[335dFan]

Since the D has been languishing this winter, it seemed time to take a little road trip to the Olympic Peninsula in Washington State. It coincides with a separate trip my wife has planned to meet up with some of her girl buddies. So, this coming Tuesday I will set out from just a few miles south of Portland. Planned itinerary is as follows, in summary:

Tues - Up I-5 to Kelso, WA, then west to meet up with 101 over nearer to the coast. Then up to Lake Quinault, WA, where I will stay the first night.

Wed - Follow 101 north, with first stop at Ruby Beach. Then onto the Hoh Rain Forest, then back to 101 and up to Forks, WA, where I will head to the coast to see some stuff around La Push, WA. Then get back to 101 and head for the second night's lodging at Sol Duc Resort, where they have some hot springs.

Thur - Go back up to 101, then head to Port Angeles where I catch the road up to Hurricane Ridge. Then back down to 101 and take it all the way down to Olympia, then over to stay the night at Joint Base Lewis-McChord.

Fri - I decided to stay the night at the base because I want to check out the procedures for catching military hops to various destinations, with Japan one of my first thoughts. They have Space-A out of McChord and also out of SEATAC. After that I'll head back down I-5 to home.

Will post relevant pictures as I go.

[floydarogers]

Thursday is going to be kind of a long day - 101 down Hood Canal is not very fast, even in a fast car. And I5 from Olympia to JBLM (even though a short drive) is often jammed, depending upon time of day.

If you get stopped by Customs & Immigration, give em hell (they often run patrols up there.)

[AzureHaze]

Been looking forward to another one of your road trip journals brother!

[335dFan]

Originally Posted by floydarogers

Thursday is going to be kind of a long day - 101 down Hood Canal is not very fast, even in a fast car. And I5 from Olympia to JBLM (even though a short drive) is often jammed, depending upon time of day.

If you get stopped by Customs & Immigration, give em hell (they often run patrols up there.)

Thanks for the heads up.

[335dFan]

Arrived way early at Lake Quinault: 10:45am. 215 miles. Drive mildly interesting the way I went but will go a different route next time. Computer says at the moment I will get 596 miles on the tank. Now for some hiking. Pics of the lodge attached.

[335dFan]

Interior

[mcall87]

Really nice!! Amazing view!

[335dFan]

Day 2 of the Olympic Peninsula Road Trip started off with 42,669 miles on the odometer, with the first planned stop of the day at Ruby Beach, right on US101, about 40 miles for the first segment. Not much along the way in the way of civilization. Amazing how much of the USA is relatively unpopulated. That's good; many places to get away from it all.

Arrived at Ruby Beach at 8:07a, a little gravel parking lot with a toilet and a National Park Service sign. One other soul there, another solo male of the same approximate vintage. Here are some pics. I stayed at the beach for about 35 minutes.

Thirty-two miles and 75 minutes later I arrived at the Hoh Rain Forest, about 18 miles off US101. On Wednesdays there are no park rangers serving at the visitors Center, which was under construction anyway. I took one trail called the Hall of Mosses or something like that. Saw one elk munching about 30 meters off the trail. The one picture is vague because he (?) didn't want his meal disturbed by paparazzi. Had a modest rack of antlers. The scenery along this trail was something out of a fairy tale or Jurassic Park or the like, being a rain forest albeit temperate rather than tropical. Lot of ferns and moss and moisture. More pics here. Stayed here about 45 minutes.

Then I set off to Forks to get a snack and then pushed over to the coast to see Rialto Beach and the Indian reservation village of La Push. Got some lunch here: a salmon burger. Total mileage from the rain forest was about 44 miles. Some pics. Total time here was about 90 minutes.

[melonbread]

very nice pictures of west coast, i miss the pacific! i wished i took more road trips while i was stationed in NW.

[335dFan]

Sorry for the duplicate pics. I think I exceeded the limit. Here are the ones I intended for that stop.

[335dFan]

My original plan was to go to the location for this night's lodging, but I had some spare time, so at the little town of Sappho I took a turn north to see the Strait of Juan de Fuca and possibly Vancouver Island across the water. It was clear, so from the towns of Clallam Bay and Sekiu I could see Canada. See pics. From La Push to here was about 47 miles. Then onto my final stop for the day, Sol Duc Hot Springs, another 45 miles.

[335dFan]

At Sol Duc I had a little cabin by the river, and took a 75 minute soak and a 30 minute massage, followed by some fish and chips for dinner. More pics.

Total distance so far is 453.1 miles, with the computer saying I still have 141 miles until empty.

[335dFan]

My pride and joy

[335dFan]

First refill in Port Angeles WA. 519,7 miles, 13.914g, 37.35 mpg.

[floydarogers]

Originally Posted by 335dFan

First refill in Port Angeles WA. 519,7 miles, 13.914g, 37.35 mpg.

That is consistent with my experience: speeds in the 60 mph range on secondary roads give better mileage than 70+ on freeways.

[335dFan]

Originally Posted by floydarogers

That is consistent with my experience: speeds in the 60 mph range on secondary roads give better mileage than 70+ on freeways.

Arrived back home at 10:45 am this morning @ 43,237 miles. Drove from Ft. Lewis near Tacoma. Still have about a half a tank left, so no new MPG numbers, but I expect if I filled up now the mpg for the tank would be around 36-37.

I expected a little better mileage on that Port Angeles fill-up, but that is probably a little unrealistic given the nature of some of the miles up the road to Hoh Rain Forest, down around the coast line at pokey speeds, and climbing part the way up Hurricane Ridge road. I bailed on that because it was foggy and snowing at the top and I figured I need to bring my wife back up here anyway, so decided to abort.

Will post some final pics later.

[BeastMode335i]

niceeee

[335dFan]

On Day 3 I woke up on a rather chilly morning at Sol Duc Hot Springs and headed north then west. First thing worth reporting was the drive along the south shoreline of Lake Crescent. Very picturesque.

Then I headed for Port Angeles, because the Olympic National Park Visitors Center is there, and I wanted to check out road conditions up to Hurricane Ridge. But first I went to the harbor, because the server at the previous night's restaurant told me there was a very large oil rig there. I couldn't possibly miss that, not could I? Yes, it was a rather large oil rig. Check out the tug boat dwarfed by the monster.

The park ranger told me the road was clear, BUT that it was foggy and snowing up there. Well, I decided to at least check it out, so I drove on up the hill. By that time the computer was telling me 70 miles to go on the tank, but as I climbed that 5,000 feet in elevation in about 17 miles, the amount left on the tank was dropping a lot faster than the odometer was increasing. But that isn't what dissuaded me. It was raining, and since it was going to be zero visibility up on top, and because I need to bring my wife back there anyway, I decided to bag it and I turned around at about the 9-10 mile just after the first two tunnels. And coasting (well, not really) down, the miles left on the tank started going back up. When I got back in town I filled up the tank, but I already reported the MPG results in my previous post.

A Navy Top Gun pilot friend of mine told me about the Dungeness Sand Spit just east of Port Angeles, so I went and checked it out. Pretty neat place. I wished I would have had the time to hike the 5.5 miles out to the light house on the end of the spit. Pics included.

After a mile or so hike to the spit, I headed for Tacoma where I was going to spend the night at Ft. Lewis. Thanks to great advice from Floyd Rogers I took a more expeditious route than I had originally planned, so I got there around 5 pm or so, which gave me time to hit the PX, commissary, and the McChord AFB passenger terminal to check out the process for Space-A hops.

The next day I got a leisurely start and drove back home down I-5. Just one pic out the windshield taken south of Kelso with the Columbia River on the right and the gauge at that moment. Arrived home around 10:45 am with 43,237 miles on the odometer, with about a half a tank left.

[floydarogers]

You can drive around the Olympic Penn. in one day, but it's a VERY long day and you don't see anything - it's really a beautiful place, the park is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. A friend of mine from Israel mentioned that Israel is basically the same size; gives one a sense of scale on what everyone is fighting about.

Glad you found my advice useful. Now you've crossed the longest salt-water floating bridge in the world!

One thing about mileage - if you can't do at least 47-48 mph, our cars never shift into 6th. They get lousy mileage below that speed because of that; much of your 2nd day was probably on roads that prevented higher speeds.

I'm a little prejudiced, being a native Washingtonian and never having lived elsewhere, but WA is a spectacular place. OR not to bad, either.

[Yozh]

Next time you are in Port Angeles, WA may I suggest you take a boat across the straight to where the igloos are, and check out a nice little town of Victoria, BC. You will enjoy it.

[335dFan]

Originally Posted by Yozh

Next time you are in Port Angeles, WA may I suggest you take a boat across the straight to where the igloos are, and check out a nice little town of Victoria, BC. You will enjoy it.

Was last in Victoria in June 2004 in my '86 Jetta diesel with my daughter. Third day of a 3-week road trip. Will come this summer.