Day 112 - Heart O' The Hills to Mora via Cape Flattery

On the Road In the Rain Once More

It was foggy and damp this morning in our rain forested site and rainy most of the day. We were going to pass on going up to Hurricane Ridge but decided to take a chance and rode up to the top of the Hurricane Ridge Road this morning. We got lucky and had a pretty good, but cloudy view of the Olympic Mountains. It looked like there were several interesting hikes up there, but were for another, hopefully sunnier, day.

It was a long way back down to Port Angeles. Even using lower gears, the brakes on Speedy were quite warm when we parked in town. We were just in time for the Saturday farmers market and picked up some fresh veggies (and a very tasty walnut scone) before refueling and heading west to Neah Bay at the northwest end of the Olympic Peninsula.

It was a long and winding drive most of the way to the town, about 60 miles in the rain. On a dry day it would be a spectacular motorcycle road, but on this rainy day we only saw a single bike on the way to Neah Bay. The road alternately hugs the coast and turns inland to avoid the steep shoreline terrain, but the last section twists along the edge of steep hills that come right to the water.

We arrived in Neah Bay, home of the Makah tribe, just in time for lunch. On the road into town, we spotted a couple of small signs for Pat's Place, including Pie at Pat's. So we stopped for lunch at Pat's, a tiny spot right on the harbor with three tables and 10 seats.  We had Indian fry bread supreme tacos. They were excellent...aside from pie, Supreme, Regular and Vegetarian Fry Bread Tacos are the menu. The pie also looked excellent, but the tacos were as filling as they were tasty.

After lunch we continued on to Cape Flattery, the end of the road and the most northwestern point in the contiguous United States. It is mile and a half hike out to the cape and back. It is all downhill of the way out and all uphill on the way back. The view was worth it though. Rain stopped and there was even some blue sky. The cape is a rocky point high above the water with waves crashing into the caves along the edges. There were lots of gulls and cormorants on the rocks, but the bird highlight was a flock of about 30 Black Oystercatchers. The cape overlooks Tatoosh Island and Cape Flattery Light.

We left the cape hoping to stay at the local campground at Hobuck Beach. Our guides we had indicated that they had both serviced RV sites and dry camping campground, along with free showers. When we arrived it was very disappointing. The campground was about quarter mile from the RV park and services. It was a big muddy field with Porta-johns and was $20 night plus a $10 tribal recreation permit fee. We didn't stay but we drove another sixty miles to Mora campground in the National Park near La Push. 

We arrived there just in time to get the last available site on a Saturday night