Not So Green Washington State

We left a very green Montana and crossed into a very green Idaho. Beautiful mountains and rolling hills adorned with different types of crops, lending layers of texture and colors to the landscape.

We spent the night in Coeur d’Alene, a lovely lakeside city. The weather was glorious and the entire town seemed to be soaking it all up either on the lake or one of the nicest city parks I have seen, which included a marina, a wet park for kids and a great doggie park.

 

I was expecting the green landscape to get even greener in Washington State, but boy was I wrong! Most of our journey west bound to Seattle was in very dry, desert like terrain, and the hottest temperatures we had so far experienced since we left Cleveland. No apple orchards or farming land as I thought it would be like. We drove parallel to the Columbia River for a significant part of the trip and the views were incredible except for the fact that the place was void of life. We made a rest stop at a great lookout point, and it was so hot that Herb had to carry Lady back to the RV because the ground was burning her feet.

 

 

As we got closer to Seattle, the desert subsided but it was very obvious that the place had not seen any rain for a very long time. This was my first time in Seattle, and I was really looking forward to experiencing the city, a place that in my mind I had equated with the epitome of coolness – Nirvana, grunge, the Seahawks, cool weather and quintessentially green in all aspects of the word. The truth is that I found Seattle a bit average. It definitely feels like San Francisco, steep hills, cosmopolitan, fresh fish at Pike Place Market, but it lacked the umff of its cousin to the south.

 

 

 I think a big part of the miss has to do with the lack of green spaces along the city’s shore line. The buildings, and worse, the bi-level expressway runs along the downtown shore, leaving little space for anything else. Seattle was in the midst of hosting the US Open, and the city was vibrant, filled with tourists from all over the world.  

As a shameless Starbucks addict, I was thrilled to visit their very first shop, right on Pike Place Market. The place was mobbed, so we came back the next afternoon and waited for the crowds to leave.

Even Herb, who is not a Starbucks fan, (to this day, he refuses to order a “tall” coffee, he asks for “small”), got into the groove.

 

However, for Herb, the highlight of the visit was hanging out with the monorail driver trying to bribe him into letting him drive it from the Space Needle into downtown.

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the past four weeks, we have become accustomed to open spaces and fewer people, and since Seattle is the first big city we visited since we left home, it made us realize how much we really enjoy a less hectic life. Lovely city, but it was time for next: Olympic National Park.

Whereas the eastern part of the state is a desert, the most western part is a rain forest. And not just any rain forest. It is the largest old-growth forest in the Pacific Northwest, a World Heritage Site and a Biosphere Reserve. It supports more biomass per acre of land than any other ecosystem on the planet. We spent time in three different sections of the park, the rainforest, the hot springs and the beach. All of them completely different from the other but equally spectacular. We walked through forests with 1000 years old trees, reaching up to 300 feet in height and over 70 feet in diameter. The ground vegetation was so densely packed that it felt like walking on foam, with moss, lichen, and ferns covering every single inch of space. Innumerable shades of green and the sweetest aromas from the Sitka spruce and red cedar trees filled our senses with incredible beauty and serenity.

 

 

 
The longest undeveloped beach in the lower 48 states was beautifully rugged, covered with tree trunks where the rivers have carried down from the mountains through the years, and had coarse cobblestone instead of sand, and glacier cold water. This was the first time that our dogs saw the ocean and it was so much fun to see Herb take them to the water and let them experience the waves for their first time ever.

 

 

Unfortunately, last winter did not snow much and even though the area has seen rain, the snowpack is non-existent. This has caused the rivers and creeks to be unusually dry. Coming from the East Coast, where we really never worry about the amount of rain or snow (actually we complain a lot about them), it made me realize how different life is in the west coast due to their drought.

 

Every single town has a fire danger gauge prominently displayed, warnings about preventing fires are everywhere, and the dry grass and dead brush are permanent reminders of how precious water is for everyone.

Early in the afternoon of our last day in the park, a family with nine kids (raging from toddlers to teenagers) and four adults moved into the site next to our RV. They had a very small camper and a small size tent. It took us exactly two minutes to decide to leave for Port Townsend and look for a space to spend the night there, where we were to get on the ferry the next morning, and what a great decision it was. We found a site right on the ocean, facing the stunning coastal shoreline of the Puget Sound. It ended up being one of the most special evenings of our journey.

We took the first ferry to Fort Casey and to our surprise, the campground was right off the ferry terminal.
We spent the day exploring Fort Casey, which was built in the late 1800’s and had become a major strategic military point after the civil was. The Fort was very unique, since it was built completely underground and looked surprisingly modern for being over 100 years old. It was disguised by a pretty lighthouse in the middle of a peaceful prairie with deer, rabbits and an eagle in hunting mode.

Washington State was our last stop in the US. We are enjoying our RV experience so much that Herb and I contemplated blowing up the original itinerary through Canada and make a run for Alaska. In fact, he wore me out and I agreed to do it. Fortunately or unfortunately, I won’t ever know, he changed his mind once we crossed the border. So Alaska will have to wait. This will give us an excuse to do it all over again.
 

Hello Canada!

When the well's dry,

we know the worth

of water

 

Benjamin Franklin