Sunday, August 14, 2011

Too Cool! The Olympic Peninsula


July 1 - July 4
Day 34 - 37 of the grand adventure 
Part II 

4237 miles as of Sunday 8/7/11
4 fills  650 gallons of fuel

So, like I said, they booted us out of our spot at the Fort so we took off for Port Angeles, Washington.

Our new campground was next to the Elwha River Dam.  The river is being restored to its original condition so we were lucky to see the dam before it was demolished.  It closed to the public the day we left.  Big controversy in the neighborhood about salmon and Indians and fishing.   That is why we included pictures of it with the rest of the places we saw.

This area offers up so many things to see that we found it hard to choose from among them. We settled on Hurricane Ridge, Cape Flattery and Victoria, British Columbia. Hurricane Ridge, part of Olympic National Park, had a great visitor center situated high in the mountains that offered 360 degree panoramic views that were simply breath taking.   The weather was picture perfect with few clouds and the snow capped mountains against the blue sky were a photographer's dream. This was the spot where we snapped our now famous "how's the weather" photo.We ended the day with a bonfire in our "front yard" where Fred caught up on his work for the day.


Cape Flattery was recommended to us by our campground owner so we hit the road to the north-western most point in Washington and the lower 48 states. It was a couple hours of winding roads with some occasional great scenery. We were glad to be in the jeep and not the bus. Near the end of the road was the Indian reservation of the Makah and at the very tip was Cape Flattery Park. After a 1/2 mile walk down about 300 feet in the dark rain forest we broke out into a breathtaking view of the Pacific with high cliffs, birds, and lots of sea life.


The view wasn't the only thing that took our breath away.  We had to stop several (many) times on the hike back up the hill and were passed along the way by a pregnant woman with a two year old in tow.  Such is old age and obesity.

We took a different route home that led us past Crescent Lake, a lovely reserve in Olympic National Park.  The porch at the Lodge was billed as the best place to relax near the water so we did.  click here for pictures...

from the road:
-robin
 
 

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