Stop 5/6/7: Mora/ Rialto Beach/ La Push/ Forks, WA
Now we come to the most beautiful part of the journey, WOW and STUNNING come to my mind. We drove on down the 101, till we hit the 110 just out side of Forks. Another half hour down the 110 and you arrive at either Mora or La Push depending on if you fork off the 110 at a certain restaurant spot. We did not see this fork , as Toni was asleep and woke up just as we drove passed it, and I started talking to her and didn't see the sign. don't blink, or you will miss it. So next thing you know I see signs for third beach , second beach, and finally a sign that we were entering the reservation and have to obey res ordinances. It was Quillayute days, so it was cool. we parked kinda where we could see first beach, and looked at the food stands and festivities. It looked awesome, I was starving and really wanted some smoked salmon, but I was afraid if we didn't get over to Mora soon we wouldn't get a camp site. So we passed a dozen smoked salmon signs and headed back to the fork about 10 minutes up the road, with a promise to soon return. We got there, quickly found and paid for our camp site, and set up the tent as a place holder so no one would try to steal it.
By this time, we were absolutely starving, and we noticed the restaurant at the fork. It also had a sign for smoked salmon, so we went to this very touristy spot. Only pictures can do it justice.
Toni and Jacob Black
We risked vampire danger
not only was there a menu, there was a whole twilight section of the restaurant
No kidding, A whole park of Jacob Black themed cabins to rent
I straddled the treaty line
So, I got a veggie burger, and clam chowder, Toni got a regular burger, and tater tots. we shared the chowder and tots, and I have to say, despite this place looking like a massive tourist dive, THE FOOD WAS AMAZINGLY GOOD!!! so I recommend it. after we ate, we went to leave planning to go back to La Push, but it was raining like crazy, so we decided to go past camp Mora to Rilato Beach, 3 miles from our camp and very nearly at La Push any way. Only a small river separates the two. We were just going to check out the beach, then go back and go to sleep because of the buckets of rain. Honestly I think it was God doing us a favor so we would check out something uniquely awesome. As soon as we got to the beach the rain quit.
The scene was beautiful. The ocean was amazing, the fog that was on the beach just added to the majesty. There were many amazingly beautiful rocks there, very smooth and polished, but with great colors and flecks. I really wished my friend Julie Fahlsing was there to tell me what they were. I tried to take pictures, but she couldn't get enough information from the pictures to tell me more about them. I guess I will have to go back and collect some samples sometime. There were these amazing rock faces and islands out in the ocean, and the waves were huge!! there were massive trees lining the high tide area of the beach, we had to carefully crawl over them as they were quite slippery. It did smell quite bad. Later we found out that that was because of a dead seal on the beach. and for some reason there was a yellow foam washing up on the beach that we couldn't figure out what it was. I think this is also best told in photos.
Rilato Beach in the fog
Pretty Rocks =)
Dead Seal, partially decomposed
After that, we headed back over to La Push since it wasn't raining. We checked out first beach on closer inspection. It was stunningly beautiful.
First Beach, Quillayute res, La Push, WA
We listened to a comedian go on for about 6 minutes of toilet humor- literally, and looked around for a bit, and headed off to Forks. All we did in Forks was look at the High School, and then we went to Thrift way (AKA Twilight central) and bought food for Sunday, a flash light, and for Toni some souvenirs. We headed back, Changed, threw our bags in the tent and set up my car to be slept in. It worked good, but could have been wider. And as well fell asleep to the constant booming of celebratory fireworks from La Push, rain fell gently on the roof of my car and I drifted off into some much needed sleep, closing out Day 1 of our Great Olympic Road trip. Tune in next time for Day 2, Sol Duc rage and Lavender festival.
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