Live On Purpose ... any help?

Port Angeles is a working port town sandwiched between the Olympic Mountains and the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Olympic National Park's Hurricane Ridge is 18 miles south and 5,200 ft up from Port Angeles - we have clear views of Hurricane Ridge from our RV site at Conestoga Quarters RV Park.

In other words we are in Port Angeles.

I have referred to 'the views' in the positive. The downside is that the RV Park is located on busy Hwy 101. It may be a little quieter over the long weekend?  Anyway we have a rental car from Friday to Tuesday. I imagine that we will spend most of the time exploring the Peninsula.

Our first 'explore' is along the Strait of Juan de Fuca Scenic Byway to Cape Flattery, the northwesternmost point of the contiguous US. It seems like a place we should visit.

We stop at Sekiu for lunch, one of the fishing towns along this coast. The drive on to Neah Bay is gorgeous - glimpses of amazing coastline which follows the glacial fjord as it connects Puget Sound with the Pacific Ocean and separates the Olympic Peninsula from Vancouver and British Columbia.

Sekiu

West of Neah Bay which is home to the Makah Indian Reservation, we access the Cape Trail, a one and a half mile hike out to Cape Flattery. Fantastic views!!





Cape Flattery is the oldest permanently named feature in Washington state - named by James Cook on 22 March 1778.

There are a lot of people hiking to the Cape.
We are probably the least prepared! When we set out this morning we had no thought of a hike; that plan was suggested by the lovely lady at the Visitors Centre.


So we are hiking in sandals and thongs!

Well we have been hiking!

Although  a lot of the trail is covered in boardwalks - especially over the tricky bits - the orange sandals look just a bit out of place!

We return to Port Angeles on Highway 112.
It threatens rain and the sky gets really dark.



We drive to Hurricane Ridge on a beautiful and clear day. At the end of the road an interpretive centre overlooks the awesome Mt Olympus - 7965ft - and dozens of other peaks. In bad weather the winds at this altitude can be ferocious - hence the name - but today we have a panorama of  'WOW'!
Take a look ...

We see many cyclists on these kinds of roads. The steep hills must be challenging - the guy below has probably taken several hours to get where he is this morning.

We also see cyclists who are clearly travelling around the country. They are well laden and more often than not are riding alone.

This is also a place where you need to come early if you want to park and hike.


Hurricane Ridge is one of the Olympic  Peninsula's biggest attractions.

We pop into Port Angeles' Farmers Market on Saturday morning. It is small and friendly with live music!!

On Saturday night we 'go out'! The Olympic Cellars are just across the road from the RV Park. A group - Polecat - is playing. No, not the group above - they were at the Farmers Market.

We buy a nice red and thoroughly enjoy the evening. We dance too!
When they play Men At Work's Down Under we sing with gusto!!

We also return to Port Townsend (where we arrived by ferry a few days ago). Again we have a superb day weather wise. Port Townsend is known for its Victorian architecture ... and arts community. The 1982 movie, An Officer and a Gentleman was filmed here.

We walk around town, talk to all the dogs and smile at their owners, have a coffee and a donut from a stall on the side of the road.

There are lots of lovely scenes across Puget Sound.  We can see Canada and Whidbey Island where we sailed from last Thursday.

At the turn of the 20th century Port Townsend was a bustling seaport - early speculation was that it would be the largest harbour on the west coast.

On the way back to Port Angeles we drive through Sequiem and on to the Dungeness Spit, a 5.5 mile long sand spit jutting out into the Strait of Juan de Fuca. It is the longest natural sand spit in the US. The body of water it encloses is called Dungeness Bay.

Further east is the John Wayne Marina - he had to pop up somewhere! It is a beautiful marina with lots of yachts, permanent and guest moorage, a boat launch, yacht club, restaurants, banquet facilities ... even an RV Park nearby.





The Marina was constructed in 1985 on 22 acres of land donated by the John Wayne Family - he often came to Sequim Bay and sailed the waters aboard his family yacht the Wild Goose.

Due to a rain shadow effect caused by the Olympic Mountains, Sequim is one of the driest places in western Washington. Apparently it is also very fertile for it has everything - organic farms, lavendar farms, dungeness crabs, perfect coffee ...!