The Olympic Peninsula, land of microclimates

July 29, 2013

The Olympic Peninsula, land of microclimates

Landing in Port Angeles, we head to vampire country Forks, Washington (thanks to the Twilight books and movies, which were set in Forks). 140 inches of rain a year at our B&B, Misty Valley Inn (great proprietors, great food), parts of the Hoh rain forest, which is 30 miles away get 200 inches of rain a year, Port Townsend Washington in the NE part of the Olympic Peninsula, where we visited 3 years ago, gets 19 inches of rain a year (in the rain shadow of the Olympic Mountains), and Gig Harbor, Washington, our next destination at the southern end of Pugent Sound gets 37 inches of rain a year - so lots of variability in fairly short distances. The Olympic Peninsula - misty cloudy beaches, torqouise lakes, the majestic Olympic mountains -- it's all here.

We're only here for two nights and one day, so we spend most of the day at the Hoh rainforest, and take a 6 mile round trip hike along the Hoh river through the rainforest, as well as the mile long Hall of the Mosses loop. The hike along the Hoh river was great, way less crowded than the mile long loop. Afterwards, we get dinner in Forks, and head to Rialto Beach and the Pacific Ocean and a long walk along the cloudy but dramatic coastline. A young couple from Denver/Seattle, Brits and a couple from Sweden (our first Swedes in our travels) were the other guests.