Twilight Movie Tour

Braving the elements and armed with only a sketchy map, a few POIs, Mandy (our GPS) and our wits, Stacey and I embarked on what would be the adventure to remember: a six day tour of all things Twilight.

Day 1 – Arriving in Seattle

From Baltimore, we flew into Seattle, Washington. A quick side trip to the Space Needle was a must. We ate lunch in the rotating restaurant Sky City at the top of the needle on an abnormally sunny, clear day. The pictures speak for themselves:

From there, we drove Northwest toward the Puget Sound and hopped on the Edmonds-Kingston Ferry with our little rental car, which we later dubbed "Lamby." Again, the clear day made for superb photos. We didn’t mind the wind.

Nearing the Olympic Peninsula, we continued the nearly-four-hour drive to Forks, WA. After a long day of traveling, we were more than happy to bunk for the next 3 nights at The Miller Tree Inn, the designated Cullen House in Forks.

One of the best things about traveling in March was that we didn’t have to fight any crowds. We had most places to ourselves, which only added to the experience.

Day 2 – La Push, Downtown Forks

Our first stop on another gorgeous, sunny day was La Push or First Beach. I still don’t know why Summit Entertainment didn’t film here except that Indian Beach was much more secluded. The view was breathtaking.

The tour of downtown Forks only took about 30 minutes. Everything is 2 – 3 minutes apart. At times, I thought I could hear Mandy whisper "Seriously?" when we tapped the next address onto her screen. I’ll admit, my favorite part of the downtown tour was the shopping. Literally, every commercial establishment in town sold some sort of Twilight merchandise – even the Lock & Key! Dazzled by Twilight is decorated to mimic scenes from the film, particularly the meadow with a grassy floor and trees and rocks at every turn. Leppell’s Flowers & Gifts carried all of our Twilight scrapbooking needs!

We ate dinner that night at the official Treaty Line in La Push, wolfing down a werewolf burger, then stopping back at First Beach to catch the sunset on a still-clear evening!

Day 3 – More La Push, Port Angeles

We stopped in La Push again to visit the designated Jacob Black house and baseball field before heading out to Port Angeles for the day. These were not the easiest landmarks to find since nothing is clearly marked in La Push. We turned around more times than I can count and ended up on some pretty remote, unpaved trails. But our tenacity paid off.

Port Angeles is pretty desolate on a blustery Sunday in March. Few stores open before 11 am. The ones that do operate seem to do so only for the benefit of the other shopkeepers. Despite the 1.5 hour, sidewindy trek around Lake Crescent, Port Angeles is probably not worth an entire day, unless you tote along your passport and take the Ferry over to Victoria, British Columbia. All the Twilight landmarks are nestled together within two blocks and Bella Italia doesn’t open until 4 pm.

While we were in another Dazzled by Twilight, Stacey spotted an advertisement for a free tasting of Sparkling Twilight at the Olympic Cellars Winery about 6 miles east of downtown. We took that as a cue for a little diversion.

Day 4 – Indian Beach, Oregon and other filming locations

We woke around 4:45 am, bid farewell to Washington state and drove the 5-hour journey down the Pacific Coast to Indian Beach, where the La Push scene was filmed in the movie. For you trivia buffs, The Goonies was also filmed here. At first, we didn’t think we were in the right place, but as soon as the unmistakable domed cliff off shore came into view, our excitement materialized.

After about an hour there, we drove to Vernonia, Oregon a cornpoke little town that would go wholly unnoticed by the universe if not for Twilight. Downtown Forks was shot here for the film, including the police station (a credit union), passing the Forks welcome sign, and the concrete bridge seen just before the inconsequential dialogue about Bella’s hair.

From there, we stopped in Saint Helens of Mt. Saint Helens fame. Most of the downtown Port Angeles scenes were filmed here and also Charlie Swan’s house. Just like in Port Angeles, everything except the Swan house is nestled together on 1st St. We stopped in Jilly’s, the dress shop that sold all of the prom dresses to Summit for the film, and reenacted our own version of the dress shop scene. The best part was walking down the narrow alley to see the Thunderbird & Whale bookstore on the hill and then the back lot where the "lowlifes" try to herd Bella. All look exactly as they do in the film.

From Saint Helens, we crossed back over the Columbia River to Kalama, Washington, where the outside school scenes were shot at Kalama High School. With just enough daylight, we mapped out spots in the parking lot, paths, and feigned a walk up the hill in the rear of the school where Bella leads Edward to reveal the knowledge that he’s a vampire.

Our final stop of the day was The View Point Inn, where we’d be staying for the next two nights. The dark drive up the windy mountain was a little treacherous and disquieting at times, but it was worth it. The place is an inspirational retreat - a perfect getaway.

Day 5 – Filming locations along the Columbia River and in Portland suburbs
Another early start to the snowy morning led us first to Vista House, where we took in some spectacular views of the Columbia River Gorge.

A few miles down the road is Multnomah Falls, which appears in the film just before and during the Twilight baseball scene. One of many beautiful falls along the scenic river drive.

Next we stopped at the Bridge of the Gods, the large bridge Bella and Charlie cross as they head into Forks. It also offers some grand views of the river.

From here, we went to spy on the location where the Twilight baseball scene was shot. This area is also known as the Shire. Of all the stops on the trip, this was my favorite. It was like having a backstage pass to the set of the movie. I couldn’t help but think that this must be what the Garden of Eden was like, so pure and still untainted by mankind.

Nearby are the rocks where Bella and Edward conduct their intimate conversations about his lifestyle as a vampire and the backstory on how he ended up that way.

To round out a long morning, we drove to Oxbow Regional Park to get a look at the “say it out loud” scene, which was still staked. The opening scenes of the movie were also filmed here. It’s about 1.6 miles into the park on the left-hand side just before campground A.

We took a little more time than necessary at Oxbow Park and got a little lost on the way, so we nearly missed our Twilight-table reservation at the Carver Café for lunch. But we made it and ordered burgers like Charlie & Bella do in the film.

A few more stops that afternoon included the Blue Heron Paper Company, where the Grisham Mill scenes were filmed. We didn’t venture too far onto the property, just enough to snap a picture. Then we went over to Clackamas Community College where the infamous greenhouse field trip scenes were shot. Since classes were done for the day, there weren’t many people around, so we sneaked a peak inside greenhouse #2.

The piece de resistance was a leisurely romp around the boulders at the Stone Cliff Inn. This was the film equivalent of the meadow scene in the first book. The Stone Cliff Inn rocks. They marked everything with signs to make it easy for Twilighters to get oriented. The boulders are literally right beside the parking lot and each flanks the other, so we could easily see how the scenes progressed in the movie. I couldn’t believe how close to the ground Edward’s tree is. We tasted our final dinner of the trip here as well.

Day 6 – The View Point Inn at twilight + a couple of last minute stops
We woke before sunrise again in attempt to capture The View Point Inn as it is in the film – with waning sunlight. Of course, it was raining, but some of our shots still worked out.

After packing up our things and bidding the beautiful Inn adieu, we set off to find a few more landmarks before heading to the airport. The first of which was the Cullen House used in the film, locally known as the Hoke family house. The address is 3333 NW Quimby, Portland, OR.

For any avid reader, being in Portland means close proximity to the original Powell’s City of Books! Didn’t have time to browse the full block of books, but grabbed a quick shot out front. Hey, I was there!

Then we drove the short distance over to the empty office building filmed to represent the façade of Mimi’s School of Dance. The sign on the building was empty, so that meant we could digitally fill in the appropriate wording later!

Last stop before flying home was James Madison County High School, where the interior school scenes were shot. We didn’t think they’d let us in, but when we inquired at the school office, the head of maintenance said it wouldn’t be a problem since 30 minutes were left in the current period. We easily found the cafeteria, but it took a little sleuthing to find the “biology” classroom.

The trip was fantastic, and I highly recommend it to any crazed (or closeted) Twilight fan.

Check out all the pictures from our trip on Picasa.

Want more? Check out Paula Wessells' Twilight Movie Tour on her blog It's All a Part of Life's Rich Pageant.