Heading south on US-101 from Lake Quinault, leaving the national park, it's about forty hilly miles through clear-cut timber land to industrial ABERDEEN . Once a major seaport, Aberdeen has little claim to fame nowadays, except as the hometown of Nirvana. After Kurt Cobain's suicide some spoke of erecting a statue of him in the waterfront park, but the idea was rejected as tasteless.

At Aberdeen there's a choice of routes: US-12/Hwy-8 lead east towards Olympia, while Hwy-101 pushes on south over the hills, threading along the shore of muddy Willapa Bay to the base of the Long Beach Peninsula . The peninsula is known for a handful of popular spots, including OYSTERVILLE , a forested collection of rusting old buildings near the peninsula's tip; the main draw, Oysterville Sea Farms (tel 360/665-6585), is recognizable by its bayside piles of discarded shells and worth a visit for its freshly packaged oysters ($4 a dozen).

Down at the far southwestern corner of Washington, near the mouth of the Columbia River, the last points of interest are within Fort Canby State Park ( ). The site includes the evocative North Head Lighthouse (summer daily 11am-3pm; $1), now over a century old, and the informative historical displays of the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center (daily 10am-4pm; free), which tell all about the historical hazards of navigating the Columbia River. Luckily, you'll be spared any such difficulty as you travel south on Hwy-101 over the 1966 span of the Astoria Bridge , crossing the state boundary into Oregon.

Aberdeen and further south

• Aberdeen and further south

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