Port Angeles and Hurricane Ridge

From Port Townsend we headed counterclockwise around the Olympic Peninsula, which is home to Olympic National Park (and National Forest) in the middle and sometimes along the coast.  We first drove up to Hurricane Ridge - beautiful views of the heart of the national park, along with the usual American visitor centre at the top.

We decided to do a quick hike/walk to the top of the hill (below) for some more views.  [Sarah's note: Hurricane Hill, as it's called, is one of the most visited paths in the park, so we didn't exactly have the place to ourselves as it may appear from our photos.  These pictures really don't convey how stunning these mountains are - you will need to find the next sunny spell and go there yourself to see it!]

The path follows along the ridge to the left to the top of that hill in the middle.

Yes, the path was actually PAVED, which is why I can't really call it a hike.

View to the SE from the top

Sarah's "I'm King Of The World" pose at the top. [Sarah's note: More like "Sarah finally enjoying a breeze at the top".  It was HOT up there on the hill].

Happy campers

The weather was fantastic and the views excellent - you could see Mt. Olympus, highest on the peninsula.  We were planning on a camping road trip with lots of rain (the peninsula is normally almost continuously rainy), but were starting to regret not bringing the backpacking equipment since there appeared to be a lot of well-maintained backcountry trails all through the park, and the circumstances couldn't be better.

We headed over to Port Angeles next, and were greeted by a bunch of placard-bearing protestors beside the highway waving "Illegal Aliens Are Illegal" signs - what a great way to make tourists feel welcome.  Port Angeles itself was pretty ugly and uninteresting for the most part, though they're trying to beautify the "downtown" core to attract tourists, especially via ferry from Victoria, BC, with mixed results.  It's a port town first and foremost.

Port Angeles has a couple of wee brewpubs which we dropped in on.  They were not exactly highlights but good on them for giving it a shot (will probably cover this a bit more in a beer blog post later).  And neither Sarah nor I are fans, or know much of anything about, the Twilight books and movies, but Port Angeles is home to a restaurant that features in the movie (which is set on the Olympic Peninsula).

Bella Italia - "Bella" being the female lead in Twilight.  I think Twilight is responsible for 1/2 of the economy on the Olympic Peninsula. [Sarah: For those fans who want further details - apparently Bella came here with Edward, and if you want to be just like Bella you should come to this restaurant and order the mushroom ravioli and a Pepsi.  How do I know this?  Not because I've seen or read Twilight, but because I grabbed a Twilight sights brochure.  Yes, that actually exists.  Chad is not kidding that Twilight appears to be a major driver of the economy on the peninsula.]