Forks Washington on the Olympic Peninsula

Wow! You’d expect to find huge t-shirt factories lining the streets out here in the West End of Washington State’s Olympic Peninsula, given the number of Forks and LaPush t-shirts available online. We’re not really sure who’s making these shirts, but we suspect most aren’t actually from around here.

We appreciate all of the attention–and the more the merrier–but there are locally produced Forks, LaPush and Twilight-related products available, including the Forks Chamber of Commerce’s own line of shirts and stickers. Your purchases help support community-minded Chamber activities, including operating this web site and our web cams, staffing our Visitor Information Center in Forks and funding scholarships for graduates of Forks High School and Quileute Tribal School.

But, just for fun, here’s a small sampling of some of the images available on t-shirts and other products out there:

The Olympic Peninsula Community Museum never ceases to amaze us. This colorful photograph of beautiful fall foliage in the Olympics, which is part of the Olympic National Park Flora collection, is just one small example of what you’ll find there. The online museum is organized into fascinating exhibits — each representing a different aspect of our richly diverse West End culture and history. While there are just too many worthwhile exhibits to mention, we particularly enjoyed learning more about the Mountaineers’ 1920 Outing to Mt. Olympus (what hardcores!); Fannie Taylor, Postmistress of Mora; and the Great Forks Fire of 1951. The archived images of Hoh Tribe Baskets and Artifacts also caught our eye. And that’s barely scratching the surface of what’s available at this interesting resource!

Forks and the entire West End of the Olympic Peninsula extend hearty “HAPPY BIRTHDAY” wishes to world-famous mountain-climbing twins Jim and Lou Whittaker, who turned 80 yesterday!! This article in today’s Seattle Post-Intelligencer (written by David Andriesen with photo by Scott Eklund) touches on some of these local heroes’ incredible life achievements. While, in the interest of the family’s privacy, we’re not going to say much, we’re proud to say that Jim and his wife, Diane Roberts, are Olympic Peninsula residents and have ties with Forks and the West End. It would be difficult to imagine anyone, more than Jim and Lou, embodying the true spirit of the Pacific Northwest–fun, adventure, health, appreciation of the outdoors, entrepreneurship, statesmanship, philanthropy, leadership–and so much more. We’re hoping we can keep up with them for the next few decades. Here’s to many, many more!!

We get so many interesting photographs from our friends all over the world that we thought we’d try something new.We’re inviting Twilight fans–and anyone else interested in Forks and the West End–to send us a photo of them wearing a souvenir item, such as a t-shirt, for example, .Just to be clear about this, the “West End” is basically the Forks, LaPush, Clallam Bay, Sekiu and Neah Bay areas of Washington State, USA.From time to time, we’ll put our favorite shots online as a blog post.Extra credit will be given for the most exotic or unusual locations involved.Not only will you be world-famous if we use your shot , but we’ll also send those selected a “promo pack” from Forks, with stickers, brochures, maps and other fun Forks/LaPush stuff.

The Olympic National Park has made several announcements that may be of interest to visitors to the Olympic Peninsula this summer.
First of all, we like the sound of these Fee-Free Weekends at the park. Entrance fees (only) will be waived during the weekends of July 18-19 and August 15-16 this year. The fee is usually $15 per vehicle (or $5 per person on foot, bicycle, motorcycle, etc.). So, that’s one more reason to visit ONP this summer!

TravelingMamas.com–the popular travel blog specializing in places to go for families with children–recently visited Forks, LaPush and the West End. This post from their blog green-lights our area as a great place for families to visit, especially those with “cranky, out-of-sorts teenager(s).” While we’ve got to say that the young ladies and gentlemen we’ve seen visiting with their families seem anything but “surly,” we’ve got a hunch MudslideMama knows from experience what happens during those loooong car rides when Dad starts discussing things like the anthropological history of the area . . . .

Forks continues to be “front and center” in the area of Twilight tourism! Thanks to Paige Dickerson and the Peninsula Daily News for another great article describing this incredible phenomena and its impact on Forks, LaPush and the West End. Despite our popularity, our community continues to wholeheartedly welcome Twilighters, along with all visitors. Come check out what everyone is talking about about! [We're still wondering what the answer is to the question about whether it's safe to camp with the "vampire problem" we have out here . . .]

The 2nd Annual Rainforest Run, a motorcycle rally and music festival based right here in sunny Forks, WA, is happening this weekend, August 14, 15 and 16, 2009! This is our area’s premier motorcycle and music festival, with fun for everyone. This year’s event takes place at the Highway 110 Business Park, a historic local mill recently renovated into a multi-faceted business and community hub. It’s about a mile north of town, just off of Higway 101, right there at LaPush Road. Other changes for this year include an expanded musical line-up, with hot bands playing all weekend long! Get all of the details, including registration information, at the event web site. Whether you and your friends or family roll in on Harleys, Vespas, or even in a mini-van, you’re going to enjoy being part of the Rainforest Run!

This video/slide-show, created by a recent visitor from Kansas, does an outstanding job of highlighting the places to see and things to do in our area when you visit. We’re glad you had so much fun out here in Forks, LaPush and the West End. Thanks for the well-done video, Kimi!