King's Canyon NP

Wonderful day yesterday driving along this canyon. Some fantastic views down into it on the drive and then some time walking and relaxing by the river, including a BBQ on the banks. Couldn't get much better than that!

 

 

Neil on a sequoia stump. They took a slice of this tree to a New York museum in about 1890 to display as no-one believed trees could be so huge. Still there apparently.

Bear city ! (otherwise known as Sequoia NP)

Lovely park with these enormous sequoias, a canyon in the Sierra Nevada range and lots of bear sightings - hurray! And finally a photo G! Not the best camera setting!! No time for faffing, but may be able to tamper with it later. We saw 9 bears altogether yesterday, 3 separate sightings; 3 Mums and 6 babies. We couldn't quite believe it. 2 of the sightings were when we were walking and it actually was a bit scary, especially as the Mum mock charged some other people nearby who had got a bit too close. We watched the same Mum climb right up into a tree, very fast and agile.

 

 

 

 

Went on this walk, made us think of our two brothers! This was part of the view from the top of Baldy.

Bored of volcanoes yet?

Not at this end anyway! We are travelling along part of the "ring of fire" as it's called where the Pacific plate is pushing under the North American plate. This ring is where 75% of the world's volcanoes are so not surprising there's all this action!

We were in Lassen volcanic NP today, travelled down yesterday with a cave stop on the way. One of N's favourite things caves...

Learnt that there are 4 types of volcano and the latest one to erupt here is a lava dome, with slow moving, sticky lava that often just replugs the volcano. That's what this one did and then a few days later in 1917 it erupted again this time with more gas-fuelled power.  Lots of evidence to look at, from massive rocks moved down the mountain by avalanches, to fumaroles, mud pots etc. On the way out of the park were miles of and loads of black volcanic rock in amongst the vegetation.

We had a walk around a lake here too and I had to resist collecting  lots of these massive cones.

 

Taking after Mum with my eyes closed!

 

 

 

 

And a glacial erratic. Remember all this stuff Tim?

Back up to Oregon's only NP, Crater Lake

We spent the last day and a half driving and sauntering round this beautiful lake. The volcanic eruption that made the caldera was 100 times more powerful than St Helen's! It is the clearest lake in the world-you can see to a depth of about 140ft and is a lovely blue. Around the sometimes quite sheer drops along the rim was the occasional sign that said "falling may cause injury or death" . You betcha!

 

 

 

Some "hoodoos" left over as the ash eroded on the outside of the crater.

Redwood forests, California

A less strenuous day today after a couple of long walks over the last few days (one walk of 10 miles! It's a while since we've walked that far.) We took a boat trip up the Klamath river, glad of our hats as it was HOT! We didn't see any hoped-for bears or osprey but enjoyed the pelicans and heron and our captain did a few high speed turns and emergency stops (on purpose!), so that was fun. The  forest walks have been lovely. Quiet and peaceful. We did some huge tree hugging, spotted some frogs and "banana" slugs, you can guess the colour, and came across two bull elk with fabulous antlers, one in a glade just off the trail and one actually on the trail, luckily a little while after we were off it! The end of yesterday's trail took us to fern canyon where 6 different ferns grow on the walls. We had to scramble over trees to walk up it.

 

Trundling down the coast

FOG yesterday so we went inland a bit to track down some elk! Luckily there was a big herd where there should have been, with a big male strutting his stuff. When the fog had lifted a bit we walked onto the dunes that they have a huge swathe of in this area. Didn't walk very far as it was hard work and unfortunately the weather wasn't good enough for a nice view of them. Noticed that some of the trees and bushes round here are really bent over as if in a storm. It does get a bit wild here quite often I think.

Weather good again today which was lucky as we had a coastal walk planned. 8 mile walk along a great section with fabulous sandstone rock formations, little coves and something we weren't expecting! Most of the way along we could hear a weird noise that gradually got louder and began to sound like barking.

Turned out to be LOADS of sea lions and some seals. What a racket as we got closer! Took the photo below but it's probably hard to see them. Apparently the rocks round here are just perfect for hauling your blubbery body out!

 

Thought of you Dobbos when we saw these lovely beaches.

Mt St Helen's and to the Oregon coast

Visited H's namesake on Friday, luckily she's not as explosive as this one is! We learnt a lot, including how much they got wrong back then about what was expected when they realised she was going to blow! She has the youngest glacier in the world; a lake nearby rose by 200ft after the eruption (all the ash and pumice); and the noise of the eruption was only heard about 60 + miles away - something weird they think about temperature/atmosphere.

On Saturday we had a side trip to the Colombia gorge. Some great views of the river and lots of waterfalls, including the second tallest in the States. After the scenic drive we headed for the coast. Already we've seen some beautiful, long, almost empty beaches and we stayed right next to one in Manzanita (small apple in Spanish!) last night. A fabulous big patio door so we had great views.  Today we went to a cheese factory that also makes yummy ice cream, so both of us were fulfilled!! Hate to say this without a photo with Grant reading this but we saw several gray whales too!! Sea food chowder and crab cakes for tea!

 

 St H's from a distance and then closer

 

 

 Can you see where the lava etc flowed?

 

 

 The gorge

 

 

 

We have a sleep machine tonight! We can choose from waterfalls, tropical forests or thunder storms amongst others to lull us to sleep!

Rainier National Park

Mt Rainier has 25 glaciers and looks amazing on the highway from Seattle! Yesterday we hiked to Panorama point in its foothills for the view below. There were pretty alpine plants and flowers as we began the walk. We could see several other of the big mountains in the next state too as the day was clear and bright. Saw lots of marmots on the way and a few deer. The marmots weren't bothered by us at all and came really close. Staying in the woods in a lovely cabin with a hot tub! Blackberries are the thing here. Have had some delicious blackberry butter (the waitress gave me some extra to take home!) and enjoyed a very good pie tonight.

 

 

 

 Me by an interesting tree! Neil took it for Dad who usually says "Where are the photos of you?"

 

 

Olympic National Park

This park which is the top left sticky out part of Washington State is really diverse and has an amazing mountain range, with Mount Olympus as the highest mountain, rainforests and beautiful beaches, some with sea stacks and lots of driftwood. It's also where they filmed the Twilight films. In the part of the forest that we visited were the biggest western red cedar and the biggest sitka spruce in the world! Neil is inside the very hollow cedar.

 

 

 

 

 

 

More lichen!


 

North to Alaska

So...the lucky devils have returned to Terra Firma after a first ever cruise to Alaska. I will try not to go on but we really did have an amazing time! The location made it of course and we had generally pretty good weather so that we got to see everything we should have. Parts were in turn awe-inspiring, beautiful, restful and exciting! We saw whales and sea-otters, harbour seals, bald eagles, spawning salmon (of which there are pictures!) And porpoises (of which there are not!) We also ate far too much, sometimes indulging in TWO puddings-  well, that was just me!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There's one!