September Trip to Oregon's Cascades

Mt Jefferson (10,497') from Olallie Lake

This post is out of sequence. We actually made this trip to the Olallie Lakes region of Oregon's Cascades over Labor Day weekend. This is classic "High Cascades Province" stuff - a high plateau (5,000 - 6,000') dotted with small lakes and a few volcanic peaks rising above it all. Forest is largely lodgepole pine with some true firs mixed in. Climbed Olallie Butte - just to the east of Olallie Lake and 7,215'). Nice view of the lakes basin - though obscured by heavy forest fire smoke. This trip represented one of the last significant areas of Oregon's Cascades that I had yet to visit. There are some wilderness areas that I need to get into, but other than that I've explored much of it - at least in a cursory sense. The Washington Cascades are much more interesting and inaccessible - a lifetime of exploration remains up there.

A Lovely Fall Day in Eugene

Just to prove that we DO stay home some weekends, here is a shot of the South Eugene hills on October 21st. Nice fall color this year - we're certainly not New England out here, but there are some nice deciduous trees in some of our cities as well as along the stream corridors throughout the Coast Range. Vine Maple in the western Cascades also makes for a good show. Larch in the high country of eastern Oregon and the east side of Washington's North Cascades can be amazing. Some aspen in Eastern Oregon's high country has turned to vivid yellows at this point. Wish I could get out and see it all!! Gotta hang around for those soccer games though - kids grow up too fast!

Olympic Peninsula, Washington

Rialto Beach, looking north. The wildest stretch of coast in the lower 48 states beckons.

Another Washington Coast trip, this time to our cabin on the Bogachiel River. We are a few miles upstream from La Push, not far from Forks. We arrived to find the adjacent property logged - a common site these days in the industrial timberlands that surround the wilds of Olympic National Park. Mostly second and third growth hemlock. It'll grow back quickly, but I am glad our property is surrounded by sizeable spruce, alder, and hemlock.

The Bogachiel River at low flow. Storms will soon bring higher flows - and Steelhead.

Cape Disappointment, WA

North Head Lighthouse

Spent Oct 6-8 camping on the Long Beach peninsula, just north of the mouth of the Columbia River. Toured a cranberry bog and Ocean Spray loading facility - fascinating. Need lots of water to grow and harvest those things. Fresh cranberries are definitely an acquired taste.
Fall is a quiet season on the coast. Beautiful crips weather, no summer fogs. Storms will roll in some time before mid November.

Looking south from Cape 'D' - across the mouth of the Columbia toward Astoria, Oregon

Vancouver, British Columbia

View from our hotel room in Vancouver

Spent most of last week in British Columbia, first at the URISA International Conference then up the Sunshine Coast a bit. Absolutely spectacular. Vancouver is just so vibrant and energtic. Lots of money pouring through there. For a metro area of 2.2 million it seems so much bigger - at least when compared to our American urban areas. The Sunshine Coast was a good side trip. Very quiet this time of year, one has to get away from the ferry terminus near Gibsons to get to the "good stuff", but the road north soon enters a fjordlike area of rocky coastlines, madrona and cedar forests, and convoluted bays. Spent a night at Camano Island in Washington on the way home - more great, though overdeveloped, inland salt water shorline.

Looking west toward Whidbey Island from Camano