I was heading west from Mason County, and entered Grays Harbor County on Highway 108. The first town I came to was McCleary, home of the Bear Festival. Judging by the picture I took, I must have been feeling pretty festive at the time, although I don't recall any partying that took place. The 2020 McCleary Bear Festival will take place in July and should be a great time for all concerned. Probably won't get any Bear Stew. Washington law is making bear hunting a difficult proposition. The hosts substituted beef in 2019, and I doubt anyone complained.
At McCleary, Washington Highway 108 terminates at its junction with Washington Highway 8, which itself terminates a few miles on when it joins U.S. Highway 12 at the town of Elma. A town of 3,107 according to the 2010 U.S. Census, Elma was founded in 1853 and incorporated in 1888. The city may be best known for a government boondoggle in the late 1970s when the Washington Public Power Supply System (WPPSS, or as its known colloquially WHOOPS!) defaulted on over $2 billion in bonds. At that point, the utility had completed around 75% of the construction necessary to build two nuclear power stations (WNP-3 and WNP-5) just southwest of Elma. Today, the site has been re-purposed and is known as the Satsop Business Park, as it is on the outskirts of the small community of Satsop.
Do not fear, those just look like a nuclear power plant. They are what is visible of the Satsop Business Park from Highway 12, west of Elma, Washington. Heading further west, I drove through some farm country and past the town of Brady (2010 population 676--it's another Census Designated Place, not a "real" town). According to Brady's Wikipedia entry, this area was the first place settled in what is now Grays Harbor County, as it lies along the Chehalis River which was the only transportation corridor back in the 19th Century. Today, as you can see in the foreground of the picture above, a four-lane divided highway connects Olympia and Aberdeen, and cuts through the agricultural land where farmers grow cut flowers, potatoes, sweet corn. Elsewhere in Grays Harbor County, Christmas trees are an important crop, as are cranberries. Dairy farms have their place as well.
It took me five shutter clicks before I was able to capture that barn without any traffic on the highway. I didn't see much to note in Brady, but the Volunteer Fire Station was just next to this water (?) tank.
Five miles west of Brady, I drove into Montesano, the seat of Grays Harbor County. The story of how Montesano became County Seat is fascinating, as is the history of its beautiful court house.
Just a few blocks away from the Courthouse, I came upon the former Scandanavian Lutheran Church at 703 W. Pioneer Avenue. The church, built in 1906, became home to the Chehalis Valley Historical Society's Museum on March 19, 1988.
Continuing west on U.S. Highway 12, just a few miles later I reached the city of Aberdeen, Grays Harbor County's largest city. The first object to catch my attention, and thus earn itself a photograph was the Wishkah River Bridge. Built in 1924, by noted bridge engineer Joseph Strauss. Not to be confused with the composer, the admiral, nor the baseball player, engineer Strauss was responsible for over 500 bridges built in the United States, including this one, and a few others like the Golden Gate Bridge and the George Washington Bridge in New York City.
The bridge is a "heel trunion" bascule bridge, which is a fancy way of saying that it's a draw-bridge that functions in a special way. I could quote the History Link article that explains how the bridge works, and, for an engineering nerd, that would probably be of great interest. Instead, I'll just suggest that if you want to know, you do know how to use Google, don't you? This bridge should not be confused with the Young Street Bridge which also crosses the Wishkah River and which today is famous because Kurt Cobain, founder of the band Nirvana, supposedly lived under it for a while. Cobain was born in Aberdeen, and his hometown has created a park in his honor. I didn't see either the Young St Bridge nor the memorial park. What I did see was this, to me, fascinating view of boats lined up along the west bank of the Wishkah.
The Wishkah River flows south across Grays Harbor County for approximately 40 miles before emptying into the Chehalis and thus Grays Harbor itself in Aberdeen. The name of the river is how "white" people heard the Chehalis people say Hwish-kahl which means "stinking water." I can't say that the water was particular odiferous, but I did like the view above. Just west of the Wishkah Bridge, U.S. Highway 12 comes to an end. Of course, if you're driving west to east, the Highway starts in Aberdeen. I've driven most of U.S. 12 in Washington, all of it in Idaho, all of it in Montana, and a small portion of it in North Dakota. The highway continues on eastward, passing through Chicago, to its eastern terminus in Detroit, Michigan. From Aberdeen on, I drove on U.S. Highway 101 which largely circles the Olympic Peninsula in Washington State. The Highway is designated the Pacific Coast Scenic Byway, but frankly, I found it hard to see the forest (The Olympic National Forest to be sure) for all the trees that line the road mile after mile.
To my mind, it would make sense to call this the Olympic Scenic Byway. After all, it follows the western and northern coasts of the Olympic Peninsula, passing through both the Olympic National Forest and Olympic National Park, but unfortunately, that name was taken. Olympic Scenic Byway is in New York State. Go figure. Unlike Highway 12, I had no difficulty whatsoever getting out of the car, standing in the middle of the highway, and taking numerous photographs, all of which look just like the one above.
By the time I got to Lake Quinault in northwestern Grays Harbor County, the heavy cloud cover and persistent mist had turned to rain, and my photographs bear witness to my lack of enthusiasm for being out in the rain. After a brief stop to photograph the scenic exterior of the Lake Quinault Lodge, I got back in the car, back on US 101, and headed north and west into Jefferson County.
The Lake Quinault Lodge