A busy, industrial city at the center of the northern Olympic Peninsula, Port Angeles (pop. 18,397) makes a handy base for visiting the nearby wilderness of Olympic National Park. The town is slowly but surely recovering from its traditional dependence on logging, and the waterfront, which once hummed to the sound of lumber and pulp mills, is now bustling with tourists wandering along a six-mile walking trail and enjoying the sealife (sea slugs, eels, starfish, and octopuses) on display at the small but enjoyable Marine Life Center (daily; $2.50), on the centrally located City Pier.
Malls, gas stations, and fast-food franchises line the US-101 frontage through town, but life in Port Angeles, for locals and visitors alike, centers on the attractive downtown area, two blocks inland from the waterfront around Lincoln Avenue and 1st Street. Here cafés like First Street Haven (360/457-0352), at 107 E. 1st Street, offer good, inexpensive soup-and-salad lunches and dinners, and amiable bars and pubs like Peaks, around the corner on Lincoln Avenue, draw bikers, hikers, and loggers with their pub-grub and good beers. Across from Peaks, occupying a terra-cotta building that used to be a fire station, Bonny’s Bakery (360/457-3585) serves coffees and pastries on a (sometimes) sunny front patio at 215 S. Lincoln Avenue. If you’re waiting for a ferry, or are fresh off of one, a number of places to eat and drink surround the ferry terminal, including the attractive Landings Restaurant (360/457-6768), at 115 E. Railroad Avenue, with great fish-and-chips.
Places to stay in Port Angeles vary. You’ll find highway motels, including the Quality Inn Uptown ($80–160; 360/457-9434), at 101 E. 2nd Street, and the Red Lion ($90–150; 360/452-9215), on the water at the foot of Lincoln Street. There are also many characterful B&Bs; for details of these, and for more general information, phone the North Olympic Peninsula Visitors and Convention Bureau at 800/942-4042, or stop by the Port Angeles tourist office (360/452-2363)at the ferry terminal, 121 E. Railroad Avenue.
