Friday morning I had to make a decision on whether to return to Port Angeles and go in the Hurricane Ridge entrance of Olympic National Park or head directly south on Highway 101 to my next stop in Olympia. I drove around the Port Townsend area one last time and decided to head to Olympia, whose Air Quality number had dropped dramatically from what it had been the past few days.
Of course when I arrived in Olympia the air quality was terrible… I’m learning that wildfire smoke is as fickle as fog. I knew there had been a fire south of Olympic National Park and I drove through the area where several campgrounds and roads were closed. Evidently today the smoke from THAT fire decided to drift southeast towards Olympia. This afternoon the Air Quality number here was back up in the Unhealthy range whereas everywhere else on the Olympic Peninsula was back to normal. Oh well. I went to a movie at the mall when I got to town. Tomorrow I’ll go to the Visitor Center for maps, etc. and may drive down to Mount Saint Helens, which I want to revisit.
In the meantime, I decided to post pictures of the remaining lighthouses in Washington, most of which I will NOT be visiting. The map I have shows 12 privately owned lighthouses (which include a few that I did see) and 14 others. If I had continued clockwise on the mainland here are the publically accessible ones I might have seen (and may still get to):
There is a large peninsula (Kitsap) which sticks out west of Olympia up towards Seattle and at the end of it is the “Point No Point” lighthouse. There is also one with the same name in Maryland.
(Photo credit: lighthousefriends.com)
In Tacoma there is the Brown’s Point lighthouse:
(Photo credit: landmarkhunter.com)
Not very conventional but functional, I suppose.
In Seattle there is the “Swiftsure Lightship” which is actually a boat:
(Photo credit: lighthousefriends.com)
And from another photo I found online it appears to be rather skinny:
(Photo credit: threesheetsnw.com)
On the north side of Seattle is the West Point lighthouse:
(Photo credit & copyright: seattleandsound)
And finally (for lighthouses located on the mainland) Mukilteo lighthouse, in the town of the same name:
(Photo credit: lighthousefriends.com)
The remainder of these are on various islands. Only 4 miles from Port Townsend, on Whidbey Island, is the Admiralty Head lighthouse, a companion to the Point Wilson lighthouse I posted photos of earlier. Together they help guide ships in and out of the Puget Sound from the Strait of Juan de Fuca.
Here is an old photograph which shows the original lighthouse which was a wooden tower on top of a house. Evidently both this one and the one at Point Wilson were originally in a shorter, wooden tower before a taller, more modern tower was constructed.
(Photo credit: lighthousefriends.com)
And the newer one:
(Photo credit: lighthousefriends.com)
Between Seattle and Tacoma, out on Vashon Island, is the Point Robinson lighthouse:
(Photo credit & copyright: Joseph E. Becker, seldomseenphotography)
That is Mount Rainier in the background.
And way up north of Seattle and west of Bellingham are these three:
Lime Kiln lighthouse on San Juan Island:
(Photo credit: lighthousefriends.com)
Turn Point lighthouse on Stuart Island:
(Photo credit: nickseegertphotography)
The “lighthouse” is the taller of the two white things on the left side of the photo.
And finally – the Patos Island lighthouse on, you guessed it, Patos Island.
Here is a photo of it undergoing renovations:
(Photo credit: lighthousefriends.com)
And after the work was completed:
(Photo credit: nealslighthouses.blogspot.com)
I was surprised to learn that Michigan, which borders three of the Great Lakes, has the most lighthouses of any state in the US.
And while some lighthouses still function with their original lens, many have been outfitted with “beacons” which are much smaller and are usually attached to the framework up near where the original lens was located. With GPS technology most ships have much more accurate information on where they are and where they’re going, although lights and beacons are helpful for smaller ships which may not have GPS equipment on board.
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