Silver Springs to Ohanepecosh

After the family campout we drove to our next campground. We were a little lonely so decided to drive to Mt. Rainier.

We treated ourselves to an a ice cream cone and the loneliness vanished.

Mount St. Helens

Always an amazing sight to see the new growth of trees and plants since 1980 eruption.
This is the first time I remember seeing all the mountain wildflowers back.
I took a picture of Mount Adams from Windy Ridge, with wildflowers in the foreground. It was very windy so it may be a little blurry but I'm posting it.

We also saw twenty elk basking in the sun. They were quite a distance away (binoculars needed) but I am posting it.
There is a field in Packwood where the elk often graze. It is called herders field. It is across from the gas station. We were getting gas and a bull ran across the busy street. I tried to get a photo but I'm too slow and he was too fast. The day before we were driving through and saw three female elk (cows) but we passed by and enjoyed the view without trying to take a photo.
I thought the tree with cones pointing upward was interesting. It looked like some type of spruce but I'm not sure.
We made it to the top of the Windy ridge Lookout.

Ohanepecosh

Joe and I spent several days at Ohanepecosh. We hiked from the campground to the Old Growth Forest.
Beautiful Falls, river and Laughing Waters creek plus wild flowers.  We also spotted some fungi on a tree that was heart  shaped. This was weird as on our trip to Rialto Beach we sat on a log and found a heart shaped rock.

"Love one another".

Views......Paradise and Sunrise....

Family Camp-out

Most of the family rode the gondola to the top of Crystal Mountain and enjoyed a spectacular view of  Sunrise side of Mt.Rainier.

Congratulations to Sami and Alex... (This may only be interesting to family)

John, How did the swim meet go? ( My e-mail to John)
John's answer.

Alex's medley relay finished 3rd. and his free relay finished 1st. at the All City swim meet.   The free relay also set a new Arbor Heights pool record. They broke the record set in 1994.

Sami qualified in 3 events for the Southern Division Swim Meet but was unable to move on to All City. That still puts her in the top 10 in 3 events, even though she didn't move on.

They both finished 2nd. at All City Tennis in doubles. Alex & his partner lost a heartbreaker by a tiebreaker after being tied 6-6. Sami and her partner lost 8-3 to a year round doubles team.  

Sami won MVP and most inspirational in 14U girls tennis, and the coaches award for swimming at Arbor Heights. Alex won the coaches award in tennis and swimming.
The kids on the relay team were the only ones who set a pool record this year.

Grandma's comment.  Extremely proud of you both. Maybe I'll get to a tennis match or swim meet one of these years!

Lower Elwha Valley

During our stay on the Olympic Peninsula we attended a few Ranger talks. One was about the closing of the dams. This inspired us to visit the dam before it was closed.

While we were in the Elwha Valley we decided to visit the Native American Center.