Olympic Peninsula and Rain Forests

August 11, 2014

Sunny and dry - 80 degrees

Lat/Lon 47.28N 123.52 W

Lake Quinault and the Olympic Rain Forests

Olympic Peninsula, WA

Chawley and Elby (L Bea) check out the view at Lake Quinault

I found a sailboat.

The Quinalt rain forest averages 154" of rain a year. Thats over 12 feet of rain!
By comparison, Tillamook Oregon averages 87" a year, Seattle about 40", and Boise about 12" per year.

Fun Fungi

Sword ferns covering the bank above the trail.  You can see the trail heads off into that dark hole ahead.

Playing follow the leader.

This skunk cabbage, growing in a tiny creek, was about 3 feet across.  HUGE!

Pretty waterfall!  Look at all that moss and the ferns!

Closer view of the waterfall.

It was a pretty warm day, so splashing in the little creek at the foot of the waterfall felt pretty good!

BIG fallen snag

Pretty maidenhair fern.

Skinny squatch?

Another waterfall

The Little Pink Glasses made their first appearance in a long time.
I think the last we saw of them was in Arizona last winter.


I thought I saw Nancy, but as I got closer I realized this lady had gray hair. It was not pretty silver like Frosty's hair.

I love, love, love the forests in the Pacific Northwest!

BY THE WAY, (It's a little known fact,....)  moss and ferns are not parasitic plants like ivy and mistletoe.  They do not take nutrition from, or strangle, their 'host' tree.  They are epiphytes, meaning they merely cling to the rough surface of the tree to catch water and organic matter that falls from above.  Mosses and ferns don't harm the trees.
These are healthy trees.

Note: Ivy and mistletoe not only strangle a tree, but their modified roots bore through the bark, to the actively growing cambium layer, (outer layer), of the tree.  There, they tap into the tree's life resources, eventually killing it.

Now THIS is a Mossy Skag!!!  

(My family will get it.)

~ ~ ~

In other news, another outing to the beach produced the closest thing to a 'squatch we've seen yet.

and we found this guy that I'm pretty sure was trying to contact aliens with this strange devise.

~ ~ ~

I'd like to take Charley to see Mount Saint Helens before we head north next Monday, but we will see what happens. Once we are up north, we're hoping to get a tour of the BIG Coast Guard base up in Port Angeles, from a retired Coastie friend. (Teri's brother in law.)  After that, we're not sure which direction we will go.  We will return to Boise at some point before we head to Casa Grande AZ to sell pumpkins and Christmas trees.

Pacific Northwest - Hoquiam River

August 2nd, 2014
Overcast,  76 degrees
Lat/Lon  46.6N 123.5W

Sweet Spot - Hoquiam River 

Charley enjoying a good book in the shade of the big Alder trees.

Everytime I see the tiny 'cones' from an alder, I am quickly take back to my childhood. Growing up on Alder Creek in Garden Valley, ID, I would pick these up by the hundreds and make things out of them.

The peaceful Hoquiam River. 

We are just a couple of miles upstream from Gray's Harbor, so the river rises and falls about 8 feet with the tides.   

 

The pictures above are high tide, the picture below is low tide.  Between the sun and the tides, the river is constantly changing. I've noticed that different birds and animals show up according to the tides.  The river otters and great blue herons show up during lower tides, the king fisher and seal show up at high tide.

There is a great trail that takes off from the edge of the RV park.  The trail runs along the river and then into the woods a ways.

There are some old train tracks that still exist along part of the trail.

In this pic, both metal rails are still visible along the forest floor, but there is so much underbrush and overgrowth that they are hard to see.

The trail comes out near town, not too far from the little mom and pop drive in that has awesome soft ice cream cones.

Pacific Northwest - Washington!

July 30th, 2014
Clear, sunny, 74 degrees
Lat/Lon 46.2N 124.0W

Cape Disappointment

We went out to Cape Disappointment in hopes of seeing the Coast Guard base there. 

(This is a public marina at Cape Disappointment.)

Alas, we were not able to see the base, entry gates were locked up tight.  But we did see a Coast Guard helicopter cruising around the beach.

There were a lot of brown pelicans.

Beautiful beaches at Cape Disappointment.

It was a bit of a disappointment that the Coast Guard eluded us.  

Silly me, I asked Charley why it was locked up.  After a 45 minute long 'Charley' explanation that included references to WWI, the Grassy Knoll, and stem cell debates, ... he 'basically' said, (my wording now) "Coast Guard bases are not 'populated' as much as the other military bases we've visited. They don't man the guard station all the time."

                                                                                      ... Oh, okay.

We didn't get to see the Coast Guard Base at Cape Disappointment, but I think I've hoodwinked Teri's brother in law, Jim, (who is a retired Coastie living in Squim, WA), into giving us a tour of the CG base at Port Angelos, WA. 

Drift wood and pelicans

Cape Disappointment Lighthouse

This is the area where Lewis and Clark first saw the Pacific Ocean in November 1805.

 One of the beaches we walked on was covered with these things.  It has 3 flaps or sides to it. I thought it was some kind of jellyfish, but I can't find anything that looks like it.  Any ideas?

 After leaving Cape Disappointment, we north to Hoquiam,

 where we found this lovely campsite right on the Hoquiam River.