TUNNEL CREEK TRAIL - BUCKHORN WILDERNESS

Fabulous trail, although it was almost 6 strenuous miles, and we haven't done one of those for a while...so we are back in the Chinook, nursing sore feet! It was worth it, though. The Tunnel Creek Trail is beautiful, about 10 miles off of Hwy. 101, in the Buckhorn Wilderness area of the Olympic National Forest. We were expecting a level hike, and it was definitely not that: Steep. Snow (!!) on the trail. And even a tree down across the trail that made it difficult to maneuver around. But we made it to the historic (renovated) shelter, and went even further to the footbridge (which was basically a huge tree, flattened on one side, with a railing attached) to take in all the creek's rushing beauty, before returning, hobbling a bit, to the trailhead. It was a wonderful day!

The road on the way to the trailhead

A salmonberry and a salmonberry bloom, next to the creek

First views of Tunnel Creek, along the trail

Flora, along the trail

Flora, along the trail

Unexpected snow on the trail

We finally (after 2.7 miles of ascent!) reached the shelter

My favorite fall along the way

The falls above the footbridge (about a quarter of a mile past the shelter)

HOOD CANAL AREA - FALLS VIEW TRAILS

Waterfalls! They certainly have all kinds of water here on the Olympic Peninsula - ocean, canals, rivers, rain, bays, and falls! It's especially obvious when you've come from some of the driest areas of the country. The contrast is amazing. For example, there was no sign at the beginning of the day's hike that said "Hikers have died on this trail because they didn't bring enough water." We did two short hikes today out of the Falls View Campground (campground not yet open for the season, but the trails are) just south of Quilcene, Washington. The day was grey and somewhat spritzy, but the scenery is gorgeous.

The first hike was the Falls View Trail - level and accessible. The falls go about 100 feet down into the Big Quilcene River.

The next hike (the trailheads are right next to each other) drops down into the canyon to the river's edge. It's called (not surprisingly) the Falls View Canyon Trail.

We also met with some lovely flora, a spider, and a banana slug.

Have no idea what this flower looks like - this group was the first buds on the whole plant!

Bleeding hearts

That spider underneath the flowers photo-bombed - I didn't even know it was there until I uploaded the pictures!

This slug wasn't actually on the trail - it was right next to the jeep at our campsite

SEAL ROCK CAMPGROUND, OLYMPIC PENINSULA

We've landed here at the only USForest Service campground that is open yet on the Olympic Peninsula. The others will open on May 16th, and we'll likely visit a few of them. This area of Washington is beautiful, and the weather (although cloudy and a bit rainy today) is supposed to be really nice for about a week. The area is loaded with forest hiking trails, and we plan to do as many as we can while the weather holds.

Seal Rock campground is right on the water, with a rocky beach that is known for its oysters. The shells are all over the rocks, and many people come here to harvest them, sometimes eating them right here on the spot. There are no hook-ups at the campground, and it is so heavily forested that the solar panels provide little help. That means that, although there is 4G connectivity for the internet, we don't have the juice to run our electronics for very long. I'll type fast.

Campsite #22

The beach, looking northeast

The beach, looking south

That dot at the top of the tree is an eagle

And then another eagle joined the first one!

Not sure what the top one said to the other, but it sure got a reaction!

A beautifully shaped oyster shell

An unusual seaweed

A snail. Didn't see many (any!) of these down in the desert

A rhododendron, growing wild

A centipede that's been wandering around in the ladies room for several hours. Yes, I actually took my camera into the restroom to take a photo of a bug.

FROM WHITE SANDS TO WET SANDS

We ended up at Cape Disappointment State Park near Ilwako, Washington. I was expecting it to be awful, and I was disappointed! It was great! We had two beautiful days, with the sun shining through a few clouds. This area is known to have 100 days of fog annually and wind up to 140 mph! The wonderful weather was perfect for hiking, so we hiked two trails, one to the south end's Cape Disappointment lighthouse, and one to the north lighthouse. The beach was uncrowded, and the flowers, trees, and birds were fabulous. An interesting note: we saw way more snakes in two days than we did in 6 months in the desert (7 snakes in two days versus 2 snakes in 6 months!!). We also had a great pizza at the campground's little cafe - the best pizza we'd had in months!

Pine cones in the making

Pine cone to be, up close

Seagulls

Sunset the first night

Rocks and ledges where the cormorants live, from the lookout at the Lewis & Clark Interpretive Center

Cormorants, closer up

A view from the hike from the Interpretive Center out to the Cape Disappointment lighthouse

A fern leaf unfolding

Pink pendant flowers

Along the trail you can see down into this cove

This cove was earlier on the hike

Here's Darell at the lighthouse

And here's a distant view of the lighthouse, taken from the jetty near the beginning of the trailhead

Another sunset

The next day we hiked to the north lighthouse:

The view from the lighthouse, to the north

Darell on the trail, passing under one of the humongous sitka spruce trees

This frog almost disappeared in the mud

For some reason, we made this little snake mad; he was completely ready to take us on, puffing up and flicking its tongue at us!

Today we left Cape Disappointment. It's raining, and we got to see the "normal" look of the Washington north coast: grey.

IT'S SPRING

Today we are in Champoge (pronounced "Shampoo-ey" Really!) State Park. We were here last fall and it was raining then, too. But everything is green and gorgeous. We are pretty brain-fried at this point - Five states in five days; it's hard to remember where we even are, much less where we've been or where we're going. Oregon state campgrounds are nice, but a tad pricey, at $28.00 a night for full hook-ups. We definitely need a place to settle down for several days and catch our (collective) breath. Not sure where that will be, but it's likely to not be at a $28.00 per night campground! Although it is nice to be able to plug in the space heater!

LUNCH IN ASHLAND

This is Day Two at Valley of the Rogue, near Grants Pass, Oregon. Today we spent running errands, stopping at various and sundry retail places, and finishing off with a lovely lunch at the Greenleaf restaurant and a quick (and somewhat costly) hop into Websters yarn shop in Ashland. The rest of the day will be spent cleaning and repairing the Chinook (Darell) and napping and knitting (me). I love this division of labor thing!

BACK TO THE NORTHWEST - IT'S GREEN HERE

I can't believe how green everything is here! Trees! Mountains! Mountains covered with trees! We're up in Northern California, above Redding, and on our way into Oregon for a week or so to clean up the rig, replace the bathroom vent cover that flew off (hopefully it didn't hurt anyone!) in the 65 mph winds in New Mexico, re-organize our stuff, buy some clothes to replace the "holes held together by threads" we are wearing, and receive deliveries of some items we need to order on the internet. Not quite sure where we will alight to do all this, but we chose Oregon, so, somewhere in Oregon, I guess! We'll decide when we get there!

Tonight we're at Bailey Cove campground in the Shasta-Trinity National Forest:

It's so green here! There are a lot of mosquitoes, though.