This is how you spend the day when walking through Redwood forests:
I think I said ‘WOW’ more times in the days we spent looking at Redwoods then I have in the past year.
After awhile it takes a REALLY BIG tree to impress you:
This was a beautiful tree and it had a great story. A couple was married under this tree and they came back to visit it on their anniversary, where we found them taking pictures and reminiscing about their wedding day.
Death Valley , the name sounds so foreboding, and we have all heard the horror stories about it having the hottest temperature ever recorded (134.1 degrees), so we were completely unprepared for the reality of Death Valley. The surrounding hills are beautiful and there are many really great trails to walk. We had been watching the weather (by April it was already in the 90’s) and when a cool spell arrived for a few days we headed down (way down) into the valley.
We found a fun place to stay outside of the park in an abandoned mobile home/RV park where you can stay for free. The sites have concrete pads and the area is very level, which is always a bonus for RVers. The downside – there is no cell service for miles around. But it was quiet and right outside the park….and free.
This drive is called Artist’s Palette and I think you can see why:
Borax was collected, refined and shipped out of the valley with ’20 Mule Teams’ in the late 1800’s. Some of the equipment and buildings are still visible.
Zabriskie Point was a good spot to watch the light change on the rocks as the sun set:
Golden Canyon Trail was our favorite hike because the rocks were so colorful:
Red Cathedral was at the end of the trail:
Going further down into the valley is Devil’s Golf Course:
To us Montanans, this looks like end-of-the-season dirty snow piles, not salt.
You can see from the grey sky that this was a day when it actually rained in Death Valley, a rather rare occurrence.
Natural Bridge Canyon trail:
Several dry waterfalls line this canyon trail:
Next stop: the lowest place in the continental U.S., Badwater Basin:
The white arrow indicates sea level.
Walking onto the valley floor on a solid trail of salt, which really looks like ice:
Salt Creek trail, which is home to the cute little endangered Pup Fish:
20 Mule Team Canyon Road was the last place we visited in Death Valley. It looked like a small side road that would be interesting but not too spectacular, but Death Valley fooled us one final time. The road goes into nearby hills and we had some spectacular late afternoon views, and even a rainbow.
Valley of Fire State Park is a short distance above Lake Mead and it is such a beautiful small park. We spent a day there and thoroughly enjoyed every bit of it. We found a great piece of BLM land just outside the park, where we camped on a long mesa with amazing views.
The park is full of color – swirls of color in some of the rocks – but mostly there is a very bright orange/red hue all around.
Some of the rocks even have names: Elephant Rock
We found several petroglyph sites, the beavertail cactus were in full bloom and we found interesting places to sit.
Lake Whatcom County Park near Bellingham, WA has a nice wide trail around part of the lake.
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We survived an 11 mile round-trip hike to New Dungeness Lighthouse on the Dungeness spit on the northern coast of Washington.
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We enjoyed several wonderful hikes in Olympic National Park in Washington; the cool green forests with carpets of ferns and the occasional waterfall are remembered fondly.
Our first campground was Rocky Gorge, on Lake Koocanusa, where we enjoyed the shade and the water.
Our second night out was spent in a WalMart parking lot in Colville, WA where it was about 150 degrees (or seemed like that!) on the pavement.
We did much better on our third night. We found Klipchuck campground, which was another welcome break from the July heat, with trees for shade and a nice creek in which we soaked our feet for quite awhile.
After that we spent about a month traveling along the north and west coasts of Washington, staying where it was cool and we could avoid all the smoke from the forest fires.
In this picture, we are parked along the Strait of Juan De Fuco at Seiku, WA, which is a small town on the western edge of Washington. We were close enough to the water that when the tide was in and the wind picked up, the waves were splashing over the rocks next to us. Seiku is a popular fishing area and some of the fish are even quite friendly.
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Tongue Point was a favorite because of its very active tide pools. We visited the Marine Life Center in Port Angeles and had a very knowledgeable docent explain all about tide pools. Then we spent many hours exploring.
We were perched over the ocean in a state park and it was usually very foggy, but once in awhile the fog would clear and we could see Canada across the Strait. Our cell phones were using Canadian towers!
