Washington mountains and Oregon beaches

From Seattle, travels led me to Rainier. Beautiful driving and only a little hiking. And yes you can see Rainier from everywhere!

Sad there was no Sasquatch but definitely saw bear skat on the trail.

I made friends with this beautiful black squirrel. He chirped at me and stood and stared. He was a great conversationalist and was there to greet me on my return trip back.

From Rainier I headed to the Oregon coast to check out the towns along the coastline. Along the way, I could have stopped to see Mt St Helens, but I was not sure how far out of the way it was. The day before and that day was longer drives. I’ll come back again. Washington is definitely beautiful (Montana is too as Becca and her Ryan is now living there.)

My first stop was Pacific City. Really small town and a great place to relax.

From Pacific city, my next hotel was in Seaside. This gave me enough time to take the coastal loop along the Oregon coast.

Cape Kiwanda

The water is very cool so at low tide one can walk in the tidal pools along the beach. Ok, It is still really cold but nice nonetheless.

Cape Lookout

Cape Meares

Octopus tree. The forces that made this happen were either natural or from Indians bending branches for direction pointing and navigation.

After the Capes I stopped in Tillamook at a creamery and had huckleberry ice cream.

I stayed over in Sunset Beach. Not a quiet beach, but not the busiest either. I visited a small aquarium that is family owned. The reviews looked good and the animals looked will cared for. You could feed the sea lions with fresh fish which was fun.

I stopped for a moment in Long Beach. The world’s longest beach but not much to see….

Later I saw a sign for oyster shooters. I had to stop.

Skokomish and Olympic national Park. One of the better places I stayed at was Waterfront at Potlatch. Right on the Hood Canal, and close to the staircase entrance of Olympic national Park.