Welcome to the Twilight Zone

Unless you have been living under a rock, you have probably heard of the Twilight series of books. To give you a brief synopsis, 17 year old Bella Swan moves from Phoenix, AZ to Forks, WA and finds her life in danger when she falls in love with a vampire. Just a ferry and short car ride gets us to Forks and the surrounding area.

The city of Forks has embraced the Twilight phenomenon. There are websites dedicated to points of interest in the town. The most notable site is the red 1953 Chevy truck Bella drove in the film. The truck below is not the actual truck from the film.

A private home and a bed and breakfast serve as the official residences of the Swan's and Cullen's.



Esme even leaves a daily note on the porch of there house. Wonder if that means they are vacationing in Alaska?

The Dazzled by Twilight store located both in Forks and Port Angeles carry everything Twilight you could hope to purchase from clothing to memorabilia to books to you name it. The inside of the store is set up like you are in the Forrest. Its actually quite cool.


There are a few places around town you can see little Twilight items. Dr. Cullen seems to pop up everywhere. I think its fun the town has a sense of humor.


Forks isn't all about Twilight though. The town was started as a timber town as evidenced by its timber museum. At the visitors center there is a huge nine foot in diameter tree trunk with a hole in the center big enough for a teenager to crawl through.


Just a short drive down the highway you arrive at the Hoh Rain Forest. This area is a protected National Park and include many species of tree and animals including bear, elk, deer, owl, frogs, etc.


From here we went to La Push which is located on the Pacific Ocean and home of the Quileute Native American Tribe. The town of La Push feature prominently in Stephanie Meyer's series.

The beach, like most Washington beaches, was pretty rocky with a lot of trees and drift wood piled up on the sand. The dogs had a great time running around. It was pretty windy as well.

The hubs and the dog on the sand at First Beach in La Push right on the ocean.

Port Angeles is a little seaside town located across the Straight of Juan de Fuca from Victoria BC. A little known fact about Port Angeles, its the birthplace of John Elway, former quarterback for the Denver Broncos.

The town is pretty small. We stopped at the Twilight hot spot, Bella Italia for a photo. I neglected to get a photo of the book store in Port Angeles.

We stopped in Port Townsend and drove through Fort Warden state park. This is where the film An Officer and a Gentleman was partially made.

Finally as we headed towards the Kingston ferry we stopped in Port Gamble. The township really only consists of a few homes and a group of buildings along the main road off the highway. They have a tea house, a Masonic lodge, antique shops, a book store and post office/general store. Its a quaint little town to stop off at or drive through.


The Walker-Ames house facing the water is a really great example of Victorian architecture and boasts the Washington state champion Camperdown Elm.

In 1640 the Earl of Camperdown grafted a Camperdown branch to a Scotch Elm tree. This tree is a mutant and cannot self produce. Every Camperdown Elm tree in the world is part of the original and must be grafted to a Scotch Elm tree to be started. This one is the State Champion in Washington State located in Port Gamble.

You are never far away from coffee.....