Pyramid Lake

Checking out where Chris and Amy were married on the Pyramid Lake Island just close by Jasper Alberta

Five Lakes hike

About three miles, 9,000 steps and 11 floors according to iHealth and it proved to be beautiful walk in the woods with a bit of scrambling! Started along 9a and checked out on the swimmers in lake 5, turned north-east and strolled by lakes 4, 3 and 2 before returning along trail 9b. Great way to see the beauty of the glacial fed lakes in the Rockies.

Windows of opportunity!

Great chart showing optimal dates to visit National Parks! Basically if the kids are on vacation avoid it!

Elk

Had to try out the "Specialty of the Region" as French menus would say to promote local culinary delights! Elk is very tasty, not too gamey and not overwhelming but you do know you have something special on your plate! To start I ordered an appetizer plate of elk, bison and boar meatballs in a rosemary and Port sauce which was outstanding! A dining treat now and again gets you inspired to go back to your own grill and be a little more adventurous!

Jasper Wild Life!!

A great day out in Jasper means encountering the local residents! Mountain goats come down from the mountains to lick the mineral glacier salts and elks graze without taking any notice of the human attention!

Maligne Lake

Started the day with a modest hike along the home bay western end of Maligne Lake located some 30 miles east of Jasper. The lake is fed by three glacier waters and sits in a valley blocked by glacial moraine deposits at some 5,500 ft altitude. We had reserved a spot on the cruise boat which was just as well since they were booked solid for the next three days. Cruised at speed up the narrow but lengthy lake and stopped for the world famous iconic photo opportunity of Spirit Island - which is actually a small peninsula mound with tall pines connected to land - made famous by a Kodachrome promotion in the '60's. Last two days have had spectacular weather conditions with exceptional visibility!

Mt Whistler Jasper

Took the tram to the upper station which is at 6,800 ft then slowly hiked the trail to the summit at 8,100 ft enjoying the magnificent views on either side of the trail. On the way down we deviated from the main trail and found numerous rock creations on the trail overlooking Jasper and lakes.

Jasper National Park

Finally arrived at Jasper and found our site that we reserved back in January. We are here for ten days and have an activity plan that includes lake cruises, aerial trams, long hikes and some serious Canadian cuisine. The pine forest has taken a hit from a beetle invasion that is killing many trees which is rather sad - those pines should not be brown! Got to take care not to leave any food items or food residue like our gas grill out at night because the grizzly bears roam around looking for anything that smells good!

Winthrop frontier schoolhouse

Winthrop is a frontier style town in the North Cascades and the museum features a classroom from the 1890's. I grew up in rural northern France and went to a one room schoolhouse 1952 to 1956 and I have to say the Winthrop 1890's was a lot better looking and equipped than mine half a century later! So many museums I visit are full of the things we used in our early life!!

North Cascades

Made a deviation from plan and headed east across Washington state rather than head north to Vancouver Canada.... Forest fires abound in BC and we are marking time by traveling along Route 20 that parallels the Canadian border before we make a decision based on the latest fire maps. We have ten days reserved in Jasper and another ten days in Banff. North Cascades are beautiful with turquoise lakes colored by fine rock powder in suspension and ground by the movement of glacier ice across rock!

Meeting my new neighbors

Not ready for this! Best get acquainted with a stuffed version at the Visitor Center rather than the real thing on the trail! We do have bear spray that we carry with us when hiking!

Pacific NW

View from Lummi Island looking north-west towards Orcas Islands in the San Juan Islands between Washington state and Canada. The fishing boats form a line across the narrows and run nets boat to boat to catch the salmon running up to their breeding grounds up the Frazier River in British Columbia.

Lummi Island, San Juans, WA

Visiting Robin and Marsha who have retired and built a home on Lummi Island, Washington, for a few days in preparation for our return visit beginning of September for Cariad and Chris's wedding - Cariad is a SMS alum originally from St Barths and her family have stayed in touch and we have visited many times including their hotel in Vieques P.R. and now their new wonderful residence on Lummi. What a beautiful spot to live!

Ferry to Lummi

Quick ten minute ride across the bay to Lummi Island. They give us a double width lane and fifty feet space so it ends up being $58 for the round trip. On the Port Townsend ferry the loadmaster went through a five minute major fine adjustment to the loading ramp so we would avoid bottoming out the rear end of the Airstream!

Lunch at Deception Pass

Great location for lunch as we move north along the Puget Sound islands we stopped the Deception Pass state park using our year long $30 Washington State Discovery Pass! Located just below the bridge between Whidbey Island and Fidalgo Island the park has a parking lot facing the beautiful and wild San Juan de Fuca Straits and frolicking seals in the torrent tidal stream going under the Deception Pass bridge.

This IS camping!

This IS the proper way to CAMP! The previous camper had left a bunch of half burnt logs to which we added our small log collection and massive amount of combustion accelerants! Well it lasted us for four hours and kept the sharp cool air from the Vancouver Straits at bay!

Point Wilson lighthouse

Point Wilson overlooks the seaway to Seattle and navy base Bremerton and was automated a long time ago in 1976. Although the light is still operational the lighthouse and keeper's buildings have the air of an abandoned ghost town!

Fort Worden and Port Townsend

Guarding the main entrance to Puget Sound, Fort Worden overlooks Admiralty Inlet and the San Juan de Fuca straits with Canada Vancouver island in the distance to the NW. The campsite is dead center on second panoramic shot. We are surrounded by sea in three sides!

Trekking around Mt St Helens

Standing here 37 years ago you would have been fried as Mt St Helens exploded with the force of a 24 megaton nuclear explosion. The eruption took off the top of the volcano and collapsed the north side of the crater - the side the photo is looking at - with a huge avalanche and vast deluge of mud and rock flows rushing down the valleys and destroying everything in its path. This was the biggest volcanic event in US history! On the map we are on the red dotted line where the circle 1 is located just at the northern tip of the pyroclast flow - the location was the site of an unfortunate USGS geologist monitoring the volcano. The learning centers and museums do a great job of recounting the build up to and eruption saga and the reconstructive aftermath! Spent three days in the area with beautiful forests, flowers and perfect weather!

Silver Cove Mt St Helens

Silver Cove RV site is some 40 miles from the volcano and the waterways around the campground are connected to Silver Lake and full of lily pads and wildlife - very scenic!

Fellow SWAD travelers!

Bridgewater Bistro in Astoria was the rendezvous for us to meet and have dinner with John and Carol Dion who we saw in Santa Fe last October at the end of the wonderful South West Adventure 2017 caravan. John and Carol live near Portland and have been active local Airstream unit campers this year. John has been a great source of information on Airstream improvements which I have eagerly adopted! We will try to catch up next spring in Arizona!

Artistic clams

While picking up my Willapa oysters the lady at the oyster house showed us a sample of a few clam shells, blue, yellow and orange lipped variety of Manila clams. I'm not a clam fan so I went with the clam chowder!

Willapa Oysters

Just across the Columbia River in Washington state the Willapa Bay has extensive oyster beds and these are really very large oysters - the "small" size can be 6 to 8" in length and well beyond anything I'm used to! Applied one of my favorite recipes by roasting the oysters on the propane grill, letting them open, remove the top half of the shell and discard, and douse them with a generous helping of pre prepped butter-shallot-parsley-prosciutto sauce (Vermouth or Anise optional taste zingers!) and letting the heat shrivel the oysters in the concoction. Takes about 30 minutes and the oysters in the half shell are then served individually as they reach optimum roast using pliers from the toolbox!

Spruce Goose

Howard Hughes sat here! At the controls of the Spruce Goose, 1940's flying boat that Hughes flew one time only for one mile....two months after I was born! Had a terrific one on one private tour with a docent who allowed me to scramble all over the flight deck. Hughes H-1 seaplane was stored many years in secrecy before being exhibited in Long Beach, then moved to Evergreen Museum in McMinnville Oregon and now restored. Eight P&W Wasp engines and wing inspection tunnels you can walk upright inside! This must have been a power plant nightmare with 8 engines each with 28 cylinders, valves, timing and synchronization.

Picnic on the rim

Almost circumnavigated the Crater on the rim road. The East Rim Drive was still closed due to snow and the West Rim had a gravel section under construction. Glad we didn't take the Airstream through the dust! Found this perfect, shady spot for a picnic with a view.

Volcano within a volcano

Wizard Island is some 760 ft above the lake surface and is the remains of a more recent volcano that erupted within the caldera after the collapse of Mt Mazama 7,700 years ago that formed Crater Lake.

Dinner at Crater Lodge

Enjoying pre dinner cocktails on the veranda at Crater Lake Lodge at 7,100 ft altitude, some 1,000 ft above the lake surface. This is the deepest lake in North America with a 1,943 depth recorded. The area received 46 ft of snow last winter and even in mid July most of the trails are closed and snow drifts still line the highway.

Crater Lake

Hiking the south rim of Crater Lake with Wizard Island behind our backs.... unfortunately only 3 of the dozen trails are open so far this season the others all blocked by snow, and the boat tour does not start for another week! However free range beef grilled dinner at the Crater Lodge was delicious and so was the view...

First night out

First night of our part 2 adventure 2017 landed us in the coniferous forest right under the spectacular Mt Shasta in Northern California. Perfect overnight temperatures and strong scent of pines remind me of my childhood in the Swiss Alps. We picked up the Airstream earlier in the day from Bay Area Airstream Adventure who completed our two year warranty work punch list and a few other tasks and then treated our mobile home to a extravagant wash and wax!

Start the Adventure!

 

Flew in to San Francisco and switched on our phones to discover our Tappahannock condo sale had  closed.... completed a RAM recall for catalytic converter and then was handed a new recall for the same part except parts are not available! Picked up our Airstream from Bay Area Airstream Adventure, restocked it with Berkeley Bowl treats and prepared for our next four month adventure north to Canada, then south to Arizona following the weather.