Anacortes, Washington

 

 

 

 

Ever been curious about the ferry system in Washington?
We went to Anacortes, caught a ferry to ride, and just watch to see how the vehicles were loaded on it.
Check out the Coromorant condo along the way.

Loading and Unloading

 

 

 

It is amazing to see how many cars and truck can go on a ferry. Makes you wonder how many they can hold.

Inside the Ferry

 

 

 

Inside is very comfortable, you can sit and watch out the windows, grab a bite or cup of coffee and enjoy the ride on the inside.
Outside if you want to there is a deck you can walk around on.

Wildlife Reserve

 

 

 

 

Peregrine Falcons

From near extinction these birds are a part of a recovery program at Cape Meares, Oregon.
In the 1970’s there were less than 100 left in the entire country.
Thanks to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Peregrine Falcons once-again are coming back, across the nation.
This area is also home to 220,000 murres.

Salt Lake City Falcon

 

Where natural cliffs are lacking, Peregrine Falcons set up housekeeping on tall buildings and sky scrapers in large cities.
Salt Lake City, Utah has a pair that has been coming every year since the 1980’s.
It is on the Joseph Smith Building downtown by the Mormon temple.
They are all set up with a nesting box and a camera for our viewing pleasure.
This year they had two which is about the same number every year, one female and one male.
The male was “dubbed” Early Bird” when he decided to take off flying and never quite made it.
He was rescued by volunteers, before he was run over by a car on the road below.
He was placed back in his box to try to fly another day.

Tiny nesting Peregrine

 

 

 

 

They nest on shear cliffs above the ocean.
A woman there had a bird scope and was nice enough to let us look into the nest.
Four little soft and fuzzy babies were waiting for mom to return with their lunch.
They were about one month old she thought.

Seal Rock State Park, Oregon

 

 

 

 

Another of Oregon's parks.
This is for sure one you want to stop too.
The trail is all paved and not very long, easy walk even for people with limitations.
This is the third time we have fallen for that story.
So off we go and it is just what the said it would be. A beautiful ocean site with paved trail to the beach.
HOWEVER, they forgot to mention that the trail was washed out at the bottom and you had to crawl over big boulders and logs.

Oregon Cormorants

 

 

 

Seal Rock State Park has a large off-shore rock formation, which is home to the Cormorant.
The Cormorant is a big black bird, 2 to 3 feet in length and has 3 to 6 hatchlings per year.
This water bird, dives into the water, propels its self with its feet to catch fish for the babies.
When the parents think the hatchlings are old enough to be on their own, they push them out of the nest, leaving them to fly or hit the rocks far below.
The parents fly off, never looking back until next year when it starts all over again.
We talked to the ranger and he said over 200,000 of them come each year to nest and raise their young on this rock.

Cormorants

 

 

 

 

Natural Bridge, Oregon

 

 

 

 

Your visit to Natural Bridge on the Oregon Scenic Drive, provides one of the areas most fascinating features of the mighty Rogue River.
At peak,approximately 335,000 gallons of water rush from this outlet each minute at the speed of 6 feet per second.
After listening to people returning from, or had been to some of these hikes and then taking them for ourselves, to find out they were not what they claimed,I was spectacle about this one.
We were assured that we could not leave this area of Crater Lake, Oregon without seeing it. It was just a short hike and on a good paved trail.
Once again we went and it was some thing everyone going to this area should see.

The Cave

 

 

 

 

The cave is part of a well-defined lava tube. The water flowing into it appears to circulate and then return to the main river stream.
This would indicated the lava tube has collapsed some distance beyond the opening.

The Hidden River

 

 

 

The Rogue River, flows through a lava tube, behind the wall of rock across the channel becoming
"a hidden river".

The Natural Bridge

 

 

This is an inlet, where the Rogue River,disappears into a lava tube taking 35 seconds to travel 200 feet to the tubes outlet.

The Cascade Mountain Range

 

 

 

The drive to Crater Lake is very pretty with the snow capped Mountains of the Cascades.
Locted in Southeren Oregon

Mountain Lake

 

Crater Lake
Like no other place on earth.
There are no inlets or outlets that supply new water to this lake.The only new water that is added is the melting snow.
A deep pure lake, so blue it is indescribable.