The Wet Coast

After a great Thanksgiving week-end in Whistler (lots of food, marbles and neighbourhood walks) we left the rest of the family in Vancouver and crossed the border to Seattle (via the picturesque Chuckanut Drive south of Bellingham). A walking tour of the city, including a stop at Pikes Peak Market (flying fish, hand-made items), and a visit to the Museum of Flight were the highlights. We then drove up the east side of the Olympic Peninsula and stopped at the north end in Sequim State Park where we had a site right on the ocean and enjoyed a locally harvested dungeness crab for dinner. Intermittent rain turned into a more steady drizzle for the next few days as we explored Olympic National Park. Fotunately, the temperatures remained mild (10 - 15C) so we were quite comfortable doing a couple of hikes in our rainsuits. The rain got the better of us however on the Sol Duc Falls hike when three quarters of the way thru a 10 km hike we had to turn back when it became too dangerous to ford a rushing river (rainwater infused) so we retraced our steps back to the campground turning it into a 15 km adventure.......at least there were some hot springs to enjoy when we got back.
The next day we drove into the Hoh Rain Forest but decided not to try a hike due to the steady rain so we chatted with the ranger and stopped by the marked Sitka Spruce which was 270 feet high, had a 12.5 foot diameter and was over 500 years old.........there seemed to be many others that were not far behind. We continued driving south along the coast and stopped in Westport, a fishing village where we enjoyed some of the local catch for dinner last night.
Heading further south down the coast today and then inland for a few days to Portland.