Seconds With Steff

After a restful night’s sleep on a mattress so comfy I am making note of it, Hunter and I started our way out of Mount Rainier National Park, but not before stopping at Narada Falls and Christine Falls.

Christine Falls was gorgeous. There was a small tiny off-road hike to get down to see the base of it and it was so worth the 30 extra steps. It was ridiculous! Just beautiful. And with the bridge, completely reminded me of Lightning and Sally’s drive even though it’s a totally different part of the country. 

I really feel like we got to see more the park leaving through a different side.

If you ever do this, pay attention cause falling rocks are real and you will come across debris on the road, so just be aware and drive around them. I really wanted to stop and grab one, but there’l was literally no place to pull off.

So onto the whole purpose of this trip… Pacific Coast Highway!

Since there’s not an official northern terminus of Pacific Coast Highway, I was able to find (after a bit of googling) the first sign for the 101 in Tumwater Falls which was a cute park…

…with an Oregon’s Trail Marker to boot. 

And then we were off the Port Angeles with pretty views along the way. 

After a fair bit of driving, we finally arrived in Port Angeles and headed straight to the Olympic National Park Visitor Center. 

Okay, let’s pause… Olympic National Park is divided into four regions: beaches, mountains, rainforests, and forests of the dry kind …we are seeing all of it!

After getting our National Park Passport stamped at the Visitor Center, we headed up the mountain to Hurricane Ridge, and even though they only 18 miles apart the drive would take 42 minutes. I really questioned whether or not it would be worth the time suck to drive up a mountain to just turn around and drive back down, but by the time we got up there, I knew it was worth every second. 

Hurricane Ridge, at an elevation of 6,772, was something to behold and it became instantly obvious as to why Olympic National Park was named after the home of the mythological gods. The pictures don’t nearly come close to doing it justice, and I dare say they’re absolutely terrible, but I tried.

As soon as we drove out of Port Angeles, the rain started and we soon came upon Lake Crescent. Hunter took pictures as I drove through the rain. With fog straight out of central casting, we were in a Stephen King novel: Pacific Northwest Edition.

But then we finally made it, and I heard Bella sigh, “In the state of Washington, under a near constant cover of clouds and rain, there’s a small town named Forks.”

I am dedicating all the Twilight in this post to my friend, Denise, and her two girls, Sierra and Sydney.

We didn’t have reservations for the Forever Twilight exhibit but Forks has plenty else to do related to the books and movies. Since the movie wasn’t actually filmed there except for a few town shots, the houses and school are not in Forks. But it was still fun and even went to La Push…”La Push, Baby. It’s La Push… Stop saying that”

We went to La Push for more than Twilight. Awash on the beach are giant redwoods! The one Hunter is standing next to is called, Big Log Boiiiii.

Forks Motel is clean and spacious especially after last night. I was able to really organize the car and feel much better!  

Right across the street from the motel is The In place.  Dinner was really really good, and I got a slice of pie to go. 

Vertullo Summary – We are on our way, rain, and Vampires!