July 21 - 22 Redwoods, California

We left our campground at Crater Lakes, elevation around 7,000 feet, and drove 160 miles to California. The first town we got to there said the elevation was 320 feet. No wonder my ears were screaming from the pressure change!

Just about as soon as we got into California, we were in a Redwood Forest. These massive trees are found in a band about 20 miles wide just a little inland from the Northern California coast, from about the Oregon border south to San Francisco. The area where we were is part State Park and part National Park. The trees need to be inland as salt water is not good for them, but they need the moisture provided by the coast. A single redwood may consume up to 500 gallons of water in a day. This area of California receives 60-80 inches of rain a year. There is also a lot of fog in the area that provides moisture for the trees.

As we hiked in several of these forests of massive trees, some as old as 2000 years old, standing 370 feet or more in the air, I was reminded of my father's favorite song, “How Great Thou Art.” One verse, which always reminds me of him because of his love for the woods, starts out, “ When through the woods and forest glades I wander...“. I don't think my father ever got to the Redwoods, even though our family lived in the LA area for several years when my older brother and I were infants. I felt his presence in the woods with me. Jodi, who was also traveling, had a similar experience. She and Andy were in Indianapolis with Rob and Katie at a Lillith Fair Concert which features several woman singers. Sarah McLaughlin, whose song “Angels” Jodi had sung with the voice of an angel at my mother's funeral, came on to sing, and the first song Sarah sang was “Angels.” Jodi said she sobbed through the entire song as she felt her grandmother's presence with her there at the concert.

When we were hiking, I felt as though I had been dropped on the movie set of “Honey I Shrunk the Kids” because I felt like an ant compared to the trees. One of the hikes was through an area called The Cathedral which seemed aptly named to me because the tall trees stood like pillars in the quiet peacefulness of the forest. One tree we saw, called Big Tree, was 1500 years old, and 287 feet high with a circumference of 68 feet, and a diameter of 23.7 feet. There were many other trees as old or older, higher, and wider, but they were deeper in the woods, so weren't “featured” trees. We'd be hiking along with our heads bent back looking up at the top of the trees to see how high they were, or if they were still alive, thinking we'd have sore necks from all of the looking. Sometimes we'd look at the base of a tree and have to look several times to determine if it was indeed as wide as it seemed, or if it was two or three trees that had grown together, a common occurence.

It's hard to believe that these majestic trees have been around much longer than the United States has been a country. Even trees that have been dead for 500 years are still standing because it takes so long for the wood to rot. They are not hurt too often by forest fires because their bark is so thick, and their wood doesn't burn well. Many of the trees that have been burned a little are still standing, some almost completely hollow trees that make neat little “houses.” I think perhaps natives used them for shelter sometimes when they were in the woods for long periods of time.

We saw how the trees helped each other, too. Despite their size, their roots are very shallow, and the trees, roots attached, often fall over with the wind. They must make one heck of a noise when they fall because they are so big! Anyway, after they fall, other species of trees and plants grow right on top of the downed tree. We saw lots of fallen redwoods with the roots of other trees wrapped around them, hanging on for dear life, growing tall in the forest because of their “helper” tree. We learned that redwoods will grow from the seeds in the very tiny pine cones they produce, but will more likely sprout from a downed tree.

Several years ago we visited the Giant Sequoia forests here in California, and the redwoods are related to them. The redwoods are taller than the sequoias, but the sequoias are wider and heavier. They have both been around for about the same period of time.

In addition to hiking through groves of Redwoods, we took a few driving tours through some of them. One of the drives was on a narrow, dusty, zigzag lane through several hundred huge redwoods on a road that had once been a stagecoach trail.

We saw a lot of Roosevelt elk here in the park. They almost became extinct years ago, but are now protected in the park, and have come back in huge numbers. There are signs all over saying to stay away from the wild elk, but the elk wander right down to the road, often in big herds.

This morning we took a jet boat ride on the Klamath River to see wildlife. It was a great trip, and we did see lots of animals. We saw many birds like ospreys, mergansers, herons – both blue and green, bald eagles, and a golden eagle, the first I've ever seen. We also saw a seal, a baby bear, a deer climbing straight up the side of a cliff, and several wild cattle that were stranded on the river during a flood about 20 years ago. The captain was very knowledgeable and fun-loving. We had two family reunion groups on the boat with us, with a lot of kids, so he wanted to make the ride fun for them. We did several 360s in the river as well as sudden stops which would make the back row of pre-teen boys get wet. They loved it and so did the rest of us. It was sort of like being on a Disney ride, but the wild animals and scenery were real!

The first night we camped in one of the state parks where the redwood grow. Tonight we moved about 80 miles down the highway, still in redwood territory, but are camped along the sandy beach. Tomorrow we will head to San Francisco.

Oregon

This is the Columbia River

Look for pictures of the cobalt blue Crater Lake

July 20 Oregon

We camped overnight last night in the town of Cascade Locks near the Columbia River. This morning we drove along the rushing, white-capped river for a few miles before heading south. There were many people on boats and other watercraft enjoying the morning sun on the river.

As we headed south we could see Mt. Adams in Washington behind us, and Mt. Hood in Oregon in front of us with acres and acres of fruit trees on either side of us. We stopped at a roadside fruit stand and came away with blueberries, cherries, peaches, marionberry jam, raspberry jam, and assorted baked goods. Yum!

Leaving the fruit country, we climbed higher into the Cascade Mountains with tall trees on both sides of us. This mountain road was not nearly as steep and winding as the one we took yesterday, however. Then we reached a plateau and the landscape changed to desert sand with small evergreen trees of some sort dotting the land. It changed again to sand with low desert bushes, dotted with green agricultural fields watered by huge sprinklers on wheels. We could still see many snowcapped mountains behind, beside, and in front of us. We saw the Three Sisters mountains to the west of us, along with Mt. Bachelor! He must have struck out with all three sisters, but another must have had good luck because The Husband was nearby!

Many of the mountains we've seen are dormant volcanos. We passed an area of huge lava rocks piled up on top of each other with a hill beside it that must have been the volcano in Newberry National Volcanic Monument.. We are in the high desert area now, and although it is 90 degrees outside, a local told us that this is hotter weather than normal and that they often get snow on the fourth of July. They must get significant snow here because we have passed several signs for “chain up areas.

The last half-hour or so before we got to the park, the drive became boring as we drove through a fairly new-growth forest and could only see sand and trees about 8-12 feet tall. So we were glad when we arrived at Crater Lake National Park, and were immediately on the Rim Drive which goes around the rim of the crater for 33 miles. In some places, you're very close to the rim, in others, you're farther down the outside of the crater. We stopped at the first lookout we could, walked up the sandy hill, and Wow!, 2,000 feet below us we saw the bluest lake we had ever seen in the “bowl” of the crater! It's beauty, after such a boring drive, was breathtaking. We could hardly take our eyes off it, except that we were at this point on the edge of the rim, and the sand underneath our feet was so soft and slippery that we feared we might slide down the edge into the craggy rock wall below.

The lake is cobalt blue in color and was so far below us that the ripples on the water looked like white dots, and the few boats there that take tourists around the lake could hardly be seen with the naked eye. It is from 4.5 to 6 miles wide, and contained within the crater. At one side of the lake is a fairly large island called Wizard Island. Across the lake from that is a rock structure that looks kind of like a ship, hence its name, Phantom Ship. Other than that, there's nothing else on the pristine lake. There is only one trail down to the lake from the rim, and you need to walk down it. It descends steeply for over 1 mile, and they compare the climb back up to climbing 65 flights of stairs! I would love to have gone down there to see the lake up close, or even to take the boat ride, but I thought it would take me several days to get back up, so we didn't try that trail!

The surface of the lake is a little over 6,000 ft., and the rim above it varies from 1,500 to 2,000 feet. Some of the time on our drive around the lake we were above the tree line, and some of the time we weren't. There was lots of snow still dotting the sides of the crater, both inside and out, chilling the warm air as we went past the snowy areas.

The snow did not kill the mosquitoes! They were out in attack armies of a million or more to one human! We went on a wildflower walk near the crater, and were swarmed by the nasty creatures! That might have been alright if we'd seen a meadow full of flowers like the brochure said, but we saw only about 5 flowers that were actually blooming!

Crater Lake, the deepest lake in the United States, is in the remains of a volcano called Mount Mazama which erupted and collapsed into itself 7,700 years ago. It filled with rain and melted snow, and evaporation must keep it at about the same depth from year to year. The area gets about 44 feet of snow a year. There are 16- 20 foot poles stuck in the ground along the roadway every 20 feet or so, so that the snowplows will be able to tell where the road is supposed to be!

The campground was several miles from the rim, and mosquito infested, too! We put on lots of mosquito repellant, built a huge campfire, and managed to keep most of them at bay while we enjoyed our dinner and the night sky. Tomorrow we're headed to the redwoods of California!

Washington

This lake is near Mt. Rainier.

Find more pictures of Mt. Rainier, Mt. Saint Helens, and Kaetlyn by clicking :)

July 16-19 Washington

We arrived at the home of Kaetlyn Spivey, the most beautiful baby in the world, and her parents Kelly and Steve, and big sister Megan, about 6 PM. We spend the next three days and nights kissing, hugging, holding, and squeezing Kaetlyn for all of her aunts, uncles,Byet had the privilege of doing so.

She and her family accompanied us on a few excursions, also. Saturday we enjoyed a trip to nearby Mt. Rainier. We drove up a very curvy road to Sunrise Point, an area that looked a lot like Candor after a late March snowfall. There were patches and piles of snow dotting a geen hillside.

Young and old alike were sliding down the snowbanks, cross country skiing, and throwing snowballs in shorts and T-shirts in the summer sunshine. Standing guard over all of this fun was beautiful, snow and glacier clad Mt. Rainier. At over 14,000 feet it looked close enough to become the local sledding hill, but it was several miles away.

On Sunday we visited the Ballard Locks which are used to get boats from the Pacific to Lake Washington. Several sizes and kinds of pleasure boats went through the locks while we were there. We also saw salmon doing their yearly ritual by navigating up the fish ladder to get to fresh water. Some of the salmon, maybe on their way back to the Pacific, and maybe not, were caught in the water pouring out of large tubes, like rushing waterfalls, back into the salt water from the fresh. We thought some of the fish must have woken up dazed from this mad dash and wondered where they were!

When Kelly and Steve got married two years ago, we had taken the ferry from Seattle to Bainbridge Island, enjoyed the local fish and farmer's market, etc., so we didn't do any of those things this time, but we enjoyed watching the ferries go on their routes while we ate at a great seafood restaurant on Alki Beach.

Monday afternoon we bid our family reluctant farewells, buoyed by the knowledge that we would see them all in early September for our annual Wardapalooza family reunion.

We took the scenic route from Washington to Oregon through the Cascade Mountains. For much of the way we were accompanied by the sight of Mt. Rainier, and then Mt. Adams, both with white gleaming tops. We went up and down mountains and around switchbacks so often that my ears couldn't decide what the pressure should be and stayed plugged for the remainder of the afternoon. The narrow road was lined with straight, tall cedar and pine tree, some over 120 feet tall. Near the bottom of the mountain their massive trunks were mostly covered in soft, green moss. Along the way we saw Mt. Saint Helen's with the forest close to it still showing signs of the wrath of destruction the eruption caused 30 years ago. We also saw many lumber mills as this appears to be prime logging country.

When we finally got down the mountain, we were at the beautiful Columbia River which divides Washington and Oregon. Crossing the river at the Bridge of the Gods, we found a nearby campground and settled in for the night.

Banff and Jasper

Click here for pictures of the Canadian Rockies which were absolutely gorgeous. It's difficult to capture the beauty in a photograph, but we tried. It was all spectacular, especially the Icefield Parkway.

The blog on the Canadian Rockies should be just below this listed as Banff and Jasper.

July 12-16 Banff and Jasper National Parks, Canadian Rockies

Again we are impressed by Canada, but this time by the spectacular Rocky Mountains, and the two huge parks dedicated to preserving the wilderness. We got to Banff National Park in the morning after a short drive from Calgary. We weren't too far outside of Calgary when we began seeing the mountains in the distance. The Trans-Canada 4-lane highway goes right through the center of the park, which seems a little unusual, but they have built special fenced overpasses for the animals to cross over the road to help the animals maintain their territories.

Before we even got to Banff we saw a sign for Lake Minnewanka and drove up to see that and Two Jack Lake, hoping to see some wildlife along the way, but no luck, so we drove into downtown Banff, elevation 4,537 feet, a small well-kept town in the mountains that reminded us of towns in the Alps. Actually this town and Lake Louise, elevation 5,052 feet, population maybe 100, are the only towns within the park's boundaries. They are tourist meccas all year long however, as both have large ski areas in the mountains.

After picking up some information in town, we decided to drive on a road called the Bow Valley Parkway, which sounds like some big road, but is actually a very quiet road with a slow speed limit along the valley leading to several hiking spots, and eventually ending up in Lake Louise. It is known as a place to see wildlife, so of course that would appeal to Bob, the hunter. We tried a hike up to Johnston Canyon which is near the parkway to see some waterfalls, but it was so congested (we learned that a million people a year hike up there), that we decided to just drive farther up the parkway in hopes of seeing some animals, and because it was beginning to be rainy and cold. We didn't see any animals that day, but after checking into our campground, we went back to another road near the town to a place called Vermillion Lakes to go wildlife spotting. It looked like prime moose territory, but we discovered that there are very few moose left in the park and none live around those lakes. We did see a couple of elks, though, so ended our day on a high note.

The next morning was cool and rainy, but we decided to go to Lake Louise, again via the parkway, and hoped that the weather would clear up (it didn't). We did spot several bull elks along the way with some pretty impressive “racks,” but no other animals. We got to the lake in Lake Louise, also called Lake Louise. It was absolutely gorgeous, its greenish turquoise color caused by light reflecting off tiny particles of rock flour (glacial silt) carried down from Victoria Glacier which is at the far end of the lake. Since it was raining, the color wasn't as vibrant as it is on a sunny day, but it was beautiful just the same. The lake is fairly small by Finger Lakes standards – just 1 ½ miles long and 295 feet deep. On the near end is the huge Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise, and a young couple were having their wedding there under a flower trellis. We walked along the lakeshore watching a brilliant red canoe glide along the lake, complimenting its greenish tint.

We thought that nothing could compare with Lake Louise until we drove around the mountain a little way and got to Moraine Lake. It is more bluish turquoise than Lake Louise, and in our opinion, much more beautiful! It is also fed by water coming off the glaciers, but the glacial water feeding it does not carry so much silt, so the water is bluer. The lake is in the Valley of the Ten Peaks, and five of the Wenkchemna Peaks, all over 10,000 feet high, offer a backdrop to the lake. The mountains were named in 1894 by explorer Samuel Allen using the numbers one to ten in the Stoney Nakoda language (Wenkchemna means ten), but all but two of the mountains have been renamed. At the end of the lake near the inn is a huge pile of boulders which were deposited there by a long-disappeared glacier. By climbing the equivalent of six or eight flights of stairs, puff puff, we got to the top for an amazing view of the lake. Despite the rain, this was the highlight of our day. I'm proud of myself for doing all of this hiking, especially in elevations of a mile or more high!

On the way back to our campground in Banff, we again drove down Bow Valley Parkway, and this time were able to see about twelve big-horned sheep near the road licking the ground to get some kind of mineral. It was really amazing to see so many large rams so close to the road. They were eating a bush and digging up the dirt to eat it. We couldn't figure out whether someone had spilled something there or what. The rams were entertaining as they head-butted each other to gain better access to their gourmet meal!

We stopped in the town of Banff to end a perfect day with a great meal in a place called the The Grizzly Steak and Fondue House. We had delicious cheese fondue to start the meal, followed by beef, buffalo, chicken, elk, and venison fondue, and ending with chocolate fondue for dessert! Yum! Yum!

The next morning, Wednesday, the 14^th, we finally had sunshine and blue skies. We left Banff and again drove up the parkway toward Lake Louise. This time we were rewarded with lots of wildlife to see. We first saw a black bear, with a big bull elk across the road from it – two for one! Then we saw a bighorn sheep and a mule deer. When we got to the Lake Louise area we went to the ski area where we took a chair lift up the mountain and were rewarded with gorgeous views. We had hoped to see a grizzly bear there as we rode up the lift, since a lot of bears live in that area, but sadly did not get a glimpse. We really want to see one, just not up close!

It was hard to leave the stunning beauty of the mountain top, but we had more to see, so we went down the mountain and started driving up the Icefield Parkway 143 miles to Jasper National Park. We are not really sure why Jasper is a separate park from Banff since they adjoin each other, but they are separate parks. The Icefield Parkway is a magnificent, spectacular drive through remote, high elevation terrain, and scenery that takes your breath away. There are rushing glacial rivers, high alpine glaciers, mountain passes, and brilliant bluish-green lakes all along the way. It seems like every time you turn a corner there is something even more beautiful to see. We went from low valleys to above the treeline, and it was easy to see how harsh the weather could be. Today was warm and sunny, but yesterday it was snowing hard on the parkway!

The road was originally built in 1931 when the government of Canada put hundreds of unemployed men to work building the “wonder trail” through the heart of the Canadian Rockies. The men were paid twenty cents a day to use picks, shovels, and horses to hack a single lane gravel track from Lake Louise to Jasper.

We passed through seven different icefields, the Columbia Icefield alone consisting of 30 glaciers, so you can bet we saw a lot of glaciers along the way. The Columbia Icefield is the largest body of ice in the Rocky Mountains at 130 square miles. It is strange in that it drains in three different directions to the Atlantic, the Pacific, and the Arctic Oceans. There are 100 visible glaciers on this road. One of the first glaciers we saw was the Crowfoot Glacier, which looks like a giant crows foot. There were many lakes, too, the prettiest of which was the group of lakes called Waterfowl Lakes, beautiful glacial blues.

We were treated to the sighting of another black bear right along the side of the road; that is we and about a hundred other travelers who all stopped to take pictures of the bear, who paid no attention to us as he went about eating his lunch of greens. We could see why it would be easy to all of a sudden come upon a bear in the woods without it knowing you were there because it was so busy eating.

About half-way up the parkway we came to the Icefield Centre, situated right across from the Athabasca Glacier, the closest glacier to the parkway. Athabasca is about 2.5 square miles in size. While there we took the trip of a lifetime, a tour and walk on the glacier via a special snowcoach. A regular bus took us across the road, and up the moraine from the glacier to another point where we transferred to the snowcoach, a specially made transport that goes over the glaciers at the top speed of 12 miles an hour! Once on the snowcoach we slowly made our way down the steep moraine to the glacier, which at first glance looked like we were still on the moraine because at this point the glacier is covered with about 3 feet of rocks deposited there as the glacier slowly slides down the hill. If we looked carefully, we could see the glacial ice under the rocks in a few places. In the 1800s the glacier extended all the way to where the Centre is now. It has receded a couple of miles back since then. It is now 4 miles long and ½ mile wide. Just down from the head of the glacier at the top of the mountain are some ice falls, which look like steps. We got within about a mile of the head of the glacier, but could go no further because of huge crevasses that would have swallowed our snowcoach. We were able to get out of the coach at that time and stand on the glacier at about 7,000 foot elevation. The glacier is 1,000 feet thick where we were standing, but ranges from 270 feet to 1,000 feet thick. It is slowly moving, like a river, but we can't feel it. The water melt we saw came from snow that fell 150 years ago. Above us were two other glaciers, the AA Glacier, a hanging glacier, and the Andromeda Glacier, a cirque (circle) glacier. Even though it was a sunny day, it was windy up on the glacier, and although the temperature was about 50 degrees F, with the windchill, it was about 40 degrees. The wind is caused by the catabatic winds created by the cooling of the air by the icefield. The glacial ice was slushy from all the coaches driving on it and people walking on it, and was quite slippery. The coaches have a “roadway” over the ice they travel on that is plowed a couple of times a day so it won't be so bumpy the coaches can't go on it. The roadway is changed every three years or so, because it wears down the glacier where it goes. The old roadway is covered over with the snow from the new roadway to make it look uniform again.

The coaches run about 6 months out of the year, from April to October, and most of the people who work at the Icefield Centre live on the grounds because it is an hour from Jasper and two hours from Banff with nothing but National Park in between. The road from Banff to Jasper is kept open all year, with crews plowing all day if necessary, but not at night. About 30 feet of snow fall here every year. That is not appreciatively more than other areas, but the difference is that it is so cold here the snow does not melt. It just piles up on itself, and the weight of it creates the ice of the glaciers.

The trees here, Engleman Spruce and Sub-Alpine Fir, are quite thin, and not very tall even though the ones near the glacier are 300 years old. They were probably no more than eight or ten feet tall. This is because the growing season is only about a month long, and the wind blows so strong from the glacier that branches only grow on one side of the trees.

Now, the same day, I sit here by our crackling campfire in the Wabasso Campground next to the Athabasca River a few miles from Jasper. It is almost ten o'clock at night, and the sun is still shining in the brilliant blue sky! What an experience!

Thursday, July 15, started out cold and overcast. We wanted to see some more wildlife, so we took a 30 mile drive on a back road to another pretty lake. Along the way we came across several bull elks, a bear, and some mule deer. When we got to the lake we decided to walk a trail to another lake in hopes of sighting a moose. It was about 45 degrees out, so we dressed in many layers and set out on the hike through SNOW! There was snow left on the ground from the storm 2 days ago. It was really weird walking through the white stuff on July 15 and we didn't even see a moose! These lakes are higher up the mountain ranges than the lakes closer to Jasper where there is no snow on the ground so we drove back into town. By the time we got there, it was sunny and about 70 degrees out!

We took another hike in the afternoon in short sleeved shirts, wishing we had put on our shorts because we got so hot! What a change! The afternoon hike was pretty strenuous, but we got to see a chain of lakes – The Valley of the Five Lakes, appropriately call First Lake, Second Lake, Third Lake, Fourth Lake, and Fifth Lake! Later we drove to two other lakes that we hadn't seen, Patricia and Pyramid, and ended up having a “cocktail hour” at one of them to celebrate our last night here. We have seen so many beautiful lakes with mountains in the background that as Bob says “you don't even really look anymore”, so I guess it's time to head somewhere new. Seattle, here we come!

Spent all day on the 16th driving out of the mountains to Seattle. At one point we were literally going down a steep incline, some of it an 8% grade, for twenty minutes straight. Arrived to enjoy dinner with niece Kelly, her husband Steve, and 7 week old daughter Kaetlyn.