September 20 and 21, 2014

First, we have exciting news!  No, Libbo is not pregnant.  But, Missie is going to fly out and meet us in Las Vegas.  We plan on then going to the parks in southern Utah and then to the Grand Canyon! We can't wait!

We are staying at a very nice RV Park in Port Angeles.  We have a nice view of the Olympic Mountains in the Olympic National Park.   We are on the north shore of the Olympic Peninsula. The peninsula is very large and has one major road that runs around the edge all the way around; Highway 101.  From this road are roads that feed into the National Park.

This next photo just shows the clouds and the elevation of the mountains.

On Saturday we decided to have an easy day to rest up from our two straight days of driving.  We drove around the seaside town of Port Townsend and an old army fort, Fort Wordman.  The fort was built in the late 1800's and had cannon batteries to fire at ships entering Puget Sound.  It was in heavy use in WWI and WWII.  

Port Townsend is a picturesque town that you might expect to see in New England.  Very nautical community with boats everywhere.  The town center was abuzz with tourists, specialty shops, and some sort of festival.  A festival?  They must have a Chamber of Commerce! The colors are beginning to change here and it reminds us of early November at home.

We made it back to Cream Puff to watch the football games.  Bama beat Florida and Auburn had a very exciting game against Kansas State Thursday.  Mississippi State beat LSU so it looks like the Bulldogs may be serious this year.

Sunday

We dedicated the total day to touring Olympic National Park.  We started at the Visitor's Center. Paul Solomon asked Lib to take some photos of me for the blog.  So, Lib was to take this shot of me pointing to the Olympic National Park sign.  She got me in.  Now imagine that the sign I am pointing to says "Olympic National Park."  And, yes, those are Sansabelt slacks.  They are about 20 years old and I love em!  I gave up any notion of fashion years ago.

The Park Rangers are super.  Ours told us where to go.  The number one place is Hurricane Ridge. It is given this name because during the winter, winds often exceed 75mph!  I would not want to be up there in those winds.  This is about a 45 minute drive up to a vantage point where you can view the mountains in the center of the park. The drive up and down is not as difficult as the Road to the Sun in Glacier National Park but it has its curves and tight places as well.  

Until you get above the tree line, the forests are lush; this is a temperate rain forest

And, there are tunnels on the road; three to get to the top

When we got to the top we realized why everyone comes here.  The view is almost surrealistic.  The photo below could be a painting.  You may want to double click the photo to enlarge it to get the effect.

 To show how "real" it is, I took this photo that included a human on the observation deck.

We were surprised to find that there are glaciers here.  The photo below shows Blue Glacier.  As the next photo shows, these glaciers are rapidly disappearing.  Again, you probably will want to double click to enlarge the photo.

Blue Glacier

The shot below shows the Straight of Juan de Fuca which feeds in from the Pacific and separates the U.S. from Canada.  The darker area across the water is Canada.  Victoria is just across the water and ferries run out of Port Angeles to take you there.  But, we're not interested in going over on this trip. We are here to see Olympic.  Besides, we hope we have taken our last ferry ride for this trip.

View of Canada from atop Hurricane Ridge

A park Ranger told us about a stream where we may be able to still see salmon running upstream to spawn.  We were very interested in seeing this and we took off to the Elwha River.  We found several places where we could view the stream close up.  It would be hard to imagine a fish going upstream in some places as the water was very low but somehow they do it.

While we were out on this stream looking for deep water and salmon (with one eye on the lookout for bears), we saw one other couple.  As we wandered closer to them, Lib struck up a conversation.  It turns out they are from Alabama..in fact, Albertville, Alabama where I graduated from High School. Benny and Sherra Dean knew several people we know in Albertville.  (We were just there last July for my 50th graduation reunion). What a small world!

While Benny and Sherra were nice Alabama folk, they weren't any better at locating salmon than we were so we moved on.  Finally we saw one salmon swimming upstream but the photo does not show it.  We also had a Bald Eagle flying above and he was close enough that we could see his spread, white tail.  It was a beautiful sight.  

We spotted a single salmon swimming upstream

Olympic National Park is a rain forest.  You can see the lush growth on the grounds.  Ferns seem to grow everywhere and many of the trees are covered in a velvet-like moss.

Ferns grow everywhere

Tree moss

We left the Elwha to drive around the north side of the peninsula to see Lake Sutherland and Crescent Lake.  These are beautiful lakes that were, at one time, one lake.  Scientists think a huge avalanche created a dam between the lakes thousands of years ago.  This entire area was created by lava coming up from the Pacific.  The force of the ocean constantly trying to go under the rock forced the mountains up. So, unlike Mt. Rainier and Mt. Hood, these mountains are not volcanoes.  Over millions of years, this area has been shaped by the glaciers.  

Crescent Lake is 600 feet deep; that is pretty deep!

Olympic National Park reminded us a bit of Glacier in that it does not have many interior roads.  It seems to be a wilderness area in which serious hikers and campers would be most satisfied.  There are many campgrounds inside the park but most of them, if not all, were closed down September 15th.  No Grizzly's  but they do have Black bears.  A beautiful park and the area is beautiful as well. It is easy to see why so many people are enamored with the Northwest.  The temperature and humidity are like being in air conditioning.  It is still sweltering back home in Pensacola.

Now, tomorrow we are off to Portland and to see Louise!