Exploring the Olympic Peninsula

On the final full day of our Washington trip, we left Forks and drove around the top side of Olympic National Park. We started with a beautiful drive around Lake Crescent and a short hike to Marymere Falls. It was a nice shady hike with views of the lake and waterfall.

Beautiful weather made for great views of Lake Crescent.

Blues and greens of the lake through the trees.

Cool bridge!

Lots of big mossy trees on the hike.

Big tree!

Overview of Marymere Falls from the top of the trail.

From there we continued driving north and east, stopping at the Salt Creek Recreation Area. This is a county park right on the coast (technically the Salish Sea) and since it was low tide we thought it would be a great stop. We wandered around the rocks and saw plenty of little sea critters.

David and the coast.

Since it was low tide, tens of thousands of mussels were exposed.

Anemones and urchins, too!

After walking around the tide pools for a bit, we continued on our road trip. The rest of our day was spent exploring several coastal tourist cities, starting with lunch in Port Angeles. The Olympic peninsula is known for mountains and coasts, but the cute little towns are an attraction in their own right. They're all a bit different, but several that we visited had adorable waterfront historic downtowns. It's a perfect place for a little road trip.

Some treats at lunch in Port Angeles.

Downtown Port Angeles. This was a larger city, not quite as touristy, but with a nice downtown.

A big mural in downtown.

Pleasant streets of downtown Port Angeles.

Out next stop was Port Townsend, near the far northeastern tip of the peninsula. It's a cute historic town, with grand Victorian houses, a compact downtown, and sweeping waterfront views.

A big mansion overlooking the city.

Classic architecture in the downtown.

We saw a sea otter! 

Views across the sound toward the North Cascades.

We stumbled across an outdoor symphony concert on the waterfront.

A totem pole in downtown.

Our next stop was about an hour south - the very interesting town of Poulsbo, which was a recommendation of Lauren's. The city has a strong Scandinavian heritage, especially Norwegian, and plays this up for tourists. The adorable downtown is full of Scandinavian inspired architecture and shops. We walked around for a bit, stopped in a café, and enjoyed the sunny weather before continuing on.

Norway flags everywhere.

A very European-looking café terrace.

The main stretch of downtown.

A Viking mural and a church on a hill.

The Poulsbo waterfront and marina.

Our final stop was Bremerton, where we would stay the night before flying out in the morning. Bremerton is a larger city, and people commute from here right in to Seattle using the ferry system. A lot of work is being done to enliven the downtown and waterfront. We stayed on 4th street, which still has quite a few vacancies but is starting to fill up with restaurants and bars. There was even a puppet museum, which unfortunately was not open on the day we were there. 

The USS Turner Joy, a battleship museum.

New condos along the waterfront.

A theatre on 4th street.

Dinner at Axe & Arrow.

The next morning we went to the airport to head back to Atlanta. Unfortunately, due to thunderstorms across the east coast, after a lot of circling we had to land in Birmingham, Alabama to refuel. We finally made it back to Atlanta quite a bit later than planned - but at least we didn't get stuck in Alabama!

Fun times...twirling...and twirling...

Our trip to Washington was great, with a variety of hiking and outdoor activities. We didn't explore cities quite as much due to the pandemic, but did have the opportunity to see a bit of Seattle, Spokane, and coastal towns on the Olympic peninsula.

Olympic National Park

Our third and final national park on our tour of Washington was Olympic National Park, on the western side of the state. Starting from Mt. Rainier, we planned a route that would circle the whole Olympic peninsula clockwise. After very hot weather we were looking forward to cooler coastal temperatures and forested hikes.

We started the day at Wild Waves amusement park, just east of Tacoma, for Paul to get a few roller coaster credits. This is a small park (and mostly a waterpark), but there is a pleasant forested section and a nice wooden coaster. We spent about 90 minutes here before continuing on to the state's capital city, Olympia.

The upper portion of Wild Waves is shady and nice.

Timberhawk, the park's biggest ride.

When we arrived in Olympia we had lunch at a Korean restaurant and walked a bit around downtown before driving up to the state capitol building. It's an impressive building perched above the city. It was quiet with only a handful of visitors since most government employees are teleworking. We wish it was a bit more connected into downtown, instead of being surrounded by parking. Overall Olympia is a pleasant little city with good access to outdoor activities.

Downtown Olympia.

Yum!

The dome of the state capitol.

Inside the senate chambers.

The towering main atrium of the capitol.

It's a very classically styled building.

View from the hill the capitol sits on.

From Olympia we drove west straight to the Pacific coast. It was a sunny and warm drive, and then immediately turned foggy and cool as we approached the ocean. We drove on US 101, the famous Pacific Coast Highway, as it entered the coastal part of Olympic National Park. We stopped at Ruby Beach and did a short 1 mile hike along the beach, with plenty of eerie fog-shrouded rock formations. We continued driving, turning inland and arriving at our AirBnB in Forks (a small town famous as the filming location for the Twilight movies), where we met up with our friends Leslie and Lauren and had some dinner before bed.

Big pines on the beach.

Ruby Beach has neat rock formations.

David on the beach.

It was foggy, a huge difference from the sunny weather a few miles east.

Our AirBnB was a cute tiny house!

The next day we got up early for the longest hike of the trip - the Hoh River Trail. We drove in early to beat the crowds. The trail winds through temperate rainforest and along the Hoh River. The entire trail is 35 miles, but we walked just part of the distance (maybe 7 miles or so) before turning around. The trail is mostly flat, so it's not as difficult as some of the mountain hikes we did at Mt. Rainier and North Cascades. The Hoh rainforest is very scenic, and was a nice change of pace. 

aaa 

Here we go!

A big mossy tree.

A friendly slug.

We hiked through miles of verdant forest.

Every once and a while the trail aligned with the Hoh River.

Just us with some ferns.

Really idyllic trail at spots!

Tree door!

Some of the trees were amazingly massive.

Black-tailed deer friend.

Most of the trail was densely forested - this was the one spot that was a bit more open.

More views of the Hoh River and surrounding mountains and forests.

This little fungi looked like a turkey or maybe a squirrel.

If I had a dollar for every tree Paul stuck his head into...

After grabbing a late lunch, David was feeling a little under the weather and relaxed at the AirBnB while the rest of us went out for an evening beach hike. We drove from Forks to nearby Rialto Beach. We timed our walk for low tide, so we were able to walk on the rocks and see a lot of sea creatures. The beach was beautiful in the evening light, with big clouds banks rolling off shore.

Not so foggy today.

Pelicans flying along the beach.

There are a lot of huge rock features along the beach.

"Hole in the wall" is a popular rock feature.

View through Hole in the wall.

Leslie and Lauren looking for critters.

There were a lot of starfish, and even an area we named "starfish city" because there were so many of them.

I could walk around tide pools all day! Well, at low tide anyway. :)

Mini rivers formed as the tide started to come back in.

So many little creatures to see at low tide.

A particularly bright starfish.

A little forest of sea anemones.

Walking through some of the huge rock features.

Just a crab on the beach!

We loved the diversity of experiences between the rainforest and the coast at Olympic National Park. We would highly recommend a trip here. The park is huge and we barely scratched its surface! We'll probably be back to see some of the other parts of the park and do winter activities.

Forks, is a good base to explore some of the ocean and Hoh rainforest sights, but isn't a very big city so food and entertainment options are limited. That said, it was way better than the towns near Mt. Rainier!