Life on Puget Sound

Before starting our RV life we spent fifteen years of literally living "on the water." Now when our travels take us to areas of our country where life also centers on ocean shores, we naturally feel a great affinity for the people and places.

The small town of La Conner was a surprise for us. (Our basic thought processes must be flawed, since almost everywhere we go we are "surprised.") Our travel destinations are influenced by the locations of the few hundred "free" parks we have to select from, so our stop at La Conner, Washington was based on nothing more than "hey, it's not in the mountains, but it's on the water."

The Thousand Trails park where we stay is right on one of Puget Sound's bays. The tides here vary as much as ten feet  (we're more accustomed to three to four) revealing sealife trapped in pools warming in the sun.

Along the shore here, local native americans seine for silver salmon (we think these are also called cohos - there are sooo many varieties of salmon) when the U.S. Fish and Game says it's ok (must protect the species against the onslaught of wanton harvesting by those dastardly Indians - never mind the commercial guys - but I digress.) They take the results of each catch to the local fishery - often 4-500 fish weighing in around 5000 pounds - and on a good day they repeat that haul five or six times. Annually, it probably equals 1% of their tribes's haul from the local casino.

Plenty to see here, like Deception Pass and Anacortes and Oak Harbor with breathtaking views and crowded marinas and a very active recreational boating community. It is the heart of the San Juan Islands cruising grounds, one of the most popular in the country. It rivals the Florida Keys and the Chesapeake Bay. It's the only area on the west coast of the U.S. where cruising sailors and trawler boaters can find hundreds of safe harbors, and spend weeks or months lazing about (a favorite pastime) without revisiting any anchorage.

The La Conner surprise? Well it wasn't just a place to run in for a loaf of bread - it's actually the high rent district of the area - filled with art galleries, specialty shops, and high-end restaurants. It's location on an inter-island channel means plenty of logging activity. Of course, we discovered a local pub with fantastic fish and chips, a good local brew, and oyster shooters that were so big that four of them equaled more than a dozen on the half shell. Lots of fun to explore.

A Short Trip Across the Water

The coastal waterways of the Pacific Northwest, both Washington and of British Columbia, are dotted with small and large and very large islands. Some have significant population centers, and others have rocky and sandy beaches and quiet inlets where marinas are nestled. Dozens of ferries operate on regular schedules, making short runs of five minutes up to major ones of three hours. Traffic on them is so heavy that we had to make a reservation for a spot three of four days in advance. Otherwise you run the risk on waiting 8 or 9 hours for a ride.

We took an easy-on easy-off 30-minute ride from Port Townsend to Whidbey Island. It made our trip from the Olympic Peninsula to the resort town of La Conner 65 miles instead of 200+ by going around the land route. So that's one more reason to take a ferry. 

BC or Bust

Part of the "way back when" of our lives - living on a sailboat in South Florida - (as opposed to the "way way back when" of our lives as work-away slaves in North Texas) included working with people who passed on to us their enjoyable experiences in the waters of the Pacific Northwest, including the San Juan Islands and Vancouver Island. We've missed our chance to do this by boat, but we've wanted to make sure we take in as much of the area as we can by car and on foot.

A visit to Victoria, British Columbia was a must. This picturesque city on the southern tip of Vancouver Island is the provincial capitol of British Columbia. These Canadians have the right idea - isolating their government on an island reachable only by ferry. But, alas, it apparently doesn't work better than having them right in our midst. Whoops - been trying to stay out of politics in this blog.

Victoria is very pretty - a beautiful harbor and waterfront, where we arrived by passenger ferry from Port Angeles, WA. Our 90-minute passage was marked by two pods of orcas that crossed our bow - our captain said nearly 40 whales. (He also pointed out the small excursion boat nearby filled with $100/seat whale watchers - lucky us!)

The city has much history with it's 100 year old government buildings and luxury hotels. It's every bit a modern city with broad highways and condos and shopping centers, but we also passed areas where apartment renters lease small plots of ground so they can plant and maintain their own flower garden or vegetable garden - some people can't seem to stay away from yard work.



The ultimate example of this "mania" is the Butchart Gardens - the largest tourist draw on the island, and deservedly so. Over 100 years ago, the wife of the owner of a huge mined-out limestone quarry began beautifying the empty pit by planting a garden that over the years expanded to cover 54 acres and employ hundreds of fulltime gardners and horticulturists to create the incredible displays of trees and flowers and fountains and satuary, and hundreds of part-time college students to help maintain the grounds during the summer months.




It was an overcast and rainy day on our visit (a common enough occurrence that they have a huge supply of umbrellas available for the thousands of daily patrons.) But the weather took nothing away from the beauty of the sunken gardens or the Japanese garden or the rose garden or the ... though there was less navel contemplation than there might have on a sunny day.

Green Acres is the Place to Be

We finally found the place to settle down.

Think the RV will fit???

Bet the price is right, eh?

Small Towns

Our blog bears witness to the extraordinary luck we have experienced with the weather. But we knew we would be pushing our good fortune here in the area that's the poster child for foggy, rainy days. Well, we're living it now.

But when you can't see (or even find) the mountains, we still have the seaside towns to enjoy. For the past week, that has included Sequim, Port Angeles, and Port Townsend, all small ports on the Washington coast of the Strait of Juan de Fuca.

Ownership of much of the area has reverted to the many tribes of Native Americans who have populated the region for a thousand years. This not only means casinos galore, but also examples of Native American art. Hundreds of intricately carved totems (here they refer to them as house or lodge poles) dot the countryside.

Lots of fun just roaming around by car and on foot. Lots of charm for us tourists, especially in Port Townsend. Hundred year-old homes of wealthy fishing fleet and lumber barons. Coffee shops and sidewalk serenades. Deer wandering the neighborhoods.

Checked out the ferries for later trips to British Columbia (from Port Angeles) and Whidbey Island (from Port Townsend.)

Border Jump

July in Oregon is over and it's time for August in Washington.

In our travels around this fantastic and beautiful country, so often the difference in terrain as we move from one state to the next is remarkable - as though they decided on the border based the change in scenery. Not so in the Northwest - fir trees are fir trees.

We are starting out on the Olympic Peninsula, where the mountains are not the lonely, solo peaks of the main range of the Cascades. Here the coastal land gives way to a cluster of 5000-8000 foot mountains dotted with lakes and rivers that make up the Olympic National Park. Wild beaches and rugged terrain and forests primeval and the gardens of Victoria, BC. Lots to try to see over the next 10 days - especially when part of many weekends has to include time to watch Tiger win another golf tournament.

Our first stop is in a lovely "resort" along the Hood Canal, a fjord-like seaway forming the peninsula's eastern boundary. From here we make our first forays into the national park.

Timberline Lodge - Mt Hood

In the midst of a Texas-sized heatwave (temps in the area above 100) we have driven up the slopes of Mt Hood to the Timberline Lodge - at 6000 feet. Even here the heat is obvious.

The lodge is the centerpiece of the primary ski area on the mountain. And the skiing here is a 12-month activity. Today there are hundreds of snowboarders and skiers headed up the lifts to what looks like patchy snow, but they're having a great time anyway.

Timberline Lodge was built during the Depression era by the Civilian Conservation Corps (FDR's CCC) and has been well-maintained in subsequent years. The pictures of it during the high season, covered in heavy snow, makes it the quintessential ski lodge. As usual for us,we enjoyed a very nice buffet lunch after hiking around the local trails.

Along the Columbia Gorge

When the ancient Columbia River cut its path through the bedrock of what would become the border between Oregon and Washington, it did a much more effective job than the smaller tributaries along its path. As a result, these streams created waterfalls.



This stretch of river is unique in that it gives the casual traveller the opportunity to see six impressive waterfalls within a few steps of the road, including Multnomah Falls which is the second highest (600 feet) year-round drop in America. (Sometimes they go a long way to come up with criteria to elevate the importance of something.)






A little further upriver is the Bonneville Dam, not too remarkable compared to Hoover or Grand Coulee or Shasta or Glen Canyon. But dams on the Columbia, such as Grand Coulee and Bonneville, are different from most we see elsewhere because they were created mainly for power generation, and not to manage water levels - floods and droughts.

And at the Bonneville sight, the flow of the mighty Columbia is such that the spillway continuously dumps millions of gallons of water downstream while two huge dams on either side of the spillway funnel water through turbines to generate millions of megawatts for both the Oregon and the Washington sides. Another achievement of the Depression-era.

A Walk Through the Shamrocks

As we're sure you've gathered, we love tromping around the countryside, (always careful to stay on the path - wouldn't want to leave footprints of our passing) especially on a hot day in the cool forest. Here, we kept thinking we'd meet Darby O'Gill and the Little People around the next bend. With 150-foot Douglas firs and western red cedars and dappled sunlight filtering through, we were out of the near 100 degree temps on the trail called the Cascades Streamwatch. The Salmon River runs along a nearby national recreation area called Wildwood, and we were following the markers on a paved path (not all government spending is a waste) on our way to a window on the river - a real window in the riverbank - that let us see salmon fry maturing in the rushing waters. (Actually we didn't stay long enough to see them growing, but you know what I mean.)

Along the way, we met locals enjoying their Saturday playing and picnicking on the river, and camp hosts tending the displays and information centers in the park. Another enjoyable day.

Seeing More Old Friends

We have arrived at Mt Hood Village, an RV park a few miles east of the highest point in the state, and a few miles south of the Columbia River. We have a lot to see in the area over the next nine days, but we started with one of the things that makes our lifestyle sooo soooweeet - seeing friends from our past that have relocated to places all over the country.

John and Nan were part of the sailing community we met when we went back to fulltime cruising after we really retired. The promise of another lousy year of hurricanes drove us out of the Keys and up the East Coast on our way with friends to at least the Chesapeake Bay. Alas, we succumbed to "old boat" syndrome - required repairs serious enough to make us say good-bye to friends continuing north while we were stuck in Brunswick, Georgia. But when your world is built around travel, having to say "so long" (for awhile) to some great friends can mean saying hello to new, great friends. Such was the case here. We made new lifelong friends at our new marina home. We've made claims in this blog that traveling around the country makes for stronger friendships rather than weaker, and this tale is a prime example. The two couples we bonded with in Brunswick have scattered now - Len and Connie, to Yuma, (see "Easter with Friends in Yuma, AZ") and John and Nan, to Vancouver, and would likely be forgotten to us if we weren't so mobile in our lifestyle.

Besides, it is such great fun to see friends after a two-year absence. A wonderful lunch - Nan and John know what turns us on - and a promise to get together again before we leave the area.

Just One More

The area is so full of not only volcanos that have blown their tops, but also small cinder cones on the flanks of the bigger ones. So we included one more. This one is right on the highway, easy to scale, and has a fire lookout tower on the top which has reported more forest fires in its lifetime (well, the lookouts in it have...you know what I'm sayin' here!) than any other in the state. Cool views.

Sorry about another pic of snow capped mountains over an ancient lava field - I just can't help myself.

In Search of Bald Eagles

The Cascades not only have many volcanic peaks marking the boundary of the plates which run up and down the Pacific coast, the local area is also dotted with beautiful natural lakes marked by the Cascade Lakes Trail. The scenic route took us through mountain meadows of grasses and wildflowers while we wound our way between the dormant peaks along roads which the signs warned would be free from snows only in these summer months.

Our afternoon ended, strangely enough, at the largest unnatural lake in the area - Wikiup Reservoir - in search of some of the dozens of bald eagles which nest along the shores of this favorite hot summer weekend hangout of the locals. We must be continuing to live right - we saw some in flight as well as nesting fledgling in the tops of the 150-foot pines.

Crater Lake National Park

On our last visit to the Northwest in '07, we loved almost everything about our experience along the coast of Oregon. So we were looking forward to spending the month of July back in Oregon, this time exploring and sampling the central part of the Cascade Range, especially getting the chance to see Crater Lake NP on the south end and Mt Hood on the north. We went to Crater Lake Monday and it did not disappoint. As we drove back to our RV park (75 miles each way) we compared our experience here with those of the other 25 or more national parks we have enjoyed during our travels. There is something special about each of these parks or they wouldn't be designated a national treasure, and we've loved the opportunity to see all of them. But we decided that Crater Lake is in the top three among those parks (with Glacier and Yosemite.) We obviously have a bias toward the mountain west. The scenery is just soooo stunning and compelling.

The crater was formed about 7,700 years ago by a series of explosive eruptions over a number of years, eventually blowing off the top one mile of Mt Mazama, spreading six inches of ash over a 5000 square mile area in five states and two Canadian provinces. Subsequent smaller eruptions created features such as Wizard Island and the Phantom Ship. Over the millenia, the hole created by the further collapse (turns out this is technically "Caldera" Lake) filled with rain and snow melt - even today it receives about 44 feet of snow each year - creating the deepest lake in the U. S., nearly 2000 feet. There are no streams or rivers coming in or out of the lake making it what they call a "closed system."

We drove the entire 32-mile loop road, seeing the lake from every awesome "shoreline" viewpoint (the drive actually stays hundreds of feet above the water.) Even with half of July over, there were still many patchy areas with more than three or four feet of snow. The colors of the lake are as varied as the waters in the Keys - deep shades of blues in the deep to greens in the shallows, instead of the light blues and turquoise seen from the Overseas Highway - all breathtaking. We stopped for a real Texas picnic - KFC and watermelon - near the resort lodge, then continued through the Douglas firs and ponderosa pines and redwoods, past waterfalls and "pumice castles" and more views of the lake waters. If you are in this area from Memorial Day thru Labor Day, don't miss it.