Sequim, WA (the 'e' is silent )

Today, Tuesday March 29, we traveled 171 miles from Copalis Beach to Sequim, WA. We left at 9:45am and drove until 3:00pm. For the next 2 nights we’ll be staying here at Rainbows End RV Park.

It’s a great little park with grassy areas and a nice dog park. We‘re close to the shore, but we’re on Hwy 101. It was easy to set up here for some reason, just felt comfortable. We were escorted to a nice pull-thru site #31.

Hwy 101 driving has been tight for the past 2 trips since entering Washington. Two lanes for the most part with the occasional passing lane or slow traffic pull-out. It is tedious driving on a road like this, scenic yes, but tough on the driver who must stay constantly aware of the lane size, boundary lines, and speed limits.

Some of todays drive hugged the coastline, but the road lead inland a few times for 20-50 mile stretches. We went thru towns like Humptulips, Amanda Park, Queets, Forks, and Port Angeles.

Along the way we passed thru a ton of managed logging territory. Some of the peaks appeared as though they were shaved today, others as though they were shaved 2 weeks ago, you know what I mean, no growth, and some growth.

We shared the roads with many log trucks, at times approaching us one after another, and some times passing us. Empty log trucks are everywhere. We see them stored by the yard fulls along the roads, and there are often times deadhead (empty) loads traveling the roads. When empty, the truck is dismantled with the back wheels and connecting boom stored up on the bed of the truck behind the front wheels. There‘s a large boom coming from the back wheels up over the cab of the truck. As these empty trucks approach in the oncoming lane, you see the boom first. It precedes the vehicle itself.

Days ago I would see these trucks coming at me with this boom protruding up over the cab, and it took me until today to figure out what they were. When assembled these trucks transform to very strong frames, and they carry big loads of huge logs down the road.

Can you tell I was fascinated with these trucks? OK, enough of that.

We passed thru many Indian Reservations. The largest reservation was of the Quinault Tribe, another was of the Makah Tribe. Most of the towns we came thru had a 'Tribal Center'.

There are tons or rivers, therefore bridges to cross as you drive thru NW Washington state. Many of these rivers appear to be of similar width, 100-200 feet wide, and the bridges appear identical, 'cookie cutter' if you will.

About half way here we entered Olympic Park in Olympic Mountains. It’s a huge area containing the Olympic National Forest. The peaks are snow capped at this (Spring) time. We couldn’t see the tops of all the mountains though due to cloudiness.

Today was overcast, no sunshine, but no raindrops either while we broke camp at Copalis Beach this morning, nor when we set up this afternoon in Sequim. For the first hundred miles or so the showers held off, then we used the intermittent wipers some as we drove to Port Angeles. Since then all sprinkles have stopped and it is now approaching 7pm.

With all the rugged countryside we drove thru today I couldn‘t help but think “Rambo must’ve been filmed here“. But, that thought has occurred to me many times in the last 2-3 weeks starting back in Northern California.

The most memorable section of our drive today was when we followed the shore of Lake Crescent, spectacular and formed by the snowcapped Olympic Mountains. The landscape, and my memory perhaps, gave the impression that the water must be very deep, blue, and cold. Lake Crescent reminded me of another we'd visited a few years ago in the Teton Mountain range in Jenny Lake, WY. That one was known to be some 900 feet deep.

We came through Port Angeles, WA today, stopped for fuel, and from there we could see US Coast Guard ships out in the bay. Also, our first glimpse of Canada, specifically the city of Victoria on Vancouver Island, British Columbia across the Strait of Juan de Fuca.

Here in Sequim it feels like we are back in civilization for the first time in awhile. We never left our site in Copalis Beach because there was nothing for miles in either direction. It was quiet in Netarts, OR too. Here, instead of hearing the waves crash in we can hear the log trucks traversing the highway, and we have the feeling that all of the restaurants and stores are close by.

Day after tomorrow we’ll be heading from here down to Hoodsport, WA which is on Hoods Bay, you might say a tributary of Puget Sound. We’ll stay 2 nights and then move on to see Anne’s cousin Richard in Kent, WA, a suburb of Seattle.