisherman’s Wharf.

We knew Fisherman’s Wharf was there, but neither of us had read about the float home village. It was fun to see.

Most of the restaurants hadn’t opened yet, so we just moseyed around, taking in the sights.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I love it when I capture clouds like that. Thery’re actually called iridescent clouds. (Read more about them HERE if you like.)

 

 

I really like that shots of the boats. I’m pretty sure that’s the Olympic Peninsula in the background.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was yet another lovely ferry ride. I didn’t take nearly as many pictures as I usually day. I think that was just because the day had already been so visually overwhelming.

I am always telling people that the light in the Pacific Northwest is special. Hopefully I was able to capture enough images so you can see what I mean.

It was just before dark when we reached Friday Harbor. We didn’t have any time to waste before heading off to find our rental house, which we managed to do with little effort.

It was spectacular.

But I’ll save that for the next post…

 

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TRIP Re-cap

 

Installment 1: In the Beginning (Friday, August 30 – Monday, Sept 2)

Installment 2: Portland Morning (Tuesday, Sept 3)

Installment 3: Exploring the City of Portland (morning of Tuesday, Sept 3)

Installment 4: Beyond Portland (afternoon of Tuesday, Sept 3)

Installment 5: Olympic Peninsula, Here We Come!

Installment 6: First Rain Forest Hike & Another Gorgeous Beach

Installment 7: Hurricane Ridge at Olympic National Park

Installment 8: Madison Creek Falls & Lake Crescent

Installment 9: Hoh Rain Forest

Installment 10: Rialto Beach

 

After a sorta longish, unintentional hiatus from vacation posts, I’m back.

This post has been in the works for about a week and a half now. I’m going to hurry up and get it posted, which just means not a lot of commentary, just images. Hopefully I’ll get back into some sort of posting routine soon!

My last post showcased the Hoh Rain Forest. From there, we went to Rialto Beach. Because I absolutely love rocky beaches, this is one of the stops I was most looking forward to.

Rialto Beach is a place of dramatic contrasts. Everything there feels extreme. Let me know if you think I captured the feel of the place well.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As you probably surmised from the pictures, it was quite windy on the beach. And that wasn’t even a stormy day. I’d love to experience Rialto during a storm. From a safe distance, of course. Imagine the power of the surf to move driftwood of that size.

So that ends Installment 10.

Rialto Beach was our last stop at Olympic National Park.

Next up… a brief stop in Canada and more drama at Deception Pass.

 

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TRIP Re-cap

 

Installment 1: In the Beginning (Friday, August 30 – Monday, Sept 2)

Installment 2: Portland Morning (Tuesday, Sept 3)

Installment 3: Exploring the City of Portland (morning of Tuesday, Sept 3)

Installment 4: Beyond Portland (afternoon of Tuesday, Sept 3)

Installment 5: Olympic Peninsula, Here We Come!

Installment 6: First Rain Forest Hike & Another Gorgeous Beach

Installment 7: Hurricane Ridge at Olympic National Park

Installment 8: Madison Creek Falls & Lake Crescent

Installment 9: Hoh Rain Forest

 

If you read Installment 7, you know we visited Hurrican Ridge at Olympic National Park (ONP) in the morning. Our plan was to head around to the Sol Duc area to see the hot springs. As we were on our way, we decided to stop at Lake Crescent, also within ONP, to see the lodge and grab lunch.

It’s hard to understand the sheer vastness of ONP. Looking at a map (click on the image at left) might help. But even then, until you are there and experience the size for yourself, it’s hard to imagine the scale. So I decided to copy some map images, one showing the area we covered in WA/OR and one showing the exact same area in the Eastern US, to help give you a better idea.

The park itself is about as big as Central Maryland. And there are no roads that go from one side to the other, because of the mountains, so you have to drive around the perimeter of the park and then into the park’s interior to reach specific points.

We’d driven an hour, at least, to reach Hurricane Ridge. Then we had to exit the park and continue west for another hour to reach Lake Crescent. It would have been at least another 45 minutes to where we were headed in Sol Duc. Which then meant we’d have another two-hour and 45-minute drive to get back to Sequim, which is where we were staying.

We did make a stop to see Madison Creek Falls on the way to Lake Crescent.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lovely area, eh? I’m glad we took our time there. But we still had things to see, so off we went to Lake Crescent.

Cute cottages, which are part of the Lake Crescent Lodge complex.

 

 

 

Hubby didn’t feel like exploring the forest trail with us. He found a nice spot to relax, wouldn’t you agree?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We were all pretty tired and decided to head back to our rental house. I was very glad to catch the following sunset image from our back deck.

And that ended our day.

I can’t believe I’m only at the end of our fifth full day. There’s much more yet to share.

The next installment will feature images from the Hoh Rain Forest and one of my absolute favorite stops, Rialto Beach.

Don’t forget to check back. Some of those images are amazing…

 

 

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TRIP Re-cap

 

Installment 1: In the Beginning (Friday, August 30 – Monday, Sept 2)

Installment 2: Portland Morning (Tuesday, Sept 3)

Installment 3: Exploring the City of Portland (morning of Tuesday, Sept 3)

Installment 4: Beyond Portland (afternoon of Tuesday, Sept 3)

Installment 5: Olympic Peninsula, Here We Come!

Installment 6: First Rain Forest Hike & Another Gorgeous Beach

Installment 7: Hurricane Ridge at Olympic National Park

 

Wow, this re-cap is taking a long time. It reminds me of just how much ground we covered and the wide variety of AMAZING stuff we got to see…

At the end of my last post, we’d just arrived in Sequim, Washington, which was to be our “base camp” while visiting Olympic National Park (ONP).

The cool thing about ONP is that it encompasses three distinct ecosystems:  sub-alpine forest, temperate rainforest, and the rugged ocean coast.  On the way to Sequim, we’d stopped and experienced a bit of rain forest AND rocky shore. On this day, it was up to Hurricane Ridge to see that sub-alpine forest and wildflower meadow for ourselves.

 

 

After a quick stop at the Visitor Center just inside the park entrance (near sea level), we got back into the car. That’s when I heard Yves exclaim something like, “What? Look is that?”

He’d mis-read a sign outside of the center. Not because he can’t read English well, he absolutely can, but I guess because he’d read it too quickly.

Those of you not used to visiting national parks in bear country may not realize that backpackers and campers are required to store all food in bear-proof canisters, aka “bear cans,” to keep the bears at bay.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We spent a few hours exploring the Hurricane Ridge area. It was lovely. But we still had more to see. We’d also planned on seeing a couple other areas within ONP, which is HUGE. So off we went.

Pics from that afternoon will be in my next installment.

 

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TRIP Re-cap

 

Installment 1: In the Beginning (Friday, August 30 – Monday, Sept 2)

Installment 2: Portland Morning (Tuesday, Sept 3)

Installment 3: Exploring the City of Portland (morning of Tuesday, Sept 3)

Installment 4: Beyond Portland (afternoon of Tuesday, Sept 3)

Installment 5: Olympic Peninsula, Here We Come!

Installment 6: First Rain Forest Hike & Another Gorgeous Beach

 

I spent the entire weekend doing yard work, running errands, and doing more yard work. Hard to get caught up on everything!

We left Ocean Shores (layover spot) early on the morning of Thursday, September 5. We were all anxious to get to Olympic National Park.

But first, I wanted to visit the beach. Unfortunately, reaching the sand would have required bushwhacking through that dense brush seen in the photo below.

That’s why the desk clerk looked at me as if I had two heads when I asked her the previous night if I could get to the beach.

She said, “It’s really dark. And you need to follow our beach path.” But I could tell she really wanted to say, “That’s a stupid idea.” I thought to myself, “Don’t Washingtonians like to walk on the beach at night?” I was forgetting that the Pacific Coast, at least in the Northwest, is MUCH wilder than the Atlantic Coast.

As Annelies and I discovered that morning, there was a path, but it wasn’t wide at all. And did require a bunch of ducking and stooping. We reached a little knoll after about 100 yards, saw how far we still had to go, and decided to turn around.

We really were looking forward to seeing Olympic National Park, too. So off we went.

For a change, we let the guys do the driving. Annelies and I rode in the backseat. I was navigating with my Google Maps app and couldn’t resist capturing a screen shot when I saw we were on Kirkpatrick Road.

It only took about an hour and a half to reach Lake Quinault from Ocean Shores.

 

 

 

 

We were undeterred by the rain. I mean, we were about to hike into the Quinault Rainforest, one of only three temperate rainforests in the Western hemisphere. And Annelies and I, being the excellent travel planners, had made sure everyone brought rain gear.

We’d only gone mere steps from the parking lot at the ranger station when we saw this…

 

Wow, right?

I took a ton of pictures during our hike, but am only going to share a choice few here.

 

 

I couldn’t help but think of Robert Frost as soon as I saw that image, which I’m glad I captured. It’s one of my favorites from the trip.

TWO roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveler, long I stood

And looked down one as far as I could

To where it bent in the undergrowth…

 

I did tell y’all we laugh a lot when we are together, right? We really do. We have the guys trained to ham it up for the cameras, too.

We were all completely awed and amazed by the rain forest.

 

 

I look like such a dork with my crooked glasses. They’re newish, but have been stepped on and need to be replaced.

 

 

 

I’ll share more rain forest images on Flickr one day.

After we emerged from the rain forest trail, we ate lunch at the lodge. The next photo is another one of my favorites from the trip.

I’d like to be on one of those chairs right now.

We stopped to visit this tree, which is near the lodge, then were on our way to Kalaloch (pronounced like “clay-lock”) Beach.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We probably spent a good hour or more exploring. I love beaches! Although there was still one left to see nearby (Ruby Beach), the sun was setting, and we still had about a 2.5-hour drive to get to Sequim.

We actually got to Sequim just as the sun was setting. We were all so bushed, we opted to order pizza for dinner.

Yet another awesome rental property.

More on Olympic National Park in Installment 7…

 

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TRIP Re-cap

 

Installment 1: In the Beginning (Friday, August 30 – Monday, Sept 2)

Installment 2: Portland Morning (Tuesday, Sept 3)

Installment 3: Exploring the City of Portland (morning of Tuesday, Sept 3)

Installment 4: Beyond Portland (afternoon of Tuesday, Sept 3)

Installment 5: Olympic Peninsula, Here We Come!