olympic peninsula Archives • Weekend Walkabout

Strawberry Bay Falls at Third Beach Near La Push

July 21, 2014 by Don Wilson

Strawberry Bay Falls was on the agenda for the day. After having to stop in Sequim for some supplies, then spending some time in Forks, WA to see the “Twilight” scenes, we were running a little late.

We had originally intended to travel all the way around to Lake Quinault and visit about 4 waterfalls near there. That part of the trip would have to be held off for another time.

We found the Third Beach trailhead by following our GPS instructions which took us from Highway 101 and onto Highway 110 at Forks, WA. We arrived at the trailhead about 2 miles before La Push. Come to think about it, we never actually ventured on into La Push on this trip. Oh well, something else for another day.

The hike from the trailhead to the beach is about 1 1/4 miles. It was obvious to me that Leslie was wishing she had brought her jacket. I was wearing a t-shirt and shorts and felt very comfortable.

We made sure that dad and mom didn’t feel like they had to complete every trek that Leslie and I were on, but they were determined to reach the destination.

The scenery along the trail was mostly very green – we were in a rainforest, after all.

Most of the trail was pretty smooth and level, but shortly before we came to the ocean, we began to descent down toward the beach and the trail got a little rugged with rocks and protruding roots.

We enjoyed a short walk of about 1/2 mile along a smooth, sandy beach. The weather was very pleasant. A friend of ours who was at First Beach the day after we were here said it was raining so hard, they didn’t get out of the car. I guess we were lucky.

The waterfall, itself, is rather unimpressive, however, it is unique and interesting as it drops off a cliff and into the ocean. It’s the first ocean falls that I’ve been to. In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a waterfall that drops into any significant body of water.

I think what made this waterfall visit the most interesting was the diversity of landscape through the short hike to the waterfall. I really enjoyed the hike through a rainforest, descending down onto an ocean beach. Who doesn’t like a walk along the beach on a calm day?

Marymere Falls Near Crescent Lake

July 18, 2014 by Don Wilson

The last waterfall we visited while on our trip to Discovery Bay was Marymere Falls. It’s located in Clallum County in the north central part of the peninsula just to the south of Crescent Lake and about 20 miles west of Port Angeles. The trail head is next to the Storm King Ranger Station.

The trail is a round trip of about one and a half miles. It begins by taking you through a large culvert-like tunnel under the highway, then winds through a clean and well maintained path through the rainforest. the scenery is exotic and vivid green. I’ve heard that some describe it as like being in a Lord of the Rings setting. That might be an accurate description.

The first part of the hike is fairly flat and level. Along the way, you’ll notice an abundance of ferns and some rather large trees. You’ll come to two rustic bridges. The first crosses Barnes Creek, and the second is immediately following the first and it takes you across Falls Creek. Immediately following the the second bridge, you’ll start climbing stairs and ascending up about 200 feet to a moss covered ravine.

Along the way, the trail splits into a loop that will take you to two different view points for the waterfall. If you take the left fork, you will first enjoy the lower view point which is directly across from the base of the falls and looking up to the top. The upper view point provides you with a vantage point that is near the center-top of the 100 plus foot waterfall.

My mom and dad, who are in their late 70’s/early 80’s were traveling with us and were able to make the hike all the way to the lower viewing area. They elected not to continue the climb to the upper viewing area. Because the last part of the hike was mostly uphill with lots of stairs, I wasn’t sure that they would continue all the way in to where they could see the falls, but they were troopers – very tired troopers, but they made it.

I can’t begin to describe the feelings and enjoyment that I get from experiencing the beauty of the outdoors that God created for us. All I can say is that the experience is well worth the short distance to travel and the easy walk to these falls.

Worldmark Discovery Bay – Port Townsend, WA

July 15, 2014July 15, 2014 by Don Wilson

Our 2 bedroom, 2 bathroom unit in the Worldmark by Wyndham Discovery Bay resort in Port Townsend, Washington is the largest unit of any Worldmark resorts that I’ve ever visited. The kitchen dwarfs the one in our own home. The dining room and living room are spacious. The massive master bedroom suite fills the upstairs area and includes a jetted tub.

We enjoy the view from our deck that faces the bay, although our unit is located on the upper level behind the front row of buildings, so our view is slightly impeded.

View from our car that is parked at the base of the stairs to our unit.

This may have been my first resort registration where they didn’t put on the hard sell to get me into an “owner education” meeting. Normally we are promised a $75 gift card and free breakfast for sitting through a 45 minute group educational presentation with no sales pressure. That always becomes a 2 hour one on one hard sell. It was refreshing to not have to endure that this time.

The biggest disappointment of this stay was finding out that they don’t give out free coffee any longer. You start your stay with enough coffee for one pot of regular and one pot of decaf. I don’t know about other guests, but that isn’t nearly enough for us and our group. They said that was a new practice for the company since February, but we stayed at another resort this past March and had all the coffee we needed.

Note – We stayed in the Worldmark resort in McCall, Idaho immediately after our stay at Discovery Bay. McCall was still giving away free coffee but stated that on the following Monday, they were going to begin charging for it.

Many times when we stay at a Worldmark resort, our number one desire is for rest and relaxation, and we spend much of our time watching movies and playing games in our unit, or swimming and hot tubbing in the resort facilities. Ironically, given that this is the finest unit that we have been in, we didn’t spend much time at the resort. This trip was all about the outdoors.

On the way to the Discovery Bay resort on Sunday, we stopped by two waterfalls that are along Highway 101 – Vincent Creek Falls, and Rocky Brook Falls, which are part of the Olympic Peninsula Waterfall Trail.

On Monday, we visited Forks and La Push to enjoy some “Twlight” trivia and photograph Bella’s 63 Chevrolet Pickup. While in La Push, we hiked in to Third Beach and stopped to photograph Strawberry Bay Falls, another waterfall on the Olympic Peninsula Waterfall Trail.

Tuesday, we went to the Dungeness Spit to walk out onto the longest spit in North America. After a brief stay there, we drove up to Hurricane Ridge. At Hurricane Ridge, we found a picnic table and ate lunch while watching the numerous deer wandering around amongst the trails that were peppered with visitors photographing the deer from distances as near as a few feet. Obviously, the deer are very comfortable being around the human population and know that they are safe in this area.

Before returning to our condo that afternoon, we made one final waterfall visit. This was to the Marymere Falls near Crescent Lake. Of all the waterfalls we visited on this trip, this was probably my favorite with Rocky Brook Falls coming in as a close second.

We would love to have driven around to Lake Quinault and several other of the many waterfalls in the region, but that will have to be another trip. We were only here for three nights on this outing, and there is way too much to see in only a few days.

We will definitely be back, and next time, probably for a full week. There is enough to do around here to make it worth spending that much time. The only thing that we’ll do different next time is to bring our own coffee.

Rocky Brook Falls on the Olympic Peninsula

July 15, 2014July 16, 2014 by Don Wilson

After leaving Vincent Falls, we continued north on Highway 101 for about another 30 miles to Dosewallips Road, where we left the highway to find Rocky Brook Falls.

Before we turned off to visit Rocky Brook Falls, we made a failed attempt to locate Hamma Hamma Falls using roadsigns and our best guess, since we hadn’t acquired clear directions before the trip, and our GPS didn’t seem to know anything about the waterfall. I guess that was all right, because we really didn’t have enough time to visit more than two of the four waterfalls that we were knew of along this stretch of 101, so as soon as we realized we weren’t going to easily find Hamma Hamma Falls, we moved on.

Unlike Hamma Hamma Falls, our GPS was well aware of Rocky Brook Falls and we were able to drive directly to the trail head. I should mention that the Olympic Peninsula Waterfall Trail website gives clear directions for finding this waterfall, as well as all the others that we were interested in visiting. We just hadn’t spent enough time planning for our adventure as we should have.

For as nice a waterfall as Rocky Brook Falls is, there were surprisingly few visitors. When we arrived at the trailhead, we found that it was just a wide spot in the road with room for about a dozen cars to pull off and park. It was only about half full, so we knew that we wouldn’t encounter hoards of other people at this one.

It was a short, easy walk along a well groomed trail to get to the falls. We especially hoped to find waterfalls like this that were easily accessible for my parents who were with us on this trip. They get around pretty well, but long and rugged trails would definitely hold them back.

Signage along the way warns that water levels can change rapidly, so visitors should be aware of sudden stream flow changes. One old roughly made and obscure sign didn’t leave me with a seriously threatened feeling. I have to believe that if there were serious danger, the point would have been made much more boldly. We watched out, nonetheless.

There weren’t many people at the falls while we were there, but the few that were there were sure a disruptive bunch. Some were swimming and they had strewn out towels, backpacks, and clothing over the rocks at the base of the falls. For those of us who were there to get some photographs of the falls, it sure made things challenging. We had to maneuver ourselves to places where the people and all the junk were outside of the picture frame. We managed a few decent shots.

It’s estimated that this waterfall is about 150 feet tall. I wouldn’t call it “spectacular”, but very nice. It is a nice retreat for a hot summer day. Because it is so easy to get to, I can’t think of a reason to skip it if you have a little time and plan to be in the area.