August 25, 2020 Tuesday
After cooking a big breakfast and packing up we said good-bye to the Olympic Suites Inn, checked out by 9:00 am, left Forks and drove south on 101. Our final destination would be Mt. Rainier, half way across the State of Washington, but I planned to make some stops along the way.
We passed the Hoh River as it entered the Pacific and came to the wild Washington beaches. Our first stop was an overlook and trailhead for Ruby Beach. Unfortunately it was very foggy so we had only a minimum view of the acclaimed beach. Given the thick fog and the steep and rocky trail to the beach we didn't go down to the beach and instead continued south to Kalaloch Beach. This Beach has several entrances and we stopped first at the Beach #6 overlook. Here too it was very foggy, but we walked around the overlook which afforded a good view of the beach. It was very wide and largely sandy with not as many pieces of driftwood as at Rielto Beach. We did not spend a lot of time there.
Our next stop was Beach #4 which had a good trail down to the beach. The trail walk was short and brought us on to a wide, flat (I assume it was low tide) sandy beach, with a foggy view. In some places the sand was very fine. It was an otherworldly view. As we walked on the beach we came to some areas which had lots of dead crabs or crab parts. There were occasional rivets of water rolling down to the ocean and frequently large groups of birds, common murres and tuffed puffins seemed to predominate, either flying above or massed on the ground. During the walk, which occurred in the late morning, we encountered very few people, but saw seastars and anemones in the tidepools.
As we left the beach we encountered a surfer coming in. He said this was a typical weather day and that the beach was usually uncrowded. This beach is part of 65 miles of coastline protected with Olympic National Park. From the beach a marine sanctuary extends 135 miles north and south and from 20 to 50 miles offshore.
Returning to the car we continued south along the ocean on the 101. We passed the Kalaloch Lodge, a nice looking wooden structure just off the beach. Looked like a nice place to stay. As we passed South Beach we left the beach part of the Park and approached Queets. At that point the 101 turned east and we drove along the southern boundary of the Park. We passed the entrance to the Quinault Rain Forest, but had to forego that attraction since we still had a long way to travel.
We continued east and drove through Aberdeen. The town was named for the Scottish city and lies at the head of the expansive Gray's Harbor. As we drove through we crossed several river bridges and observed many handsome Craftsman and Victorian style homes. On the outside of town we stopped and purchased food for lunch. A few miles out of town we stopped at Twin Bridges County Park for a picnic lunch.
The Park had recently been renovated so we ate on a new picnic table and took a brief hike on a new trail down to an along the river.
We then proceeded east on 107, skirted around Tacoma, drove a short stretch north on I-5 and then east along increasingly scenic roads to the southern entrance to Mt Rainier National Park. We drove through the small town of Ashford and stopped a few hundred yards east of the park entrance where we checked into the Gateway Inn. The Inn is an older facility with a main lodge and about a dozen cabins set in a forest of towering trees. We were given a small suite with a small kitchenette on the second floor. The outlet on the light tower did not have enough current to power the car and the Inn would not let me plug into the outlets for RVs even though many were vacant.
After unpacking I walked to the park entrance and picked up a park map. We ate dinner out of the cooler. I took an evening walk among the tall trees and made some phone calls. The telephone reception during the walk was poor and the internet reception in the room was even worse.
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