I’m a total book nerd and “Twilight” fan, so when I was traveling within a few hours drive of Forks, Washington, I made a detour to visit.
I love going to places my favorite authors have lived or written about and this was a spot I’d been thinking of since I first read Twilight many, many years ago.
When I first read Twilight in 2007, I knew nothing about Washington, but by the end of the series, I was eager to see the place with my own eyes. Could there really be a place where moss-covered trees were taller than your eye could see, the forest was so dense it was black inside, and the beaches are filled with massive rocks and old trees? And did it really rain all the time?
Washington’s Olympic Peninsula
So, over 10 years after reading the books, I finally made my way to the Olympic Peninsula to find out.
I stayed in Washington for about three weeks, and I learned that much the author Stephanie Meyer portrayed in the books about the weather and the general landscape was accurate. The trees did grow taller here. Moss covered everything. Like the main character, Bella, said, “It’s so green.”
Port Angeles
I drove from Tacoma into the Olympic Peninsula and through Port Angeles. The town, depicted in the books as a big city, was small and touristy, but it looked much like my it did in my imagination. Lots of little trinket shops and crab shacks lined the port. It was industrial and also had a small-town vibe, though it was much smaller than I thought it would be. Along with the road, the towns I passed were so small I didn’t realize I was one until it was gone.
Road to Forks
There is a road from Port Angeles to Forks, Washington, that cuts through the woods, and I took it. I imagine it as the road Edward took after rescuing Bella from the street thugs on the docks.
There was an almost unreal beauty in the surrounding trees, lakes and rivers along the road. Massive, moss-covered trees and ferns like feathers line the narrow highway. Rock outcroppings and blue lakes pepper the winding road while the fragrance of wildflowers fills the air.
Mount Olympus, at 7,980 feet, is the tallest of the Olympic Mountains, and it is covered in trees and half hidden by fog. As I navigate around the mountain, I passed many trucks carrying logs. The Olympic Penisula has a long history of logging as depicted on the Forks welcome sign.
Logging in the Olympic Pennisula
Because of the logging industry here, many patches of the forest are completely cut down. The only thing remaining is stumps and stacks of dried branches. Piles of denuded pine trees stacked 50 feet high along the road fill the space waiting for transport to the lumber mills. Still, there is a lot of forest left—trees upon trees upon trees.
The National Park Service clear cuts large sections of the forest through the Pacific region as part of their fire prevention plan and for profit. There’s debate about whether clear-cutting – a form of forest management that cuts down all mature trees to let young seedlings grow and stop the spread of fires – is beneficial.
But, where the forest still stands, it is incredible. The sky was nothing more than a line between the pine trees. I passed lavender and flower farms, coffee shacks, and little businesses with none of the flash and shiny newness of big box stores. No, these were small, independently owned and well used.
Forks, Washington
Just like in the movie, there’s a big sign on the sign of the road letting you know, “The City of Forks Welcome’s You.”
There is a main road with a few small businesses going through the town, only a few short miles. Most of it is closed or abandoned, and what’s left seems like something you’d settle for because there’s nothing else for many miles. What it lacks in grandeur, it makes up for in its location on the outskirts of Olympic National Park.
The Chamber of Commerce offers a map online so fans like me can find the places depicted in the movies, and they even made up a few (the houses) to give you a sense of where things would have been had the story taken place in Forks, Washington. So, I followed the map.
Outfitters, School and Bella’s House
The map shows the Forks Outfitters as the site of Newton’s Olympic Outfitters, where Bella worked. There were several RVs parked in the lot camping for the night outside of the national park.
Not far away is the Forks High School, made up of many buildings and lining the edge of the Olympic Forest.
Much of the movie was filmed in Oregon, where the movie houses were filmed, but the chamber has designated homes on its map to depict them. You can drive by the “Swan house” sub-division where Bella lived with her dad, Charlie.
The Forks “Cullen house” was also in Oregon, but they’ve designated one on the outskirts of town to stand in for the general location.
Aside from about a dozen fans hanging outside a creative art center where there is a Twilight display, there was little about Twilight in the town.
La Push
I drove the road down to La Push the way that Bella took when she’d go to the Quileute reservation. Wildflowers grow along the side of the road, and the trees are so dense after just a few feet into the forest, the light is impenetrable. It is a truly wild place with more shades of green than I knew existed.
I knew I was on the reservation when I passed a sign that read, “No Vampires Beyond This Point. Treaty Line.” Other than the sign, there are two small stores, but nothing to commemorate or acknowledge Twilight.
First Beach
Down the road, at the end of the Peninsula, there’s First Beach/La Push beach. This is where the characters spent time walking together in the books (many movie scenes were filmed in Vancouver). This place was like the movie, with big rocks along the shoreline and felled trees creating the perfect benches.
It was cold and windy and many people were walking along the shoreline, looking in the tide pools for sea creatures and sitting on the big, weathered logs.
As a writer, I enjoyed seeing what parts of the landscape the author kept in her story and what she left out. She made the place more beautiful with her words and brought it to life for those who’d never been there. As a reader, it was a joy to step into the footsteps of my favorite characters and reimagine the story while in the actual place. I’m so glad it’s real and gave me another way to experience a story I loved.
Read other stories about Washington here.
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