From ugly to beautiful: Forks and Quinault

Sequim to Forks was a long day that almost ended in a panic...We missed the Olympic Discovery Trail, added a few miles trying to find it and then endedg up on busy US 101. There were some significant hills coming out of Port Angeles, we loved Crescent Lake but a couple miles into the south route there was construction which delayed us and we had to do 10 miles on loose gravel, at the end of it, there was a nasty headwind all the way to Forks, the town of the Twilight books and movies (we had never heard of it) but many tourists, especially young teenage girls are running all over town taking pictures of buildings and signs, and all the decent motels were booked on a Thursday night. We found one at the end of town that was one of the worst looking places we stayed touring the US, but at least was a warm bed and shower.
Today we started early (and I made reservations in advance in beautiful Quinault Lake), we rode southwest to Olympic National Park and rain forest near the beach, it was beautiful and cold and foggy. The last 25 miles coming to Quinault were hard, we were tired, hot and we were in the Quinalt Indian Reservation so there were no services. It was worth the effort to come to this beautiful spot, and our room's window looks directly out over the lake.