From Eastern Oregon we moved to central Oregon near Bend and spent 3 weeks visiting good friends, playing pickleball and doing a small amount of the tourist thing.
One of our trips took us to Crater Lake National Park. We had been there years ago ( I hate to think how many) but wanted to visit it again. Because it is so deep and pure, the lake is a most beautiful and unique shade of blue.
Three images of the Cascade Mountains area.
We stopped in Southwestern Washington near Chehalis to attend a wedding of a dear friend from our Dexter, NM days. I had the honor of walking the bride down the aisle.
We, of course, had to do some sightseeing. We have checked the Mt. Saint Helens area periodically since it erupted in 1981. We first visited here in 1983 and enjoy seeing the changes that take place over the years. The eruption started with a very large explosion that blew off the top and the entire north side of the mountain.
From the northeast side, you can still see trees that were blown down several miles away from the mountain .
This lake is 12 miles from the mountain. The blast was so powerful that it sheared off the top of some of the trees and blew others down. There was a small campground here and unfortunately, the few people camped here did not survive.
The first time we saw Spirit Lake, it was completely covered with downed trees. During the explosion the lake water was blown up the side of a mountain. When it splashed back, the basin had filled with so much debris the surface of the lake was 240 feet higher than before. Harry Truman ( no, not that Harry Truman) who lived at the lake, refused to leave. He may be still there, just 240 feet deeper than before.
Amidst all the destruction, the flowers return.
Flowers in the area of our campground.
We decided to go all the way around the Olympic Peninsula. Our first stop was just north of Ocean Shores. We again got very lucky. We were there for the start of the shore bird migration. These Sandpipers are about the size of a House Sparrow and had just flown in from the Artic. There were thousands and thousands of them scattered along a few miles of beach. In the early morning there were groups of them, resting. Some of the groups were much larger than this one. Looking down the beach, it looked as if there were dark smudges on the sand. They rest and feed here, then fly to the Southern US, Central and South America for the fall and winter.
You just can’t have a beach without Gulls (except in Hawaii).
Sand patterns on the beach.
Flowers grow in the dunes by the beach.
There were several miles of beach that we could drive on. After the bird migration, many more miles of beach are opened to driving.
The pathway from our campground to the beach.
A mystery. On one of my morning walks, I saw these deer tracks leading from the dunes to the water and back to the dunes. What was a deer doing in the salt water?
We continued our journey around the peninsula by moving up to Olympic National Park. The park is very large and part of it runs along the beach.
Our campsite in the park.
Some of the sights along the beach.
The park contains the only rainforest in the continental US. It gets an average of 12 feet of rain a year.
No walk in the rain forest would be complete without a sighting of a famous Banana Slug.
Cape Flattery is the furthest northwest point of the continental US. It is outside the National Park but there is a very interesting trail leading to it.
Cape Flattery
A rainbow in the fog. Fogbow?
While standing on the observation platform at the cape and admiring the fogbow, we heard this strange blowing sound. When we looked down we saw…………
a Grey Whale. Our luck with wildlife sightings this summer is amazing. This whale spent about one half hour feeding just below us and this shot captures the fog of its breath dissipating above it.
From the cape we headed along the north side of the peninsula. Back in the national park we drove along Crescent Lake.
A “must see” in Olympic National Park is Hurricane Ridge. From the ridge you can see some of the great mountain views of the Northwest.
Three glaciers
A beautiful trail in the high country
We try to find “out of the way” back roads to drive. This was one of the better ones but it is still in the park.
High country flowers
On the Northeast side of the peninsula we took a walk along a beach of the Strait of Juan de Fuca.
Pat on a log. Can you find her?
I had this craving for good barbeque for weeks but this part of the country is a long way from Texas. Sushi and coffee, yes, barbeque, no. I had just about given up, but when I saw this sign and the murals on the walls, I knew I had found some real food.
Ordinarily, this is not what you would want to see when you look at your GPS unit in your motorhome.
It is showing that I am in a large body of water without the benefit of a road or bridge. Not good. ( Yes, the slice of pizza is my location marker. No remarks please. I already know what you are thinking.)
Fortunately, this was the view out the window.
When we left the peninsula, we could have driven south, all the way around Puget Sound, and then up through the big mess of Seattle, or take the Washington State Ferry from Port Townsend to Whidbey Island. As you can see we took the 30 minute ferry ride, saving a lot of time, money and aggravation.
These ferries are big. They can hold several semi trucks and lots of cars.
Unloading
Pulling away from Port Townsend, a very nice small town with some beautiful Victorian Homes and a downtown with some restored historic buildings.
We are about to dock at the landing on the island. There is a bridge that connects the island with the mainland so we are done with ferries for this trip. A Great Blue Herron is there to greet us.
We had a wonderful visit to the Olympic Peninsula and lucked out with some great weather for that part of the country and some fantastic wildlife sightings. We were somewhat sad to leave but we had other things to do.
We stayed in the town of Oak Harbor, on the island, for two nights, and then moved on to Birch Bay, near the Canadian border. We will stay here for a few days, leave our motorhome here and drive to Vancouver, BC. There we will board a cruise ship for a two week round trip to Alaska By mid Sept. when we return, it will be about time to slowly start heading south.
