Tuesday, August 27, 2013, Move to Long Beach, WA

Time to leave Forks and head down the coast to Long Beach, WA. It was only 179.3 miles (4,098.7 trip/63,579.8 total), but driving US 101 wore me out! The entire trip there might have included 5 miles of straight level road. The rest of the time, it was slow down for curves or small towns or we were going up hills or down. Many places, the two-lane road narrowed and when people backed up behind me I had to find a pull-out to let them pass. I think I'm ready for Interstate driving again.

Long Beach is really very nice. It seemed like every house had a fresh coat of paint and the downtown area was very interesting. After we were settled in, we drove to Cape Disappointment State Park, just down the road. We found there have been many shipwrecks entering the Columbia River which, I'm guessing, was the reason for the park's name. It was really too late for any hiking, so we just drove through the park and around the town before returning to the coach for dinner.  

Most of the coastline was a sandy, broad beach with very little driftwood or rocks. The park was an exception, with some rocky outcroppings. Long Beach claims to have the longest continuous beach (25 miles) in the world. I think I will take their word for it.

Monday, August 26, 2013, Mineral Creek Waterfall in Hoh Rainforest at Olympic National Park, Forks, WA

I thought we had a plan to be on the trail in the Hoh Rainforest at Olympic National Park by 6:00, but Joani told me that was just my plan when I got her up at 4:30. We did get to the Upper Hoh Road by 6:00 and we were able to capture some fantastic early morning light.

If you want to see some Roosevelt Elk, an early start is a must!

It was early for us but with the time difference, I thought why not call Katie at this convenient cell phone booth?

At the trailhead, there were quite a few options for hiking destinations - we thought if we made it to Tom Creek we would be doing good. By the way, if we had gotten here at 6:00 we would have been in the dark!

We spotted a bull elk and several cows on the trail. They were very cautious but finally decided to leave before we got too close. They jumped over a fallen tree that had to be at least five feet in diameter! A few of them left behind hoof prints in the moss on the tree.

David is pointing to where the first hoof landed in their jump!

One ranger told us there was a point along the trail where we could see Mt. Olympus. I think this was the point he was talking about, but the cloud cover kept us from seeing the peak.

I went off trail a bit to catch a glimpse of Mount Olympus.

There were no signs, so we thought this must be Tom Creek, but now we know that Tom Creek was still 1/10 of a mile ahead (and not very impressive). Instead, this is Mineral Creek. We were treated to a very nice waterfall view. We took a few minutes to soak it all in while we had some trail snacks and water.  

Mineral Creek Falls

Glacial flour catches the sun and gives the water an amazing hue.

This is called guttation - the process of plants excreting excess water.

We watched this little guy eat the cone like an ear of corn.

All that was left was a cob and a pile of scales. His mouth was full of seeds.

I had finished the blackberries Debbie and Craig had given us back at Elma, so we took this opportunity to pick some more. The bushes were absolutely full of ripe berries.

We always keep baggies in the car for times like these!

We said goodbye to the Hoh, but we'll be back someday!

Sunday, August 25, 2013, Whales at Cape Flattery, Makah Museum at Neah Bay, WA

Our RV park owners (in Forks, WA) really thought highly of the northwest corner of the peninsula and encouraged us to see it if we could. After thinking about it a bit, we realized we will not be this close again for a while, so we headed to Neah Bay. The whole trip was on secondary roads, but it was a nice drive. At Neah Bay, we found ourselves in the middle of the annual Makah Days celebration. We walked through the street fair, then headed to Cape Flattery.

Freshly caught salmon smoking over an open fire.

There was a very nice trail to the cape (Sam was allowed on the trail with us). About half of the trail was rustic boardwalk that reminded Joani of the computer game "Myst."

The views of the coast were stunning! It was nearly low tide, so we were able to see several caves and tide pools far below us. Across the water, we could see the lighthouse on Tatoosh Island. One rock was exclusive to the sea lions. 

We are on the Makah Reservation. The overlook we are on is as far down as we are allowed to go.

Lighthouse on Tatoosh Island was built in 1857.

Tatoosh Island, to the left, is part of the Makah Reservation.

We could hear the sea lions barking every time the whales surfaced.

We were treated to whale sightings as a very nice bonus! There were three of them swimming a huge circle around Tattoosh Island. They surfaced, to the delight of everyone, at about 15-minute intervals, blowing spouts and flipping their tails.

That's Kiri, from Australia, scratching Sam's ears. It was quite a nice coincidence that Kiri was also with us on the Ranger hike at the Hoh Rainforest yesterday.

That's Canada in the distance.

In 1970 tidal erosion exposed a group of 500-year-old homes in the Makah village of Ozette that had been perfectly preserved in an ancient mudslide. Tens of thousands of artifacts were uncovered and are now preserved in the Makah Museum at Neah Bay.

The Makah carved their boats from a single cedar log.

Sam and I have been taking our walks each day through town, so I decided this time I would snap a few pictures of Forks.  

Are you a fan of the Twilight books or movies? I've never read or seen them, even though I've watched a vampire movie or two. The author, Stephenie Meyer, based her Twilight book series in the town of Forks, WA and the surrounding area. You can see the town has fully embraced the "Twilight" mystique, even though none of the movies were ever filmed here. The town will celebrate "Bella's" birthday in September (of course, Bella is a purely fictional character). They expect the town will be packed, as it was last year.

"Twilight Themed" rooms?