Mt St Helen, Washington to Sequim, Washington

Our first stop in the state of Washington was Mt St Helens, which is now a national monument. It is hard to believe this eruption happened 30 years ago! We didn't think it was that far in the past. The actual eruption started with an earthquake that moved the earth under the active volcano, causing a build-up of steam and pressure and the collapse of the first 1300 feet of the mountain top! The valley below was instantly destroyed by heat, wind, ash, and rocks, and the landslide went on for 13 miles, forever changing the landscape of the area. Although the areas near the volcano are starting to come back with plant and animal-life, the volcano itself and the immediate land around it look gray and barren. There have been minor eruptions in the past 6 years and a lava dome is visible in the crater of the mountain. We were hoping it wouldn't explode while we were visiting!!!!!!

After Mt St Helens, we made our way to Sequim, (pronounced skwim), in the northern part of the Olympic Peninsula. We had heard how beautiful this area was, and it did not disappoint us. The peninsula is made up of rugged mountains with glaciers, alpine mountains with millions of pine trees, subalpine meadows with wildflowers, and the coast. It is unusual to have all of this topograghy in one area. Olympic National Park and Forest fill a large part of the peninsula. The park maintains much of it's wilderness, so there are no roads that go all the way through the park. However, there are some special spots that can be reached by driving.

The Hoh Rain Forest, named after a native American tribe, was spectacular! We didn't realize there were rain forests in the USA. This is considered a "temperate" rain forest, unlike the "tropical" rain forests in South America. To qualify as a rain forest, there has to be at least 80 inches of rain a year, although this forest gets above 140 inches! The temperatures also remain moderate, usually between 32 and 80 degrees. As you can imagine, with all that moisture, the forest was lush and green. There were huge Douglas Firs and Sitka Spruce, and in many places the trees are covered with hanging moss, hence the "Hall of Mosses" trail. Because the floor of the forest is so full of ferns and plants, when the seeds from the trees try and take root, they often start growing on fallen trees, since they can't find space on the ground. These trees are referred as "nurse trees". Being a nurse, I appreciated that name!

"Hurricane Ridge" was another special area in the park. This is at an elevation of 6500 ft. Here there are fantastic views of the Olympic Mountains, including alpine valleys and sub-alpine meadows. We felt like we were in the "Sound of Music"! After conquering an uphill trail, we were also afforded views of Puget Sound and the Strait of Juan De Fuca! While at the top we ran into a deer. As you can tell, this deer was very domesticated, although they live in the wild. Someone must be feeding them although there are warnings not to!

Cape Flattery is the northern-most point of the 48 continuous states. In order to reach it, we had to drive through the Makah Indian Reservation. While there, we visited the Makah Indian Museum, which houses relics of the tribe. 500 years ago there was a huge mudslide at the Makah village, and the entire village was buried. Hundreds of years went by with the Pacific Ocean splashing against the mud, and eventually Makah relics were exposed and in relatively good shape, having been preserved by the mud. The items and history of the Makah people were very interesting.

After our trip to the museum, we finally made it to the cape. We had to walk one-half of a mile through the woods to reach it. At the end, there were boardwalks leading to 3 different look-out points. I hate to bring up scenery again, but WOW!!!! We saw jagged cliffs, sea caves, an isolated island with the Cape Flattery Lighthouse on it, sea lions, and bright orange starfish clinging to the rocks. Art also managed to spot a seagull nest in the middle of one cliff with 3 furry babies in it! Although a long, winding, and narrow drive, it was worth the effort!!!!!!

Astoria, Oregon to Portland, Oregon

Astoria is in the very northwest corner of Oregon. It is a small town that began as a fur trading post for John Jacob Astor and also the place where Lewis and Clark spent the winter of 1805-1806 planning their trip back to the "United States" after succeeding in reaching the Pacific Ocean. While in Astoria, we visited Fort Clatsop where Lewis and Clark spent the winter. The fort was very small and didn't look like it had a lot of "creature comforts"! During the winter, the explorers copied all their notes, maps, and drawings, which were many, in case one set got lost on the way back. Too bad there wasn't an "Office Max" nearby, since it was a time consuming process!

Besides the fort, we also toured the Columbia Maritime Museum. Where the Columbia River meets the Pacific Ocean it is a turbulent area, due to high winds, waves, and dangerous obstacles in the water. Known as the "Graveyard of the Pacific", there have been countless shipwrecks there. Our last stop in Astoria was the Astoria Column. We climbed up the 164 steps and got a wonderful 360 degree view of this area. The tower has murals of Oregon history around its exterior and is really beautiful up close. Yes, that is me waving at the top of the tower!

Next stop-Portland, Oregon. What a neat, cosmopolitan town with lots to do and see! After a morning at the Portland Farmer's Market on the campus of Portland State University, we visited Portland's Japanese Garden in Washington Park. This is considered one of the most authentic Japanese gardens outside of Japan. There are actually 5 separate gardens and we were able to take a narrated tour to learn the special symbolism and meaning of each of them. There are 5 acres of ground and it takes 7 full-time gardeners to manage it. One of the gardeners is a moss specialist and manicures the moss with tweezers! In one part of the gardens there was a perfect view of Mt Hood overlooking the city. All in all, it was a beautiful and peaceful place!

There are several scenic drives around Portland, one of which was the Mt Hood scenic loop, which we drove. We had lunch at the Timberline Lodge overlooking Mt Hood and the summer skiers! After lunch, we took a ride on the ski lift, called the "Miracle Mile"! It seemed like we could see forever in all directions! On the way back to our campground, we passed through the "Fruit Loop", which is in the fertile valley next to Mt Hood that produces a lot of different fruit and berries, including the famous "Huckleberry". Our last stop of this drive was at Hood River, which is unofficially considered the "windsurfing capital of the world". This area of the Columbia River usually has strong winds, ideal for this sport. We had a great time watching the kite-boarders and wind-surfers!

We couldn't leave the Portland area without viewing the Columbia River Gorge. Historic Route 30 was a great drive, with 7 waterfalls along the way, some viewable from the road. Our first stop along the drive was at Crown Point, elevated on a cliff far above the gorge, where you can see 30 miles in either direction on a clear day! What gorgeous scenery! Vista House is on top of the point and was built in 1918 as one of the first rest stops. Somehow, rest stops have changed over the years, since this one had marble floors and walls in the bathrooms! At the end of the drive, we took a boat ride through part of the gorge, among the huge, craggy cliffs. We could only imagine what Lewis and Clark must have thought, as they paddled their canoes through this area!

White City, Oregon to Eugene, Oregon

White City is in the southern part of Oregon. We met friends, Allen and Sharon, to do a couple more days of sightseeing together. They had arrived in the area a few days before us.

Crater Lake National Park was our 1st sightseeing excursion. The lake was unlike any other we had ever seen, with the water having intense colors of blue and being surrounded by huge cliffs over 2000 ft high! About 7,700 years ago, a volcano, Mount Mazama, erupted and collapsed on itself, and the crater that was left filled with rain and melting snow. Other eruptions formed other features, such as Wizard Island, which is within the lake. Crater Lake is said to be the deepest lake in the United States (1943 ft) and also one of the deepest in the world. There is a rim road which encircles the lake, but only part of the road was open because the park service was still trying to clear snow in July! They get over 500 inches each year! A new attraction in the park is a trolley ride around the rim road of the lake which we opted to take. One of the park rangers was on board and gave us some great information about the area.

Allen and Sharon had suggested a Segway tour of an old gold mining town, Jacksonville, that has so much history that the whole town is listed on the National Historic Registry. After our Segway training session, the four of us set out for a tour, led by our tour guide, Aaron. We were all pretty proud of ourselves as we rode around the town, until there was a slight mishap. Allen's Segway started acting like a bucking bronco and threw him into Art and knocked Art off his Segway! Sharon and I were trying to hang onto our machines, to prevent them from getting away by themselves, so all we could do was watch the men lying there! Luckily, there were no major injuries, just some scrapes and bruises! Should have taped that episode for America's Funniest Home Videos! All in all, it was a fun time, and we are glad we participated!

After our Segway adventure, we decided to go to an area vineyard for some wine tasting. We figured we could use it by then! Not only did the vineyard make wine, they were also in the Alpaca business. The owners had been raising Alpacas for some years, and besides using the fur for yarn, some of the fur was being processed into oil absorbing fiber pads for the booms being sent to the Gulf to help with the absorption of oil from the spill. A few of the animals were for sale. Did you know a pregnant Alpaca can go for $20,000? The owner was so nice and let us go out to the animal pens and get up close and personal with the Alpacas. They had just received a haircut, because of the hot weather, and were only left with fur on their heads and legs! What a sight they were!! Some of them looked like large poodles!

We said our goodbyes to Allen and Sharon and headed for Eugene, which is in the middle of Oregon. It is the home of the University of Oregon, the "Ducks". On one of our days in Eugene, we decided to drive to the central coast of Oregon (ranging from Florence to Newport). The scenery was beautiful, both on the roads to and from the coast, and on Hwy 101, the coast road. Starting near Florence was the Oregon Dune National Recreation Area. There are 40-50 miles of sand dunes along the coast, and we got a great view of some of them. We went from the sand dunes to higher elevations with huge craggy cliffs and rocks in the ocean. We passed some lighthouses, one of which was Heceta Lighthouse, one of the most photographed lighthouses on the coast. The quaint seaside towns along this route were so picturesque!

One of our most fun coastal stops was the Sea Lion Caves. We went down an elevator 208 ft to the world's largest sea cave, said to be 12 stories tall and as long as a football field. In the cave were hundreds of Stellar Sea Lions. It was smelly, but fascinating to watch! Some of the Sea Lion bulls were huge and fighting with each other to protect their cows and positions on the rocks. It was really a neat experience to see this!

Crescent City, California

Getting to Crescent City, our final stop in California, was not easy. The last leg of the trip involved going down Route 199, the "Redwood Highway". The road was narrow with sharp curves, some posted at 20 mph, and lots of huge redwood trees were very near the road! Needless to say, maneuvering the RV in that situation was a challenge. I was driving at first, but Art decided to take over. I'm glad he did! Crescent City is on the northern Pacific coast, almost to Oregon. Although on the ocean, it is not a place to play on the beach. The average summer high temp is in the low 6o's with the wind as a constant element!

When we got to our campground, we immediately met some great new friends, Allen and Sharon Prewett. Actually, Allen ran out of his RV as soon as we arrived to meet us, which we thought was very neighborly, but later, we found out he was afraid we were going to hit his truck with our RV! We ended up talking and found out the Prewett's plans were similar to ours, so we teamed up for the next 4 days and did some area sightseeing. We really had a great time! Allen and Sharon are from Georgia, but recently built a home in Florida. It will be nice to see them in Florida, after our travels!

The Coast Redwood trees, cousins to the Sequoias, were spectacular! Although not as wide as the Sequoias, they are taller. One of the tallest trees was measured at over 375 ft, until it lost it's top in a storm. On the first sightseeing day, we visited the Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park and hiked to the Stout Grove of Redwoods. To see the grove was well worth the hike! It was a beautiful, peaceful area, with old-growth Redwoods everywhere! Another day we drove to the Prairie Creek Redwood State Park. Not only did we see lots of Redwoods, many of which were lining the roads, we were also able to see a small heard of elk!! They were in a meadow very close to the road, so we were able to get a good look and lots of great pictures. There were several baby elk and some males who were born last year and sporting small antlers!

The four of us had lots of fun visiting the Battery Point Lighthouse in Crescent City. The lighthouse is actually on a rock island and can only be reached by foot at low tide. It is manned by volunteers and there is someone there 24 hours each day. We went on a tour which included the history of the lighthouse, seeing the living quarters of the lighthouse keepers, and learning about their lives. Seemed like it was hard, dangerous, and lonely work!

Ocean World was an aquarium we toured near our campground. Although small, it was nicely set up, and we enjoyed our visit. We were able to pet starfish, amenome, and small sharks. One of the sharks felt quite smooth to the touch, while the other felt like sandpaper! We were even able to see a training session with 3 sea lions, which was quite entertaining. Near Ocean World, was a small sea mammal rescue center we were able tour. The animals are brought in, often malnourished, lethargic, or with wounds. If the sea lions do well, they can be returned to the ocean.

4th of July was fun in Crescent City! There was a small town parade. We never saw so many firetrucks in our lives! There was even a Walmart truck in the parade!!! How about that for advertising! At the campground, they had a BBQ and everyone brought a dish to pass. In the evening, we went down to the beach to see the fireworks. It was a great display, both private and professional fireworks were going off everywhere. The problem was we nearly froze to death!! None of us remember watching fireworks when it was in the 50's and so windy!!!!!!!!!!