Feb 17th
We arrived in Astoria, Oregon late on a rainy afternoon only to discover that every hotel was booked due to a beer festival. The weather prediction was heavy rain for the next 2 days so we moved on to Ilwaco, Washington a small fishing town. It was quite run down with very little activity on the docks. We were tired and with the prediction of heavy rain and snow in some areas, we decided to stay for two nights and wait out the bad weather. The pounding rain continued through the night but by morning the rain had stopped and we were able to be on our way up the coast of Washington.
Route 101 continues to be the beautifully scenic Pacific Coast Highway. The geography of the Washington coast had been carved by glaciers during the last ice age and have created the rugged terrain that often falls sharply to the sea. There are many rivers, lakes and mountains that add to the dimension of the landscape. The weather is similar to springtime in Maine with temperatures in the 30’s and 40’s at night and up to 50 during the daytime. There is a fine layer of snow on the sides of the roads with Rhododendrons budding and some with pink blossoms. Grape Hyacinths have displayed their purple fragrant flowers and daffodil faces are smiling in the snow. The Douglas Firs stand 200 to 300 feet tall and completely dominate the landscape growing up the sides of the mountains creating lush deep green forests. There are areas of clear cutting where logging trucks carry away the huge red logs for manufacturing. This was sad to see but there were areas of new growth forests that were evidence of organized planting and conservation.
Oysterville is a small village on a thin peninsula of land just north of Long Beach. It consisted of summer homes that were exceptionally well maintained with lovely seaside gardens and reminded us of a west coast Little Diamond Island.
We continued our drive north to South Bend where we saw incredible surf with breakers crashing at least a mile out to sea at Shoalwater Bay. This area is home to the Shoalwater Bay tribe. Washington is home to many Native American tribes with designated reservation lands throughout the state. Evidence of Native art is everywhere and is most prominently seen in the many colorful totem poles.
Lake Quinault is situated at the southern end of the Olympic National Park and where we rented a cabin at the Olympic Rainforest Village. We ate our spaghetti dinner next to the fireplace with a bottle of red wine. It had snowed the night before leaving about 2 inches of new snow on the ground. Temperatures dropped below freezing at night but the next day was full sunshine and warm. We took a short walk and followed a sign to find the largest known Douglas Fir Tree. It stands 191 feet tall and is about 1000 years old. Magnificent beautiful tree!
Since the weather was warm and sunny, we made the decision to drive route 101 all around the Olympic National Park. The park is a natural rainforest and I believe the only one in north America. The area receives about 150 inches of precipitation a year making it lush, green and beautiful. Unfortunately, because it is winter, the campsites within the park were closed. There was significant snow in the higher elevations which was visible at a distance as we drove through the park. Mount Olympus is over 7900 feet with other nearby mountains around 6000 feet. We continued our drive around the Olympic Peninsula to Port Angeles, a lovely port town with a ferry to Victoria, Canada located just across the Strait of Juan de Fuca.
The mountains, snow, tall ferns, huge firs, fresh clean air and sunshine make this one of the most beautiful places I have ever been.
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