Adventure Travel Photography Blog
I left the mountains and headed for the coast this morning. We took a brief drive through La Push, Washington for a view of the harbor before returning to Second Beach, one of many beaches in the Olympic National Park which seemed to encompass the entire western peninsula of Washington. I really can’t imagine basking in the sun on Second Beach.
ON THE ROAD AGAIN!
We spent the year anniversary of my journey in Olympic National Park. After a year, I’ve obviously learned quite a bit about nature, geology, history, and geography; but I’ve also learned a few things about myself, Petey, and Scout (when she was with us) that I didn’t know. I’ve met a variety of kind individuals and feel very rewarded for them to have shared part of their life with me. My journey has been interesting, fun, and at times both lonely and challenging.
Amazingly, after a year of traveling to the lower forty-eight states, I still feel like there is so much more to see in this nation and that I will need to revisit many places at more length. Olympic National Park is a good example. I simply sampled a few short trails in different areas of the park.
ON THE ROAD AGAIN!
We started out the day taking a four mile dirt road up to the Mount Walker Viewpoint. There is both a north and south viewpoint. On a clear day, the Seattle area, Mount Rainier (the highest peak in Washington), Hood Canal with one of the longest floating bridges in the world over tidal waters, Mount Baker, and several other peaks in the Olympic Mountains are part of the scenic panorama. Today, however, fog was the only view. Mount Walker is home to a handful of caches though, so we picked up a few before bouncing back down to Highway 101.
ON THE ROAD AGAIN!Well, my first day on the Olympic Loop Tour was a memorable one, though not in a very good way. VANilla carted us several miles down a gravel road to the Staircase Rapids Nature Trail, a four mile path that follows a cascading Skokomish River. It turns out, the hike was in the Olympic National Park, where dogs are not allowed on the trails, and this morning I really wanted to include Petey on a walk. Therefore, we turned around and stopped at Lake Cushman State Park for a trek to the summit of Mount Rose.
ON THE ROAD AGAIN!
I’m sitting here writing my post on Sunday, September 11. I generally write them the day of or the day after despite it sometimes takes even longer to get them posted to the Internet. My regular readers have probably noticed that I always write the post as if I am writing it the “day of”. Today, I have to say that I just noticed I
mistakenly deleted all of yesterday’s photos this morning off my SD card. The card was full and for some reason as I started my hike this morning, I thought I downloaded yesterday’s photos. This event capped off a remarkably crappy September 11 which I will post tomorrow.
I think we drove close to seventy miles through farmland and along the Naches River which runs through the trail laced Mount Baker Snoqualmie National Forest before we climbed over Chinook Pass and rounded the bend for a magnificent view of Mount Rainier. The ice-capped Mount Rainier, a dormant volcano, stands at 14,411 feet and towers over everything around it; lakes, evergreens, meadows of wildflowers, and additional peaks.
ON THE ROAD AGAIN!
After tooling around the Town of Winthrop, which looked like it had been preserved since the late 1800s, though the old-fashioned facades were erected in 1972, we turned south to Cashmere to complete a loop drive.
ON THE ROAD AGAIN!
Our first stop of the morning was at the Gorge Powerhouse which was a pleasant surprise. The powerhouse was originally completed in 1924 and expanded in 1949. The first surges of electric power sent to Seattle via the Skagit Hydroproject were from this powerhouse.
With four turbines which require a dam and the river being diverted through a tunnel to generate enough pressure to operate them, the powerhouse provides enough electricity for over one million 100-watt light bulbs. The 1960 dam, 300 feet high and 670 feet long, replaced a 1923 rock-filled timber crib dam and a 1950 masonry dam.
ON THE ROAD AGAIN!
I missed my turn back to the campground last night and forgot to mention the yard art I found. This house was complete with a tiger, bald eagle, moose and a zebra just to name a few. There were so many, I can’t recall them all and they were big! Anyway, that was my evening entertainment before I turned in.
This morning I went on the greatest walk with Petey in tow. We followed a ridge trail through Fort Ebey’s forested hills and looked out on the water with a mountainous background as ships sailed by. Along the way to Partridge Point Beach, we stopped to explore the gun battery constructed in 1942.
ON THE ROAD AGAIN!
Well, I felt like I had an extremely busy day to write about, but now that I have skimmed through the pictures I didn’t go many places. It must have been the holiday traffic and the wait for the ferry that took up a few hours of my afternoon.
This morning I took about a 4.5 mile hike in Wallace Falls State Park. It was cool out and VANilla had a shady parking spot, so Petey got to wait for me. I normally take him on dog friendly trails, but I’ve been subject to dragging him midway through the second mile. Thank goodness I left him to rest, the trail had quite a bit of elevation change.
ON THE ROAD AGAIN!