Trip to Seattle, July
4-16 1994
We headed out to Seattle on July 4 with Kent to pick up Derek from
Lutheran Bible Institute. Our plans were
to sight see in the Seattle area first.
We ate lunch in Mandan and camped in Medora at the Red Trail Campground. A burrowing owl and a pronghorn were spotted
as we drove through Teddy Roosevelt National Park. There were purple & yellow cone flowers
blooming. We walked the Wind Canyon Trail
and saw petrified stumps and logs and two herds of buffalo. There were July 4th fireworks at
the campground.
In Bozeman we went
to the Museum of the Rockies. There were
great displays of Maiasaurus specimens gathered by
John Horner. We went to see the Missouri
River headwaters and the Madison Buffalo Jump.
Kent spotted a badly injured osprey – we told the Fish and Wildlife
about it. We saw a folk
art statue exhibit.
On our way west, the
mountain scenery with boulders and pines was beautiful. There was a sandhill crane in a pasture near
Deer Lodge. In Missoula we bought a
“Bogie”, Indian flute and a copper bracelet. We stopped at Catalo Old Mission State Park
and walked around. The church was made
with straw & plaster walls. In Coer de’ Alene we bought peacock copper ore. We did some hiking at a state Riverside Park
that had a swinging bridge and pitcher and bowl rock formations in that looked
like conglomerate and saw a waterfall.
Near Spokane we
stopped at a lookout above the Columbia River and stopped at Gingko State
Park. There were petroglyphs outside the
visitor center.
Northern Exposure
was filmed at this location, so we ate at the Roslyn Café and shopped at Rose
Ann’s store.
We visited
Snoqualmie Falls Park that was used as a backdrop for Twin Peaks.
At Lutheran Bible
Institute we walked the waterfront and pier with Julie Jordan. We saw Derek do a “chicken” routine with Jr.
High kids. We saw the famous “slugs”,
saw Ocean and Pacific Beaches and did a half hour
rainforest hike at Quinault. The next
day in the Eulah area we walked Madison Falls Trail. There were large, big leaf maple trees
there. We drove around Crescent Lake –
it’s 600’ deep and surrounded by forest-covered mountains. We walked the Ancient Groves Nature Trail and
saw a doe & young fawn cross the road.
Next, we walked 3/4 mile
down to La Posh beach. There were
interesting sea stacks. It was high tide so the pools were covered.
At Neah Bay were
toured the Makah museum. On the way back
we stopped at a beach and saw hermit and other crabs, seaweed, bivalves, etc in the tide pools and under
the rocks. We stayed at Port
Angeles.
The next day we
headed to Dungeness and saw a few shells, a multi-star fish and several
blacktail deer and two fawns. Heading back we saw Hurricane Ridge, deer, and wildflowers. At Port Angeles the aquarium had sea urchins,
star fish, sea cucumbers, anemone, etc.
We headed to
Packwood on 101S and drove up the mountain and hiked on it. We saw two coyotes by a church on the edge of
town. The next day we headed to Mt. Rainer
where we hiked the Grove of the Patriarchs trail – saw a chipmunk and
black-tailed deer. We also hiked the
Wonderland Trail by Reflection Lakes and the Nisqually Vista Trail at Paradise. There were wild flowers and we could see several groups of hikers on
the snow fields. Went to the top of Nerada
Falls and walked over two single-log suspension bridges at Cougar Rock over the
Nisqually Glacier riverbed. Went back to
Packwood along a trout stream.
On July 13 we left
for Mt. St. Helens and drove up to Windy Ridge just a few miles from the crater
on the East side. We saw the new lava
dome, downed trees & pumice and thousands of logs
in Spirit Lake. We walked down to Meta
Lake – it had been covered in snow. The
trees on the edge of the blast zone had a grayish look. At the visitor center we saw a movie on the
eruption. We visited the Ape Caves, but didn’t go on the tour. We saw the lava tube area. (stumps & log
castings) and went to the west entrance and saw great exhibits.
On July 14 we went
to Pikes Fish Market in Seattle and saw a lobster crawl off its display. There were many crabs, squid,
salmon, etc. to buy, plus fruit and veggies.
The Aquarium has a large squid at least 10’ across. There was a large Alaskan King Crab, a salmon
ladder, harbor and fur seals, a dome with kelp & fish of all kinds, a
tidepool display, a shore display, free shore birds, and puffins.
We toured the
Curiosity Shop. The next day we drove
through a dust storm with heavy winds and dark dust clouds. At LBI we finished packing Derek up and drove
a Coeur D’Alene for the night. We got home on July 16 after driving 4,877
miles.