After Coeur D’Alene, Idaho, and our failed attempts to find a decent spot to camp in the Spokane, WA area, we decided it would make more sense to just keep driving west towards Seattle than to burn a night at a shitty campsite (or in the case of the Spokane state parks, parking lots they charge people $35 to sleep at). The drive through Washington was pretty blah. Maybe this is just in comparison to Wyoming and Montana, and even Idaho, which were all pretty incredible to drive through. In the absolute middle of nowhere driving through those states, you’re looking around taking it all in the whole time. And this is coming from someone who usually falls asleep as soon as we get on the Mass pike, and wakes up just as Derek is pulling off of the South Boston exit. But on this road trip, I’ve stayed awake the whole time with him, partly because some of the roads have been pretty terrifying, particularly late at night zig zagging around mountains with a trailer bouncing around behind the truck, party because I’m the navigator and cd-selecter/changer person (thanks for the terrible cd mixes circa 2002, Josh…you must’ve really been going through something) and also because there is so much to see that I haven’t wanted to miss any of it…and of course, to keep Derek company while he’s doing the bulk of the driving. But through most of northeastern Washington, we were pretty underwhelmed with what was around us, literally there was nothing, no towns, no people, no scenic views..nothing. We did stop at the Columbia River gorge to check out the view, which was worth pulling over for. And Murph loves a good river gorge, so we couldn’t say no.
We made it to Seattle and with the traffic we saw at 2pm on a Tuesday, we were pretty good with our decision not to stop there. A co-worker, who had lived in Seattle for a long time, even suggested we skip it – though he loved living there, he said the traffic alone would make it hellish for us to attempt driving through with a trailer and that there were better places to spend our time (Timm, if you happen upon this – thank you). Thankfully, we missed the worst of the traffic that had built up behind us due to a chunk of the highway being closed for Trump who was due in town later in the day. We did stop and get a coffee at Starbucks and saw the Space Needle, so I’m pretty sure that checks all the Seattle boxes. We boarded a ferry (Murphy wouldn’t get out of the truck), crossed over the Puget Sound, and as the skies turned cold and gray, we knew we had made it to the Olympic Peninsula.
We camped for a couple nights along the Hurricane Ridge in Olympic NP, a few miles outside Port Angeles at Heart O’ Hills campground. We spent a couple days here; hiked trails at nearby Lake Crescent, walked around Port Angeles stopping for a couple beers at a (the only) local watering hole.
We tried to see the rest of the Hurricane Ridge, but apparently thick, blinding fog is pretty common, so we didn’t see the panoramic views across to Canada and Mount Olympus (so much false advertising is travel guide books).
Our plan was to take another ferry over to Vancouver and spend a day in the city of Victoria but we nixed that the night before. As much as it would be cool to spend some time in Victoria, this trip has never been about seeing every city, seeing everything or every place for that matter, and we’d rather stretch our traveling budget towards days spent outdoors. And if we ended up in Victoria, then we’d only be 4 hours from Tofino, so why not go there too. It’s a slippery slope. Instead, we headed to Rialto Beach and La Push on the coast of the peninsula for some much needed ocean air. It was pouring sideways when we got to the beach, and the seas were definitely angry, but it was exactly how you would want to see a beautiful, rocky, dark sand beach on the Pacific coast of Washington. La Push, part of the Quileute Indian Reservation, was cool to see too. This is the beach where Jacob tells Bella, in the movie Twilight, about some legend and explains the whole feud between vamps and werewolves. There’s even a big sign as you drive into La Push letting you know your on Team Jacob.
We also stopped in Forks, the town Twilight is based on. Not a lot going on in Forks these days, but apparently the town held onto the tourism and media attention the movie drew in as much as they could and at the time, it was a much needed boost to their economy, but it’s pretty evident that has died down since. We did our part to contribute though, stopping for lunch at a Blakelee’s Bar & Grille and trying their “famous” burger.
Onto the Hoh Rainforest, which I think is one of the only “temperate” rain forests in North America, maybe the world? Not sure, that might be a Tara-fact. We hiked around the Hall of Mosses, it was still raining, and we weren’t able to use our good camera, so the photos won’t quite do the beauty of the rainforest justice. Just picture enormous spruce, fir, cedar, and maple trees, hundreds of feet tall and hundreds of years old, everything draped in moss, every inch of the ground covered in it too. When they say “old growth” forest, they aren’t kidding. We really were in awe.
Spending the night in a rainforest was really cool and in true rainforest fashion, it poured all night, like 20 hours straight, but that just made it that much better.
The next day we would drive south to the beaches around Kalaloch, part of Indian Reservation, and spend the long labor day weekend at the beach. And these are the faces we make when we’re on the road…
withoutwhatifs 