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All over Puget Sound, the peaks of the Olympic Mountains dominate the western skyline. Few regions can offer visitors such rugged coasts, prairies, and forests with views, above the timberline, of snowy, glacier-capped peaks.
To reach the peninsula from Seattle, take a ferry to Bremerton (for more information, click here) and head north 19 miles (30km) on State Route 3. Pass through Poulsbo (for more information, click here), Washington’s Little Norway, and about 7 miles (11km) farther on State Route 3 is the Hood Canal Bridge. This floating bridge is a major gateway to the Olympic Peninsula, the only one over tidal waters and at 1.5 miles (2.5km) long, the third longest in the world.
A section swings aside for ships to pass, and Trident submarines from the base at Bangor may hold up traffic. Before crossing the bridge, you might want to take a short trip to historic Port Gamble just east of the bridge (for more information, click here).
La Push Beach in Olympic National Park.
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Port Townsend 6 [map] is about 30 miles (50km) north of the bridge. The harbor here was discovered by Captain George Vancouver in 1792 while he surveyed the coast for the British Admiralty. In 1851 the city was created, planned to be the main West Coast port. By the end of the century, the city was booming, but the dreams relied on a railroad connection to Tacoma, which never came.
The Historical District Courthouse, built in 1891, in Port Townsend.
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Urban renewal and development passed it by, so Port Townsend has many lovely Victorian buildings, some of them now hotels or inns. Water Street has art galleries, antique and clothing stores, and restaurants in the old commercial center. Some of these back up onto the water, as they were built in the late 19th century to store goods from sailing vessels before they were transported onward. Many people use Port Townsend as a base to explore the surrounding area, returning each night to accommodations in an historic building and to dine in one of the town’s excellent restaurants. The Visitor Center (tel: 360-385 2722; www.enjoypt.com) has maps and information.
A Roosevelt elk in Olympic National Park.
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Fort Worden
North of the city are the 434 acres (175 hectares) of historic Fort Worden, keystone of an 1880s network of forts, which guarded the entrance to Puget Sound until the end of World War II. The fort is now a state park, and the parade ground was featured in the movie An Officer and a Gentleman. The Coast Artillery Museum (tel: 360-385 0373; summer daily 11am–4pm, winter noon–4pm; voluntary donation) illustrates the history of the fort.
Fine accommodations are available in restored officers’ homes (tel: 360-344 4400), less luxurious lodging is in the barracks and the hostel. Campgrounds are also available.
A rowing boat at Point Wilson lighthouse.
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Sharing the flat point with gun emplacements is the Point Wilson Lighthouse, built in 1913. The Marine Science Center (tel: 360-385 5582; summer Wed–Mon 11am–5pm, rest of year Fri–Sun noon–4pm; charge), on the waterfront, has exhibits and touch tanks of local marine life. The Marine Science Center also sponsors marine-science activities and summer camps for kids.
The Arts at Fort Worden
If you’re looking for a fun, quirky, artsy getaway from Seattle, consider joining the artists, musicians, writers, creative thinkers, and arts lovers who come together nearly every week at Fort Worden State Park, where the Centrum Foundation hosts hundreds of concerts and residency workshops each year. Some of the highlights of the Centrum calendar include the Port Townsend Chamber Music Festival, the Port Townsend Acoustic Blues Festival, the Festival of American Fiddle Tunes, and Jazz Port Townsend. Literary-minded visitors might want to attend the two-week-long Port Townsend Writer’s Workshop, with free nightly readings and lectures from authors such as Cheryl Strayed, Dorothy Allison, and Pam Houston.
Sequim
From Port Townsend, 13 miles (21km) south on State Route 20 and then north and west another 13 miles on US 101, is the sunny town of Sequim 7 [map] (pronounced ‘skwim’), in the Dungeness Valley.
The arid area was first homesteaded in 1854 and irrigated four decades later as Sequim became a farming community. Today it is known for its lavender farms. The Museum and Arts Center (tel: 360-683 8110; Tue–Sat 10am–4pm; voluntary donation) has exhibits of farming, Salish (the local tribe) and pioneer life, and displays by local artists. Sequim’s mild climate, in the rain shadow of the Olympic Mountains, attracts many retirees.
Head north 5 miles (8km) on Ward Road to the Olympic Game Farm (tel: 360-683 7621 or 1-800-778 4295; www.olygamefarm.com; driving tours daily year-round, walking tours Jun–Sep Sun–Fri 9am–5pm, Sat 9am–6pm; charge), home to animals like bears, bison, elk, zebras, and lions. Over the years it has supplied animal ‘actors’ for movies and television. There’s a selection of walking and driving tours.
Water Street, Port Townsend
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Dungeness Spit 8 [map] is farther north. At 6 miles (8km) and growing, the spit is the longest sand hook (a sand spit growing out from the shore, then running parallel to it) in the United States. The Dungeness Recreation Area includes a 6-mile (8km) hike along the spit, and around the shore of the saltwater lagoon. Sturdy shoes make it easier to scramble over the driftwood. The lagoon is a national wildlife refuge for migrating waterfowl. At the end of the spit is the New Dungeness Lighthouse, built in 1857.
Fact
The Strait of Juan de Fuca, the narrow passage between the Olympic Peninsula and Canada’s Vancouver Island, was named for a Greek captain sailing under the Spanish flag who may have sailed the strait in 1592.
Port Angeles
Follow US 101 west 17 miles (27km) to Port Angeles 9 [map], the largest port city on the northern Olympic Peninsula. Port Angeles’ huge harbor for Asian and Pacific ocean-going ships is formed by Ediz Hook, another long sand spit with a Coast Guard air station at its end. The car ferry Coho (tel: 360-457 4491; www.cohoferry.com) operates year-round to Victoria (for more information, click here) on Vancouver Island, in Canada’s province of British Columbia.
Within an historic library, the Museum at the Carnegie (tel: 360-452 2662; Wed–Sat 1–4pm; voluntary donation) has displays on local history, fishing, genealogy, and Native American artifacts. There are spectacular views of both the Strait of Juan de Fuca and Vancouver Island to the north, and of the Olympic Mountains to the south.
Fact
Eight kinds of plants and five species of animal in Olympic National Park are found nowhere else in the world.
Olympic National Park
The Olympic National Park Visitor Center (3002 Mt Angeles Road; tel: 360-565 3130; www.nps.gov/olym; summer daily 8.30am–6pm, fall–spring 9am–4pm) in Port Angeles has maps and park information, and displays on the wildlife, plants, geology, and tribal culture of the Northwest coast.
To enter the park itself, follow Race Street in Port Angeles to the well-marked Hurricane Ridge Road, and then make the steep 17-mile (27km) ascent through dense forest to reach Hurricane Ridge ) [map], 5,200ft (1,600 meters) above sea level. From here are views of mountains, meadows with wildflowers, and forests.
A young buck grazing in the Olympic Mountains.
Fotolia
To the southwest is glacier-capped Mount Olympus ! [map], at 7,828ft (2,386 meters), the highest peak in the Olympics. No roads lead to Mount Olympus, only hiking trails. In winter months, Hurricane Ridge is the only place in the Olympics for cross-country and downhill skiing.
Fact
Mount Olympus receives more than 17ft (5 meters) of precipitation each year and most of that falls as snow. Hurricane Ridge is covered with more than 10ft (3 meters) of snow for most of the winter.
Return to US 101 and head west for 5 miles (8km) beyond Port Angeles; the road curves south around Lake Crescent @ [map], an immense cobalt-blue glacier lake surrounded by tall-timbered forest. Gorgeous Lake Crescent Lodge (tel: 360-928 3211), on the southern shore, is where President Franklin D. Roosevelt stayed in 1937 before he signed the act creating the 922,000-acre (373,000-hectare) Olympic National Park. Continue west along US 101 and turn south onto Sol Duc River Road to reach Sol Duc Hot Springs £ [map] (www.olympicnationalparks.com), where you can take a dip in the Olympic-sized pool or hot mineral pools, which are a pleasant 102–109°F (39–43°C). A short rain-forest hike leads to Sol Duc Falls and a less fancy geothermal spring, Olympic Hot Springs.
Fort Worden State Park.
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Neah Bay
Continue west on US 101 to Sappho and then north on State Route 113. At the intersection with SR 112, turn and head west 27 miles (43km) through Clallam Bay and Sekiu to Neah Bay $ [map], at the northwesterly tip of the peninsula. Alternatively, follow SR 112 from Port Angeles along the picturesque shore of the Strait of Juan de Fuca, bypassing Lake Crescent.
The remote village of Neah Bay is on the Makah Indian Reservation. The Makah, who call themselves Kwih-dich-chuh-ahtx – ‘people who live by the rocks and seagulls’ – have been here for hundreds of years. Majestic red cedars provided housing materials, tools, and sea-going canoes, in which they hunted migrating gray whales and seals.
The Makah still have the right by treaty to hunt whales, but commercial fishing is a mainstay. Sports fishing for salmon and halibut is an important industry for the Makah and a big attraction for thousands of anglers who visit annually; Neah Bay is home port more for than 200 commercial and sports-fishing boats. The Makah welcome visitors to visit a hatchery, where salmon migrate up the fish ladders.
Mountain goat on Hurricane Ridge.
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Makah Cultural and Research Center
This center (tel: 360-645 2711; daily 10am–5pm; charge) is a useful source of information, as well as a museum with Northwest Indian artifacts and a replica longhouse, the hub of Makah village life. Edward S. Curtis’ photomurals are from more than 40,000 images of a 34-year photo-essay he began on the North American Indians in 1896.
Most of the 300 to 500 artifacts on display are from the archeological dig on the Ozette Indian Reservation on the coast, south of Neah Bay and the Makah lands. The village, buried by a mudslide more than 500 years ago, was sealed in clay soil, the contents of the houses closed off for posterity. The Ozette dig unearthed more than 55,000 artifacts and remains one of the most important archeological finds in North America.
Many beaches in the area are closed to non-Native Americans. At the Cultural and Research Center, maps of the reservation show open areas, and the car route and walking trail to Cape Flattery, on the northwestern tip of the Peninsula.
Fact
In 1999, the Makah exerted their whaling rights and harpooned a gray whale from the vantage point of a dugout canoe. The action drew protests from animal rights groups, even though the whale was not on any endangered species list.
Cape Flattery
The boardwalk trail here threads through a forest to observation decks on the 60ft (18-meter) cliffs of the cape. Vistas are spectacular, with waves crashing on rocky shores and pristine beaches. In spring and late fall, migrating gray whales can sometimes be seen, as well as seals and birds.
A few hundred yards offshore is Tatoosh Island, home to seals, sea lions, and the Cape Flattery Light, first lit in 1857. The lighthouse overlooks the funnel-like entrance to the Strait of Juan de Fuca, a graveyard for the many ships wrecked on the Washington coast or Vancouver Island by storms, ocean currents, and fog.
The home of Bella Swan - the fictional protagonist of the popular ‘Twilight’ series.
iStockphoto
South along the coast
South from the Makah Reservation is a national wildlife refuge: 57 miles (98km) of spectacular cliffs, sea stacks, and beaches. Just north of Forks is a turnoff – SR 110 – to the coast, leading to Rialto Beach and the Quileute village of La Push. Rialto Beach is a favorite spot for fashion photographers. La Push % [map] has a jagged rock-lined beach, offshore sea stacks, and a justly famous 16-mile (26km) beach walk.
Century-old Forks ^ [map], with a population of around 3,500, is on a broad prairie on the northwest of the peninsula and is the only sizable town (www.forkswa.com). The Forks Timber Museum (tel: 360-374 9663; summer daily 10am–4pm; voluntary donation) displays a pioneer kitchen, farm and logging equipment, vintage newspapers, and photos. The town is a good base for hiking the rain forests and rugged coast. As the setting of Stephenie Meyers’ Twilight book series, Forks draws loyal fans on the lookout for vampires.
The Hoh Rain Forest Visitor Center & [map] (tel: 360-374 6925; Sept–Jun Fri–Sun 9am–4.30pm, Jul–Aug daily 9am–6pm) is south of Forks off US 101 and about 20 miles (30km) into the national park. There is a wealth of information here on the wildlife, flora, and history of the temperate rain forest. Moisture-laden air from the Pacific drenches the area with more than 150 inches (380cm) of rain annually – this is the wettest place in the 48 states. Three loop trails (and a wheelchair-accessible mini-trail) lead into the rain forest, with its moss-draped trees, ferns, and a clear, glacial-fed river. Elk, deer, and other animals are often seen.
Farther south of the turnoff, US 101 swings west to the coast and follows cliffs overlooking beautiful beaches, from Ruby Beach and the Hoh Indian Reservation in the north to Kalaloch (pronounced ‘clay-lock’) Beach in the south. Part of Olympic National Park’s coastal strip, the coast has a rugged and picturesque beauty. Waves crash against rocks and offshore islands, casting tree trunks up on the shore like toothpicks. A few miles offshore is reef-girdled Destruction Island and its lighthouse, built in 1890. On a foggy day, the mournful foghorn disturbs thousands of auklets – small sea birds – on the island.
The forest surrounding Lake Quinault * [map] – at the southwest corner of Olympic National Park – is often called ‘the other rain forest.’ It’s possible to drive a 25-mile (40km) loop around the glacial lake. Lake Quinault Lodge (tel: 360-288 2900), a huge, old-fashioned cedar hotel built in 1926 on the lake’s southern shore, is a landmark. Winding trails lead from the lodge into the rain forest, including to Big Acre, a grove of huge, centuries-old trees.
Ocean Shores
Head south to Ocean Shores ( [map], on a 6-mile (10km) long peninsula, and enter through an imposing gateway. Originally homesteaded in the 1860s, Ocean Shores was only incorporated as a city in 1970, when investors, including singer Pat Boone, got the town under way. Ocean Shores is now a town of motels and vacation homes. Grays Harbor was discovered in 1792 by an American trader, Captain Robert Gray, who also discovered the Columbia River. The harbor is the only deep-water port on the outer Washington coast, and is a major terminal for Asia-bound lumber.
The tall ship Lady Washington (tel: 1-800-200 5239), a replica of Gray’s ship, embarks on cruises from the Grays Harbor Historical Seaport, a working tall-ship dockyard.
Long Beach Peninsula
South on US 101 and along the east shore of Willapa Bay is one of the nicest stretches of beach in Washington. This is the lovely Long Beach Peninsula ‚ [map], fronted by a 28-mile (45km) shore. The lively town of Long Beach is a miniature Coney Island – the main street is filled with huge chainsaw art sculptures (a near-naked mermaid, the Louis and Clark duo, and more). Further north on the peninsula, the historic town of Oysterville had its heyday in California’s 1850s Gold Rush, shipping oysters to San Francisco at the equivalent of $19 each in today’s money.
Cape Disappointment.
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Cape Disappointment
At the base of the Olympic Peninsula is one of the most spectacular spots on the Washington coast: Cape Disappointment ⁄ [map], overlooking the treacherous mouth of the Columbia River, a graveyard for ships and sailors. This graveyard is Fort Canby State Park, home to two lighthouses. Cape Disappointment Light, one of the first on the West Coast, has warned sailors for over 150 years. North Head Light was built later to guide ships coming from the north.
To complete the trip around the Olympic Peninsula, head east from Grays Harbor to the state capital at Olympia ¤ [map] (for more information, click here). A highway runs north along Hood Canal, known for oysters, through Shelton (Christmas trees and oysters) and Hoodsport. Quilcene ‹ [map], on Dabob Bay, has one of the world’s largest oyster factories. Stop by for tangy oysters or clams to take home.