I recently read Andrea Brown’s article, “360 degrees in 36 hours” and immediately took the bait. However, when I got to the Edmonds ferry terminal, the line was jam-packed with cars, so I proceeded to follow Brown’s map in reverse direction (clockwise).
First stop — Aberdeen. True to form, the new-to-the-area teen cashier did not know who Kurt Cobain was. Thankfully, an eavesdropping older woman did and I was able to make it to the tiny honorary park and stare at Kurt’s bridge that goes over the Wishkah River.
Next stop — Ruby Beach. After steadily taking the long highway next to the ocean, with only Rick Rizzs, live from Camden Yard, to keep me company, I surveyed the sea stacks from the lookout overlooking the beach. I passed on going agate hunting.
I then zipped through the now famous town of Forks and arrived at the highlight of my excursion, the gorgeous Lake Crescent. Any words I tried to use to describe the lake would not do it justice.
The same could be said of my next stop in Port Angeles. The view looking back of the stupendous Hurricane Ridge was really something, like being at Holden Village and gazing up at Dumbell Mountain.
I checked out Swain’s General Store and got a little nervous as I saw the various heads of deer on the wall staring back at me rather menacingly.
When I got to the very friendly town of Sequim, I wanted to stay there in honor of the 1988 Sequim Wolves second in state boys basketball team with sharpshooter Ryan Kaps, but there no vacancies in any of the surrounding hotels, only a gorgeous sunset as consolation.
As a result, I drove down to Kingston and took the ferry home. Consequently, I skipped steps 4,3,2 and 1 of Andrea’s fine article. Translated: No bovids or bison. No lavender ice cream. No snoozing 90-pound bulldog. No nut tasting at the end. Sigh.
I finished this picturesque journey in just under 12 hours. After reflecting on visions of tree-laden mountains, beautiful bridges over rivers and so on, it left me with the sense that if you’ve never done the “360/36” of Olympic Peninsula, you haven’t truly seen the whole Evergreen State.
If not for the Herald’s article, I probably would never have made this trip.
Steve Goodman
Mountlake Terrace
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