Pacific Northwest 2017

Washington, southwest British Columbia, northern Oregon

Saturday, May 20 through Sunday, June 4

We flew from Oklahoma City, Oklahoma to Denver, Colorado to Seattle, Washington on Saturday, May 20. Our route took us across the Olympic Peninsula (Washington), to Victoria and Vancouver Island (British Columbia) by ferry, Vancouver (BC) by another ferry, back across Washington into the Grand Coulee and Palouse region (SE Washington, W Idaho, NE Oregon), to the Painted Hills in Oregon, then back along the Columbia River (Oregon side) to Portland, and then north to Seattle. On Sunday, June 4, we flew from Seattle to San Francisco, California, and back to Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

I tracked most of the trip with a Bad Elf GPS Pro+ GPSr (GPS receiver). There was one catastrophic software failure of the unit when we drove from Sooke, British Columbia to Victoria, B.C. I used Stu's Bad Elf and my own iPhone (Navigon app) to cover that stretch. NOTE: the downloadable GPX tracks are the full GPX files, while those shown on the provided "view map" links are simplified (with minimal effect on geographic accuracy) for much faster viewing.

Topographic maps are denoted by a "(Topo)" link. Bright pink/magenta lines represent manually-powered transportation (e.g., canoe, hiking).

Original GPX tracks are unedited, except as noted.

Businesses are named below for reference only. No endorsement should be inferred. If you wish to see my opinion of the places mentioned, see TripAdvisor (for those that I have actually rated).

Overview

Overview map—This is a composite map of all the GPS tracks on a blank US/Canada map. (Close-up of the Pacific Northwest)
All GPS tracks / view map—The whole trip, including walking, riding, etc.

Saturday, May 20

GPX / view map —The ride to the airport (via airport taxi).
GPX / view map —Our flight from Oklahoma City, Oklahoma to Denver, Colorado.
GPX / view map —Walking through the Denver International Airport near Denver, Colorado.
GPX / view map —Our flight from Denver, Colorado to Seattle, Washington.
GPX / view map —The bus ride from the Seattle airport to the car rental building.
GPX / view map —Our drive from Seattle to lunch in Tacoma, Washington.
GPX / view map —Driving from Tacoma to Lake Quinault, in western Washington.
GPX / view map —Hiking Falls Creek Trail, near Lake Quinault (western Washington). (Topo)
GPX / view map —Driving from the Lake Quinault area to a western Washington visitor center, and back (south) to a path to the ocean. Note: there is a loop near the north end of this track that is not correct. We stayed on the road.
GPX / view map —Hiking to the coast. It was low tide.
GPX / view map —Driving from one ocean access trail to another (farther north).
GPX / view map —Hiking to the coast (again, farther north than before). It was still low tide.
GPX / view map —Driving to our hotel in Forks, Washington. We also detoured a bit to see the "Big Cedar" tree (near beginning of track–there is some noticeable GPS receiver location error in this track).
GPX / view map —Walking through the town of Forks, Washington, for dinner (we selected a restaurant just north of the hotel). Note: all tracks east of U.S. 101 (just east of the north-south part of the track) are from "GPS wander", and are not correct.

Sunday, May 21

GPX / view map —Driving from Forks, Washington to the Hoh River area.
GPX / view map —Walking/hiking in the Hoh River area. We parked near the western point of these tracks, had a picnic lunch at the westernmost point, and hiked/walked the Hall of Mosses Trail (northwest loop), and the Spruce Nature Trail (southeast loop). (Topo)
GPX / view map —Driving back to Forks, Washington. We went to dinner near the northernmost track point, and our hotel was a little farther south.

Monday, May 22

GPX / view map —Driving from Forks, Washington to Cape Flattery. This includes a few stops, including one in Neah Bay to get supplies and a permit (one has to obtain a permit from the Makah Tribe to legally park at Cape Flattery, along with other places within the reservation).
GPX / view map —Hiking the Cape Flattery trail. The western end of this hike represents the westernmost point of this trip, and of my entire travel within the contiguous 48 states. (Topo)
GPX / view map —Driving from Cape Flattery to Port Angeles, Washington, including several scenery stops along the coast.
GPX / view map —Driving from the hotel to our dinner spot in Port Angeles, Washington. The dinner spot is the northwest end of the track (at the loop). We also walked out partway onto the pier directly northeast of the restaurant.

Tuesday, May 23

GPX / view map —Driving from the hotel in Port Angeles, Washington to the north-side visitor center for the Olympic National Park, then to the trailhead for Madison Falls.
GPX / view map —Hiking to Madison Falls.
GPX / view map —Driving from the Madison Falls trailhead to the former Lake Mills. Now, the dam has been partially removed so that the Elwa River can flow freely, and Lake Mills no longer exists upstream of this location. (Topo)
GPX / view map —Walking along the top of the (partially removed) dam for the (former) Lake Mills.
GPX / view map —Driving a short distance down Olympic Hot Springs Road.
GPX / view map —Walking down/up the gravel road to the Elwa River, just downstream of the former dam. There was once a building (related to electricity generation from the dam) at the base of the road, but there was essentially no evidence of its existence when we visited.
GPX / view map —Driving to Lake Crescent and up the Sol Duc River to Salmon Cascade. From the "the name should have been a clue" archives, we saw a few salmon jumping the rapids at Salmon Cascades!
GPX / view map —Driving the rest of the way on the Sol Duc Hot Springs Road to the trailhead for the trail to Sol Duc Falls.
GPX / view map —Hiking the Sol Duc Falls Nature Trail (parking area to/from the waterfall). (Topo)
GPX / view map —Driving from the Sol Duc Falls area to dinner in Port Angeles, Washington.
GPX / view map —Driving from the restaurant to our hotel in Port Angeles, Washington.

Wednesday, May 24

GPX / view map —Driving from our hotel in Port Angeles, Washington to Lake Crescent and the trailhead for Marymere Falls.
GPX / view map —Hiking the Marymere Falls Nature Trail (to/from the falls). (Topo)
GPX / view map —Driving from the Marymere Falls/Lake Crescent area to the Hurricane Ridge Visitor Center.
GPX / view map —Walking along the (closed) road near the Hurricane Ridge Visitor Center. We expected to hike the crowded trails among wildflowers (just north of the visitor center), but instead found the trails under one to four meters of snow–and relatively few people! It wasn't what we expected, but it was still very nice. (Topo)
GPX / view map —Driving back down to Port Angeles, Washington and the restaurant where we had dinner. On the road, we saw several grouses and deer, and a black bear.
GPX / view map —Driving from the restaurant to our hotel in Port Angeles, Washington.

Thursday, May 25

GPX / view map —Driving from our hotel in Port Angeles, Washington to the Black Ball Ferry terminal.
GPX / view map —The ferry ride from Port Angeles, Washington, United States to Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. This was our first (and, so far, only) international ferry ride.
GPX / view map —Driving from the ferry terminal in Victoria, British Columbia to the parking area for Butchart Gardens.
GPX / view map —Walking the various trails within Butchart Gardens. We spent about three hours in this beautiful series of gardens.
GPX / view map —Driving from Butchart Gardens to our hotel in Sooke, British Columbia. The track shows several questionable decisions made by our navigation app that guided us on this trip.
GPX / view map —The short drive from our hotel in Sooke, British Columbia to a nearby restaurant for dinner.
GPX / view map —Driving from the restaurant in Sooke, British Columbia to beach access at the end of Ella Road.
GPX / view map —Walking to the beach + driving back to the hotel in Sooke.

Friday, May 26

GPX / view map —Driving from our hotel in Sooke, British Columbia to the trailhead for the Sombrio Beach Trail. The road from the highway down to the trailhead is rough and steep. Our rental car (a Nissan Altima) was barely capable of taking the road safely.
GPX / view map —Hiking in the Sombrio Beach area. We took the southern part first. We didn't intend to go north of the river, but other hikers suggested that there was a waterfall that way, so we took a look before giving up and turning around. Turned out that the waterfall was south of there (see May 27).
GPX / view map —Driving from Sombrio Beach to Port Renfrew and the Botanical Beach trailhead. The first few minutes of this track are missing because I forgot to turn on the GPS until we reached the highway.
GPX / view map —Hiking the Botanical Beach Loop Trail. We took the trail clockwise.
GPX / view map —Driving back to our hotel (and dinner in the hotel) in Sooke, British Columbia.

Saturday, May 27

GPX / view map —Driving from the hotel in Sooke, British Columbia to the Sombrio Beach area...again.
GPX / view map —Hiking in the Sombrio Beach area, including a visit to the slot canyon and waterfall south of where the trail reaches the beach. Note that there are some major track errors resulting from being in the (small) canyon.
GPX / view map —Driving back to the hotel in Sooke, British Columbia.

Sunday, May 28

GPX / view map —Driving from our hotel in Sooke, British Columbia to a coffee shop (Tim Horton's, of course!) in Langford. Note that this track is from Stu's Bad Elf Pro Plus, not mine. Mine had an apparent software bug that caused it to fail completely this morning (something Stu's GPSr has done twice before, including earlier on this trip).
GPX / view map —Driving from Langford to downtown Victoria, British Columbia. Note that this track is again from my GPSr, as it recovered by the time we left our breakfast/lunch spot.
GPX / view map —Walking through Victoria, British Columbia, including the "Bug Zoo". The track has numerous major tracking errors because we spent so much time indoors, and because of buildings and narrow streets outdoors.
GPX / view map —Driving from Victoria, British Columbia to Nanaimo to catch a ferry over to the mainland.
GPX / view map —Ferry from Nanaimo to Horseshoe Bay (near West Vancouver), British Columbia. This track includes the northernmost point in this trip.
GPX / view map —Driving from the ferry terminal to our hotel in downtown Vancouver, British Columbia.

Monday, May 29

GPX / view map —Driving from our hotel in downtown Vancouver to near the Aquarium in Stanley Park, Vancouver, British Columbia.
GPX / view map —Walking to/from the Vancouver Aquarium at Stanley Park, Vancouver, British Columbia. Note: this track is an edited (shortened) track from the Gaia GPS app on my iPhone 6, since I neglected to take the Bad Elf Pro+ with me this time.
GPX / view map —Walking around Stanley Park (counter-clockwise), including the totem poles and dinner at Stanley Park Bar & Grill. Also includes our walk into downtown in order to get snow milk bingsu (we discovered that wonderful Korean dessert during our visit to Singapore last year, but have had extreme difficulty finding it in North America!).
GPX / view map —Driving around Stanley Park, then back to the hotel in downtown Vancouver, British Columbia.

Tuesday, May 30

GPX / view map —Driving from our hotel in downtown Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada to Deception Falls State Park, Washington, United States. This includes entry into the United States, our stop for photo supplies in Burlington, Washington, and an attempt to see Sunset Falls (Washington, in the Cascades). Apparently, Sunset Falls is now entirely within private land, and there are some rather unkind and unhelpful signs prohibiting public access to the falls or any of its viewpoints, but failing to explain the total absence of public access.
GPX / view map —Hiking at Deception Falls State Park, Washington. We took the trails in a clockwise direction, and had to take an impromptu detour early in the trail, where the actual trail was flooded (Deception Creek and the Tye River were running quite high). (Topo)
GPX / view map —Driving from Deception Falls State Park to Leavenworth, Washington. We were not expecting a thoroughly Bavarian-themed city!
GPX / view map —Walking through Leavenworth, Washington (a thoroughly Bavarian-themed city). There is a glob of track segments clustered around the restaurant where we had dinner. (We parked quite a ways from the restaurant because it looked like we were closer than we were, and that there was no available parking nearer the restaurant (there was)).
GPX / view map —Driving from Leavenworth to our motel in Wenatchee, Washington.

Wednesday, May 31

GPX / view map —Driving from Wenatchee to the Dry Falls area of the Grand Coulee. Includes a short detour in Soap Lake where we walked around East Beach Park, a pull-off at Lenore Lake where we walked the short trail to the lakeshore, a spur to the caves near Lenore Lake (we didn't hike there because a "Discovery Pass" (a Washington parks permit) was required, and we didn't have one yet), a stop at the visitor center for Dry Falls, and exploration of the area "downstream" from Dry Falls.
GPX / view map —Hiking the southern parts of the Umatilla Rock Trail, near Dry Falls. (Topo)
GPX / view map —Driving from near Dry Falls to the Grand Coulee Dam, dinner in the town of Grand Coulee, and on to our motel in Colfax, Washington, via Spokane.

Thursday, June 1

GPX / view map —Driving from our motel in Colfax, Washington across the Palouse region to Palouse Falls. Includes numerous stops, plus the "Spiral Road" down to Lewiston, Idaho.
GPX / view map —Walking/hiking in the area around Palouse Falls. We waited out a heavy rain shower in the car, between visits to the overlook. We ventured north after the rain. (Topo)
GPX / view map —Driving from Palouse Falls to dinner in Pasco, Washington. Includes several stops for photos.
GPX / view map —Driving (northwest) from the restaurant to our hotel in Pasco, Washington.

Friday, June 2

GPX / view map —Driving from our hotel in Pasco, Washington to the Painted Hills in northern Oregon. Includes a short detour in Umatilla, Oregon to visit the Oregon Visitor Center there, plus various stops for photos.
GPX / view map —Walking around one of the "painted" hills (on an official trail) in the Painted Hills in Oregon.
GPX / view map —Driving to the Red Scar Knoll in the Painted Hills, in Oregon.
GPX / view map —Hiking the (short) Red Scar Knoll Trail.
GPX / view map —Driving from the Painted Hills to our hotel in Cascade Locks, Oregon. Includes several stops for photos, a stop near the river in The Dalles for photos and to determine where to get dinner, and the dinner stop in The Dalles (there's a GPS track glob there).

Saturday, June 3

GPX / view map —Driving from the hotel in Cascade Locks, Oregon to Horsetail Falls (parking spot along the highway).
GPX / view map —Walking/hiking between the parking spot and Horsetail Falls. Also includes our ascent to Upper Horsetail Falls and the return to the lower falls. (Topo)
GPX / view map —Driving from Horsetail Falls through Portland, Oregon and Vancouver, Washington to our hotel in SeaTac, Washington. The last half hour or so approaching SeaTac was spent mostly in stop-and-go traffic (road construction on I-5).
GPX / view map —Walking between the hotel and dinner restaurant in SeaTac, Washington. The hotel provided shuttle service to this, and other, nearby restaurants. It seemed pointless to take a shuttle just three blocks or so.

Sunday, June 4

GPX / view map —Driving from the hotel to the car rental return in SeaTac, Washington.
GPX / view map —Walking & taking the shuttle bus from the rental car return to the airport at SeaTac, Washington.
GPX / view map —Flying from Seattle, Washington to San Francisco, California. The airplane took the long way to the gate because there was a problem getting a gate when we arrived.
GPX / view map —Walking through San Francisco International Airport, California.
GPX / view map —Flying from San Francisco, California to Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.
GPX / view map —Airport taxi from the airport in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.