Corner of the USA--the blue dot is us! |
Wow, it’s been another wonderful adventure for us today. But when we woke up, we were dismayed to find it was raining again. Not only that, we needed to connect our Jeep. For whatever reason, it took us longer than usual, so it was about 11:20 when we finally hit the road--kind of late for the day I’d planned. I was hoping that the rain would dwindle, because that was why we didn’t do much yesterday--hoping to avoid the rain. But we couldn’t wait another day, so we soldiered on.
We drove about 1.5 hours northwest, heading for Neah Bay (both a bay, and a town of the same name) and Cape Flattery, the northwest-most point geographically in the lower 48 states. It was only about 60 miles from us, but so many of the roads are twisty, 25 mph roads, that it took a long time. We got there at about 2pm, stopping first at the Makah Museum/Cultural and Research Center. Neah Bay is on the Makah Indian Reservation, and I thought we’d learn about them before going to Cape Flattery.
The museum was very interesting (they strictly forbid taking photos, and even have signs not to do any sketching!) The Makah have lived in this part of the world for thousands of years. About 500 years ago, there was a landslide of mud which covered a village called Ozette, about 25 miles or so south, on the coast of the Pacific. The mud totally preserved the village buildings and artifacts for hundreds of years. Then in the mid-60s, the water and wind started exposing the buried village. Archaeologists were called in, and they, along with help from the Makah, carefully excavated the site.
Eventually they uncovered 55,000 artifacts, everything from buildings to every kind of utensil, clothing, weapon, etc. that comprised life in the village before the arrival of Europeans. The Indians realized that they needed somewhere to keep and preserve these items, which represent the life of their ancestors, and they built the museum. It is used as a research resource as well as a display and explanation of the life of the Macah hundreds of years ago. The displays include a comprehensive explanation of the archaeological dig, and then many of the finds are presented in beautiful but simple displays with explanations of Macah life in the village.
Easy part of path. It got harder. |
I’d read up on the hike, so I knew it was 3/4 mile each way, and downhill all the way there. This did not bode well for coming back, of course, leaving all the uphill portion for after we were already tired. But we were not the ones who designed this continent, and that’s the way it is! The first part was semi-paved. Then we began to encounter more mud (it was raining the entire time) and lots of tree roots. The roots helped somewhat, providing a semblance of stairs. But when it got too muddy, then we had tree stumps buried in the mud to use as stepping stones. Then we reached the wooden pathway built over the worst of the uneven and muddy places occasionally with steps and handrails as well. The wooden walks helped a lot, but often they just alternatived with more tree roots. Occasionally we had to navigate around large puddles--our walking sticks came in VERY handy for this hike. But overall it wasn’t too arduous, just very wet, and then we arrived at the first overlook.
Joe and Deb at the Corner of the United States |
Wow! It was beautiful! It reminded me quite a bit of the Oregon coastline-- small islands right off the coast which was steep, and had caves which the waves had carved into it. But it was beautiful, despite the rain and mistiness. In fact, it also resembled Japanese paintings of coastlines, sort of misty and soft. And, it’s the Pacific Ocean! So we had officially gone across the entire country from Atlantic to Pacific. We took a selfie to celebrate.
Pacific Ocean looking north along coast--here is where we saw a whale! |
View from our first lookout, Pacific Coast looking south |
Unfortunately, we were also both soaked and exhausted. We got inside, stripped off our wet clothes, and threw ourselves on the bed for about twenty minutes. Then it suddenly occurred to me that it must be getting pretty late--we hadn’t even started our hike before 4:00. Sure enough, it was after 6:30pm, and it was STILL raining, and as a result, it was pretty dark too. According to my original plan, there was an hour and a half of driving ahead of us to a state park along the western side of the peninsula. But the roads we’d come in on were very winding and slow, and we were now really tired.
Luckily, on my way through the town of Neah Bay, I’d kept an eye out, and we did pass one RV “park”. It looked like an empty lot off the main drag, but I did notice electric posts at the site and the sign saying RV Park. So we decided to see if we could pull in there for the night, rather than drive in the dark when we were tired, with the almost certain prospect of having to unhook the Jeep once we arrived at the state park, in the pitch dark, and possibly still in the rain.
So we drove back to town, and kept a very careful eye out for the RV park, and pulled in. And just like that, we were able to pull through a double space so we didn’t have to unhook. Of course, we are now 90 minutes from where I want to be tomorrow. But it was not a good idea to drive on those roads when we needed to eat and were so tired as well. Joe made us a quick dinner when we got here, we have electricity for our great electric heater (which might help our wet clothes to dry faster), and we are both ready to crash. It was a long day. But an awesome adventure!
1 comment:
FANTASTIC!!!! Congratulations on making it from sea to shining sea! Wise move also about camping when tired, even if it adds time the next morning.
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