Weekend traffic has been a bear through Aberdeen and Hoquiam at times during the pandemic. People cooped up, working from home, looking for an escape are now, more than ever, looking to the open spaces of coastal beaches and wilderness areas for weekend getaways.

The region can expect very high volumes of traffic on the county’s roadways over the busy Memorial Day Weekend holiday, starting Friday afternoon.

Traffic on Friday afternoons westbound on Highway 12 can stack up through Hoquiam and Aberdeen to well east of Junction City. The recent reopening of the State Route 107 South Montesano Bridge, a popular bypass between Montesano and the beaches to the west, to two-lane traffic provides some relief, but delays on that section of roadway in particular are unavoidable.

“We expect people will want to travel to and from Pacific Ocean beaches over the Memorial Day Weekend,” said Christina Werner, state Department of Transportation Olympic Region spokeswoman. “Friday afternoon westbound and Monday afternoon eastbound are expected to be the heaviest travel times, generally speaking. We encourage people to give themselves plenty of extra time to reach their destinations, plan ahead, and know that unexpected events like bad weather or a serious collision will affect travel times.”

State Route 105 between Aberdeen and Grayland, State Route 109 between Hoquiam and Ocean Shores, and Ocean Beach Road heading toward the north beaches will be especially busy this weekend, especially with the two final days of the razor clam season scheduled for Friday and Sunday.

The weather will have more people looking to some outdoor time. After a pretty bleak week, showers will be tapering off Friday morning, with high temperatures, according to the National Weather Service in Seattle, in Hoquiam going from 60 degrees Friday to 72 degrees Sunday, with at least mostly sunny skies predicted through the holiday weekend.

At a recent Greater Grays Harbor Inc. tourism forum, Ocean Shores Convention Center Marketing Manager Diane Solem said statewide, more than 90% of the people who have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19 are now willing to travel. The number is just over 50% for all potential travelers.

Even last summer, at the peak of the COVID shutdowns, Grays Harbor County saw a rush of visitors. With word of the pandemic winding down and about half the state vaccinated, the number of visitors to the region is expected to be even higher.

“Everybody has been coming here all through the pandemic,” said Leslie Eichner, Westport Grayland Chamber of Commerce Director. “We’ve seen an uptick every weekend because everybody has been cooped up.”

In Westport, the always moving Blessing of the Fleet ceremony is planned Sunday at 1 p.m. The ceremony memorializes fishermen who have been lost at sea and bestows blessing on the current fleet. It traditionally draws a good, albeit mostly local, crowd to the Fishermen’s Memorial at the marina.

Bottomfishing trips will draw visitors, some overnighters to Westport. The last regularly scheduled halibut date for the season was May 27, just ahead of the holiday weekend. “We’re pretty much filled up hotel-wise,” said Eichner. A quick look at a popular online booking site showed a few rooms available in Ocean Shores, a few in Aberdeen and Hoquiam, but expect those to be gone before the weekend.

Expect very large crowds on the North Beach over the weekend, with the last two razor clam digs of one of the shortest seasons in recent history. There’s just one beach open — Mocrocks — for Friday and Sunday morning digs. The tides are extraordinary: a minus 2.5-foot low tide at 8:46 a.m. Friday and a minus 1.6-foot low tide Sunday.

Mocrocks runs from just south of Moclips south to the mouth of the Copalis River. There are only three access points off State Route 109 — Second Street in Moclips, Andalyde Gap Road in Pacific Beach, and the Roosevelt approach south of Seabrook. Expect them to be jammed all weekend, especially on the two digging days.

The state Department of Transportation urges drivers to pay particular attention to their fuel gauges while traveling, always a solid idea given the distances between gas stations in much of the county.

“Given an expected increase in traffic this holiday, travelers should be sure to keep vehicles at least a quarter full of fuel throughout travel,” said Werner. “The state Department of Commerce says there is no fuel shortage like recently seen on the East Coast, but with many people still driving rather than flying, there could be local delays in fuel deliveries during heavy travel weekends this summer.”