A Month in Sequim, WA, Week Two

We're about halfway through our month in Sequim, WA and enjoying ourselves immensely. We've done and seen a lot of things but also had time to relax at home too...that's the beauty of a month in one place.

We rode a portion of the (ultimately) 130 mile long Olympic Discovery Trail. This paved, multi-use trail, when completed, will run from Port Townsend to La Push, WA, but currently has over 50 miles of completed segments. We chose to ride from Sequim's Railroad Bridge Park (home of the Dungeness River Audubon Center) to the convergence of Old Olympic Hwy and Hwy 101, about 7.5 miles, before we turned around. This was a lovely segment that took us through a mixture of pretty rural properties and forest.

Former railroad trestle bridge, now part of the Olympic Discovery Trail.

You can see fog lingering over the Strait of Juan de Fuca in the distance.

Happy cows get to look at the Olympic Mountains all day!

We'd seen these unique bird house creations at the Saturday market, then rode by the home of the artist.

From Sequim it's 15 miles to Port Angeles, then about another 20 up to the Hurricane Ridge Visitor Center in Olympic National Park. The visitor center sits on the edge of a hillside facing the heart of the Olympic Mountain range with a view to take your breath away.

The Hurricane Ridge Visitor Center has an impressive view,
and this photo shows only a small part of the mountain range.

We chose to hike the Sunrise Ridge Trail, mostly because it boasts big views and smaller crowds than the Hurricane Hill trail. The views along the trail were wonderful and it probably did have fewer people on the trail but we felt we could have knocked off the last mile of trail (from where it drops down a steep canyon before heading up to the base of Mt Angeles) and been just as happy with this hike. The "Y" trail junction mentioned in the trail link is not a worthy destination in itself, it has no view.

Sunrise Ridge also has an impressive view and steep drops too!

Taking a siesta under the trees.

We saw a family of Blue Grouse and I managed to catch a shot of this youngster,

Another day we did some exploring on Miller Peninsula, the Peninsula enclosing the East side of Sequim Bay (we are staying on the West side of Sequim Bay). First we drove past a local oddity: Troll Haven. I learned about this place from Roadside America, and though we could not enter the property it was fun to see some of the funky details as we drove by.

Guarding the gap in the fence.

Dozens of uniquely carved fence posts surrounded the property.

A unique venue you can rent for your own event!

A little further onto Miller Peninsula we came to the hike of the day, our trail to Thompson Spit. The State has owned a chunk of land on the Peninsula for about 10 years and is still trying to fund the development of a new state park. Fortunately the State has not banned access to this land and we took a lovely 4.5 mile RT hike here.

The first mile of trail is nice, but the last mile is extremely pretty.

Good camouflage!

We popped out of the forest here...

And came out on to the Strait, face to face with this wonderful view of Protection Island with Mt Baker just beyond it.
We had this lovely beach all to ourselves!

If you like farm-to-table restaurants, Nourish is a lovely place for a tasty meal. There is seating in the garden or the greenhouse and the food is thoughtfully prepared with the highest quality ingredients. We found it to be a little expensive, but worth it for a splurge lunch.

Lavender and herbs scent the air in the garden.

Seating in the greenhouse. The tables are made from pallets.

We've also discovered our new favorite grocery store in this area: Sunny Farms Country Store. Located on the West edge of Sequim, right on highway 101, this store has bountiful produce and all the usual items you'd find at a health food store. This is an especially good find since the Sequim farmers market is decidedly lacking in produce.

Leaving Beautiful Torrey, UT Before the Snow Arrives

The past few days we've had a cold front come through, bringing wind, rain, hail and snow flurries on Wednesday, and cool, windy, threatening rain conditions for the past two days...and we've loved it!

Coming from Southern California, I actually thought we'd experience a few more inclement weather days while traveling than we have. We've done such a good job of following fair weather that cozy days inside the RV are few and far between.

Wednesday fluctuated between 36 and 46 degrees all day, so after a leisurely morning snuggled up in our comfy little home on wheels admiring the red cliffs outside our window, we headed out for lunch. Cafe Diablo had very mixed reviews on Yelp, people either loved it or hated it. The food presentation was pretty and unique, but I found the flavors to be very bland.

After lunch we moved on to Robbbers Roost Bookstore and Coffeehouse. What a gem! We spent a leisurely couple of hours on a comfy couch in front of a wood stove, sipping coffee and chai and indulging in a delicious peach coffeecake. They had an interesting selection of books and a decent wifi connection. It was the PERFECT place to spend a cold, blustery afternoon!

Cozy Robbers Roost

On Thursday with temps forecast to be in the 50's and only a tiny threat of rain we headed into Capitol Reef National Park. We visited this park in 2007 but did not do the drive up Capitol Gorge; so that was the destination of the day along with the two mile Tanks hike and the four mile Golden Throne hike.

A delicate arch has formed on the pour-off from The Tanks.

Rock art.

The Golden Throne.

On Friday the temps were still in the 50's and breezy and we didn't feel like driving too far. We'd noticed a sign for the Great Western Trail and access to Sand Creek just half a mile East of our home base, Thousand Lakes RV Park. A little research turned up a hike to Sand Creek Waterfall, so an exploration of the colorful cliffs immediately North of our park was in order.

From highway 24 we turned up Sand Creek Road and shortly entered Fish Lake National Forest. The road started out very rocky, but soon became reasonably smooth dirt with a few easy crossings of Sand Creek which was very small.

While we never found the parking spot described in the link above, nor the waterfall, even though we hiked along Sand Creek (according to Google Maps) for several miles, we did enjoy an adventurous hike among some gorgeous colorful mountains. If we ever return to Torrey, UT we will definitely explore this wilderness area further, with a topo map in hand. Even though The Great Western Trail is open to ATV's, horses and mountain bikes in this area, we never saw another soul on this day.

The dirt roads North of our RV park took us into a colorful wilderness just begging to be explored.

Layers of color opened up before us as we headed deeper into the wilderness.

The colorful layers weren't only on the rocks!

Though it's been chilly during our stay in Torrey, the temps were good for hiking and the scenery around us serene and beautiful. The RV park has been no more than half full, which was perfect. Another storm is on the way and supposed to drop 1 - 3 inches of snow on Sunday. We're moving on to slightly warmer climates as we head North and West over the next few days.

Wrapping Up Our Stay in the Verde Valley

We've spent a wonderful month in Cottonwood, AZ, enjoying its quaint Old Town, convenient shopping, and close proximity to Jerome and Sedona. The weather from mid-March to mid-April ranged from the high 60's to about 90 degrees the past couple of days and the trees have bloomed and leafed out during our stay...making this a lovely time of year to visit. Here's a few more things we did in the past couple of weeks...

Thanks to the new RVers social network, RVillage, we met Sean and Marian. We spent a day hiking Hangover/Cow Pies in reverse, dinner at their great spot at Sedona Pines, along with spa time...a perfect day! And, we get to meet up again at the Grand Canyon in a couple of weeks! Thanks RVillage for making this connection possible!

Lisa, Hans, Sean and Marian enjoying the incredible views from the Hangover Saddle.

We saw a young collared lizard...love!

On one of our trips to Jerome we visited Jerome State Historic Park. There's a wealth of information about the history of Jerome housed in the former Douglas Mansion, built by the one time owner of the Little Daisy Mine, James S. Douglas.

Great view of Jerome State Historic Park, housed in the Douglas Mansion, from the town of Jerome.
The Mansion has a fantastic view of both Jerome above and the Verde Valley below it.

Lots of interesting mining history both inside and outside the Mansion.

One short, but sweet, hike we took was the Fay Canyon Trail. Like any short, shady and easy trail in Sedona, it is popular. But if you go early on a week day the crowds aren't too bad. The side trip to view the arch up close is worth it, but steep and rocky. It's also neat to climb the cliff at the end of the trail for some great views down canyon.

As we head in to the canyon the arch is barely visible off to the right.

After a steep climb up to the arch I could see how substantial it is, and the view was great too!

We ate out a few times during our month in Cottonwood...oh, and there seems to be a consensus among Yelpers and Trip Advisor reviewers that Cottonwood has better restaurants than Sedona. Since we never ate out in Sedona (except for hot dogs at Oak Creek Brewing) I can't comment on that, but Cottonwood did have some decent eats.

Juanitas Taqueria - They don't have a website, but the reviews don't lie, this Mexican take out joint is very good. I had one of the best Chile Rellenos I've ever had; a very light batter with a lovely ricotta-style cheese inside, nice tomato-based sauce on top. They have about 10 tables inside. Order at the counter and they'll bring the food to you.

Nic's Italian Steak and Crab House - We don't usually go out for steak or Italian, but when our friend Billy Bennight rolled through town one evening we took a stroll through Old Town Cottonwood and decided to give it a try...once again, the reviews were spot on! Nic's was hopping early on a week night and rightly so. Though the Tuscan-style entrees were very rich, the flavors were wonderful. The manager even brought us a delicious complimentary Vanilla-Orangecello apertif at the end of our meal. This meal was a tasty indulgence that we simply worked off on the trail the next day! For a steakhouse, the prices were reasonable.

Lastly, I 'd like to give an honorable mention to Pizzeria Bocce. While the "Not a Meat Pie" pizza did not blow us away (it was a bit bland), the spinach salad was excellent, the bar menu was extensive and the ambiance was really wonderful. They have a lovely patio bar that makes this place worth a second try next time we are in the area.

Tomorrow we're off to Prescott for a week on our slow meander North. New adventures await!