Black guys can't give the thumbs up in Washington.

Waking up in Forks, Washington was a snowy delight. No vampires or werewolves presented themselves the entire time I was there though.

This snow was super sticky. Apparently the drivers aren't used to driving in the snow and were very timid. I waved my license plate in their faces.

The gray sky and covered pines dealt an unsaturated beauty to the landscape.

Oh the beauty of the weather.

The eerie layering of the snow was so calm.

Look at this frosty, sticky, white mess.

Clouds rose above the trees and wrapped around the mountains.

The dusting of snow enveloped every nook and cranny.

The clear cutting seen a day ago was still very active.

It just looked awesome. I am so glad that I was held up overnight and finally got to see precipitation in the northwest.

It all looked beautifully fake.

The mountains faded so well into the sky.

The snowflakes were as large as quarters and melted on contact with the road and my car.

As I traveled the sky began to open and let the light through. Crescent Lake was the place where I had stayed long enough to see the light show through.

This water was the most amazing magician. The colors changed so drastically wherever I looked.

If I caught the position just right, the blue was so intense.

Black rock beaches were stirred by the constant small waves.

The sky opened up and let all the light shine through.

Watching the cliffs come into focus was inspiring.

Olympic National Park covers the entire interior of the peninsula and is not open for the winter. Exploring the roads off of the highway led to discoveries. The Elwah River was brilliantly colored in a seafoam greenish blue.

The black stones were slick to cross but the smaller stream over to the river was worth it.

The color was brilliant.

The sky was letting loose again. A dark cover came over the area around 2 and kept on coming.

The frost in places that had not gotten any snow were still cold as ice.

The sun came off and on, showing the mountains in the background.

The inlets to Puget Sound were calm and pretty. There was little elevation change around the inlets and the water was always near the level of the roads.

Ice covered the waters surface and was broken up by the movement of the waves.

The light caught the trees and areas of bare soil on the mountains.

The snow started coming again and the Freeway was covered.

Dressed as a ninja the whole day, I had a blast driving on the snow covered freeway going 70mph. I zoomed passed everyone with ease. Passing 4x4's and Hummers was fun to watch. The Sunfire handled pretty well and only let up when changing lanes, the traction control didn't like that at all.

I had intended to check out Mt. Rainier either today or tomorrow, but the overcast conditions made it impossible to see. I was heading to the middle of nowhere and just looked for anyplace that had people. A ski lodge looked promising, but they were all uppity and didn't have amenities. I took a turn to try and get back to the highway to move on to a more acceptable locale.

Sunfire meet snowbank. Damn it. My brakes locked up in a small turn and I lodged my front end on a snow bank, unable to move. So for an hour I dug my front end out with a snowscraper. If some ski dues with the coolest accents didn't give me a push I would shit out of luck.

The highway out of the ski lodge and snowbank area was slow. When I was zooming out of Seattle going 70mph in the snow the there were enough cars to keep the lanes noticeable, but out here the lanes were nowhere and everywhere. By the way, you're not allowed to hitchhike in Washington, signs with black hands with their thumb sticking out and crossed in red made Washington feel like they didn't like people showing that everything would be alright.

Smells like: Teen spirit and Twilight.

The Christmas lights all over the northwest shimmer in the frosty cold every night. Sleeping a car door away from this frosty cold is no plus to my adventure.

I woke to everything being shrouded in white. Not snow like I would expect during the winter in the Pacific Northwest, but frost. It stays throughout most of the day until the sunlight finally hits it for hours and then it steams off the foliage and ground.

A patchwork of forest covered the ground of the Olympic peninsula. This area is remote, and the interior is off limits to logging due to the Olympic National Park. The cities that do lie here rely on logging.

The patchwork effect seen here went away to give a more devastated look to the landscape.

Sun bleached stumps littered the landscape.

I know cooling towers are synonymous with nuclear energy but I'm ot sure if this area is coal or nuclear. The towers were an odd sight to see in the forest.

A really thick line of trees presented itself as natural, but wow were these trees planted close together. If you want tall thin wood that's the way to get it.

Freshly clear cut areas look completely dead. No saplings anywhere. The peninsula ddin't start off very well in hopes of natural scenery. Yet.

Aberdeen, Washington was the birthplace of Kurt Cobain. It's s small port and logging town with cute ocean warn houses. The weather of course adds to the high suicide rate of Seattle, and maybe the houses weren't painted bright colors back then.

The tree covered mountains rolled in and out of view. The deciduous trees started to loose ground from here.

The inlets were small and full of what looked like piers for navigation.

The piles of limbs were dozens of feet high.

Patches of logged areas were amazing and gross at the same time.

Most areas were partitioned off leaving areas with mature trees to revitalize areas. Some hills were completely clear cut in every direction.

Once a few years pass these areas are rich with green. Every tree being the same size makes a carpet of greenery.

This area relies heavily on logging and areas are continuously harvested for their timber. Different areas were logged at different times and all have similar ages of trees. The heights created an orchestra of scenery.

Mountains half cleared create an alien looking landscape.

Closer to Olympic National Park the logging lets up. Most National Parks are surrounded by a rim of national forest which is usually less intensively logged on account of conservation. Land owned by companies seems ravaged.

My whole trip has been mostly free of precipitation. The pacific Northwest is supposed to be rainy. I am in a rainforest for heavens sake. A line of foreboding clouds made me think that is was going to be wet soon.

Once this cloud was overhead is set an eerie light on everything. All was completely evenly lit with no shadows.

the mountains looked as if they are flocked with green fuzz.

The air had the most brilliant hues of blue and green.

It was very difficult getting photos of the rainforest as it is extremely dark within the tall trees. When I saw light through the trees I knew the ocean was close, that and I'm good with maps.

Oh the beaches of the west coast. So cold, so free of people. Tremendous amounts of logs were littering the beaches.

A stream cut through the beach towards the ocean. Smooth rocks that people buy for show in Indiana were everywhere.

The dark gray sand and gray sky lat out a harmonious color chord.

This sunset was misleading, it was not very close to dark, but the clouds hastened the light.

The sea looked as if it were on fire.

The beach is very evenly pitched and goes on for a while to the forest. Slow but steady back and forth waves and receding water made the sand glassy. I had gotten off to a late start and was hoping to not have lost so much daylight so fast. I passed through a town called Forks, seein that the cold was coming in, I stopped.


I'm in Forks, Washington right? What's with all the Twilight named stuff? OH. I started to get the hint.

I walked to a diner downtown and asked the waitress a question. I saw the movie and it was alright, and I know it took place in the Pacific Northwest.

A lot of animal heads told me that I was definitely not in the big city. Well unless I was in Cabela's.

The waitress told me what was up with all the Twilight stuff. The book was based here of course. My first totem pols that I have seen not in a museum was nice. At least it wasn't hoakey.

If I had looked at what was above the wireless internet I would have known the Twilight information sooner. So the PMW has a lot of culture, even though that one coffee place everyone goes to to is local here, I won't frequent it.