Mark and Minnie

Wednesday, August 20, 2014

Oregon and Washington

Our trip has zigged-zagged us around Oregon and now into Washington for a week. The destination was Mt Reiner and Mt St Helens, more volcanoes. The destruction that Mt St Helens caused 34 years ago was astonishing, but the restoration has been a miracle. New trees planted , roads rebuilt, bridges reconstructed, and the harvesting of fallen trees from the blast all completed resulting in today's national park.

Mt St Helens

We were able to hike on Mt Reiner, but most of the trails were too strenuous for us old folk.

Back into Oregon we followed the Columbia River east heading to Idaho. History of the area has sparked an interest in us both, learning of the hardships of the great immigration during the mid 19th century. Today we visit these places and enjoy the beauty, while the frontiersmen endured the harshness.

We hiked to several Waterfalls that line the Columbia River along Scenic Hwy 30

Remnants of the Oregon trail still exist today, even runts is the trail can be seen.

Hells Canyon on the Snake River

Now we have crossed Idaho and back to the Tetons, riding out the last Month of this extended trip.

A Great Gray Owl watches us pass by on the Teton River.

Wednesday, July 16, 2014

Heading North

Now we have found cooler weather as we continue North in California and into Oregon. The Redwood National Forest not only consists of trees, but includes beach areas.

Look closely...there are sea lions lying on the rocks

Fern Canyon

Trail continues

Redwoods are some of the tallest trees in the world

Our second month of this year's trip started in Oregon, and Crater Lake being the first destination.

One of the deepest lakes at 1900 ft

Filled only by rain and snow

Ghost Ship in Crater Lake. Really only rock from the volcano.

Cones of volcanic ash eroded by time.

Up the road from Crater Lake, close to Bend OR, is the Newberry Volcanic Monument. The is a very poplar receaction area where there are several fishing and boating lakes.

This view is from the top of a lava cone

Inside a Lava Tube. One mile tunnel where the lava cooled on the outside before it cooled inside.

Called the obsidian flow. Black Glass

The caldera in the background, a lava flow to the right, this volcano has two lakes formed inside it's crater.

In Sisters Oregon the annual outdoor quilt show just happen to be close to us to visit. Ten thousand people and 1300 quits.

Central Oregon is starting to get hot, so time to move back to the coast for cooler temperature. We arrived in Florence this week with highs in the 70s...Morning fog and some wind...better than 95 degrees.

This area of the Oregon coast has huge sand dunes while just up the coast several miles its back to the rocky cliffs. And of course lighthouses.

Heceta Head Lighthouse

Fog around the Lighthouse

Wednesday, June 25, 2014

Next stop

The temperature at this time in central California has been extremely hot. One day it hit 107'....Traveling has been different, traffic is so bad, I feel that I'm driving in Houston through this whole state. We are only averaging 40mph, so a 5-6 hour day gets us 200 miles. Finally we made it to San Francisco area, and a lot cooler weather. We parked north of the bay we spent a long weekend in San Francisco and then explored the Sonoma Wine valley....