Mt. Rainier's top

Tue 22 June 2010
The clouds cleared away and we got to see and photograph the top of Mt. Rainier today. It is tall, white with snow, a bit rounded looking, and beautiful. We have our noses pointed home now and made it to Baker City, Oregon. Image source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/brewbooks/2939372409/

There is a dividing transition line that runs through the big volcanoes of the Northwest. Rainier, St. Helens, Hood, Adams and Lassen are all peaks that separate the moist, cloudy, fern covered, spruce-hemlock forests on the west from the much drier sagebrush and pine forests on the east. The farther we drove from Mt. Rainier the drier it got and the clearer the sky became.

Mt. Rainier, foxes

Mon 21 June 2010 Mount Rainier was our destination today we drove around on it but its top was in the clouds so we never saw the top. We went to a place called Paradise where fragrant wildflowers were supposed to be evident, but all we saw was six feet of snow. But on sides we saw a beautiful waterfall, and BJ got some pictures of a fox and her baby (vixen and kit). Image source: http://mountrainierclimbing.blogspot.com/2007_11_01_archive.html

Lewis and Clark, Long Beach, whale bones, bears

Sun 20 June 2010
The Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center is on top of an old WWII battery at Fort Canby, Washington. It is just a few hundred feet from the Cape Disappointment Lighthouse at the mouth of the Columbia River. We arrived half an hour before opening so we explored the battery first. Meriwether Lewis and William Clark were co-leaders of the Corp of Discovery, but one had his Captain's commission not go through. They always pretended it did so their men would think they were equals. Their commission was to explore and map the drainage of the Missouri River and then go west to the Pacific Ocean. On the way they were to greet Indian tribes in friendship and catalog the flora and fauna they discovered. They journeyed by keel boat to the Hidatsa Village on the Missouri, by canoe to the source of the Missouri, by foot and horse over the Bitterroot Mountains and down to the Clearwater River, and by dugout canoe to the Pacific. When they got back all their clothes had worn out and they were wearing buckskins and the people greeted them with much fanfare and surprise since they thought they were dead. There were also two or three other groups commissioned to do the same trip, but they apparently never made it. Lewis tried to keep track of the men after their mission was over and sometimes thought people were dead who lived and published their journals many years later. One of the artifacts at the visitor center was a wooden tobacco box given to one of the men by Sacagawea. Sacagawea was the sister of the Indian chief who traded with the expedition for horses to carry their gear over the Bitterroot Mountains. If they had not made this trade they could not have continued the journey. Jean Baptiste Carbonneau was Sacagawea's baby son. He was raised and educated by Lewis, spent time in Africa, and died in the 1860s in Oregon on the way from California to Montana during a stagecoach ride to become part of the Montana gold rush. The long list of Indian tribes met, named, and vocabularies made, the list of animals and plants cataloged and excellent maps made by the Corp of Discovery is amazing. They even had a condor head they sent to Jefferson. In the northwest Indian villages sometimes raised condors from chicks and treated them like pets. They were curious and would peck at and play with almost anything.

Then we drove to Long Beach, Washington, which claims to be the longest beach in the world. There was a nice half mile long boardwalk and accompanying gray whale skeleton we enjoyed in the town of Long Beach. As usual the wind was strong off the ocean and it was so cold you saw everyone in jackets rather than bikinis. BJ and I drove to the end of the road on the peninsula and on the way north to Leadbetter State Park I saw a wild bear on the side of the road. It was in someone's yard in the middle of a dense spruce-hemlock forest. BJ wanted photos so I returned to near where I saw it and let her out of the car. I didn't want to overwhelm or scare the bear so I stayed in the car and let BJ do her photographer thing. Pretty soon what I thought was a lone black bear came onto the road followed by three cubs! The whole group was between me and BJ who was with another lady. Mama bear decided to lead her brood away from BJ and the bears came straight toward me. Mama bear moved over to the far side of the road when she got about twenty feet from me, and then moved behind me in the ditch on the far side of the road followed by two of the three cubs. I was careful not to stare at any of them right in the eye and turned my head away. One of the cubs came up to the front of the Vue, put his paws on the front bumper and hauled himself up to peek over the front hood at me two or three times before scampering off to follow his Mama into the dense woods on the side of the road. BJ got lots of bear pictures. She had been pretty grumpy about the rainy weather until the bear pictures--now she is happier. Image source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Canadian_Rockies_-_the_bear_at_Lake_Louise.jpg

Cascade Locks, Indians, salmon, Dismal Nitch

Sat 19 June 2010
Cascade Locks is a canal lock build to help barges around some rapids on the Columbia River. The newer dams on the river have made the lock obsolete but it is fun to see the way they must have worked by closing a gate to build up a backlog of water flowing downstream into the lock. But the most interesting part was that saw the modern Indians have built platforms down on the side of the walls of the old lock about ten feet above the water. They use these platforms to stand on and we saw them wearing modern rain gear while they catch salmon in nets on a long handled loop. They catch them really fast. When they catch them they pull the net up on the platform and empty the flopping fish on the platform. So they are standing among half a dozen flopping fish as they put the net back down in the water to catch more fish. They load this fish into coolers and sell them to tourists as "fresh." Image source: http://digitum.washingtonhistory.org/cdm4/item_viewer.php?CISOROOT=/columbia&CISOPTR=71&CISOBOX=1&REC=1

We also saw Dismal Nitch on the north shore of the Columbia River where the Lewis and Clark's Corp of Discovery was caught by a winter storm on the Columbia for six days and had to hole up hoping for a change of weather. It was the only time in their journals when they used the word dangerous. When the weather broke they went a few miles further and found Station Camp where they could see the Pacific Ocean and realized their mission had been completed. The site was so important they made a complete map of it and spent a lot of time determining the exact latitude and longitude of it. They knew they were on the Columbia River because as they got closer to the ocean they met many tribes with trade goods brought in by ships. They had a map showing the location of the Columbia and they provided their own map of the area between the lower Missouri and the Columbia rivers.

Ft Vancouver, Pearson's Air Museum

Fri 18 June 2010
We struggled to find the Fairbanks Art Center at Oregon State University in Corvalis, Oregon. When we did we were disappointed to find only one relatively small room of relatively bad art. Oh well, live and learn.

So we crossed the Columbia River to see Vancouver, Washington and the reconstructed old Fort Vancouver. This was the main Hudson's Bay Company outpost for all of the Oregon Territory from California to British Columbia. The Chief Factor (boss agent) was John McGloughlin before he moved to Oregon City in 1857. This is the biggest re-created fort I have ever seen. They had huge warehouses for pelts and goods to sell to settlers. McGloughlin was not supposed to help the Americans but he did anyway and eventually became one after the border was settled. They eventually were making their biggest profit from selling to settlers.

The U.S. Army eventually took over the old fort and it still is a working one today. U.S. Grant and George C. Marshall both served at Fort Vancouver and Marshall said it was his favorite post of all. We drove by their houses on officers' row.

There is also a Pearson's Air Museum dedicated to telling the story of aviation pioneers in the Northwest United States. They had great old planes including a Folker DR-1 triplane. I was surprised to learn three Soviet aviators flew over the North Pole starting at Moscow and landing in Fort Vancouver. The Russians consider them the Lindbergs of the USSR. George C. Marshall was commander at the time and treated them to hot baths and new suits of clothes. They were big heros in 1937 anyway. Image source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/glennwilliamspdx/3036670993/

Bridges of Linn County

Thu 17 June 2010
We took pictures of five covered bridges in Linn County, Oregon today. Standing water on wood bridges makes them rotten so it makes sense to cover a bridge. A wooden bridge is stronger and will last longer than a steel bridge if cared for properly. And they are just plain fun. Image source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/dougtone/3015036715/

Silver Falls State Park, Oregon Gardens

Wed 16 June 2010
We hiked to eight waterfall at least 31 feet high on Silver Creek at Silver Falls State Park a few miles from Silverton, Oregon. Several were over 100 feet high. It has rained a lot this month so the falls looked magnificent. BJ made pictures of each, and a few smaller rivulet types of falls in between. We were both tired out/exhaused. This picture is Middle North Falls 106 feet (32 m) and can only be reached by at least half a mile hike one way. Image source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/31695159@N06/4530120888/

Then we moved on to the Oregon Gardens in Silverton proper. It is relatively new but still impressive. I liked the conifer garden with floppy "Dr. Seuss" trees. They also had a nice children's garden with a miniature train, "weird" garden, a sandbox with cement "dinosaur bones," and sculpted bushes. The picture at the side is a gate in the Children's garden area. They showed us a grow box by the square foot that theoretically can feed a family of four for nine months of the year. There are a total of 30 sections or gardens within the overall garden. We even enjoyed a tram ride tour at the start. Image source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/springfieldhomer/673316786/

Oregon City, Evergreen Aviation and Space Museum

Tue 15 June 2010
South of Portland and on the east side of the Willamette River lies Oregon City, which is the end of the Oregon Trail. Their interpretive center was closed for lack of funding, but we could still read about some of the men and women who worked to improve the trail enough that immigrants no longer needed to winter over there. We also visited John McGloughlin's white house a few blocks away on the banks of the Willamette in Oregon City. He was the chief factor (agent) for the Hudson's Bay Company. In many respects he was the father of Oregon Territory. He helped immigrants in many ways with promoting the territory, making improvements like mills, nursing the sick, and even loaning money to those who needed it. Eventually he became a United States citizen. It is impressive how much good can be done by those who seek to help others.

In McMinnville, Oregon, is the Evergreen Aviation and Space Museum, last resting place of the amazing eight engine "Spruce Goose" (actually mostly birch), largest aircraft (boat-plane) ever built. It was built in 1946 and 1947 for the purpose of carrying troops and equipment over long distances. It was a prototype, and only flew once for a few seconds by Howard Hughes himself. It was disassembled into about 36 pieces and brought by barge and truck to McMinnville's museum for reassembly. It has the largest wingspan ever, but a few aircraft have been slightly longer. BJ was also impressed with how large it is. Howard Hughes got the money for his enterprises from his father who bought the modern oil drill bit patent for $150 and then improved it slightly and got rich selling drill bits. This wonderful museum also had Migs, Phantoms, helicopters, trainers, a Wright flyer, and many many other aircraft. Did you know that the original Wright flyer was sitting on a dune at the end of the day when a gust of wind tipped it and cracked it up beyond repair? Image source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/moody75/21497558/

Over on the Space Museum side we saw Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo craft and rockets. I most enjoyed the comparison of the Redstone, Atlas, Titan II (see image), and Apollo rockets. They had actual rockets and engines of all but the Apollo which only had one and not all the engines in configuration. One of the X-15 pilots was actually the first man to fly into space twice, long before Gus Grissom's first space flight. I learned that Niel Armstrong, first man on the moon was also an X-15 pilot and flew into space in it as well. The part that most made me think was the area that talked about the four pioneers of space flight, Tsilikovsky, Oberan, Goddard, and Von Braun. Each played a crucial role in making it happen. It was fun to learn that Von Braun had been arrested for wanting to go to the moon more than defeating the allies during the War. He certainly was fascinated with and bent his whole life toward achieving that goal. Talented people can accomplish much good by working with others. Image source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/9027208@N03/3164923317/

Cape Lookout, Meares Lighthouse, Tillamook Creamery

Sat June 12
It is BJ's birthday!

Still on the Oregon Coast, BJ and I hiked about half a mile of the Cape Lookout hike. This is a peninsula that sticks straight out into the sea. It has sheer cliffs on each side and slowly narrows to the final tip of the peninsula. It offers beautiful views of beaches and shores on both sides. On top where we hiked was a very soggy foggy temperate rain forest. Image source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/wirelizard/3294487936/

We also visited the Cape Meares Lighthouse. This beautiful lighthouse could once be seen 21 ½ miles out to sea. This last winter vandals came and shot out several of the windows with a rifle including damage to the lens. Nearby we also visited the octopus tree. This is a spruce tree that grew with all the arms growing out sideways rather than a single central trunk. Image source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/cavalierco/2965021049/

We visited the Tillamook Creamery self-guided tour and bought ice cream. This is the most visited site on the Oregon coast and I can understand why with their excellent tasting ice cream.

In Lincoln City we saw the world's shortest river, less than 200 feet from lake to the sea.

Lighthouse, Aquarium, Ripley's, Devil's Punchbowl

Fri June 11
Wow were we busy today. We didn't want to pay too much for the elevator ride down into Sea Lion Cave when they wouldn't even let BJ take pictures. But the beaches nearby were beautiful. This grotto is apparently the world's largest sea cave and the sea lions like being out of the wind.

Not far from the Sea Lion Cave is the Heceta Head Lighthouse BJ and I hiked up the hill to the lighthouse and a beautiful view of surround shores.

We also visited Oregon Aquarium and nearby Hatfield Marine Science Center in Newport, Oregon. The science center was working on wave electric power generators which had to be really tough to endure the waves and storms. Image source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/kaplanbr/526279778/

Three other places we saw were Ripley's Believe It or Not with shrunken heads and other hoakum, Waxworks Museum featuring Michael Jackson, and the Undersea Gardens with a diver poking an innocent octopus, all near Newport, Oregon. Probably the most interesting of all were the sea lions out on the docks trying to sleep and bite each other.

Finally, we saw the Devil's Punchbowl, a sort of grotto on the sea shore. It must be the remains of a sort of sea cave that collapsed. It was very windy there. Image source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/cgull/2778884589/

pitcher plants

Thu June 10
Near Florence, Oregon, we visited the Darlingtonia State Park pitcher plants. I've heard of these plants before because they trap bugs and "eat" them. They grow in sandy and swampy soil with very few nutrients so trapping insects provides a few extra vitamins for them. I hadn't realized they grow in such large patches. Image source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/thegreatdane/2773602096/

Azalea Park, Harris Beach

Mon June 7
Azalea Park in Brookings, Oregon, was our first stop back in Oregon again. We missed the Azalea blossoms, but enjoyed speculating about the gopher holes in their lawn. You see gopher mounds all over the place on the west coast, almost as common as liberal Democrats. But we both laughed when we saw a man with a metal detector digging up the lawn and realized some of the mounds might be from two legged gophers.

Harris Beach State Park in Brookings, Oregon has a beautiful beach and outlying rocks as is typical of the entire Oregon Coast. We set up camp and then strolled down to the beach to take pictures. A youth group arrived and it was fun watching them play in the chilly ocean waves. We even had to time it just right between waves to get around a large rock to a different beach. (Image source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/amanderson/2587433312/)

Stout Grove, Trees of Mystery

Sun June 6
There is a tourist trap called the Trees of Mystery store-museum, in Kalamath, California. You can visit their Indian artifacts museum in their gift shop for free and it has a lot of interesting things about several different Indian cultures. There is a talking statue of Paul Bunyan and Babe his blue ox—actually, only Paul converses with you—and it is not a recording. Ever talk to a giant statue before? But the most impressive giants in these parts are the trees.

The road to Stout's Grove is gravel and this time of year pave with many potholes. The Stout Grove is an old-growth (unlogged) stand of redwood trees in extreme northern California. These sequoia are taller than any other living beings. Their cousins farther south grow bigger in circumference, but this species grows tallest in Redwoods State and National Park near Hiouchi, California. BJ and I hiked several hundren yards along a path called "Scout Trail" in a very wet and foggy forest. We also took a loop trail down by the river named after the logger who preserved this stand of sequoias. It sure rains and fogs a lot on the west coast this time of year.

(Image source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/sapphir3blu3/3366260854/)

Glass blowing, great cats, Oregon Caves

Sat June 5
We visited a Glass Factory, in Grants Pass, Oregon, where we learned that glass is both a great temperature insulator and expands and contracts quickly which makes it break if cooled or heated too fast. I had not known glass blowers have kilns to keep their work warm and let it cool slowly.

The Great Cats World Park teaches that cats can purr or roar but not both because they have bone or cartilage in their throat. They also said different varieties like or dislike water. They claimed ocelots do not like water.

Oregon Caves was found by a hunting dog chasing a bear. I've never been in a cave where they failed to turn off the lights to prove how dark it is. The Oregon caves are different because they are mostly the metomorphic rock of limestone called marble. But there were two spots in the cave that also had igneous and sedimentary at the same time.

The park has a cool old log lodge you see in the picture. But all you see is the top half because the bottom three stories are below the bottom of the picture. (Image source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/grampymoose/3036746628/)

Crater Lake, Rock Museum, Shakespeare

Fri June 4
Every time I've been to Crater Lake, Oregon, it has been beautiful and snow packed. This time was no exception, and included some fog. It was so cold up there I just had more fun watching a pair of scantily clad young women pretend they were not cold as they clambered about on ten foot snow drifts, and I admired their endurance. (Image source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/bobrpics/3121273475/)

Crater Rock Museum, in Central Point, Oregon bragged about their thunder eggs (geode-the official state rock) but I was more impressed by the room full of petrified wood types. They identified petrified palms, oaks, willow, fig and many other tree types. I was also impressed that they encouraged and taught school groups about rock collecting.

The Shakespeare Festival, in Ashland, Oregon was going and we saw Twelfth Night (or As You Like It) Apparently the "Twelfth Night of Advent" is a Saturnalia in which servants become slaves and vice versa so all society is confused. In the play the upper class are foolish or fanciful and the lower classes mostly are genuine and wiser. The line about some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them has a much different kind of meaning than I would have supposed. The wisest in the play is the fool, and the steward is the bad guy. It was comical and enjoyable, and boy oh boy did Shakespeare have different ideas about sexual innuendos than we allow today.

Chinese Garden

We went back to Fort Stevens this morning to look for the fire control hill which we missed last night. It was about 150 meters farther down the trail. It consisted of one main taller bunker, and three smaller ones to the side. There were also some concrete living quarters back behind the bunkers. The main bunker still had its top and you could see the columns where the telescopes or triangulation instruments were once mounted. I went inside to get a feel for the view. There were trees between us and the beach so we could not see the ocean from the fire control hill. BJ and I concluded the trees must have grown after the battery was de-commissioned.

In Portland, Oregon, we stopped to see the Chinese Garden on Everett and 3rd Avenue. It was the most beautiful work of art I have ever seen anywhere, anytime. It took up a small city block and was surrounded with a white wall about 2 ½ meters high with frequent square window openings about one meter wide. Each opening had a different simple but intricate fill pattern wide enough to see the outside city, but too small to allow intruders entrance. From the beautiful tile roofs and eaves with oriental pointed corners, to the geometric shaped tiles actually made of scores of thin pebble disks packed tightly sideways within differing patterns of border rocks forming the alternating geometric patterns for the floors every square inch was beautiful, simple and intricate all at once. Every building, every rock (large river carved stones full of holes and gouges), every green plant, every flowering plant, every border, every window, every path, every courtyard, every opening, every gate, and every fragrance was chosen for its simple and elegant quiet beauty combined other elements to also make it intricately interesting and peaceful at the same time. Whether as a whole or just a few square inches at a time on every scale everything was gorgeous. The scholars' study room with its artistic calligraphy and pictured hanging scrolls and elegant but simple furniture including goldfinch birdcage was wonderful. The shallow central lake with coy and two mallard ducks was bridged twice. Bridges were formed in many beautiful varieties. Gorgeous carved wooden Chinese art panels of gardens like you might see on blue Chinese porcelain adorned two areas in particular, but everywhere most walls had beautiful carved geometric panels. The tea room was filled with oriental smells and music. The whole was shady and cool, but had open areas where the sun and sky and surrounding skyscrapers were also beautiful. Even a pair of ospreys soared overhead to entertain bird lovers. When God commanded us to dress and beautify the garden, I know about no better fulfillment done anywhere than here in Chinatown in Portland, Oregon. (Image sources: Top http://www.flickr.com/photos/ktylerconk/2944215821/ Middle http://www.flickr.com/photos/bdsworld/2272118222/ Bottom http://www.flickr.com/photos/awarmplace/1805793410/)

I'll start adding some old installments of events from earlier in the trip:

Wed June 1, 2010
When I think Nevada I think desert and casinos. Dry, and gaudy bright lights are what I think. But this trip started with a surprise. Just north of Winnemuca I discovered the amazing Humboldt River. I expected a dry arroyo bed, or at most something like the two inch deep Rio Grande. What I saw was a wide meandering green strip of flowing water at least 100 meters wide. And most of all lush greenness as it lazily meandered below the dunes. It was my first insight into what an oasis might be.

Thu June 2, 2010
Northern Nevada is much greener than expected. It was southwest Oregon that seemed dry to me. But Kalamath Falls is in the mountains and very wet indeed. The Kalamath County Museum discussed the Modoc War in which General Canby was killed (assassinated) by Indians at a peace parley. They retreated to lava bed strongholds and a few held off a much larger army for a long time before they gave up and were hanged for their troubles.

The Favell Museum of Western Art and Artifacts, Klamath Falls, Oregon boasts an arrowhead carved of opal long ago by Indians. It is about ¾ of an inch log and beautiful. I was also impressed with the oldest atl-atl ever found in North America with a seven-inch long rock weight tied to the handle for balance and heft. The museum had many beautiful paintings, many miniatures and many arrowhead displays. BJ particularly liked a painting of a fox in the snow. The collection seemed to boast one or two paintings or sculptures from almost every western artist of any note (and there were probably about 40 of them).

Lewis and Clark, Maritime Museum, WWII in Oregon

We tried to see the annual sand sculpting contest at Cannon Beach, Oregon, but all we could find was cold mist and windswept beach without any contestants. So on the way north I saw a sign that said Lewis and Clark Salt Works. I remembered from Fort Clatsop years ago with the kids that some of the men in the Lewis and Clark Corp of Discovery had boiled sea water to get salt. So when we followed the tourist signs through the middle of a modern town named Seaside we found a recreated oven where three men kept five kettles boiling night and day for about a month in order to get several bushels of salt. They needed the salt to cure meat (mostly elk). The recreation was a tube of rocks about a meter high and about ten or twelve feet long. It had five pots on top. I wondered if the original tube would have been oriented to the wind to help stoke the fires even hotter. An old Indian had shown his granddaughter where the saltwork was at because he had seen the men working there. The granddaughter grew up and in 1905 showed the historians where he pointed.

We then moved on to Fort Clatsop itself. I had not realized they were not exactly sure where it was but could guess it must have been nearby. I enjoyed visiting the spring and the river landing. I was surprized to learn that a beached whale had been found on the very beach where we had looked for a sand sculpting contents in vain and the Corp of Discovery traded the Indians for some of the blubber. It was interesting to see the list of Clark's descendants and to see how quickly after the expedition most of the participants died.

The Columbia River Maritime Museum in Astoria, Oregon, was amazingly good. The most dramatic exhibit is a Coast Guard motorized rescue boat used for many years in heavy surf around the Columbia River mouth (graveyard of the Pacific). By volume the Columbia is second largest river in North America and its mouth where ocean current and river current meet is unusually treacherous. The boat is shown tilted on a wave with manakins for crew. This tilt is about 30 degrees and you can walk right up and touch it. Standing there seeing this at such a steep angle on the wave MAKES you think about how brave the Coast Guard must be when rescuing people. We have often seen and heard Coast Guard planes and helicopters the last few days here on the Oregon Coast. The museum also told the story of the WWII ship Astoria sunk in action off Savo Island near Guadalcanal. And I also enjoyed the light ship (a lighthouse boat) we got to board and see inside and out at the museum.

Finally, from the museum we learned about many shipwrecks and one was just across the street from where we camped at Fort Stevens, Oregon. We went to see the wreck of the Iredale a large steel ship on the beach. On the way back to camp I saw a sign for Battery Russell and got to wondering if that wasn't the place the Japanese submarine shelled in WWII. Sure enough it was. At war the sub got off 17 rounds but the battery commanders decided not to return fire so as not to give away their position. They have added a nice peace memorial to the old cement battlements. It was so far from the beach it is hard to imagine how they could see it because of the dunes and the trees in the way. But it turns out their fire directing hill was away from the battlements we saw. My face is sunbured. Image source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/cavalierco/2966089246/

If you liked this post, please comment and let me know. I'll try to keep you up-to-date on our vacation if you seem interested.