Adler's Fall 2013 Northwest: Oct. 14, 2013 Port Angeles/Neah Bay

Oct. 14, 2013 Port Angeles/Neah Bay

We’ll take advantage of the sunshine today, and travel west to the very western tip of the state of Washington. We heard that some of the national parks are open today, but I don’t think Olympic NP is one of them. Maybe it will open by Wednesday? We drove west as far as we could to Neah Bay, home of the Makah Indian Tribe, As we traveled the two lane highway, we were warned of mudslides in 35 miles of our route, and understandably so. This part of the peninsula takes the brunt of the storms coming in, and the vegetation in that area is a good sign of plentiful rainfall. The drive along the strait was beautiful and only tells us things to come when we start our trek down the coast. We talked to a young fellow and he said we are having unusual weather. He told us that it starts to rain in early October and doesn’t stop until after December. We’ve had great weather here. One thing we saw that was unusual, was the bus stop shelter. It was made from a huge tree trunk, hollowed out in front, and a roof put on to protect the children from the rains. Very cute! We met a lot of logging trucks, so there is a lot of harvesting of timber in this area. It is very pristine, virgin and isolated here. We did visit a cemetery near Neah Bay and noticed a young lad was recently buried. We wonder how easy it is for the young people to be able to better themselves and be able to leave here, as it is so remote and the opportunities for them are few with such isolation. We are glad we made the trip here, as the scenery was beautiful. We saw a large herd of at least 30 elk on our way, also, and they were very close to the road. We saw four eagles today, too. It was other good day!