Forks, Washington - Home of the Vampires?

And it begins........

We arrived in Forks, WA, center of the Twilight book series and movies. If you are a fan of this genre you might enjoy it.  Although none of the movies were filmed in Forks, people supposedly come from all over the world to see the sights.

Even the local hotels get into the act.

Downtown Forks.

They offer tours.  We never did find out where the tours went to........

Twilight Central has all the info.

We were even being watched from afar.

The Miller Tree Inn is representative of the Cullen house, the residence of Edward and his vampire family.




The mailbox even has the Cullen name on it.



Three of the downtown stores with the Twilight theme.  Love their logo.



Unfortunately (?) they were all out of business.



At the Forks Visitor's Center there were replicas of the trucks Bella drove in the book series and in the movies. 



And for those of us not interested in the Twilight series (say it isn't so) there was also the Forks Timber Museum.

That about takes care of the town of Forks.  We were in the Olympic Peninsula for a week so we were able to see other more enlightening areas.  



This is Rialto Beach, part of the Olympic National Park.

It is beautiful when the sky is clear.

The beach is rugged and the trees show the effect of the wind and surf.

There are rocks of all sizes on the beach.

These big ones even have trees growing out of them.

But it definitely isn't a place to go swimming or surfing.

This area was called 'Hole in the Rock'.

 

Groups of starfish and sea urchins nestle in the rocks waiting for the tide to return.

We drove out to Cape Flattery on the Strait of Juan de Fuca, which is the most northwestern point in the contiguous United States. The strait is a large body of water about 95 miles long and is the border between the US and Canada.  It is a channel that is an outlet to the Pacific Ocean.  It extends east from the Pacific Ocean between Vancouver Island, British Columbia and the Olympic Peninsula, Washington to the Puget Sound.

Rainfall ranges from over 100 inches with a temperate rain forest condition at the west end to as little as 20 inches at the east end.  The area is exposed to the westerly winds and waves of the Pacific Ocean and is rougher than in more protected waters inland.  

On the way to Cape Flattery, we drove through a town called Sekiu where we saw this quaint harbor view.



The Cape Flattery Lighthouse in the Strait of Juan de Fuca.

The land in the background is Canada.

This is Cape Flattery.

Cape Flattery is slowing receding under the force of the pounding waves.

The sandstone is riddled with sea caves.

Within the span of several hundred more years this ground may not exist.

The Captain standing on the northwestern most point.

It was a beautiful, peaceful day.

We also took a hike through the HOH Rain Forest in Olympia National Park.  The HOH Valley receives, on average,  142 inches a year versus 34 inches in Seattle.  Amazing! 

Most of the trees had layers of moss or lichen.

We learned about nurselogs.  When a big tree falls it can provide a stage for new life. Hemlock and Spruce seedlings are unable to survive on the forest floor so they absorb warmth, minerals, and moisture from the decaying trunk.  Only a few seedlings survive.  After their roots reach soil, new trees often seem to stand on stilts as the nurselog eventually decays away.

The new trees have open spaces under them where the nurselog once lived.

The roots look like a jumbled up mess.

This new tree grew right out of the stump of another.  See all the roots of the new tree along the side reaching for the ground.

The trees in the forest were huge.

We were even able to walk under some of them along the trail. 

This tree was over 250 feet tall with a diameter of 12 1/2 feet.  The tree is 500-550 years old.

After we left the park we stopped at a river that was fed by a glacier from Mt Olympia so the pups could take a swim. 

The current was really swift.

The Smiths enjoying the view on a sunny day at the Bogachile River.

Next we follow the Strait of Juan de Fuca and head to Port Angeles and Port Townsend, Washington.  Peace!