Mt Rainier National Park

Today was a beautiful day for our drive through Mt. Rainier National Park. The album is here.

Tacoma Museum of Glass

We are staying at the Washington Unit’s Airstream Park in Lacey, WA.  They have a large facility here with lots of full hookup sites, in a parking lot style. We have met neighbors who are from Oklahoma. They will be hosting in one of the campgrounds in the Olympic National Park.

We decided to take in the Tacoma Museum of Glass today on the recommendations from Lou and Larry Woodruff. They stopped here on their trip to Alaska last year. They also stayed here at the Airstream Park.

If you look close you will see a glass bubble that one of the artist blew for demonstration. The glass was so thin it actually felt like plastic and was some what pliable.  The next picture shows the artist starting to create a vodka decanter. They have contracted to create 12 each month for a local distiller. Each month has a different color and insignia. They indicated that it usually takes at least 20 to get 12 good ones. The furnace on the left holds the molten glass. The bright one is called the glory hole. They use this to reheat the glass as the work it. The third picture is of a finished product. I believe this one has some flaws.

  

Here they are carrying a finished product while it is very hot. They place it in another furnace for around 14 hours to cool it in a controlled manner. The told us that if they were to leave it at room temperature it would explode. This happens because different parts of the glass would cool at different rates. The next picture is looking up from inside the Auditorium where you watch the action. It is a stainless steel cone. I don’t know the reason for this other than to direct the heat out. You can really feel the heat when they open one of the furnaces.

 

Could not resist taking this picture of a glass Airstream which was on display.

After the museum we went across the street where some of Dale Chihuly’s work was on display.

See our other pictures in the album Tacoma Museum of Glass.

0regon Coast

As we cruised the 400 miles along the Oregon Coast we passed through many small towns and miles of beautiful views of the Pacific Ocean.  The Oregon State Parks were numerous and absolutely wonderful.  Many of them had full hookups, but were remote enough so there was no cell phone reception or wifi available.

Bandon State Natural area was the site of our lunch the first day on the coastal road.  From our trailer we had panoramic views of the rocky coastline. After lunch we wandered down the trail hoping to spot a whale.  Instead we enjoyed hearing a local man tell us about his plans to sail his boat all the way to Ketchican, Alaska this summer. We told him we would be looking for him when wen got to Ketchican.

The Heceta Lighthouse is claimed to be the most photographed lighthouse in the county. Naturally we had to give it a try. Really needed to get the tripod out. I guess you learn from experience.

At Carl G. Washburne Memorial State  Park near Florence,  our trailer backed up to a densely forested area where skunk cabbage was in full bloom.  A short walk took us to the beach to watch the sunset.

In Tillamook we toured the Tillamook Cheese Factory and were surprised to learn that they also made not only cheese, but yogurt, butter and ice cream.  We also took a scenic drive to the the Cape Meares Lighthouse and then finished the day with fish and chips at a local diner.

Cape Disappointment State Park was our favorite campground on the coast in southern Washington.  Located near the town of Ilwaco, the campground is right on the ocean.  We were able to watch the waves roll in and the sunset over the ocean all from the back window in our trailer.  The North Head lighthouse was visible as we walked the beach.  Because of its location, we did not have cellphone reception or wifi, but we had one of the most beautiful campsites ever!  Terry thinks this counts as a "beach" vacation, but Sue doesn't agree.   Cold water and a cool breeze made it uninviting to hit the water.

  

Reflecting on the drive along the coast, we decided it would be more enjoyable to drive from north to south as  most of the scenic pull outs were on the left hand side of the road and often difficult to do while pulling a trailer.  Unfortunately, we did not see any of the gray whales migrating,  but we did see seals sleeping on the sandy banks.

Now we are looking forward to spending a few days in Olympia, Washington and Port Angeles before we catch the ferry to Victoria.

More pictures are here.

Redwoods National Park

The drive to the Redwoods on Rt. 101 was windy and mountainous which meant a slow drive but a gorgeous one.  Following the recommendation from friends, we planned to stay at the KOA a mile north of Crescent City which turned out to be the perfect location to use as a home base during our stay. After setting up camp we visited the National Park information center and were soon armed with maps and suggestions for things to do during our stay.  It was interesting to learn that the Redwoods  were not only in the national park  but also in the Jedediah  Smith Redwoods State Park,  Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park and Del Norte Coast Redwoods State Park.

  

The highlight of our time at the Redwoods was the drive on Howland Hill Road through  Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park. This road snakes along a historic wagon route through a forest of giant redwood trees.  We hiked the Boy Scout Tree Trail which is located off this road. The Boy Scout Tree trail is a 5.5 mile hike through the redwood forest. We saw only ten other people during the hike and enjoyed the solitude and  the majestic  beauty of the trees.  Trillium were in bloom along the trail, Stellar Jays chattered at us and banana slugs adorned the wet environment. A short, unmarked side trail leads to the Boy Scout Tree, a giant double tree resembling the two-fingered Boy Scout salute which was quite impressive. This ranks as one of our all time favorite hikes.

      

  

On our drive up Davidson Road to the Gold Bluffs in Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park we spotted a herd of Roosevelt elk. Nearby was Fern Canyon where rumor has it that part of Jurassic Park was filmed in this canyon.  On this drive we saw beautiful yellow blooms that we learned were skunk cabbage and green sprouts that were horse tail.There was a rustic campground on the bluffs that would accommodate tents and small RV's.  Each site was equipped with a bear box, picnic table and view of the ocean. Sites like this  make us wish we were still tent camping--but only for a fleeting moment!

   

The Lady Bird Johnson Grove Trail took us to the site where Lady Bird Johnson dedicated Redwood National Park in 1968.  The trail winds through old-growth redwood, Douglas fir, and tanoak.  Rhododendrons and azaleas are abundant in the area. We did not realize that the Redwood National Park was such a young park while some of the adjoining state parks were established much earlier.

Our three days at the redwoods were filled with wonderful scenery and great weather.  Tomorrow we are heading for the Oregon coast for the next leg of the trip.

Many more pictures can be found here.

Pinnacles National Park

Sunday morning we  left the San Bernardino Mountains and headed for Pinnacles Peak National Park.  Pinnacles had just recently become a national park and from what we had read was a "hidden jewel".  It was a 400 mile trek with the last leg of the trip through very rural country.  Pinnacles did turn out to be a beautiful park and it was the first time we actually saw condors in the wild--pretty awesome.
 

We spent two nights at Pinnacles campground which allowed us one day to explore the park.  We elected to hike the Condor Gulch trail which led us to an outlook where the condors frequently come.  We hiked in two miles and were rewarded with views of the condors soaring above us.  We also could watch the condors in the evening as they roosted in the mountainside by the campground.

A wild turkey also made an appearance in the campground.

The park offered many trails and  caves to explore.  It would be a wonderful park to return to when we have several days to spend there.

Early Tuesday morning we headed north anxious to get passed San Francisco and all the traffic.  We elected to take 101 which kept us out of middle of the city and took us through wine country.  The drive was not as difficult as we thought it would be and we stopped for the night in Ukiah, CA which is about 190 miles south of Redwood National Park.

More Pictures here.

Prescott to San Bernardino National Forest–Barton Flats Campground.

Have you ever thought you might have a black cloud hanging over you. That’s the way Sue and I felt after leaving AZ in March. As documented before, we arrived home to find snow and cold. There were some bright spots as we had a nice visit with Ally, Mike, and Roxy. I also had a great time getting back together with the Habitat crews.

While working in the yard, we decided that three trees in the yard needed to come down. Two were looking like they would hit the house in a strong windstorm. The other was leaning towards the power lines to our house. We did not want to see this happen while we were gone.

It was finally time to return to Prescott and our trailer. We were up bright and early as John was picking up for the airport at 7:00 am so John would  miss rush hour traffic on 270. Our flight was scheduled to leave at 10:20 so we had plenty of time to have breakfast and get to the gate. Little did we know how much time we would have! At the gate we discovered that the flight was delayed because of weather in Chicago.We finally boarded the plane at 11:30 and the plane left the gate and we sat on the runway.  At 1:00 pm we returned to the gate and unloaded. At this time I knew we would not make our original connection. The gate agent rebooked us on a 4:10pm Central time from Chicago.  We boarded the plane again a little after 2:00 and this time actually made it to Chicago. Finally we were able to grab a bite to eat only to discover that our connection was also delayed until 4:50.  A little after 5:00 we were finally headed to Phoenix, AZ.  After a  bumpy ride we finally made it to Phoenix and were able to catch the 7:15 shuttle to Prescott.We got to Tom and Debbie’s place around 9:30 pm Pacific Time. If you have been keeping track we are now at 12:30 by our body clocks and still haven’t had dinner.  Tom was kind enough to have turned the furnace up and so the trailer was nice and warm.

The next day was spent resupplying the trailer and getting in ready to head out. Again, Prescott had  great weather before we arrived, but that changed when we returned. We even had a snow flurry while running our errands. Really it was pretty good after what we had been through.

The next morning with a wonderful day to hit the road. The first 15 miles was this beautiful twisting drive through the mountains. I found the drive very easy even though we had been warned about the twists and turns plus up and downs. I think we finally were out from under that dark cloud. We were headed to San Bernardino National Forest – Barton Flats Campground to meet up with Matt for a few days.

Pictures of the Road:

 

The weather here has been spectacular and we had two great hikes with Matt. One was on the South Fork Trail and the other was on the Santa Ana River Trail. We cooked outside in Dutch ovens and the grill and had lovely camp fires. Thanks Matt for such wonderful time.

Our camp Site:

 

Big Bear Lake a Ski  Resort:

 

South Fork Trail and Lunch Stop:

  

Go here to view all the Pictures.