Tuesday shaped up pretty well.

On our way through Port Angeles, we caught several of Bob Stokes' "Avenue of the People" steel statues. Head over to the GO Arts blog to read a bit more about this fascinating guy, described by his PR person as "a Northern California artist who has put down roots on the Olympic Peninsula and is shaking up the former logging town of Port Angeles with his artistic vision."

We were toying with the idea of taking Highway 112, the northern route out of Port Angeles, because we had developed a hankerin' for the amazing Straight of Juan de Fuca views offered up by Dungeoness Spit. But we opted to stay on 101 because Jeff, Craig and my boss Craig Sailor all told me that Lake Crescent is – and this is a direct quote – "cool."

They were right.

Highway 101 hugs the southern edge of the lake. Our first stop was Barnes Point, where we found the Marymere Falls trail. It starts out as an easy, flat hike on a wide trail through gorgeous forest. After you cross a pair of log bridges, though, the path becomes a steep winding staircase up to two falls overlooks, but it's well worth the exertion. It's about an hour or so round trip if you take your time.

Note the dude in the photo doing his best to give the image some scale. Thanks, dude!

Next we just picked one of the dozen or so view turnouts along 101 for a quick break. I almost drove the car into the lake on several occasions, so I finally listened to the kid and just stopped to take some pictures. You can't see it well in this shot (proof of my lousy photography skills), but the water is amazingly clear with a turquoise tint. We stopped just before Fairholm, a way point at the west end of the lake.

If you're headed to the lake, you might as well visit Sol Duc Hot Springs. Sol Duc Hot Springs Road is just a mile or two from the west end of the lake, off of 101. Nathan, a world-wise traveler who has dipped his tush in natural hot springs outside of Nagano, Japan, offered up a question that, up to that point, hadn't been of immediate concern to me:

"Is it a naked one?"

No, it's not. But, sorry, no pics anyway. That would have been rude to the other bathers. The hot springs are piped into two large, manmade circular pools and a wading pool. There's also a chlorinated swimming pool for cooling off. Day-use admission is $11 per adult, and the front office rents towels, lockers and swim wear for $3 each. The only drawback is the sulfur smell.

I don't remember where I read it, but there's a Native American legend about how two dragons met in the Sol Duc Valley and fought for years. They were so saddened by their eventual stalemate that they retreated to their caves and cried. The hot springs are their tears.

After we checked into our hotel in Forks, we headed out to the beach at La Push to watch the sunset. That smaller notched rock in the picture below is named "Gunsight Rock," a moniker that met with the approval of my teenage Halo fan.

We ate at a place called River's Edge Restaurant, a decent steak and seafood house near the mouth of the Quillayute River.

Forks, by the way, is the setting for Stephenie Meyer's "Twilight" series, young-adult novels about vampires. There's a "Twilight" movie destined for theaters this winter, and there are signs of vampires all around Forks. I'll try to post some pics Wednesday, after we get back from Neah Bay and the northwesternmost point in the contiguous United States.

Sigh.

Biggest bummer of the trip so far: Hurricane Ridge is closed to all traffic. The closure began Monday and runs through Thursday, and I'm not sure we'll be back this way, since the point of this trip is to "do the loop."

Oh well. At least we got to spend the morning using Buzz Coffee's incredibly slow wi-fi and listening to the OMG girls, who, let's face it, really deserve their own paddock at the Olympic Game Farm.

So it's off to Sol Duc Hot Springs, which really is more our speed anyway.

"Dungeoness Spit," everyone said. And we're glad we went, truly.

At high tide, it's not an impossible 5.5-mile hike out to the lighthouse at the end of one of the worlds longest natural sand spits. But it's a lot harder.

North of Sequim, the spit offered us our first-ever view of the Straight of Juan de Fuca. The spit justs out from the beach toward the northeast, and you can see the lighthouse from the trail. Doesn't look like 5.5 miles, you'll tell yourself. Can't be 5.5 miles out, 5.5 miles back. Can't be an 11-mile round trip.

The pathetic photo above shows how "far" we made it. To be fair, we started late in the day, around 4 p.m., and the park was set to close around 7 p.m. A volunteer guide told us the hike takes four to six hours - during low tide when there's hard sand to walk on. I'm no good at math, but it didn't sound like we would make it.

The volunteer must not have thought so, either. She encouraged us to just hang out on the spit and watch for the family of whales that had been spotted throughout the day. She even loaned us her binoculars. I guess she didn't want to have to take her buggy out to rescue two idiots later on.

Here's the view to the southwest, toward Port Angeles:

And here's the view to the northeast, toward the end of the spit:

Despite the fact that we didn't make it to the lighthouse, I was happy to pay the $3 entrance fee, since all of the money goes to Dungeoness National Wildlife Refuge, which occupies the entire southeast length of the spit.

First of all, I'm so sorry.

We need to limit Craig's photo-archive access.

Anyhoo, those pictures are old, so I posted a current pic below. Every time I go on vacation, I get tubbier from eating way too much and harrier from not shaving. Our Olympic Peninsula trip began Monday. Here's what my son and I look like today. Wave, Nathan!

I snapped that photo Monday afternoon at the Olympic Game Farm. Years ago, we visited a game farm in Oregon, so I expected the one in Sequim to be about the same: lots of tufts of brown fur just barely visible through tall grass. But the animals were out in force Monday, eager for the bread the ticket guy sold us. (Admission is $10 per adult, bread is $2 per loaf).
Ever been stalked by a llama? It's every bit as thrilling as they say it is. Zebras, horses, deer and peacocks swarmed our car, too. They didn't want to let us leave. Or, at least, they didn't want our bread to leave.

We had a "Jurassic Park" moment when one of the bigger yaks craned its head sideways to get a better look inside Nathan's window. And let's just say yak snot it not a great window cleaner. Still, we couldn't help but admire this guy's persistence:

There's a plain full of elk and buffalo, but our shot had to be a drive-by one, because the area is forested with signs that warn you to "KEEP MOVING." The guy at the front gate said it was because the bison and sometimes the elk will challenge your car to a duel. Apparently nobody really "wins" in that scenario.

We felt sorry for this guy, a white rhino whose horn seemed to have gone all "Free Willy" on him.

The bears are the coolest. These guys are totally Yogi – they'll do just about anything for food. They came right up to the (electrified) inner fencing and waved, sat up, begged, posed, etc. And they caught flying bread hunks with their mouths. And, sure, they seem roly-poly and cute. But do NOT help them develop a taste for manflesh. Stay in your car.

Forest Road 23, a key route across the Gifford Pinchot National Forest from Trout Lake to Randle, will reopen on Thursday.

The reopening of the road, damaged in the November 2006 flood, will allow better access north and south, especially people looking to go to Mount Adams from the north end of the national forest and the communities of Randle and Packwood, said a news release from national forest staff.

Elsewhere, Forest Road 83 which provides access to Lava Canyon, should reopen by the first week of October. Forest Road 83 and many other roads, bridges, and trails were damaged in the heavy 2006 flooding, the release said.

Forest Road 99, which provides access to Wind Ridge viewpoint located just 4 miles from Mount St. Helens crater, sustained heavy damage from last winter’s severe conditions. Forest staff expects repairs being completed late this fall, in order to have the road open for the 2009
summer season, according to the release.