Well, I can get back to photos, now that I've finished the last Harry Potter (Poor Chris, I didn't talk to him for about 4 days straight while I was engrossed. But come on, I've been with Harry for almost 10 years, how am I supposed to react?!) Anyway, on the 4th of July, we set out to Washington. Our first stop was Olympic National Park.


After getting our camp site all set, we went to the nearby driftwood littered Rialto Beach to watch the sunset. When the Quillayute River rages with the heavy rains of winter, the rushing water pulls trees from the Olympic Wilderness, washes them out to sea, and eventually, they are stranded back here near the mouth of the river.


Now, they serve as a perfect place for a staged photo op

"Look sharp, all of ye! There are whales here-abouts! If ye see a white one, split your lungs for him!" Of course, it was just some distant rocks being exposed by the retreating tide, but it looks convincing right?


As the sun was sinking, a couple communities and locals started setting off fireworks. They were going off at random in at least 5 different locations and went on late into the night. Part way through, we spotted a large bird flying low along the coast line. It was a beautiful bald eagle. Washington sure knows how to do up Independence Day in style! Keizer, however, was not impressed.

The next morning, we drove to the Hoh Rain Forest. This spectacular example of a temperate rainforest receives up to 12 feet annual precipitation, which helps foster the giant conifers that dominate the forest. The Hoh also sustains a variety of maples, which host an abundance of epiphytes (plants growing upon other plants). Here, Chris stands next to a colossal Bigleaf Maple.


A plethora of mosses, lichen, ferns, and other plants compete for space and limited sunlight in the branches…


and the forest floor. Gazing upon this ethereal scene, I couldn't help but envision fairies flitting about (If you've never seen the movie "Fern Gully", go rent it today!)


Born high on glacier-capped Mount Olympus and fed by snowmelt and rain, the Hoh River descends 7,000 feet to the Pacific Ocean. It gets its milky, slate blue color from glacier flour, the sediment that the glacier has ground from rocks.

After dinner, we again decide to spend the evening on the driftwood littered Rialto Beach.


Another whale sighting…

Ah, sunsets never lose their splendor.


Did I mention driftwood makes great furniture?

Sitting by a driftwood fire…


Enjoying cuba libres…


The roar of the ocean…


And Battleship! During a lively game debate...or maybe someone was just being a sore loser?

After an excellent night's sleep in the great outdoors, we felt refreshed and ambitious. We deiced to break camp a day early and spend a night on one of the islands of Puget Sound. First, a stop for Keizer. Because we were spending most of out time in the National Park and they, for some ludicrous reason, don't allow dogs on trails, Keizer ended up spending a lot of time in the jeep, so we made sure to track down spots outside park boundaries for Keizer to enjoy. Hey, its his vacation too! And I couldn't complain about the view…


We traveled to the northern section of the park and drove up the winding road to Hurricane Ridge, which garners its name from the + 75 mph wind gusts that buffet the ridge. This area afforded a panoramic view of the majestic Olympic Mountain Range, with the 7980ft Mt Olympus looming in the background.

As if the scene couldn't get more picturesque, blooming wildflowers carpeted the alpine meadows.


Appreciating the wildflowers through pictures, not picking! I've tried as best I could to ID these… here goes…


Avalanche Lily

Glacier Lily


Broadleaf Lupines, one of my favorites.


Wild Onion


Harebells, "Bluebells-of-Scotland"

On our way back to the coast, we passed Ancient Lake Morse. Chris' very own lake! The sign reads "Thousands of years ago, a great ice sheet from Canada flowed south through the Puget Sound and west through the Strait of Juan de Fuca. The ice sheet abutted alpine glaciers flowing from the Olympic Mountains. As warming occurred, meltwater from mountain glaciers was dammed by the ice sheet, forming ancient Lake Morse."


Oh yeah, did I forget to mention… "Continued warming caused the ice sheet to withdraw, draining the lake."


We took the ferry to Whidbey Island. To the east across the Sound, the Cascades peaked through a wall of clouds. The island ended up being swarmed by Seattlites "roughing it", escaping the city for the weekend. We ended up in overflow camping, paying three times as much as usual, sleeping on gravel, surrounded by massive RV's, all sounds of nature blotted out by the big screen blaring through the trees…

As you can imagine, we got out of there quick the next morning and went south to Mt Rainer National Park. Again, we had to find "Keizer friendly areas" so we decided to hike a bit of the Pacific Crest Trail through the Wenatchee National Forest, where dogs are a-ok.


"The most luxurious and the most extravagantly beautiful of all the alpine gardens I ever beheld in all my mountain-top ramblings." John Muir on Mt Rainier's meadows.


Western Pasqueflower