PCH - Day 6 & 7 (Portland OR to Seattle WA)

Today I drove from Portland OR across the valley through farmland and cheese-producing regions (think Tillamook Cheddar) back to the coast and then north into Washington State. It made for a long day but a friend had told me to drive Highway 101 all the way around the Olympic Peninsula and I did! I really loved the Willapa Bay region that you come to first as you move around the western side. Then it turns inland a bit into the bays around industrial Aberdeen before heading into the Olympic National Forest area. The spruce trees are ENORMOUS. I made my way through 3 coastal rainforests, the beaches around Clearwater were especially shrouded in mist and really cool. Then it turns inland again and goes along this amazing mountain lake area, Lake Crescent, before rolling out of the mountains into the bay at Port Angeles which is a fairly large seaside town. From there, it was taking a series of roads (101 to 104 to 3 to 16 to I-5) across the eastern side of the peninsula down through Tacoma and then up to Seattle. If I had thought about it in advance and it weren't a Sunday evening with a substantial amount of weekend traffic coming back into the city, I probably would've booked the Bainbridge Island Ferry as my car crossing just for fun but the connecting roads go through pretty areas too. In Seattle, I stayed with my friend Emily for a couple of days, hanging out, swimming in Lake Washington, walking the city, catching up. Next it's onward to Missoula, MT.

Bainbridge Island and Olympic Peninsula from across Elliott Bay, Seattle