The immortal tree was in front of our campground. It had survived lightning strikes, fire, partial chopping down (they gave up apparently because of it’s size) and the flood of 1964!You can see the marker (just below the green branches) for the flood of 1964 showing how high the water got.
This log truck was at our campground too. It’s used for parades and other celebrations.
We did a drive down The Avenue of the Giants. Amazing trees!We did a day trip down the Avenue of the Giants
They had these Tree Houses there too. Very cool!
More views of the Avenue of the Giants
hammond family gathering in santa rosa
We attended the Hammond family gathering at Bruce and Susan’s house in Santa Rosa. I didn’t get any photos but here are some Bruce had taken by a professional photographer friend. from left to right; Asa, Aren, Mira, Denny, Holland (Bryce’s sister), Logan and Bryce.One lucky grandpa!
while in Santa Rosa we visited the Jack London Historical State Park with Lane, Ron and Denny.
The house was full of interesting artifacts from their lives and travels throughout the South Seas and the world.
What I found most interesting was his Cruise of the Snark, a sailing cruise in the South Sea
Also interest was the house they had built but unfortunately burned to the ground before they could ever move in.
Jack London’s grave. His wife was also buried here on the property.
sequoia national park
Our last stop in northern California was Sequoia National Park. Interesting to note the Sequoias here are not as tall as the coastal Redwoods but are larger in volumn.
I hiked this trail that led down to General Sherman, the largest Redwood/Sequoia of them all.
joshua tree national park, our last sightseeing stop beforE heading down to san diego
We made or last stop here while staying at the time share at Welk’s Resort in Palm Springs. Only a couple of pictures as it was threatening rain, thunder and lightning while we were there.
that concludes our 10 month adventure!
Stay tuned for next years travels beginning April 2017!
10 Months, 43 campgrounds, 12 States, 7500 miles on the trailer, 24000 miles on the truck!
Sorry for the delay in getting these last posts out, we were without wifi for 6 weeks or more! Enjoy!
The bridge from Washington to Oregon on the 101….and NO Rain!We loved South Beach State Park. Very nice park within walking distance of the water. Different sounds here; no trains, planes or automobiles, all we heard was a fog horn and seals barking!
We took a day trip and went up to the Tillamook Cheese Factory. Very interesting; they sure make a LOT of cheese in a day!The factory floor from the observation area above.
The milk vats
Lunch at Mo’s in Newport Harbor.Fishermen on the pier catching crabs.
The source of our barking seals; these were about 10 or 15 miles from our campground! I guess sound really carries over the water!
We visited with Roy and Vicki Warren while we were there at their home here in Newport. They’re pros at this by now, they’ve been full timing for over 15 years!
oregon coast day trip drive
Some shots of the beautiful Oregon Coast
The Port Orford Coast Guard Museum
View point at the point
Stopped at this cool little fresh seafood place for lunch.
While we were there a few whales were swimming around this little bay. The locals say they’re there a lot because it’s very deep but protected.
Some more beautiful coast line on our drive.
jerry’s rougue river jet boat tour
On the advice of a few including Rocky, we took Jerry’s Rogue River Jet Boat Tour and were glad we did; it was awesome!
Our boat Captain Kevin and his sidekick Sadie. She loved the water!Retrieving her water bottle (again and again, as many times as anyone is willing to toss it)Throw it AGAIN! Anybody!
Eagle or Osprey nest; we saw so many its hard to keep track!These birds fan their wings out to dry so they can fly; something we never knew!
The indian chiefs tent?
Bald Eagles everywhere!
Local Salmon fishermenNice catch! YUM!!Fisherman and his first mate (four legged)!
Good old fashioned rope swing fun!
Doing a 360 on the river; the captain loved doing these to entertain his passengers!What’s real; what’s reflection?!?
Stopped for lunch at this great BBQ place.Our boat.
We took the ferry from Seattle to explore both Victoria and the Butchart Gardens.
The bay area in VictoriaIn order to see the most of Victoria in our short stay we took the double decker bus tour.
Some of the “interesting” residents!These hanging flower baskets were all over downtown.Hotel Zed is a local hotel with a 60’s theme, thus their hotel transportation are these VW buses!China town district.
Mile 0 of the Trans Canada Highway that stretches across all of Canada East to West; it connects via ferry to here in Victoria.
The entrance to Butchart Gardens.Butchart Gardens entrance.See the Leopard?
Its hard to imagine this was just an old quarry when they started!
Very pet friendly; they even had these doggy drinking fountains !The dancing waters fountain; mesmerizing!An interesting (and maybe a bit gross for some tastes) water statue.
An interesting water fountain! Probably a bit gross to some!They even had this beautiful hand carved carrousel.
They even had this beautiful antique hand carved and painted carrousel there!
Our campground was in Port Angeles.The day we arrived it rained constantly all day. Surprise, surprise!We took a day trip to the Hoh Rain ForrestVery dense forrest and very green; moss grows on anything that doesn’t move!Thats a boy, a little bigger than Reeve, standing by that huge tree! So big I couldn’t get back far enough to get it all in even with my wide angle lens!This is the best I could do to get an entire redwood tree in the shot! They’re enormous !
Ferns growing out of the root ball of a blown over tree.
We went on a short hike on this trail; there was word of an Elk sighted close by.And lo and behold, there he was, just grazing! He could care less that people were within 20 feet of him!
On another day trip we went to Hurricane Ridge.Beautiful drive up there.We spotted this Marmot near the Visitor’s Center.
While exploring one day we discovered this: an old WWII bunker, part of Camp Hayden!The gun here had a 45′ barrel and shot 16″ projectiles. The one on the left is almost as tall as me and weighs over a ton and the gun could shoot them over 28 miles!Camp Hayden was part of the joint American/Canadian Defense System to protect these harbors.
We found this cute lodge up there too; The Log Cabin Lodge.It was a bit overcast and drizzly but it adds to the picture I think.Their lobby greeter!Off the side of the road was this small rapids. At the right time of year Salmon are going up stream to spawn.Through the VERY clear water you can see a few Salmon here.
We took the harbor tour boat while in Seattle area. We stayed with our friends Doug and Cindy Lundvall in Bellevue just outside Seattle.
The iconic needle of Seattle.While in this area we stayed with our friends Doug and Cindy Lundvall. This is the view of Lake Sammamish from the deck of their home in BellevueFour generations; Jan, Polly’s sister and the grandma; Elise, grand daughter; Meribelle, great grand daughter; and Cindy, daughterDoug and Cindy let us tag along for a 60th Birthday party for one of their good friends, DonnaThe Birthday girl, DonnaHer husband Peter Blake and his son entertained us with some great musicHer stepson, Robert Blake was our host at his home and a great musician in his own right.The evening sunset from Robert’s back yard.We were also invited to tag along on an excursion to Doug and Cindy’s friends and colleagues from their teaching careers; hosted by Ron and Valerie, for a fine Wine/Dinner Party; what fun!
An interesting metal sculpture of Ron’s; it’s 6 feet tall! It was made by one of his students.We also went on a day trip with Doug and Cindy to see Snoqualmie Falls just outside of Bellevue
A group shot; Doug, Cindy, Jan and me (I get in a picture once in awhile!
We stopped at Taylor Shellfish Farms for some really fresh oysters for lunch. YUMMY!!We didn’t have any plates or utensils but that didn’t stop us from enjoying them!
The farm
Their little lighthouse covered in, you guessed it, oyster shells!On another day trip with Doug and Cindy we visited the town of La Conner on the bayfront.They had John Waynes old yacht the Norwester there as a museum.Interesting project undertaken by the Army Corps of Engineering and the town of La Conner
While in Bellevue, we took a day trip to Tacoma to visit the Museum of Glass.Artists working on a piece in the Cone workshopThe finished design drawn in colored chalk for their reference
The painstaking process to produce the glass swirls, simply amazing!
Other exhibits were equally beautiful and interesting
The National Park Inn where we stayed for the night. Very “quaint”!Very large trees; compared to Big Blue even!View of Mount Rainier from the lodge.Yet another beautiful water fall!
We took a day trip through the park. Actually very little access by car.Aptly named Reflection Lake.Another view of Mount Rainier (we had the bikes with us while our RV was at the dealer for warranty work)
It’s the tallest mountain around; even visible from our friends Jim & Kathy’s back yard in Enumclaw, about 50 miles away!
Our first view of Lake Coeur d’AleneWe took a boat tour of the lake.View of downtown Coeur d’Alene from the boat.
Some beautiful homes on this lake for sure!
A few nice old wood boats too (Chris-Craft I believe)
We met a nice couple from Minnesota on the boat; Manny and Carmen.These two are either an Eagle or Osprey nest, I’m not sure which is which.
We found a cool bicycle theme bar and restaurant with the help of our good friend Dan Plummer and his fiancé Diane.Dan and Diane (sorry it’s out of focus, iPhone shot)
Dan and I went fishing on his boat on Spirit lake.Dan caught a nice one; we didn’t get a picture of the tree branch I caught!
Jan waited in the park on shore while we fished.
The next day Jan and I had Happy Hour at the hotel downtown; nice view of the marina from there.
We had a great camping spot at Jim & Mary’s RV Park in Missoula. Lots of space, beautifully landscaped with lots of trees, flowers and grassy areas.
Jan’s high school friend Sally Friou came to dinner with her two pups, Cuba (little black dog) and Sita. She suggested some great places to visit while we were there!I got a dog fix too!We did a day trip to see a series of beautiful lakes.
Met this little fella; not sure what kind he was but definitely a water snake!
Another day we visited the Lolo Summit
We had lunch at Lochsa Lodge, a beautiful hand hewn log lodge!View from the back dining patio of the lodge.We net Sally at Big Arm Campground at Flathead Lake. She was staying in one of the Yurts they have there.
The view from her campsite.Sita enjoying the crystal clear water!Believe it or not there’s about 8-10 inches of water in this picture!A storm’s coming.
On our way back Jan took this picture out the window; amazingly dry here!
Our campsite, cleverly shot to keep out the freeway and railroad next door! Really nice campground none the less; large spots, lots of trees and grass!Our one excursion here; we were resting up after two weeks in Yellowstone! Really well done Computer and Robotics Museum.The first Apple computer.Anyone recognize this from school?!?A little computer nerd humor!Great quote I thought!
We drove to the top of the mountain behind our campground and I got this shot of the town of Gardiner, you can see our campground in the foreground.It doesn’t look like much from the front, but Iron Horse Bar & Grill was our favorite eatery.It had a large deck overlooking the Yellowstone river.
I had a great Elk burger; one of the many great local items on the menu.Jan had a refreshing Huckleberry cocktail; I had a local beer of course!
cody, wyoming- sort of near the east entrance (50 miles)
We met our good friends Claude and Hope from Philidelphia for our second week of Yellowstone. Here they are at the Buffalo Bill Center of the West Museum.
Claude with Bill.Of course they had Bison (Buffalo)Buffalo Bill himself greets you at the entrance via a smoke hologram.There was a very extensive gun museum; too many to show. This one was different; not really sure how it would work!There was also a Plains Indian museum; there were 4 or 5 museums there, a great value!
Buffalo fur coat worn in winter by the indians.An intricate beautiful beaded saddle.They were a nomadic people, following the seasons for hunting and such.Even their dogs worked!The four of us went to the Cody Rodeo; a nightly event during the tourist season. Claude and Hope even got hats for the occasion!They had bucking broncos as well as bulls and cows for the younger riders.
And cow roping
And Team cattle roping.
the best shots from our 2 weeks in yellowstone (i won’t use all 2500 pictures)!
Mammoth Hot SpringsThis is the view from below as you approach from the north entrance.
Interesting patterns!A bridge we traveled as we went through the park.
We saw Sheepeater Cliff (Sheepeater was the nickname for the local indians)
Then we saw these guys!
Roaring Mountain
Beautiful river valley picture.
This geyser isn’t anywhere near the size of Old Faithful, but it erupts every few minutes.
Notice the old 1937 bus? Pretty cool they’re still using them!
Old Faithful InnA very cool pendulum clock on the huge stone fireplace in the lobby.
The Upper Falls at Artist Point. Notice the green streak in the falls? They say it’s always there!Upper and Lower FallsA small herd of ElkMammoth Village has resident Elk too.
Jan was able to get a glimpse of a couple of black bears as I drove.
More Elk; these two are having a tiff apparently.
This poor old guy is not long for this world; he’ll end up wolf food or something.Cooke City, near the Northeast entrance to Yellowstone.The cabin on the left with the green roof was Hemingway’s at one time.
We found one of the many great picnic spots on the river.
Steamboat Point on Yellowstone Lake
Another great picnic spot with Claude and Hope.
We took the Beartooth Loop with Claude and Hope; Claude drove!Notice the MANY switchbacks on the road; I’m thankful Claude drove over that pass!
I wasn’t doing a “Gangsta” pose, I was FREEZING! And it was over 92 in Cody that day!
Lamar Valley; thousands of Buffalo!
This big fella just walked in front of us and gave us this look like “WHAT!”
