Stop by the downtown visitors center for a walking-tour brochure that leads you through the historical sights of Port Angeles. The city’s Waterfront Trail is a delightful six-mile paved path that follows the downtown shoreline and continues out to the Coast Guard base on Ediz Hook—a 3.5-mile-long natural sand spit protecting the Northwest’s deepest harbor.

Along the way you’re treated to views across to Vancouver Island and back toward town with the snowcapped Olympics in the background. Watch as freighters are guided in, or take out your own boat for fishing or sightseeing. Picnicking and beachcombing are also popular activities.

The U.S. Coast Guard Air Station occupies the far end of the spit and has the cutter Active docked at the city pier when it isn’t out on rescue missions or drug searches. Located a short distance from the Coast Guard base, the Puget Sound Pilots Association assigns a pilot to each commercial ship passing this point to steer it on its way through Puget Sound.

Another place offering fine vistas across to Vancouver Island is from the top of the Laurel Street stairs, two blocks uphill from the Coho ferry dock.