The Quimper Peninsula is a peninsula on a peninsula: the northeastern bit of the Olympic Peninsula in Washington State, across Puget Sound from Whidby Island. To the north is the Strait of Juan de Fuca, to the east and south is Port Townsend Bay and to the west is Discovery Bay.

The Quimper Peninsula juts to the northeast, like the thumb of a left hand mitten. Port Townsend's main downtown road runs from southwest to northeast. The Wilson Lighthouse is at the tip, in Fort Worden, and yes, An Officer and a Gentleman was filmed at the Fort. From the beaches at Fort Worden you can look north at Vancouver Island, northeast to Mount Baker, west to Mount Glacier and Mount Adams, southeast at Mount Tahoma and look across water at Mount Olympus and Mount Constance in the Olympic Mountains. I am from the east coast. On the west coast the water ought to be west. But it isn't in Port Townsend and at first I would get disoriented, wondering which mountains I was looking at.

It is named after Peruvian born Spanish Captain Manuel Quimper, who charted the north and south coasts of the Strait of Juan de Fuca in 1790. Native American tribes include the Chimakum and the S'klallam, Port Gamble and Jamestown. The Kai Tai lagoon is the site of an old portage, to avoid the strong tides of Admiralty Inlet.

The Quimper Peninsula is the most populated part of Jefferson County, Washington, with Port Townsend, Port Hadlock, Irondale, Chimacum and Port Ludlow. Jefferson County has under 30,000 residents as of the 2010 census, but got 30,000 visitors for the Wooden Boat Festival. Clallam County to the north and Kitsap County to the south both have larger populations. Jefferson County is mostly Olympic National Park. There is no road to drive across the county: you have to drive through Clallam or Kitsap to get to the western part of the county. You could hike it but it is still wild, glaciered and you must respect the weather because wet cold is very dangerous....


Jefferson County: http://www.co.jefferson.wa.us/commdevelopment/vision.htm
Jamestown S'klallam: http://www.jamestowntribe.org/
Fort Worden: http://fortworden.org/
Port Gamble S'klallam: https://www.pgst.nsn.us/
Wooden Boat Festival: http://nwmaritime.org/events/wooden-boat-festival/
Kai Tai Lagoon: http://www.ptguide.com/recreation-activities/birding
Olympic National Park: http://www.nps.gov/olym/index.htm

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