A gorgeous summer Saturday, so it’s time to hit the road. Tossing my camera, a few bottles of water, and no game plan into the car, I picked up my mother for a Saturday drive.
Spur of the moment, we decided to take a drive along Lake Crescent and headed west on Highway 101. It’s a lovely one-hour drive, with plenty of scenic lookouts and places to stop. Of course, we took far longer than hour, in part because we stopped for lunch at Granny’s Cafe.
Try the blackberry milkshake – oh boy is it good!
Full of patty melts and blackberry milkshakes, we continued on.
Mom obliging posing for me.
This swallowtail butterly also struck a pose in the greenery behind the sign.
According to a many-thousands of years old legend, the Klallam and Quileute tribes fought a bloody battle beneath Mount Storm King. The mountain became angry, broke off a chunk of rock from his peak, and threw it into the valley over the battlefield, killing all the warriors, splitting the valley in two, forming both Lake Southerland and Lake Crescent and ending the war.
The geologic record, while not as exvocative as the native legend, nevertheless bears it out. The glacier-carved valley was filled with water roughly 8,000 years ago when a huge landslide dammed Indian River, dividing Lake Sutherland and Lake Crescent.
Lake Crescent is deep (at 624 feet, it’s the second-deepest lake in Washington), and it’s brilliant blue and clear waters have very little nitrogen which inhibits the growth of algae.
We stopped at Lake Crescent Lodge, built in 1915. I have to stay here for a night or two, though they’re booked solid until mid-October.
Lake Crescent Lodge. Plenty of beachgoers, and you don’t have to be a guest at the Lodge to access the beach.
We continued our drive to the west end of the lake and stopped at Fairholme, where we got ice cream bars from the general store, and ate them outside overlooking the lake.
A detour into the La Poel day-use campground on our way to Fairholme. Uncrowded and with access to the lake, it’s little treasure tucked away under the trees. The sign says it’s not suitable for RVs, trailers or over-size vehicles, and they’re not kidding, as this view through the front windshield of my little Ford Focus shows. According to Smitty Parrat’s Gods & Goblins Guide to Place Names of the Olympic National Park, it was “once a bustling truck stop with a general store and tavern.”
Fun fact — until Highway 101 was completed in 1922, to get from the east end of Lake Crescent to the west side, you had to take a launch or a ferry.
The sidewheeler ferry, Storm King, 112 feet long and powered by a 40 hp engine, it’s believed to be the largest vessel ever on Lake Crescent. Image from the Washington Rural Heritage collection.
Driving back, passing Lake Crescent, it wouldn’t be me driving if I didn’t take a side road. Just passed the Elwha River, I turned down Olympic Hot Springs road (I think), and stopped to look at the river running a good ways below.
Can’t image anyone using this to zip across to the other side, but maybe ???
Links of Interest:
- Granny’s Cafe – website
- The Hidden History of Olympic National Park’s Lake Crescent – website
- Lake Crescent Lodge – website
- Ferries and steamboats of Lake Crescent, Washington – Wikipedia
- Lake Crescent – webcam