Northwest Washington State trip

Day 1

I had planned on going around the time of the Arlington fly-in but had to delay my trip a few weeks. The first day plan was to fly from 00V to Renton, WA (KRNT). I also wanted to fly around Mt Rainier then over to KUIL which should be the westernmost airport in the lower 48 states.

I got a normal early morning (730 AM or so) start with my first fuel stop at Kemmerer MT (KEMM). That was based upon a fuel price around $3.53 USD. When I got there the price had just been raised to $4.20. I had a hard time pulling the fuel hose out. Then when I cranked it in my finger was pinched between the roller and some metal which caused a nice bleeding episode. Fortunately I found a surgical glove to contain the blood until it quit bleeding.

I then popped over to an airport in Idaho so I could bag that state.

I made another fuel stop at Martin Field WA (S95). As I was descending to land I noticed that I was very close to Walla Walla WA. How could I pass up the chance to land at Walla Walla. So I made a touch n go there and on to S95 for gas. I tried the self-serve system and no fuel. Tried again. Nada. Maybe a third time. Turns out the tank was empty and someone had to come over and transfer fuel from one tank to another. Of course it is hot and as it turns out fuel stops would become the bugaboo of this trip.

Finally on to Rainier which I saw a long ways out. I flew around it at 14,500’ or so and got this picture with Mt Adams in the background to the left and Mt St Helens in the background right.



Then west to the Olympic peninsula towards KUIL. I flew over the ocean a bit near Rialto beach and got a picture of sea stacks (rocks) sticking out of the ocean.



KUIL was close by so a quick touch n go and I was eastbound towards Seattle



I landed in Renton, parked the plane and had the rental car waiting. The FBO folks found a hotel and I was off after a long day of flying. I was about to go downtown to eat at Ivars when I was told about one not far from the Renton airport. I missed the right street for it but asked for directions and found it. It is in a park on the bayfront and a nice place to eat. Better than the Ivars by Pikes Market in my opinion.

Preview:

Day 2: Olympic Peninsula, waterfalls, Hoh rain forest

Day 3: Rialto beach, Sequim Lavender festival, ferry, Anacortes

Day 4: Orca whale watching

Day 5: Mt St Helens, Mt Rainier

Day 6: Flight to Page AZ

Day 7: Antelope Canyon and flight home

Day 2

Today I picked up a friend (sue) at the SeaTac airport and began the ground portion of this trip. We drove south to Olympia WA, west to Hoquiam then north to Quinalt to look at waterfalls:



Continue north to the Hoh rain forests where we hike the Mosses Trail. Interesting way that trees grow on top of fallen trees then as the fallen tree decays it looks like the roots are in air. There is a term for it but I just called it epiphany.





Spent the night in Forks WA at Olympic Suites - www.olympicsuitesinn.com.

Day 3

Started by driving the short distance west to Rialto beach. The morning was overcast so it was somewhat gloomy. Add dark...almost black...sand and fallen trees and it was surreal. We took a long hike north, taking pictures and absorbing the unique environment.

Here is one example of a fallen tree:



Here is another with the ocean and a sea stack in the distance.



At one point I noticed shells on the side of a huge boulder (sea stack?) at about shoulder level. Apparently we were there near low tide.



As we left the park, we stopped at a point overlooking the river that emptied into the ocean and saw a bald eagle. I believe that it is the first I have seen in the wild. With that treat over, we had to decide how to get to Sequim to go to the Lavender Festival. We had an ocean road and one inland. I decided inland for some reason and it was a good one. We drove by Crescent Lake and stopped there a while. It was formed by a glacier (thank goodness for global warming).



Then on to Sequim. My friend really like it although I frankly could not smell anything. That was an initial clue that my sense of smell is really bad now. This was my best attempt at getting a bee.



After the Lavender Festival, we headed to Port Townsend to catch a ferry to Keystone on Whidbey Island. We needed to get to Anacortes for the night. Here we are driving onto the ferry boat.



We crossed Deception Pass bridge which supposedly is often photographed. I could not get a good shot of it. Getting to Anacortes was no problem and after checking in to the hotel went out for dinner. After that, we went to Washington State Park to look around. That was it for Day 3.

Day 4: Orca whale watching

This is a hopeful highlight of the trip. Orca whale watching. We booked with island-adventures.com The boat was roomy. It took a while to get to where the orcas were this day and we eventually motored into Canadian waters. We saw them spy hop, tail flip thingie plus more. It would have been nice to be closer but 100 yards was the closest. It was still neat.

I would rate swimming with whale sharks in the Yucatan a better experience. Probably playing with manatees as well. But orcas were the thing to do here.

When we returned to shore, we had to drive a long ways south to get to a hotel suitable for Mt St Helens the next morning. As was typical, most days were long.

I might add Orca pictures but being so far away they are not great.

Here is a whale shark video just so I have something visual for this post:

http://tinyurl.com/559tnv

We did see a boat that reportedly was in Pirates of the Caribbean:

nice write up, sounds like you had a good itinerary. were you thinking of "epiphytes" for plants growing on another plant?

Danny, you may be right. But I sometimes "modify" words.

Day 5

Today we visit Mt St Helens and Mt Ranier. We start out going to Mt St Helens. For those who do not know, it blew up real good around 1981 (plus or minus). You can still see the devastation within miles although there are places where the normal course of nature is returning things to normal. This picture shows new growth with many stumps of trees blown away in the initial blast.



We went to the Johnson Visitor Center. Nice view of the north facing side of the mountain. The only problem was some kind of gnat that was so pervasive and aggressive that I could not enjoy the view. We left and drove over to Cold Lake. This was a pretty area and would have been a nice spot for a picnic.



This is Mt St Helens



Next stop is Mt Rainier. This is my first trip to see it from the ground. It is impressive and offered far more things to see than I expected. There are several waterfalls easily seen from stops by the road. Here are two of them:





There is a nice photo spot called Reflection Lake/Pond. Unfortunately, like many places like this it is a morning shot and I could not get the photo I wanted. But I did get one that was ok near the visitors center:



From here a drive back to the SeaTac airport area since Sue leaves for home the next day.

Day 6

Today our ground portion of the trip is basically over. I drop off Sue at SeaTac to go home and I proceed to Renton to depart for Page AZ....an intermediate stop before going home. Low clouds hung around until right before noon so I lost about four hours of daylight.

I decided the night before to go to Van’s airport in Oregon on the way to Page. Turns out that Mt St Helens is not far out of the way so I circled it taking pictures. This shows the north face that blew away and the next the south face with Mt Rainier in the background.





Leaving Mt St Helens I re-entered 7S5 to go to Independence, OR to see the Vans facility. I saw the airport on the Homecoming link on the front page the night before. I refueled and looked around for Vans. Saw nada so I asked another RV pilot. Seems that they are in Aurora, OR. The little voice last night that questioned Independence was not persistent enough.

Because of the four hours lost due to weather, I did not have time to go the short distance north to Aurora. I had just enough time to get to Page, AZ as the sun was setting.

My hangar buddy and I have an award for events like going to 7S5 instead of Aurora. It is the "Goober Award" and the person who gets it keeps it until the other guy does something worthy of it. It does pass hands frequently.

My fuel stop after leaving Oregon was Wells NV. That is when I decided that some places may not be ideal. In this case, it was very hot, somewhat remote and possibly problematic had I encountered a mechanical problem.

Day 7

Today I was going back to Antelope Canyon to take pictures. Problems with understanding some characteristics of a new camera and too many people resulted in less pictures that I like compared to previous trips. However, the following do give you an idea what it is like.











The trip home was mostly uneventful. I had to baby the engine during the afternoon climb out from Page to keep the temps down. Then I had to divert south as I approached the Front Range to avoid clouds that were not nice looking in a mountainous region. Flight Watch provided assistance but in the end what I saw determined my path.

Post flight assessment

1) I probably will go to attended/larger airports in the desert during the summer...maybe always. Saving on fuel is fine but if a problem develops I may need assistance getting airborne again.

2) I would spend the night on Mt Rainier instead of near Mt St Helens. There is too much to do on Mt Rainier and having evening and early morning photo ops is worth more to me than being close to Mt St Helens.

3) I should have made a short jaunt up to one of the San Juan Islands. I could not on the morning I left Seattle and had enough flying on the day there. So another trip there is warranted.

Beautiful pictures! Antelope Canyon shots are out of world! Must visit sometime.

tech questions

Thanks for the write up. You captured the beautiful variety of our American west. I was wondering about a couple of technical details;

What are the file settings you used for the pictures? (I think you used just the right size for the forums format)

How did you capture the sand fall in the canyon?

Thanks again!

Bill, it is 800 x 600 pixels. As you note, it appears to be a reasonable size that does not result in scrolling to the right side.

The sand falls is a new one for me. I have made many trips there and this is the first time that the guide threw sand up on the dolphin formation thus creating the sandfall. You will see a later picture which is the same formation without the sand.

Another purpose of the sand is to make the sunbeam brighter. I will try to post a few more from previous trips.

Here are a few from a previous trip:

http://tinyurl.com/5qzesl

Ahh, the Great NorthWest

Did my flight training there at S50. (Lived up there for 17 years).

Beautiful flying country. Tons and tons of back country strips and small paved airports nestled in crooks and valleys.

You will definitely want to hit the San Juan islands. Especially Friday Harbor and Orcas. Simply beautiful up there.

Friday Harbor, park the plane and hike the few blocks to town. Get a car, scooter or bike and tour the island. Lots of cool places to stay, eat and whale watch.

Orcas Island, home of Rosarios Resort. Some of the best food I have ever eaten. Used to be camping right next to the airport, don't know if it is still there.

I always flew from S50 over KRNT then stayed just outside the KSEA bravo and flew past Payne field, then just south of the naval base and climbed up to 6500 or so (I am not that great a swimmer) before turning west and hopping from island to island to reach Friday Harbor. Almost every island has some kind of airstrip.

Used to do jaunts over Seattle, up to the Naval base, across to Hoquiam. Seattle is simply beautiful at night. Counted over 20 aircraft in sight one night. There are a LOT of airports up there.

Up for a challenge? Try Manzanita Beach in Oregon. Beautiful flight, one way in, one way out, always tricky winds.

Parked at KRNT many a time. Great folks at Action (probably not there anymore).

Walk next door and talk to the guys at NW Seaplanes. Lots of beautiful aircraft there (or used to be).

Ahh, I miss it.

Joe, you are right. My two previous trips to Seattle were Dec and Jan. Hardly ideal. It is a beautiful area and deserves another trip in the future.