Saturday, July 18, 2015

Olympic Peninsula Rocks!

We love the Olympic Peninsula. We just enjoyed a week of camping in the beautiful forest. Our Campsite was near the woods in Heart Of the Hills campground. The beautiful song of the Swainson's Thrush was heard throughout the campground.
Ravens have many sounds, some comical.
Heart o' the Hills campground is about nineteen miles from Hurricane Ridge which made it easy to visit several times.
  The drive to Hurricane Ridge is a winding road. You never know if it will be clear at the top.
The first day was completely covered with clouds. The second trip was partly cloudy. Our last attempt was clear.
Because of the low snowfall this year it looked different. It is more beautiful with snow but  I enjoy seeing the form of the mountains.
The other result is a scarcity of wild flowers.
We didn't see as many animals as usual but not seeing them tells you how lucky you were to see them other times.
We saw  deer. A young buck was quite close to the parking lot. One doe with two very  young fawns  were on the side of the road.
We did see a new species of rodent. I am trying to figure out what it is. It was bigger than a rat and shaped more like a beaver but no beaver tail. It was the same size at both ends of the body and it walked across the highway like an old man It was the cutest!
 We also had a deer run in front of the car. Luckily we didn't make contact with it.  And, a dog chased our wheels and ran in front of the car. Good thing Joe is a careful driver. The dog episode was in La Push.
We drove to see the restoration of the dam on the Elwha River. Interesting. Apparently,
not everyone was not on board. I saw a sign in a yard. " We need tourists not salmon"

We drove to Mora and Rialto Beach. So beautiful

We checked out Port Townsend and Port Angeles. We had a nice visit with our niece Claudia who lives in Port Angeles. Our nephew Mark and his wife Vicky were visiting, so we had a chance to catch up on family news.


        Bare facts about the bear
                                Ranger Rick
Last night  we saw a magnificent sunset right above the bathrooms. Now, if only we'd been at Hurricane Ridge.

Highlights: The beautiful song of the Swainson's Thrush was heard throughout the campground.

The comical sounds of the Raven.

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