Joe's Roadtrip

Location: Forks, WA  (Note: I was not aware this is the home of that “Twilight” nonsense)

Miles Driven: 148

Total Miles: 14,287

Ed and I intended to hit up a local patisserie for breakfast, but it was closed for maintenance.  Our next best option – cupcakes.  Ed asked if I had heard about the cupcake craze around the U.S., indeed I had.  In fact my friend Mona back in Owego runs a great website of her own where she displays some of her amazing creations – check it out here.

I wish I had more cupcakes for breakfast.  It was delicious.  After chowing down, Ed made his way south to work and I headed north towards Edmonds, Washington, where I was planning to take the Kingston ferry across the Puget Sound to get to the Olympimpic Peninsula.  My intended destination: Olympic National Park.  I had never visited this place before, in fact I had barely been in Washington before, but people rave about the beautiful 922,000+ acres.  And later that day, I learned why.

It was foggy when I crossed via the ferry, but when I got closer to the park in the afternoon the skies had cleared and I had the chance to enjoy a very scenic drive.

Lake Crescent ahead

After driving for a little while, I got out near the Lake Crescent area and took a break.  Sat by the woods and read a little bit, and then spent some time admiring the blue/green (and amazingly clear) lake.

The forest near the lake

big Lake Crescent

I was amazed by how clear the water is.  To illustrate:

Deer in the meadow near the ranger station

I decided to take the hike up to Marymere Falls.  It was pretty amazing…never in my life had I seen so much green.  And there were some pretty huge trees.

It wasn’t long before I approached the falls.  Very beautiful.

I took a video of the Falls thinking it might be hard to gain a sense of perspective from a photograph.  Take a look here and you’ll see it’s a pretty sizeable waterfall:

I headed back and found another trail going uphill a ways.  Figuring I could stand a little more exercise, I went up there and enjoyed some nice views of the forest.

Once again, I was blown away by how green everything was

more big trees

By this point it was already after 6PM, and I wanted to get some more driving in before the day ended.  I got back in the car and headed west on Hwy 101.  Had some more nice views of the lake as I was driving.

I didn’t end up driving much farther.  In about an hour I was pretty damn tired, and I still had a few hours of daylight left.  In Forks I found a rest stop, and I just decided I’d park there for the night.  I could tell the night was going to be one of the coldest experiences of this trip since I was in Maine, so I got prepared with my sweatshirt and blanket (thanks to Kelly for the big green one).

The plan for Thursday is to check out some of the park’s rainforest, and then turn back east and make my way towards Vancouver.  Olympic National Park was a great way to spend Day 60 as my last major destination in the Lower 48 States for the next couple of weeks.

joe