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We decided to tour Washington in a clock-wise fashion, starting out along the coast, working our way north on the Olympic Peninsula and then eventually over to Seattle on the east side of Puget Sound. The Olympic Peninsula will always have a special place in my heart since I worked at Olympic National Park for two summers during college. Thirteen years ago, at the end of May, I left the desert heat of Tucson and drove straight through to Kalaloch (pronounced CLAY-lock), Washington. It was amazing: gorgeous beaches, sea stacks, towering trees—there was water everywhere and everything was some shade of green. I fell in love with the place, so much so that I came back the next summer.

Which is why we were heading there all these years later—it really is an amazing place. When we left I-5 heading west we were thrilled to know it would be a couple of weeks before we saw the interstate again. We stopped for lunch in Aberdeen which looks about the same as I remember it. A large lumber mill or two, a railroad, a Walmart, a shopping mall, a slew of small businesses stretching along the highway, and houses—many of them showing signs of neglect. To put it nicely, Aberdeen and the adjacent town of Hoquiam (HOE-kwee-uhm) have seen better days.

Both towns sprang up at the eastern end of Grays Harbor as the timber industry flourished towards the end of the 1800s. In the early days there was a plenty of money floating around in the hard working, grungy, rough-and-tumble little towns. Before the Great Depression Aberdeen was bustling, as thiry-seven mills processed tree parts. Though both towns settled down and became more respectable, neither place ever saw that kind of money again. The early timber industry clear-cut vast swaths of forest without replanting and soon there was precious little timber to ship out. Fittingly, Hoquiam is a Native American term meaning “hungry for wood.”

These days Aberdeen is probably most famous as the “Birthplace of Grunge” since two members of the band Nirvana, Kurt Cobain and Krist Novoselic hailed from there. Much more interesting to me than grunge music, Aberdeen is the home port of the Lady Washington. This vessel is a full-size replica of the ship Captain Robert Gray sailed on his first voyage to the northwest coast in 1788. I find it interesting that when the state commissioned a replica to be built for their 1989 centennial celebrations, they chose to build a copy of the Lady Washington. While Gray did captain the original Lady Washington during his first visit to the region, he was the captain of the Columbia when he actually discovered Grays Harbor and the Columbia River in 1792. On May 7th of that year, Gray sailed into the protected bay that now bears his name. Gray and his crew did not tarry—just a few days later Gray discovered and sailed past the treacherous mouth of the Columbia River, thus earning himself a prominent spot in U.S. history books.

I’m guessing the state did it for the name of the ship and not in the interest of historical accuracy. Regardless, the tall ship is a beauty that now sails for special events and even played a prominent role in the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie, Curse of the Black Pearl. The Lady Washington took on the role of the HMS Interceptor, the fast and nimble ship that Captain Jack Sparrow commandeers through a smart bit of treachery.

After lunch we continued west to the small resort town of Ocean Shores. Just up the beach we pulled into our quiet and secluded RV spot. It was wonderful, especially after the hectic, big city RV parks we had stayed in recently. We had no direct neighbors and behind our site was a large wetland with tons of birds. Within minutes of parking we saw an Osprey and a Bald Eagle fly over. It was bound to be a good week!

Ocean Shores is located at the southern end of the Olympic Peninsula on its own tiny spit called Point Brown Peninsula. It is an arm of land that helps protect the entrance to Grays Harbor: a vital estuary that hosts one of the largest concentrations of migrating shorebirds in North America. During the spring thousands of plovers, sandpipers, and other shorebirds stop here on their long journeys. The mudflats are literally covered with small birds resting and refueling for their continued trip.

While it was too late in the summer for us to witness the large flocks the area is famous for, we did take a trip out to Grays Harbor National Wildlife Refuge. The small refuge offers a mile-long boardwalk trail that edges along the mudflats. With binoculars we could discern a few Killdeer and Semipalmated Plovers walking in the midst of small flock of Western Sandpipers. Every so often—for no apparent reason—the sandpipers would take to the sky in unison, banking and soaring as if one large bird and not a hundred individual ones. Just as quickly the group would land on the shore and return to searching for food.

Though we saw relatively few shorebirds, we had better luck in the grasslands and trees along the trail. A pair of gregarious Northern Flickers entertained us with their antics and overhead we caught glimpses of a Northern Harrier, an Osprey, and yet another Bald Eagle. It was a great way to spend one of our few non-rainy afternoons.

Ocean Shores is very different from the hardworking towns of Aberdeen and Hoquiam. For thousands of years the area had been used by several native tribes as a meeting place for trade and food gathering. In the 1860s the first American settled on the peninsula. The land was used as a cattle ranch until 1960 when it was purchased by the Ocean Shores Development Corporation. The rumor was that the state of Washington was about to legalize gambling and OSDC wanted to cash in on that economic boon. Canals were dug and the sandy land of the peninsula was platted out into lots. It was billed as a California-style resort community geared towards the Hollywood crowd. Chartered planes which brought up stars for the grand opening were greeted by thousands of curious onlookers.

Unfortunately for OSDC, their anticipated casino never materialized, and 1969—the year Ocean Shores was dubbed the “Richest Little City”—marked the end of the town’s heyday. I, for one, am glad the bottom fell out of OSDC’s plans, for Ocean Shores is now a fairly mellow, small, coastal town instead of a glitzy resort. Currently the town of roughly 4,000 people caters to beach goers, with hundreds of hotel rooms and various surf and sand activities. I guess you could say we were part of their target market.

Our last evening in Ocean Shores we stopped in at the Galway Bay Pub, an Irish restaurant that came highly recommended. Now, I’ll be honest, when I think of great food I don’t think of Irish pubs, but we figured it was worth a shot. Overall, the night was fun, the beer was thirst-quenching, the food was tasty (especially the Colcannon), and the live music was quite entertaining. It capped off a great afternoon of exploring the beach and jetty at the south end of town. The tide was just starting to come in, and the tide pools with their interesting creatures were easily visible.

It had been a relaxing week but it was time to move on. We headed north on 101 to Kalaloch in Olympic National Park. The best thing about Kalaloch is the location: the small hotel, resort, restaurant, and convenience store combination sits on a bluff overlooking a long beach and all of it is part of the national park. Land for the park was first set aside in 1909 as Mount Olympus National Monument. In 1938 it was enlarged and the name was changed to Olympic National Park.

The park was named for the mountain range that forms the backbone of the peninsula. It is not an exceptionally tall range yet its location close to moist ocean air keeps the peaks snow-covered throughout the year. The tallest peak, Mount Olympus, is topped with six large glaciers, despite its paltry 7,962’. The mountains are responsible for a dramatic rain shadow effect: lands to the west of the mountains are the wettest in the U.S., receiving an average of twelve feet of rain a year, while lands on the east side get a meager fifteen to twenty inches.

The high rainfall and moderate temperature of the coastal area has created pockets of temperate rainforests. Several lush valleys are dominated by towering trees covered in mosses, lichens, and ferns. The park has some of the nation’s largest trees outside of California with several record-sized specimens. Thankfully the forests within the park have been protected from commercial logging operations and many of the massive trees still thrive.

We only had time for an overnight stop and we were lucky to find a spot in the South Beach campground just three miles south of Kalaloch. After parking our RV, we hit the beach. We had no goal in mind—we just wanted to enjoy a rare sunny day along the coast. Before we knew it, we had covered the three miles to Kalaloch. We scampered up the beach trail and rewarded ourselves with an ice cream treat. On the way back, we spotted our daily Bald Eagle, collected sand-polished rocks, and watched the fog roll in. That night we fell asleep listening to the waves.

Photos: View our photographs from Ocean Shores to Kalaloch.

Dates: We stayed in Ocean Shores from 07/13/08 to 07/18/08 and stayed in Kalaloch on 07/19/08.

Recipe: Enjoy traditional Irish Colcannon.