REDWOOD NATIONAL PARK

We left Crater Lake and headed up over the Cascade Range in a southwesterly direction.  We drove through some beautiful scenery and went through a tunnel exiting onto the west slope of the Cascades and into the Redwoods.  We had reservations in Crescent City, California which is about fifteen miles from the Oregon line and right on the Pacific Ocean.  We found our campsite and it was very close to where we wanted to be.  There were even several redwoods in the campground but none of the really large ones we would be seeing in the next few days.

We entered the redwood forest and were blown away with the size and number of trees.  I was expecting to see a large redwood here and another over there but they were much more densely grouped and much larger than I ever anticipated.  The one with Marcia in front is one trunk with a hollow room in the middle large enough to live in and you can see clear up to the top.

 

These burls grow from the roots of the redwoods.  When the main trunk is stressed it will send up new shoots from the root burls.  Redwoods are the only conifer which does that.  We saw some with as many as twenty trees surrounding the main trunk and very large in their own right.  This phenomenon is called a cathedral stand and all of the trees are growing from the same root system and are thus all clones of the the original stem.

The above picture shows how dense the stands are.  There are downed trees all among the tall ones and these are huge even in repose on the forest floor.  The one above was taller than my head when we walked between the two pieces.

I was trying to put my arms around this giant but as you can see it was a bit larger than my arm span.  This is just one of many this size that we saw.  

This is one of the largest trees in the redwoods.  It says it is 304 feet tall but the top has come out of this one so it is not as tall as they say.  It is not unusual for the tops to come out because they become so large their weight eventually spells doom for the trees and they come crashing to the ground.  This generally does not kill the tree and it will sprout new branches from the main stem and continue to grow.  

This is the same tree from farther back.  It is really difficult to give perspective to the massive size of these trees as this tree is huge in real life but the photo cannot capture it as well as I would like.

We spent quite a bit of time in the Prairie Creek State Park portion of the combined parks that make up the Redwood National Park.  While exploring an area close to the beach we ran into this fellow who did not seem to be bothered by the people at all.  We were in this area for three or four hours and he stayed right along a trail and grazed.  We actually encountered another one near here on our way out and he was blocking the trail so we just waited awhile until he decided to leave the trail.  These are Roosevelt Elk, the largest of the elk family.

   

We were actually on our way to this area of the park when we encountered the elk.  This is Fern Canyon a prehistoric canyon of ferns and mosses.  The walls are fifty feet high and nearly vertical giving it a surreal beauty.  Portions of Jurasic Park were filmed here.  We made our way a mile or so up the canyon crawling over downed logs and crossing back and forth through the stream.

                         

The stream flowing out of Fern Canyon exits into the Pacific Ocean.

Since we were this close and had never seen the Pacific Ocean before we had to get our feet wet.  Guess what, we got more than our feet wet when one of the bigger waves came rolling in and we could not move fast enough to keep from getting soaked.

This is a picture from the shore looking back towards the bluffs that are all along this portion of the park.  We walked along the shore for a mile or so before exiting up through a cut in the bank which was not visible until we got right to it.  Thank goodness we saw other people that looked to be walking right into the bluff so we knew there had to be a way up.

I think the redwoods were the highlight of our trip other than our new granddaughter.  We enjoyed the redwoods very much and hope to return again to further explore this beautiful area.

Crater Lake

We left the North Cascades on a detour route since the road we were supposed to take was closed due to mud slides from heavy rains.  The large forest fires in the area just prior to our arrival had left no vegetation on the steep slopes and the rains came the night we arrived and did considerable damage in the area already damaged by the fires.

We traveled south through central Washington on route 97 which is the main north south road east of the Cascades.  There were orchards and vineyards much of the way in Washington.  We stopped at a nice roadside market and picked up quite a bit of fresh fruit.  We continued southward crossing the Columbia River and climbed up out of the valley onto the high plains of central Oregon.  This was mostly big wheat farms as far as you could see.  We got into southern Oregon and arrived at Crater Lake National Park.  We stayed in a nice campground just outside of the park in the national forest at Rainbow Lake.

We were back up in the Cascade Mountain Range as we approached Crater Lake.  You can not see anything but peaks as you approach the lake.  We parked and walked up to the rim and this is the first view of Crater Lake.

The waters of the lake are an amazing dark blue.  Crater Lake is one of the deepest fresh water lakes in the world at around 1900 feet in the deepest hole.

Crater Lake was formed by a volcano thousands of years ago.  It erupted and then formed a caldera which is like a bowl at the top of the volcano.  Water started to collect and over time it collapsed into itself forming Crater Lake.

The views from the north rim were breathtaking.  The above photos show the lake starting from the north shore and working all the way around to the south and then finally to the west.

I ran into this lovely lady as I was leaving the view point on the north rim.

We left the north rim and traveled around the west side of the lake on a very narrow and winding road which earned it scenic route designation.  

This is a closer look at the photo just above this one taken from the west side of the lake.  It shows how steep the walls are going down to the lake.  There are a couple of places where people can get down to the waters edge where boat rides are offered.  There is even one place where swimming is allowed if you are immune to cold water.

We had a nice stay in a lovely campground and enjoyed the scenery of the mountains and especially Crater Lake.

North Cascades NP

We left Glacier travelling west on US 2, a beautiful drive across western Montana, northern Idaho and into northern Washington.  We picked up a stone in a front tire in Glacier and had to stop in Columbia Falls, Montana at a Les Scwhab to get the tire fixed and re-installed on the truck.  We ventured on to Libby Montana and stayed at a Mom & Pop campground with only about fifteen sites but they were all full hookup and only $15 per night.  We got there just in time for their nightly happy hour on the banks of the river.  Everyone just sat around and talked and told stories, it was very interesting.  Several of the people that stay there come back year after year and spend most of the summer.  Before we left we discovered another tire leaking a little air so we had to stop in Libby at another Les Scwhab to have a screw removed from another truck tire.  In many years of travel we have never had a flat and we had two in two days, go figure.

This is North Cascades National Park, it is rugged beauty at its best.

 The vertical valleys in North Cascades.  This overlook was very scary for some of us, who are afraid of heights, because it was straight down over the railing.

The picture pretty much says it all.

 This is one of the many lakes along the Skagit river which are part of the Seattle Power and Light Co Power Project.

This shows some of the more than 300 Glaciers that are still in the North Cascades.

The above two pictures show the beauty which is North Cascades National Park.

This lake encompasses the whole valley.  The road runs along the side part way up the valley wall.  There are hiking trails all through the park including the Pacific Crest Trail which runs from Mexico into Canada.

Dew pondering: "When will I see you again?".

These are some of the most rugged and beautiful mountains we have encountered, the pictures say it better than words.

Glacier National Park

We have had a whirlwind start to our trip west.  We stopped for one day a Teddy Roosevelt National Park and spent three long days driving.  We got to East Glacier on the fourth day with 1800 miles behind us.  We were pretty tuckered out but we revived to spend a couple of days on the east side of Glacier.  

There are really not words to describe Glacier so I will try to give a short narrative along with a few of the more than 200 pictures that I took.  The first one is on the way up the Going to the Sun Highway from the east side.  This waterfall is just beautiful.  We took the free shuttle service up since one of us is scared of heights and is the one who does all of the driving.

This shot shows the same waterfall with a bit more perspective.  These scenes are just amazing and the photos really do not do them justice.

Here we are at the top of Logan Pass, the summit of the Going to the Sun Highway.  It is 6646 feet at the top of the pass and the mountains rise up much further on both sides.  This is looking down across the valley of the summit.

This is another shot of the floor of the summit valley which is just covered with wildflowers

This shot is looking down the valley from the summit.  It shows the rapid drop as the valley falls away from the summit.

The next day we moved to the west side of Glacier and stayed in a nice wooded campground just outside of the park entrance.  The contrast from the east or dry side of the park to the west or wet side is amazing.  The east is open and some trees and the west is a temperate rain forest.

We took a drive up to the North Fork of the park to a little place called Polebridge which consists of a General Mercantile and a cabin eatery with a few residents.  From Polebridge we drove along the Flathead river to a remote Forest Ranger outpost and campground.  We took a hike through the trees down to the river ever on the lookout for bear.  I was prepared with my pepper spray in hand ready to deal with any dangerous critters.  The only critter we saw was a garter snake.

The next day we drove up to a staging area to catch a shuttle to Logan Pass from the west side but we could not find a place to park, the parking areas were all filled to overflowing.  So, with no other options, I took a firm grip on the steering wheel and we started the ascent to the top.  This is a shot of the road as it winds its way up the mountain.

We made it all the way to the top but my hands were nearly numb from gripping the wheel so hard.  I won't say what else was sore from gripping the seat so hard.  We got to the top and could not find a parking place up there either after trying for about fifteen minutes we gave up and started back down.  We stopped at several pull offs to take in the views.  Here is Marcia using her phone to get a picture with the mountains falling away to the valley in the background.

This is one of my favorite shots.  It shows the river in the bottom of the valley with the steep walls rising up on both sides.  There was some haze in the air so it was hard to get a clear shot but I think the haze adds to the beauty.

Further down the mountain we stopped at Avalanche Creek and hiked up along the Creek for a mile or so.  The water cascading down through the rocks was just beautiful.

This is a little better perspective of the water cascading down.

Next we had to hike through the Cedar grove.  These are just huge and a few have some unusual burls.  Marcia is giving us an idea of just how large these trees are.

I was afraid that burl was going to pull that little cedar over so I thought I should try to hang on to it to keep it from toppling.

That ended our stay at Glacier and it was amazing.  The views there are just so fantastic that it is really hard to describe them.  We left Glacier and headed on west toward Washington.

Teddy Roosevelt NP, North Dakota

We arrived here last night after a two day marathon of driving.  We travelled 1225 miles in two days pulling a 14,000 lb fifth wheel.  The Chevy did great, we tooled along about 70 mph the whole way.  The speed limit in North Dakota is 75 for all vehicles.  It has been a good trip so far but hopefully not too many more days of 10 to 12 hours.

We spent today in Teddy Roosevelt NP.  It is a beautiful place, very remote and wild.  We saw buffalo, prairie dogs and some wild horses.  I can see why Teddy was so enamored with the area.  We are heading on to Glacier NP tomorrow and will spend a few days there.

The temperature here today hit the 90's so we are very thankful for the Bighorn's air conditioning tonight.  I have pictures from today but did not have time to edit and load them, sorry.

BIGHORN IS READY TO ROLL

The Bighorn and Duramax are hooked up and ready to roll out the drive.  We, at least Dewey, are going to be heading out at ODark-thirty in the morning.  Marcia said she would try to be ready even if she is not awake.  We are going to try to make a big day of it tomorrow and maybe Monday.  I would like to be near the North Dakota and Montana state line by Monday evening.

I will try to post updates as we travel the highways and byways of our beautiful land.

Lake Placid

For the second part of our Adirondack tour we moved further north to the Lake Placid area.  We stayed at a nice KOA between Lake Placid and Wilmington.  The Lake Placid area was the site for both the 1932 and 1980 winter Olympics.  It is hard to imagine the throngs of people that were there all squeezed into the little town of Lake Placid.  It is a nice little town of about 4,000 population.  We had to drive right through the downtown on our way in as that is the main road in the area and it was a tight fit with the fifth wheel behind us.  I can't imagine what it would be like with thousands of people and all of the snow, the street was wide enough for two lanes of traffic unless someone parked along the street opened their car door or stepped out from between two vehicles.  I understand for the Olympics the whole town was closed off and everyone had to park outside of town and take buses into the downtown area.  

Lake Placid is located in the heart of the northern Adirondacks which is the area including all of the highest peaks of the Adirondacks.  The venues for the various Olympic events were spread all around the outlying areas.  The ski jumps were a few miles out of town and were very interesting.  Those jump towers are a long way up in the air.  I was amazed at how quickly they dropped and what a short area there was at the bottom for the jumpers to get stopped.

The jumps in the next photos were for the trick jumping.  As you can see from this shot the jumpers land in a pool of water while they are practicing.

 Here is a jumper coming down the jump.

Coming off the jump into the air!

Up, up, up!

Around and around!

Splashdown!

It was so interesting to watch those young people flying down the jump and into the air.  I know they were getting a good fifty feet into the air, maybe more. 

This next shot is from the top of Whiteface Mountain, the site of all of the downhill skiing events.  It is just under 5,000 feet to the top.  In the view behind Marcia you can see one of the head houses for the ski lifts and some of the cleared areas of the runs.  The face of the mountain directly below us, that is not visible, was where most of the runs were located.

The next shot is actually Lake Placid with the town at the other end of the lake.  It is barely visible in the photo.

This shot is a panorama of all of the peaks in the distance.  The view from the top of Whiteface Mountain was amazing.  We could see Canada to the north, Lake Champlain and Vermont to the east, Lake Placid to the south and all of the surrounding peaks all the way around us.

We had a great time exploring the Adirondacks.  I hope we have the opportunity to return and explore more of the area sometime in the future.