Olympic Peninsula, July 2021: Dungeness and Sequim

Neither Danelle nor I had ever spent much time in the Pacific Northwest. Our first post-COVID vacation together aimed to fix that.  We rented a Mercedes Metris from Peace Vans in Seattle and planned to spend six days driving around the Olympic Peninsula.  First stop: the Dungeness Recreation Area north of Sequim.

We had a gorgeous sunset over the Strait of Juan de Fuca our very first night just a five-minute walk from our campsite.

The next morning I woke early hoping to catch the sun rising over the eastern end of the Dungeness Spit.  Instead, I received my first lesson in how overcast the conditions along the coast could be.

The trail along the spit was dotted with numerous cairns, which seemed a little unnecessary since there really wasn't any way to lose the trail.  Still, the combination of cairns and driftwood is striking.

I returned to camp and encouraged Danelle to join me in making the short walk to the overlook of the spit.  Our wildlife sighting?  A Pacific Banana Slug making its slow, slimy path across the trail.

It felt SO good to be outside and not sweating.

The clouds hadn't completely broken up when we reached the overlook, but the view was still pretty beautiful.

We had to take what was referred to as the "Primitive Trail," which was softer, flatter, and wider than most main trails I've hiked across the country.

Sequim is a somewhat unexpectedly perfect area for growing lavender -- at the same latitude as Provence, and very dry due to the rain shadow cast by the mountains on the Olympic Peninsula.  So we stopped at the B&B Family Lavender Farm.

We had a wonderfully informative tour of their operation, then got to walk right through the blooming plants.

You know who loves lavender?  Bees.  Standing in the middle of the lavender my ears were filled by their persistent, gentle buzz.  But I didn't mind walking right through their midst, because the insects were much more interested in the lavender than in me.

 

Danelle purchased a few goodies while I tried to capture what the place was like, which I don't really believe I managed to do successfully.  I do recommend stopping at one of the many small farms if you're ever in the area for something different and fairly charming to do.

More From the Olympic Peninsula:

• Salt Creek Campground
• Tongue Point
• Lake Crescent
• Kalaloch Beaches
• Hoh Rainforest
• Rialto Beach
• Northwest Corner
• Bogachiel State Park
• Hurricane Ridge
• Camp Forever Young

Heard Natural Science Museum & Wildlife Center: June 2020

As much as I fancy myself the major outdoorsy person in our family, it's actually my wife who's planning to hike a section of the Appalachian Trail in September. I'm admittedly a little jealous. But I at least get the opportunity to help her prepare by doing some short hikes now and getting used to things like carrying a 30-pound backpack. THAT I'm not jealous of.

Our first destination was the Heard Natural Science Museum & Wildlife Center in McKinney, which really needs a much shorter nickname.  The Bluestem, Wood Duck, and Cedar Brake Trails there all connect and cover about three fairly flat miles.  The center itself has some great gardens that include local plants like Coneflowers...

... and Passion Flowers.

The trails go through some of the little remaining blackland prairie in the country.

The trails have at least a mile of elevated boardwalk through wetlands.

Where one has water in North Texas, one invariably has Red-eared Sliders.  Especially on sunny days.

I found the Cedar Brake Loop really interesting and unique.  I should have paid better attention to the signage to understand just what we were walking through, though.

There was one short section of trail that was fairly flush with a variety of wildflowers.  Otherwise grasses seemed to dominate the prairie.

I thought I'd see more dragonflies like this Widow Skimmer, but there were surprisingly few.

Pickerelweed is not the prettiest name for a very pretty aquatic flower.

I know almost nothing about fungus, but iNaturalist claims this is Oak Mazegill.  Now THAT'S a cool name.

It's always good to see pollinators at work, like this American Bumble Bee on a Texas Thistle.

I didn't see many butterflies on the trails, but the center has a nice enclosed butterfly garden with species like Black Swallowtail ...

... and Eastern Tiger Swallowtail ...

... who I captured one final shot of once the sun peeked out from behind the clouds.

Two hours in 90-degree heat to cover three miles.  Danelle's journey to Georgia has officially begun, and I got a few pictures out of it!

Genovesa Island, Part II

Our ship's first stop in the Galápagos -- Genovesa Island -- was a tremendous introduction to the wonders we'd see throughout the week. Truly a birder's paradise, it was surreal to be around animals with virtually no fear of humans.

Baby Red-Footed Boobies may not fear people, but they certainly can fuss like their human counterparts!

Motherly affection also isn't unique to our species.

Did I mention that the chicks can get fussy?

The volcanic terrain had an interesting right along the edge of the plateau. Unfortunately, being a group excursion I didn't really have a chance to climb down and explore it.

The Galápagos also have their own endemic species of mockingbird.

Danelle demonstrating just how little this Nazca Booby cared about her.  A rule I always adhere to when observing wildlife is to not get so close that you disturb an animal.  Trust me when I say it seemed like nothing short of actually touching them would disturb these birds, which we obviously didn't do.

A Galápagos Short-Eared Owl was feasting on something that it would not let us get a good look at.  They might not fear people, but they don't have any interest in sharing their meals with us, either!

I admired the ambition of this Red-Footed Booby in trying to gather materials for its nest.

The bird's attempt to take flight with its branch proved unsuccessful, so it eventually just dropped it and moved on to presumably look for something more reasonably sized.

The arid landscape had fairly few flowering plants, with the main exception being Yellow Geiger.

We only covered about a mile on our walk, but what a densely packed mile it was!

Click here for more blog posts from my amazing visit to the Galápagos Islands!

Haines

Our first port of call was Haines, and after two days on the water we landlubbers were ready to get off the cruise ship.  A small fishing boat was the only other sign of activity when we disembarked around 7 a.m., and Danelle got this nice shot of it.

Our guide, Carolyn from Rainbow Glacier Adventures, was very friendly and knowledgeable about the area.  She tried desperately to find us something pretty to see with the conditions sliding back and forth between heavily overcast and steadily raining.

Fortunately, we brought along some of our own pretty-to-see things. :)

I know this isn't a great photo, but I'm including it because it could have been a great photo.

I saw this moment coming as the swans were gliding across the water, and caught exactly the pose I was looking for.  Unfortunately, I didn't get the sharp focus I wanted.  This will be a constant reminder to me of yet another "one that got away."

At an ISO equivalent of 1250 and f/6.3, I was still only able to get a 1/200sec shutter speed on aperture priority.  If that last sentence wasn't complete gobbledegook to you and you have any suggestions on what I could have done differently, I'd love to hear them. :)

Carolyn eventually did find something pretty to see -- a young female brown bear fishing for salmon.  That was more than good enough for us!

She was quite comfortable crossing the road from the forest to the river.  Apparently a little too comfortable, as there was talk that she was getting too acclimated to humans and might need some mild negative reinforcement.

We saw her catch a fish of her own, but she also knew it was much easier to just take what fishermen left behind when they moved to get out of his way.  It's apparently proper etiquette to throw your catch into the water in this situation so a bear doesn't start to associate people with food, but we didn't see anyone do that.

The bear eventually ambled back off into the woods, but not before taking another dip in the river.

I came back out in the afternoon on a photo tour led by a gentleman named Tom Ganner who happened to be the husband of our morning guide.  He was also extremely personable and gave a lot of great tips.

We returned to some of the same spots, and were fortunate to see a couple of humpback whales by the ferry dock.  Tom was even a bit surprised to see them so far up the inlet.

Even with the overcast skies, the fireweed helped provide a nice splash of color.

The bear from the morning was far from the only one out catching salmon.

A lone totem pole stood as a silent sentinel along the river between Lutak Inlet and Chilkoot Lake.

I set up my tripod and stayed focused on this sea gull for a while, hoping it would do something interesting.  This was as good as it got.

We had a blast even without the sun's company.  Seeing a bear that close certainly helped make for a memorable day!

La Paz Waterfall Gardens: Hummingbirds

As I mentioned on my Facebook album, La Paz has a very good thing going with their twice-daily hummingbird feedings. The birds were technically wild, but habituated to come visit a garden area with about 50 hanging feeders. Twice a day the hanging feeders were covered, and guests were given small handheld ones.

As long as you did a suitable imitation of a tree, you were pretty much guaranteed to have a hummingbird come visit your feeder like this Bronze-Tailed Plumeleteer did with Taryn.

Hummingbirds don't necessarily seem like the toughest birds, but I love how this little Green-Crowned Brilliant seems to be telling the even littler insect, "Go ahead. Make my day."

Another Green-Crowned Brilliant, I think. For things whose wings beat 60 times per second they could be very accommodating about sitting still to pose sometimes.

Yup, accommodating.

Violet Sabrewing. He was a bit easier to pick out thanks to his size and color, and a coveted visitor to the kids' feeders.

A trifecta of female Green-Crowned Brilliants. One ...

... two ...

... and three.

This little lady seemed to have attracted a suitor. The males don't have the "spotted white underparts," only the females. If you thought that read "underpants," so did I the first time I saw it.

Danelle did some terrific multitasking here, shooting a picture with one hand while holding a feeder with the other. The bird is so vivid he almost looks computer-generated to me.

We made at least three separate visits to the hummingbird garden over our two-night stay. Definitely one of the neatest parts of the park!