(with visits to Hurricane Ridge and Port Angeles)
Miles driven today= 122
Total miles driven= 1741
Warning: I may use the words beautiful, amazing, gorgeous, incredible, etc one too many times in my blog entries during this road trip. I apologize, but these places are just that--beautiful, amazing, gorgeous, incredible, etc. So please bear with me, as I lack better descriptive words for what I'm seeing and experiencing.
Our first day going into Olympic National Park! A visit to Hurricane Ridge was not on our original itinerary, but we had decided that we would be flexible and play everything by ear for the trip. Most of the campsites don't take reservations, so we were not exactly sure what we were doing or where we were staying each night. Things would have to be decided on as they come up day by day. So, we ended up making Hurricane Ridge our first stop after leaving Robin's Woods--it's a beautiful seventeen mile drive up the mountain from Port Angeles. Once you reach the visitor center at the top, there is an amazing, expansive view--a pretty meadow, a forest further out, and snow lingering on the mountains in the distance. Of course, pictures cannot do this scenery justice, but you get the idea...
Next stop was my first real-Twilight destination, Port Angeles. The two other places I've visited so far were movie-Twilight locations, which was still very cool, but it's also nice to be able to see the real places that the books were set in. It was a little smaller and a tad different from what I had imagined, but that's the way things like that go. It's my imagination, after all, so things will never match up exactly to what my brain has conjured up. Port Angeles is a cute and small town that sits along the water. We walked down the pier, then down the main drag of the town. It seems that we were there on the wrong day--practically the whole place was quiet and shut down (note to self, don't visit Port Angeles on Sundays.) Only a few places were open, including a bookstore, Port Book & News, which of course we roamed through for a while. Alicia bought a "Oregon & Washington Wildlife" ID book, so she could identify all the animals that she will see on the trip. I took some pictures around town, including the front of Bella Italia, the restaurant where Edward and Bella had their "first date". It's a good thing that Alicia was one of the first people I convinced to read Twilight and that she is also a fan (although not an obsessed one like me.) If she wasn't, I don't think she would be able to handle much of my Twilighting adventures, because there are quite a few more places that I want to visit! Here's a shot of Port Angeles from the lookout on the pier...
After walking around town for a bit, we went grocery shopping for our camping stay in the park. We tried to do it quickly, because dark clouds with lightning were forming in the distance, and we wanted to get to our campsite and set up before any rain hit. The drive west along Highway 101 towards Lake Crescent (and ultimately, Forks) was beautiful. We wanted to try to stay at Fairholm Campground, on the east end of Lake Crescent, but weren't sure if there would be space. The drive along the lake was amazing-the windy road followed the southern shore right at the water's edge. It turns out that most people head home on Sunday, so there was plenty of room at Fairholm. We picked a site on a tiny hill, with views of the lake between the trees. The whole campground was shaded by amazing (yes, it's that word again!) large moss-covered trees, which provided us with much protection from wind and rain. It sprinkled on us a bit, but nothing to complain about. The picture that I posted at the top of this entry is of the lake at sunset--the cloudy sky lit up to a soft pink, which reflected in the calm water of the lake. Ahh, what a peaceful setting...That evening, we made our own little fire, popped open a couple of beers and hung out...
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