Olympic Peninsula, 19-Sep-2013

Having seen many of the sites on the west side of the Olympic Peninsula, we set off towards Port Townsend to explore the north side. As you can see from the map we made a few photo stops. You'll also see other pins from our trip to Victoria and hikes earlier on our Olympic Peninsula trip.

Trip from Forks to Port Townsend

Our first stop was Lake Crescent where we took a short hike to Marymere Falls. The falls are pretty tall and there are two observation decks; one of them is very high up, which meant lots of stairs. We had a great view, and lucked out that we got there before the crowds. Along the way we once again plucked some red huckleberries. Before getting back to the car, we took a quick look at Lake Crescent, or at least what we could see near where we parked (we got a glimpse of how large it is while driving along US 101).

Marymere Falls trail

Marymere Falls

The next stop was another waterfall, this time Madison Creek Falls which is near the Elwha River. The walk to these falls was much shorter, but there were far fewer people there. You could see how much wider the falls would be in the spring when there would be a lot more water rushing through.

Madison Creek Falls

We then went north to the former site of the Elwha Dam. It's actually hard to picture how the dam was situated until you take a look at the "before" photos which are posted at the overlook. Just as impressive was what used to be Lake Aldwell, which now a small trickle. After viewing the site, we sat nearby and had our picnic lunch, watching several people head out to the viewing area. Once again, we had shown up before the crowd.

Elwha Dam site

Lake Aldwell

We got back onto US 101 and made our way to Port Townsend, where we would spend the night. We checked into the inn, which looked like an old fashioned hotel. It was renovated a while ago, and the pictures on the wall showed a lot of work had been put into the restoration.

After putting our stuff into our room, we proceeded to go on a quick walking tour of the city's historic buildings. We stumbled upon a Farmers Market, so we grabbed a quick snack there before continuing the tour. Conveniently enough, the last building was right next to where we were staying, but inconveniently enough there was a guy on that corner dressed as a cowboy but dancing on stilts, trying to get people to dance with him. We could even see him out the window from our room.

Port Townsend

Point Hudson, Port Townsend

Next on the agenda was to meet up with a friend of Melody's from when she was at WSU, whose house has a great view of the water (we also watched ferries arrive and depart). After we chatted for a while, a friend of his joined us and we all went down to the water for a leisurely dinner. Next thing we knew, a couple hours had passed.

All through the city, was very refreshing to have good cellular data reception. The internet connection from our room was also very good. We're pretty spoiled in the urban areas.