Forks - Washington 2016

8-23-2016

This was a travel day.

Some of the seventy one miles from Sequim to Forks was scenic, especially along Lake Crescent.

We are staying at the Elks Lodge.

After the circle meeting eleven of us went to a bar for tacos and burritos.

8-24-2016.

Today we did the Forest and Cedar Shingles Mill Tour.

Forks claims to be the Forever Twilight Town. I never saw the show or movie.

Our first stop was an area where small trees were planted. We learned about what kind of trees grow in this forest and how insects and deceases affect the growth of the trees.

Randy, our guide, was very knowledgeable about the forest. He was working for the Forest Service for over thirty years.

Our next stop was an actual logging site.

This machine grabs a tree and saws it and moves it to a pile.

 

This red machine picks up the logs and strips the branches off, measures the logs and saws them to the correct length.

This large yellow machine picks up the branchless, cut to length logs, from the forest and puts them on trucks.

Not all the trees are cut. It is more like a clearing process. After this process the remaining trees have more room and grow faster.

Randy took us also to an old growth forest. There were trees four feet in diameter.

We also went to a mill were they make Cedar Shingles.

When we came back to the Visitor Center I met Detlef and Rosemarie. They are already on the road twelve months and still have a bit to go. So far they traveled 80,000 kilometers.

They just came up from South America. They live not very far from where I come from.

They have a map on the side of their motorhome showing where they have been so far.

8-25-2016.

We had several groups doing different things today. Diana and I drove to Rialto Beach, near La Push.

Karen and Dan met us there. The four of us walked to the Hole in the Wall. It was a 1.5 mile walk one way.

Diana was smart, she had brought a pair of water shoes for passing through the hole. I got my right shoe and sock wet.

It was low tide otherwise we could not have done it. We saw Sea Urchins in the water.

Diana was changing her shoes.

Our next stop was First Beach. Access was easy and not much walking involved.

Second Beach was different. The trail involved a two hundred feet elevation difference. First we had to walk up and then down to the beach.

On the beach we saw a family of four with back packs. Even the little girl carried a heavy load.

There was also a Hole in the Wall or a natural bridge.

To get to the beach we had to climb over big logs. There is drift wood all along the beach.

On the trail somebody put small stones into an opening in a tree.

We were tired after all that walking and did not attempt to go to Third Beach. In the evening we had a potluck dinner.

Today is the one hundred birthday of the National Parks and after dinner we told our favorite National Park Stories.

8-26-2016.

Diana, Karen and I drove to the Hoh Rain Forest. This area gets about 144 inches of rain a year.

It has not rained for a while and there was a lot of dust on the vegetation.

We walked two trails.

Our next stop was Ruby Beach. We did not find rubies but a lot of stones. It is a beautiful beach.

We ate our lunch and then walked the beach. Again, we had to climb over large logs.

8-27-2016.

Diana, Jan and I went today to Cape Flattery, the most Northwest point of the United States. On the way it was raining very lightly. I thought we would not see anything because of the fog and rain.

To our surprise it stopped raining and we could enjoy the rock formations and the caves with birds flying in and out.

The lighthouse on the nearby island is decommissioned.

On the way back we stopped in Neah Bay where the Makah Indian Tribe celebrated Makah Days.

I wanted to have a salmon meal but the line was too long. The salmon was cooked on wooden sticks which were placed near the fire.

This is my last day at Forks. I will be heading back to Gig Harbor. Some of the group will stay in Forks a few more days. The rest will leave Monday and head for Ocean Shores.