Day Twelve and Thirteen

Started out driving from SEATAC airport area to Port Angeles, WA where we reserved a KOA site. We encountered some of the heaviest traffic we have seen during our trip leaving the Seattle area.

Then we proceeded to Olympic NP. Drove to Hurricane Ridge and did a couple 1.5 mile hikes. 1.5 miles doesn't sound like much but when they are "switchbacks" up the side of a mountain at an elevation of 8000+ feet you tire quickly. At Hurricane Ridge they had 374 inches of snow this past winter and in 1999 a record was set with 736 inches of snow. There was still a lot of snow there. The large amounts of winter snow was evident on the pines, most of the lower branches are swept down or dead because they spend so much of the year under snow pack. Smaller trees do not do to well either. Really beautiful country here.











After the night at KOA we spent most of the next day driving to the Columbia River gorge/valley area. Did not have much time for anything after the long drive but we did take in a quick tour of the Bonneville Dam. This is an interesting Dam since the river it blocks is a shipping channel so the Dam has a set of locks for ships to pass through. Many species of fish also travel this river to mate. The dam has a series of "fish ladders" that the salmon and others can travel upstream through the dam area. There are about 30 species of fish that use the ladders and there is someone at the dam that sits in a room below water level and counts every fish that travels the ladders.


We retired to another KOA site in Cascade Locks, Oregon, had dinner and played cards near the campfire. 4440 miles and still counting. Still running a bit behind schedule time wise. We will probably be cutting out a couple of the areas around the Grand Canyon. Will probably just visit the north or south rim instead of both. We may also cut out the Carlsbad Caverns/Roswell areas since they involve about 2 days travel out of the way of our main route of travel.