AH, the RV'ing life...

Due to heavy rain on Saturday, we decided to stay "home".  During one less rainy spell, we dutifully took the RV off to the dump site to empty the holding tanks and refill the water tank.  Not a problem.  But when we got back and were resettling into our camp site, Luke made a rather ugly discovery....

Yes, a flat tire on an RV 75 miles from the nearest tire shop is ugly.  But Good Sam came to the rescue, the nice folks from a tire place came out and inflated the tire (slow leak due to the stem), and it only took 5 hours from our first call to the showing up....good thing we weren't in the middle of a busy intersection...but it did get fixed.

Because we still haven't explored the northern part of Olympic NP, we decided to stay one more day and delay Mt. Rainier by a day. Our site wasn't available for Monday night, so we moved...from the rainforest

To the Pacific Ocean shore!!!  Sunshine!!! (ok, it IS a sunny day, but trust me, that sun does not penetrate the rainforest!  I'm so happy!

Here is how the campsites look from the beach side.

The beach is again log filled, but a wide, long beach during low tide (this is near high tide).

Sunset over the Pacific.  Haven't seen that in a long time.  Not the best sunset ever, but a sunset over the Pacific all the same. As I type, there is the smallest crescent moon over the ocean.  Beautiful.  Yes, I'm a Pisces, a water child.

We will try again tomorrow to see the park near Port Angeles, then off to Mt. Rainier.

Olympic National Park

One last picture from North Cascades – I like this one.

Off from our home in a terrarium to a home in a rain forest!  To get there, however, we had to take a ferry from the mainland of WA State to the Olympic Peninsula, also in WA. First, a wait in lineto get onto the ferry.  Note --- all of these other vehicles waiting are cars, not RV’s! 

There was one tractor-trailer on board with us, but other than that, we were definitely the largest vehicle on board.  A bit intimidating, actually, but the attendants did a good job of getting us on board and situated.

Across the Puget Sound we went!

It was fairly clear when we landed, but as we drove westerly in the Olympic National Forest, the gray fog began to creep in from the Pacific.  Quite beautiful in a damp, chilly way!  We learned that the prevalent fog on this coast results from the cold ocean currents. The cold North Pacific Current flows eastward and hits the coast of British Columbia. There it splits into the northward flowing Alaska Current, and the southward flowing California Current.The Alaska current actually keeps Alaska warmer than it otherwise would be, and gives Ketchikan its 13 to 26 feet of rain per year. The prevailing westerly winds blow over the California Current, causing upwelling of deep cold water. The moist Pacific air blows over this cold water, cools, and the fog that is generated blows on shore. A few miles inland, and it may be sunny and 75 degrees. But, at our ocean side camp ground, it's been a maximum of 57 degrees, with 50 at night, and foggy.  Glad to have our nice warm, dry RV!

The ocean washes huge trees up onto the shore here, the remains of the giants that have fallen into the rivers and then to the ocean to be washed ashore.  Signs everywhere warn of playing on the logs, as these monster size logs can wash up or move in the surf with no warning.  Here are logs on the Kalalock Beach, where our campsite is located.

We drove to the western most point of land in the continental US, Cape Flattery.  En route, we stopped to see the tiny fishing town of Sekiu, with its somewhat strange “mascot”…

The fog lifted a bit just in time for us to get a shot of the first nation reservation town of Makah.

Once at the point of Cape Flattery, the fog rolled in again.

 The coast is spectacularly rugged.

The cliffs of the cape are heavily undercut from pounding Pacific storms

The prevailing winds work on the trees at the coast.

Clear-cut logging is still a way of life here, even in the National Forest (but not the National Park!!!). We see stripped hillsides all over.  We realize it is a livelihood here but so sad to see these beautiful trees harvested, leaving only barren land. It makes us cringe at the thought of all the trees that end up in use once and throw away products.

Yesterday we drove to the Hoh Rainforest.  We passed the world’s largest spruce en route.  It IS large, with a diameter of 12 ½ feet and height of 270 feet, estimated to be more than 500 years old.

The Hoh Rainforest is wet and lush, filled with old growth Douglas Firs and Sitka Spruce, along with thick ferns and other undergrowth.

Fallen trees are massive.

Look carefully – Luke was at the end of that fallen tree above – here is a close up - still hard to see, huh! .

As the fallen trees decay, they create "nurse log", a perfect spot for a nursery of seedlings. The thickness of the nurse log protrudes above the ferns and undergrowth, so these seedlings get the sunlight and nourishment from the fallen log. Only a few survive, but the ones that do grow up with their root base around the massive fallen tree.  With more than one surviving tree per log, new trees grow in a straight line, termed a "colonnade".

Heavy air plants, lichens and mosses, hang from many of the trees, especially from the Large Leaf Maples, looking like giant Chewbacca (Star Wars).

One more visit to the ocean at Rialto Beach, with the logs and "stacks" (islands formed from ancient cliffs  that have been separated from the mainland).

Oh, and the tiny town of 3000 isolated along the coast?  That would be Forks – where the Twilight movies were shot!  Oh, yes, the town doesn't forget!

Rain, rain, and more rain today.  Hoping to explore the northern part of the national park on Saturday and Sunday before we head to Mt. Ranier National Park on Monday morning.

Vancouver and North Cascades National Park (aka Camping in a Terrarium)

We spent a couple of days exploring Vancouver before we left Canada.  A beautiful city, we had lots to chose from.  First on the list was Stanley Park, an urban park voted "the World's Best Urban Park" in 2013.

First - rent bicycles and circumnavigate the park!

View the famous Scuba Girl sculpture

And watch a cruise ship, roughly 3 times the size of "ours" pass under the Lions Gate Bridge

The Vancouver Aquarium was closed for the afternoon, but they were giving free 10 minute mini-tours!  We saw barking sea lions

Acrobatic porpoises

And beautiful Beluga whales

So, we departed our convenient but not quite so enticing campground in Vancouver (did I mention the highway billboard, just a few campsites away from ours?)

Here in the beautiful, wild North Cascade Mountains, only 125 miles from Vancouver, we are camping in a green paradise.

Green and lush, I feel like we're camping in a personal sized terrarium, filled with moss and flowers.

Smokey loves it - she is making the most of her sunny spot in the "wild"

This is the land of cascading waterfalls.  This waterfall is so tall that I had to take 4 photos so Luke could "stitch" them together into a vertical panorama.

Beautiful Diablo Lake, her waters the wonderful turquoise blue from the glacial silt.

The waters from the lake are dammed to provide electricity for Seattle.

The park is filled with 3 primary types of trees - Western Red Cedar, Douglas Fir, and Western Hemlock.  The Douglas Fir is the second tallest conifer in the world (only the Redwoods are taller).  The firs reach 200-250 feet, with diameters of 5-6 feet.  The Western Red Cedar ranges from 200-250 feet also, with 10-15 feet in trunk diameter, thicker and nearly as tall as the Douglas Fir.  They are amazing to see!

Here is the view from the end of our campsite - check out the trees and the "large" RV at the bottom of the picture!

Tomorrow, another day of exploring the park.  There are a lot of easy trails here, some of which leave from the campground.  We will go adventuring!

Alaska!!!

Ok, I haven’t blogged but the trip was amazing – and busy! – and internet was scarce.  So, here it is, allll of my Alaska blog.   Believe me, it was tough picking out the 43 representative pictures.  Few words, I promise – mostly pictures!

Aboard at noon-ish.  Our stateroom!  (why, yes, this IS my first cruise….)

 

The deck in the center of the ship, passengers ready to depart.

 

Seaplanes are common In Vancouver.  They take off and land almost continuously.

 

Good bye, Vancouver!

 

Approaching the Lions Gate Bridge, indicating our departure from Vancouver and into open water.

See that nice windbreak that every one is standing behind?  Boy, that was invaluable later in the trip!

 

Oops!!! Airlines aren’t the only one that do this – luggage!  Forgotten luggage!  But the ship was slowed, a fast transport boat sent out, and luggage was put aboard. When we met the captain later, he explained that any further delays and he would have had to leave the luggage behind, as the timing for navigable currents levels  in some of the Inside Passage narrows is critical.

 

Our first day ended quickly, great meals and adjusting to the ship.  Glad we were on a small 640 passenger ship – it still took a while to learn our way around.  I can’t imagine being on a ship that carries almost   4000 passengers!  The second day was a day at sea, steaming towards our first stop, Juneau.  It was chilly, but we were on a cruise ship and wanted to recline in a deck chair and watch the world drift by. So we did!

 

Evening and darkening clouds begin to set in.  At about 10:30 pm.  Love those long days! 

 

The next day was rough and terribly windy and cold.  Look carefully.  The water in the pool is sloshing and rocking.

Snow capped mountains are more common.

Here is a fishing boat, off for wonderful seafood.  This is the type seen on the TV reality show.

 

Finally at Juneau!  The nice Italian captain (the one in the white slacks with all of the gold bars on his shoulder) oversees the docking of our ship.

 And she is docked!  Glad Latitudes isn’t this much of a job!

 

Juneau  is the state capital, has about 30,000 residents, about half work for the state government.  They say the winter is long and quiet!  Not much town, but believe me, there are plenty of jewelry shops and junk shops. 

 

Next day, Skagway.  Skagway is located in the northern tip of Alaska’s inside Passage. Yulp, the weather is definitely cold, windy, and gray from here through the rest of the trip.  Oh, and the Cruise Companion book says that with only 26 inches of rain per year, Skagway is warm and sunny.  Nope, not for us!

And the town is small, with a population of about 600.  Just as many jewelry stores it seemed.

 

 Our shore excursion here was a rail ride on the White Pass And Yukon Railroad.  Skagway is known as the Gateway to the Klondike.  During the gold rush, it was here that the boat stopped and the hard task of climbing by foot over the White Pass began.  It took prospectors up the snowy 3,500 foot pass and down into the Yukon on the other side.  Canada was afraid that the men would not be prepared for the harsh winter and conditions, so demanded that each man have 2000 pounds of provisions before they could enter the Yukon.  SO….at about 50 pounds on their back for each trip, that is 40 trips up and down the 3500 foot pass.  A lot of them didn’t make it.  The White Pass railroad takes you up to the summit of White Pass.  The misery and hardship of the prospectors seems unthinkable.

The landscape is becoming more rugged.

 

Headed back to sea, headed for Glacier Bay the next morning.

 And here is Glacier Bay, opening up her waters for us.

 

Excitement!  The first of our glaciers comes into view!  This is the Lamplugh Glacier.

 

Next, the John Hopkins glacier.

 Here is a close-up of the glacial ice.

This large glacier is the Margerie Glacier.  It is almost at the very end of the Bay.  It actually calved several times while we were watching!

 Lucky catch!  Looks who is taking a free ride on a small iceberg!  A lazy eagle.

 

 
For perspective on size, here is a much larger cruise boat in Glacier Bay.  This one holds over 2000 passengers.  The national park service limits the number of cruise boats per day in the bay to 2.  I think that is great!  Actually, I forgot – the park service sent 3 rangers onto the ship to give presentations and a running commentary while we were in the Bay.  Really interesting!

 

The water is filled with ice.

 Last, the premier glacier in the Bay.  Huge but slowly receding and thinning is the Grand Pacific Glacier.  But she is black.  Not the beautiful glistening blues of the others.  A landslide covered the glacier a few years ago and the debris is still there.  I was very disappointed.

 Tourists in the rain at Glacier Bay…did I mention that it rained the entire day we were in the Bay?

 

One treat as evening drifted in and the rain began to subside.  A rainbow that started on the surface of the water!  It slowly lifted and eventually shaped into the usual rainbow arch.  It was beautiful and amazing to watch.

 Last shore stop was Ketchikan, a town of about 10,000.  Yes, lots of jewelry stores...

 

 
Ketchikan has the highest rain fall in the US – up to 22 FEET per year!  It lived up to the reputation.  Yelp, it rained.

 

Of course, rain does bring beautiful flowers!

 

The most popular attractions around Ketchikan are the large totem poles.  About 20% of the population of Ketchikan can trace its heritage to 3 predominant regional tribes.   The stories and legends from these tribes are told in the totem poles.

 We took an excursion to visit the Saxman Native Village.  A display of dance was one of the features.

 And more totem poles, made in the village.
 

 Creek Street is a little shopping street, along …well…a creek!
 

 And of course, an ageless business…

 

Fishing is still the number one industry in Ketchikan.  The town has more boats than cars.

 Finally, on our last day at sea, sunshine!

 

More snowy mountains (this time in the sun).

 

This is a salmon fishing boat.  Not sure just how that works…

Early morning and we are headed for Vancouver on our last day.

By 7 a.m., we are back in the waters of Vancouver, our cruise finished.

 We did see a few whales at a distance, 3-4 eagles, and a couple of sea lions but no bears, no moose, no fox, no puffins.  It still was a wonderful cruise and experience. We loved it!

Smokey loved the fact that we came back and got her.  She talked to us incessantly for about 15 minutes, and then kept up conversations for hours.  Attention is top on her list and she has really been a pain – but, of course, we love it.  Nice to have my little princess back again.

 A couple of days here in Vancouver, then back to the States to explore the northern Pacific coast.