Olympic National Park Hurricane Ridge

Olympic National Park covers a lot of territory.  We took our first trek into the park by touring the Hurricane Ridge section.  17 miles up the road to Hurricane Ridge where you can hike 1.6 miles to the top.  So far we have enjoyed the park, but I think the Mt. Baker Scenic Byway was a lot more beautiful.

Dungeness River Audubon Center, Sequim, Wa

The Dungeness River Audubon Center is not very large, however there are lots of birds on display.  Hard to get pictures when the objects you are shooting are behind glass. 

Olympic Game Farm, Sequim, Wa

Olympic Game Farm worked with Walt Disney providing animals for movies such as “The Incredible Journey” and Charley the Lonesome Cougar, as well as The Grizzly Adams Show.  We were able to drive through the park and could have purchased wheat bread to feed the animal.  We passed on the bread as we did not want any animals sticking their heads through our windows.  Very enjoyable drive.

Mt. Baker Scenic Byway

Wow, what a beautiful drive.  The sun was shining and the car was running great.  We drove all the way up to Heather Meadows expecting to get to hike the Artist Trail Ridge but it was under the snow, even the restroom had to be dug out of the snow.  Picture lake was a short hike where we enjoyed the reflections of the mountains.

you can see the top of the restrooms

the trail is under the snow

reflection from the snow makes the ice turn blue.

Cascades National Park

Cascades National Park has over 300 glaciers.  We spent the day driving through the park.  This is a very rugged place so we were not able to get close to any of the glaciers.  We were both impressed with the beauty of this park.

Legacy of Flight Museum, Rexburg, Idaho

We are currently in a campground near Rexburg.  Looking for things to do, we found the Legacy of Flight Museum, so we thought we would check it out.  Really glad that we did.  The museum holds about 18 airplanes that are all flyable.  We had our own tour guide who told us the history of every plane.  There was also a small museum upstairs with stuff from the civil war to Operation Enduring Freedom.  Well worth our time.

Very rare find.

The P-51 was the first WWII fighter capable of escorting bombers all the way to Germany and back.

Bob Hoover’s Ole Yeller.  Bob set many records in this airplane.  The Smithsonian wants it, but they want to gut it and Bob doesn’t like that idea.

Legend has it that a Chicago bootlegger commissioned the Howard Aircraft Co., during prohibition, to build an airplane that could hold 15 cases of whiskey.  After he admired the craft as a “damn good airplane”, this Howard became known as the Howard DGA-15.

Teton National Park, 2012

Many years ago, we stayed in Yellowstone and took one day to drive to Teton National Park.  We decided that we needed more than one day to really see the park.  We made reservations at Flagg Ranch for 4 nights because we could have 20 amp power, however, we kept experiencing power surges which shut down our power so we only stayed 1 night.  We moved to the Coulter Bay dry camping area and really enjoyed that campground.  We were right in the middle of the action.  Gary was close to the Jackson Dam and spent a lot of hours catching fish there.  We were also close to a spot where a moose came out every evening to feed.  Got to see black bear and took a float trip down the snake.  We finished our camping by moving to Gros Ventre dry camping area closer to Jackson.  There we were able to see Mormon Row, buffalo, and go into town to the chuck wagon dinner.

Saw this tundra swan on way into Jackson

Yellow headed blackbird

barn located on Mormon Row

Bar J Wranglers, Jackson, Wy

This was our third chuck wagon dinner and show.  Must say, we rated this one as our #1.  The guys were great, great harmony and jokes were very, very, funny.  Food was terrific.

Great vocals and jokes

Fantastic bass.

fiddle champion in Idaho

Very talented musician on dobro, steel guitar, banjo.