If ever there's a place that makes you feel truly alive, it's the Olympic Peninsula. Home to primeval rainforests, vast mountain ranges, still, clear lakes, and storm-swept beaches where currents swirl around massive sea stacks. This corner of Washington State is all about the elemental, powerful forces of nature, and its timeless beginnings. Spend a few days surrounded by this mystical, ethereal beauty and you're reduced to humbled awe at the magnificence of nature and its ability to restore peace, calm and perspective to your mind.
Port Angeles is the gateway to the Olympic National Park, and within minutes of heading west out of the city, soaring snow-dusted mountains rise around you, their slopes thick with forests. Our first stop is Lake Crescent, where a hundred-year-old lodge offers picturesque lake-side cabins. Visitors come to take in the serene stillness of the lake and to hike damp river-side trails past ancient trees, their boughs laden with moss. We follow a trail to Marymere Falls, one of the park's many waterfalls. Around us everything pulses with life, and it feels as if we've stepped into an enchanted, magical forest.
Our first destination is Cape Flattery, the most northwestern point in the contiguous United States. Just 88 miles away, the scenic drive, full of switchbacks, breathtaking views and detours, takes over two hours. The Olympic Peninsula is known as one of the rainiest places in the country, and the steady precipitation that feeds the rainforests also causes frequent landslides and inevitable road closures. We detour along Highway 101 to rejoin the San Juan de Fuca Scenic Byway, a route best taken slowly to savour the winding, cliff-side roads, the verdant, forested slopes and the long stretches of beach that appear suddenly before us, demanding attention.
Cape Flattery is on Makah tribal land, and the Makah, long-standing settlers of the region, have a village centered at Neah Bay. At the Makah Museum we learn about the tribe's ancient connection to the land, one affirmed and validated by the discovery of the ancient village of Ozette forty years ago.
A 500-year-old settlement, Ozette was buried by mudflows that turned the village and its contents into time capsules, sealing and preserving some 55,000 artifacts. Excavations between 1966 and 1981 pried those artifacts from the past, illuminating the Makah heritage and revealing the history on display today: harpoon valves carved from bone, children's games and remnants of an ancient blanket made from dog hair and woodpecker feathers. There are carved wooden boxes, combs, spoons and woodworking tools, each item a window into Makah life, skill and survival five centuries ago.
Read more about our journey through the Olympic Peninsula.
This story has been edited and condensed for clarity. Read the original version in the Fall/Winter 2023 edition of driver magazine.
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