The tour crosses the Skokomish River delta, a thinly wooded and swamp tideland. The highway swings across the Skokomish River, and around the upper end of Hood Canal, which bends northeast at this point. Placid tides ebb and flow over the flats below the steeply pitched foothills; beyond, the snow-crests of the Olympic range may be glimpsed occasionally. The panoramas of water, sandy beaches, massed banks of pink rhododendrons, and...

Mile: 1

Started in 1858 with the establishment of the Wilson and Anderson trading post. In the same year the former Rush House, a two-story building with a bar and six bedrooms, was built. Guests were required to furnish their own bedding, and a cow’s horn was used to summon them to eat. Anderson shortly sold his interest to F. C. Purdy, and a few years later John McReavy, a lumberman, assumed...

Points of Interest

Captain Warren Gove House

John McReavy House

Mile: 5

The tour hugs the shoreline along which are summer homes, interspersed with occasional taverns and roadhouses. Moored at small wharves or plying the smooth waters are boats of sportsmen and pleasure seekers. An occasional shrimp boat, the arms of its drags extended, cruises off shore. Hood Canal is a salt water channel that extends southwest from the vicinity of Port Ludlow in Jefferson County between Kitsap and Mason counties to...

Mile: 6

The wheel displays the ingenuity of early pioneers to the Hood Canal area. In 1917 by E.J. and Ethel Dalby purchased an eight-acre parcel of land which had a stream with sufficient water volume and current within its bounds. In 1922, Edwin Justus Dalby with the assistance of his father, William Owen Dalby, built a wooden cultivator wheel to provide electricity for his home. It was one of the first...

Mile: 7

Situated on the shoreline of Hood Canal, the park features one of the warmest saltwater beaches in Washington state. This is because Hood Canal is one of the warmest saltwater bodies in Puget Sound. The name of the park derives from the Twana tribes, better known as the Skokomish, who made their home in the area. In 1922, the state leased 30 acres to be used as a state park,...

Mile: 12

Tour clings to the graveled east shore of Hood Canal. Evergreen trees line the road; huckleberry bushes, salal, and Oregon grapes form a dense green undergrowth. On the sandy flats just above the tide line marsh grass grows in Lynch Cove, and here thousands of migratory fowl find food and shelter during winter months. The cove was named by Cmdr. Charles Wilkes in 1841 for Lieut. William Francis Lynch of...

Mile: 19

Formerly called Clifton, it was a supply point for summer colonists and for fishing and hunting trips in season. It was also the center of dairy farms and poultry ranches. The highway strikes overland east of Belfair through stands of alder and second-growth timber. Here and there, a gnarled tree left by loggers rises over the tops of the second growth. The town was platted as Clifton in 1888. When...

Mile: 26

Named for Samuel and Mary Gorst, who settled there in 1897, and purchased a large amount of land from the Port Blakely Mill Company. Other names which have been used are Gorst Creek, Head of the Bay, and Butler. Gorst Creek flows through Gorst to the head of Sinclair Inlet.

Mile: 34

The first settlers hoped to establish a church in the 1880s and gave the Biblical name of "House of God," to their church and the community that grew up around it.

The tour continues southward through rolling, sparsely settled country, once covered by a heavy forest. Small gardens, poultry ranches, and dairy farms alternate with stands of second-growth timber and cutover land. Established in the 1890s by the Co-operative Brotherhood, it was named Circle City, with buildings laid out on the periphery of a circle. When the colony failed in 1908, the present name was adopted for a pioneer settler who...

A scattering of buildings on the site of an old Native American camping ground. By the 1940s, the culture of Japanese oysters along the sand bars and in the shallows of the lagoon had been developed. General James M. Ashton filed a plat for the town of Purdy on March 1, 1885. A post office was established there on January 26, 1885. Ernest R. Purdy, a Tacoma grocer, furnished lumber...

The original 1940 mile-long suspension bridge, third longest suspension bridge in the world, collapsed in a windstorm four months after it was completed, earning it the name, “Galloping Gertie.” A replacement bridge was completed in 1950. Currently, a new bridge is being built parallel to the existing 1950 bridge to expand traffic capacity. The 1950 bridge will accommodate traffic traveling westbound while the new bridge will carry eastbound traffic.