We Reach the Corner of the USA

Corner of the USA--the blue dot is us!

2019-09-23  Monday

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.

 We spent an hour there, and realized at the end we were both super tired. So we went back to the RV and decided we needed to take a nap before we tackled the 1.5 mile round-trip hike to Cape Flattery. At 3:30, Joe woke me up, and said we’d better go. He was right-- it was another 20 minute drive (for 10 miles) to the parking lot for the hike. We also spent at least 15 minutes trying to decide if we could negotiate the lot with the RV--we weren’t sure we could turn around, despite the fact that there was almost no one parked there. We finally managed, however, and donned rain ponchos and grabbed our walking sticks, and walked into the forest.

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.

We continued on the path, and came to a second overlook, this time looking north. This was a beautiful cove, with 3 or 4 caves carved into it. There was another guy there, with a complicated camera and a border collie. The three of us were looking down and suddenly I saw a gray back disappearing into the water. I shouted, “Oh, a whale!!” This was not terribly surprising in one way, because we’d already seen signs along the road saying “Welcome to the Whale Highway” (or something like that, anyway.) The Juan de Fuca straits are known for whales, orcas, and other sea animals and birds, and they are frequently seen. But I certainly wasn’t expecting to see anything in the foggy, rainy air--the visibility was very poor. I almost doubted myself, but we waited about 5 minutes and then both Joe and the other guy said, “There he is!!” This time they saw it, but I missed it... but that confirmed that I did indeed see a whale, which is very exciting.

Pacific Ocean looking north along coast--here is where we saw a whale!

After waiting a little longer with no more whales appearing, we continued on the last little bit of the trail, to the very tip of the peninsula. This last bit included climbing up three steps on a ladder to reach the overlook. There was Tatoosh Island, just off the coast, and the wild ocean all around us. It was fantastic. I’m sure on nicer days, the view is amazing, but just standing there in the rain, feeling the wet air, was wonderful. I took a screen shot of our “blue dot” locating us on Google Maps, there on the very tip of the American continent. We were pretty thrilled.

View from our first lookout, Pacific Coast looking south

Of course, we still had to climb down the steep ladder, and start slogging back up a 3/4 mile uphill trail. The rain began to come down even heavier at that point, and we were just slogging along trying to ignore it all. We did stop to rest a couple of times (they have a few benches along the way, but not many) and I was worried about Joe’s legs, but he pushed to the limit, and after 20 or so minutes of climbing, we were finally back to the parking lot and the RV.

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!