Olympic Whales

(No, not a new event in the upcoming Olympics)

Days 33 and 34

          I wish I could tell you that we are experiencing our usual extremely gorgeous weather.

          I cannot report that.

          In fact, the weather does not look good for the foreseeable future.

          But…. we’ve traveled this far, so what’s a few clouds and raindrops? While not ideal, so far, it has not been a wash-out. Our first expedition of this leg was to visit Olympic National Park. Everything about this area is rugged and lush at the same time. One of the finest examples of a temperate rainforest is located here. The Hoh Rainforest (which we did not visit) is on the other side of the Park, more than a two-hour drive from where we were, and the forecast for that area was worse than our local spot! Our destination for that day was the ominous sounding Hurricane Ridge, an area at the end of an access road that barely penetrates this immense Park. In the center of the Park, Mount Olympus climbs to 7980’ and is the central, and highest mountain in this chain.

          Who knew that there was this rugged mountain interior in this area? I didn’t! I can now see why and how a good portion of this Park is still closed because of winter conditions. This is the issue that we are facing more and more as we try and visit other Parks in the Northwest.   Yellowstone is high on our list but by the time that we arrive there a several-days Winter Weather Event is forecast to be in full-swing. We shall see. There have been other times (Sequoia) where based on the forecast, (who decided to place their weather station way back in the interior and at an elevation that is twenty degrees colder that most of the visited stuff?) that we have found wonderful conditions instead of doom and gloom!

          We shall see!

          Anyway, we traveled up the mountain road with an accompanying cover of clouds above us. As we ascended we could see that we were going to break out of most of the cloud cover sooner or later and we were correct. There were just enough clouds left below us in the valleys and around the peaks to give a nice perspective to the mountains all around us.

          It was the descent that was a little disconcerting because on our way down, the clouds moved in big time and made for a slow, foggy (full-on dense stuff) ride down.

          With no guardrails.

          We are constantly amazed with the lack of guardrails out here. I guess that there is no way to effectively place these security blanket-type items in any amount that would actually make a difference.  

There’s just too much road mileage to be covered.

                So, we all hold our collective breaths as we travel the Wonders of the West. Knowing that in fifty-one years of driving I have never even come close to driving off the road makes no difference. The fact that the car goes where you point it, especially at the lower speeds needed to navigate these twisty-turny thoroughfares, makes no difference to our brains that can only imagine us piled in a heap at the bottom of some random ravine, never to be discovered until a kid hiking in the area 32 years from now stumbles across us.

          Enough about the gene-pool altering lack of roadside safety devices. Paula did the driving because she gets nervous when I start looking around at the scenery trying to find that perfect location for a photographic opportunity. Maybe in hindsight that is why we are not at the bottom of that ravine!

          The next day we booked passage on a Gilliganesque three-hour tour of the waters off of Port Townsend. The idea was to try and get a glimpse of some whales. California Grey Whales are in the area on their way north to Alaska for the summer. They pop into Puget Sound for some snacks and a rest stop on their thousands of miles swim fest. Not wanting to jinx things, I deliberately did not ask any of the crew what the chance of seeing Orcas was. This was actually the goal of this venture, and I wasn’t going to mess it up with any stupid questions!

          Well, I needed not to fret because not fifteen minutes out of the harbor we were directed to a pod of whales by a radio announcement. It seems that all of the Captains, (tugs, commercial, and other whale watching competitors) share this info readily. It’s an “All for one, and one for all” attitude that makes everyone successful.

          We found ourselves following a family pod of about twenty Orcas, the patriarch of which was gentleman by the name of, (I kid you not) Chainsaw. He got his name not by his reputation for acts of violence, but by the distinctive markings on his six-foot dorsal fin. Although, I am quite certain, that somewhere in his past he has committed some violent felonies. They aren’t called Killer Whales for nothing!

          We swam with the Killers for quite a while until the Captain announced that we were going to go north and see if we could find some Grey’s that they had seen the previous day. On or way there, we spied some Puffins sitting in the water. These little guys were that first ones of the season that the crew had observed. They spend most of their time way out in the central Pacific and only come back to land to raise their little Puffs.  

          It was quite a treat to actually see one in the wild.

On our way we also encountered a raft (yes, that is what a group of them is called) of Sealions resting comfortably on an island desperately trying not to become snacks for the Chainsaw Family!

          We did find the Grey Guys after that. These whales are forty to fifty feet long and we only saw a little of them as most of their bulk stays below the surface. No breeching today! I did mange to get a few tail fluke photos as they began their deeper dives and went vertical.

          The whole cruise was delightful, and I want to thank the crew for arranging such pleasant sailing conditions, not a wave was to be found on our millpond-like floating experience.  Much to my dismay, but definitely to Paula’s delight!

          Our next leg will bring us to Spokane to visit family friends of Paula’s. That means that we’ve turned the corner, made a right, and are headed eastward hopefully to be in New Jersey by mid-June.

          The weather will decide our fate (and route) !