A Week in Sequim Washington

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We had a nice stay in Port Townsend and really enjoyed the town but we had other things to see and do so it was time to move on. The road from the Elks Lodge to the dump station at Fort Townsend State Park isn't long but is sort of narrow. Fortunately nobody was coming out as we drove in. For others going here, our 38 foot rig just fit into the dump. A forty footer might fit but anything bigger probably should pass on this dump station. There are payment envelopes and it costs $7 to dump. It's less than 30 miles to the Elks Lodge in Sequim so saying it is an easy drive is sort of an understatement. In fact our neighbors we met in Port Townsend left the same morning for Sequim and didn't bother to hook up their car.

I guess I should clear up the proper pronunciation of Sequim. The easiest way to think about how it should be pronounced is to remove the "e". Just say squim and it will be right. Not far outside of town were a couple of elk crossing signs. It not unusual to see signs like this but these were just a bit different. There were yellow lights on the sign and it said elk crossing when flashing. We were impressed that the elk here are trained to press the button to get a flashing light! When we got to the lodge, we asked about it and the elk here aren't that smart. There are a couple large herds of elk and some of the lead members have a radio transmitter collars which is detected by an antenna near the signs and when they are within 1/4 mile, the lights flash warning people to be on the lookout. 

After paying and getting setup at camp, we walked into town to check out some of the favorite geocaches that were hidden in downtown Sequim. The lodge is only about a mile north of the main downtown area. We did find several of the creative hides and saw why they had been awarded a lot of favorite points. One behind a car repair facility was 15 feet up a lamp post and you needed to lower it similar to how a flag is raised and lowered. As we were signing in, a voice from the repair shop hollers "What are you guys doing out there?"  At first we were a little startled until "Marv" comes over to chat and tells us he is the cache owner. He was very talkative and we must have been there 15 minutes or so. Since he is the shop owner as well, I guess he is permitted to be away from work for prolonged times. But he did get called back to take care of some paperwork so we said our goodbyes and headed on and then back to camp. 

We spent a full day and headed over to Port Angeles and then into Olympic National Park. The area here on the north side of the park is Hurricane Ridge. We never did figure out the reason for the name. It doesn't seem likely this area is prone to hurricanes. The visitor center was pretty busy with hundreds of people, but even so, there was a good sized deer laying right next to the building just below the deck. Every now and then, it would look up at all the people looking down at it but it seemed to be rather accustomed to the attention. We took in some of the nice views of the Olympic Mountains including Mount Olympus which isn't as impressive as Mount Rainier but the overall Olympic Mountains are.

Overlooking Olympic Mountains and Hurricane Ridge Visitor Center

Deer Next to Visitor Center

After eating some lunch, we decided to try out the Klahhane Ridge trail. As the name implies, it follows a ridge much of the way. It's nearly a 4 mile one way trail and we weren't up for that long of a hike. But we did get in about a 5 mile total hike. Along the way we were constantly looking for wildlife - elk, eagles and marmots. At one point, far down the ridge in a bit of a clearing, I am convinced there is an elk browsing the field. I even think I see the thing move. Another hiker passes by and happens to have a monocular. Upon closer examination, I think I had instead spotted a rock! Guess I have a rather active imagination. 

Marmot on the Run

Lots of Wildflowers

The low clouds that seemed to be present over a portion of the park was starting to cover more and more of it. The distance views were not as nice but we continued a bit further. A couple on the return trip told us there is a mother mountain goat and her baby just ahead. We stopped to get a good look. They didn't seem to be bothered with our presence. The mountain goats are not native here and were introduced nearly 100 years ago. Since then their numbers have increased dramatically and they are now quite a nuisance and are impacting many of the native plants. Chris still thinks they are cute. By the time we got back from the hike, the views had completely disappeared. Turns out the culprit was not clouds or fog, but smoke from the British Columbia forest fires hundreds of miles away. Fortunately it didn't smell like smoke, but it still impacted the views. 

Some Smoke Moving In

Mama and Her Kid

Generally I thought of the Olympic Peninsula as a wet area but it turns out that Sequim is a fairly arid place and even has some native species of cacti on the area. Being in the "rain shadow" of the Olympic Mountains, Sequim receives only 16 inches of rain per year. Less than 100 miles away near Forks Washington, the Hoh Rainforest gets about 13 FEET of rain per year. In early May Sequim has an Irrigation Festival to celebrate the irrigation system that has been in place for well over 100 years. One Festival that we just missed was the Lavender Festival in late July. We did still take an afternoon to drive around to several of the many lavender farms in the area. Some were still in bloom while others had already been harvested. 

At the Lavender Farm

Our favorite one was Purple Haze Farm. They have quite the grounds (and a geocache on the premises). Most of the flowers were still in bloom. They had some sort of gizmo that makes lavender essential oils. It was impressive but just a bit too aromatic for my liking. They also had a fenced in area with lots of chickens and a pair of peacocks. They were fun to watch. Being a warm day, we figured we would get some ice cream from their little shop. Unfortunately the only flavor was - wait for it - lavender. We passed. 

Jimmy Greets Us at Purple Haze

Peacock and Chickens

Fields of Flowers at Purple Haze

And More Flowers

The Olympic Discovery Trail runs very close to the Elks Lodge. This is a continuation of the bike trail we did out of Port Townsend. We ended up doing about a 13 mile ride. We didn't want to do too long of ride since we had a big day planned for the next day. Some of the trail in town was along the roads but often separated from the road by one of the small canals forming parts of the irrigation system. Beyond the outskirts of town, the trail is well maintained and a nice ride. 

Neat Old Bridge Along Olympic Discovery Trail

The next day we get up early and head into Port Angeles with the bikes to catch the ferry over to Victoria British Columbia. We find an all day parking lot near the terminal and get our tickets. Round trip, walk on with bikes cost $100. Not super cheap but well worth it. Our 8:15 AM departure was delayed a bit but not too much. The 90 minute ride should have provided great views of the mountains to the south, but the smoke was still hovering over the whole region. The water seemed reasonably calm, but at times as we walked around the huge ferry, we felt as if we had consumed just a few too many beers - staggering this way and that. The line getting through customs when we arrived was very long and we were nearly at the end of it. But the border crossing went okay and we come out of the terminal ready to explore. 

Victoria Harbor

Chris had planned out a bit of a loop that would take us to some of the sights within biking distance of the ferry terminal. We used geocaches as our tour guide and navigation aide. A lot of the loop was along the southern shore of Victoria on Dallas Road. We stopped at a breakwater and locked the bikes up to walk out 1/2 mile into the Strait of Georgia. It was a nice day so there were a lot of boaters out and quite a few float planes. 

View Along Breakwater

We headed as far east as Ross Bay Cemetery to do a pretty elaborate geocache that took us to 15 different grave sites scattered about the fairly large cemetery. This cache held special interest to us because it is an intercache. By using your smart phone with a data connection, you basically have a website direct you from place to place and at each location you must correctly answer a question that is answered, in this case, by reading the headstones. The intercache concept was created by a cacher back from our area of western New York and has spread to all sorts of locations. This was our first intercache outside the USA. 

From here we headed north to Government House. It is the official home of the Lieutenant Governor of BC but the public is allowed to walk the 30 plus acres of beautiful gardens surrounding the place. Getting here was a bit of a challenge because it sits atop a pretty steep hill. I needed to walk the bike up the last portion of the road to get to the entrance. We spent 45 minutes exploring and resting after the climb to get here. 

Beautiful Gardens at Government House

These Appear to Be Dipped in Red Paint

Striking Flowers

Nearby is Craigdarroch Castle. We stopped to check the place out from the outside but passed on the $14 tour which is apparently very popular based on the large crowds. From here we headed back west. There is a pretty elaborate cycling lane along the route we took with traffic lights at intersections specifically for cyclists. It took a bit of getting used to but so many others were out on their bikes that we just followed the crowds and did fine. This got us back to the harbor area late in the afternoon. We needed to catch the last ferry back to Port Angeles at about 7 PM. This gave us time to explore but we discovered that the wait at each restaurant we tried to eat at was just too long for us to be able to make dinner part of our plans. The energy bars we had along became our meal until we got on the ferry. 

Craigdarroch Castle

The harbor area was just flooded with people. We ended up just walking our bikes around while taking in the sights. There were a few street performers out including something we had never seen before - a woman in a gown playing a large harp. As far as I could tell, she was pretty good and did attract attention. There was an equally large crowd getting onto the ferry. While we waited, I watched the vehicles pulling out of the ferry. All manner of vehicles were represented. Motorcycles, cars, small RVs, a few big fifth wheel trailers, a motorhome or two and surprisingly a full sized semi with long trailer. He just barely managed to squeeze it out of the side door of the ferry. It was an impressive feat so much so that the half dozen motorcyclists waiting to board applauded as he drove by them. Let's just say I was glad we had only brought the bicycles. 

Crowded Marina

Harp Player

Parliament Building

Another View of Parliament

It was a long but fun day in Victoria. There is a lot to see and do. Maybe we should have considered doing an overnight stay so we could have a couple days to explore. Or had we brought the Jeep, we could have explored further reaches of the island. Now we know what it is like and came plan for a second visit during some future trip to the area. We found some edible fish and chips in the small cafe on the ferry and then relaxed until we got back. What should have been a nice sunset from the ferry was completely smoked out. We arrived in the dark, loaded the bikes on the rack and drove the 20 miles back to Sequim. It was about a 20 mile combination of riding and walking so the next day was a lazy one to recuperate. 

Cargo Ship on Return Ferry Ride

There was one last thing we had wanted to do while in the area but we kept pushing it off hoping the smoke would clear. What did become clear was the smoke was here to stay at least for a few more days. So we drove over to Dungeness National Wildlife Refuge just west of town. It was quite foggy (or was it smoke?) and we even considered turning back before we even pulled into the parking lot. the National Parks Pass gets you into this place otherwise it is $3. There is camping nearby and lots of beach area, but for the adventurous folk, you can head out to the New Dungeness Light House near the end of the Dungeness Spit.  It's not a casual walk. At just over 5 miles each way along a sometimes sandy, sometimes rocky beach, the hike can be tiring especially when you hit those areas where your foot keeps slipping in the sand. It is best to do this at or near low tide so as to have as much beach to walk on.

Our Foggy View at the Start of the Walk

The lighthouse is in very nice shape as is the keeper's house. We were a bit surprised to see green grass and they were even running several sprinklers while we were there. The first floor of the lighthouse has all sorts of displays about the history of the place and some of the shipwrecks that had occurred in the vicinity. The keeper gave us permission to head up to the top without him coming along. I suspect that given the remote location, he doesn't get too many hooligans coming out this way. Chris is never fond of steep spiral staircases and this one was no different. The last ten feet is more like a spiral ladder that was slightly challenging. The present light is not all that impressive compared to the ones on display downstairs. It looked like a cheap plastic thing that wouldn't shine very far.

New Dungeness Light Station

One of the Old Lights

The Present Day Light

The fog hadn't burned off much so the views were a little underwhelming. Chris actually managed to make her way back down the ladder portion and the stairs without too much whimpering. We checked out some more of the grounds and had a snack before heading back down the beach. We only saw four other visitors ahead of us but on the return trip, there were a dozen or more people heading out. Each wondered how much further it was. I hope they all got out before the tide rolled back in. It was hard to tell how much of the beach is covered but I suspect it would be a majority of it. The legs were a bit tired when we made it back to the car and it seemed like the fog was even worse at that point than it had been several hours earlier. 

Foggy View From Above

Be Careful!

View From Beach with Keeper's House on Right

Sequim is a nice area. The town is much larger than I had envisioned. I was expecting a sleepy little place with very little to offer but was pleasantly surprised. A weeklong visit seemed about the right amount of time to see much of the place but I could easily see us coming back again in the future. 

Our time in Sequim was coming to an end and it was time to continue west along Highway 101. But first a couple stops were needed. The Elks Lodge here doesn't have a dump station but there is a Chevron station on the east side of town that has a dump station. We had done the obligatory stop to check it out previously in the week and found it to be an easy in and out. They charged us $8 but nobody was waiting so I was able to flush the tank before heading down the street to another fuel station. Not sure if we had gotten fuel here, they might have dropped the price to $5 like we had heard from another camper. But the other station just two blocks away was priced 27 cents cheaper. Plus this station was a Kroger affiliate and we happened to have 20 cents per gallon accumulated. It needed just a bit less than 35 gallons to fill up so we managed to maximize that discount.