Rocks everywhere and very HOT!!!
Canyonlands NP
Mark - still building Cairns - his best one yet on our campsite At Dead Horse State Park
Watching the evening sky from Dead Horse Point
Thursday, August 28, 2014
Dead Horse State Park and Canyonlands National Park
A seat with a great view of Canyonlands
The canyons of Canyonlands NP
Canyonlands NP
Canyonlands NP
A seat with a great view
Canyonlands NP
More photos from Utah...
The famous Delicate Arch in Arches NP
Mark with Delicate Arch
A large and small arch all in one place
Windows Arch
Arches National Park
More photos from Utah...
Arches National Park
Balanced Rock in Arches National Park
Mark building one of his numerous Cairns in the area.
The finished masterpiece
Photos from Utah...
Mark on a trail in Arches National Park
Looking through one arch to the rocks behind it.
Arches National Park
Sunday, August 24, 2014
The Sights are Spectacular in the West
I am working on this blog entry as we drive today heading East on I-70. The last two weeks have been so busy, I could never find time to sit down and write and have a good internet connection at the same time. So I hope this will bring us up to date on out travels...
We left Sequim Bay, Washington and drove 90 miles to the West coast to La Push, WA. La Push is a small fishing village located in the Quileute Tribe Indian Reservation. The Indians have a resort there with a hotel, cabins and an RV park - all located right on First Beach. La Push is a very convenient place to explore the western side of Olympic National Park and the Scenic Byway Highway of 101. The beach view from our RV at La Push was amazingly beautiful!!!
Olympic National Park has three distinct ecosystems: sub-alpine forest and wild flower meadow, temperate forest and the rugged Pacific shore. While we were in the Sequim Bay (pronounced Squim) area, we covered the Hurricane Ridge sub-alpine meadows with the mountains and glaciers as a back drop. Now on the West side of the park, we were able to explore the Hoh Rain Forest, 19 miles inland from the coast. This is considered enchanted land - home to Sitka spruce, western hemlock, and western red cedars trees - HUGE trees. We stopped to see and photograph the largest Sitka spruce - 25 feet in circumference and towering 300 feet tall. They estimate the age of the tree to be 500 - 550 years old!!!! WOW!!!
We also spent time beach walking on Rialto Beach, First Beach, Second Beach and Ruby Beach. Rock outcroppings called "Sea Stacks" are located all along the coast line of over 60 miles that Olympic NP preserves in coastal wilderness. These sea stacks are truly spectacular to see!!! Huge drift logs (trees) litter many of the northern beaches in the national park.
The Hoh Rain Forest will receive 200 inches of rain a year - the Sequim Bay area only receives 16 inches of rain a year.
Then we headed south on 101 to the Ocean City/Ocean Shores area of the Washington coastline before we started our trip back East. We spent three days driving East through Washington, Oregon, and Idaho to reach our next major stop of the trip - Moab, Utah. It was an amazing drive going from lush green forests and grasses to desert brown and dry land.
Moab is best known for being just outside of Arches National Park. Moab is also well known for the more than 50 movies that have been filmed in the Moab area. Lots of outdoor adventure opportunities here too - white water rafting on the Colorado River, hiking,rock climbing, adventure tours into the parks.
We spent several days in Moab. Arches National Park contains more than 2,000 natural arches in the park. The landscape is amazing - the arches, rocks, spires, pinnacles and the slickrock domes are awesome next to the beautiful blue sky. One other thing - it was blistering HOT while in the Moab area with 100 degree temps every day during our visit. Quite a change in three days from the Washington Coast (highs in the 60's and very cool to 100 degree heat and clear blue skies.
We headed out early every day to sight see and hike because of the very high temps. We spent the afternoon doing something in the air conditioning to keep cool. We hiked the trails to the Windows Arches, Tower Arch, Skyline Arch, Double Arch trail, did some of Devil's Garden and the Balanced Rock.
The photo famous "Delicate Arch" was closed when we arrived due to flash flooding rains - but the trail and road reopened before we left so we were able to hike the one and one half mile (one-way) trek up to the Delicate Arch. WOW!!! It was well worth the effort to hike up to the it.
We also spent a night at Dead Horse Point State Park - next to Canyonlands National Park, about 35 miles outside of Moab. We toured the Island in the Sky region of the park with its beautiful canyons. Canyonlands NP is called the Grand Canyon of Utah. Of course we also had to make a stop at the Dead Horse Point for sunset photos - beautiful scenery.
Now it is time for us to seriously head East. We have 1,453 miles to go to get back to Indianapolis, IN. Day one of the drive was filled with the biggest challenges of the trip - three passes through the Rocky Mountains. Vail Pass - 10, 603 feet, Loveland Pass 11,990 feet and Mt. Vernon Canyon - 7,730 feet made for a very challenging day of travel. All three of the passes were a 12 mile climb up to the pass!!!!! We spent one night each in Aurora, Colorado, Topeka, Kansas and Vandalia, IL. Our fantastic 78 day adventure is coming to a close as we approach Indianapolis. It has been a truly amazing trip for us - 7, 300 miles from New Bern, NC to the West coast and back to Indianapolis, IN. We are all ready working on plans for our next big adventure. Hopefully I will get more photos posted tomorrow.
Sunday, August 17, 2014
Washington coast beaches
Large rock formations are all along the beaches in and near Olympic NP - these large rocks are called
"Sea Stacks".
Beach along the Olympic Peninsula
Olympic Peninsula Beach
West Coast of Washington photos
Our view of the beach from the RV- Mark picked a beautiful spot for us.
This HUGE tree was on First Beach in La Push, WA
The view from our RV site - NICE!!
There are large trees on the beaches
Mark building one of his many rock piles
Sunday, August 10, 2014
Olympic National Park and Sequim
Deer wondering through a neighborhood in Port Townsend
The lighthouse at Port Townsend
Olympic National Park Mountains
Boats anchored in Sequim Bay across from the John Wayne RV ark
Time spent in Seattle...
Snoqualmie Water Fall
Pike Place Fish Market
The downtown market
Mt. Rainier in the National Park
Friday, August 8, 2014
Through Customs and back in the USA
We left Vancouver, British Columbia and headed 15 miles south to the US/Canada border to check back in to the US. We were totally surprised how fast we were checked back in to the US. One car in front of us and five minutes later we where were back in the USA - in to the state of Washington. We have always been fortunate to have relatively easy check-ins back in to the US.
We found an RV park for an extended stay to visit the Seattle area - Tall Chiefs RV Resort in the suburb of Sammamish. Nice resort with lots of trees/forest and quiet. It was hard to believe that we were in a major metropolitan area until we drove out of the RV resort and on to Hwy. 202 to go somewhere and we found ourselves stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic. We quickly discovered we needed to plan our trips around the area with extra time and around major traffic periods of travel.
We spent several days touring the Seattle area - home of the Mariners and the Seahawks, Starbucks Coffee, Pike Place Market, and the Boeing Company. One beautiful stop for us was the Snoqualmie Falls, a 268 Ft. tall waterfall on the Snoqualmie River that is one of Washington's most popular scenic attractions. The falls is also known for its appearance in the cult television series - Twin Peaks.
We spent a day visiting downtown Seattle where we visited the well-known Pike Place Market - famous for its fish throwing market employees, beautiful flowers and fresh veggies and fruit. We also walked all along the waterfront park area and ate lunch (fish of course!) at Ivar's Fish Bar overlooking the harbor.
We also spent a day visiting the quaint waterfront village of Gig Harbor on the sound. This is a very pretty waterside village with shops and restaurants and many homes with great million dollar views of water and sound area. We ate lunch at the Tides Tavern on the deck in beautiful weather.
Another day was spent touring the Boeing factory north of Seattle in Everett, WA. We saw three different assembly lines building the 747, 777, and the 787 planes - very impressive. We also had a chance to watch several newly built aircraft take off for one of their maiden test flights from the Boeing air field next to the plant. This is the largest manufacturing plant in the world - and they can now build a 747 in three days. WOW!!! We also toured the Future of Flight Museum there.
After spending time in the Seattle area, we headed 130 miles east on route 101- a Scenic Byway drive to Sequim, WA. Sequim is known as the lavender capital of the world and it is also located on the doorstep to Olympic National Park. Sequim has the beautiful Cascade Mountains to the south and the Strait of Juan De Fuca to the north along with Vancouver Island.
We spent three nights in the John Wayne Waterfront RV Resort in Sequim. The RV resort is named for "The Duke" who owned the property and developed it. It is still owned by the John Wayne family, operated by John Wayne's grandson. The RV park is located across the street from Sequim Bay and the John Wayne Marina and Park. We also spent two nights in the Sequim Bay State Park Campground.
Olympic National Park has three distinctly different ecosystems - rugged glacier-capped mountains, more than 70 miles of wild Pacific coast and magnificent strands of old-growth trees and temperate rain forest- a very unique park. There are breathtaking mountain vistas, colorful tide pools and some of the largest remnants of ancient forests remaining in the USA.
Our plan is to visit the north and the east side of the park from three different campgrounds. We drove to the main visitor's center at the Port Angeles entrance and drove the Hurricane Ridge area, named for the strong winds that blow through the area. From the Hurricane Ridge Visitor Center we could see the glaciers to the south and east and straits to Vancouver Island to the north with beautiful views.
One day were caught the ferry to Victoria, Vancouver Island for a day trip. We spent the day touring the 55-acre Butchart Gardens and the Victoria waterfront. The Butchart Gardens are absolutely beautiful - more than 1,000 varieties of flowers- open 365 days a year with the gardens all outside. The best gardens we have even toured. One of the top gardens in North America.
While in Sequim we also visited a lavender farm, toured town, Dungeness Recreation Area and Port Townsend. Tomorrow we are headed East to the coast and the Pacific Ocean for several days.
Sunday, August 3, 2014
More photos from Glacier NP
Wanted to post these earlier- but I could not find them in the photos folders...too many photos at this point!!!
Late spring snowfalls made it difficult for the road to open.
Lots of snow
Mark and our car next to a snow drift in July
Logan's Pass in early July
Mark with a hiking sign they dug out for people to see
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