Olympic National Park

What a park this is! Of all the parks we’ve visited, this offers the most diversity in its environments to explore. From the mountains, we headed to the coast. Close to ninety miles of Washington’s pristine coast are protected park lands. We camped near the La Push Indian reservation at the gorgeous Mora campground. The old-growth trees in the campground alone made it worth a visit. I felt a bit like a forest nymph or fairy setting up house amongst the mossy trees.

We explored a spectacular beach called Rialto Beach. I am a rock hound, and I was in heaven picking a rainbow array of smooth pebbles. My pockets were weighed down and sagged to mid-thigh in no time.

The beach had a startling amount of driftwood. Huge, sun-bleached trees were stacked willy-nilly all along the beach. I’m not sure what the story is behind the logs, but I think it may have something to do with the timber industry as well as coastal storms and high tides. The driftwood made for fun climbing and interesting photographs.


We made our way down the beach towards the “stacks”, huge rocks out in the water. All around the stacks were tide pools ripe for exploration for us since it was low tide. I was thrilled by the abundant masses of sea stars and anemones in and around the pools. They looked yummy enough to eat. Don’t worry, I didn’t try any.


After a few hours of exploring, we enjoyed the sunset, left our mark with some beach art, and headed to camp for the night.


The next day we headed to the Hoh Rainforest. This is one of the only rainforests in the United States. It receives over 140 inches of rain each year. I had to laugh at the fact that we visited on a glorious day with blue skies and not a cloud in sight. The forest is made up mainly of spruce, Douglas fir, and hemlock, all of which grow at an extremely accelerated pace due to the abundance of water available to them. They are covered by all kinds of mosses and lichens, creating a soft, lush environment. We enjoyed wandering through the forest experiencing what a “real forest” should look like.

Twilight Fans... Prepare to be Dazzled

Ahh... sullen, dreamy-eyed vampires; steamy, dark werewolves. What more could a teenage reader want? And, um, what more could a thirty-something reader want? Yes, I freely admit that I jumped wholeheartedly on the “Twilight” bandwagon a while back and enjoyed the ride through all four books. Sure, I had to regress emotionally to my teenage self to relate to the all-encompassing, body and mind controlling teenage crush that is the crux of the series. Sure, I had to keep my book cover hidden behind my hands on the Metro. Whatever. If you’ve read the books, you know. And if you’ve read the books, this blog’s for you. (If not, feel free to skip this entry.)

While studying the map of Washington State, I had the great realization that the towns of Forks and Port Angeles, as well as the La Push Indian Reservation were not figments of Stephenie Meyer’s imagination when choosing them as the settings for her series. No! They are actual places, places right along our route of travel through Washington. Oh, what luck! I had to bribe/guilt Gideon into stopping the car for brief explorations of each place. He was a trooper and played along. (Secretly, I think he’s a fan. He only saw the movie, but I think it’s stuck with him. That’s my theory behind his willingness to stop at each place.)

The first stop was Port Angeles, the scene of Bella’s rescue from would-be attackers by the heroic Edward, followed by their first date at Bella Italia. Keeping in mind that the movie was actually filmed in Oregon, the town looked a bit different than how it was portrayed in the movie, but it pretty much matched up with my vision of the town from reading the book.

Forks is about an hour west of Port Angeles. I was hoping for a dark, moody, tree-lined highway to lead me there. Unfortunately, the road is mostly flanked by swaths of clear-cut timberland. A few miles inland from the highway is Olympic National Park, which is where one can find those dreamy, tree-lined byways.


The town of Forks is a small, run-down timber town. It is not like the town in the movie, but no one in the real town of Forks seems to mind. They are all Twilight-crazy. There are specialty Twilight stores, tours, and signs. And there was a very special breed of tourist prowling through town—the Twilight Freaks, of which I was one. Yes, maybe most were still a part of the teenage set, but I was certainly not the only non-teenaged Twilight tourist in town.

The store “Dazzled by Twilight” was a highlight of the day. It was like walking onto a movie set. Okay, maybe that’s overstating it. Perhaps it was more like walking onto the set of a high school musical. But still, it was fun and I was impressed.


At the Forks Chamber of Commerce, I found Bella’s red pick-up truck parked out front. I’m not sure where Bella or her honey were, but I got a shot of the truck.

We made our way to La Push, crossing the vampire/werewolf treaty line, and camped under a full moon. I know, I was tempting fate, but it was exciting. The actual reservation is probably like most reservations in the country, in that it was terribly impoverished. However, unlike many other reservations we’ve driven through on this trip, it is set along one of the most beautiful coastlines in our country. The views were astounding and I could totally understand why Bella hung out there while Edward was off wandering without her.


The only disappointment of my time in the Twilight zone was not running into Edward. But I suppose I have my own special, moody guy to give me heart palpitations and heart aches from here on out.

Olympic National Park

Yesterday we ferried from Victoria to Port Angeles, Washington, the gateway to the Olympic Peninsula. As usual, we first found the park visitor center in Port Angeles to get ourselves oriented to Olympic National Park. Then we hopped into the car and drove 17 miles to the top of a mountain to an area called Hurricane Hill. We found a picnic spot overlooking a sub alpine meadow, ate our turkey sandwiches and laid on the hillside for a nap under the warm sun. Ahh, mountain therapy. We slept for about an hour until a flock of birds showed up and started harassing us.


From our beautiful picnic spot, we headed to the Hurricane Hill trailhead. We did the three mile roundtrip hike to the top of the ridge (elevation 5,757 feet). Oh my, what a place! We were above the clouds the whole way and watched them roll lazily over the mountain peaks, down through the trees, and across the trail in front of us. Not only was it astoundingly beautiful on Hurricane Hill, it was astoundingly silent. It was so quite I could hear my own ears ringing. This was quite a change from the blustery environs of the Grand Teton and Glacier.


From Hurricane Hill, we made our way down the mountain and to Safeway for water, apple cider and fire wood before heading to camp. We decided to camp up on another mountain top at a primitive campground called Deer Park (elevation 6,000 feet). Located a good ten miles up a single lane gravel road, it took quite a while to get there, and although it was well into night, the full moon lit the clouds and mountains for some incredible views. Gideon had fun capturing the splendor on the camera.


Camp was COLD. We had heard rumors of snow, but we bundled up, made a fire and enjoyed our burritos and hot cider in the quiet campground. It took a while to get sufficiently warm in our sleeping bags, but we finally got thoroughly snuggled in for the night. I had shoved down vests and extra blankets into my sleeping bag for extra fill. It definitely helped. Around three in the morning we were wakened by the persistent tapping of frozen rain on the tent. Gideon and I agreed that it would be a problem if we were to be stranded on the mountaintop due to snow and ice. So, we packed up camp and drove to the bottom of the mountain where we slept the remainder of the night in the car in a turn-off on the side of the road.


Our curiosity got the better of us in the morning, and we decided to drive back up the gravel road to see if it had snowed. It had, but not much. The roads were wet but not iced over. But, better safe than sorry, huh?


Now we are off to explore other ecosystems in this diverse park.

Victoria!

An hour and a half ferry ride brought us to the capitol of British Columbia, Victoria. We were welcomed by gloomy skies and rain. It seemed like a good day to do something indoors, so we headed to the Museum of British Columbia. As you probably know, I am really into museums and I have no problem developing strong opinions regarding the educational value and design of museums. I wasn’t expecting much from this relatively small museum containing two major exhibit halls. Well, it knocked my socks off! The Museum of British Columbia was one of the best museums I’ve been to. The first major exhibit focused on the people of British Columbia, starting with the “first nations”, the Native American groups that inhabited the area for approximately 10,000 years. Gideon and I were intrigued by the artwork of these people, particularly the totem poles, animal masks, and argillite carvings.


The exhibit did an excellent job explaining the effects that European diseases, especially smallpox had on these native populations once white men arrived. Basically, the tribes were decimated. The white man took over, harvesting the animals, forests, and ground with wild abandon. The museum portrayed the story with life-sized dioramas of native homes, European ships, forests, coal mines, wood mills, street scenes and more. It was pretty incredible.


The second exhibit focused on the flora and fauna of the region. Again, life-sized dioramas made me feel like I was hunting woolly mammoths, encountering a grizzly bear in the forest, and exploring the sea in a submarine. I just wish more museums were like this one. I left feeling like I had a better understanding of British Columbia, like I had “experienced” life in B.C. 100, 100, and 10,000 years ago. Five stars to the Museum of British Columbia!

San Juan Islands

We’ve spent the last few days exploring San Juan Island in the Salish Sea of Washington. This was not part of our original plan, but was highly recommended by some friends, so we decided to add it to the itinerary. We’re very glad we did.

We arrived by ferry to the port town of Friday Harbor on the island of San Juan in the late afternoon on Tuesday. We spent the evening driving around the island. Unfortunately, the rain put a bit of a damper on our adventurous spirits. We made our way to Lime Kiln State Park, also known as “Whale Watch Park”. The rain let up as we wandered down to the rocky shoreline to look for whales. We spotted many Dall’s porpoises and a few harbor seals. The seals were quite amusing to watch. They seemed to choose the smallest rocks to balance their fat bodies upon. They looked so uncomfortable, constantly trying to shift their bodies into a more comfortable, yet ever-elusive position. They kind of reminded me of myself, trying to find a comfortable position on my sleeping pad every night in our tent. Just kidding.


After watching the sunset at the park, we drove back to Friday Harbor where we splurged on a real bed in a hostel called the “Wayfarer’s Rest”. What a neat little place! It was a cute little house with private rooms and dorm-style rooms, as well as two kitchens, common areas, and chickens in the backyard. We got a private room with a cushy queen-sized bed for $70. Not bad. We utilized the kitchen to fix our dinner and then got a good night sleep with no worries about the rain outdoors.

On Wednesday, we had a leisurely morning at the hostel, fixing breakfast and showering. Then we made our way into town and explored the shops. This area has a similar feel to the coast of New England. It brought to mind Bar Harbor, Maine, and Portsmouth, New Hampshire. At noon, we met up with a small group of people at Discovery Sea Kayak Tours. We had scheduled a five hour kayak tour with a guide named Jesse, who happened to be from Portsmouth, NH. Fortunately, the skies had cleared up and we had an excellent forecast for the day.

In total, there were six people and three ocean kayaks on the tour. We embarked from Small Pox Bay after a kayaking lesson from Jesse. I had no idea there was any technique involved with kayaking other than simply paddling. Apparently, you are supposed to use your “core” and not just muscle your way through the waves. Good to know.

We paddled along the shore for a few hours, hugging closely to the rocks because there was an incredibly powerful current just a few yards off shore. Think of a powerful river... that was what the current felt like, and it was going the wrong way, as far as we were concerned.


We stopped for lunch at a little beach hidden amongst the rocky cliffs. After eating, Gideon and I swept the beach for beach glass. We gathered a big handful of glass, which now weighs down my fleece jacket pocket. I like the feeling of the rounded glass, so I plan on keeping the collection in my pocket for a while.



After lunch, we paddled past Lime Kiln State Park towards Deadman Bay where we turned around. We hopped on the current and had a quick paddle back to Small Pox Bay. Although we didn’t see any Orcas on our adventure, we still thoroughly enjoyed our day on the sea. We saw many harbor seals, birds, and my favorite, giant purple sea stars whose color was so vibrant they seemed otherworldly.


The evening was spent at the campground at Small Pox Bay, in San Juan State Park. I was prepared for a peaceful night with no worries of bears or other wildlife, being on a small island. But it was not to be. From the moment we arrived and set up camp, we noticed a few foxes running around the campground, as well as many deer feasting on the fruits of pear and apple trees in the sites. The apples were the size of large grapefruits and tasted of Granny Smiths. They made a good appetizer along with some cheese and crackers.

Back to the foxes. Basically, three or so stalked the camp all night. They were bound and determined to have our food and bugged us relentlessly until we went to bed. They would sneak up to within feet of us and stare at us. They would have crawled onto the table and asked for some Hamburger Helper and cabernet had we not continuously run them off yelling, clapping, and eventually banging pots together. Nothing kept them out of our hair for long. They’d reconvene in the woods and come up with a new strategy, sneaking up from behind or from either side. At one point, I found myself standing on the picnic table trying to get my ankles out of biting distance from the critters.

We went to bed soon after dinner and found ourselves wakened by falling apples (one falling on our tent with a thunderous crash at 2am), munching deer, and whining foxes throughout the night. It certainly was not what I was expecting at this picturesque island campground, but it made for a funny, if not terribly restful night at camp.


Now we are off to Victoria, British Columbia for a dose of English culture and class.

A Serendipitous Fish Story

The past few days have involved a good deal of traveling. We’ve gone from Glacier National Park, Montana to Burlington, Washington. Lucky for us, our route took us through the oh-so-scenic North Cascade National Forest and Park. We camped in the crook of some mountains on the shores of a mirror-like mountain lake. We had to laugh as we were wakened the next morning by the most cacophonous bunch of birds. All sorts, with all kinds of raucous calls started their chorus before the sun came up. I suppose I’d rather have rowdy birds than rowdy mammals.

We packed up camp after a breakfast of bacon and eggs and made our way to the visitor center for North Cascades National Park. It was quite a lovely center, a well-designed museum of the flora, fauna and geology of the range. Unfortunately, we just weren’t feeling it. We didn’t know what we felt like doing. We were both kind of feeling “blah”. We decided to find a creek for Gideon to try some fly fishing. We stopped at a Chevron in the little town of Marblemount where Gideon purchased a fishing license and a few lures. The plan was to find a spot along the Skagit River, but as Gideon was heading back to the car, he struck up a conversation with a woman standing nearby. I guess she overheard him chatting with the cashier about fishing. “You need the pink whirlies to get the humpies. You can get ‘em down at the station in Rockport just a few miles down,” she explained.
“Oh, great. Okay, thanks a lot,” Gideon replied.
“Where’re you fishing?” she asked.
“Oh, I don’t know. I guess we were just going to find a spot along the Skagit,” Gideon answered.
“Hmm. Well, just because I’m in a good mood today, I’m gonna tell you about my secret fishing spot.” She preceded to explain to Gideon how to reach the spot, just past Eagle Towing, make a left down the dirt path marked “No Trespassing”. She went on to call her friend who owned the spot, to give us special permission to fish there.
Was it her odd good mood, or the good looks of a stranger in a small town? Who knows? Long story short, we got us some pink whirlies and found us the secret spot and spent the next eight hours fishing for pink salmon. I should clarify. Gideon fished, I relaxed and read my book.


It was a stunning spot and the fish were literally jumping like crazy. I’ve never seen anything like it. Gideon casted all afternoon with his fly rod, catching a yummy female salmon which he promptly filleted and fried up for our lunch.




He soon became frustrated with his lack of fish harvest. A local visited us at the spot and gave Gideon some pointers. As a result, we had to book it back to the gas station at Rockport to get a casting rod and some more lures.
Upon our return to the secret spot, there were three locals fishing, two grumpy old mountain men and a young, friendly fellow named Chris. At first they didn’t seem all that pleased to see us city-slickers, but before you could say humpie, we were all fast fishing buddies. Chris gave Gideon all sorts of pointers and before you knew it, the humpies were flying in. Gideon hooked quite a few.



Then Chris got an extra rod for me. I hooked three fighters, but couldn’t bring a single one to shore. I got the thrill of reeling them in for a good while before they unsnagged themselves and moved on. That was okay with me. I would rather not deal with unhooking a big salmon. I just wish I could have brought one in for a picture.


When our Marblemount friends went home for the evening, they gifted me one of their fishing rods. I couldn’t believe my luck! We stayed another hour or so before calling it a day.

I have some fond memories of fishing in Pennsylvania with my step-dad and sisters when I was younger. It was so long ago though, that I forgot how great it was to hang out along the shores of a peaceful lake or river and watch the day ramble along to the steady casting of a line. I have a feeling that Gideon and I have a new hobby and you will probably be hearing some more fish stories from us.