The little town of Forks has become an onvernight tourist hub thanks to the success of the Twlight franchise. The little town of Forks has become an onvernight tourist hub thanks to the success of the Twlight franchise.
Almost on the edge of town it hits me: This place is spooky. The buildings are as flat and grey as the autumn sky, featureless, but for the one word that pops up incessantly on shopfronts and windows: Twilight.
Six years ago, few had heard of Forks, in the US north-west, where Washington State rubs against Canada. Then came one of the biggest publishing and film phenomena of this millennium. The Twilight Saga - of which there have been three films so far, all recreating the novels of Arizona-based author Stephenie Meyer - might appear a standard tale of high-school romance; two boys competing for a girl’s affections.
But the series’s twist on the love triangle - one rival is a vampire, the other a werewolf - has entranced teenage cinema-goers, and made stars of Robert Pattinson, his lupine challenger Taylor Lautner and maiden-in-the-middle Kristen Stewart.
It’s also made Forks, where it’s set, an unlikely celebrity. The fourth film, Breaking Dawn Part 1, is released on Friday. A lumber town that had fallen into a slump, Forks has embraced Twilight with the gratitude of a lottery winner.
What makes its enthusiasm odd is that, while the books are set here, the movies were filmed in Oregon and British Columbia. So there are no movie “sights” at all. Random properties have set themselves up as Twilight landmarks. The florist has given over half its floor space to Twilight T-shirts and posters.
On K Street, an ordinary house has been deemed “Home Of The SwansÕ”via a sign hammered into its lawn, its residents apparently willing to have people wandering past at all hours taking photos.
Stranger still is the Miller Tree Inn, a clapboard hotel that markets itself as the home of Pattinson’s vampire heart-throb, Edward Cullen. The inn’s website admits it “looks nothing like the movie version” - but that’s not stopped the owners propping a cutout of the star in an upstairs window, or leaving handwritten notes, purportedly from Cullen family members, on the porch for guests to read. Everywhere families are ambling between the “attractions”. You can book a tour (at twilighttoursinforks.com) which ferries you to other hotspots that “appear” in the saga.
One major Twilight site lurks beyond Forks - 14 miles west on a shadowy highway to the Quileute Reserve, lies the small settlement of La Push.
This Native American enclave is “home” to Lautner’s teen-wolf Jacob Black, so the dash to cash in continues, notably in a coffee shop billed as Jacob’s Java which as well as coffee serves a range of drinks, including Twilight-themed fruit smoothies. Beyond, the ocean roars to land on First Beach which emphasises the craggy isolation of this final American frontier. Its damp sand is piled high with the giant trunks of dead cedars.
But it is here that Washington State astounds. There’s hiking galore in the dense green of the Olympic National Park, the calm majesty of the Quinault Rainforest and the ragged rocks of Ruby Beach.
Ultimately, the highway leads me to the most north-westerly point of mainland America. Cape Flattery is reached via twisting roads, but it’s worth the tricky journey. This is the end of the line.
I arrive on a misty morning, but Canada, in the form of Vancouver Island, nods in the distance. To the west, the ocean is a blank canvas. Desolate and empty, this rare beauty will linger long after the Hollywood gravy train has left for a new station.
Timeless Travel (0844 809 4299;timelesstravel.co.uk) offers an 18-night “fly-drive” in Washington State from £1,799pp (about R22 000), based on two sharing, with flights to Seattle, accommodation and car hire. More on the region at experiencewa.com - Daily Mail