A Pacific Northwest Vacation

To celebrate John's master's degree completion, we took off for the island (known to all non-BCers as Vancouver Island) and the Olympic Peninsula last Friday. We had a fabulous time together, getting back into the adventure mode of our round-the-world trip. Yes, we even chose to sleep in our car once, and it was luxurious with pillows & sleeping bags - items we did not have when sleeping in the car in New Zealand.

Below you'll find pictures of the trip. I tried to keep the descriptions short :)


Rathtrevor Beach Provincial Park - a great place for shell searching. We found a bunch of sand dollars, which was really special to me as my grandmother found and collected seashells and the sand dollars were always the most special to her. Now I've found some, Nana!


Cathedral Grove in MacMillan Provincial Park. When Columbus sailed to North America, that tree behind John - the one still alive and growing - was 300 years old.


There were all kinds of foreboding signs like the one above in the parks we visited. A coastal park sign had this beautiful picture with a man on rocks & a huge wave crashing into the rocks below him. The captain read "The next wave nearly killed this man. Stay off the rocks." It was a bit daunting. Nonetheless, there are around 15 people killed annually on the island's west coast due to waves on rocks or high tide moving driftwood that then crush people on the beach, so the signs are necessary.


The view from the Wild Pacific Trail in Ucluelet, British Columbia


A beautiful flower? Yes. A smelly one? Yes. It's called skunk cabbage.


Our favorite hike was through the Shoreline Bog. There was a booklet to explain everything you saw and really, the place was fascinating. I'll keep my explanation simple. The trees you are seeing are 1 to 2 meters tall and up to 200 years old. Outside of this bog, the same kinds of trees are giants. It's all because of the amazing plant sphagnum moss.


Just to give you something to compare to those tiny OLD trees.


The trees of the Pacific Northwest are truly giants. Here's an example. This entire staircase on the Juan de Fuca Trail is made of one tree. There are 40 steps, each around 20 inches long and 3 feet wide. Besides the steps, there was a good 50 foot section that was flat. Do the math.


We stopped in Joyce, a tiny town on the Olympic Peninsula, to see World War II bunkers that faced the Pacific Ocean. They were placed there to protect the United States & Canada from any boats entering the Juan de Fuca Strait. It was a really neat historical place to visit, as there are no signs explaining anything, yet there are two huge bunkers set into the side of the hill. Here's John posing with the shells (we're guessing - anyone know?) from the guns.


Banana slug. Gross.


The forest of Sol Duc in Olympic National Park. Do you see anything else?


Rialto Beach on the northern coast of Washington. This is one of the beaches where at high tide a person could be crushed by driftwood because the driftwood was made up of gigantic trees. It was literally a graveyard for trees. In the distance you can see some seastacks, which are rocky outcroppings that are close to the coast. We came here at dusk and it was breathtaking.


Again Rialto Beach but looking south this time. The island to the far left was used by Native Americans to escape slave-raids by neighboring tribes.


Seastack up close, this time at Ruby Beach. You get a sense of the size when you realize that that's my head poking up in that hole that opens up to the ocean.



Last stop - Deception Pass State Park, connecting Whidbey Island to Fidalgo Island. This bridge is an incredible engineering feat.

There are so many other fun and interesting things that we saw, but you need to come out and see them for yourself! Here are two tour guides who'd be happy to show you around.