Dropping in to say I'm still following along and enjoying your report immensely

We are trying to keep up with all the great trips your are doing! We haven't been to Alaska yet, but it's on our list.

Port Townsend Wooden Boat Festival
Unbeknownst to us we are in town for the Wooden Boat Festival and there are some truly beautiful boats in the marina. It's a county faire atmosphere with millions of dollars of old wooden boats. Everyone seems to know everyone and the band is playing.





Lot's of trawlers mixed in with the sailboats. In

Most of the owners are on board and welcome you to see their boats if you know the password, "Permission to come aboard!"

This is a nice little sailboat named Townsend

Look at all those poles with the saily things.

These kids were jamming on the side of the marina, nice little blue grass numbers...

...and on the bandstand there was some white boy soul music!

And the final touch, and orange moon over the bay

Mystery State Park and Ft. Flagler State Park
In keeping with my goal to visit as many SPs as possible, we head east from Discovery Bay to two different State Parks. We have to go to two islands for our final destination, in search of eagles. We first have to cross Indian Island, once owned by Native Americans and now it houses a military base, I could tell you what's there...but then I'd have to kill you! The second island, Marrowstone, doesn't appear to be an island as we cross over it, tide is out and you could walk across land to get to it, but if the tide is in, maybe it's an island. At the northern tip of Marrowstone Island is Ft. Flagler and we are supposed to see eagles!



Mystery Bay SP is a very small park on the left as you head up Flagler Rd. on Marrowstone Island.

Boats in the harbor at Mystery Bay

Our first sighting of eagles. Two eagles are flying up above us and we get them in our sights.

On to Fort Flagler

Yes, Virginia, it was a real fort with the big guns to prove it.

Walked along the beach looking for eagles in the trees

Another great Washington State beach.

After discovering apples grow on trees, imagine my surprise that clams grow on trees here as well. What kind of state is this

Hey, how about a little lunch?

Finnriver Farm and Cidery
One of the interesting things about the Port Townsend area is all the other little communities that seem so close. Port Hadlock-Irondale, Nordland and this evening a visit to Chimacum. Some of these areas are drive-bys, for instance we are staying in Discovery Bay which consists of a hamburger joint and a cannabis shop, plus many residences. Coming from Los Angeles 60 square miles of new names, Winnetka, Reseda, Lake Balboa, Van Nuys, which are basically one long strip mall, the Washington areas actually have open space between them. There is something here called the Jefferson Land Trust, it's a non-profit organization to keep the land for farming and refuges etc. Tonite's visit to Finnriver is part of that Trust. If you have apples, it only makes sense that any self respecting drinker is going to turn those apples to Cider! That's what Finnriver is about. There seem to be a few of them around this community.

Tonight is about being outside and music and trying out some of that cider. It is quite a unique spot to us, probably not to the local area, but it's hopping with people in different groups, you can sit in the pavilion where the music is. You can sit out in the open space, you can walk through the gardens with flowers and you can look at the apple trees. We had the best time with a little dancing, a little cider and the best ice cream.



Entrance to the property. They have their own kitchen and 4 different food vendors, pizza, oysters, ice cream, salads, a very unique model

Here is the pavilion where we sat to watch the band...a dance

Here's the band.

One of the outside seating areas. Obviously a lot of community here with people moving from area to area, laughing, giving out hugs.

A longer shot of the grounds

Where is Vincent when you need him? He would have loved to paint these.

Beautiful color

Sun saying , "see ya tomorrow"

Stages of the Morning
In our week here, we've had one sunny morning. Most of our days have started and progressed along the lines of the photos below.



7AM

9AM

10AM

Another shot of 10AM

1PM

Salt River Creek Recretion Area and Misty Willows Campground
I haven't written for more than a week, we're back to camping which means no social media, no TV, no internet. It's been wonderful, hope I didn't miss anything. Quick stop at Walmart in Port Angeles for supplies. I have to say I have become a Walmart hypocrite in the last few years. I was historically opposed to Walmart, in the 90's I drove through too many small towns with a shiny new Walmart outside of town and a gutted downtown, empty shoe stores, bike stores, mom and pop grocery stores. I think Walmart wraps itself in the flag and sells 80% of it's merchandise from China...but now that we have been traveling in the van since Covid, I have become extremely lazy. One stop shop for groceries, a new bathing suit, duc tape, you name it. I'm a hypocrite!

We are headed to Cape Flattery, the furthest Northwestern point in the United States, but we are taking our time. At Port Angeles we caught Hwy 112 which skirts the northern coast of the Strait of Juan De Fuca. Stopped at Salt River Creek. It would have been a great place to camp, but I didn't see it on my search. Too bad. But we did have lunch and a short hike before heading to our actual campsite

Misty Willows campground was one of the more unique places we have camped. The campground is run by a couple of old hippies from Ventura, California. They bought a bunch of property up here quite a few years back and have been running a campground for the last couple of years. It's unique because it's so understated. There is a simple sign off Hwy 113, just past Beaver Lake, you drive down a narrow dirt road and then look for your site, which is marked with a chair and the name of the site. No one was around when we got there, so we grabbed a site that would accommodate the van. Around 7:30 a car pulls up and out jump Charlie and Willow, our hosts. They kindly gave us a pass for Cape Flattery, the next day and said just leave it on the picnic table when you pass back through. With that they were off and we settled down for the night.


The sign for Salt Creek. It's a county park and is a real nice place to camp, looking out over the bluff

This is where we had lunch! Great site looking over the bay toward Canada. We say 5 sea lions swimming front of us.

We named this Bonsai Island.

Another view from our hike.

This is the only sign for Misty Willows Camp. If you are heading south there is no sign.

Driveway down to the campsites.

We actually had a pallet instead of a chair for Hummingbird Court, one of the bigger sites.

And here is our campsite. There was a gallon of water on the table which was nice because there really aren't many amenities here. I would stay again though because Charlie and WIllow are so nice.

Cape Flattery
Our trip to Cape Flattery came about due to a booking error on my part. I had put in the wrong dates for our Discovery Bay stay and extended it by one day on the calendar. This came to my attention about the same time my wife said, "We have to visit Cape Flattery!". Our good luck, because Cape Flattery is fantastic. Up and on the road pretty early for us, about 10AM and back up Hwy 113 where it runs into Hwy 112 toward Neah Bay. The sign for Neah Bay says something like 27 miles. Great, we will be there in half an hour. Wrong! It's such a twisty, bumpy road that is not safe to drink coffee on the way, if you want the coffee in your mouth and not on your shirt. On top of that, they are doing a lot of construction. At least 3 stops for one lane roads, waiting for oncoming traffic. We get there in about an hour. Pass through the check point, Cape Flattery is on the Makah Reservation and they charge $20 to go on the reservation property. About another 4 miles and we are there. Good parking, we are early enough and we hit the trail!

The trail is about 1.5 miles round trip. Some elevation at the end because you go downhill at the beginning.

A number of board walks on the trail.

Interesting Siamese Twin trees on the path


There are about 4 viewing places on the path. This one is the prow of a ship viewing spot.

Turn around from the prow and this is what you see! We met two young ladies from Michigan, my home state, and we talked about the Upper Peninsula in Michigan.
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Cool cave.

There was an otter in this bay and it was on it's back most of time and it was being chased by seagulls trying to pick up and oysters or clams the otter dropped.

The end of the trail looks out on all of these rock formations. Really beautiful, plus we had good weather, not sunny but no rain.

Another shot of the Cape

DRAMA QUEENS
We have returned to the Olympic National Park after hovering on the border the last two weeks and now we are discovering the west side of the park and it's amazing beaches. We have labeled them the Drama Queens for a reason, one moment you are bathed in sunshine and you swear that the beach only has eyes for you, then the next minute, the fog comes in, your cold and the beach doesn't even remember your name. We got to visit some of the best beaches and fickle or not, we still love them. Rialto, 2nd Beach and Beach 4 just north of Kalaloch here is to you!

Rialto Beach
We camped at Mora Campground and had the coolest site with our own little nook for morning coffee. Rialto Beach, famous for the Hole in the Wall, is only two miles away. We went twice but it's all about the tide if you want to actually get to Hole-in-the-Wall and to see the tide pools. We did get up early to see the tide pools and it was great, foggy with quite a stream of people. If you miss judge the tide, you will be walking in water, it come right up to the trees!



Can't see this sign enough!

Morning coffee in our campsite.

Always lots of logs.

I was told that just past this rock were the tide pools.

Reflection of a tree off one of the rocks and an anemone

Starfish!

Starfish and sea cucumbers

Man made on the left, nature made on the right

Made it to Hole-in-the-Wall before the tide rose.

Here comes the fog, and the tide. What a cold ocean.

Those sea creatures are amazing. Love the pink starfish.

Hi Kay - The green anemones are everywhere, and the starfish seem to like to cling to the underside of a rock formation. They really are colorful.

Second Beach
On one of our outings in the Park a woman told us, you have to go to Second Beach. Mora Campground is on the north side of the Quillayete River and the community of La Push is on the south side. From the Mora side it is about 20 minutes to get to La Push. There are three beaches here, 1st Beach which is actually in the town of La Push on the Quillayute Reservation and 2nd and 3rd beaches further south. Second Beach has a small parking lot and a well maintained path that leads to the beach. We loved it.


This way, follow me!

Interesting tree along the way. The path is really step at the end and involves some muddy steps

On our way back up, we appreciated these wooden crossings.

This tree was the sign that we were starting to go down to the parking lot after a bit of climbing from the beach.

Almost there, view from one of the turns on the path

The most amazing driftwood

Here is a close up of some log that caught my attention

There is also a Hole-in-the-Wall here but I'm not sure you can get to it like the one on Rialto beach.

This giant buoy escaped the sea and is now resting on the beach.

Offshore island or sea stacks as there are called.

This is a random pile of logs that have been done by humans. On our way back up the hill we passed about 10 people who had permits to actually camp on the beach. Too much gear for us to schlep to the beach!

Beach 4
We have left Mora Campground and are headed to our next camping at Kalaloch CG. We stopped at Hoh Rain Forest on the way then hit Beach 4 but I am completing my Beach Trilogy before I talk about Hoh. There are a LOT of beaches on the west side of the park, close to Kalaloch there are 4. When we were looking at the tide pools at Rialto a young man said, the ones at Beach 4 are better, so we will see!



Nice size parking lot at Beach 4. A good smooth trail the ends at this beach. This photo makes it look like to goes straight into the ocean. It almost does!

You have to climb down rocks like these to get to the beach. We haven't seen rocks like these on a beach on our trip so far.

Side view of the bridge. There is actually a rope to help you get down the rocks from the bridge.

Sea anemones everywhere. They need water to open up that's why it's so important to see them when the tide is coming in.

Some more anemones and a few starfish

This is along the rock formation and you can see the anemones go all along the rocks

More wood shots!

And here comes the fog. It was sunny when we first walked down to the beach around 9AM, but you know how the beach is, a fickle mistress!

What a beautiful seacoast and forest! Thanks for posting.

I'm really enjoying your travelogue and your photos. One thing I do regret is not going to Cape Flattery. Your descriptions of the various beaches is apt; the weather changes and so does the mood. We didn't get to visit Rialto nor Beach 4, but we were at second beach for low tide. We also went to First beach and Ruby beach (both close to high tide). I was surprised the huge amount of driftwood. I hope you stopped at John's Beachcombing museum in Forks - that photo of the buoy stuck on the beach reminded me of his museum and you should have picked up the buoy and hauled it to John.

The anemones are called Giant Green Anemones, the sea stars (they are now called sea star instead of starfish because they are not fish) are ochre sea stars and are deemed as a keystone species for the Washington coast. I learned all about this after looking up and reading on the sea stars. https://usa.oceana.org/blog/creature...chre-sea-star/
They were less affected by the sea star wasting disease than the sunflower stars. Interestingly a month after I got back from our trip, the wasting disease made the news headlines again, in a good way. After over a decade, scientists finally figured out which bacteria was responsible for the disease. (spoiler alert, it is from the vibrio family, which is also responsible for cholera)
https://www.scientificamerican.com/a...ase-affecting/

yk - We didn't get to John's Beachcombing museum, although on our list, because it was closed! Boo. The picture doesn't do it justice, but the buoy was probably 4' to 5' in dimension so it would have made it a tough trip to carry up the hill. LOL. Thanks for the info on the Giant Green Anemones and sea stars. I read both of the blogs you posted. Very interesting.

Hoh Rain Forest
If you are visiting Olympic National Park, you have to visit the Hoh Rain Forest. That being said, given the large quantities of forest and streams and lakes and trails in other areas of the Park, is it necessary to brave the line at the Ranger's Entrance, the search for parking and then the crowds on the paths at Hoh? I can't answer that, but I think the answer for most folks, us included, would be yes. However, as I had stated before on this TR, if you are headed from south to north, there is a perfectly good rain forest at Lake Quinault without the crowds.

We left Mora Campground pretty early for us, 9AM and headed towards Hoh, I was surprised to see on the sign post it was only 12 miles to Hoh, but even on a Sunday they are still doing a lot of construction and we had to stop for 3 one lane traffic breaks. Turned on to the road to Hoh and there are only 2 cars in front of us, yes, looking good. It is about 18 miles to the Visitor Center. The Park Entrance Kiosk is about 6 miles before the Visitor Center. Very short wait to show our pass, same two cars. That's a good sign! Arrive at the Visitor Center and all of the parking places are taken. There is an overflow parking lot before the main parking lot, in hindsight I should have tried there first. As it was we managed to snag a place on the side of the road between the main and overflow parking. When I parked around 10:15 I was the only car on the side. By 10:30 it was full.

There was a Ranger Talk at 11AM so we hung around for that. Got my stamp in my National Park Passport, bought some stickers, and then back to the talk. Ranger Crystal grew up in Visalia, Ca. where I once lived. After the talk we hit the trails, essentially the Hall of Mosses, which everyone does, I mean everyone and then I walked the Spruce Nature Trail which was surprisingly quiet. There is a longer hike, the Hoh River Trail, which is like 17 miles, but what are we pilgrims or pioneers? After Hoh we head out to our next camping spot Kalaloch, right on the ocean!


First up, a little breakfast of yogurt and granola in the van.

Some of the moss on this "orangutan arm"

More moss, it's everywhere as you would expect

Just a couple of bumps on a log

Some kind of fungi

More big trees.

This is the root system of a tree that has fallen over, who knows how long ago.

Another great moss shot

This is a little creek that leads into the Hoh River

This is the actual Hoh River

Ok, so this is interesting. These five trees all grew out of a mother tree, probably hundreds of years ago. The mother tree has completely wasted away but the "off spring" are standing tall and in line!

Tons of ferns on the Spruce Nature Trail. In the past this was all wet land that has been filled in, so different types of vegetation, even from the Hall of Mosses walk

Kalaloch Campground
After our morning in Hoh we headed to our final destination for this leg of the trip, Kalaloch. On the way we stopped at Ruby Beach but didn't go down. Kalaloch is right oh the bluff above the beach. We are in campsite A7 and when we pulled up there is truck in our space. We pulled in front of it and two people jumped out, someone in their party was washing dishes across from our site. They are camping at South Beach and don't have any water! As it turned out, we had talked to them earlier in the day at Hoh! It's all good, they leave shortly and we set up. We had three nights at Kalaloch and it was great, easy walk to the beach and sunny for two days. The third night, it started raining, for 12 straight hours. I anticipated it and we had packed up earlier so not to much water damage on the camping gear.


Quite a few campsites at this location. All up on the bluff.

This was a tree that we looked at each morning with our morning coffee.

Our neighbors said this was called Chicken of the Woods. It's edible and and can be used in cooking...we didn't!

Did I say we were close to the beach? Right below us. A little windy this afternoon so we snugged in against some logs.

Just down the beach is the Tree of Life. We met a woman from Boston who said she just saw a documentary or news report about this tree. Park officials said it's only a few storms away from falling down.

You can go behind the tree and look out at the beach.

Lot's of people have left their names on rocks and put them on the roots

A little sand sculpture someone made.

There is a nice nature trail across Hwy 101 from the camp. It was another interesting walk in the woods

Saw this tree....

...and this mushroom

Boardwalk on the trail. It was sunny when we did this walk but a few hours later it was pouring.

Amazing that you can spend so much time there and visit leisurely. When we were at Hoh we waited at the entrance for 20 or so minutes. We enjoyed our ranger talk! Both short trails were busy and we didn't have time to do the Hoh River Trail - you can actually decide how far you want to go and turn back, since the trail is out-and-back. I took some of the same photos as you did - the one with the uprooted tree, and the one with the line of tree grown from a nurse log.