Olympic National Park - Part 2

After visiting Hurricane Ridge we followed Hwy 101 west along Lake Crescent. Named for its shape, the lake is 10 miles long and 624' deep. Storm King Mountain at 4,534' sits on its south shore.

At a lakeside viewpoint we got an upclose view of some interesting trees we had been seeing alongside the road.

Notice the bright tree where the red bark? is peeled back.

..We stopped at Ruby Beach, part of the Pacific shoreline section of Olympic National Park.

Tons of logs had been washed up on the beach so it was difficult even getting there. It's not a sand beach but a rock beach. Most of the rocks are about 1 to 2" thick and 5'6" in diameter. In other words, flat rocks.

Just had to show you the size of some of the washed up logs.

Nolan posing on the shady side of one of the sea stacks.

As we headed south and west on Hwy 101, we saw this huge cloud developing to the west.

Technically in the Olympic National Forest, this rain forest is like the Hoh Rain Forest in Olympic National Park.

We got there after the Ranger Station had closed so we didn't get any information but we did see a lot of moss covered trees.

There were a lot of huge ferns growing on the ground.

Olympic Peninsula Trip - Cape Flattery Trail

Since we were so close we decided we needed to visit the northwesternmost point in the contiguous United States. We had done the southeasternmost point at Key West in December 2007. Along the way we saw this pretty seaport town of Sekiu. We didn't stop for a better photo because it was in the middle of some road construction and we were following a pilot car.

Just look at all the birds out on that spit of land!

Some pretty rocky shoreline along SR 12.

The road was twisty through here and would have been fun on the bikes.

But it was also in need of repair in places.

Look at the seastacks.

Closer view of the seastacks with a marina closer to shore. The water was very clear where it is dark at the bottom of the photo. Sure wished it had been a clearer day.

At Neah Bay we were welcomed onto the Makah Indian Reservation where we bought a recreation pass so we could go out to Cape Flattery.

Neah Bay is a port town where fishing is a way of life.

The harbor was full of boats of all sizes and purposes.

After following the directions we got at the Makah Cultural and Research Center, we found the trail to Cape Flattery.

At first it was wide enough for a small vehicle to pass through but fairly steep.

It got narrower and we passed over a lot of boardwalks....

and logs cut into stepping spots.

There were several different points where we could go look at the coast line.

Just look at the tree rooted at the top of this cave.

Tatoosh Island just off the point.

Closeup of the lighthouse on Tatoosh Island.

Just off to the East of Tatoosh island was this small island which provided a resting place for seal. We tried to get a closeup with the camera but it just didn't have the zoom capability for the shot. I wished we would have taken the binoculars on this trip.

Fireweed was blooming all over this area.

Washington Coast Drive

During my folks visit we decided to take a trip to the Washington coast. Our first stop was in South Bend to see the Pacific County Courthouse. When we got there, it was covered in scaffolding while undergoing renovations.

If you can read Roman numerals, you can see that it was built in 1910.

We walked into an entry way that lead to a rotunda. The entry way had some small murals. The doors leading off the rotunda each had a decoration like this over it.

This is the middle of the floor.

The stained glass dome roof. Notice the PC. Pacific County

The far door had curved stairs going up each side. Where they met the wall had a stained glass window with PC in it and there was stained glass above the landing.

The gardens had some nice shrubbery. Some Japanese maples too.

Looking out the front door.

Our drive continued and we came up on this crew replacing the reflectors in the middle of the road. You can see the guy reaching out to place the reflector in the puddle of tar he just sprayed.

We went to Nahcotta on the Long Beach Peninsula to see the Willapa Bay Interpretive Center but it was closed. The road to it was on the jetty where all the oyster boats come in. Anyone want an oyster shell?

Oyster boats in dock.

We wanted to eat our picnic lunch and were looking for a park with restrooms. There was a sign on the Interpretive Center telling us, so we thought, that the restrooms were by the Post office. Actually we all read it wrong. The park was by the Port Office just on the other side of the jetty.

After lunch we headed to Long Beach. Although it was sunny on the east side of the Peninsula, the beach was cloaked in fog. Very thick fog.

A few people were flying kites, some of which were huge!

The tide was out so we had to walk across the mud flats to get to the water.

When we came back from our walk, someone had hoisted this beautiful kite. It twirled around as the wind blew through it.

As we left Long Beach and headed south on Hwy 101, we entered the town of Seaview and I spotted this very, very interesting tree at the Lions Paw Bed and Breakfast. When we got home, I looked at the B&B's web site and found out the tree is a Monkey Puzzle Tree, a native of Brazil and Argentina.

Just look at all the cones on the top of the tree.

Look at the scaly "leaves".

And they rotated as they came down the branch.

I looked up the trunk of the tree and you could see how the bottom of the scales stayed attached to the branch after the leaf died. Kinda like palm tree fronds on the trunk.

Our drive continued south on Hwy 101 and we drove across the Columbia River to Astoria, OR. I believe the odometer reading was 2.5 miles across the river.

At one point the bridge arches to allow large boats to navigate the river.

The road curled around to this stop light where we headed east on US 30, the same road that goes through the Iowa town we lived in before becoming full-time rvers.

We followed US 30 until we could cross over this bridge to Longview, WA. There were several freighters on the water just before the bridge.

Wood was stacked along the river on both sides of the bridge.