Four Days in Washington
Recently we made a trip to the state of Washington, home of Bigfoot, sparkly vampires, and subjectively sexy werewolves.
Disclaimer: If Twilight references upset you or make you feel like you’re about to jump out a window, then hold on tight spider monkey, we’re jumping.
The adventure started before we arrived in Washington, and after a drive through a blizzard we arrived at our gate in O’hare just as they were calling out the last boarding group. We thought we had made it just in time, but unfortunately we were delayed for over an hour on the plane, so in reality we could have stopped for some deep dish pizza.
Our late departure meant we picked up our rental car late, with more unexpected results. We had planned on using a minivan with fold down seats, buying some blankets, and sleeping in the back. When we arrived they didn’t have any minivans, even though we had a reservation, so we opted for a Toyota 4Runner instead. Adapting to the unknown, we drove a couple of hours north to where our ferry would be leaving at 5:30 am. By the time we arrived it was past 1 am, and we spent a few fitful hours in the cold, sleeping as best we could, which is to say, not. We tried to use the plastic carpet cover as a blanket but that worked as well as you may imagine, Which is to say, again, not.
Thankfully, the ferry to Orcas Island was large, quiet, and almost empty. We were able to rest more easily on the benches and enjoy the solitude to catch up on some sleep.. It was about an hour’s ride, and much warmer on the ferry than off it.
When we disembarked, we went into the store right off the dock and got a surprisingly good coffee and some burritos. Breakfast of champions indeed.
It was about this time that we began to appreciate our unforeseen vehicle. The large clearance and 4-wheel drive allowed us to travel faster and to a few more places than a minivan would have, and it meant that although we’d have to pay more money for an actual place to sleep, we’d sleep in more comfort, which we came to appreciate sagaciously after that first night.
Orcas Island was magical. Even in the heat of the day the mist never left the island entirely, and it gave the predawn light an eerie aspect. As we drove around, walked and hiked, we got to see old growth trees 40 feet around, we got to look out at Vancouver Island and the other San Juan’s, and we got to do it all without seeing, almost, anyone else. At no time during any of our multiple hikes that day did we meet another hiker, which was not surprising given the dearth of the ferry, but enjoyable in the extreme.
Though there were no lowlights and the high points numbered with the snowflakes, a few precious memories stand out. I love birds, and there were geese, ducks, eagles, gulls, woodpeckers, ravens, herons, and more. A birding delight. We saw more bald eagles than we have seen in totality in our lives. The ravens were a great standout, for they were bold and intelligent, and would interact with you.
We saw most of Orcas Island, having booked the first ferry on and the last ferry off that day, and we headed next toward the ferry at Coupeville, to Port Townsend, which we took the following morning. Again, this was the first ferry out. We like to maximize our time adventuring, at the expense of our beauty rest.
We drove 650 miles on this 4 day excursion, and most of those were put on starting here. We drove west to Port Angeles. Some may recognize this quaint town from the Twilight book series, which will be a recurring theme on this trip. There is a restaurant in Port Angeles called the Bella Italia, where the main characters dine, and a dish is named after one of them.
In any event, we stopped and walked around, purchased our third coffee of the morning, and kept on trucking west to our next destination: Olympic National Park and Lake Crescent. Here we faced our main physical challenge of the trip, climbing Mount Storm King. A beautiful ascent through old forest, there are trees here that dwarf buildings, whose age we can only guess at by looking.The mist and rain around Lake Crescent are so thick, so ever present, that the moss grows by the ton, weighing branches down to the ground, sometimes breaking them off. It was a wet climb, and as it was January, a slippery one as well. We accomplished the 2.2 miles and 2,000 feet in 3 hours, but in summer could probably do it in half the time with the same effort. It was worth every step regardless.
The route up is composed of seemingly endless switchbacks of dirt and rock, with the rocks gaining in numbers the nearer to the top you got. Near the summit there are a series of ropes to aid climbers, and although we could have done without them it would have been slow and perhaps dangerous going, so we were glad for them. At the top, the view was staggering.
The peak looks north over Lake Crescent and the surrounding valley, full of mist and rain, water and trees, green and whites and blues. It wasn’t high, as far as peaks go, but it was gorgeous.
There was also some pleasant company at the end of the trail. Camprobbers, or Canadian Jays. These aptly named birds were friendly enough, but as their other name implies, they were bold enough to help themselves to anything edible they could find. Flitting into our packs, landing on our shoes, shoulders, and heads, they poked around ambitiously, like amiable pirates hunting for treasure.
The way down was quicker by half, owing to the side-like nature of the descent. We might have been concerned if we’d been able to stop laughing, but there was no dignity in our Ministry of Silly Walks hiking style, so we merrily traversed the trail down and that was that. At the bottom there was another trail connecting to the Marymere Falls and Falls Creek, and we detoured to that as well.
We continued our Twilight motif by traveling to Forks, the main location of the story. While there you can visit such exciting sites as the high school from Twilight, and the house from Twilight, and the Treaty Line. From Twilight. There is also a lumber museum.
Forks is not an exciting place. It does however, have the distinction of being the rainiest town in the contiguous United States, an honor it earned and deserved while we were there. The sky dropped big, fat drops every single second we were within 20 miles of Forks. It is the perfect place for shiny vampires.
We stayed the night in a delightful Airbnb shed, which was much cozier than it sounds. Up before the sun again, which we couldn’t see anyway for all the clouds and rain, we drove to La Push Beach, and had the worst coffee we have had in may a year from one of the notable, little coffee shacks that seem ubiquitous in Washington. We have never seen such strange cafes. It is one of those geographically grounded oddities you find but never realize until you go somewhere else and have something to compare it to, like the drive through liquor stores of Ohio.
La Push was rainy and the surf was intense, far too crushing to consider taking a dip, even if it was warmer than the 40 degrees it was. So, even though we could see it from La Push, we drove 20 minutes to get to Rialto Beach, around waterways and through more gorgeous forest. Rialto was just as rough and absolutely littered with trees the ocean had withdrawn from the land and deposited back, after taking a tax of leaves, roots and bark. There was no sandy beach here; rock and wood comprised it all, severe and intense, a great joy for a ramble. We would love to go back on a rainy day and walk the coast for miles, scrambling over mighty piles of drift and detritus. After walking the beach and enjoying the awe inspiring power of nature and the ocean, we picked up highway 101 and followed the coastline south. On the way we saw in the water, floating with the surf, a pine of some 50 feet or so, bereft of any limbs. Swim at your own risk. We thought it no wonder we saw no surfers.
Now our excursions in the wilder parts of the Olympic Peninsula ended, as we drove back to Seattle, listening to Patrick Stewart’s autobiography. We stopped at Pike Place Market,a great favorite, Kerry Park, Gasworks, and the Space Needle, though there was too much mist to bother going up. Mount Rainier was not visible from the city, which was a disappointment, but there’s no use complaining to the fog. The Fremont Troll rounded out our sightseeing; our old friend has had some TLC since last we saw him, and he’s doing well. If you’re ever in the area, he’s a great little open secret in Seattle.
Thus ended our trip to Washington. We hopped back on our Alaskan Airlines flight, our parents picked us up at the airport, God bless them, and we were home, another fantastic trip in the books and more memories and stories to tell, filling our heads and our hearts.
