Cape Flattery and La Push

The trail to Cape Flattery. This is about the only level spot in the trail.



This is South of the Cape by about a hundred yards and it gives you an idea how rugged the coast is. The viewpoint is about 150 feet above the ocean.



Tatoosh Island and the Cape Flattery Lighthouse. The island is the most North West point in the lower 48 states.



A close-up of the Cape Flattery Lighthouse



La Push Beach 1



Larry and Sasha at Beach 1

Date: Monday and Tuesday, July 5th and 6th
Day: 52 and 53
RV Miles: 4,713
Location: Forks, WA
Elevation: 299

The rain and celebrating on Sunday must have wore Larry and Marsha out since they took it pretty easy on Monday and Tuesday.

On Monday, we all piled in the car and headed for Cape Flattery the most North and West point on the mainland in the lower 48 states. Tatoosh Island and he Cape Flattery lighthouse is the most North and West point in the US not on the mainland.

I think the humans thought this would be a simple 30-mile trip. Wrong. The 30-mile drive took about 90 minutes and got them to within a half mile of Cape Flattery. I'm getting the impression that up here they measure all distances "as the eagle flies." The drive was scenic along the rugged and rocky southern coast of the Strait of Juan De Fuca. The last ten miles or so were really gnarly as we headed away from the coast on a not-very-major highway where they didn't make any effort whatsoever to make it straight or level. Then the last half mile was a killer.

You had to hike it and it was downhill to the cape, which meant it was all uphill back to the car. Larry did pretty well but Marsha was wasted. Larry told me that the ground off the trail was like walking on a sponge; very soft, mushy and squishy. He said you could even hear the squish. I guess this is to be expected in these parts with all of the rain they get here. Larry said he couldn't get a picture of the Cape because when they got there they were on top of a big rock and the only picture he could take were down or out to sea. Said he had to settle for pictures of Tatoosh Island.

Not to be outdone, the weatherman pulled another beautiful day out of his hat for Tuesday; Sunny with a high of about 85. The local weather forecast was published with heat wave warnings and cautions about over exertion in such hot conditions. Today may have been a record hot day here in Forks.

Sasha wanted to complete the Twilight tour of the area so Larry and Marsha agreed to go to La Push, home of Jacob the werewolf and visit Beach 1 where he and Bella had many nice talks. From Forks the beach was only 15 miles and the temperature dropped form 77 to 54 by the time we reached the beach. The ocean has that much of an effect on the temperature here. It is truely amazing.

The beach is on an Indian reservation and they have kept it very natural and do not clear the driftwood from the beach. Marsha said that this makes it is very difficult and dangerous for elderly humans to cross the driftwood to actually get to the waters-edge. Sasha and I thought it realy looked interesting and there had to be all kinds of interesting stuff down there but they wouldn't let us go explore. DRATS!

Tomorrow Larry tells me we are headed to Port Angeles, on the North Shore of the Olympic Peninsula to get into position for a one day excursion to Canada by Ferry.