Monthly Archives: July 2017

Long Beach, WA Cape Disappointment is a narrow, rocky piece of land on the north side of the Columbia River at the point where it meets the Pacific.  Located in the extreme southwest corner of Washington, the cape was named … Continue reading →

Long Beach, WA Astoria is a city of just under 10,000 located on the south shore of the Columbia River.  Situated near the mouth of the river where it meets the Pacific Ocean, the city was named after John Jacob Astor, an investor … Continue reading →

Long Beach, WA Early this week we left Forks and headed south on winding, two lane US 101 for a 200 mile drive to Long Beach, WA.  The route provides some beautiful scenery as it moves from the coastline to … Continue reading →

Forks, WA One day during our stay in Forks we drove about 60 miles to the north for a visit to Cape Flattery, the northwesternmost point of the contiguous U.S. where the Strait of Juan de Fuca joins the Pacific Ocean.  It is part of the Makah … Continue reading →

Forks, WA For many years the local economy in this area was based on the timber industry (today it’s tourism and staffing the two nearby state prisons).  While automation has eliminated the need for large numbers of men working in the forest, … Continue reading →

Forks, WA Early this week we drove about 30 miles south of Forks on US 101 to check out the tide pools at Ruby Beach.  We’ve been fortunate that low tide has occurred during mid-afternoon for most of our stay … Continue reading →

Forks, WA Since Forks is only about 70 miles west of Port Angeles, we waited on Sunday until near the park’s 11:00 check-out time to leave.  We have driven about half of the route on US 101 before so we … Continue reading →

Port Angeles, WA Our friends, Eric and Laurel, recently moved to their summer spot on Lopez Island, one of the San Juan Islands.  They spend two months there each summer as volunteers conducting nature programs at Spencer Spit State Park. … Continue reading →

Port Angeles, WA Soon after arriving in this area we were told by a local resident not to miss a visit to the Deer Park section of Olympic National Park.  A little research revealed that Deer Park is the location … Continue reading →

Port Angeles, WA Last week we drove 17 miles south into the Olympic Mountains with Eric and Laurel to do some hiking along Hurricane Ridge (click here for that post).  While there we learned that sometimes low clouds cover the valleys … Continue reading →