Cape Flattery – Riveted

Makah Bay and Cape Flattery Aerials

Laura Domela — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 02:44:04 +0000

Here are a couple of stills from Kevin's flight with the quadcopter/GoPro from our campsite out to the southern point of Cape Flattery (1.3 miles):

Looking back toward camp:

Kinda pretty, yeah?

Cape Flattery and Tatoosh Island

Laura Domela — Fri, 14 Jun 2013 11:08:00 +0000

Yesterday afternoon (after the Shi Shi Beach hike, and after some more work) we headed out to Cape Flattery. We wanted to REALLY be as far as we could out here in the Northwest corner of the (Continental) U.S. so we drove out to the Cape Trail and hiked out to the end of the trail. So beautiful! (That's Canada in the distance.)

There are all sorts of sea caves out here and it's kind of mezmerizing to watch the water go in and out of 'em.

Tatoosh Island straight out from Cape Flattery, and the Cape Flattery Lighthouse:

The trail out to the Cape has more of this great-looking boardwalk that gets you over some of the wetlands and super muddy spots:

…with an occasional wooden stepping stone or two:

All in all we hiked about 7 miles yesterday. The Cape Flattery trail is mostly down all the way out and up all the way back. It's short (3/4 mile or so) but rated "moderate" as well … likely due to the climb and all the stairs built into the boardwalk. (Luckily, there was considerably less mud than the earlier hike to Shi Shi Beach.) You need an annual tribal lands permit for many of these areas. They're only 10 bucks and there are several places to pick one up. We got ours at the Makah Tribal Center (Administrative Building 19), just before you turn onto Cape Loop Road.

Also! During our hike we realized that within the last year we've been to the extreme opposite corners of the U.S. with our Airstream: Key West, Florida in October and now Cape Flattery in Washington.

South Beach to Makah Bay, Olympic Peninsula

Laura Domela — Wed, 12 Jun 2013 19:19:05 +0000

Today we headed up to Makah Bay where we're staying at the Hobuck Beach Resort. It's fine. It's nowhere near as cool as our last spot was at South Beach (that was a tough act to follow, for sure.) We did see about a dozen or so bald eagles on our drive though: bonus!

This is looking toward Cape Flattery:

And this is toward the South:

It's been rainy most of the day, but we have work to do anyway so it's not too much of a bust. After we left South Beach this morning we stopped at Ruby Beach to explore a bit. Ruby Beach is the northernmost of the southern beaches in the coastal section of Olympic National Park, and it's gorgeous.

We stopped at the Thriftway in Forks, WA for some groceries and then headed North to Clallam Bay and then West out toward Cape Flattery, through Neah Bay where we cut across below the Cape to Makah Bay. We're on the Makah Indian Reservation now.

Neah Bay marina:

As a tourist to this area, it's interesting to drive through and see tons of signs (obviously hand made by kids as part of an awareness campaign) that say basically: Don't Do Drugs, Don't Drive Drunk, Don't Fry Your Brain, Keep Your Babies Healthy (and many other variations on those messages) — makes you really aware there's a problem, and it's a bit depressing. It's beautiful here, and I'm glad we came to this furthest corner of the Continental US, but I kinda wish we were just passing through. Maybe the sun tomorrow (and a walk out to the Cape) will help.

p.s. Oh yeah, forgot to do cell report: No service on AT&T at all. We're using Verizon data which works great, so Verizon phone is probably a "go" as well. Haven't checked Sprint because, well, because Sprint almost never has coverage. It looks like they have Wi-Fi here, but so far I can't get anywhere with it.