Jeanie was happy to see Jordan for the first time since he's been stationed at Puget Sound. Since I was flying out to the KR Gathering anyway, we took the opportunity to go on vacation with Jordan, and see Washington and Oregon.

First stop was Olympic National Park, and this view was near Port Angeles, overlooking the Straight of Juan De Fuca along the way.

A lot of native Americans live in the area, and this map charts many of them.

This slice of a log is in the visitor's center at Hurricane Ridge, and it's something like 7' tall. The labels point to significant events in time over the 650 years that the tree lived.

Our first hike would be Switchback Trail. As you can see from the sign, this was during a drought, and there was a fire ban in effect.

Next hike was Soleduck Trail, up to Soleduck Falls

Jeanie counts the rings on this fallen tree that was sawn in half to clear the trail.

Fluorescent green moss covers much of the rocks in much of the Northwest

This is the tail end of a stream that eminates from a substantial waterfall, far off the beaten path.

Soleduck Falls, finally.

La Push Beach, located on the Quileute Indian Reservation. Here the old growth forest meets the Pacific Ocean.

If Forks, Washington rings a bell (and it certainly didn't with me), it's the setting for the "Twilight" vampire/werewolf series of books.

This moss is an indication that we were nearing the Hoh Rain Forest.

This wetland area is at the entrance to the Hoh Rain Forest, part of Olympic National Park.

Here's another place where old growth forest meets the Pacific Ocean, named Second Beach.

The large rocks are called "sea stacks". We don't see these on the Gulf Coast!

Anemone and a starfish (the brownish purple thing) in a tidal pool at Second Beach.

Here's a starfish! Cool stuff, indeed.

Here's another tidal pool nearby. This was right on the edge of wet and dry, lapped by the waves over and over again.

My boy! (says Jeanie)

Jeanie read about these tidal on the Interweb, but other visitors made them easy to find by pointing the way.

The outgoing tide left these shadows in the sand. This looks like something a Mars lander would beam back.

Here we started a scenic drive toward ...

Lava...

...and more tidal pools, at Cape Perpetua.

This was fairly treacherous walking, and a bit windy.

A starfish of the orange variety.

Contact Mark Langford at ML "at" N56ML.com (replace the "at" with @)

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