Washington in September, surf and turf

[MojaveGeek]

I really like the mini reports but I'm going to write a longer one.  I was in Washington State much of September.   First came some time hiking on the wilderness beaches of the Olympic Peninsula.   There's about 50 miles of wilderness beach, with road access in the middle, on either side of an unfordable river.  Been going here for years.   It never disappoints.





The wild life is pretty impressive.   This is a sea otter.   We saw 45-50 of them that day - more than I thought might be the total population of the Peninsula.   Apparently their population is recovering - they were hunted for their fur many years ago.  They bob up and down on their backs, with head and feet sticking up - that's how you distinguish them from other floating sea junk.   It was amazing to see such masses.



And this is a young sea lion.  We sometimes see seal pups, but this was the first sea lion I'd seen ashore in daylight in the 30 years I've been hiking out there.  They are actually quite different, anatomically, from seals.



Next I went solo and moved over to the mountains.   I went an off trail route which crossed the PCT and got to a stunning view of the Goat Rocks.   You can't tell, but the back sides of these mountains are full of glaciers and snow fields.



One day I went up Mt. Ruth, basically a bump on the side of Rainier.  I say "bump" but I had to climb 4600 feet, much of it on sketchy use trail, to get to the summit - really the limit of my range and I got up at 2:45 PM, though needed headlamp for only 15 minutes on my exit, at which point I was on an excellent maintained trail.  The four pix below are from the little summit.   Well worth the push to get there and my best hiking day on Rainier, ever.   The ridge between myself and Rainier's main peak is Steamboat Prow - I would love to get there but I think it is out of my reach.









I like the last pic because I've been to many of those places.   The rounded hump on the left is Goat Island Peak, the more distant craggy one with the broad sloped approach is Banshee, and the rocky outcrop on the right leading into snow is Meany Crest, all of which I've visited over the years - and all of which were in themselves great days.

Back to animals, this is a pika, a member of the rabbit family.  They are known for making hay piles, which you can see in the pic, and then living off them in the winter.   If they did not dry the veg into hay, it would rot over the winter, so they are pretty clever.  And very protective of their hay piles!



Well things changed when there was a big weather system, an "atmospheric river" from the Gulf of Alaska, for four days.  As in, zero sun for the entire time, and lots of rain.  But 90 minutes or so drive from where I was staying in Packwood you're in the rain shadow of the main Cascade crest, around Yakima, where I had mixed sky, a lot of sun, and zero rain.   And of course different flora and fauna.

Here is a gopher snake doing its rattlesnake imitation - it even twitches its tail in the dry vegetation to try to sound like one.  But I was not intimidated.



This one, however, was the real deal, and I was glad I encountered it near the end of a hike on a dirt road instead of in the tall dry grass.

[Brice]

Is that coastline area part of the olympic national park or somewhere else? I gotta get out there someday.

I've seen pika collecting hay before, but they always disappear into the talus. I've never seen a pile like that. Very nice!

[MojaveGeek]

Yup, that is the national park. But not the section of park where the road (101) runs next to the water. West of Forks, where the wilderness beaches are.

Thanks for mentioning that about the pikas. I figure you've seen a few. I have never seen the hay piles like that. I see them spreading the greens on rocks outside their hidey holes but they must haul it inside when it is dry. This behavior was new to me, but I saw at least 20 such hay piles, though all in a few miles of talus.

[netllama]

Those are gorgeous photos ! Its been forever since I've been up in Washington, but I do recall it having a ton of amazing scenery.