Rialto Beach

Olympic Peninsula, Washington

We packed some books and headed for the beach this morning. I'm reading "Little Big Man". Mrs. Phred has "Rainbow Six" by Tom Clancy.

It's a beautiful day...sunny blue skies...about 65 degrees...we walk about two miles down the beach studying the lovely polished rocks and gigantic bleached driftwood trees...

After a few hours we have lunch in "La Push", the Indian reservation featured in the Twilight saga.

I have an Alfredo pasta with shrimp , scallops and steel head trout. Mrs Phred has fried clams, steel head trout and scallops...It's  all surprisingly good with a great view of the harbor and breakwater...

We'll be heading for Port Townsend on July 4th...Fort Worden has been turned into a State park...The old army base still has tennis courts where the officers used to play...

We would like to spend some days exploring Seattle before we head north to Alaska or east toward the Great Lakes....

The Hoh Rain Forest

Olympic National Park

We started the morning on Ruby Beach in the Olympic National Park. We were too late for the best tide pools. I could pull some photos from my archives, but that would be wrong...

The first time we camped out overnight together was here on the Hoh River. It was June 6, 1968.  I stayed up all night with a stick of wood waiting for the bears while Mrs. Phred slept in a bedroll on a poncho. When we returned to Mccord Air Force Base, my honorable discharge was waiting...We drove to Miami in a fast 72 hours in our 66 Chevy convertible...We arrived just in time to see Bobby Kennedy get assassinated on TV...

Today the Spruce trail is closed because of an aggressive mama elk.

The Cascade Mountains are to our East and the Pacific Ocean is West. The Hoh River valley runs about 40 miles from the Pacific up into the mountains. The adiabatic  process creates an annual average of 144 inches of rainfall in the Hoh valley.

The moist air from the Pacific is forced up as it meets the Cascade mountains. As the air cools it can't hold as much moisture and precipitation results.

This may be the only coniferous rain forest in the world. It has been declared a world heritage site.

At the end of the valley you can see hundreds of unnamed snow-capped mountains.

Definitely one of my favorite places...sweet memories...

Mrs. Phred relaxes after lunch...we walked in about three miles today. The trail was nasty with lots of muddy places...It's rained here even more than usual...

We were here in May of 2006. I jumped into the swift and cold  Hoh river and was immediately swept away with great velocity in the glacier melt water...the clock started ticking...exhaustion  or hypothermia?? Fortunately, as a registered Dive master, I am able to overcome nearly any water adversity...Johnny Weissmuller, eat your heart out...

Twilight Mania

Olympic Peninsula, Washington State

We're at a place called "Forks" which  is 12 miles from the Indian reservation  on the Pacific Ocean coast. The reservation is at a small fishing town called "La Push", home to the Quileute Indians. These Indians are important in the "Twilight Saga". This popular story is about a group of sort of vegan vampires who are ethically opposed to drinking human blood and like to chase deer in the Washington woods..

The dark, damp, dreary and dank coniferous rain forest of the Olympic Peninsula is a perfect place for these vampires to call home. Sometimes I think I might be part vampire because every time I go out in the sunshine I get another cancer.... Bella is a human girl who moves to the Forks to stay with her divorced father. Edward is in inhumanly attractive vampire who attempts to avoid her and seems to Bella to find her repulsive.

Edward and Bella's ultimately establish a relationship grows over time, and they fall passionately in love. Their foremost problem is that to Edward, Bella's scent is a hundred times more potent than any other  human, making Edward struggle to resist his desire to kill her. However, despite this they manage to stay together safely for a time.

Anyway, the small town of Forks has five or six businesses and tours that focus on tourists and the Twilight Saga.

Forks is very well located for exploring the beaches and coniferous rain forests of the Olympic peninsula.

We'll be here until the 4th of July . Our next stop will be Port Townsend. Maybe we can find a way to explore Seattle and/or the San Juan islands.

We went to a place called Rialto Beach on the Pacific Ocean in the Olympic National Park today. A characteristic of Washington beaches is the huge bleached driftwood trees.

Swept Away!

Hoh Rain Forest, Olympic National Park, Washington -

As we drive into the Olympic National Park, we pick up a long-haired hitchhiker. He turns out to be Arthur, a physicist from Nottingham, England who studies MRI physics and was in Seattle for a conference of 5,000. He has heard of Arthur Dent.


We hike back into the dense rain forest valley and remember our first overnight hike here on June 5, 1968. I see our young ghosts on the trail. That time I stayed up all night in the dark by the river with a club, waiting for bears while Mrs. Phred slept.


We camp by the Hoh River which rushes past. A sign says 'Dangerous Boating Area'. The swift water is glacier-melt cascading down the rain forest valley. I slip on my dive booties and hand the camera to Mrs Phred. Out into the rushing water, I'm swept off my feet (according to plan). I end up in the deepest, fastest part of the river with no hope of regaining my footing.

Rapidly I float downstream scrabbling at the tiny river rocks. The clock is ticking... hypothermia or loss of strength? Aha! A big rock. Just in time... I love this place! Up on the bank. What a rush! Do it again!


Next day another hike and another helmet warning, this time from a Park Ranger, about Washington State helmet laws. My vehicle registration and driver's license documents come back clean.