Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
opportunities. For alpine hikes, there
are the trail heads at Hurricane Ridge
and Deer Park. To experience the rain-
forest in all its drippy glory, there are
the trails of the Bogachiel, Hoh,
Queets, and Quinault valleys. Of these
rainforest trails, the Hoh Valley has
the more accessible (and consequently
more popular) trails, including the
trail head for the multi-day hike to the
summit of Mount Olympus. Favorite
coastal hikes include the stretch of
coast between La Push and Oil City
and from Rialto Beach north to Lake
Ozette and onward to Shi Shi Beach.
The restored Victorian seaport of
Port Townsend in the northeast corner
of the peninsula offers a striking con-
trast to the wildness of Olympic
National Park. Here in Port Townsend,
a restored historic commercial district
on the waterfront is packed with inter-
esting shops and good restaurants,
while on the bluff above, the streets
are lined with stately Victorian homes
(many of which are now bed-and-
breakfasts or inns). Together, the town's
two historic neighborhoods have made
Port Townsend one of the most popu-
lar destinations in Washington.
The rural community of Sequim
(pronounced
skwim
) has also been
developing quite a reputation in recent
years for a very different reason. The
Sequim area lies in the rain shadow of
the Olympic Mountains and receives
fewer than 20 inches of rain per year
(less than half the average of Seattle).
Sure, the skies here are still cloudy
much of the year, but anyone who
has lived very long in the Northwest
begins to dream of someplace where it
doesn't rain quite so much. In Sequim,
these dreamers are building retirement
homes as fast as they can. The dry cli-
mate has also proven to be an ideal
environment for the growing of laven-
der, and fields of purple blossoms are
sprouting all over the Sequim area.
Long before the first white settlers
arrived, various Native American tribes
called the Olympic Peninsula home.
The Makah, Quinault, Hoh, Elwha,
and Skokomish tribes all inhabited
different regions of the peninsula, but
all stayed close to the coast, where they
could harvest the plentiful mollusks,
fish, and whales. Today, there are
numerous Indian reservations, both
large and small, on the peninsula. On
the Jamestown S'Klallam Reservation
you'll find a casino, and on the Makah
Reservation, a fascinating museum of
culture and history.
While at first it might seem that the
entire peninsula is a pristine wilder-
ness, that just isn't the case. When the
first white settlers arrived, they took
one look at the 300-foot-tall trees that
grew on the Olympic Peninsula and
started sharpening their axes. The sup-
ply of trees seemed endless, but by the
1980s the end was in sight for the
trees that had not been preserved
within Olympic National Park. Today,
U.S. 101, which loops around the east,
north, and west side of the peninsula
is lined with clear-cuts and second-
and third-growth forests for much of
its length, a fact that takes many first-
time visitors by surprise.
1 Port Townsend: A Restored Victorian Seaport
60 miles NW of Seattle, 48 miles E of Port Angeles, 40 miles S of Anacortes
Named by English explorer Captain George Vancouver in 1792, Port Townsend
did not attract its first settlers until 1851. However, by the 1880s the town had
become an important shipping port and was expected to grow into one of the
most important cities on the West Coast. Port Townsend felt that it was the log-
ical end of the line for the transcontinental railroad that was pushing westward
