Forks

On October 12th we drove into Forks, the center of Mormon vampirism in North America. In preparation, Vicki had re-read one or more of the Twilight novels and re-viewed one or more of the movies. Despite this, and despite the fact that we are among the very few to now have visited both Forks and Volterra (the European vampire headquarters (in Italy, not Transylvania, BTW)) (see http://roadeveron.blogspot.com/2011/06/volterra-1.html; and http://roadeveron.blogspot.com/2011/06/volterra-crossbow-tournament.html; and http://roadeveron.blogspot.com/2011/06/volterra-2.html), nothing could have prepared us for what followed.

There is ample Twilight stuff all around, gift shoppes, etc.

Thus

And thus

The police station

The high school

Alas, we learned, at length, that although the initial novel is set in Forks, which
has benefited greatly from the touristic attention, not a frame of the movie was
shot here; indeed the movie antedates both the police station and high school in
any case; I am afraid our reputation at set-jetters will now take a hit... 

Olympic National Park: Rialto Beach And La Push

After Sol Duc we drove on to the mouth of the Sol Duc River, to Rialto Beach and, on the other side, the town and harbor of La Push. We camped at the Mora campground and then drove on to Rialto Beach, one of the more stunningly beautiful coastal scenes in our experience.

Thus

One of the larger stacks

Late afternoon, looking toward La Push

In La Push, a reservation town that values the salmon

Fishing harbor

Favored by seagulls

Looking further south from La Push

Forests of drift wood--drift logs--all over

Our campsite at Mora

We drove back to Rialto the next morning for better light...but the fog had rolled
in

Incredible place, nonetheless

Olympic National Park: Sol Duc

From Hurricane Ridge we drove on, around the Strait and down into the peninsula, to the Sol Duc area, a hot springs and rain forest central. There we spent a couple days and nights, resting and then doing the hike to Sol Duc Falls.

Camping among the big trees; mostly Douglas Fir and Sitka Spruce

Trail to Sol Duc Falls

Angel Wings fungi

Angels with dirty faces?

A nice morel pokes through; well, I think it was a morel; maybe I should stick
to Safeway's produce selections...

Rain forest

We poked all around the Park and peninsula and rain forest for a week and never
saw a drop of rain...

Sol Duc River

In a day or two, we'd be visiting Forks, WA, ground zero for Mormon Vampirism;
here, Vicki is reviewing Twilight or one of its sequels

Back on the trail; note interesting change in spelling...

Dry creek

Cleft downstream from the falls

Sole Duck Falls

Certainly among the top 1,000 we've seen recently

More scary mushrooms

Olympic National Park: Hurricane Ridge

From Patti and Ed's we headed up and around the peninsula, poking in and out of the great Olympic National Park. We had visited before, at the turn of the century/millennium, camping on our way back to Missoula from a professional meeting at Point Reyes in CA. All either of us remember from that visit was the rain forest. This time we vowed to do more justice to this great park, which is easily the most diverse of all our national parks. We stopped first at Hurricane Ridge, 5,000 feet up from the Straits of Juan de Fuca, for a peek at Olympic's alpine environment...relatively high mountains with abundant snow.

Alas, despite the forecast, the mountain views were fairly cloudy, so we settled
instead for visitor center views

Poulsbo and environs, east of the Park

Olympic is diverse for a range of reasons...Alpine country, rain forest, incredible
beaches and coastal scenery...and everywhere, great trees

We were there

 

Mt. Olympus somewhere out there; not reminiscent of the Mt. Olympus we saw
in Greece in 2010; http://roadeveron.blogspot.com/2010/12/olympus.html; nor
the Mt. Olympos in Turkey: http://roadeveron.blogspot.com/2010/11/chimaera.html

Across the Strait of Juan de Fuca, Victoria, BC, where they are unarmed and
have healthcare; so sad...

Dungeness Spit, from the approach to Hurricane Ridge