The rain shadow · 25 minutes from the estate
Sequim & the Dungeness Valley
Sequim sits in the Olympics’ rain shadow: the mountains wring out the weather before it arrives, locals talk about the “blue hole” that opens overhead, and the valley collects roughly seventeen inches of rain a year to Seattle’s nearly forty. Twenty-five minutes east of the estate, it’s the bright-sky option when the forecast argues — lavender in the fields, a lighthouse far out on the sand, and a valley that still moves at farm speed.
- Drive
- About 25 minutes
- Refuge
- $3 per family — and no dogs
- Lavender
- Peak bloom in mid-July
- The spit
- Up to 11 miles round trip — go at low tide
The spit and its lighthouse
Dungeness Spit runs five and a half miles into the Strait — one of the longest natural sand spits in the world, and still growing — with the New Dungeness Lighthouse standing near its end, kept year-round by volunteer keepers who move in a week at a time.
The walk is the event: down the bluff trail, then out along the water line, eleven miles round trip if you go all the way. Go on a falling tide — high water pushes you up into the driftwood — and allow a good five hours with nothing but sea, birds, and the mountains at your back. The keepers give free tours and will send you up the tower’s 74 steps.
The refuge asks $3 per family or group at the trailhead, and — a note for traveling dogs — allows no pets past it.
Lavender country
- Purple Haze Lavender — the classic: u-pick rows and a summer ice-cream stand at the farm from May through October, plus a downtown Sequim shop open year-round.
- B&B Family Farm — free to wander daily through summer, with free guided tours on the half hour; the one we send first-timers to.
- Graysmarsh Farm — u-pick berries from strawberries through blackberries, with lavender rows besides.
- The Sequim Lavender Festival takes over the third weekend of July — a dozen farms, free admission, and the valley’s biggest crowds; lovely, but book nothing else that day.
Slow stops in the valley
- Railroad Bridge Park — a 1915 railway trestle over the Dungeness River, now a stretch of the Olympic Discovery Trail, with the Dungeness River Nature Center at its foot.
- Dungeness Valley Creamery — a raw-milk Jersey dairy’s farm store, twenty years running.
- John Wayne Marina — the actor moored his yacht Wild Goose in Sequim Bay and liked it enough that his family gave the land; the Dockside Grill above the slips does a proper waterfront dinner, Wednesday through Sunday.
- Wind Rose Cellars — downtown Sequim’s tasting room, pouring its own reds most afternoons, Tuesday through Saturday.
About the Game Farm
Olympic Game Farm is Sequim’s most famous stop: a drive-through field of Kodiak bears, bison, and elk, where the bears really do wave and the only food you may offer is the farm’s own vet-approved bread, sold at the gate. About $25 a person, an hour gate to gate, mornings best — children tend to remember it for years.
In fairness: it’s an old-fashioned operation that animal-welfare groups have scrutinized over the years, and some families will prefer their wildlife wild — on the spit, or in the park. We mention it because you’ll hear about it either way.