Monthly Archives: October 2016

‘Moon Walking’ on Washington’s Pacific Coast

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October 28, 2016

By Dorothy Rice Bennett

I wake up and it’s beautiful and sunny in Sequim. Seems like the perfect time for a day-trip somewhere. I check the weather on the Internet. Yes, it’s not only good here in the Blue Hole (as they say about Sequim) but all over the Olympic Peninsula. So, yes, it’s a good day to take off.

So many places we could go—Crescent Lake, Neah Bay, La Push, Hoh Rain Forest, Salt Creek Recreation Area, Rialto Beach. And others. What about Rialto Beach? Haven’t been there in a while. So Connie and I load up the car with a picnic basket, put the poodles in the back seat with their treats and leashes, gas up the car at the nearby QFC grocery, and we hit the 101 Highway headed west.

Picnic Time

An hour later we’ve passed through Port Angeles and have arrived at Lake Crescent. The 101 follows the southern edge of the lake for several miles, and we pull off near the Lake Crescent Lodge and take our picnic basket down by the waterside. At a picnic table, we sit and enjoy the view of this incredible lake while we have lunch and give treats to the dogs. And take a restroom break.

Back in the car, we pass the rest of Crescent Lake and head again west and then turn a bit south toward Forks, famous as the setting for the Twilight series of books and movies. Just before Forks, we turn right onto highway 110, which heads to La Push, home of the Quileute tribe of Native Americans. Here three rivers coming out of high Olympics merge and dump into the Pacific Ocean as the Quillayute River. Part of the way down the 110, there is a bridge across the river. You can stay on 110 and follow it into La Push, or if you cross to the north side of the river and follow Spur 110, you go to Rialto Beach.

There are many beaches along the Pacific in the state of Washington. Each has its own landscape and unique characteristics. Some of them are on Native American reservations; some are part of the Olympic National Park and Forest. Rialto Beach is officially located inside a coastal section of the national park.

Why Rialto Beach?

Rialto Beach faces the Pacific Ocean at an angle bringing strong winter storms and winds directly to the land. Like many beaches, there are numerous fallen tree trunks along the rock-strewn beach. But unlike many beaches, the trees have been bleached white. Even standing evergreen trunks along the landside of the beach are white. This extreme whiteness offers a touch of the ethereal to the human eye. When I first visited Rialto Beach, I said to my friends, “This looks like walking on the moon or a strange planet. It doesn’t look like Earth at all!”

Rialto Beach is blessed with several seastacks offshore as well as a rocky shoreline that provides numerous kinds and colors of polished rocks. At the south end of the beach, La Push is visible only a few hundred feet away, but separated by the mouth of the Quillayute River. It is an amazing fact of nature that one can be so close and yet not be able to reach that community. The parking area at Rialto Beach is reasonably large, with separate parking for RVs, and there are good public restrooms. If the weather is clement, there are also picnic tables available just back of the beach and within the first line of trees. Since this is the Pacific Ocean, it is wise to dress in layers.

Rialto Beach provides a visual feast. The hundreds of white tree trunks seem to go on forever. Great for climbing, great for photographs. I’ve included one here taken about three years ago, when my longtime friend Myrna Oliver came from Los Angeles to visit. Myrna is dressed in black; I am in red. Notice how white the tree trunk is behind us.

During my last visit, the weather changed from foggy to cloudy to partly sunny within a few moments of time. Our pictures changed in feel with each change in the weather.

From Sequim to Rialto Beach is a trip of about two hours each way, or about eighty-five miles each way. If you allow an hour at the beach to explore, you have a trip that can return you home by dinnertime. Or you can stop in Forks to eat before heading back—or in Port Angeles, on the way home.myrna-and-me-at-rialto-beach

Olympic Wonders at the Ridge

mtncloudsOctober 12, 2016

By Dorothy Rice Bennett

One of the joys of living in the small community of Sequim, Washington, is that our town is like a hub with spokes extending in all directions. Each of these spokes leads to something beautiful, fun, educational, interesting, artistic, natural, amazing—or all of the above. And most of these destinations are close, accessible in a few moments or at least within a few hours.

Among the first places I was taken to visit when I came to Sequim was the Visitors’ Center at Hurricane Ridge in the Olympic National Park. Consider this: you leave Sequim, which sits at the southern end of a prairie barely a hundred feet above sea level, and in slightly more than an hour you move gradually uphill to nearly a mile above sea level. Amazing in itself!

Uphill climb

From Sequim, you take the 101 Highway to Port Angeles, which is seventeen miles to the west. At Race Street, you make a left turn, leaving the 101 behind, and gradually start your uphill climb. In a little more than a mile, you veer to the right on the park road leading to Hurricane Ridge. In five miles, you reach the visitors’ toll booth where you pay the fee, or show your senior card, which lets your entire carload in for free.

From the tollbooth you drive another twelve miles—winding among the mountains and valleys, amid stately evergreens and through tunnels, sometimes noticing mountain springs emerging from roadside rocks—until finally you break through to an open valley where the Hurricane Ridge Visitors’ Center is located. Just under a mile high.

Before you is laid out a big parking lot, and on nice days there are hundreds of parked cars all around. In the middle is a building that houses restrooms, viewing areas, a gift shop, a snack bar, and a movie viewing room. All of this on two levels. From the south side of the building, on both levels, you look at and take pictures of the majesty of the Olympic Mountains.

Wondrous views!

And majestic they are! Not the highest in the nation, with Mount Olympus topping out just under eight thousand feet, or the biggest—the Olympic range is compact, limited only to the Olympic Peninsula and totally inside the state of Washington—yet it is filled with numerous peaks, valleys, and glaciers. The total of the range is so intense, so wild, and so rugged that much of it unreachable to any except very experienced hikers and climbers. As a result, a national park is almost the only possible use of the land. So in 1938, the Olympic range was designated a national park and is now one of the most popular and most visited in the U.S.

The visitors’ center is open to the public throughout the summer months and also during the remainder of the year when weather permits. Winter snows can isolate Hurricane Ridge until the access road can be plowed, so the visitors’ center is kept open as much as possible on weekends and occasionally, when storm free, during some weekdays. It is wise in winter to check the status via the Internet before heading up the hill.

Spectacular all year round

The views from the center are spectacular. For active souls, during the winter it is possible to snowboard, cross country ski, and in a variety of ways enjoy the piled-high snow. During the summer months, there are numerous hiking and climbing trails available. The ridge offers virtually unlimited photo ops throughout the year. Deer are often present on the grasslands around the center. (Pets are allowed on leash in the parking area but not inside the visitors’ center building; there are restrictions on pets to be noted at various places inside the National Park.)

On the way up to Hurricane Ridge and back down to Port Angeles, there are several pull outs where you can visually survey the land, the cities, the Straits of Juan de Fuca, and even Canada on clear days.

I have been to Hurricane Ridge numerous times and in every season. The ridge never fails to excite and satisfy. I take all my houseguests there, and everyone raves about the beauty. And because it’s so close, we can leave after lunch and still be home by dinnertime—unless we decide to enjoy an evening meal at a restaurant in Port Angeles while we cruise through that neighboring community.

Have fun at Hurricane Ridge! You won’t be sorry that you made the drive!
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Getting Cozy with the Animals

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September 28, 2016

By Dorothy Rice Bennett

We had a visitor a couple of weeks ago, and among the sights my cousin Jeanie wanted to see was the Olympic Game Farm. Having visited several times and liking the farm myself, I said, “Okay, let’s do it.”

The game farm is another one of Sequim’s “secrets.” Despite a few billboards and a preview trailer onscreen at the nearest movie theatre, the game farm is tucked away on the Sequim-Dungeness Prairie, beside a local road that runs toward the Straits and very near the Dungeness River. You’d never know it’s there—until you turn in the front gate.

Once a dairy farm, OGF is comprised of a few large pastures on fairly level ground, a small area of cages for animals that must be restricted, and a hilly area with a few displays—including deer and a prairie dog exhibit. You pay at the front gate and drive your car through the farm on a well-marked path. You also buy at the ticket booth loaves of bread to feed the animals. On a busy day, you may be winding your way behind a dozen cars ahead and with another large group behind you.

The afternoon that Jeanie and I went, the prairie dogs, peacocks, deer, and brown bears seemed to be having a siesta. Bread slices lay around untouched, and the bears hardly opened an eye as the cars passed. I was beginning to think our visit was a bust for Jeanie. Then we entered the first of the main pastures and began to encounter some hungry llamas. The idea is that you keep the car moving but you roll down your windows, and the animals come right up to your car and practically (sometimes actually) stick their heads inside looking for food. You have to be quick to give each one a bread slice, because they can be quite demanding and persistent, although “cute” at the same time.

Come and get it!

After we passed the llamas, we entered through cattle gates another bigger pasture that housed a few deer, several elk, and a large herd of buffalo. The elk and especially the buffalo seemed to be very hungry. We fed them as quickly as we could and moved on as soon as the car in front of us did so. I managed to snap a few pictures of the elk, but the buffalo were so persistent—even following the car—that I finally had to roll up my window in order to steer.

(After our encounter with the buffalo, I also had to wash my car on the way home, courtesy of Jeannie, because buffalo have big black tongues and lots of sticky saliva. But Jeanie was laughing at their antics, so it was worth it.)

There are a few caged animals at the farm, mostly ones that for some reason are not suited to being returned to the wild and are retained in accordance with Washington State regulations. The caging area is currently being upgraded and few animals are visible. There is one Siberian tiger, a fox or two, and some wolves identified on the fencing.

Once you leave the last pasture and exit the farm proper, you’ll find a gift shop and snack bar—ready for those who’ve been on the road and need restrooms and a bite to eat—and maybe a memento of their visit.

Dairy farmer works with Disney

The Olympic Game Farm is not a zoo in the usual sense. The originator, Lloyd Beebe, was a dairy farmer who took nature photographs as a hobby and then gradually built a relationship with filmmaker Walt Disney and served the Walt Disney Studios for some 28 years (Think Disney titles like Vanishing Prairie, White Wilderness, and Those Callaways). Beebe and his family trained animals for Disney films and even used the farm as a location for many pictures. After the death of Walt and Roy Disney, the studios moved away from nature filming, and as a result, the game farm was opened to the public in 1972. The facility is currently operated by Beebe’s grandsons, Robert and James Beebe.

OGF is open daily except for Thanksgiving and Christmas. During the summer, a combination tour is offered that includes several extra features, the most significant of which is the studio barn. Built in 1862, the barn was used in filming and today houses many relics from that period of operation. OGF’s fall hours, until Thanksgiving, are 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. For more information and ticket prices, visit the farm’s website, www.olygamefarm.com

See you at OGF, “home to the waving bears.” And stay tuned for more Sequim secrets!

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