Next Stop – Port Angeles and Hurricane Ridge

 

Apparently there is nothing that cannot happen today.

 

Moving from the Elks in Sequim to Port Angeles wasn’t a long move.  The distance between the two towns is only about 15 miles.  Our plan was to move Thursday afternoon.  However, with four people on board using water without an onsite dump, we had to move a little sooner than planned.  We had actually forgotten the Elks only had water and electricity.  Normally that wouldn’t have been a problem.  The problem was long showers for four people don’t cut it.  Most of you know exactly what I’m talking about.  You’ve been there, done that.  However, we were able to empty our tanks at the Chevron station which was only about 5 minutes away.

Shortly afterwards we pulled into my cousin, Bob’s place.  He has the perfect place for a large get together  -- lots of parking space and a hall for entertaining. Since most folks won’t be pulling in until Friday we got first pick of spots.  We picked one close enough to electrical outlets that we could run a cord.  You know what they say, the early bird gets the worm.  In this case the worm was electricity.

It was a fast setup and we were off to Hurricane Ridge in the Olympic National Park.   I wanted to take the kids to see the beauty of it.  It was a perfect day.  The sun was shining and wild flowers were in full bloom.  It’s just a short drive from where we were parked since my cousin lives on the road to Hurricane Ridge.  Every time we visit, I’m in awe of the beauty.  On one side by the Visitor’s Center you see all the snow peaked mountains.  On the other side you have a view of Port Angeles, Strait of Juan de Fuca and Canada.  It was definitely a gorgeous site. 

The road to the top of the mountain starts at an elevation near sea level and in 17 miles climbs to a little over 5400 feet. Some places the road is fairly level and not too windy. At other places it is definitely not level and quite windy. Obviously, RVs are not recommend but we did see a few Class C’s all the way at the top. We also saw one good sized Class A turning around in the first pull-out and that was just before the steeper climbs and just before the three tunnels.  There are  several fairly long 7% grade sections on the road to the top. 

The Visitor’s Center had this section of a tree displayed showing the life of a tree.  The life of this tree began in 1349.

After walking Duchess we were off again.  This time we were off to Ediz Hook.  This is another natural sand spit  and one we always have to visit.  I love it here.  Maybe because it’s where home used to be.

Years ago Port Angeles used to host a salmon derby.  The derby was held on two days over Labor Day weekend.  As the supply of salmon dwindled the derby had to be stopped.  At times there were so many boats in the water that we used to joke about almost being able to walk across to Canada from boat to boat.

It was another beautiful day in a very beautiful part of Washington.  Port Angeles has it all from the mountains to the seashore.

‘Tis life on the road.