Driving in the Wild by Granite Olympic Towers

Filtered sunlight winks at the motorized army of tourists as it rolls along U.S. 101. Armed with maps, cameras and picnic baskets, the weekend warriors wend their way between sea and mountain.

Like thousands before them, they come to escape a world of color TVs, microwave ovens and fast-pitch pleasures. Here on the Olympic Peninsula, nature sets a slow and peaceful pace.

Bred in violence but imbued with tranquillity, the peninsula is a big thumb of land that juts into the sea from Washington’s grasp. Mostly primeval wilderness, it draws its lifeblood from the Pacific and primps itself with the waters of the Strait of Juan de Fuca and the Hood Canal.

Forming the backbone of the peninsula, the Olympic Mountains rise as jagged towers of granite. Born of continental crustal contact, their growth reveals 70 million years of upthrust and erosion. In stony silence they look out over U-shaped valleys formed by glaciers, alpine meadows bursting with wildflowers, mountain woods teeming with wildlife and temperate rain forests dripping with sustenance.

Untamed Setting

Despite its remoteness and untamed setting, the Olympic Loop Highway makes touring the peninsula relatively easy. Consisting mainly of U.S. 101, the loop skirts the peninsula’s length and breadth. Starting six miles northwest of Olympia, 101 darts north before meeting the great bend in the Hood Canal. There, the adventure begins.

From Potlatch to Quilcene, the highway channels between blue waters and lush forests. Tiny seaside villages, born of the canal and boasting names such as Hoodsport, Lilliwaup, Eldon and Brinnon, line the shore. Everything seems connected to the water.

Piers reach out from beach houses, leading residents, like age-old turtles, back to their genesis. In front of restaurants, signs advertise oysters, clams, crab, shrimp and salmon. Marinas are as common as gas stations. Each bobs with boats of every description, from dory to sloop.

Tranquil during the week, the towns bustle with tourists on weekends. Trafficking from one end of the canal to the other, most travelers seem bent on shedding their worries like worn clothes. Many find their peace at a resort that sits on the canal’s elbow.

A few miles east of where Washington 106 meets the loop, Alderbrook Inn Resort--phone (206) 898-2200--reflects the simple life of its pastoral surroundings. With the canal for a front yard, the resort looks beyond the waters to the snowcapped peaks of the Olympics.

Community of Cottages

Although most of the accommodations are motel-like, Alderbrook also features a community of cottages that imitates the life of owning a summer home on a private lake.

Twenty cabins sporting moss-covered red-tile roofs group around a sandy volleyball court and a lawn flecked with red picnic tables. Broken-in comfort describes their interiors, which are divided into two bedrooms, a living room with a fireplace, a kitchen and a porch.

Of course, there are the fixes for those who become fidgety in the long embraces of Mother Nature. Besides volleyball and a children’s playground, amenities include a 55-foot indoor swimming pool, a twin therapy pool, two saunas, an 18-hole PGA golf course, four tennis courts, a 1,200-foot pier and a good restaurant.

It is the canal that mostly draws visitors to this part of the peninsula, but the wilderness also lures some to venture beyond the main highway. Several roads, merely gray lines on the map, lead into the wild. They travel to parks such as Lake Cushman and Dosewallips and to the Mt. Walker Lookout, whose turnoff is just north of Brinnon, past Dodie’s Trading Post.

From the viewpoint, nearly all of Puget Sound, framed within two mountain ranges, unfolds in a mural of glistening waters and rolling hills.

Famous for Oysters

At Quilcene, famous for its oysters and commercial oyster farms, the highway turns its back on Hood Canal and looks toward Port Angeles, the peninsula’s largest town and the gateway to both Victoria in British Columbia and Olympic National Park. Detours along the way lead to both historic Port Townsend and Dungeness Spit, the longest natural sand promontory in the United States.

Port Townsend is a town of cafes and family restaurants, gift shops and craft stores, motels and bed and breakfasts. But its reputation endures on a bluff above downtown, where turn-of-the-century Victorian homes look through their bay windows across Admiralty Inlet to the wooded hillsides of Whidbey Island and beyond to the white slopes of the Cascade Mountains.

Among locals the area is also famous for the Ajax Cafe, which is several miles south in the town of Hadlock. This funky little place serves large helpings of seafood with liberal side orders of local color.

Dungeness Spit is one of those places you go to get in touch with your feelings. There, among the sun-bleached driftwood and tide flats, the shore birds and sea creatures, people sit in the sun while the surf pounds the shore and the wind fills their lungs with life.

At Port Angeles you’re halfway around the loop. This is a community that wears the fortunes and misfortunes of all Northwest seaports on its face. The town’s livelihood sails on the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Good times mean a harbor bustling with charter boats, commercial fishing boats and freighters bound for the Far East. Bad times mean empty stores and “For Sale” signs dotting front yards.

Economy Stabilized

In recent years, tourists have helped to stabilize the town’s economy, for Port Angeles sits in the heart of the Olympic Peninsula.

Only 17 miles from downtown, up good road, Hurricane Ridge invites travelers to experience the flight of the hawk. From 5,000 feet high, you behold valleys wearing skirts of fir and hemlock being cradled in the hands of mountains whose glaciers glisten like crystal. And in the northern distance, the sea reaches out to wash the shores of Vancouver Island.

Visitors should have no difficulty finding a motel room or campsite in and around Port Angeles, but for those who want a little more than a place to lay their heads, there’s The Tudor Inn, phone (206) 452-3138. This half-timbered, Tudor-style bed and breakfast features five guest rooms furnished in antiques and a breakfast of bacon and eggs, homemade granola, fresh-baked muffins, jams and seasonal fruit.

Leaving Port Angeles, U.S. 101 snakes southwest toward the Pacific. It heads past Lake Crescent, a mountain lake with the mystical qualities of Loch Ness, and through forests of trees that climb from sight.

Logging trucks bearing down on rear-view mirrors testify to the woods’ wealth and, despite the tumbling timber industry, a symphony of steel saws rings from these woodlands.

Just west of the town of Sappho the highway heads south along Washington’s coast. Unlike Oregon’s ocean highway, however, the Pacific here is not in sight. The road is lonely. Except for tiny pockets of population, only the logging town of Forks bears any resemblance to organized civilization for the next 115 miles.

But two resorts, Kalaloch Lodge and Lake Quinault Lodge, offer travelers places to rest and dine.

Kalaloch Lodge--phone (206) 962-2271--sits alongside the only stretch of Washington’s 101 that edges the ocean. On a bluff, the resort overlooks a sandy beach strewn with surf-battered logs. As the ocean rolls onto the beach, westerlies sweep across foamy crests, filling the air with breaths of brine. The breezes blow across rows of cabins, a two-story motel and the shake lodge.

Along the beach, guests search the sands for treasures from the seas. Tide pools teem with limpets, starfish and clams. Overhead, eagles scan for breakfast, while on the horizon, boats are painted silhouettes against the blue.

It is the ocean that provides life to Washington’s temperate rain forests, which flourish nearby. Delivered by onshore breezes that never take a holiday, 140 inches of rain soak the Hoh, Queets and Quinault forests each year.

The nearly constant deluge has spawned a jungle. Only slivers of sunlight slant through the canopy of towering trees and flood morning fog in pale golden iridescence. Moss glowing emerald green hangs in great fuzzy draperies. The forest floor is a spongy carpet of mosses and lichens, where ferns know no bounds and rotting logs nourish the already rich earth. The air floats heavy with moisture.

Because Lake Quinault Lodge--phone (206) 288-2571--sits within one of the rain forests, it offers both a convenient and dry way to experience magic. The resort looks out on Lake Quinault, a mountain pool surrounded by rolling hills about two miles east on U.S. 101.

The two-story shingle lodge boasts half a century of country elegance. Its 30 guest rooms feature brass or white iron beds, steam radiators, hardwood floors and floral-print wallpaper. In addition to the lodge, there are 16 modern rooms in the Fireplace Annex and eight rustic accommodations make up the Lakeside Inn. Amenities include an indoor pool, Jacuzzi, sauna and restaurant.

The loop continues south from Lake Quinault to where it joins Washington 12 and 8, which lead back to Olympia. At this point, the scenery becomes rather ordinary by Northwest standards. There’s a slow slip back into the world of interstates and urban reality. The escape is over for now, but both the Olympic Loop Highway and fond memories welcome return trips.

Even if you aren’t planning to venture into the soggy rain forests, walking or hiking shoes are a must on the peninsula. From Port Angeles to Forks is 58 miles, and from Forks to Aberdeen facilities are scarce. Be sure both your gas tank and stomach are full for this leg of the trip.

An excellent side trip is Washington 112 west from Port Angeles. It travels alongside the strait, past beaches and through fishing villages before dead-ending at Neah Bay on the Makah Indian Reservation. From there, hike half a mile to Cape Flattery, the northwesternmost point in the contiguous United States, and enjoy uninterrupted views of the Pacific and white sandy beaches.

All of the recommended hostelries are popular, so reservations should be made well in advance. Rates range from $64 to $120 at Alderbrook, $43 to $53 at The Tudor Inn, $38 to $78 at Kalaloch and $46 to $70 at Lake Quinault (double rates).

For more information about Olympic National Park, write to the superintendent at 600 E. Park Ave., Port Angeles, Wash. 98362.