November 2009 - Olympic Peninsula: Neah Bay and Cape Flattery

Salt Creek, looking West

Island west of Salt Creek area

Notice surfer in the foreground - lovely misty peaks in the distance

Another surfer...

The bunker

Trail at Cape Flattery

View looking SW

View looking North

Flattery lighthouse - on it's own island in the distance

Lake Ozette

Crescent Lake - this was the view from my lunch spot

I left my house at 6:00AM on Friday the 13th (should I be worried?). Got half way down the drive and came upon a toppled tree – across the road of course. Backed up, grabbed my chain saw, cut the tree out of the way, and still made it onto the 6:40 boat!

After swimming in Anacortes and doing some other errands, I picked up the RV (stored in Anacortes) and I proceeded to Keystone on Whidbey Island. The next ferry was in an hour and it looked like I would get on it as there weren’t very many cars waiting. Turned out the next boat was an hour late, AND it was the last ferry of the day – all subsequent boats were cancelled due to winds and weather. Whew, was I lucky. Finally got to Port Townsend about 3:30. After a stop at the great co-op, I headed west. My goal for the weekend was Neah Bay. I could see that darkness was going to force me to stop short of Neah Bay, so I ended up at an RV park outside of Sequim.

Saturday was decent weather and I had time to travel leisurely out to Neah Bay. Stopped at Salt Creek and walked a lot of the trails, including finding a huge WWII bunker. There were even some guys trying to surf!! Got to Cape Flattery about 4PM and took the trail out to the lookout over the point and the lighthouse. It was a fairly steep trail and took an hour. I didn’t linger at the end because I was afraid of running out of daylight. But it was spectacular. I didn’t even check out the campground before going to the cape, because I knew I didn’t have enough day light. So then about 5PM I headed back to look for the campground. I had communicated by email so I knew they were open. Found it and by headlight scoped it out. Small cabins (one with a car), one group of campers in tents (poor souls), and me. I ended up parking in the middle of a huge field (open campsites really, but since I was the only one, I wanted to be relatively level and not under a tree because winds were coming up). So although I was toasty and dry, the RV rocked madly all night and the rain was torrential.

Sunday, it rained steadily all day with continuing wind gusts. I drove to Lake Ozette (figured I was already out there, I should see everything I could). Beautiful big fresh water lake right next to the ocean. Took a short hike, but did not go the 3 miles to the beach. Drove back along 101. Some of it was white knuckle driving because of severe side winds. Ended up on the Kitsap peninsula. I needed a winter coat and had coupons expiring on Sunday for Lane Bryant, but the only LB on the peninsula was in Silverdale. It was a good thing I went there, because I saved over $100 on a good down coat (I paid less than $60 for a coat that was list price $159!) In the meantime, I had received a frantic call from Kelley so instead of camping on the peninsula, I headed back to Kingston, took the ferry to Edmunds,  and headed up to Bellingham. Spent another windy rocky night parked outside her house. She just needed some support and “mom” time, so I was glad I was able to accommodate.

It was pretty wild – extremely windy and driving rain. Camping at this time of year is dicey to say the least. No thought of sitting by a campfire! But I’m so glad I went. As I was driving through the beautiful landscape, I could feel myself relaxing and unwinding. It’s so good for the soul!