Katrina's Travels

As I continued east towards Spokane on November 20th, I didn't do much stopping. I just drove through lots of agricultural fields. The fields didn't look a lot different from similar fields at home except there was a lot more sky to go with them. Nothing at home ever looks that wide open.




( More photos from along the highway )


I had plenty of time so I drove down some dirt side roads to see if I could find any birds or anything else of interest. I found a lake with geese on it but they were rather far off. I also found some Red-tailed Hawks but not much else.


This is Jameson Lake




This was pretty much my last view of the Cascades in the distance behind me.




( More )


I found a place to pull off the highway just before going into Coulee City, where there was a good view looking towards Dry Falls.




( More )


And finally, at the end of the day I got meal in Spokane, found a post office where I could ship a box of stuff that I didn't want to put in my suitcase home, and went to the airport to wait for my flight. I got there a couple hours earlier than I needed to, but I couldn't think of anything else to do in Spokane at that time of the evening. The airport was empty when I got there. There was no one in front of me when I checked my bag and no one else in the TSA line. I've never seen anything like it. The flight I was on was the last flight out that night and apparently there weren't any other flights for a couple of hours before it, at least not at that terminal. Eventually other people started showing up, but I had a nice time sitting by myself in a rocking chair for a while.

This Christmas "tree" was in the middle of the area where the airport shops were located.



And that was pretty much the end of my trip. I had a short layover in Chicago at about dawn then arrived in Baltimore, having slept for an hour here and an hour there along the way. Needless to say, I did not feel like driving home from Baltimore that day. I took a good long nap and spent the evening with my sister then drove home the next morning.

This is the end of the day on November 19. Coming out of the North Cascades the scenery changes rapidly. No more snow-covered trees and mountains. They were replaced with a lot more open space and other signs of a drier climate. The next couple of photos were taken between leaving the national forest and Winthrop, followed by a few taken between Winthrop and Twisp. I went through Twisp at sunset so these photos get increasingly dark. It was a pretty drive. I clearly need to drive through the Methow Valley in proper daylight some day. There are some places to stop and look for birds that I would have liked to have checked out, but not in the dark. Having the sun set at 4 PM made it difficult to do as much as I wanted to do.








( A panorama and other photos )


After it got dark I picked up my travelling speed and headed for Wenatchee to find dinner and a hotel. I ended up eating at Denny's where there was wifi so that I could book a room at one of the nearby hotels. Denny's isn't my favorite restaurant but it is generally decent and this one was easy to find and relatively quiet inside. I had some kind of chicken that was quite tasty so I guess it was a good choice. I'd really rather eat at local restaurants rather than big chain restaurants but I was more concerned with keeping things easy and finding wifi that night.

Coming next - more driving eastward toward Spokane and the airport there

Continuing over the North Cascades passes....

From Rainy Pass I went down a bit before going up some more to Washington Pass. Everything but the road was covered in fresh snow and the scenery was stunning. There weren't many places to pull off the road, but there were almost no other cars on the road so I was able to just slow down or stop on the road to get photos. I'm sure some of these mountains have names, but I haven't had much luck figuring most of them out. (Anyone who knows their names should feel free to tell me.)







( More photos from between Rainy and Washington Passes )

This is Washington Pass, elevation 5477 feet. I think this was the highest point of my trip. Due to the time of the year I really didn't get up into the mountains much. The car said the outside temperature was 31F when I got to the pass which was slightly concerning, but the road was mostly dry and I just made sure to proceed slowly and carefully any time I had to cross wet places on the road. I never found any ice on the road, so it was all good.







The views coming down from Washington Pass were even more spectacular. I think they deserve a post of there own ... coming up soon.

These are the last of my photos from North Cascades National Park, although not the last photos from the North Cascades.


I loved seeing all the waterfalls, short and long. Both of these waterfalls were along the highway to the west of Diablo Lake. (Yes, these photos were taken before the photos in the last post and are thus out of order. They fit better here.)






After leaving the Diablo Lake overlook, I was headed for higher elevations and more snow.




At times it looked like I was going to drive right into a cloud, but for the most part I didn't.




( More photos )

Coming next: Snowy scenery from Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest

Continuing eastward on my way through North Cascades National Park....

There are several hydroelectric dams on the river along the highway. This one is Gorge Dam.






The Gorge Overlook Trail is a short walk that offers nice views of the dam and lake.




There were a few birds along the trail, including this Varied Thrush.




( More photos )

More later....

After leaving Fir Island I headed east on SR towards the town of Concrete on my way to North Cascades National Park, and eventually to the dry side of Washington.



( More photos from along the way )

The highway runs along the Skagit River for quite a while. These trees were at a place where I could pull off the road.







I took a lot of photos at the next spot I stopped, so I think I'll stop this post right here.

After having had our fill of looking for swans we decided to head south to Fir Island. We needed to buy a state lands pass to go there and there's no way to get one there, so we went via another state park that had an honor box for buying passes and bought one. (This was a problem for me for pretty much the whole trip. I would have bought an annual pass if I'd been able to find a place to buy one but November is not a good time to find a way to do that. Most of the places I wanted to go didn't even offer a way to buy a day pass. Next time I make a trip to Washington it will hopefully be planned enough in advance to buy a pass in advance and have it sent to me.)

The route we took involved driving south on Chuckanut Drive, which offers spectacular views, or at least it would have offered them if there had been less fog and rain.

(Clicking on any photo will take you to a larger version)






A foggy view of Bellingham Bay




And an even foggier view




Here's a great rarity - a photo of me, taken by my cousin who has at times been a professional photographer. Notice all the rain spots on my jacket.



( More photos )

Eventually we got back on the interstate highway for a while and found our way to Fir Island. It was very rainy and windy by then. People had been seeing a Gyrfalcon at Fir Island and I wanted to look for it since I've never seen one, but the weather was utterly terrible by the time we got there and we didn't have much time because it was getting dark. We walked around in the cold, windy rain a little bit but I didn't take any photos. I did go back the next morning, which I'll get to in my next post.

My uncle asked if I'd go out and show him some birds before I left, so we went over to Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge. We took one of my younger cousins with us. As usual with my relatives, we left the house much later than planned. The weather was not at all good. We got wet. We borrowed binoculars for both my uncle and cousin but I don't think either of them was particularly successful in using them. It also turned out that my uncle really isn't capable of walking very far. Still, I think he was pleased with the outing. (I think my cousin was bored stiff though.)

This does not look like good weather for a walk at the wildlife refuge, does it?




The birds we saw weren't anything new or different from what I'd seen over the past several days. I enjoyed seeing them again though. My uncle wanted to see an eagle. I checked the spots where I'd seen them on my earlier visit but there were none to see. As we were almost back to the parking area, I spotted a big bird at the top of a tall evergreen tree.




It was indeed an immature Bald Eagle.




( More birds )


We went back to the house where my cousin S. wanted to take me out for breakfast (it was lunchtime by then) before I left. I really wanted to get going, but I also liked the idea of spending a little more time with him and I did need something to eat, so I said I'd go but it had to be a relatively quick meal. We went back to almost the same place I'd just come from, eating at the little restaurant across from the entrance to Nisqually. I had halibut fish and chips. They were very good. My cousin, who generally drives like a maniac, drove very slow on the way home. He admitted it was because he wanted to spend more time with me. I thought that was sweet, but annoying. I really, really need to get out to Washington to spend time with my family on a more regular basis. I was planning on going back next month, but that's not happening now thanks to the coronavirus.

After lunch I tossed the rest of my stuff into my car and got going pretty quickly and set off to visit another cousin who lives in Bellingham, a couple of hours north of Seattle. Have I mentioned that I don't like Interstate highways in general and specifically really don't like driving around Seattle? The freeways around Seattle were the first freeways I ever drove on alone, when I was 16 or 17 and working for my uncle's photography studio during the summer, but Seattle was a different place back then. Now it is just a big traffic jam. I hate traffic jams.

The weather cleared up for a while as I was driving, and there was some blue sky for a short time. I took this photo of the blue sky over Tacoma while I was stuck in non-moving traffic.



( A few more photos from the road )

By the time I got to Bellingham it was dark. I had the address for my cousin's apartment building but I couldn't find the building. I drove around in circles trying to spot something to identify it by and finally gave up and drove around some more until I found a parking spot where I could leave my car for a while. I called and left a message for my cousin then started walking in what I thought was the right direction. I was in the right general area when she called back so she came out and met me and we went back to my car and moved it to a closer spot where it could stay until 9 AM, by which point I needed to move it again. We talked, ate supper, and talked some more before eventually going to bed.

More photos from Point No Point on November 16

This is the trail that goes through the field then up the hill into the woods.






There were some tall trees in the woods




There were maple trees as well, shedding their leaves as trees are inclined to do in the fall.




( Ferns, fungus, and flowers )

More photos from my November 15 visit to Point No Point.This set includes the lighthouse, driftwood, and boats/ships.


Lighthouses on the west coast are very different from lighthouses on the east coast. I'm used to lighthouses that are either tall buildings or buildings up on stilts, not low buildings like this one.





( More lighthouse photos )

The beach was full of driftwood, some of which had been arranged into various stacks and shapes.



( More driftwood )


There were plenty of boats/ships going by out in the Sound - everything from apparent Canadian navy ships to tug boats to small sail boats.



( More boats/ships )

I think I'll move on to birds and other critters next time.