Forks, Washington is the setting for Stephanie Meyer’s Twlight series. While I’m not a Twlight ‘fan’, I appreciate it any time an author sparks a reading frenzy as she has. And today, we drove through Forks (on the way to somewhere else, but we decided we had to stop). We went to the visitor center and chatted with the proprieters who reported that 73,000 people passed through their doors in 2010. We were the only ones today.
Forks is a town of 3000 people. The visitor center employee, who was very nice and knowledgable, said that 95% percent of the citizens of Forks were supportive of their role in the Twilight series and had embraced the tourists and the experience. (She has a bumper sticker which says ‘Team Jacob’. He has my vote too 🙂
Her parting comment was how wonderful it was to be part of a ‘modern day Romeo and Juliet’. I suppose that’s true if you consider that in both stories, the hero and heroine end up dead. Otherwise . . . hmm, maybe not.
That said, the real reason to visit the Olympic Penninsula is not to see Forks, but for this:
The picture of the frosty trees is just lovely. Regardless of what one thinks about these books (I actually am a fan–I know, eye roll), it is fun to visit the setting of a well known novel. Travel becomes more of an experience when you have a story in your head while you’re there. That’s one of the reasons that I love hist fic.
You can be a fan! So many people love the books. I feel the same way with historical fiction. There’s nothing like walking where your favorite characters have tread.
If I’m not mistaken that is Crescent Lake you took a photo of. Beautiful out there isn’t it? Hope you went off the highway to see the rain forest in the National Park.
It is Crescent Lake. If you put your mouse over the picture, it has a label . . . We went to the Hoh rainforest, which was spectacular. Earlier we’d been up to the Lake Quinault trails in the Olympic National Forest. Many years ago when we had a Toyota Landcruiser, we camped at Staircase and hiked. It’s just amazing to think this forest is muc as it was 5000 years ago. There are very few places left on the planet you can say that about. And so quiet, which is why coming in January is so great.