DAY-23 Leaving Oregon for the Coast of Washington

Day-23: Friday, September 25, 2015

Starting Location: Best Western, Seaside, OR

Interim Location: Oregon and Washington Coast

Ending Location: Kalaloch Lodge, Olympic National Park, WA

At Astoria we made our crossing from Oregon into Washington. Astoria is located at the mouth of the Columbia River and is a shipping point for timber products from the Pacific northwest to the Far East.

Just as we crossed into Washington and with this morning's portent of rain we were hoping that a room might have opened up at one of the Olympic National Park lodges. Sheila called the Kalaloch Lodge, a place we had stayed before, and pled our case, two wayward old agers, lost in the Pacific northwest in need of lodging for the night. Success, it worked a cabin cancellation was our "foot in the door".

With a place to stay secure we meandered along the Washington coast through ranch and farmland and occasionally along the coast. The coast of Washington is noted for its many shellfish processors including those who harvest and sell "cold water" oysters. One place was actually smoking oysters right in front of us when we had stopped to confirm our directions.

Just as in Oregon, evidence of the timber and logging industry is everywhere. We passed countless numbers of trucks hauling timber, some headed north, others headed south, seems like they could figure out some means of saving each other the north/south trips; after all, the trees all look the same.

Somewhere along US-101 we passed a recently planted forest area. Along the road there were a series of Weyerhauser signs describing the "Great Wind Storm" of December 2007. Dependent upon which article you read winds were clocked or calculated to have been as high as 140 mph along some of the coastal ridge lines. In addition to coastal flooding, a notable impact of the storm was the damage to many of the forested areas. Seems that the winds damaged trees in several ways, with some giant trees simply snapping off 30-50 feet above the ground and others being entirely uprooted. I can't say I had heard of the storm but it surely had the energy and damage potential of one of our tropical storms in the southeast.

Around 5:30 we officially entered Olympic National Park along the coast road, US-101. We made a quick stop at the ranger station for a map and park stamps before moving on to the lodge. The Kalaloch Lodge is ocean front and we were fortunate to get the last cabin. With our check-in only one room remained, the dreaded "above the kitchen" room fully exposed to the sounds and smells of cooking until 10 at night and beginning at 6 in the morning.

The beach is littered with fallen trees and in some cases wayward logs that escaped from log rafts along the rivers. There are warning signs posted about the dangers of entering the water due to the risk of injury or even death from surf driven logs. No worries here, no way I would be in the waters of Washington, it's just too darn cold.

Last time we were here, in 2013 was the time of the government shutdown. We had planned to stay two nights but the lodge shutdown after our first night and the employees were sent home. Strange that even now two years later and with lessons learned we find ourselves at the end of the Federal fiscal year and again with the possibly of a government shutdown, amazing!

Anyway, we moved on over to our cabin, clearly meant for longer than one night stays as it had a large bedroom and bath as well as a large living room and kitchen.








We had a dinner reservation in the dining room and moved that direction for a drink on the deck overlooking the beach and sunset. Yes, a sunset, all the threats of rain had vanished and again we had a clear sky with an equally good forecast looking forward toward our park visit days ahead.

The Thirsty Almond at Kalaloch

Our window on the world during dinner afforded us the opportunity for a great sunset. We see sunsets in Kitty Hawk and St. Pete Beach so it may not be as dramatic to us as it is to others but still different each day. A couple sitting behind us mentioned the "green flash" with the gentleman reportedly having seen it a number of times. Well tonight there would be no "green flash" but something we had not seen did occur, the rarely observed "gray duck". If you look carefully at the sunset picture you too will see the "gray duck" especially if you've had a few beers or glasses of wine.

After dinner we loaded the fireplace and soon had a roaring fire for the evening; so roaring that I had to open windows to dissipate some of the heat. Tomorrow we'll venture into Olympic National Park.