A DAY OF DRIVING.
Day 230 – Things looked better this morning, a little breezy, a little sun, NO rain. We got ready to leave for a drive out to Cape Flattery, the most northwestern point in the U.S. The car barely started. You know that sound when the battery is dying? It had been 6 years since we replaced the car battery. Tomorrow is a holiday and everything might be closed. Better do that now. So much for an early start.
We went into Port Angeles. Auto Zone was open, and Rob got a battery. Replaced the old one in the parking lot. Back to the RV to regroup and off we went, an hour later. We knew we had a long drive ahead of us, but we also knew it would be scenic. What we didn’t know was that the road (Highway 112 west) would be closed about halfway through. Mudslides and rock slides are common in the northwest. These older, two-lane highways often have partial to full closures.
On the 112, before reaching the closed road, we were quickly back in the forest and at times traveling right along the Strait of Juan de Fuca. From Port Angeles we could see the top of the snow-covered mountains, but across the Strait, Vancouver Island was obscured by clouds & fog. We pulled off the highway at Salt Creek Recreation Area and drove through. Right on the water, they had a crowded, but nice, campground overlooking the Strait from more than ½ the campsites. We drove through a very nice park and the remains of a World War II military site, complete with bunkers. Leaving the Park we were out in the woods again and we reached the place where the road had been closed. We were nearly half-way to Cape Flattery at that point.
We pulled over to the side of the road and looked at the map. Was there another way to get back on track to Cape Flattery? There was, but it would involve a lot more driving. Since the weather wasn’t perfect but good enough, we figured we should take advantage of it and go ahead and drive. We turned around and headed back the way we came, then to get on the alternative road we drove around the lower half of Lake Crescent and beyond until we reached Highway 113. By this time we were hungry and it was lunch time. The weather was changing, also. You’d think there’d be places open for lunch around the resort communities of Lake Crescent. No, nothing. It was clouding up, the sun was gone, the wind had picked up and it had dropped to 48 degrees.
Lake Crescent was pretty, but we were glad we’d gotten pictures the day we arrived to this area. It wasn’t as nice in the rain. The 113 was almost all thick forests, very few towns until we got back north to the Strait. We entered Clallam Bay and were back in a town, a fishing town with lots of RV parks, Motels & Inns, Marinas, and a restaurant. Breakwater was a diner and they were packed. It was after 1 p.m. and we were quite hungry. We had a booth overlooking the Strait. There were lots of fishing boats out. A very touristy, fishing town. We got the Prawns & Chips, and it took a long time to get our food, but it came with a trip to a mediocre salad bar which did the trick, hunger-wise. Our lunches were huge portions and we left full. No dinner for us tonight. We continued driving west, passing another fishing town, Sekiu, and then arriving at Neah Bay, the last town on the Strait before Cape Flattery. It was very cloudy and quite windy with some rain. We didn’t take many pictures because of the weather and the visibility.
Neah Bay is the home of the Makah Indian Tribe. It looks just like another fishing town, but the Marina was huge with more fishing boats than you usually see. To proceed further you have to buy a pass to hang from your rearview mirror. $20. It is their land after all.
The road from Neah Bay was very winding, narrow, and somewhat bumpy with repairs from mudslides/rock slides. The scenery was beautiful, almost rainforesty. At the end of the road we reached a large parking lot. It was full! There was no place to park to take a trail of .75 miles to the Cape. It was raining and muddy. We did not want to wait in line for a parking spot. We turned around and left, driving by a steady line of cars headed the way we just came. Good luck.
We stopped at a pull-out on the way back between Neah Bay and Clallam Bay. We’d seen several of these turnouts and hadn’t stopped before. It was a Whale Trail stop. During the season for migrating whales, you can see the whales from these points. It was a beautiful place, no whales, but a little sunlight nonetheless.
We drove back to the RV, stopping on the way to take a one-lane road along Lake Crescent where they had picnic tables right on the water. We may pack a lunch and go back tomorrow. We got gas and finally got back to the campground, settling in to visit with the girls and relax. Amazingly, it was sunny and looked like it had been that way all day – no trace of the winds and rain we’d encountered at the coast. Guess we made the wrong decision as to what to do today.