Port Townsend, Port Hadlock, Port Ludlow, and Three Forts - June 28, 2014

Today we drove around the Discovery Bay, Port Townsend Bay, and Puget Sound area of the Olympic Peninsula. Our first stop was Fort Worden State Park. We purchused a Discover Pass that is required for entry into all the State Parks in Washington. It was 30 bucks and is good for a year.

We drove through the old Fort area. Rows of old buildings that housed the Fort's Officers, and the admin buildings. Some were museums now and others that you can rent rooms in. We headed out to the Point Wilson Lighthouse there.

The date on the lighthouse said 1913.

Then we walked around Battery Kinzie. It was one of the areas that had big guns set up to protect the US from hostile attack during WWII. These guns were gone, but the place was pretty cool.

Then we drove through Port Townsend. There was a big classic car show going on there, but we passed it up. We did walk the streets and marveled over the old buildings.

Then on to the Old Fort Townsend State Park. There wasn't too much there to see so on to Indian Island. Indian Island is the home of Fort Flagler. It is an active Navy base. We passed by and on to Marrowstone Island. The north end is Fort Flagler State Park. We stopped at another artillery battery there.

This one still had the guns there. 155 mm guns.

Remember the old Beatle song... Happiness Is A Warm Gun?

We drove through the old Fort buildings.

And walked along the beach to see the Marrowstone Point Lighthouse. It was a little itty bitty one.

We played around on the beaches for awhile.

When passing through Port Hadlock, we came across this restaurant. It was called Zoog's. A place to have some 'caveman' cocktails.

On the way back to our campground, we drove through Chimacum. This is where the SKP COOP park, Evergreen, is located. I took a couple of pictures.

We covered a big area today and saw alot too.

We love the Olympic Peninsula.

The Olympic National Park and Port Angeles - June 25, 2014

Today we entered the Olympic National Park again and drove up, up, up to Hurricane Ridge. It is just 17 miles out of Port Angeles. We are getting a lot of use out of our America The Beautiful Access pass. You can't beat 'free' admission to all the National Parks. This trip finishes all three NPs in Washington State.

We entered and headed up the well maintained roads.

We stopped along the way to see the views. We were heading up to 5,242 feet in elevation.

As we wound around the mountains, the forests changed from thick  to meadows. On the north facing side, there were trees covered in lichens and moss.

We saw a few black tailed deer along the way. They sure were not afraid of people.

We spent a bit of time in the visitor center at the top and Donna got our passport stamped.

I told Donna to watch out for the big cat. They are dangerous!

She didn't listen. She likes cats.

Then we went outside and marveled in the views. It was awesome. Surrounded by the Olympic mountain range. Here are a bunch of pictures. Of course you can't beat the view in person.

Then we headed back down the mountains to goof around in Port Angeles. We walked around the Port Angeles harbor. We strolled along Hollywood Beach and Waterfront Trail snapping pictures of anything interesting.

Here are a couple of cool shots.

This is a couple of murals outside the Feiro Marine Life Center.

We spent time watching the ships moving along the harbor.

Since we were close by the Dungeness National Wildlife Refuge and recreation areas, we got a hankerin' for some lunch.

Guess where we went and what we had.

Yup!

:)