Olympic Peninsula Loop: Forks to Aberdeen Washington

Scenic road chapters

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Forks

   Forks is a logging town on the western side of the Olympic Peninsula, a place of about three and a half thousand people, set on a plateau between the mountains and the Pacific. It sits in one of the wettest places in the lower forty-eight states, with rainfall that often reaches three metres a year, and the forest around it is a dripping, mossy world of Sitka spruce, western hemlock and Douglas fir. The town has lived off timber for most of its history, and a small museum near the visitor centre tells the story of the loggers, the fires and the mills.

   Read the complete Forks write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Forks is where the day begins. Next is Ruby Beach.

2. 2. Ruby Beach

   Ruby Beach is where the Olympic Peninsula puts its raw side on show. A short, steep trail leads down from the highway through spruce and fern to a wide shore of dark pebbles, strewn with enormous bleached driftwood logs, with tall sea stacks standing offshore and a creek spilling out across the stones. The name comes from the pinkish tint in the sand, said to be caused by tiny garnet crystals, and when the sun hits wet pebbles the colour is genuinely warm. In the distance, Destruction Island and its old lighthouse, built in the 1890s, sit on the horizon like a model.

   Read the complete Ruby Beach write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Ruby Beach comes up about 44 km into the recorded legs. Next is Aberdeen Washington.

3. 3. Aberdeen Washington

   Aberdeen, Washington, is a gritty harbour town on the grey, rain-soaked edge of the continent, and it is not trying to impress anyone. It sits at the head of Grays Harbor, where the Chehalis and Wishkah rivers empty into a broad, shallow bay, and its fortunes have always followed the timber. In the early twentieth century this was one of the biggest lumber ports in the world, with dozens of mills, and the old waterfront still shows traces of that heyday: wooden pilings, rusty gantries and brick storefronts that have seen better decades. Rain falls here for much of the year, more than two metres of it, and everything wears a coat of moss.

   Read the complete Aberdeen Washington write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   The route ends here after 174 km.