Category: Places to take visitors

Blyn ablaze

The tiny community of Blyn, located at the head of Sequim Bay, is the center of the Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe, which owns the community and operates its tribal activities there. At this time each year the landscape is a breathtaking wonderland as miniature lights are tightly woven onto trees and shrubs along the highway and next to the tribe’s many enterprises.

We came through at dusk, before the full effect of the lights and colors could be seen. But you can get hint of what it’s like: truly stunning.

The lights are on both sides of Highway 101 and frame the tribe’s many enterprises, including a casino, gas station and convenience store, a community center, library, gift shop, totem carving shed, and other buildings that serve the tribe and its activities. It’s well worth seeing if you’re in the area.

A visit to Johnson Creek Trestle

Johnson Creek Trestle, a former railroad bridge, is part of our Olympic Discovery Trail system. It is 410 feet long, with a graceful curve, banking slightly, features that add to its strength and stability.

It is the largest railroad trestle on the Olympic Peninsula and rises 86 feet above the creek below.

Click here for more information about the Johnson Creek Trestle history.

Alexander’s Castle

We camped for a night recently at Fort Worden State Park near Port Townsend. Fort Worden is a compound of former military buildings that now house a conference center, education partnerships, vacation rentals, and eateries as well as campgrounds and beaches. And in the midst of it all is Alexander’s Castle, shown above.

In 1883 the rector at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Port Townsend, John B. Alexander, acquired 10 acres of land in this area and built what came to be known as Alexander’s Castle. He and his intended bride would live here after he fetched her from Scotland. Alas, she married another and he returned a bachelor. He used the building as a temporary residence. In 1897 the property was acquired by the federal government and the construction of Fort Worden began.

In the 1880s and 1890s Alexander held posts in the region as Honorary British Vice-Consul and Her Majesty’s Consul. In his later years he lived in England and died there in the 1930s. During military operations at the Fort, Alexander’s Castle was used for family living, as an observation post, and a tailor shop.

Port Williams

Port Williams on Sequim Bay was at one time an actual port. A large hotel, restaurant, and general store were all located here, along with a dock that served as a Port of Entry for Sequim. Today the area is a small park known as Marlyn Nelson County Park, named for a young local soldier who was killed in the Japanese attack at Pearl Harbor that provoked the U.S. entry into World War II.

The bluffs you see here have another claim to history. Bones from woolly mammoths have sloughed from the sandy cliffs, residents from long, l-o-n-g ago.