Trip Report

What a fun trip this turned out to be! We had a very cheerful, congenial group of people; perfect weather; spectacular scenery and an excellent bus driver. We accomplished our goal of exploring four key points in the Olympic National Park as well as including opportunities for individual exploration and walking. Our lodging in Port Townsend, Port Angeles and Astoria were on the waterfront. Highlights of the trip: Hurricane Ridge – A beautiful drive to the top on a sunny day with spectacular vistas including Mount Olympus; Lake Crescent Lodge & Lake – This historic lodge, built in 1915, and calm, peaceful lake invite a return trip; Rialto Beach – shows the power of the Pacific Ocean. The shore covered with piles of silver tree trunks; an unusual beach of tumbled, polished rocks; numerous sea stacks and constant waves crashing on the beach. Hoh Rain Forest – a variety of trees draped with moss, as well as stately giants invite one to follow the trails to see what is next. Even the little stream has a variety of bright green moss waving in the current. An excellent guided tour of Port Townsend took us through downtown, uptown and historic Fort Worden. Our days in Port Townsend and Port Angeles allowed free time for walking, dining, shopping, bicycle riding and some folks took the ferry ride over to Whidbey Island. Points of interest in Forks were: The impressive Thriftway-Mercantile-Ace Hardware stores (all in one building), if you can’t find it here you probably don’t need it. Forks Timber Museum has excellent displays of the timber industry and history. Next door the Visitor Center staff is enthusiastic about the community’s history and being the location for the “Twilight Saga” series. Driving south on Hwy 101 took us through Raymond’s “wildlife sculpture corridor” where we had fun spotting steel silhouettes of birds, animals and people. There are 200 of these rust colored sculptures placed around town. Entering Oregon over the 4.1 mile long Astoria-Megler Bridge is always exciting, with great views up and down the Columbia River. As our day came to a close we enjoyed a group pizza dinner in the meeting room, lots to talk about and share. Then in the night the rains came – many were awakened by the thunder, lightning, hail and hard rain, it even shut the harbor seals up for a bit. Our last day took us to the Astoria Column where several folks climbed to the top for the views and to launch their balsam wood gliders – here they learned that “wet” gliders don’t fly very well. Lastly we toured the Maritime Museum with its excellent maritime history displays and interesting 3D movies. Then it was on to Camp 18 at Elsie for lunch and marveling at the construction and wood carving displays. We arrived back in Eugene in the rain where we did get quite wet for the first time on the trip.