On Thursday our first stop was at Salt Creek County Park. We had read that the best tide pools on the northern edge of the Peninsula were there. The tide was part way out but we got to climb around and explore for about an hour. It was VERY foggy that morning but it seemed to add to the mystery of the place. We saw lots of neat stuff here.
Then we headed out to Cape Flattery. It is the most northwestern point in the continental US. The land in that area is owned by the Makah Indians. The museum had awesome pieces that had been uncovered in the 1970s from the Ozette site that was buried in a mudslide in the 1920s (I think). Since it had been buried in mud, it was well preserved. It's amazing to see how much the Indians could survive in those times with what little they had. The ocean out at this point was absolutely gorgeous. The waves were crashing against the huge cliffs. We saw a baby harbor seal and its mother swimming around.
We stopped at the small fishing village of Seiku. There were all kinds of campers, rvs, tents, boats, boat trailers all jammed together on every square inch of land. There must be some great fishing around there.
We stopped at Sol Duc Park on the way to Forks and saw the salmon cascades. After watching awhile we saw a couple salmon swimming upstream.
Forks is an interesting little town. Every store, restaurant and motel has something about Twilight written on the windows or doors. It's a really small town. Late yesterday afternoon we took the driving tour of the places used in the Twilight movie. We saw Bella's house, the Cullen house, the hospital, the high school and also Bella's truck. Conrad wasn't real excited about the tour but I wanted to do it for Jenny! I did read the first book before we made the trip so I was familiar with the stuff.
Bella's Truck
Bella's House
We started our morning at Rialto Beach. It was so different from the others we had visited. We spent about an hour here. The sand on the beach was black and lots of flat, smooth stones after the sand line then a line of old, dead trees that had been bleached and weathered by the rain and sun. It was so peaceful there. It was right across the river from LaPush which is also a part of the Twilight series. We didn't go over there because it is on Indian land and we would have needed a permit to go out there, even for just a few minutes. So, we just viewed it from across the river.
Then about noon we got to the Hoh Rain Forest. It wasn't at all what I expected. This is the dry season and I was expecting dripping trees and wet but it was dry. They get about 140" of rain a year. We hiked two different trails here and both were so different.
Today our first stop was at the World's Largest Western Red Cedar. It is estimated to be about 1,000 years old. That little detour took us 4.8 miles (one way) out of the way on a really rough dirt road but it was worth it.
Our next stop was Ruby Beach. They say you can find rubies there but we didn't find any. It was the most beautiful beach we've seen this trip. The sea stacks were amazing and the day was absolutely beautiful. Everyone says the weather has been exceptional and we're loving it. The temperature hasn't been above 70 and except for the one foggy day, it has been sunny and clear.
We stopped at a few other beaches since the highway runs close to the ocean along the stretch we drove today. We were headed to the Quinault Rain Forest. This one isn't as large as the Hoh and different environment. The ground was wet along the trail we hiked. After that we took the route around the lake. The north side is National Park land and athe south side is Quinault Indian land. We saw two beautiful waterfalls on the south side and they could be seen from the road. (The others we've seen, we've had to hike to get to them.)
We drove over to Westport after checking in to our motel in Hoquiam. There was a fishing contest of some kind and we saw lots of people with big fish and also saw people coming back from charter fishing with bags of fresh fish. It looked like most of them had salmon but we saw one with tuna. Since we had some time before dark, we went on to Grayland. We had read that they produce most of the state's cranberry crop. We saw one of the farms and it looked like they were about ready to pick. We also saw an Ocean Spray Production Plant.
So, that pretty well sums up what we've been doing. We plan to spend the day in Astoria, Oregon tomorrow. Stay tuned for more!
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