Monterey Bay

 Who says "Spiders can't fly"?  High in and above the Sequoias hundreds of spiders were observed 'ballooning' on air currents at over 7,000 foot altitude.  Flying sure beats walking even if you have eight legs.  Our High Sierra RV park had hundreds of these webs from ground to upper canopy of the Redwoods.

Yes, we are still birding and were blessed to get a 'life bird' in Santa Cruz.  Cued by a hotline tip, we found a Yellow-green Vireo less than 20 feet from our RV in an urban park.

 We visited two different Monarch Butterfly Habitat Preserves with eucalyptus trees: the Lighthouse Field in Santa Cruz and Natural Bridges State Park.  This sheltered canyon provides a winter home for thousands of monarch butterflies. A few of the early arrivals are depicted in the photo to the right.

Down the coast at Moss Landing and Elkhorn Slough we encountered thousands of shorebirds: Avocets, Black-necked Stilts, Willets, Long-billed Curlews, Marbled Godwits, both Dowitchers, and many others.  Plus we saw a Barn Owl in an abandoned barn in the preserve.

This picture to the left is a Sea Dragon, one of the new displays at the Monterey Bay Aquarium.  This showcases one of God's truly unique creatures. Since our last visit 14 years ago we found many new exhibits including the children's interactive area.  It is amazing all the wonderful creatures that were there, so many that we had not seen before: the cuttlefish, sea horses, octopus, sharks, the huge ocean sunfish (looked like it was made by a child), and a variety of eels.

We recommend a visit to this wonderful area of California.   Until next time,  Ida & Ty

Yosemite, King's Canyon & Sequoia National Parks

 Over 50 years ago, as a child looking through a View Master photo disc of Yosemite National Park, I longed to one day visit this unique place. Here we are looking at the famous 3,600 foot wall of granite of El Capitan rising straight out of the valley floor. The picture doesn't do it justice on how majestic these mountains are. Not only was the scenery spectacular but we added some specialty birds to our growing list:  White-headed Woodpecker, Mountain Quail & Pygmy Nuthatch.

We were staying in Oakhurst and had a great birding area right outside the RV, adding Nuttall's Woodpecker, Phainopepla, California Towhee, California Thrasher & Oak Titmouse.


Next destination - King's Canyon & Sequoia National Parks.
Once again, breath-taking scenery and massive trees.   Pictured here a 320 foot tall Giant Sequoia with a base of 98 feet in circumference.  It was amazing to see so many of these over 2,000 year old trees that were thankfully saved for generations to enjoy.





This curious coyote greeted us at one of the park pull-offs.  Mule Deer and yet another Black Bear (this was bear #55 for the trip) made up some of the park's rich fauna.

From Sunny California,  Ty & Ida

N. California Redwoods

 As the sun sets over the coast of Oregon, we reflect on a memorable month in this beautiful state.  The scenery, wildlife and especially the abundant bird life filled numerous pages in our travel log.  This picture is of Goat Island at Harris Beach State Park, our home for a few days, was taken from the 700 foot cliff above the tide pools and beach.

 On to California and our much anticipated "must see"- the majestic Redwoods, and they did not disappoint! Walking and camping among these ancient monarchs is nothing short of humbling.  Picture with us that these 2,000 year old trees were here and growing when Christ walked the earth.  It is impossible to effectively communicate our total emersion experience, but the picture on the left and the video on the bottom will have to do until you can see them for yourself.

Shafts of sunlight rarely filter to the forest floor from the towering 380 foot high canopies above. The giant tree pictured in the video measured 68 feet in circumference.  Epiphytes, such as ferns, moss, lichens and shrubs grow profusely from upper story branches and trunks.  This cool, dark and moist forest floor environment gives off the aroma of creation.

From "sunny" California where its been foggy or raining for the last two full days (critical to Redwood growth).   Farewell for now, Ty & Ida

From Mountain top to Sea Coast

We traveled the 33 mile rim of Crater Lake, high in the Cascade Mountain range of Oregon.  This former volcano is now a 1,943 foot deep lake, the island in the lake is the former lava dome.  There were a surprisingly number of birds at this altitude, (between 7,000-8,000 feet), such as Clark's Nutcrackers, Am. Pipits, Mountain Bluebirds, Mountain Chickadees, and a Black Rosy Finch. We found camping at this altitude is rather cold, 29 degrees one morning, plus all these roads close in Oct. for the winter.

Southeast of the crater were these pinnacles of  pumice and volcanic ash deposits as seen in the pictures to the left. There was a large gorge with these eroded formations for several miles.

We took the 80 mile scenic Rogue River forest road back to the coast,  single lane with pullouts.  We saw a majestic bull elk and a Sooty (Blue) Grouse along this mountainous, meandering road.

At Cape Arago we heard before we saw, hundreds of Steller's & California Sea Lions, and Harbor Seals basking on the rocks of Simpson Reef.  In the midst of all the pinnipeds, after significant searching turned up the prize, one massive Elephant Seal (Good luck in finding him in the picture). Several Gray Whales made their appearance north of the reef.



We spent the better part of a day exploring the Oregon Coast Aquarium in Newport.  We enjoyed the hands-on tidal pool critters, walked through a shark tube and the the pulsating jellyfish exhibit.  Best to all,  Ida & Ty

North Oregon Coast

 How can it be September already?  Time moves along.  We are enjoying God's air conditioning at the Pacific Ocean as the rest of the area is in the sweltering heat.  The picture at the left is taken high above the beach at Ecola State Park.  The birding has been great along the "haystack" rocks, beaches, bays and jetties of the Oregon Coast.  Migration is in full swing with flocks of shorebirds winging their way south.  Of particular interest are the Surfbirds, Wandering Tattlers, Black Turnstones, Whimbrels, Marbled Godwits, Sanderlings and Baird's, Western, & Semipalmated Sandpipers.

Along the towering rock formations we are observing colonies of sea birds including these Common Murres (photo to the right), Tufted Puffins, Rhinoceros Auklets, Cormorants, Brown Pelicans, Black Oystercatchers.

Each day we take several walks along the beach or surrounding woodlands.  This Banana Slug (pictured below with a quarter) has become a fairly common encounter.

Our best to all of you, back to the beach for us.
Ty & Ida

Mount St. Helens National Monument

It has been 31 years since the eruption of Mount St. Helens and in some places it looks like it happened last week.  The Johnston Observatory overlooks the mountain on the north side where it caved in, started by an earthquake that caused the largest avalanche in recorded history that triggered the blast of magma out of the side of the mountain.  There were great exhibits and films that showed the biological, geological effects and survival stories that were amazing.  The theater is built in such a way that at the end the curtains rise on a glass wall overlooking the volcano which makes a dramatic impact.

In the picture below, these trees still show the effects the stone-wind had several miles away.

Closer to the blast everything was destroyed by the wind of several hundred miles per hour, then covered with pyro-plastic mud and hot ash. Several thousand tons of ice and snow melted, flooding down the mountains in torrents, carrying trees and rocks with it for miles.  The picture of Spirit Lake below still has thousands of logs floating on it after all these years.

On the drive up windy ridge, we saw the eerie landscape that is slowly returning to a living forest. At this altitude we were able to see Mt. Rainier to the north, Mt. Adams to the east, and Mt. Hood to the south; their snow covered peaks in the blue sky towering above the forests.  We circled the mountain on beautiful forest roads with large trees giving you an idea of what it looked like before 1980. We are staying in Cougar, WA for 2 days. We walked to a nearby park this morning where an outdoor church service was taking place and we were happy to join it.  God always provides, like the last site in an RV park because someone cancelled right before we arrived.  We are enjoying our retirement very much and send our best to all who read this blog.     Ida & Ty

Washington's Pacific Coast

For the last two and one-half weeks we explored the coastline of Olympic National Park.  Tide pools  at low tide were decorated with orange and purple sea stars plus anemones, mussels, oysters, and many other creatures.  The huge haystack rocks were home to colonies of many alcids and other sea birds, the rocks below were rising 100 feet above the water.  The beaches were strewn with huge tree trunks as pictured below which was 33 feet across.

Some of the wonderful creatures we observed were gray whales, sea otters, harbor seals, river otters and porpoises.  We spent hours scoping the ocean waves for birds and were rewarded with record numbers of Pacific & Red-throated loons, Common Murres, Rhinoceros Auklets, Sooty, Buller's & Pink-footed Shearwaters, Heermann's Gulls, South Polar Skua and numbers of shorebirds.

In between coastal areas we visited the Hoh Rain Forest with beautiful moss covered trees and observed our 52nd bear for the trip and saw the Roosevelt Elk (a herd of 16 cows and calves).

We are now at Copalis Beach for the next few days, ready to explore the endless beach that is crowded with shorebirds and gulls and not too many people.  Our best to everyone. Ty & Ida