No memory is ever alone; it's at the end of a trail of memories, a dozen trails that each have their own associations.
Louis L'Amour
Louis L'Amour
I figured I'd start with a trail quote. My family knows why I picked this one.
**Remember you can enlarge the pictures by clicking on them once, for more detail.
Once I found out I was going to Neah Bay, the coast in the corner of the state, I was beside myself with excitement. I have desperately wanted to go there for quite some time. It turns out that they rented a beach-front cottage for Friday night. We headed out Friday morning and arrived in the early afternoon. Jen goes there frequently because there is good surfing and hiking so she had planned that afternoon's activity: a hike to the northwestern most tip of the contiguous US. Apparently the western most tip of the country is in Oregon. Anyway, Jen had been teasing us with another hike as well, which she labeled as "one of the prettiest hikes she's ever taken." Considering she spends weeks at a time hiking in the summer and most weekends in the winter, I figured that was saying something. I wasn't going to see that trail until Saturday, though. Off we went to Cape Flattery.
We had to pull over at one point because the road was so curvy that the three of us who weren't driving got car sick. We picked a good spot because this guy was waiting for us.
We started off hiking through the woods (I was very concerned when I realized just how much down hill we were doing!). We were lucky and had a sunny day, even though we were in the rainforest. The first lookout was stunning. I would have stood and watched the water roiling all day long. But we had to keep hiking...more was to come.
(Samantha on the left, Leah in the middle, Jen on the right)
The path had some boardwalk parts to it, which was nice because it kept the trail even. You can see here about the view of Samantha and Jen that I had for both of our hikes. Long legs=faster walkers! Luckily, Leah likes to walk at a slower pace and she and I kept each other company.
The next overlook provided another beautiful view. Deep caves have been eroded by the ocean, which was pretty vicious even on that sunny day.
(Not the most flattering shot of me or my nose...but I'll leave it in anyway. If you're reading this, you already know what I look like!)
Alas, I wasn't allowed to gaze endlessly at this point either, on the to the end. And thank goodness they got me there! It was just stunning. Canada was mostly obscured by fog and no whales popped up, despite my best hopes, but can't argue with the view! AND I was finally allowed to stand and look all I wanted...for awhile!
We all decided we wanted to live on that island and poor Leah cringed every time we looked even CLOSE to the edge.
I would have taken some pictures on the walk back but it was hailing. So I decided not to. New England weather has NOTHING on Washington weather!
Then we drove through the little town of Neah Bay, which is on the Makah (pronounced Mackaw) Indian reservation. Not a lot there. Soon we were at the turn off for the Hobuck Resort. There was a campground area and also a set of beach front cottages.
I took the picture from the driveway in front of the cottage and then turned around to take a picture of the view.
We had a great walk on the beach and did some shell collecting and watched the sun set.
The shells are called Mexican Hat shells and there were many perfect specimens of those and the sand dollars on the beach. I only brought four hat shells and one dollar home. A good representation and yet not overwhelming when I got here! I'm sure you noticed the signature shots of reflection on the beach and sky/sun stuff, which seem to be my favorites!
The cottage was a shocking teal inside walls and ceiling, with wood floors. The living area was first, then the little kitchen, then two bunks on the left and the bathroom on the right. At the very back was a bedroom with a queen size bed taking up most of the space. I ended up in the bottom bunk. Samantha, the sleep walker, was relegated to the bed with Jennifer and Leah slept on the couch by the door so that there were three of us to get through in case she slept walked herself right out the door. Leah even set up a booby trap in front of the door to make sure she would wake up while Samantha (whose stories of the things she can do in her sleep were pretty epic!) was removing all the items to get outside. Luckily, Samantha slept well and stayed in her spot and only woke up Jen once with a little chatting. After staying up REALLY late talking and venting and laughing about our jobs and lives, we slept in a little bit and woke up in the morning to another beautiful day!
Sadly, we had to say good-bye to the little cottage in order to move on to the Indian Museum and the beautiful hike. The museum looked small and forlorn from the outside but was beautiful inside. No pictures allowed but some items of interest were a whalebone sculpture (not in the shape of a shale, as one might expect, but literally just in a pile!), a replica of a longhouse found at the Ozette village (a Makah village obscured by a mudslide in around 1700, which was excavated in the late sixties and early seventies producing some pretty interesting artifacts), and a "whale saddle" decorated with seal teeth. The man working at the museum told us that this saddle would have been sitting on a bench or a bed in the house of the hunters. It was only symbolic but represented the dorsal fin of the orca whale. He described the whale as the great teacher of the hunters because the pods of transient orcas that swim through are carnivorous and showed the hunters to kill seals and sea lions. Fascinating. I also had to stop in the gift shop and buy a frog puppet for my collection, decorated in the Makah tradition and representing the magical voice that told of the changing of seasons. I also found an EXCELLENT picture book for $16.00, but I came home and bought it on Amazon for $4.00!
After the museum, we stopped at the general store for some lunch and then headed back out of town and into the Olympic national forest for our hike. Now, I had been assured that it was just a little 3.3 mile hike in and a little 3.3 mile hike out...just a little 6.6 mile hike.. I convinced myself that that was just a little hike and off we went! I will say that I didn't enjoy the walk as much as I had the first hike because there were no scenic lookouts. However, Jennifer was right that the end of it was totally worth the agony that my calves would be in the next day! Sea stacks and bald eagles galore! She and Samantha bravely ran up the face of one of the sea stacks and hung out there for a bit. Leah and I sat on a drift wood tree and watched the eagle come almost right over our heads. Thrilling! We climbed around on the rocky ground seeing crabs and sea anemones and looking for a few more interesting shells. After about an hour, off we hiked back up towards the car. I was tired but definitely satisfied with the day. And, as a send off, we saw a heard of elk in a field at the edge of the forest. We stopped for a picture of course!
The trail...mostly boardwalk, which is surprisingly slippery!
And off into the sunset we headed, back to Sequim (pronounced Squim) to Jennifer's house for one more night of talking, complaining, venting, and laughing about our jobs before returning to reality on Sunday. A really, really exciting weekend and an awesome way to spend my 30th! Thanks, ladies!
