Washington - Day 12 - back to the coast

Forks 101 RV Park, Forks

Sunday, 12 June 2022

Before I left Millersylvania State Park the other day, I stopped at an exhibit near the entrance explaining how the park had been built by the CCC.  Some of it was information I hadn't known before.

the first exhibit - details enlarged below

the second exhibit - details enlarged below

The caption is hard to read:
Black enrollees of Company 1633 arrived at Rainbow Falls
State Park in Doty, WA in 1934.  It is not known whether
any photographs still exist of Black crew members
at Millersylvania State Park.

The caption for this photo reads:
Members of an integrated CCC camp at Rainbow Falls,
which operated at the same time as Millersylvania.

While FDR did a lot for integration, as far as I can tell he didn't do it from personal conviction as much as at the urging of Eleanor, which was based on personal conviction.  Where the CCC was concerned, well, the signs speak for themselves.

the third exhibit - details enlarged below

The caption reads:
Several Millersylvania CCC enrollees peel logs
as supervisors check their workmanship.

Just some added insight into the history of the Pacific Northwest.

today's route

I made it almost halfway around the Olympic Peninsula today.  As the map shows, much of the land on the peninsula is either in Native hands or is national park or national forest.  The forest is logged - sustainably, they say - and the park is preserved as wilderness.  It makes for a lot of contrast.

On my way out of the Olympia area, I passed places and names I'd forgotten about - Rock Candy Mountain Road, for instance, and some metal sculptures of a bull and cows in somebody's field.  There was green everywhere.  

Even though I'd driven this first section just the other day, coming from the coast, I saw different things than before because of the different perspective.  From Elma, I could see the Satsop nuclear power plant, which I had forgotten.  Turns out that's okay because it's not a nuclear power plant any more.  It was never opened and was actually abandoned, but it's now been opened as a business center.  There's an interesting blurb about it on this website.   https://www.atlasobscura.com/satsop-nuclear-power-plant

I passed grain fields, a Christmas tree farm and several rivers.  

Aberdeen has several slogans they didn't tell me about when I was heading east.  "Come As You Are."  "Lumber Capital of the World."  "Gateway to the Olympics."  It's impossible to drive through town without seeing their connection to the timber industry, but I've been impressed at the number of other industries I've seen there, making me think they've cleverly decided not to put all their eggs into one basket (as Forks, tonight's destination, did).  

Almost on top of Aberdeen was Hoquiam, "The Friendliest City."  (A slogan Aberdeen seems to have overlooked.)

From there I started seeing clearcut hillsides, hills of trees growing from being replanted after a clearcut, and goldenrod all over.  I saw green and brilliant yellow everywhere.

There was a state salmon hatchery at the Humptulips River, which was next to the town of Humptulips.

Then a sign told me I was in the Olympic National Forest.  At Neilton, a little bird flew right into the RV's side.  I don't remember that happening before and it was very distressing.  That's not something I know how to prevent.

Near Lake Quinault, in the designated Quinault Natural Area of the Olympic National Forest Rain Forest. I saw a sign telling me to turn for the "Largest Spruce Tree."  I don't remember hearing about that before, though I do remember going down this road several times in the past.  I looked it up and learned that the Quinault Giant Sitka Spruce is considered to be the world's largest Sitka spruce.  It's about 1,000 years old, is 191' tall and 17.7' in diameter.  Definitely something to visit on another trip.

Past Quinault I entered the Olympic National Park.  Beginning around Queets I could see glimpses of the Pacific Ocean through breaks in the undergrowth.

I used to come to Kalaloch for long weekends, because at the lodge (a park service vendor) they have quite a few cabins with partial kitchens, full bathrooms, and wood stoves that they supply the firewood for.  All this sits on a low cliff on the edge of the Pacific, and if you're willing to climb down the little cliff and over enormous logs that have been thrown up by the tides, you can get to a nice long beach.  I was a little surprised to find the lodge and cabins were still there, because I'd noticed on my last visit some serious erosion of the bank by Kalaloch Creek that hits the ocean right there.  It's all still there, but the cabins are just a few feet now from the edge.  I'd checked on the current prices and discovered they now charge a "non-refundable deposit" (why don't they just say "fee" instead of calling it a deposit which it obviously isn't?) of $25 per pet.  I used to bring my 2 dogs and 2 cats here and I can state with certainty I didn't pay any extra $100.  My guess is that in the meantime, they'd had so much damage done by pets that this was the result.  But that's why I didn't stop here for the night.

However, I did stop at the nearby Ranger Station and picked up a park service handout on the Olympic Peninsula.  And I saw a couple of things of interest.

In all the time I spent over here,
it never occurred to me there
might be cougars around.

Whale-watching trips are a staple of the economy
for some coastal towns where commercial
fishing is becoming less profitable.  I've
been on one out of Westport.

Not much farther along the road, a sign told me to turn for the "Big Cedar Tree."  I looked that up too and learned it's a western red cedar that's nearly 1,000 years old and once stood 175' tall.  But in 2014 a storm split it in half and it's now decomposing.  But as it leaves us, it's providing habitat for baby cedars.  Sounds like it's also worth a visit on my next trip.

I passed the Hoh Tribal Center and came to yet another sign for a tree, this one saying "Duncan Memorial Big Cedar Tree."  Online information says that one is considered the world's second largest red cedar.  It's 178' tall and 19.4' in diameter.  According to online comments, this tree is very hard to find and down a narrow unpaved road, so you have to be dedicated to go looking for it; but for those who do it was worth the trip.

The entire day has been overcast with occasional showers, which is normal weather over here but not what I'd hoped for.  A road sign told me I'd come to a slide area and urged motorcycles to use extreme caution.  That was followed by an orange warning sign saying the same thing.  Then farther along near the Hoh River, still another sign told me this was a slide area, and one lane of the (2-lane) road had been washed out.  Nature will have its way, given time.  (Which this child of pave-it-over-Texas finds very reassuring.)

Much of the road, especially from here, was double-double-s-curves.  Exciting stuff.

And then I got to Forks, pop. 3,580 (their sign said, though in 2020 it was officially 3,335).  I passed the Forks Timber Museum and found tonight's campground.  A fairly small place, and the manager keeps his dogs in a fenced area outside, making it impossible for me to walk Dext past them without them barking and carrying on, which made Dext bark and carry on.  When I took him out at bedtime I asked the manager if he'd be willing to put his dogs inside for 10 minutes, which he did.