Here’s a view of the Lake Quinault Lodge boathouse. Basic and dog friendly, with a killer porch.
Category: Businesses
More from out west
It rains a lot out west…on average, over 120 inches a year. We arrived during a short dry spell that allowed this misty view of the mountains around Lake Quinault.
Because we brought our four-legged pal with us we stayed in the old boathouse, a low slung building with wide porches, a great lake viewing area, and easy access to leashed wanderings for the furry one.
Out west
Around here when people head to coastal Washington they often say they’ve gone “out west,” which, of course, is the direction you go when you drive toward the Pacific Ocean.
This week we went out west, to Lake Quinault, which is located in the Quinault rainforest. It’s a three hour drive from Sequim. Theoretically that could be a day trip but we took advantage of a winter visitor’s package at the Lake Quinault Lodge to celebrate DH’s birthday. This is the lodge, which was built in 1926.
The Lodge was designed by Robert Reamer, the same architect who designed the Old Faithful Inn. Both hotels have a classic rustic feel. The Old Faithful Inn is built with massive logs and an alpine style. The Lake Quinault Lodge has a somewhat lighter, graceful look to it but it still has a strong sense of the great outdoors.
Literature for the Lodge uses a slogan, “The Rest Comes Easy.” Judging by the pace we saw inside and out that seems to be the case.
Dungeness River Audubon Center
I don’t think I’ve shown the Dungeness River Audubon Center before. It’s a great local resource for birding and natural history information in addition to being a site for other community education events. A garden next to the building provides signage identifying many native plants and feeders draw lots of birds. Railroad Bridge Park nearby borders the Dungeness River although the historic railroad trestle bridge is closed due to flood damage that undermined one part of the bridge. (I have to return another time to retake photos of the bridge. They weren’t up to par.)
Not much left
This is about all that’s left of the 3 Crabs Restaurant, once a local institution. It was one of those seafood joints that earned a place on the map, especially for tourists coming to the Olympic Peninsula. It was open for nearly 60 years until it was sold in 2012 to the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife for wetlands restoration. The 3 Crabs sat on a very nice 52-acre parcel. It is at the shoreline of Dungeness Bay, just beyond the line of shrubbery in the distance.
A sidewalk into the restaurant still slices across the land, going nowhere. And there is a line of risers, probably for the septic system. These and the foundation shown here will eventually be excavated and removed.
This is what it looked like shortly after it shuttered for good. The sign is gone from the front of the building. I suspect it was sold to a souvenir hunter with fond memories of the place.
Progress report
It’s time for another look at the new Sequim Civic Center. It’s definitely coming along. Now with paneling applied to the exterior walls, it’s easier to visualize its eventual scale.
You can see here the obvious progress since the last shot that I posted in September from a similar perspective.
Here’s another view from what I think is the back of the building.
Next step: rubble
Last May a spectacular fire destroyed the Baja Cantina and Sequim Consignment Store on Washington Street, leaving a scorched and collapsed shell. The Sequim Consignment Store has since relocated further east on Washington Street. I don’t know whether the Baja Cantina will reopen.
The building owner has been working with her insurance company to evaluate the loss and determine next steps for the charred remains. Heavy equipment descended on the site recently and all that was left the other day was a heap of debris.