Olympic Peninsula: Touring the Juan de Fuca Highway

The Strait of Juan de Fuca is the channel that lies between Vancouver Island and the Olympic Peninsula. It is odd that the name has a Spanish origin, and it turns out that the story behind the name is even more unusual. Whatever its name, the area is a beautiful region that often gets overlooked on visits to the Olympic Peninsula. We decided that our visit would be sure to include opportunities to enjoy the beauty of this beautiful and rugged coastline.

Most people who travel through the Olympic Peninsula simply travel along Highway 101 as it circles around the peninsula. However, to do so is to be quite a distance from the Strait of Juan de Fuca through most of the journey. We decided to travel along Highway 112, also called the Juan de Fuca Highway, which travels much closer to the waters of the strait.

Our plan was to start our day by going to the mouth of the Elwha River. We had visited some of the river on Sunday. However, I had read that the silt and debris that had collected behind the Elwha Dam eventually made its way downstream after the dam was removed. There the silt had settled and created new lands. On the map it seemed the best way to get there was to go down on the west side of the river. However, I turned a little too soon and ended up crossing the river so I had to turn back. The view from the bridge was beautiful, however.

When we finally arrived at our destination, it seemed a little off the beaten track. There was parking, but not much else. We followed a path and ended up at the mouth of the river. There were a lot of sea gulls there, some in the water and some lounging on the land. However, what captured our attention was people out in the water. It took a moment to realize they were actually people, surfers.

The surfers were some distance from the shore and all in their black wet suits. Initially they just seemed to be standing around, but they were waiting for the right moment. I put on my telephoto lens to see if I could capture them. Finally the waves they were looking for started to come, and they started surfing. They were riding down the waves basically going parallel to shore rather than coming towards the shore. This made it easy to follow them, and I got some good shots. It was a fun and unexpected experience on a cool October morning.

We finally left that area and continued driving west on the Juan de Fuca Highway. Our next stop was the Salt Creek Recreation Area. The county runs the facility, and it is really a top notch place. There were a number of camp sites set up for both tents or travel trailers. Even in the early week of October there were quite a few travel trailers around the campground. There are no sandy beaches here to enjoy around the camping area, but the coastline has a lot of interesting rocks and crevices. Trails will take one along the perimeter with occasional steps that will go down to the rocky ledges.

While we were there the wind really picked up. I almost lost my hat, and we were very careful on the stairs going down to the rocks. At the end of the park is a rocky area known as Tongue Point. Normally this is a great area to check out tide pools, but because it was high tide, we were not able to see more than just some rocks peaking up through the water.

Another interesting find was a geological marker, The Tongue Point Reference Mark. This was a point based on a treaty with Canada in 1927 by which The US recognized Canada as an autonomous country.

We also discovered a fort here, Camp Hayden. I had not anticipated that. I thought I was aware of all the forts along the Strait, but this one was a new one to me. Named after the leader of the fort when it was built in 1941, it closed in 1948. It had just two guns. There’s not a lot left to look at, but the main structure is rather interesting both on the outside and the inside.

Making our way back to our car, we were finally ready to continue on west. We briefly stopped at a small campground along the Lhyr River. It was pretty quiet. It was a very shady place, and I would think it would be a good place to camp in the heat of the summer.

From here the road became rough in places. Apparently there have been some slides that damaged the road, and the repairs were not as smooth as they could have been or are still incomplete. We finally arrived at Pillars Point County Park. This park is pretty small and seems to be used mostly by fishermen and other boaters as there is a boat launch out into the Strait of Juan de Fuca. The park is located across a bay from the mouth of the Physt River. We didn’t stay here long.

From here we traveled inland some along the Physt River. At a T the Highway turns back north to the Strait and Clallam Bay. I had heard of this town but had never been to it. It is situated on the east end of Clallam Bay, and the town of Seiku is on the west end. Neither are particularly large. The towns seemed focused on fishing and tourism. There wasn’t much going on during our brief visit. Perhaps they are busier in the summer months. The photos below are from Seiku

I had wanted to go out to Neah Bay and Cape Flattery, but unfortunately the area was closed. These are on the Macah Indian Reservation, and the Macah decided to close their reservation during COVID. This meant that no one could go out to Cape Flattery, the western most point on the Peninsula. Even though we couldn’t go to the end, we did decide to go a little farther on the Juan de Fuca Highway as it traveled pretty close to the water. There were more homes along the way than I anticipated, but we did manage to find a few places to stop and look out over the strait. Even though it was cloudy, we could see some of the landscape of Vancouver Island. We even saw a rainbow.

Finally deciding we had gone far enough, we turned around and headed back stopping briefly in Clallam Bay for a few photos along the shoreline. We drove down to Highway 101 and then headed back towards Port Angeles.

Before we got back, we had one more location to check out, Lake Crescent in the Olympic National Park. Lake Crescent is right along Highway 101 and is quite a large lake. We stopped at the park and initially took a hike to see the Marymere Falls. We had to walk through a culvert style tunnel under Highway 101 to get to the falls. Most of the trail is pretty easy, but right at the end visitors need to climb up a series of stairs which takes them to the top of the falls. Then they will follow another set of stairs which loops down again. The falls is quite tall, but also very narrow. It was a good walk and gave us another two miles to add to our daily activities.

After finishing our hike, we went over to the Lake Crecsent Lodge. Built in 1915, it sits right on the shores of Lake Crescent. The lodge holds a restaurant and a gift shop as well as the reception desk for the various housing options around. Some of the cabins are right next to the lodge. The place was quite busy, and the dining room was sold out for the evening. Heading back outside we watched as the sun set behind the clouds and enjoyed some beautiful light and color. It was a wonderful way to end our day of touring the Juan de Fuca Highway.

Wednesday we would be leaving Port Angeles and heading farther south. Beaches and forests await us.

Have you driven the Juan de Fuca Highway? Did you make it out to Neah Bay? I’d love to hear about your experience. Feel free to share it in the comment box below. Until next week…..