We packed up Dolph and drove to Ford just south of Vancouver downtown for an oil change and to replace one of the headlights which had gone out. Afterwards we drove back to Emma's, finished off packing Dolph completely, blogged at the cafe and said a sad goodbye to Emma.
We drove to the border, and had no problem crossing back into the USA. This is the border crossing we were most worried about, because it was Murray's third tourist visa for the states on this trip (Minnesota, Alaska and now Washington). They could have given us a hard time - since it's frowned upon to get so many visas in such a close time frame, but we got a nice immigration guy who only asked us only a few basic questions then gave Murray a new I-94, and laughed as he said 'g'day mate' as we walked away. Gosh that was a relief - I was actually shaking with relief!!
We drove on to a city called Mount Vernon, had some dinner and then slept at Wal-Mart - again.
Day 323 - September 16
Dolph woke up happy and ready to get back on the road
We got there JUST as the 10:15 was leaving, so we bought our fare ($14 - wow that's cheap for the two of us AND Dolph) and got in line for the next ferry - at noon.
It was a TIGHT TIGHT fit - but they managed to fit a ton of vehicles on board
Me waiting in the truck
We left Dolph safely locked up and then got this unusual view of him from above. That is gorilla tape on the roof of the topper, to keep rain from coming in. The previous owner scraped that bit so hard it was super thin and leaked in heavy rain! But no longer!
We arrived at Port Townsend half an hour later and then drove west towards Port Angeles.
We had a nice tailgating lunch at the Hurricane Ridge visitors center, and then went inside to get stocked up on brochures and information. We were very disappointed to learn that the ridge road was closed other than 2 days a week because of repairs though!!! That meant we wouldn't we able to go:( It is meant to having amazing views of Olympic Park
Murray took some lovely Autumn shots outside the visitors center
And some berries
SO, we backtracked a little bit and checked into the local KOA campground to make sure we had a spot to sleep that night.
Then we drove up the alternative to the Hurricane Ridge - Deer Park Road.
The 18-mile Deer Park Road is narrow and steep, the last 9 miles are gravel and VERY narrow!
The drop offs next to the road are quite scary - but the views are AMAZING!!
Check out all those crazy curves - VERY hard to tell if a truck is coming, thus you have to take them slow
We took Dolph up to the top of the road for a great view
A view of Port Angeles and part of Olympic National Park
Murray with a great view of the park behind him
The Pacific Northwest has a reputation for being dark and gloomy, shrouded in year-long mist and indeed the west side of Olympic Peninsula is the wettest spot in the lower 48 states.
However, the dry eastern side of the Olympics, where we are now, tells a different story. By the time rainclouds pass the northeast of Mount Olympus and the Bailey Range, they have dropped most of their water.
So, here in the eastern Olympics they say they are in a 'dry rainshadow.' Just as less sunlight reaches the shadow of a tall building, less moisture reaches a mountain's rainshadow. The Hoh Rain Forest in the west of the park can get 140 inches of rain a year, but Sequim (just north of deer park, and in the eastern part of Olympus park) only gets only 18 inches a year!
Me on the Rain Shadow loop hike that we did - to the top of Blue Mountain - with amazing panoramic views of the lowlands and mountains in the background - stunning.
We caught the sun streaming through the trees as we drove back towards the campground. We didn't want to drive down that precarious road in the dark!!
Back at the campground we sighed with RV envy...
and then set up to make our dinner
But the dark caught up with us and we had to finish cooking and then eat in the dark. It is times like these that we are glad Mike and Beth showed us their awesome pop up camping lantern - we LOVE ours! Such a great idea:)
Day 324 - September 17
We spent the morning in Port Angeles doing admin (wifi and post office) and then set off for Lake Crescent. 
The drive to the lake was lovely (that's the lake in front of us)
We parked at Lake Crescent and then hiked back under the road and on to the Marymere Falls trail - where we came across some massive trees
We also crossed some unusual bridges made out of fallen trees - very cool
The trail goes through some lovely old growth forest
And Marymere Falls was lovely (although not very full because it is late in the season...)
Mo the photographers assistant carrying the tripod
Nestled in the valleys of Olympic National Park are some of the largest remnants of ancient forests left in the country
Trees here can tower 300 feet tall
We then drove on towards Sol Duc Falls
We first stopped at the salmon cascades - we didn't see any salmon, but the view was pretty
And then we drove on towards the Sol Duc Falls trailhead. Look at the tall dead tree in this pic. Like an arrow! Soooo tall!
Eventually, after a short 1 mile hike, we arrived at the GORGEOUS falls
Stunning views
The thundering three-chute Sol Duc Falls are quite a sight
Murray doing what he loves most
A stunning view from back on the trail down towards the bridge and the falls
Murray posing at the top of the falls - this shows just how big these falls are.
On the way back I HAD to pose by the root system of this gigantic fallen tree - just gives you some scale for how HUGE the trees are here - wow
Some mushrooms Murray spotted
Amazing that each ring signifies a year's growth - this tree is ancient!
And THEN we spotted our first banana slug - very exciting!
And some VERY unusual and brightly colored mushrooms
The Pacific banana slug is the second-largest species of terrestrial slug in the world, growing up to 9.8 inches long
We watched him eating this mushroom for awhile then moved on - pretty gross to watch - slimy!
That night we reheated the chicken and rice meal we had made the night before. AND added a little creamy soup for a nice meal
We spent the night at a campground in Mora - near the beach
Our neighbor - the campground was tucked into the lush forest - chilly but so pretty
Day 325 - September 18
We got up early and drove to the nearby trailhead to Second Beach
After a short hike we made it out to the driftwood strewn beach
The weather was cloudy and a bit dismal, but the views were still lovely
Me on the driftwood
Me by a disgusting looking squid we found washed up on the beach
my foot - for scale - ewwwww
We thought these green sea anemones were pretty cool looking
A lovely view up Second Beach
We drove on to the point in La Push - I like this photo of me with an unusual totem pole
Then we drove on back to Mora and got a picture of us in front of this great sign on the way
This is the area where our campground was last night - gorgeous
Rialto Beach was lovely but the driftwood was EVERYWHERE! I took a small piece that was rubbed smooth by the ocean to keep
Then we drove on to check out Hoh Rain Forest
But first, before hiking, we tail gated and had sandwiches for lunch - of course (we are getting quite good at this!)
Then we went on the .8 mile Hall of Mosses loop trail through old growth temperate rain forest
But first Murray made a call from a moss phone booth. "M it's me checking in, have you spoken to Q yet? Well when you see him tell him his rocket launcher camera doesn't work! If you need me I'll be in the hall of mosses trying to save the world from the banana slug rebel movement."
The upper reach of the conifers - many over 200 feet tall - is an environment apart. Birds and flying squirrels you might never see near ground level nest up there.
A plethora of mosses, ferns and plants complete for space on the forest floor; grazing elk keep the understory open. By the way - when I hear the word plethora I can only think of one movie - The Three Amigos! ha ha
Dead and downed trees decay slowly and support new life as 'nurselogs.'
Mild winters, cool summers and up to 12 feet of annual precipitation produce giant conifers that dominate this rain forest
Olympic National Park was created in 1938 before it was developed, and thus looks much like it has for 5,000 years
This short - less than a mile loop - took us 3 1/2 hours to complete - LOTS of great photo opportunities (I'm glad I brought my book though!)
This is a stream - those vibrant green plants are under water - I think this photo looks amazing
But eventually the trail had to end and we had to move on
On the drive out of the rain forest area Murray and I got a photo with this giant spruce
We stopped briefly to have a look at Ruby Beach
and we stopped by Beach 4 (apparently there is quite a high tsunami risk on this coast - we saw these signs a lot)
Beach 4 apparently has tidal life when the tide is low ... but not now :(
We then checked into a state campground in the Kalaloch area
Murray finally shining up his boots with wax to protect them from the elements - it was WELL needed!
We had some very nice chili for dinner
And we were quite happy with the campgroud which was RIGHT by the beach - nice to fall asleep to the sound of waves.
Day 326 - September 19
In the morning we drove to Beach 4 (even though the ranger at the campground last night had told us not to bother because the tide wouldn't be low enough this time of year to see anything...)
We laughed like crazy when we saw this sign - gotta love those cartoons!
When we got there we were the only people around and wow was it gorgeous
Sea anemones were all over the place
The starfish were GORGEOUS !!!
Me with some brightly colored starfish
They are so intricately patterned - amazing
The marine sanctuary extends 20-40 miles off shore and 135 miles from north to south
And the ranger said we wouldn't see anything!!! Gosh I'm glad we still went!
It's a beautiful area - but interesting to note that severe currents, rocks and infamous weather has doomed many ships along this wild coast
Most of the beaches on this coast area accessible only by foot or boat (we hiked down to them)
In the pools and on the rocks of the tidal zone live a diversity of marine life -
barnacles, seat stars, small crabs and many other animals
A star fish (or should I call it a sea star?) trying to unstick himself
I think? he's trying to move
Such a cool unusual view of this amazing animal
Me waiting for Murray to drag himself away from all the great photo opportunities before the tide came in
These are actually officially called Ochre sea stars
They usually grow to be 10-12 inches across and are ravenous hunters
They feed on mussels, snails and other slow moving creatures
The tidal pools were just on the other side of this huge rock
The sunlight streaming through the trees that morning was stunning
These are what they call 'sea stacks' - which occur all along this coast
Once we finally were able to pull ourselves away, we continued driving south to go to the Quinault Rain Forest (which is still a part of Olympic National Park)
We went to see Bunch Falls - a gorgeous waterfall right by the water.However, this is the only photo we have, because Murray - trying to get a good photo - stood in the middle of the stream and slipped. Big camera, nice lens and Murray all went into the water. Luckily Murray came away with just some bad bruises and cuts on his legs, but the camera and lens went completely under - and they were WET!
He wiped them off as best as he could, then we drove back towards the visitors center
On the way we stopped to see the world's largest spruce tree - although I don't know how they can still claim that since the top fell off years ago....
John Dee Dee liked it enough for a photo though
Me checking on our planned route - we had quite a drive ahead of us that afternoon
On the way we spotted this bumper sticker which made us laugh so hard we HAD to take a photo (the one on the right) - I know Dolph wants that sticker
We eventually arrived in Westport, and then set up in our 'office' to work on the blog (i.e. the laundry room)
We shared a nice bottle of wine in our 'office' and got a lot done on the blog - fab
Day 327 - September 20
In the morning we drove out to see downtown Westport and the docks
Dolph liked the view
Lots of cute little fishing boats
Then we drove south past TONS of cranberry bogs!
We were too early to see the harvest (which is is October)
but it was cool to look at all the fields (I had no idea this was a big cranberry growing area)
then we drove to leadbetter state park - which had disappointing views .. to be honest
So after a quick visit we drove back to check out the historic town of Oysterville - they had quite a few amazingly restored houses
We loved their windows - filled with 99 bottles of beer on the wall... ha ha
It is one of the oldest communities in Washington and was once the hub of oyster farming
We stopped by a pile of discarded oyster shells on the way back and WOW did it stink - BAD
The pile of shells - disgusting
We then went to the wacky 'Marsh's Free Museum' in Long Beach - we thought this was pretty creative though - live crabs for sale in painted shells - cute
This museum is home to the infamous Jake the Aligator Man - lol
Oh sorry - WORLD famous - yah right
I then pulled this horse drawn sled (from Minnesota) out of the way so we could go
And punished Murray the good old fashion way in front of the world's largest frying pan. Click to enlarge and see the pain!
Murray pretending to be a gordo (fat - in spanish) in front of gordos (see we do still remember SOME Spanish - thus why we found the name of this video store funny)
We were sad this elephant ears store was closed - they sound yummy (they are essentially just huge deep fried donghnuts in the shape of an elephant ear)
I liked this carve sea lion
Murray in front of Long Beach - which CLAIMS to be the longest beach in the world at 25 miles
There are actually 7 beaches longer that this one, including two in Australia (the longest is actually in Brazil and is 149 miles long). A bit of an exaggeration I must say....
There have been a LOT of shipwrecks in this area - every name on this map represents one - wowWe then drove down to Cape Disappointment
Murray - sooooo 'disappointed' !! - with the North Head lighthouse
We also hiked out to another lighthouse, and spotted this coast guard training center on the way
It is an important training center for rough weather
The Cape Disappointment Lighthouse - with the sun cleverly placed right behind the light.
This is the point where Lewis and Clark reached the Pacific in 1805 after their historic journey across the West which was then called the Louisiana Territory. Their expedition traveled over 8000 total miles over a period of 2 years, 4 months and 10 days.
Murray spotted this sign on our hike back down (and yes we did peek over there - there wasn't any weapon firing going on at all - false advertising!)
We then decided to cross the bridge because we needed gas and the closest town was in Oregon
It was SUCH an unusual bridge - check out this steep incline we had to climb
While we were filling up with gas I took this photo, then Murray came back for the camera and took a photo of it too - TOO funny (if you know British slang....)
We drove on East through Oregon, and then finally back up into Washington
In the city of Kelso we decided to finally use the gift certificates my sister Megan and her fiance Mike gave us and had a FABULOUS meal at Red Lobster (I LOVE CRAB LEGS!!)
Murray ordered the 'endless shrimp' and ate a variety of shrimp meals until he was so full I practically had to roll him out of there
Day 328 - September 21
This morning we drove north to see Mount Saint Helens National Monument
This is a photo of Spirit Lake and Mt. St. Helens - before the explosion
At 8:32 Sunday morning, May 18, 1980, Mount St. Helens erupted
Shaken by an earthquake measuring 5.1 on the Richter scale
the north face of this tall symmetrical mountain collapsed in a massive rock debris avalanche
Nearly 230 square miles of forest was blown down or buried beneath volcanic deposits
At the same time a mushroom-shaped column of ash rose thousands of feet skyward and drifted downwind, turning day into night as dark, gray ash fell over eastern Washington and beyond
The eruption lasted 9 hours, but Mount St. Helens and the surrounding landscape were dramatically changed within moments
This catastrophic eruption on May 18, 1980, was the deadliest and most economically destructive volcanic event in the history of the United States
Fifty-seven people were killed; 250 homes, 47 bridges, 15 miles (24 km) of railways, and 185 miles (300 km) of highway were destroyed
The eruption caused a massive debris avalanche, reducing the elevation of the mountain's summit from 9,677 feet (2,950 m) to 8,365 feet (2,550 m) and replacing it with a mile-wide (1.5 km-wide) horseshoe-shaped crater
The debris avalanche was up to 0.7 cubic miles (2.9 km³) in volume
Much of the land the explosion destroyed was logging land - so as much as possible was salvaged
Prior to the 1980 eruption, Mount St. Helens was the fifth-highest peak in Washington
Magma reached the surface of the volcano about October 11, 2004, resulting in the building of a new lava dome on the existing dome's south side
Murray demonstrating how hot magma is - at his hand's peril!!! Ahhhh!
We thought this was a very interesting depiction
Isn't it amazing that they can tell this just because the rings were closer together in that section?
a core view of the same tree - there was a HUGE explosion in this area in 1480
The area is now protected as a national monument, so that the area around it can recover naturally
The ash cloud from this explosion actually circled the globe - in two weeks
We liked this artwork depiction of the eruption
We also stopped by the Forest Learning center - where I tried on this 'eagle hand'
I also tried out the helicopter
This is sign tells how much timber was salvaged after the eruption
Wow
The forest learning center was very good - we watched a few videos about logging which were very interesting
And then we caught this view of the lava path valley before deciding to turn back
The weather was just too poor to see Mount Saint Helens :(
So we crossed back over this bridge
And then tailgated and made grilled turkey, cheese and tomato sandwiches - yummm
It was great
Next we stopped by the bigfoot visitors center - apparently he has been spotted a lot in this area
Me with bigfoot, in the pouring rain!Next up ................. Oregon
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