Dwight Peck's personal website

Summer 2004

The Olympic Peninsula in Washington, USA


You may not find this terribly rewarding unless you're included here, so this is a good time for casual and random browsers to turn back before they get too caught up in the sweep and majesty of the proceedings and can't let go.

Dungeness Spit and Whidbey Island

Sequim's chief enduring claim to fame -- its John Wayne statue and display of memorabilia at the marina. Actually, there's another claim to fame, an intricate late-19th century system of irrigation ditches meant to spread the mountain run-off around a bit. Though deep in the centre of the famously rainy Pacific Northwest, Sequim apparently lies in the "rain shadow" of Mount Olympus and would be virtually a desert otherwise.

Dungeness Spit

The lighthouse at the end of the Dungeness Spit, evidently the longest natural spit in the US or something. The Dungeness National Wildlife Refuge extends five and a half miles out from the coast, frequently only about 50m wide, and a brisk walk out and back along the beach takes about four hours.

Kristin, a wildlife enthusiast, got to see quite a few seals and lots of seagulls, but not much else on this trip. 23 July 2004.

The beautiful lighthouse at the end of the spit. Evidently the last human lighthouse keepers were withdrawn in the USA in 1994, in favor of automation, but since vandalism invariably results from that, "the New Dungeness Chapter of the United States Lighthouse Society was formed on September 3, 1994 and obtained, with the aid of the USLHS, a five-year renewable lease with the Coast Guard. Since this time, the New Dungeness Chapter has manned the lighthouse. The chapter adopted, as its mission, the following goals: To Protect, Preserve and Man the lighthouse. Two or three couples (or some combination of 4-6 adults and a few children) are transported out every week at the lowest tide possible along with enough supplies and personal effects for a week. While out at the lighthouse for their week, the keepers have duties, including cleaning, repairing and maintaining the buildings and keeping the lawns in good condition. The keepers are also responsible for conducting tours to those stalwart persons who are able to make the walk out."

http://www.dungeness.com/lighthouse/index.htm

Well, Lighthouse Society, keep up the good work.

Lighthouse, with the humongous driftwood that's piled everywhere along the western and northern Olympic coasts.

Driftwood on Dungeness Spit, with our motel on the far side of the Dungeness harbor and the mountains of the interior on the horizon.

Nice walk. Time for dinner.

Whidbey Island

The Whidbey Island ferry, between Port Townsend and . . . Whidbey Island.

The New York Times on a short ferry ride.

An historical blockhouse on Whidbey Island -- the kids in costume were filming some sort of historical reconstruction thing. A massacre or something, perhaps.

Kristin visiting her friend Lana from New England College in Arundel, England, reunited for the first time since.

The Loganberry Festival at Whidbey Island, 24 July 2004. Loganberries were invented in 1881 -- by James Logan, in fact -- a cross between blackberries and raspberries, flourishing here a while ago and now being brought back. This land had been bought up by evil tobacco companies, but recently, through community action, bought back again for folksy festivals of just this sort.

Kristin and Lana touring the festival grounds

Home-made crafty things

Kristin and Lana viewing llamas or alpacas or something

At Lana's forthcoming house in the forest

Leave-taking on Whidbey Island.

Leave-taking from the State of Washington, in the forest of "Heart o' the Hills" near Port Angeles, 25 July 2004.

From here, it's back to Boston, then a drive up through the Adirondacks of northern New York State to visit Marlowe in Ottawa, Canada.

Visit to North America, July 2004
Olympic National Park, Washington, USA, July 2004
Hoh Rain Forest and the Quileute Reservation at La Push
Ozette Lake and Cape Alava
Cape Flattery, Rialto Beach, and the Hole in the Wall
Hurricane Ridge and Obstruction Point
Dungeness Spit and Whidbey Island
and then
Visit to Marlowe, Ottawa, Ontario, 2004
The Thousand Islands and Boldt Castle

Dwight Peck's personal website

Summer 2004

The Olympic Peninsula in Washington, USA


You may not find this terribly rewarding unless you're included here, so this is a good time for casual and random browsers to turn back before they get too caught up in the sweep and majesty of the proceedings and can't let go.

Dungeness Spit and Whidbey Island

Sequim's chief enduring claim to fame -- its John Wayne statue and display of memorabilia at the marina. Actually, there's another claim to fame, an intricate late-19th century system of irrigation ditches meant to spread the mountain run-off around a bit. Though deep in the centre of the famously rainy Pacific Northwest, Sequim apparently lies in the "rain shadow" of Mount Olympus and would be virtually a desert otherwise.

Dungeness Spit

The lighthouse at the end of the Dungeness Spit, evidently the longest natural spit in the US or something. The Dungeness National Wildlife Refuge extends five and a half miles out from the coast, frequently only about 50m wide, and a brisk walk out and back along the beach takes about four hours.

Kristin, a wildlife enthusiast, got to see quite a few seals and lots of seagulls, but not much else on this trip. 23 July 2004.

The beautiful lighthouse at the end of the spit. Evidently the last human lighthouse keepers were withdrawn in the USA in 1994, in favor of automation, but since vandalism invariably results from that, "the New Dungeness Chapter of the United States Lighthouse Society was formed on September 3, 1994 and obtained, with the aid of the USLHS, a five-year renewable lease with the Coast Guard. Since this time, the New Dungeness Chapter has manned the lighthouse. The chapter adopted, as its mission, the following goals: To Protect, Preserve and Man the lighthouse. Two or three couples (or some combination of 4-6 adults and a few children) are transported out every week at the lowest tide possible along with enough supplies and personal effects for a week. While out at the lighthouse for their week, the keepers have duties, including cleaning, repairing and maintaining the buildings and keeping the lawns in good condition. The keepers are also responsible for conducting tours to those stalwart persons who are able to make the walk out."

http://www.dungeness.com/lighthouse/index.htm

Well, Lighthouse Society, keep up the good work.

Lighthouse, with the humongous driftwood that's piled everywhere along the western and northern Olympic coasts.

Driftwood on Dungeness Spit, with our motel on the far side of the Dungeness harbor and the mountains of the interior on the horizon.

Nice walk. Time for dinner.


Whidbey Island

The Whidbey Island ferry, between Port Townsend and . . . Whidbey Island.

The New York Times on a short ferry ride.

An historical blockhouse on Whidbey Island -- the kids in costume were filming some sort of historical reconstruction thing. A massacre or something, perhaps.

Kristin visiting her friend Lana from New England College in Arundel, England, reunited for the first time since.

The Loganberry Festival at Whidbey Island, 24 July 2004. Loganberries were invented in 1881 -- by James Logan, in fact -- a cross between blackberries and raspberries, flourishing here a while ago and now being brought back. This land had been bought up by evil tobacco companies, but recently, through community action, bought back again for folksy festivals of just this sort.

Kristin and Lana touring the festival grounds

Home-made crafty things

Kristin and Lana viewing llamas or alpacas or something

At Lana's forthcoming house in the forest

Leave-taking on Whidbey Island.

Leave-taking from the State of Washington, in the forest of "Heart o' the Hills" near Port Angeles, 25 July 2004.

From here, it's back to Boston, then a drive up through the Adirondacks of northern New York State to visit Marlowe in Ottawa, Canada.

Visit to North America, July 2004
Olympic National Park, Washington, USA, July 2004
Hoh Rain Forest and the Quileute Reservation at La Push
Ozette Lake and Cape Alava
Cape Flattery, Rialto Beach, and the Hole in the Wall
Hurricane Ridge and Obstruction Point
Dungeness Spit and Whidbey Island
and then
Visit to Marlowe, Ottawa, Ontario, 2004
The Thousand Islands and Boldt Castle

Feedback and suggestions are welcome if positive, resented if negative, . All rights reserved, all wrongs avenged. Posted 24 September 2004, revised 30 January 2008, 15 April 2023.


Olympic National Park, 2004