Greg's Blog: July 12, 2005: Port Angeles, Wash., Cape Flannery, and Olympic National Park (24 PHOTOS, 8 BIRD)

We started out the day in Port Angeles, located on the Strait of Juan de Fuca. This is a good place to start out when visiting Olympic National Park. Early in the morning, we awoke shocked to find it was a clear day, so we immediately headed up to the Olympic Mountains! (They are often cloud-covered) (Map at bottom)

A view of the Olympic Mountains from Port Angeles, WA

We found this deer on the drive into Olympic National Park

Nice scenery on the drive up to Hurricane Ridge

Hurricane Ridge in Olympic National Park

Another nice view at Hurricane Ridge

Our shadows in the tundra on Hurricane Ridge

After Hurricane Ridge, we descended to Sea Level, and headed West on US101 and WA112 towars Neah Bay. This route took us around the Northwestern region of the Olympic Peninsula, and had for us some great rocky beaches to see. We stopped at the Makah Cultural Center in Neah Bay, a museum dedicated to the historical local Makah native culture (very interesting), and then drove to Cape Flattery to see the Northwestern most point in the U.S. True to this region's climate, it was rainy and chilly.

The beach on the Strait of Juan de Fuca, near Sekiu

This Totem Pole was in Neah Bay, Washington, in the Northwest corner of the Olympic Peninsula

Above and below are shots from Cape Flattery, on the Northwestern tip of the Olympic Peninsula (and the northwestern most point in the Continental U.S.)

This interesting looking tree was on the trail to the Cape Flattery lookout

Our final item on the agenda for the day was a stop at the Hoh Rain Forest, in the western portion of Olympic National Park. This is a low elevation temperate rain forest on the Olympic Peninsula.

The drive into the park is cool - the trees are filled with moss

This was another cool tree we found on the way in

The nature trails in the park featured some very wet forest with moss hanging everywhere! (See above and two photos below)

Below is the bird section of today's blog. We started out birding at lower elevations of northern Olympic National Park. We heard some CHESTNUT BACKED CHICKADEES, SWAINSONS THRUSH, and VARIED THRUSH, but didn't get too many looks. Brief look at a GREY JAY, and we did see COMMON RAVENS. At the top of the park, at Hurricane Ridge, we found AMERICAN PIPIT, HORNED LARK, TOWNSEND'S SOLITAIRE, COMMON RAVENS, and BALD EAGLES. We also saw OREGON JUNCOS. On the beach near Sekiu, Washington, there were many WESTERN SANDPIPERS, and from the forest, SWAINSON'S THRUSHES calling everywhere. At Cape Flannery, our lifer TUFTED PUFFIN, and also PIGEON GUILLEMOT, and BLACK OYSTERCATCHER. SWAINSON'S THRUSHES were also calling here, as was an unidentified Flycatcher. At Hoh Rain Forest, Melissa caught a brief glance of a VARIED THRUSH.