Pacific Northwest Backroad Adventures

Since most of what I needed to do at home required me to have dry weather to work on, I decided to take a ride to the forest lands above Wilkeson, Washington. Luckily for me, from my front door to the gravel forest roads of the Wilkeson Tree Farm (owned by Plum Creek) is exactly 20 miles. The drive time, depending on traffic will vary from 30-60 minutes. My goal was to explore Forest Service (FS) Road 7720. It had been a few years since my last visit to the area.

Unfortunately, the weather did not allow for the great views of the Puget Sound lowlands below or to Mt. Rainier above. I’ll have to save that for another trip.

I started out from downtown Wilkeson, Washington and turned on Railroad Ave and drove past the historic Wilkeson School (the oldest operating elementary school building in Washington state), past the old Coke Ovens and the Wilkeson Sandstone Quarry and then turned up the hill near the entrance of the Sunset Lake Camp. None of the roads in this area have signs. The only road that shows on the Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest map is FS 7720. My GPS initially listed this road as the South Prairie Creek Road.

Once I climbed out of the valley, there is a section of the road that is the haul road for another quarry further up the road. After a short distance, there is a fork in the road, with the quarry road to the left (very obvious) and FS 7710 to the right. In a short distance I turned left on FS 7720 and followed it up the South Prairie Creek valley.

It wasn’t too long after this that my GPS showed no roads. So with no map or GPS showing the roads, I began to explore the area. I decided to drive up to roads end and work my way back down as time allowed. I climbed for a while when I came to a junction with two well used roads. First I chose the road to the right which dead ended in about two miles. Some great views through the mist. Probably better on a clear day. So I backtracked down to the last junction.

Next, I followed the road to the left. From what I could tell from the forest service map and the geography, this road was FS 7720. From this junction, the road was overgrown with alder trees in sections, steep, rocky and rutted in others. A high clearance vehicle would be recommended to travel this area of road. After passing multiple forks in the road, while staying to the left, I eventually came to an overlook into the valley and Cedar Lake. A nice mountain lake downhill from my vantage point. There appears to be a road within a relatively short distance from the lake’s outlet (it would still require a hike through the brush), but from where I was standing and without a map, I couldn’t tell you how to get to the road.

While looking at the forest service map, I noted that there was a trailhead for Trail 1178 at the end of the road (only a short distance further). Once I got home and started writing this trip report, I found out that this was the Clearwater Trail #1178. After some photos of Cedar Lake and driving to the end of the road, I turned around and started heading down for further explorations.

Some of the spur roads I explored dead ended rather quickly, some were very overgrown with alder trees. Limb risers on my Land Cruiser would have been nice, or just simply turning around as what I had to do on FS 7724 because it was too overgrown.

Because of time limitations and a storm blowing in with visibility dropping to about 50 yards, I opted to head home for the day around 3:00 PM. I made note of some of the other roads I needed to explore on a future trip to the Wilkeson Tree Farm.

You can view all of the photos from this trip at Wilkeson Forest Roads.

Initially, the family was only going to make a day trip to Oak harbor, Washington to visit friends for the day. However, since the forecast was for nice weather over the weekend, I suggested that we stay over night in a hotel and take the Keystone-Port Townsend ferry over to the Olympic Peninsula the next the morning and do some sight seeing. I suggested Cape Flattery as one possible destination.

Saturday morning, we made it out the door and headed North on I-5. The closer we got to Seattle, you could easily tell that there was a University of Washington Huskies football game in town by the school colors that were on nearly 1 out of 5 vehicles on the freeway.

Once we reached Burlington, Washington, we headed west on Highway 20. Along the way, there are views of Padilla Bay and Fidalgo Bay visible from the highway. It was low tide when we passed, so the mud flats were visible.

Our first stop along the way was at the Deception Pass bridge. After a few pictures and a quick peak to the water below, my wife elected to stay with the Toyota FJ80 Land Cruiser while my daughter and myself ventured out across the bridge for better photo opportunities.

In addition to the normal traffic over the bridge, there was an organized bike tour on Whidbey Island, which meant much more congestion over the bridge.

To experience the views from the Deception Pass bridge, one must stop and get out of the car and walk. You miss so much by simply driving across. The views are fantastic. We were even able to spot a seal in the water below.

Once back to the car, we headed into Oak Harbor for lunch and then to our friends house just outside of town. After a short visit, we headed to the North Beach at Deception Pass State Park.

After some photos of the kids playing on the beach, I headed out with the camera and tripod for some additional photos of the shoreline. I ended up walking the shoreline from the beach, around the point to the beach just below the Deception Pass Bridge. Great photo opportunities all around. I could have easily spent hours taking photos of the diverse shoreline.

After spending a few hours at the park, it was time for dinner and the back to the motel so the kids could swim in the pool.

The next morning, we headed out to catch the 8:45 Keystone - Port Townsend ferry. I had forgot to set the alarm, so we had to rush a little. Luckily we made it with about ten minutes to spare and the ferry wasn’t full.

We were fortunate that the weather was sunny and the water was relatively calm, though cool. This ferry ride was the first for my wife and daughter. After about a 30 minute ferry ride, we arrived in Port Townsend, Washington.

Once in Port Townsend, we parked the Land Cruiser and searched for a coffee shop in the downtown area. After a coffee and a quick bite to eat, we strolled through the downtown area before heading out. Because of the time of day on a Sunday, most of the downtown businesses were closed.

From Port Townsend, we headed south on Highway 20 to US 101. Along the way, we had great views of Discovery Bay. Once we were on US 101, we headed west through Sequim and Port Angeles. We stopped in Port Angeles for fuel and lunch.

After lunch, we continued west on US 101 until we reached Lake Crescent in the Olympic National Park. US 101 follows the south shore of Lake Crescent and offers great views of the lake. Of course, we stopped along the way to take photos.

From Lake Crescent, we continued on US 101 through the Sol Duc River Valley. I pointed out the Kloshe Nanitch Lookout high above the valley floor.

When we reached Highway 113, we headed north towards the Straight of Juan de Fuca where the road intersects SR 112 where we headed west. From this junction, SR 112 also leads east to just outside of Port Angeles. Once we reached Clallam Bay and Sekiu, SR 112 follows the shoreline of the Straight of Juan de Fuca. This stretch of highway is another must do scenic drive.

At the entrance of the Makah Indian Reservation, there was a tribal police checkpoint that was inquiring about our destination. Later we found out that some members of the Makah nation illegally killed a whale the day before (that explains the TV news vans we saw later in the day). We made our way through Neah Bay, Washington and followed the sign to Cape Flattery.

The road to Cape Flattery was in the process of getting paved. All except the last three miles was fresh pavement. The gravel sections were in excellent condition and looks as though it will soon receive asphalt as well.

From the trailhead parking area, it’s about a 3/4 mile hike down to Cape Flattery. The trail is an easy hike through the forest, with many sections on wooden boardwalks over the more damp areas.

Once you reach Cape Flattery, there are great views of the Pacific Ocean, the Straight of Juan de Fuca, Vancouver Island, and the Cape Flattery Lighthouse on Tatoosh Island. Again, we had great weather.

By the time we completed the hike down to Cape Flattery, it was already mid-afternoon, which didn’t leave much time to do more sightseeing, so we had to start heading home.

The Olympic Peninsula has such a diverse ecosystem, including ocean shore lines, river valleys, lakes, rain forests to the alpine areas of the Olympic Mountains. There is so much to see on the Olympic Peninsula that it would probably take good week to visit all the places you can visit by car. I guess another trip will have to be planned to do some more explorations.

You can view all of photos of this trip at Deception Pass to Cape Flattery Photos.