Wonderful Washington

Got home less than a week ago from an adventure in the beautiful Pacific Northwest. It’s been very hard to find the time to finally share the trip with all you bloggers as I have been very busy, but finally I am getting the chance to share. I have to begin by saying that the Olympic Peninsula of Washington State is one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever seen. Amazing is probably an even better word.

This trip began in an extraordinary way. Best Friend and I would have were beginning to have doubts as to whether we would be able to fly into Seattle for this trip, as all the flights from Salt Lake to Seattle were over booked for days. We even got on a standby list to fly into Vancouver, British Columbia. It seemed that the car rental and border crossing would be way too time consuming if we had chosen that route. We didn’t want to waste any precious vacation time trying to come back into our own country. It seemed nearly hopeless until we discovered a flight into Bellingham, Washington, north of Seattle. There were several seats open on this flight. It seemed to be the solution we were searching for to get us in the Seattle area.

Not only was the flight into Bellingham the answer, but it was quite an event! This was the inaugural flight from Salt Lake to Bellingham. And it was a big deal for Bellingham because it with its connection to Salt Lake, there would be connections to everywhere in the entire country and international. There was a rolling out of the red carpet and a buffet reception for us, the first passengers to fly into Bellingham from Salt Lake! The news crew was there. I am almost famous, as I was the second passenger to step off the plane. I made the newspaper! Check it out...

http://news.bellinghamherald.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060609/NEWS07/606090347&SearchID=73247478949929

After our special arrival into the beautiful and friendly state of Washington (Seriously, I have never met so many nice and helpful people anywhere else), we grabbed up the last rental car. We looked like Canadian tourists as our license plates were British Columbia.

After a nice ferry ride to connect us with Port Townsend on the peninsula, we started our journey through some of the most wonderful scenery. We worked our way all the way to Port Angeles, the gateway to fantastic Olympic National Park. We camped just outside of Port Angeles.

We began the next day bright and early and ventures along the Scenic Dungeness Loop. We checked out some of the tide pools remaining, but quickly disappearing in Dungeness Bay as high tide began to roll in. We then began our journey into the diverse Olympic National Park.

This park is unbelievable! It consists of high snow-capped mountains, two rainforests (The Hoh Rainforest is breathtaking), waterfalls, glacial lakes, and the Pacific shoreline. Unfortunately our view from the mountains was clouded, but I hear it’s an awesome view from Hurricane Ridge on a clear day. We drove by turquoise blue Crescent Lake and hiked to Marymere Falls. The forest here was thick with ferns, mosses, and enormous Red Cedars. Still, its density was nothing compared to the vegetation of the Hoh Rainforest. The trees were so thickly covered in mosses, lichen, and ferns that they were fuzzy and shaggy. We were lucky enough to catch a wonderful golden-orange sunset over the sea on Olympic’s Ruby Beach. Ruby Beach is known for its sea stacks (large rock formations standing on the beach and the sea). It was very pretty to watch the sun setting over the Pacific with the cliffs and sea stacks silhouetted against the colorful sky.

Outside of the park, we took a trip out to Cape Flattery, the northwestern most point in the continental United States. That was very cool for me as it as both the furthest north AND west I have ever been. That spot also was the farthest I have ever been from my home in Georgia. The hike out to the cape was very scenic and the views from the cliffs at the end of the point of the Pacific and the lighthouse was awesome. The hike was well worth it even though it was all uphill on the return back.

I found nearly everything I was looking for in Washington...good clam chowder, waterfalls, mountains, misty weather, starfish, tide pools, lighthouses, ferries, the fish market, Space Needle views, and beautiful rainforests.

But where was the Sasquatch?

(By the way, Blogger really hates me now and is refusing to allow me to upload photos. Hopefully, this problem will subside and I'll post some Washington pics. soon. Sorry!)