June 12-19: Follow me on Instagram: charlesophardt_photos

Previous posts have taken me north through California, Oregon, Washington and the Palouse area of Washington. This blog will take us south through the same states. The first scenic area is the North Cascades National Park. The first photos are from Washington Pass.

As I continued a main stop was at Ross Lake and Diablo Lake formed by dams. The water color is naturally turquoise from the fine silt in the glacier melt waters. There are over 300 glaciers in the North Cascades complex of mountains. The first photo is Ross Lake.

These photos are of Diablo Lake.

How do you like the trees on the tiny island?

The last sight on the Cascades highway is Gorge Creek Falls.

The following day I drove the route around the east side of Mount Rainier. These are a few views approaching Rainier. I discovered the main roadside flower in Washington and Oregon is foxglove which I used to grow in my garden in Illinois.

I drove part way up the Sunrise road until it was closed and crossed a series of creeks and found waterfalls along the way. First waterfall is Cougar Falls, Mount Rainier. Last waterfall is Sunbeam Creek Falls. How about the snow banks in mid June?

The drive around Mount Rainier gave many opportunities for sighting the mountain itself which was in and out of the clouds.

My final stop was at Reflection Lake where hordes of the other people were also stopped. The main lake had rippled water so no reflection of Rainier and it was also in and out of the clouds. As I drove up I noticed a smaller lake just up the road and walked back to it to get the best reflection shot that I could get. Of course I have many more.

After spending the night, I drove over to the Oregon coast starting at Astoria and moving down to Cannon Beach and Ecola State Park. This from the Astoria Harbor on the Columbia River.

Cannon Beach Haystack Rock.

A little north of Cannon Beach is Ecola State Park.

Neahkahnia view point.

Rockaway Beach.

Cape Meares Lighthouse and view point.

I saw a whale near shore blowing air with just a little of its back showing and pretty far out.

This is the Otter Crest viewpoint and the Yaquina Lighthouse near Newport.

I went to Seal Rock for sunset photos.

Next day was near Yachats.

This is Cape Perpetual and Hecta Head Light house. The second lighthouse is at Cape Argo.

I specifically stayed in Bandon so I would get a sunset there. But lo and behold even before I left the RV park I knew it was not going to happen. I had fog instead of a sunset!!

The next morning I located the CoQuille River Lighthouse and the Cape Blanc Lighthouse.

Along Cape Blanca I stopped at various pullouts.

At Pistol River I had some fun trying to photograph kite surfers and wind surfers, but I was pretty far away and looking into the sun.

I finally got a fairly good sunset south of Gold Beach at Meyer Creek State Park. I even was able to make the hike down to the beach level. Some of the photos are enhanced to bring out as much color as possible.

Near Samual Boardman State park there are two natural bridges visible from the bluff. I wasn’t about to hike down there but did wait long enough for the sun to light them up.

In California I stopped for a short hike in the redwood forest. You cannot image how tall they are and I could barely see the tops in a couple of places. The diameters are equally very large.

The final stop was at the Crescent City view point for the light house.

Sorry that this has become quite long but you can understand that this is still only a fraction of the 800 photos that I have kept. Thank you for sticking with me on this one. Next up is my July trip to the Canadian Maritime Provinces.