Look carefully. Cannot you inform that Hood Canal is actually a fjord?
Forgive Hood Canal its identify; it’s not superb, because it suggests a artifical passageway (and honors a Brit who fought in opposition to the US within the Revolutionary Conflict). The lengthy, slender finger separating the Kitsap and Olympic Peninsulas is known as a fjord carved by glaciers, crossable solely by the Hood Canal Bridge at its very north finish. Due to a highway that traces the waterfront on its western edge, the waterway makes up one of the vital scenic drives of Puget Sound, dotted with outside actions and impartial companies brimming with character.
What to Eat
No geoduck at Geoduck Restaurant and Lounge, however the sandwiches do come on recent bread.
Geoduck Restaurant and Lounge
Brinnon
There’s no geoduck on the menu and a light-weight fixture over the bar is manufactured from Smirnoff bottles, so don’t count on something fancy served below a show of taxidermy. However the again patio opens up proper to the waterfront, and the ethereal fresh-made bread that sandwiches grilled oysters, bacon, cheese, and veggies is on level. The tavern feels prefer it sprouted straight from the moss and brine of the Hood Canal shore, as native because the elk whose heads ended up on the wall.
Quilbilly’s Restaurant and Faucet Room
Quilcene
Regardless of promoting its 12 beer and cider handles proper within the identify, most of this woodsy eatery screams household pleasant, from the Little Free Library on the porch to the number of milkshake flavors. Breakfast leans towards the decadent, like french toast drowned in cinnamon roll sauce, however the kitchen slings pizzas and burgers with oven-baked fries for a lot of the day.
Hama Hama Oyster Saloon
Lilliwaup
An out of doors, shop-side snack joint so charming it made our listing of one of the best eating places in Washington. The farm’s personal you-shuck (cheaper) or on-the-shell oysters are served in quaint A-frame shelters and round a bar, with crab muffins and chowder as extra filling follow-ups.
The Hook and Fork. Not pictured? The connected marketplace for native items and connoisseur foodstuffs.
The Hook and Fork
Union
Although the identify refers to a fish hook on this seafood-heavy area, it may additionally consult with how this a part of Hood Canal makes a pointy flip north (fairly like a fish hook, come to consider it). Its geography tends to isolate Union from the vacationers barreling north or south between Port Townsend and Olympia, making this open-air, counter-service eatery a relaxed place to dine on the waterfront. The connected market sells native items and connoisseur foodstuffs.
Gear Head Deli
Quilcene
The pulled pork and brisket promote out quick at this barbecue-forward sandwich store, however the remainder of the choices are nonetheless definitely worth the cease. Most dishes are named for the automobiles that when used this constructing as a filling station, and the partitions are peppered with native notices and information alerts; it could be excellent for vacationers passing by on their strategy to a picnic, nevertheless it’s clearly a locals’ joint.
El Puerto de Angeles
Hoodsport
The enchiladas and burritos are simple—and welcome in a small city with out many eating places. Given the proximity to the water, it’s no shock {that a} crab quesadilla and prawn fajitas sneak onto the menu, and the wraparound again porch is ideally located for summer season margaritas proper on the canal. Hold a watch out for harbor seals popping their heads out of the water to scope your order.
What to Do
Parks and Seashores
Regardless of the near-endless shoreline of the 68-mile-long Hood Canal, public entry spots will be laborious to seek out. Search for the state parks wedged between the freeway and the waterline once in a while, like Dosewallips, Twanoh, and Potlatch, or Scenic Seashore or Kitsap Memorial on the japanese shore. The shores listed here are strewn with sharp rocks and even sharper shell items, so it’s a shoes-on form of expertise; plan for waterfront picnics and nature viewing, not sandcastles.
Mount Walker Viewpoint
Brinnon
With a highway that corkscrews across the peak to deliver drivers to the highest, Mount Walker is without doubt one of the most accessible summits on the Olympic Peninsula; there’s additionally a path for hikers. Two viewpoints open up to broad views of Hood Canal and the distant Cascades, and native vegetation and 100-year-old timber line the highway itself. The route closes in winter, often reopening in early spring.
Why simply go to Hood Canal when you possibly can actually go in it with YSS Dive?
Scuba Diving
Hoodsport
There’s greater than an oyster dinner hiding below the floor of Hood Canal. Dive spots, many accessible from the shore, embrace shipwrecks, sea flora, and many huge Pacific octopuses. The YSS Dive store serves as rental supply and jump-off level; it additionally does boat dives and courses. Winter would be the tourism offseason above the floor, however that’s when the visibility is at its greatest underwater.
Shellfishing
Although there are many locations to pattern the bounty of Hood Canal in eating places, there are oysters, clams, and mussels for the taking up the seashores themselves. The state controls harvest home windows at every public seaside, and a license is required. Hood Canal Adventures even rents tools for winter crab season.
Yelvik Common Retailer
Brinnon
Nobody would mistake this warehouse-looking edifice for a stylish present store; inside, the lengthy aisles are full of shelf-stable groceries and rural dwelling provides, plus a smattering of printed T-shirts. Two racks of family-made leather-based belts give the entryway a nice aroma; they’re high-quality equipment, not like what you’d discover at Goal.
Hood Canal is wealthy with cascading water. Living proof: Rocky Brook Falls, close to Brinnon.
Waterfalls
While you get as a lot rainfall because the Olympic Peninsula, it has to get downhill to Hood Canal in some way. That makes for lots of waterfalls hidden within the peninsula’s japanese slopes, lots of that are accessible by quick hikes and drives. The Pacific Coast Scenic Waterfall Path notes a number of the hottest cascades.
Olympic Nationwide Park Staircase
Although Hurricane Ridge up north and the ocean seashores out west get a lot of the consideration, Olympic Nationwide Park does stretch east towards Hood Canal. Close to Lake Cushman, the Staircase space has a big campground and several other mountain climbing trails alongside the Skokomish River, although the highway does generally shut in winter. Count on thick forests full of old-growth Douglas fir.
The place to Keep
Alderbrook Resort is a vacation spot unto itself.
Alderbrook Resort
Union
An outlier, and never simply because it’s on Hood Canal’s much less traveled finish. The resort provides by far the sleekest lodging within the space, that includes cottages and suites, some with balconies and window seats. The spa, foyer with a large fire, restaurant, and lounge all make it very best for stormy season, although in heat months there are kayak and motorboat leases out again.
Mike’s Seashore Resort
Lilliwaup
With tiny cabins lining the waterfront, Mike’s excels on the quaint form of trip, one the place there’s no restaurant within the foyer—or actually a foyer in any respect. The rooms are lately up to date and have kitchenettes, however the huge draw is the scuba diving, boating, or simply beachcombing proper exterior. Glamping tents throughout the freeway ship extra of a woodsy expertise.
Lake Cushman will get busy in the summertime, however makes for a quiet offseason retreat.
Lake Cushman
Although the inland lake has no lodges, the shores are filled with trip rental homes. With Olympic peaks towering simply behind, it’s a swimming idyll in the summertime however a quieter retreat within the offseason. Discover public lake entry and tenting at Skokomish Park. A golf course close by provides a year-round driving vary and a seasonal 9 holes among the many timber.
Kitsap Memorial State Park
Poulsbo
Whereas a lot of the japanese facet of Hood Canal is residential, this park exterior of Poulsbo has 4 rentable cabins open year-round. Located amongst tall timber, they’re a brief stroll from a canal view from a bluff and a path all the way down to the seaside.
