Moclips Highway

Wow - sunny, no rain or hale this morning.... We left camp looking for a place to have breakfast on our way to Ocean City. We found the Quinlat Casino right on the ocean. After breakfast we followed Rte 115 which takes us down the penninsula and into the Grays Harbor area. We turned onto Ocean Road to the Ocean Shores Interpretive Center. They had several exhibits on local wildlife and a bird house cam. We watched a little Chickadee inside the house try and pull a good size piece of cardboard and plastic out of the small hole. (Not sure how it got in there). He was having a terrible time.

We left the center and drove to the high school on Damon Rd and parked in the parking lot. We wanted to take a hike on the Hyak Cyber Lake trail. At one time this was a really nice eco-tourism trail used to conduct scientific experiments. In 1995, a group of North Beach High School girls spearheaded an educational research program and this area was used for their experiments in various scientific areas. Today its an old trail with a floating dock across the pond. It was good exercise crawling over roots,through brush and up hills. It was an ok trail, but not what we were hoping for.

Leaving Ocean City we decided to take a drive through some back roads. The road took us to the little hamlet of Humptulips. There is nothing there but an intersection with 4 corners and a grocery/gas station. Finally our road connected to Rte 101 and we followed it north a little way to the Moclips Highway. We wanted to check this road out as we thought we would take it when we leave Copalis Beach tomorrow. Moclips Highway is a scenic wilderness drive with lush forest lining the road. We pulled over to the side and had a snack. There is no one on this road but us! The forest ranges in age from fresh cut to 40 or 50 years old.

At the end of the highway we turned right onto Highway 109 which runs along the coast again. Heading north we passed through little hamlets with no groceries or gas stations to the end of the penninsular and the village of Tahola. This is the headquarters for the Quinault Indian Nation. Tahola has a population of 824. We drove around the village and then headed back to camp.

Back at camp we decided to walk the beach. We hunted for sand dollars and found quite a few in good shape.

Later we made dinner and relaxed. Finally we had a nice sunset!

Pictures: Moclips Highway, Copalis Beach Sunset (3)