Here are some shots from the gorgeous Fall sunset we had on our way back from Olympic National Park. These were taken on the ferry ridge from Kingston to Edmonds.
Mt Rainier in the distance from the Ferry Dock
Moonrise
Last rays of the day
Evening Sail
End of a great day
The weather has been gorgeous. I don’t remember a better September. It almost makes up for the cold unpredictable summer. We realized we had not been over to Hurricane Ridge at Olympic National park in ages. Good weather – off during the week – no reason not to make a trip.
We decided on Wednesday to go to Obstruction Point. This is a dirt road that run below Grand Ridge from Hurricane Ridge back east. All along the drive are stunning vista back over the Olympic Mountains. And once at Obstruction Point, you can hike either along Lillian Ridge to Grand Lake or towards Deer Park. There was once plans to create a road all long the ridge from Hurricane Ridge to Deer Park but those were scraped.
We caught the 7:50 ferry and made it to Pt Angeles by about 10am. I forgot to check the park website and we were delayed by construction. I’m glad we decided to go last week. I’ve found out that the road is closed totally during the week while they finish paving.
We made it to Obstruction Point about 11am. The road is in good condition but one lane gravel. There are a couple of places where I wouldn’t want to meet another car but fortunately we didn’t.
We decided to hike towards Deer Park. It is over 7 miles to Deer Park which was too much for us so we decided just to go to Elk Mountain, the highest point on the trail, which is about 2 miles. Brilliant sun contrasted with the gray slate. The grass had started to turn golden and there were meadows of red leaved blueberries. I completely forgot how narrow the trail was. There were one or two spots that were a little narrower than I like. A little bit of vertigo but I made it.
We went as far as the second junction to Badger Lake and then climbed up to the top of Elk Mountain where Port Angeles, Sequim and the Strait was laid out at our feet. It was clear enough to see Victoria and even Mt. Baker in the far distance.
The shadows were lengthening and it was a quick trip back to the car. We headed back to Pt Angeles. We were starved so we stopped for pizza and a cold beer. Yum.
Here are some pictures.
View of the Olympic Range from Obstruction Point
Beginning of trail to Deer Park
Click for more pictures….
Zebra on the road to Okondeka waterhole – Etosha Namibia
This week’s Photohunt is wild. To me, wild is Africa. We visited Etosha National Park in Namibia in September 2005. This is a place where the humans are locked in at night to protect them from the wild beasts. It is an amazing place.
Do check out a few of the other members of Slow Travel that participate. You can find them in my right navigation bar with the little camera next to their blog title.
Happy hunting
I’ve been making a few changes to my blog. I added my picture, bio and spiff up my sidebar. I was cleaning the dust bunnies out of the corners of the old posts when I noticed that I made my first blog post on September 12, 2003!
It is my 5th blogiversary! I’ve been blogging for five years! Did you know there is a word for blog anniversary – blogiversary. Hmmm… or is it blogoversary? I’m going with blogiversary.
I started this blog back in 2003 as a journal of our travel plans and trip to Chile. Over the following years, I blogged off and on about travel, food, hiking and wildflowers. The other bloggers at Slow Travel have been a great help this year – blogging for a month, Slow Bakers, sharing memes and Photohunt.
I want to thank everyone for dropping by. I really appreciate your comments and I love your feedback on my photos.
I thought I would highlight a few posts from the past years.
Again – thanks for stopping by and reading.
Our anniversary was this weekend. I missed celebrating it last year when I was in France. We have an unusual way of celebrating. We go for a hike.
Our favorite place to go is Burroughs Mountain out of Sunrise at Mt. Rainier. The trail starts at Sunrise which is at 6,400 ft and climbs up into the tundra-like terrain on the shoulders of Mt. Rainier. Burroughs Mountain is actually three small summits which give you an armchair vista down on the powerful glaciers of the northern side of Rainier. First Burroughs is about 1.5 miles from Sunrise at 7,200ft and Second Burroughs is a mile further at 7,400ft. The last mile seems so much steeper. We’ve also gone on to Third Burroughs which is even wilder and closer to the icy glaciers.
For our anniversary hike, we like to leave later in the afternoon, have dinner on Second Burroughs while watching the shadows lengthen across the crevasses and then hike back at sundown. It usually takes us about 1 1/2 hours so we try to leave by 7pm.
This weather is unusual this year. It snowed last weekend at Sunrise and it has been cold. It feels like mid-September. We checked the forecast and it was supposed to be warm. It was sunny at home so I packed up a dinner of sauteed shrimp, lemon orzo and caprese salad. We made a latte and packed it in a thermos along with the stroopwafles Amy brought back from Holland.
It was sunny but windy and cold when we reached the parking lot at Sunrise. Clouds swirled around the mountain and clouds hugged the summit. The trail is steep as it climbs through the meadow at Sunrise to Sourdough Ridge and turns west towards Burroughs Mountain.
The wind was whipping up from below at the junction to Berkeley Meadow and Fremont Lookout. Here the trail turns rocky as it climbs through the shale. This area is so botanically interesting. The paintbrush and lupine are dwarfed by the cold and hostile growing conditions. But you don’t want to take your eyes off the trail too long because it is a steep drop down the side.
First Burroughs was engulfed in fog with just a sliver of view. Should we continue on? I wanted to. We might be lucky and get a break. The next mile is always so hard for me. The altitude takes its toll on my energy level. It was particularly hard today since I knew it might be miserable at the top.
But we had a break in the clouds and found a warm spot on the rocks below away from the wind. I dished up dinner and we toasted our years together with a glass of wine while we watched the lengthening shadows on the ice below.
The clouds were thickening and we decided to head back. It was a good idea since it was getting foggy again. It was cold and windy and a little damp while we scrambled back to the car. The latte was perfect and stroopwafles never tasted better.
Start of the trail at Sunrise
One of the last flowers in bloom – the Asters
Heading towards Frozen Lake
Almost to First Burroughs
Click for more…
This week’s PhotoHunt theme is string. I liked this theme. I found it had a lot more options to show different types of strings. The idea of guitar strings actually came from my husband. This is a picture of his Fender Stratocaster guitar. It was the first thing that came to his mind when I asked him what he thinks of when I say “Strings”?
Do check out a few of the other members of Slow Travel that participate. You can find them in my right navigation bar with the little camera next to their blog title.
Happy hunting
Deborah at Old Shoes -New Trip tagged the other Slow Travel bloggers with a list of 43 interesting city squares, plazas and piazzas from around the world. She challenges us to find out how many of these squares we have visited.
I went through the list and only came up with 13 squares. I definitely have my work cut out to make a dent on the other 30.
The Forty-Three MEME from Old Shoes, New Trip
Copy this list into your own blog and put an asterisk after each city square you’ve actually spent time in. (Riding past in a taxi or bus doesn’t count.) Please include the link back to Old Shoes – New Trip in you own entry and don’t forget to come back to and leave comment on Deborah’s post.
1- Piazza Del Campo, Siena, Italy *
2- Piazza Della Signoria, Florence, Italy *
3- Staromestske Namesti, Prague, Czech Republic
4- Markt, Bremen, Germany
5- Grote Markt, Brussels, Belgium *
6- Piazza and Piazzetta San Marco, Venice, Italy *
7- Piazza Del Campidoglio, Rome, Italy *
8- Krasnaja Polscad, Moscow, Russia
9- Sultanahmet Meidani, Istanbul, Turkey
10- Piazza Navona, Rome, Italy *
11- St. Peter’s Square, The Vatican *
12- Place Des Vosges, Paris, France *
13- Place Vendome, Paris, France
14- Place Des Terreaux, Lyon, France
15- Place Stanislas, Nancy, France
16- Plaza Mayor, Madrid, Spain *
17- Schlossplatz, Stuttgart, Germany
18- Plaza De La Constitucion, Mexico City, Mexico
19- Praca do Comercio, Lisbon, Portugal
20- Trafalgar Square, London, UK *
21- Gendarmenmarkt, Berlin, Germany
22- Konigsplatz, Munich, Germany
23- Winter Palace Square, St. Petersburg, Russia
24- Piccadilly Circus, London, UK *
25- Piazza Duomo, Milan, Italy *
26- Piazza Dell’Unita D’Italia, Trieste, Italy
27- Theaterplatz, Dresden, Germany
28- Maria Theresien Platz, Vienna, Austria
29- Hosok Tere, Budapest, Hungary
30- Plaza De Mayo, Buenos Aires, Argentina
31- Times Square, New York City, USA *
32- Tian’anmen Square, Beijing, China
33- Praca Dos Tres Poderes, Brasilia, Brazil
34- Nathan Phillips Square, Toronto, Canada
35- City Hall Plaza, Boston, USA
36- Plateau Beaubourg, Paris, France
37- Tsukuba Center Square, Tsukuba, Japan
38- Place Du Nobre D’Or, Montpellier, France
39- Placa Dels Paisos Catalans, Barcelona, Spain
40- Parliament Square, Canberra, Australia
41- California Plaza, Los Angeles, USA
42- Schouwburgplein, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
43- Potsbamer Platz, Berlin, Germany
July 18-19, 2008 – Redwoods and home
California Road Trip and Family GTG
Days 12-13 The day was misty as we headed back up the tortuous curves of Hwy 1 to Hwy 101. This section between Fort Bragg and Leggett is not heavily traveled. It had been closed recently due to a forest fire and we passed several burned out shoulders along the way. The sun broke out and we joined up with Hwy 101 to head north.
I used the David Baselt’s outstanding Redwood Hikes website for our planning. We only had a short time to visit and I wanted to be able to see as much as possible. I decided on the Roosevelt Grove in Humboldt State Park and Stout grove in Jedediah Smith Redwood State Park. My friend E also highly recommended the drive through Stout Grove near Crescent City.
We decided our first stop would be the Roosevelt Loop in Humboldt Redwood State Park just off the Avenue of the Giants. We turned off at Mattole exit and drove along the river. We missed the turn off and had to turn around. There was no one else in the parking lot and we could still feel the morning chill. The trail was short but it gave us a good idea of the giants of these forests.
We headed on and got gas at the Costco in Eureka. It was pretty expensive even for a Costco at $4.60/gallon. We stopped at another brewery for lunch – Six River Brewery just north of Arcata.
Our next stop was at Stout Grove. We saw the sign just before Crescent City and turned off on to Howland Hill Road. This is very cool road that eventually becomes a dusty dirt road curving between the big trees. We took a short walk through the grove and then headed into Oregon for Grants Pass.
We spent our last night in Grants Pass. The next day we drove straight up I-5 and home to the kitty. A quick but enjoyable two weeks.
Here are some photos of the redwoods. I found them extremely difficult to shoot. The bright sun shinning and the dark shadows made it very difficult for exposing.
Winding path in Roosevelt Grove
Lovely oxalis meadow in the shadow of the giants in Roosevelt Grove
The dirt road through the giants at Jedediah Smith Redwood State Park
Late Afternoon sunrays through the Stout Grove
July 16-17, 2008 – Fort Bragg
California Road Trip and Family GTG
Days 10-11 It was finally time to say farewell to the family and head back to the Pacific Northwest. We wanted to return via the coast and spend some time in Fort Bragg. Our last trip along the coast was in the mid-80’s.
First we loaded up the car with some of my mother’s furniture that I was storing at G’s parents. We got it all stuffed in the care with a little bit of room to spare. We waved good by and headed across the delta to the coast.
We stopped in Healdsburg for lunch. We had a couple of tasty sandwiches and great beers at Bear Republic Brewery. We continued up 101 and turned off a Cloverdale to drive through Anderson Valley. We stopped in Boonville. It is a very cool little town. I particularly liked All that Good Stuff store. Lovely gifts with a French flair.
We continued on and stopped for a tasting of award winning wines at Navarro Wines in Philo. We tried a very tasty Rose, Riesling and Gewürztraminer.
Soon we entered the redwoods. The air was cooler and salty. We were nearing the coast. We stayed two nights in a private rental above Fort Bragg. It was a perfect getaway. We had a tasty dinner at North Coast Brewery.
Next day was plant day. We headed off to the Mendocino Botanical Garden. We were amazed at the diversity of plants that would grow in the area. It is at the northern edge of growing region of many of our favorite Mediterranean plants. We explored the beds and worked up an appetite.
We had an amazing lunch at Moosse Cafe. It was recommended in our rental as a good place for vegetarians and it was. Lots of fresh seasonal food and good fish choices. We walked around the town for a while admiring the large echiums.
Our last stop for the day was at Hortus Botanicus so G could be temped by some exotic tender perennial that he could do without. He found several. Fortunately, he was limited by the furniture we had in the car.
The next day it was time to say good by to the coast and we headed off for the redwoods.
Here are some scenes from gardens and Mendocino.
Iris
Mendocino Botanical Garden
Test 2