Subject: Re: Taking a trip to Twin Peaks
From: larryy@Apple.COM (Larry Yaeger)
Date: 1991-08-21, 19:55
Newsgroups: alt.tv.twin-peaks

A couple of people have asked about information on making the pilgrimage to
Twin Peaks.  I'd originally intended to write up a kind of personal travelogue
of the adventures of my wife and I on our visit there, but instead, I'll try
to just give you the info that'll let you see as much as possible...

First off, if you have the time (an extra half-day to full-day depending upon
your origin point and travel plans), it's well worth visiting the Kiana Lodge
near Poulsbo, WA as well.  This is about 2 hours from Snoqualmie, on the
other side of Seattle.  This is the place that was used for interiors of
the Great Northern, especially the lobby, and for the Packard/Martell home.
The large indian drawings are right there on the wood walls.  There's a
deer head or two that are recognizably placed.  And the rear of the main
building, that is adjacent to the water, is easily recognizable as the
Packard/Martell home.  The very large hunk of wood outside their home,
where Pete discovered Laura's body, is also very obvious.

The Kiana Lodge is not a hotel, but a place for meetings and such, so you
cannot plan on staying there.  There are lodgings nearby (the Poulsbo Chamber
of Commerce can direct you to some), but you can also visit the Lodge midday,
and comfortably make it to the Salish Lodge in Snoqualmie that afternoon.
The phone number for the Poulsbo Chamber of Commerce is 206-779-4848 or
206-779-4999.  The Greater Poulsbo area is also known as "Little Norway"
(so I guess *all* the Norwegians didn't leave:-) !

The Kiana Lodge, itself, is located in either Sandy Hook or Agate Pass, WA
(according to one T-Shirt and one Sweatshirt available in the nice gift shop
located there).  It is just off highway 305, at the extreme southern end of
the North Kitsap Peninsula.  Take 305 to Sandy Hook Rd, and take Sandy Hook
Rd (south, the only way it goes) until it almost ends at the bay.  Look
for a very small (about 10" x 12") sign sitting on the ground, on your left
as you approach the bay.

Now, on to Snoqualmie/North Bend.  First, if you are coming from the Kiana
Lodge, you can go a somewhat out of the way land route or you can use the
ferry at Kingston.  Be warned, the ferry can require an hour or more wait
in line, so you might actually be better to use the land route.

The Salish Lodge, used for exterior shots of the Great Northern, is in
Snoqualmie.  We took small back roads, and ended up coming in on 203.  The
Salish appears on your right almost as soon as you enter the Snoqualmie city
limits coming this way from Seattle.  If you use US 90 (the quicker, major
freeway), you can get off at the Preston exit (#22) and take the Preston-Fall
City Rd toward Fall City, turn right on 203 at the entrance to Fall City, and
you're on your way to the Salish.  This takes you past the Windstreamers kite
store, better known to us as Big Ed's Gas Farm, and the Colonial Inn, better
known as The Roadhouse.  Big Ed's is on Preston-Fall City Rd, and will be on
the right using this approach, and will be quite obvious.  The Colonial is just
before the junction with 203, on the right.  Facing the Colonial from
Preston-Fall City Rd, there is a small field on the left... go there and look
back at the Colonial... this is the only face they used for The Roadhouse.  The
Colonial has nice eggs-bacon-&-hotcakes kind of breakfasts and is quite
reasonably priced.

Be sure to mention to the Salish staff that you are there because of Twin
Peaks.  They have a hand drawn map that shows many of the significant sites,
and they will be happy to just give you a copy, along with some photocopies
of a couple of local PR releases on the show and the area.  Be warned,
however, that this map is more suggestive than it is accurate, and you might
want to invest in a regular road map; I bought an inexpensive Bellvue street
map that extended far enough to show the Snoqualmie/North Bend area (though
this map doesn't have all the TP sites marked for you, so it's nice to have
both).  If the Salish isn't providing these maps anymore or has run out,
the same map is available for 50 cents from the Alpine Blossom & Gift Shoppe
in North Bend.  A much more attractive (but even less accurate, I think) map/
poster is available in the Salish's Coffee & Gift Shop at the falls overlook
(not in the hotel).  I think the Colonial sells the larger, more expensive
map also.


By the way, the Salish is a wonderful place to stay.  It's expensive, ranging
from $125 to $450 a night, but it's really lovely.  The prices are $125 for a
room facing out the front of the hotel, $175 for a room facing the river
(though they warned me that not all of these actually can see the river?), and
$450 for a suite facing the falls.  Those are all the prices they quote over
the phone, normally, but when I arrived I was fortunate to discover an
intermediate price of $250 for 1/2 of a suite facing the falls; they can
split the suites into two rooms, with one being pretty much just a large
bedroom, and the other being a *very* nice living area with a really comfy
Queen or King size Murphy bed.  We lucked into this nice large 1/2 suite
for the $250/night price, and ended up staying all 3 days of our visit there
(we had originally planned to move to less expensive accomodations in a
local Inn).  There's a fireplace in most if not all rooms, and the staff
comes in daily and sets it up with wood, kindling, and a little newspaper,
so all you have to do is light a match to have a nice fire in the fireplace.

I'm told that the Sunday Brunch at the Salish is quite the thing, sometimes
requiring weeks of advanced reservations (though I think they try to
accomodate guests of the hotel if at all possible).  Though I wasn't able
to partake of the Brunch, I *highly* recommend dining at the Salish.  The
rabbit dish is fabulous, and everything we had was excellent.  Try the
reasonably priced Snoqualmie Cabernet Sauvignon if you like red wine (we
weren't as thrilled with the Snoqualmie Chardonnay or Sauvignon Blanc,
whichever it was we had).  But *most of all*, be sure to try the "Corned
Duck" appetizer... served on thinly sliced apples, with tiny melon BB's,
and a mild, but tangy mustard sauce - best new commestible I've encountered
in a while!!

Oh yeah, they claim one of the best views of the falls is from the Salish
lounge, but the "worst of the 70's" music blaring from the loudspeakers,
coupled with what struck us as just another view makes me disrecommend it.
However, in the hallway leading to the stairs that take you up to the
lounge area are some magazine articles under glass, hanging on the wall,
and they tell you of a number of the locations I'm mentioning, in case
you lose this post!

Okay, well fed and well rested, go take a look at the falls.  There's a
small gazebo (not *the* gazebo, *yet*) overlook, and farther away from the
hotel (but all still just a short walk), a fenced, asphalt overlook.  From
the latter, you can probably coax a shot much like the opening pan-up-
river-and-falls from your camcorder:-)  There's a gift and coffee shop
near this viewpoint, and they do have slightly different wares than the
gift shop located inside the Lodge.  Also be sure to grab a picture of the
front of the Lodge, including their sign, so you can compare to the sign
for The Great Northern that they use on the show.  This is also clearly
where Audrey gets into the limo to head to school in the show premiere.

If you make a right onto 203 out of the hotel, and a quick left onto Mill
Pond Rd, you can head towards the railroad trestle where Ronnette Polaski
is discovered, the Packard Sawmill (Weyerhauser Mill), and the sheriff's
office (the administration building for the Weyerhauser Mill).  As you're
driving on Mill Pond Rd, look to your left across the pond for a preview
of the Mill.  And ignore the old railroad tracks that you drive over near
here.  Continue on and you'll actually drive under the railroad overpass
that is the Polaski trestle.  You can park and walk up to the tracks.
Continuing on past the trestle, you make a veer or turn left on Renig Rd,
and another left on Falls Station Rd, I think.  Follow signs to the
Weyerhauser administration office.  Along this route there's an entrance
on the left with a guard shack that you can just ignore (ignore the entrance,
that is).  The route to the administration office is marked and easily
accessible (not guarded).  From the parking lot of the admin. office, there's
a good view of the Mill, and the admin. office itself *is* the Twin Peaks
Sheriff's Station.  Go around to the long side of the building, and there
will be the familiar double doors, with the stone plaque out front.  Just
inside the doors you'll see Lucy's office and everything!  The people there
are very nice, and, I asked first, but they didn't mind my videotaping inside
the facility.

You can get back to the Salish by retracing your steps, or you can go through
the town of Snoqualmie by coming back Falls Station Rd, turning right on
Renig (if you instead turn left on Renig, you will head out to the stretch
of road used in the opening scene of TP, with the "Welcome to Twin Peaks"
sign in the foreground and the mountain, Mt. Si in real life, in the
background), following it past Mill Pond Rd until it becomes Meadowbrook Av SE.
Meadowbrook will take you back to 203, now called North Bend Blvd (or Sunset
Highway).  Turning right on North Bend Blvd will head you back towards the
Salish.  On this route you will find the Railroad Depot (a very quaint,
attractive building oddly *not* used in the show), *the* gazebo (right in the
middle of town, next to the train station), the giant log (seen in the opening
title sequence of the premiere and in the new Twin Peaks '92 calendar), and a
railroad "museum" (these are *not* the cars used in the show, however, and I
found no museum as such, just these interesting, old train cars and engines
parked along the road).  Parking as close to the railroad cars as you can, you
can walk past them, continue across a wooden bridge/footpath, and follow the
tracks as they disappear into the woods.  A short distance farther you will
find another abandoned train car on the left; this still isn't the one!
You will pass other old engines on the left, and then, perhaps a quarter
mile in along these tracks, you will see a group of cars and engines,
with the two on the right, kind of elevated, and with a lot of foliage
now grown up between you and them, that are obviously the cars used in TP.
There's an ancient, crumbling wood outhouse with a crescent moon cut into
it right next to them, and I'll be darned if I didn't spot the roof of it
in one of the shots from TP once I knew what I was looking at.  I can't
promise that the _Blue Velvet_ robin will still be perched on the top of the
outhouse like it was when I visited (though I suspect there's a nest there)!
You could actually park in a little off-street area right where the tracks
enter the woods, but as the area is marked "No Trespassing", you may not
want to call that much attention to yourself.

Also, taking one of the Greek alphabet streets (Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta,
or Epsilon [really!]) off of 203 (which may be called Sunset Highway in
town) will lead you back to the high school, which was used in the show.
It was undergoing a lot of reconstruction when I was there.  There is also
a small cafe in Snoqualmie called "Big Ed's", which has a Twin Peaks Burger,
but is otherwise unremarkable, and was not in the show.

Though only peripherally related to the show, there's a historic, functioning
train ride available on Saturdays (and Sundays during the summers), which
departs from and returns to the Depot in Snoqualmie.  I wish I'd been able
to ride it.  Maybe next time:-)

Okay, if you've still got energy for sightseeing, turn around, and go back
along 203 (or Sunset Highway or North Bend Blvd) away from the Salish.
Continue on past Meadowbrook, and maybe a mile or two down the road there
will be either a forced or a very obvious right turn onto Taylor Av.  Go
just about 3 blocks, and you will be at "the light", in the town of North
Bend.  This is the only traffic signal in the area, and so is referred to as
"the light", and is, of course, the traffic light from TP.  As you were
approaching the light, you will have passed the Alpine Blossom & Gift Shoppe,
a great place for TP souvenirs.  Right there on the corner at the light, will
be the Mar-T Cafe, known to us, of course, as the Double R Diner.  The coffee's
pretty decent, the cherry pie's ok.  The cardboard hamburgers and fries are
actually pretty good if you like that sort of thing (I do).  The light is at
the corner of Taylor Av and North Bend Way.  If you continue on Taylor past
the light, you will come to a Visitor Information Center (hut on the side of
the road).  They didn't actually have much info on TP when I went there,
though they did direct me to Avery's Artworx, back on North Bend Way (to the
South East, away from Snoqualmie), on the North-East side of the street, where
Avery sells a T-Shirt and a placard with a TP-related design of his own.  And,
as has been mentioned on a.t.tp before, the Alpine Blossom & Gift Shoppe is
the best place to go for the widest range of TP-related goodies.

If you take Taylor on past the Visitor Info Center, you'll hit US 90 (Taylor
is exit #31).  You can take this back towards Snoqualmie to exit #27, curve
under the freeway, and take Winery Road, to... you guessed it... the
Snoqualmie Winery.  This is the site where Laura & Donna & James videotaped
their picnic.  The winery has a surprisingly beautiful view of the area, and is
well worth stopping by.  I didn't get to go to a tasting, but, as I mentioned,
their Cabernet Sauvignon was quite good.

Well, I think that pretty well exhausts the TP-related stuff in the area.  But
who knows, you might get lucky and get to see them doing work on the film
<envious sigh>.  Other things to do in the area include the Herb Farm, which
supposedly has fabulous meals in addition to their attractive farm (I didn't
get to go, however, so this is only from reading a Fodor's).  There is a
fairly decent pizza place in North Bend; I could drive there, but can't recall
the name (sorry), though if I remember right, it caught my eye in the yellow
pages even before the waitress at the Colonial recommended it to us.  And
there's a large collection of warehouse outlet stores right off one of the
US 90 exits (don't recall which one, but it'll be obvious).

Other attractions happen as they might... like the truck full of moose heads
we saw on the freeway, and the one-armed man we spotted on the ferry...
Have a wonderful visit.  We sure did.

Oh yeah, and just for the record, it was on our trip to Twin Peaks that our
half-Newfoundland puppy got his latest nickname... Senor Drool-Pup.
-- -larryy@apple.com "You wouldn't recognize a *subtle plan* if it painted itself purple, and danced naked upon a harpsichord, singing, 'Subtle Plans are Here Again'." - Edmund Blackadder