Western Washington has beautiful scenery and an amazing diversity of environments. We started out in the North Cascade National Park where there are 300 glaciers – more than anywhere else in the lower 48 states. Next we headed to the Pacific coast to go whale watching, hike in the temperate rain forests and explore the tide pools on the beach. We mentally prepared ourselves for non- stop rain - we were pleasantly surprised when we had a few sunny days in the rain forest and along the coast! The weather is a lot like Ireland – if it’s not raining then it’s a lovely day!
Our favorite places along the way :
Beautiful scenery in the North Cascades National Park
There's still lots of snow in the Cascades
One of those rare sunny days - we soaked it up!
Majestic mountains and a beautiful blue sky!
Whale watching in the San Juan Islands
Click on the arrow to see the video of the Orca whale
Hunting for their favorite food - Chinook salmon
Really cool - a freighter transporting yachts!
Mt Baker was out and so was the sun - a beautiful day in Port Townsend on the Olympic Peninsula....
The Hoh rain forest in the Olympic National Park - moss is growing every where!
A Roosevelt elk
The rocky, wild Pacific coastline on the Olympic peninsula
Cape Flattery - fantastic scenery at the most NW point in the lower 48
A fabulous campsite right on the Pacific Ocean!
Sunset at our campsite on the longest day of the year
Incredible sea stacks on the beach
Lovely scenery at Ruby beach
Tide pools full of starfish and anemones - it's so much fun exploring the tide pools!
The first blue starfish we have ever seen...
Just a few of the dozens of starfish and anemones
We love the northern Pacific coastline and are looking forward to continuing our journey south into Oregon. We're planning to spend the next 11 days exploring the entire length of the Oregon coast!
What a wide variety of scenery and experiences we’ve had as
we traveled through Montana, Idaho and into Washington State and we also had a
wide variety of weather – from warm, to cool, to rain and even snow!
Snowing as we traveled through the Bitterroot mountains
Wildlife sightings along
the way….
Big Horn sheep
Elk
Baby black tailed deer
Moose
Some of the highlights:
Pompey’s Pillar where
William Clark camped on the expedition to find a water route to the west coast. He carved his name in the huge rock
that has guided travelers across the western plains for 1,000’s of years
William Clark carved his name in the pillar in 1806
Little Big Horn Battlefield where Custer lost the battle to the Sioux Indians and died.
Hill where Custer and 250 men died in the battle
memorial for the Sioux Indians that died in the battle
Grant-Kohrs Ranch a National Historic Site that was once the largest ranch
in the west – the cattle roamed on 10 million acres. It is managed by the
national parks and is being operated as it was in the late 1800’s.
Making "cowboy coffee" at the chuck wagon
Cattle baron's ranch house
Virginia City, a gold
rush ghost town from the 1860’s. It is truly a ghost town with the original buildings
- stores, houses, saloons and blacksmith shops left exactly as they were
( contents and all) when the town was abandoned after the gold rush ended in
the late 1860’s. The ghost town has a lively history filled with tales of
outlaw “road agents” hanged by self appointed vigilantes before it became a
part of the Montana territory and there was a “real sheriff” in town.
Ghost town stores
Original contents of the store
Lake Coeur D Alene,
Idaho – a quaint little town and a beautiful glacier carved lake
The Boeing manufacturing plant in Everett,
Washington – north of Seattle. We took a tour of the plant where they
manufacture Boeing 747, 777 and the new Dreamliner 787. It was fascinating to
see those jumbo jets rolling along an assembly line in the largest building in
the world!
Boeing manufacturing plant
Fuselage of the new 787 Dreamliner
We’re planning to spend the next couple of weeks in
Washington state exploring the beautiful national parks, wildlife and scenery along the coast. We have always loved the Pacific Northwest, it’s
a nature lover’s paradise–snow capped mountains, the rugged Pacific coastline, rivers,
lakes, waterfalls and all kinds of wildlife - unfortunately it is also known
for lots of rain. Maybe we’ll get lucky and have more “sun breaks” than we do
rain showers!
We woke up one morning at our campsite in Teddy Roosevelt
National Park in North Dakota with 2
VERY large male bison roaming around our campsite. The campground host had
warned us the night before that the bison have used the RVs and cars as a
scratching post and it sure looked like the largest of the two males was headed
right for poor little Scooter – the bison was much bigger than she is! We held
our breath hoping that if he did rub up against her he wouldn’t tip her
over….thankfully, he passed her by and walked over to a
tree and scratched his back on it instead!
The bison checking out Scooter ( our Smart Car)
Bison scratching on the tree - thank goodness!Click on the arrow to see the video clip.
Molly's thinking - wow that's a big dog
Our route started out in NE Minnesota through Duluth and
along the north shore of Lake Superior, through the Boundary Waters Canoe Wilderness area
and then on to North Dakota. The landscape changed dramatically from the rocky
cliffs of Lake Superior and north woods of Minnesota to the plains and badlands
of North Dakota. We were lucky enough to spot some wildlife along the way but
not lucky enough to get a picture …. A big black bear, a mother sandhill crane
and her baby, white pelicans (
who would have thought there would be white pelicans so far from the ocean), a
golden eagle and a coyote.
Some highlights along the way:
Duluth – watching 1,000’ freighters in the harbor
Lower span is raised up for large ships
Bridge raised up for 1,000' freighter
Minnesota’s north shore drive and the
north woods wilderness
The first office for 3M corporation - fascinating history!
Split Rock Lighthouse from the 1880's
Gooseberry Falls
Wolf at the International Wolf Center in Ely
Waterfall in the Boundary Waters Wilderness
Dinosaur skeletons at the Dakota Dinosaur museum
Allosaurus and Triceratops skeletons found in North Dakota
Teddy Roosevelt National Park
Teddy Roosevelt's cabin on his ranch - 1880's
Pronghorn antelope
Wild horse in the national park
Prairie dog sounding the alarm. Click on the arrow to see the video clip.
Still westward bound 2,341 miles behind us in Rose and 1,675 in Scooter so far…. now we're on our way to Big Sky country in Montana and the BitterRoot mountains in Idaho!
