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Olympic Peninsula Part 1: Port Angeles

Earlier this year we were talking with our friend Mary Beth. She was telling us about a trip she had planned to Lake Louise with her sister that they had ended up cancelling. We said that we had been there several times and that it was an incredible place. But we hadn't been there since 2013, when we had done an incredible hike to the summit of Fairview Mountain above Lake Louise. Before long we had decided to plan a trip to the Canadian Rockies together this summer. Because of other plans, we decided on the end of July/beginning of August. That was a little late if fire season started early. But last year there had been very few forest fires compared to previous years. We decided to cross our fingers and hope that there wouldn't be much smoke by then.

We monitored things as we got close to our departure date. Every day I checked the fire and smoke map and the air quality index. I also checked web cams in Banff, Lake Louise and Jasper. Our next door neighbors happened to be touring the Canadian Rockies at that time and they werre posting lots of pictures every day on Facebook. Everything looked good, at least until about a week before we left. Then I started to see smoke everywhere. We wondered about cancelling. Then a fire broke out that forced Jasper townsite to be evacuated overnight. Fifty percent of the structures in the town ended up being destroyed. That was it. We were busted.

We didn't have much time to come up with a Plan B. There didn't seem to be many options either. There were large fires in California, Oregon, Washington and even Idaho. A fire in the Sawtooths had closed Redfish Lake Lodge. Even in Boise the smoke had gotten very bad. Combined with temperatures over a hundred degrees for most of July, it wasn't very pleasant here.

Since the prevaling winds are from the northwest, I figured that the only way to escape the smoke would be to go to somewhere close to the coast. The Olympic Peninsula seemed to be completely clear of smoke. A side benefit would be that it would be a lot cooler. I'd been to Olympic National Park quite a few times but only on the eastern and northern sides of the park. I had never done a loop all the way around the park or explored the western coast of the peninsula. Surprisingly when we checked on hotels we found availability even at such short notice. We made reservations and had Plan B ready to go just in time.

We still had one more worry. A huge fire in Eastern Oregon closed I84, the route we needed to take. It was closed for four days, a long time for an interstate highway to be closed, but opened again just before it was time for us to leave. When the time came, we were good to go.

Our plan was to break up the travel and only go as far as Yakima the first day. We can't go through the Yakima Valley without doing some wine tasting, so we stopped at Bonair Winery in Zillah, Washington. It turned out they had some nice wine-themed gifts there and I picked up some things for family that I could put in my stash. The wine was good too and we bought a couple of bottles to take home. Besides, having wine from "Bonair Winery" is cool since I love to go diving on the island of Bonaire. We only got a couple of bottles since we didn't want to leave it in the car in the heat as we drove around all week.

After we got to Yakima and checked into our hotel we were ready for dinner. We only had a few snacks on the trip over so we were all starving. MB had checked with a friend who grew up in Yakima and she suggested we try Miner's. It's an old-time hamburger stand, famous for good burgers and large portions. When Sandy checked the reviews online she found one that referred to "a hamburger as big as your head". Miner's lived up to it's reputation. The burgers were excellent, but were huge, and there were LOTS of fries. I was the only one with a strong sense of duty. I completely finished both my hamburger and my fries. By the time we were done we could barely waddle out to the car. For the rest of the trip "a ___ that's as big as your head" was our favorite phrase to describe anything.

Back at the hotel I set up my laptop in the breakfast room and we watched the Brewer game. They won 6-2 to salvage one game in a series with the lowly Marlins.

Next morning there was a lot of smoke, most of it coming down the valley from a fire near Rimrock Lake that was causing the closure of US 12 over White Pass. We checked the road report and fortunately Chinook Pass was still open so we were good to go. It was a little longer but at least we could get over the Cascades.

The forecast for Packwood was for rain so we didn't expect to be able to do our planned hike of the Naches Peak Loop. Sure enough, as we got close to the pass it was cloudy and then actually started raining lightly. There were still a lot of cars at the trailhead though. The wildflowers were supposed to be spectacular and I suppose that could be motivation to do the hike. Not for us though. We wanted cool views of Mt. Rainier and sunny skies with no rain. We get spoiled hiking in Idaho.

Late morning Sandy and Mary Beth wanted to stop at Rivers Coffeehouse & Bistro in Morton for a coffee and second breakfast. Since I hadn't even had first breakfast, I was good with that. Instead of waking us up though the caffeine must have put us in a weird state. We drove right past the Interstate 5 junction without any of us noticing. It's kind of hard to miss a four lane freeway but we did. Fortunately we only went about five minutes before realizing something was wrong. We quickly backtracked and got back on course again.

Not long after reaching the Olympic Peninsula, we stopped at Hoodsport Winery. It's a place we remembered from previous trips Sandy and I had made to the area many years ago. It was still there but had changed quite a bit. The founders and long time owners had died a few years before. When Covid hit it caused the new owners to make a major change. They no longer grew their own grapes or made their wine on site, but "outsourced" their winemaking to wineries in other parts of the state. That just made them a wine store with their own private label. I have to admit that it did have a cool picture of the Olympic mountains on it so we bought two bottles to take with us. After getting back on the road it was a straight shot to Port Angeles, where we were staying for the next two nights.

Our hotel was the Quality Inn Port Angeles. It was only about three blocks from the terminal for the ferry to Vancouver Island. After checking in and settling into our rooms, we were ready to head out for dinner. Our hotel was at the end of the street that was heading towards the water. There was a steep slope with stairs going down about the equivalent of four stories. From the bottom of the steps it was an easy walk to the Port Angeles Wharf, which was right next to the ferry. Although it was overcast, the air was smoke-free and the temperature was in the sixties. After the hot, smoky weather in Boise the past couple of weeks, it was a welcome change.

We ate dinner at Downriggers on the Water, a seafood restaraunt (of course). We had a table by the window but it mainly looked out at the harbor. Vancouver Island probably should have been visible in the distance but all we could see were clouds and fog. We did get to watch the ferry come in and it was entertaining to watch the docking procedure and then the cars unloading. And we had a good dinner with some nice wine. After walking back to the hotel, we hooked my laptop up to the tv in our room and watched the Brewers beat the Braves 8-3.

We had the whole next day in the Port Angeles area. Ideally it would have been sunny with blue skies. We would have gone into Olympic National Park to Hurricane Ridge and done a hike there. Instead there was a heavy overcast. We checked the web cam and saw that it was raining up on Hurricane Ridge. Still, we enjoyed the cool temperatures (in the sixties) and the fresh air (no smoke). We started with a trip to the park visitor center just outside of town. I found a good guidebook on the Olypmic peninsula as well as a park sticker to add to the collection on my car. I saw a cool cap too but decided to wait since we had a whole week to get stuff. That was a mistake since I didn't find one as nice the rest of the trip. Oh well. I have a lot of caps.

We took a short trail, the Peabody Creek Loop, that started right from the visitor center. It was only half a mile but it gave a sample of what the Olympic rain forest is like. Less than a hundred feet from the start we were totally enclosed in the forest. We could hear but couldn't see the cars in the parking lot. The soft light on an overcast day made the incredibly lush vegetation seem even lusher. Everything was green. Even the air seemed to have a green tint to it. The trail dropped down about a hundred feet and crossed Peabody Creek twice. The climb back up to the start even got our hearts pumping a little. A short walk but very pretty and a good chance to stretch our legs. Amazingly, no one else was on the trail. This was in spite of the fact that the parking lot for the visitor center was completely full. There were even cars lined up at the entrance waiting for spaces to open up. As we pulled out of our parking place two cars came from opposite directions to fight over who got our spot. This was still early in the morning. By the end of the day there were probably fist fights over parking.

Next we drove about ten miles east to the town of Sequim (pronounced "skwimm"). There are a lot of lavender farms near there and Sandy is a big fan of lavender. Back in 2006 we went to their annual lavender festival. Today wasn't a special occasion but we did visit three lavender farms. Besides Sandy enjoying the smell of the lavender in the fields, they all had gift shops. They had everything you could imagine that was lavender flavored, lavender scented, lavender themed, or just purple. Sandy found a lot of things that she liked and bought quite a bit of stuff. Even I bought some kitchen towels with nice designs on them to put in my stash. I am always on the lookout for gifts for female relatives that I can use on birthdays and at Christmas. Best of all I got a lavender flavored ice cream bar - the breakfast of champions.

After touring the lavender farms we went into downtown Sequim and walked around a bit. It's not very big but because they get a lot of tourists there are some nice shops restaraunts there. Sandy did a lot of damage in a children's store, getting some cute clothes for the grandkids. Eventually we figured that we had bought enough stuff and we ended up at the Oak Table Cafe for lunch. There were a lot of people there but it was a big place so we got seated right away. Sandy liked the fact that she could order breakfast. Unlike Sandy I'm not really a breakfast food person, but I had cherry crepes and they were awesome. I can't resist anything with cherries.

After lunch we made a quick trip back to our hotel and took a break. Later in the afternoon we headed out again and drove about ten miles west to the Lake Crescent Lodge. It's one of those beautiful old national park lodges, over a hundred years old, built right on the lake. It also has some newer cabins that were added on later which looked like they would be cool places to stay. We checked out the gift shop where Sandy talked me into buying a tshirt (she really had to twist my arm).

There is also a trailhead right at the lodge. One trail climbs over two thousand feet in two miles to the summit of Mount Storm King. It's very steep with scrambling near the top, I would love to do it but this wasn't the day. Mary Beth would not be up for it and maybe not even Sandy. Besides, the weather would have to be good. So we did a much easier option to Marymere Falls. Less than two miles and just over three hundred feet of elevation gain, it was pleasant rather than challenging. A nice forest walk led to a good viewpoint for the falls. There were a LOT of people on this trail though but it was still an enjoyable hike.

That evening we walked down to the waterfront in Port Angeles again. We had pizza and beer at Barhop Brewing. No views but the food and drink was good. Then we retired to the hotel to watch the Brewer game. Unfortunately they lost 5-1 to the Braves. Still, it was a very good day and we had fun in and around Port Angeles. Tomorrow it would be time to move on.