Washington coast and the Olympian Peninsula, Route 101; Olympian National Park and Crescent Lake; Pacific Inn at Forks of Twilight fame; bones of the rain forest at La Push and Ruby Beach; clam chowder at Pacific Beach; Japanese whisky at serendipitous Seabrook; bleak beach at Ocean Shores; Canterbury Inn and the Oyehut Bay Grill
Recap, and the Olympic National Park
As you may remember from my last post (if not, click here), we comfortably coached it from Vancouver, Canada to spend our first night on US soil at Seattle.
From Seattle, Roy pointed the rental car in the direction of Washington State’s Olympic Peninsula. After a coffee-stop detour to picturesque Port Townsend (again, click here), we continued along the 101 to the relatively featureless Forks, apparently named for the forking of three rivers. (Forks is where the Twilight series was set, though only a few scenes were actually filmed there.)
Context
Map 1
Here for context is a map of Washington State, with Canada to the north and Oregon to the south:
Map 2
This map shows our westerly route along the 101 through the top of Olympic National Forest to Forks and on to La Push,
This spectacular route takes you deep into Olympic National Park and past Crescent Lake – a long, lovely, alpine-looking body of water created by the melting of glaciers during the last Ice Age, which carved out these deep valleys.
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Forks, of Twilight fame
Pacific Inn at Forks is a cosy motel that somewhat reminds me of Roy’s and my October 2022 ten-day road trip from Perth, Western Australia to Brisbane, Queensland. (Click here to see the semi-desert scenery of the Nullarbor plain, so different to this! Incidentally, the name Nullarbor comes from the Latin phrase meaning no trees.)
Luckily, Pacific Inn on the Washington coast is exponentially more comfortable than even the best of the benighted Nullarbor hostelries we stayed in.
The motel sits conveniently next to casual dining restaurant The In Place, where we opted for Caesar salads and delicious rib-eyes – mine with baked potato and sour cream, yum!
So far, the service in the US has been super-warm and friendly. This is the norm in South Africa, too; I can’t help wondering if Australia might do better with more of a tipping culture.
More importantly…
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La Push and Ruby Beach, Washington Coast
First way-point on the navigator – which, let’s be honest, has been a source of at least moderate concern if not genuine anguish ever since Roy activated it in Seattle – was La Push.
As mentioned above, this area is where the author of Twilight set her famous novels; and several of the movie scenes were filmed here, too. Naturally, the more entrepreneurial locals try to make something of that fact, and why would they not? (A few days later, now in Oregon, Roy and I made a point of watching the first Twilight movie. Not bad.)
What’s with the name?
If you’re anything like me, you’ll be wondering where the name La Push came from. Seems it got its name from the French term la bouche, the mouth, referring to the mouth of the Quillayute (originally Quileute) River. This was adapted into Chinook, the language of the indigenous Quileute tribe.
So, La Push First Beach (there are two others, un-creatively named Second Beach and Third Beach) sits at the mouth of the Quillayute River.
Roy and I gasped as we crested the rise from the shore: we’d never seen anything like the sea stacks here: impressive monoliths that are the remnants of headlands once attached to the mainland. They stretch from north to south as far as the eye can see.
An informative sign explains the origin of the astounding number and assortment of logs – ranging from huge to ginormous – that line the rivers and criss-cross the long, wide beaches. They’ve been described as the bones of the rain forest, fallen trees washed down rivers and picked clean by the sea before being returned to the shore by tides and waves, like so many pick-up sticks of the gods.
Ruby Beach
We felt lucky to be here out of season and blessed with dry weather that wasn’t too cold. A handful of other tourists were around: nothing like how it will be during the summer season proper.
Also luckily, the small coffee shop called Native Grounds was operational, and Roy was mightily pleased with his flat white.
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Pacific Beach, Washington Coast
The stopping off points between Forks and Ocean Shores turned out to be pretty variable – and the map doesn’t give away much at all.
Our guide book (Pacific Coast Highway Road Trip, Moon, 2022) has been useful, however, especially to Roy during the months of planning. But it’s not supposed to be encylopaedic, and it isn’t.
We hoped to find a bowl of clam chowder for lunch at Pacific Beach, and this place looked promising:
But no, the friendly owner on the other side of the Clipper Inn door explained that it was undergoing renovation to offer accommodation, a bar, wine tasting and so on. The putative chef was there too; currently, he was running a fancy food truck up the road. (Click here for more.)
Said chef (Brian?) volunteered that his wife worked behind the bar at Pacific Beach Resort, just up the road, and would love to attend to our lunchtime needs. Though open to the public, this place is actually a vacation resort for US Navy staff and their families.
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Serendipitous Seabrook, Washington Coast
The town of Seabrook, three minutes down the Washington coast from Pacific Beach Resort, was not even mentioned by either the guide book or the operators of the soon-to-open Clipper Inn (funny, that!). Luckily, I saw this pretty collection of classy clapboard buildings before we flashed past.
Seabrook town was basically invented in 2004 and built from scratch. (Click on this Youtube link for a short, guided tour of the town.)
Luckily for us, this upmarket Market was part of the town planning:
We were able to stock up on Japanese whisky, a Washington red blend, rye crispbread, cheese, olives, toothpicks, charcuterie and nuts – the basic pillars of nutrition, you will note – before arriving at our Ocean Shores accommodation.
Ocean Shores, Washington Coast
The Canterbury Inn at Ocean Shores, fitted with a full kitchen and a cute hydrotherapy bath, was super-comfortable.
Setting out from the back of the property, I tried in vain to find the beach. First I tried an uncomfortably overgrown “beach trail” leading to a seeming infinity of grassy dunes that risked my getting lost forever. So I returned whence I’d come, and repeated the exercise about 750m farther on… with the same unsatisfactory result.
Eventually, I found the beach access route that took me to this beach – dotted with 4x4s and their darkly hoodied fishermen, bleak at best for someone who has had access to glorious beaches for most of her life.
After a relaxing hydrotherapy session in my own bedroom, dinner was a ten-minute ride back the way we’d come, at Oyehut Bay Grill.
Oyehut Bay Grill
Oyehut Bay Grill is doubtless the best restaurant in the area. Great salad, and then fish – halibut for Roy and salmon for me.
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Up Next?
Donuts and drip coffee at Westport, an oyster feast at Southbend, the national oyster capital – and Roy’s long lip at Long Beach. It’s a long ride, I know… but please hang in with me for rest of the inside story!
[…] For my unmissable previous post on exploring the magnificent Washington Coast by car, click here. […]