My Solo Exploration of the Olympic Peninsula in Washington

On Summer Soltice in June, I was driving up the interstate in Washington on my way back from one of my court appearances when I started to think about fleeing to another state for awhile. Yeah it was a dramatic thought, but I was majorly exhausted at the time from the stress and worry of what my future held with the court system. When I was coming back North I had a bunch of scenarios running through my head about what I should do for the upcoming months. Was it worth it to leave everything that I've been working towards the last two years I've been living in the Seattle area? Not really. It wouldn't be fair to my roommates and family that have helped me so far. My decision landed on taking a detour west. I figured I should just go to the ocean and get away from normal life for the day at least.

I turned off at the exit towards Aberdeen, WA, so I could make my way to highway 101 and go north again. If you know about the band Nirvana then you also know a reason why a smaller city like Aberdeen could be interesting. It's one of the cities that the Lead Singer, Kurt Cobain spent most of his time growing up in. From the looks of everything it seems not much has changed about the place since long before Nirvana's birth. It had a lot of one story houses with what I would guess three rooms or less. It was very flat for the most part besides low hill areas. Aberdeen does have a downtown area but there weren't any bigger skyscrapers in sight. My first tbought of Aberdeen after I left is it's kind of run down but maybe I need to explore more and give it a chance later. It just gave me a feeling of sadness because of the way the houses were and a few people I saw walking on the sidewalks looked like addicts. I shouldn't assume but I it's just my observation gathered from life's experiences. Another thought, maybe there is a rich part of town that I didn't get to drive by.

So from then on after I left Aberdeen, I started to drive up highway 101. This is where the real forest area starts. There is nothing but evergreen trees and mountains. Here's one of the photos I snapped on my way north.

So first things first, when you go on a long car ride, it's a good thing to know how many miles the trip is and maybe look up gas stations along the way. I did the former but I didn't do the extra credit. About 20 miles out of Aberdeen I realized my gas was getting low. The next gas station was in a very small town called Quinault. It's a hiking resort town. I think that's a thing anyway. It was a miniscule town next to a beautiful lake with a fancy hotel/bed and Breakfast. From what I researched afterwards, Quinault has an amazing trail to hike. It's one of the places I'll definitely be going back to check out. There was one gas station, and it was expensive for anyone's taste in my opinion. I paid over four dollars for the unleaded stuff.

The next stop that I went to was a beach in a group of four that were in a small span of a couple miles that had signs for the public. The one I slowed down for happened to have a trail with some weird bulbed trees. Here's a few photos from that stop with the trail and the beach. I did have a panorama of the beach but it wouldn't let me upload it.

My next stop was at this huge cedar tree that had quite a bit going on with it. There were a few people here, so I did get to talk to a few people on my trip so it wasn't a total loner exploration without any speech going on.

The base of the tree was pretty gnarled.

After the big cedar tree I got back on the road. I didn't end up stopping until Ruby Beach. It's kind of a bigger touristy attraction without a payment so decided to check it out. Even though there was a full lot of cars, I still managed to get some pictures without people in them. When I got down to the beach most of the people were in one particular area by a huge boulder. I walked over to check it out and there were a few pools with urchins. I wasn't super interested in them but at least I got to see what grabbed their attention.

I thought this next one was really cool because the tide was super low still but I could see the reflection of the sky within the water on the sand. The camera never captures it fully but I hope readers can see part of what fascinated me at the time.

This beach was worth the stop. I looked it up beforehand but I didn't realize how many people would be there on the solstice. If you're planning on making a hiking trip, there are so many amazing views from all sorts of angles on Olympic Peninsula. I could recommend a few places for everyone. They even have a few hot springs in the area so you can relax and enjoy soaking too.

But Ruby Beach was my last stop. After that I didn't realize I still had to drive four hours up and around the rest of the peninsula so I didn't stop anywhere else besides gas stations. I drove through the cities Forks, WA, Port Angeles, Sequim, and Bremerton to get home. There was also a gorgeous lake called Lake Cresent on the northern side of the peninsula. It was warm outside but not warm enough for me to swim.

For the rest of the drive I thought a lot about my life. How it is now and what changes I can make. I get so caught up worrying about scenarios that have the chance of happening but never really turn out as bad as I think. I'm still trying to teach my mind to let go but I understand I like to analyze every side of the subject. I'm not sure where I was going with this paragraph so I'll just end it here for now. If you enjoyed reading this, I just want to take the time to tell you thank you. It's a wonderful thing to be able to share experiences.