Forks & La Push July 2010 (Warning- Huge Photo Post)

So being the former Tw-geek that I am, I made the pilgrimage to Forks and La Push in July 2010. I have to say, even now, this is one of my fave trips ever. I have stayed in a number of five star resorts, been to some of the most beautiful tropical beaches, and luxury camped in a Class A coach. I’ve been fortunate to do a lot of really cool things. This is still one of the coolest.

My fellow Twi-geek, Kara, lived near Seattle and had been telling me to visit for years. She frequently took weekenders to Forks and La Push and knew all the ins and outs. I flew up to Seattle for a long weekend to visit with her (it had been years since we’d seen each other) and her roommates. The plan was to spend the first night at her place and then drive the three hour or so drive to La Push to camp for the weekend. I had never tent camped before so this was going to be interesting.

The drive from Bremerton to La Push was gorgeous, even at night when it was dark. The lavender fields were frequent and the trees were awesome (they were pretty amused that I was so excited about the trees). We couldn’t stop since we wanted to get set up before it was too late and too dark and we had dinner reservations in Port Angeles.

We got to Bella Italia early and the place was packed. Since we had to wait a while for the reservation, we walked through the entire downtown area. We wandered down to the water and back by the time the restaurant was ready for us. In true Twi-geek form, I had the mushroom ravioli. :-)

After dinner, we headed to the grocery store for camping supplies. Got bear paws and cinnamon rolls since they seemed Twilight appropriate (geeky, I know…), hot dogs, marshmallows, and Ranier beer (the Charlie Swan favorite). The rest of the drive was pretty dark but still beautiful.

The campground in La Push was pretty quiet. We grabbed firewood on the way in and found a huge site. Kara had just gotten a huge tent that they called the “condo”. It had two separate “rooms” and was big enough for two large air mattresses in the back room and all of our backpacks in the front room.

By the time we got there, it was dark. And raining. Seattle was having an unusually hot summer and it was about 95 degrees and sunny when I arrived (in jeans and hiking boots, no less). Here in La Push at night, it was about 40 degrees. I was pretty happy since I had packed for colder damper weather. It took us about an hour to get the brand new tent set up since there were no instructions and it was a first use. We set up a campfire for a bit just to hang out after the drive and then went to sleep in the tent listening to the rain.

The next morning it was still raining. Yay! What was great was the fact that even though there was a steady downpour, the campground was filled with tall trees that were catching all of the rain water before it hit the ground (or us for that matter). So we had the awesome sounds of rain with none of the being soaked.

We headed over to Forks for breakfast at The Lodge. Most of the menu items were Twilight themed since The Lodge is owned by the Twilight store in town. I had the Newborn Special. :-)

After breakfast we wandered town. Forks seems to have really embraced the franchise and we didn’t experience any of the negativity I’d heard about. We went through all the stores with Twilight stuff in them. We did our own unofficial Twilight tour after going to the Forks Chamber of Commerce and seeing Bella’s red truck (the replica, that is). I got lucky and saw the high school sign while it was still there since the school has seen been closed. We found Dr. Cullen’s parking space and did all that other geeky stuff. So much fun. We hit up the Forks Outfitters for groceries and some more shopping. Even the sandwiches in the deli were themed and there were cardboard cutouts of characters all over the store.

From here, we headed to "Jacob's House" and then to First Beach. It was pretty quiet except for a few people with dogs. It did look an awful lot like the stand-in beach they used in the movie, mostly because of the cold damp weather. After this we drove around the reservation a bit. We headed back to our campsite by late afternoon and grilled food at the campfire.

The next day, it was time to head over to Seattle so I could catch my flight home. We ate breakfast at the site and tore down the tent. We had enough time to stop by Third Beach and wander a bit. The weather was clearing up a lot so we hiked for a little while before taking off. The drive to the airport was pretty uneventful and we managed to stop in Port Angeles again and at Lake Crescent for photos too!

This is probably one of the least expensive long weekend trips I’ve ever taken. My biggest expense was the plane ticket and food for everyone. The campground was fairly primitive but the ambiance was awesome. If you’re planning on making the trip and like to camp or can, I’d suggest doing it. My friends had done the trip and stayed at one of the B&Bs but I think my experience was just a lot more fun and interactive (and way less expensive). Would love to do it again!