What You Need to Know About a Trip to Port Angeles

Population: 20,146
Location: Northern Olympic Peninsula
Drive Time from Seattle: 2 hours 20 Minutes
Average High Temperature: in October 58°
Average Low Temperature: in October 43°

Calling Card

Timed to coincide with Canada’s Thanksgiving—it’s just across the Strait of Juan de Fuca—the Dungeness Crab Festival (Oct 9–11) salutes the crustacean named for nearby Dungeness, site of the crab’s first commercial fishery. The food crawls onto a few local menus year-round, but crab cakes at old-school Dupuis are paired with their signature tart pineapple-cranberry compote, while the waterfront Fish and Crab Shack in town (summer only) serves full crab in the shell.

Historical Record

Here, where the forests of the Olympics tumble down to the sea, Port Angeles was once home to the world’s largest sawmill. Like Seattle, the city got a physical lift in the early twentieth century, so today the Underground Heritage Tour explores basements and tunnels from its early history, though the aboveground murals are most memorable.

New Directions

Tickle an anemone at charming Feiro Marine Life Center, which has been teaching through touch tanks for more than 45 years. In 2028 it will grow into the Olympic Coast Exploration Center nearby as part of a complex that includes the new Field Arts and Events Hall.

In Tents

Dark canvas walls cradle the beds at the new Menizei, where a trio of glamping sites hides in the forested bluffs above the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Each has its own fully indoor bathroom, though, with a private sauna whose windows open to the same view.

Kiwi Flavor

Is the Olympic Peninsula our own little New Zealand? That far-off country pops up in little ways across PA, like in Mighty Pine Brewing’s hazy IPA made from all New Zealand hops. At the downtown ice cream shop Welly’s Real Fruit Ice Cream, a special machine blends ice cream with berries in the country’s signature method. 

The Everything Store

If you can’t find it for sale at the 69-year-old, two-story Swain’s General Store, perhaps you don’t really need it. Woven into almost 40,000 square feet of home-supply aisles is a sense of small-town self-reliance; they still sell, as originally advertised, “tents, trinkets, tools, tackle, and trousers.”

High Dive

Every Wednesday, downtown’s Bar N9ne discounts the dive bar’s signature wings, best served with the housemade Inferno and Tears of Joy sauces. A small stage hosts frequent funk, folk, and comedy performances.

Cure for Boredom

The water is cold, but the stoke is high, and the action photos on the wall of Evergreen Surf Shop prove that there are waves to catch on local shores. Though North By Northwest Surf Co. also sells and rents surfboards, they’re equal opportunity “sideways sliding” enthusiasts who cover skateboard and snowboard needs too. 

Off the Hook

The spindly, three-mile Ediz Hook dangles into the Strait to protect the Port Angeles Harbor, but sightseers can drive almost to the end to spot ferries arriving from Vancouver Island, shorebirds, and, occasionally, sea glass. From here, a camera can capture both downtown and the Olympic peaks behind it.

Published in the The Innovation Issue issue of Seattle Met.