Odometer: 56,790

Time: 09:00

We want to do one more trip into Olympic National Park today and then move on towards the Canadian Border.

The manager/owner of the motel (an Indian couple, which is very common for small privately owned motels) suggests to go up to Hurricane Ridge, a 17 mile drive up the hill from Port Angeles.

We follow his suggestion and soon are up in an alpine like setting. At the end of the road we park the car and start walking the last about 2 miles up the hill to Hurricane Ridge, a sometimes steep trail which leads to the top of the mountain ridge and offers a fantastic view in all directions. Unfortunately, its a bit hazy today, but we still see the mountains ranges of the Olympic National Park with their glaciers and white snow caps to the south, Port Angeles and Vancouver Island to the north and towards the north east we see Mt. Baker (another big volcano). We can only imagine what the view would be like on a clear day! Along the trail we see deers and marmots and on the parking lot some more deers, those were probably feed by tourists and have lost their shyness towards cars and people which is very bad for them, but it is nice to see them that close.

Back in Port Angeles we stop at McDonalds for a lunchtime ice cream and then drive on towards east on HWY 101. At Discovery Bay we turn north onto HWY 20 to Port Townsend. We arrive there shortly after 3:00 pm, just about right for the ferry at 3:45 pm. The cross-over to Keystone takes only about 20 minutes, but it is a nice change to driving ourselves and it offers a nice view of Puget Sound (the bay between Seattle and the peninsula). At Keystone we head north, a very scenic route with bays and bridges as well as little villages and Oak Harbor, a mid-sized town, which offers everything you need. We love the area, but we guess that it is only half as nice when it rains, which is about 8 months a year.

Back at the mainland we take the first road to the left, pass Bay View State Park and then join Scenic route 11 to Bellingham. This road was built in 1896 and was the first road that connected the north with Seattle. From 1913 to 1931 it was part of HWY 101, which already then went from San Diego up to Alaska.

Coming on this route into Bellingham, offers us a sight seeing tour through the very nice neighborhoods and through downtown before we arrive at the motel almost at the other end of town. We very much like what we see, all the neighborhoods are very nice and clean and the historic district looks very well maintained.

Overnight Stay: Rodeway Inn, Bellingham, WA

Dinner: Greek Restaurant, next door to the motel

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