Seattle to San Diego Road Trip: Washington (part 1/4)

We’ve all seen this photo of Seattle. But what if you got on this boat with your car, crossed the water, and drove the entire west coast of the US??? We did just that and it was a blast. Follow me to see what we saw…

Seattle to Forks, WA (138 miles)

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car ferry departing Seattle for Bainbridge Island and the open road! (photo courtesy of rebels-by-bus.net)

The car ferry to Bainbridge Island is a lovely, 30-minute ride.

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Public dock where the car ferry arrives from Seattle onto Bainbridge Island…exhale! (photo courtesy of Bainbridge Island Chamber of Commerce)

Drive from the Bainbridge Island ferry dock, along the north coast of Washington’s Olympic Peninsula, through travel-poster scenes of dense forests shooting up tall mountains, surrounding big lakes. Watch the sights change from big city Seattle, to kids on sailboats, to people-less mountain scenes, then beaches and dense rain forests.

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The Olympic Peninsula looks this good in real life! (photo courtesy of Olympic Peninsula Visitor Bureau)

After four hours driving through stunning scenes, you will arrive at Kalaloch Lodge, near Forks, Washington in Olympic National Park. While the lodge is not glamorous, it is clean AND its location is spectacular!

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Kalaloch Lodge (photo courtesy of Olympic Peninsula Visitor Bureau)

Our room at Kalaloch Lodge had big picture windows looking onto this beach…60 miles of undeveloped shoreline!

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Kalaloch Lodge sits on the bluff to the left (photo courtesy of Kalaloch Lodge)

What is all that mess on the beach, you wonder? And why don’t they clean it up? These “logs” are 100′ long tree trunks that have been undercut by swollen rivers up in the mountains just behind this beach. The trees fall into the river, which delivers them onto the beach, where they protect the land from eroding. More “driftwood” here than anyplace in the world!

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The long-pine tree trunks littering the beach are called “bleached bones.”

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This river flows from the mountains behind this photo to the beach. You can see one of Kalaloch Lodge’s cabins on the left. (photo courtesy of Kalaloch Lodge)

Visit nearby Beach Number 4 (surely, the Park Service could have come up with a better name?!) to see the huge rocks on the beach into which Mother Nature has carved little tide pools (below), which support incredible diversity of life, especially starfish and anemones . Bonus: no other people on this beach, despite its dramatic beauty!

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When the tide goes out, these tide pools become exposed. Can you see the anemones in this one?

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These lime-green “sunflowers” are anemones: “Waiting patiently to capture food, sea anemones wave flower-like tentacles filled with stinging cells. Any organic matter delivered by the ocean will do, dead or alive. Their tentacles stuff captured food into a central mouth…Because anemones can reproduce by cloning, over time one anemone can produce an entire colony of itself.” (from Olympic National Park brochure) Thanks goodness people can’t clone themselves!

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“By pumping seawater through its vascular system to the tips of its tube feet, a sea star creates suction to grip mussel and barnacle shells. The sea star tries to pull the creature open; the shellfish struggles to remain closed. With enough time, the sea star usually wins. Ochre sea stars–in both orange and purple color phases–are the most abundant sea stars on this coast,  but there are many other species, ranging from delicate brittle stars to two-foot wide sunflower stars.” (from Olympic National Park brochure) Magnifique!

Visit spectacular Ruby Beach (near Kalaloch Lodge) to learn about the sea stacks, “drowned reminders of a time when the coastline was likely 30 miles further west…Tall sea stacks, often inhabited by nesting seabirds and topped by wind-sheared trees, dot the Pacific coast of the north Olympic Peninsula.” (per Olympic Peninsula Park brochure)

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Ruby Beach’s sea stacks and “bleached bones” (photo courtesy of Olympic Peninsula Visitor Bureau)

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This is you, walking along Ruby Beach.

After your beach walking jaunt, go inland to hike the short Hoh Rain Forest Moss Trail: it is otherworldly. Phrases from “Evangeline” kept wafting through my mind: “This is the forest primeval. The murmuring pines and the hemlocks, bearded with moss, and in garments green …”

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Upper Hoh Road near the Hoh Rain Forest (photo courtesy of Olympic Peninsula Visitor Bureau)

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Hoh Rain Forest Moss Trail (photo courtesy of Olympic Peninsula Visitor Bureau)

The moss trail provides soft, squishy, quiet, peaceful walking. Twelve feet of rain falls here each year, hence the green greens and moss-covered trees.

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(photo courtesy of Kalaloch Lodge)

“Although only 0.8 miles long, the Hall of Moss Trail landscape epitomizes the rainforest ecosystem…Here, old-growth Sitka spruce reach heights of up 250 feet, and western hemlocks dominate the forest canopy. The forest floor is blanketed in soft mosses and countless ferns, and bigleaf maples droop with the weight of soggy epiphytes (plants that grow on other plants). ” (per the Olympic National Park brochure)

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sunset from Kalaloch Lodge

Forks, WA to Lake Quinault, WA (67 miles)

We left the lovely Kalaloch beach and drove inland to the forest-surrounded Lake Quinault, also in Olympic National Park. The Quinault Valley’s six champion conifer trees are the largest living specimens of their species; only the Redwoods and Sequoias are taller.

The place to stay here is the Quinault Lodge, where the Nature Conservancy was meeting for a retreat when we were there, so you KNOW the location is beautiful.

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Classic! (photo courtesy of Quinault Lodge)

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Note the American Indian motif going up the chimney (photo courtesy of Quinault Lodge)

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Quinault Lodge has a big fireplace in its old-timey lobby with good views of the lake. (photo courtesy of Quinault Lodge)

Take a hike through the Quinault Rain Forest to see the  world’s largest Sitka spruce tree: 55’7″ in circumference and 191′ tall!

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TIP: On our drive from Quinault towards Oregon, we took a detour to explore Washington’s Long Beach Peninsula. Don’t do this. LBP is 28 miles of depressed, unattractively developed land.

Next stop: Oregon! 

Stay tuned for post #2 of 4 covering the road trip from Seattle to San Diego.

NY: Niagara Falls & Corning Glass–a lovely couple

THE FALLS

The Niagara Falls are gorgeous and a national treasure. You have to see them!

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Bridal Falls (left) and Horseshoe Falls (right) are two of the three Niagara Falls.

We took the boat ($50 pp) up to the bottom of the falls, which towered above us to such heights (50′) that they were almost scary. The falls hit the water below with such force that they create a swirling vortex, into which I was afraid our  boat would be sucked. Thankfully, these boats make this journey every 15 minutes, so their captains know how to avoid being sucked down, down, down into the depths of the Niagara River. The boat (below) holds 500 people, which gives you a sense of the scale of this photo.

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Definitely don the un-chic plastic poncho that comes with your ticket on “The Hornblower.” The mist from the falls bounces up 100′ and sprays gently down onto you. (photo courtesy of Hornblower Niagara Cruises)

Niagara Falls straddle the international border between the U.S. and Canada. The “Maid of the Mist” boats depart from the American side in NY. “The Hornblower” boats depart from the Canadian side. You want “The Hornblower” because it goes deeper into Horseshoe Falls, the largest of the three that are collectively referred to as Niagara Falls.

The Niagara Falls are a gorgeous…but don’t spend the night there…unless you like depressed towns (Niagara, NY) or to be surrounded by the Hard Rock Cafe and similar (Niagara, Canada), which of course you don’t! Instead, take your passport and drive a mere 20 minutes north into Canada.

NIAGARA-ON-THE-LAKE

The 16-mile drive on the Niagara Parkway from Niagara Falls to Niagara-on-the-Lake, Canada, will take you past the most ENTICING farm stands I have EVER seen and through vineyard after vineyard. Ontario is one of Canada’s three largest wine-producing regions.

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(photo courtesy of Reif Estate Winery)

Niagara-on-the-Lake is charming: lovely houses from the 18th and 19th century (settled in 1781 as a British military base, it became a haven for pro-British loyalists fleeing the U.S.); tons of gardens, public and private, bursting forth with flowers; and a theater festival, all located at the confluence of Lake Ontario and the Niagara River.

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The streets of Niagara-on-the-Lake are filled with flowers, just like in the photo above. (photo courtesy of Niagara Falls Tourism)

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one of Niagara-on-the-Lake’s many attractive old houses (photo courtesy of Niagara Falls Tourism)

SEE THE SIGHTS

  • Walk around town and gaze at the beautiful old houses and established gardens
  • Watch the Wednesday night sailboat races from the town’s small public golf course, which has Niagara-on-the-Lake’s only restaurant on the water. The food is merely okay but the setting is lovely, with a view of Old Fort Niagara (which has been occupied since the 1700’s by the French, English and now Americans) across the water. Big view heaven!
  • Attend the George Bernard Shaw Festival, whose season of plays runs from April to October. We did not go to this, so I can’t vouch for it.
  • Bike or walk along the Niagara River Recreation Trail that follows the Niagara River through beautiful countryside, from Niagara-on-the-Lake to Queenston (1-2 hours at a leisurely pace by bike)
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(photo courtesy of Niagara Parks)

  • Vineyard hop between the 50 vineyards in and around Niagara-on-the-Lake and the entire Niagara wine region along the shores of Lake Ontario. Follow the Wine Route of Ontario through the countryside by car, bike or guided tour. Many Niagara wineries have restaurants, where they pair their (natch) wines with regional cuisine
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(photo courtesy of the Wine Marketing Association of Ontario)

  • Run, don’t walk, to the Niagara Parks Butterfly Conservancy and enter its a big greenhouse of tropical plants and many, many colorful butterflies flitting around. Best butterfly conservancy I have seen!
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(photo courtesy of Niagara Parks)

Several lit on me! Just beautiful!

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(photo courtesy of Niagara Parks)

Butterfly Conservatory Monarch

(photo courtesy of Niagara Parks)

STAY

I recommend a three-night stay at Niagara-on-the-Lake in one of the following:

  • Oban Inn: in town, by the golf course; has an upstairs balcony room
  • Harbour House: in town, nice though not luxurious. We stayed here. I have only seen the other three hotels from outside but they all looked very nice.
  • The Charles Inn: in town, stylish in a low-key way
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(photo courtesy of The Charles Inn)

  • Riverbend Inn: near Niagara-on-the-Lake and the bike path, pretty location
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Riverbend Inn

EAT, DRINK & BE MERRY

Wander the streets of town and you will find something appealing, though nothing outstanding.

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(photo courtesy of Reif Estate Winery)

Highly recommend you drive to several of the surrounding vineyards for what I imagine would be great meals. The settings certainly are! By scrolling around this link to Wine Country Ontario, you will find a varied selection of impressively beautiful vineyards, many of which have attractive restaurants. Given the amazing produce stands in the area, I just bet the food is amazing, too!

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(photo courtesy of Reif Estate Winery)

SHOP

Lots of shops, none enticing.

Corning Glass Museum in Corning, NY (2.5 hour drive from Niagara Falls)

We spent three hours there, waaay more that my usual one hour-and-depart policy. What made the Corning Glass Museum so great: the history of glass making described, plus 35 centuries of examples of the most ancient glass on up to gorgeous “art glass” of the present day…and not just Dale Chihuly. I plan to return because three hours was not enough.

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(photo courtesy of Corning Museum of Glass)

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Glass in America exhibit, including beautiful Tiffany window on right (photo courtesy of Corning Museum of Glass)

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Corning Museum of Glass

STAY

Rather than stay in Corning, which is nothing special, drive half an hour to the Watkins Glen Harbor Hotel at the southern tip of Seneca Lake. While this is not the most fab hotel you have ever been to, it is quite comfortable (we had a nice, big room with a balcony overlooking the lake) AND, GREATEST OF GREAT, the “True Love” yacht from “High Society” (Grace Kelly) and “Philadelphia Story” (Katherine Hepburn) is docked at the hotel AND available for a two-hour spin on the lake. It is an elegant movie star of a schooner built in 1926. “My, she was yar!”

 

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The True Love on Seneca Lake (photo courtesy of Schooner Excursions)

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The True Love (photo courtesy of Schooner Excursions)