Unfortunately, my camera died on the first day out so we don’t have a lot of pictures I would have liked to get. Sarah had her point and shoot along, and she did take a few pics which I’ve included here.
Day 1
We set out from Redmond about 8 am, to catch the 8:45 ferry from Seattle to Bremerton. In Bremerton we topped off the gas tank and headed south and east to make swing through Shelton and on to Aberdeen, where we turned north through Humptulips to Lake Quinalt. At Lake Quinalt we took the first road we saw that looked promising, and wandered along the edge of the lake for a bit before heading back to the highway to continue north to Kalaloch.
Passing through the Kalaloch area we spotted the lodge where we’d be staying the night, but continued north intending to ride out to the Hoh Rainforest visitor center. A sign at the turnoff to the Hoh Rainforest assured us there was gas just 5 miles down the road, but either it lied or we were blind, ’cause we sure didn’t see it. Since the gas gauge was getting lower and we weren’t sure just how far it was to the visitor center, I decided to turn back and find gas.
The gps claimed that the closest gas was in Forks, so we headed there. Found the gas station and fueled up, then decided to see what there was to see in Forks. That place has gone “Twilight” crazy… there are Twilight bus tours, Twilight donuts, Twilight motels, Twilight espresso. They even have Bella’s truck parked outside the visitor center.
We did stop in at the logging museum, which was interesting. They had an early powered saw that was basically just a big cross-cut saw hooked to an engine. Although not really logging-related, I thought the neatest exhibit was a partially completed 28-foot long canoe rough-hewn from a cedar log, which a couple of loggers had found out in the woods. The canoe builders had felled a 300 year old cedar and carved the canoe from the log on the spot. The stump had a 150 year old sapling growing out of it, so the canoe was at least that old.
We were starting to get hungry and it was getting a little bit dark for heading into the rain forest, so we rode back south to the Kalaloch Lodge and got settled for the night. The lodge was pretty neat, built from wood that washed up on the beach. It was used by the Coast Guard for a while before being purchased by the National Park Service.
Dinner was excellent, though they realized they had us pretty much held captive so they charged a king’s ransom for it. We had a table right next to a window in the dining room, and were treated to a most excellent sunset.
Total miles: about 270
Day 2
After a mere 11 hours of sleep we headed back down to the dining room for breakfast, then packed up the bike and headed north again, turning off onto Upper Hoh Road to go visit the rainforest visitor center. Riding through the forest was really very cool. In most spots the trees completely enveloped the road, and there was just enough sun shining through to make the moss on the branches glow. The ride itself was a bit of a workout: there must have been quite a wind the night before, and the road was covered with branches and pine cones. In a couple places the road was almost completely blocked by pretty large branches.
At the visitor center we stopped to check out the exhibits and get our NPS passport stamped. There was a notice posted on the front door warning of aggressive elk that had been attacking hikers. We took a walk down the trail to the hall of mosses anyway, and managed to avoid being elked. Hall of mosses was right, too, the whole forest was covered in moss. And not just the forest, the moss was piled on anything that didn’t move quickly enough.
From the Hoh Rainforest we headed back out to Highway 101 and followed it north, through Forks again, and then east from Sappho past Crescent Lake. We stopped at a pull-off along the lake to stretch and grab a bottle of water from the trunk, and saw a group of scuba divers from Tacoma gearing up. Although I do miss scuba diving from time to time, it looked like those guys were going to be a lot colder than I want to be.
Re-hydrated and back on the road, we continued on east to Port Angeles. Found a gas station and fueled up, then drove all over the place trying to find food. It seemed like every third shop front was empty, even some of the gas stations were boarded up. Finally managed to find a place that had food and wasn’t a bar (Sarah didn’t want to wait outside while I ate), and fueled ourselves up.
We drove south out of Port Angeles up the Hurricane Ridge road, winding up to the Hurricane Ridge visitor center at 5,000-odd feet. As we wound around the mountain we could see (when I wasn’t watching that horrendous drop-off at the edge of the road) a whole series of glaciers and snow fields. By the time we got to the top we were even seeing snow at the side of the road.
Apparently aggressive animals are the in thing, because this visitor center had a notice posted warning about an aggressive goat that was threatening innocent hikers.
After wandering through the exhibits and enjoying the awesome view of the Olympic range, and getting half frozen, we headed back down the mountain to Port Angeles and warmer air. From Port Angeles we continued east, across the new Hood Canal bridge and on to Bainbridge Island where we stopped for a quick visit with Susan, then on the ferry to Seattle and back home.
Total miles: about 250
