Going to Seattle and Olympic National Park next week.
We are doing Seattle then the Forks then Port Angeles back to Seattle loop.
We were going to spend a day exploring hurricane ridge but the NPS closed the access road without any warning for 3 months due to construction of a new lodge. Pretty pissed but we are going to take a ferry to Victoria, BC instead.
Any recommendations for sights in Victoria? It appears they have great gardens. Also, any local recs. for Seattle would be great.
Thanks!
The Olympic National Park is amazing, and while very beautiful in Winter, it's very limited because there is an absolute SHITLOAD of snow up there. So you sort of can't do much but see the lodge and the views, which are almost always non-existent since it is cloudy and snowing nearly every day from November to June.
At any rate, Victoria is amazing and you won't regret it. Butchart Gardens is quite amazing, but I'm not sure how they look in early April with the cold weather we've had this year. Still amazing regardless, but might be just before blooming occurs. My one recommendation is the REALLY nail down how you get to it, because it's not all that close to Victoria. I think it's about a 25 minute drive. They have busses and stuff, but when I've gone I've had my car.
The Royal BC Museum is really great. There's plenty of places to walk around and find stuff to do in the downtown core and harbor area. They tend to frequently have events there too so check into that.
If it's nice, running around Beacon Hill park looking for Peacock's is fun. Going to the marker for the westernmost point of the Trans-Canada Highway is sorta neat. The south shore is pretty cool too. There's also a hill called Mt. Douglas with great views of the city and it's a nice easy hike.
Don't sleep on the ferry rides. I almost always see whales, so consider it a super cheap whale viewing opportunity.
As for Seattle, Pike Place Market and MoPOP for sure... Unless you're really not into Seattle music, horror movies, sci fi movies, or fantasy movies, a really cool place for all of those things. I'd argue the BEST pop culture museum anywhere. The Space Needle isn't necessary as it's the most expensive view in Seattle and Seattle is a city with a LOT of views. I like taking the ferry to Bainbridge for a couple hours. You only have to pay one way. It's a nice little town to walk and some indie high end shopping. The views from the Ferry are among the best around.
when I retire to somewhere warm or something. Eff ever buying another house again in Seattle though, I doubt it's going to get any easier either.
