Prince Rupert

After Smithers, I drove along Hwy 16, heading west, until I got to the town of Prince Rupert, right on the coast. The drive to Rupert was really beautiful, with the road hugging the very large Skeener River. Very nice! Not a whole lot in Rupert, but they did offer a seaplane over to a bear sanctuary, called the Khutzeymatee Bear Sancuary, located up through the mountains, about a 20 minute plane ride. I decided to check it out:



When we landed, we were put aboard a zodiac, and went to check out the grizzly bears. We saw a total of 7 bears, including a mom and three cubs:





We also saw a few bald eagles out on the zodiak:

It was a really great experience! I did a short hike the next day, near the coast. Didn't see any animals, except this giant slug:



Here are a few shots I took along the highway, leaving Rupert:

Smithers, BC

Drove along Hwy 16 and stopped at one of the Provincial Parks along the road. It was a really beautiful park, with lots of flowers.



Continued along Hwy 16 until I came to a town called Smithers. It was a really beautiful place, with lots of hiking. I stayed in a place called Glacier View RV Park, just north of town. As the name suggests, it had a perfect view of a glacier up on a place called Twin Falls. here's a shot of the area:



I drove to the falls, took a 5 minute hike to photograph the two falls. Very nice! You can see all of the pictures on my photowebsite at www.tomsphotosonline.com. Anyway, I then started hiking this trail called Glacier Gulch. It climbed steeply through rainforest, and I hiked about 30 minutes when I met up with 3 other hikers who told me to keep going 2 more hours, where the trail would lead me right up to the glacier! I didn't have any food or water with me, but decided anyway to follow them up. Another half hour later, they stopped where the "trail" became nothing but loose, jagged rocks from the glacier. I left them behind as I continued the trek up some very steep terain. I went for another hour at least, and reached the begginings of the glacier. Here are some shots of that heroic climb:

I was exhausted climbing up this thing with no food or water. I did get to have some glacier run-off which tasted oh so good! I couldn't continue anymore, so I headed back.

Southern British Columbia

Well, it's been about a week or so since I left the Vancouver area, and I drove along Hwy 1, which heads east for about 60 miles before heading north. Near the twon of Chilliwack, there was a really cool waterfall, called Bridal Veil Falls:

After the falls, driving north, I encountered some really beautiful scenery, including a couple of othe waterfalls:

I continued north and camped overnight in a small town called 100 Mile House. Nothing too special there.

Victoria and Vancouver

Left Port Angeles, Washington, headed for the city of Victoria, located on the island of Vancouver. As I waited for the ferry that was to transport me, the RV, and the Jeep over to Victoria, I captured a racoon along the rocks in port:



Here's a shot of the ferry coming back from Victoria: (I believe that's Mt. Baker, Washington, in the background)



Shot the next two pictures as we left port:



Arrival in Victoria:

I went to Butchart Gardens (*yawn*):

I wasn't overly impressed with Victoria. Not a lot to see, and very many "undesireable" types roaming the streets.

I stayed in Victoria for 2 nights, then drove up the north coast along Hwy 1 to a port town called Nanaimo. The drive up was very pretty, with the highway hugging many lakes. I took another ferry over to the city of Vancouver, which was a huge city on the water. I stayed a few days, and drove around a bit. Didn't do a whole lot of tourist things, although I did go see this giant suspension bridge, called the Capilano Suspension bridge. It was 450 ft across and 230 ft above the river below:

Well, that's about all from this area. Not really that impressive, although the city of Vancouver was very nice.

Washington

Drove into Washington a couple of days ago and camped for two nights at a place called Quineault Lake. It is near the coast, about half-way up through the state, in Olympic National Park.




The day after arriving, I drove along a river feeding Lake Quineault, and on into the rainforest. Along the way, I saw many, many roadside waterfalls. The river was quite beautiful, too. I took a 2.5 mile hike to Pony Bridge through the rainforest.

Left Lake Quineault and headed up to the north coast of Washington, at a place called Port Angleles. As I drove there, I came across a large lake called Lake Crescent. It was really cool.

I arrived in a nice RV campsite at the junction of Hwy 101 and 112. The next day, I went for a drive up to Hurricane Ridge, which was a road winding up high through Olympic park. Here are some roadside pics:

I also went for a hike to Soleduc Falls, up along another road into the rainforest. It was a short, easy hike, again through lush rainforest, until I got to the falls. They were really nice:

Southern Oregon

Hi folks

Since my last post, I've traveled from Cave Junction, Oregon, back down into California to see the Lava Beds National Monument, back into Oregon to see Crater Lake, back to the Oregon coast staying in Coos Bay, and am now in Tillamook, Oregon, about 80 miles to the Washington border. Now for the details:

First, I traveled back into California a hundred miles or so from the coast to Lava Beds National Monument. They had about 2 dozen caves there (lava tubes, actually), formed when a massive volcano erupted many years ago. They actually let you borrow these big flashlights so you can go explore them on your own. On average, they are about 1500 ft long and around 40-50 ft. deep. I went into a few of them and let me tell you...they are scary! I was down there all alone in a VERY dark, cold, cave. There was even one cave I went into that was formed into a figure 8 deep into the bowels of the thing...they advised that you made note of where you entered the figure 8, so you could find your way out again! Needless to say, I only checked out a few of them and decided that I'd had enough. Pictures don't come out that great underground, so I've posted only a few here:




Stayin in Lava Beds two nights and then headed off to Crater Lake, Oregon. I drove all the way up to the Lake, having little fuel in the tank when I arrived. I was going to camp up there by the lake, but there was so much snow, the campground was closed! So, off I went in search of diesel. I made it just in the nick of time, fueled up, and found a campground about 20 miles from the Lake. The campground was very heavily wooded, with the Rogue River running about 20 ft. from my RV.

The next day, I went to see the Lake and surrounding area. This place was beautiful! Not only the lake, but the surrounding area as well. I even found an awesome waterfall, rivaling any in Hawaii. Here are the pics:

After Crater Lake, I travelled to the Oregon coast, to Coos Bay. I stayed in an RV park inside Sunset Bay State Park. The coast was georgeous! Some of the best scenery I've seen on the trip:

Tom becomes a father

After shooting these photos, I went to bed around midnight. Started hearing a weird, soft noise, like an “eep!” “eep!”. It would come and go, so I got dressed, got my flashlight and went outside to check. Couldn’t find anything. And, of course, the noise stopped once I got outside. Went back in, got undressed, then the noises started again! Couldn’t tell if was a bird, a child making noises, whether it was close or far away. So, got dressed again, got the flashlight, and started opening my underneath bins. I got to the heater section and lifted the hatch. There inside was a momma cat, who was in the process of giving birth. I couldn’t see the kittens that were just born, so I got some food for momma, but I scared her off with it. She jumped up into the bowels of the RV, through wiring, hoses, etc. As she did this, two little babies fell down to where she was sitting in the compartment. I got a towel and wrapped them up. They were crying for their momma, but she didn’t return. I waited about 45 minutes, but it was getting cold. So I took them into the RV and cupped them in my hands and breathed my hot breath on them. They were so cold. I called Greg, as it was only 9:45 pm his time to see what to do. The cell coverage was terrible, and I lost him. But he called back and told me to keep them warm and feed them 5% sugar water. So, I stayed up all night with these two little guys, feeding them about every 45 minutes. In the morning, I went to the rangers to have them call around to a shelter. I was getting nowhere, with all the shelters closed, answering machines, etc. Then, the ranger was on the phone with a girl at the vet, who suggested I find a cat that just had kittens and try to introduce them into the litter. I took the phone from the ranger and explained that these guys needed some food right now. She told me to come down to the vet if I would pay for their services. Of course, I agreed. I took them over to the vet, and the same girl told me that her boyfriend’s mom had a cat who just had two kittens. She took my guys over there, and momma cat started licking them right away. At lunchtime, she went back, and all 4 kittens were nursing!
I stayed another night at the campsite, and about 7pm, I heard the now familiar cry of a newborn kitty. I looked under the coach, and saw a different momma cat up in the front of the RV. I couldn’t see the baby. I went to the ranger station, and they told me that they had found a momma the day before with 4 babies, and had captured all of them, but momma ran in and snagged a baby and ran away. This was that cat underneath my RV. The ranges said that they’d go get a trap, and I waited about an hour for them to return. They came back and said they couldn’t find one. By this time, momma had taken off with the baby and I never saw her again.

In the morning, I left the campground for Silver and Gold falls, a 25 mile diversion. I drove to the falls, but the last 5 miles was a rough, gravel road. Just before I got to the parking lot, I took a corner too close and ruptured the right rear tire. I saw the falls, then drove back to Coos Bay to have the tire repaired. Turns out that the tire was OK, but the rim had to be replaced. They had one that fit (sort of), and I was on my way in about an hour and a half.

The drive north along the coast was very nice. One of the best sights was the Heceta Head lighthouse:

Don't forget to check out all of my photos at:

www.tomsphotosonline.com