The Bridges and Rocks of Grays Harbor County - Satsop River

Raise your hand if a body of water somewhere was your parent's favorite baby-sitter in the summers. ✋

During the summers, either my mom dropped us at the American River, Folsom Lake, or one of the two swimming pools on McClellan Air Force Base (Rafferty and...Splinter's Point?  I think?).  And if she couldn't drop us off for some reason, we rode our bikes or the bus (times have definitely changed!).

I think this is why I love and even crave water!  To drink, certainly, but just to be near a lake, river, or the ocean just is really calming and energizing for me.  

So when Verna asked if I wanted to go to the river to collect some rocks for their amazing community project - Gray's Harbor Rocks - I was more than happy to tag along!

Gray's Harbor Rocks is a really cool community thing where people in the Gray's Harbor area paint rocks, seashells, and other items and then hide them for people to find.  Sometimes people and businesses will add a special prize with the rock, which makes it extra cool!

My amazing great-niece Trinity gave me some cool sand dollars that she had painted and my lovely sister IL Verna let me choose one of her painted rocks.  They are both sooooo artistic!

While at the river, I helped by getting the rocks that were out in the water since I had my water shoes on.  And I wanted to get in the water!  I'm going to kind of just let this be a photo essay for the most part so you can enjoy the beautiful environment in gorgeous Southwest Washington. 

 I made a friend.  He's from California too!!  (Actually, I'm not sure if this is a California Toad or Rocky Mountain Toad.)

Toad footprints

Stealth photo of Verna looking for the perfect rocks. 

This is me in the middle of the river!  Yay!  I actually found myself about halfway out when taking this photo, so I decided to see if I could walk all the way across.  And I did!  It was fun.  I only almost fell holding my Nikon like, twice.  

It doesn't look like it's that deep or swift, but looks are deceiving.  It was mostly just above my knees, but at a couple places it was almost up to my hips.  And on the far side, the current was very fast and the rocks were much more slippery. 

This is a photo of Angela (on the left side) and Verna (on the right) from the opposite bank.  Just to prove I really did it!  And that my camera was still working!  It did get a little splash once.  But it's fine.

When I was walking back, I noticed a ton of little river snails.  So cute!

I kind of really flove this weird but beautiful photo. 

The next photo is not pretty.  It's actually pretty gross.  But, in another show of stupid humans, we found about 25 fish by the boat ramp that had been caught and filleted. But only on one side.   

If you look closely, you will see a huge snail on this carcass.  It was the biggest one I saw all day. 

One to more pleasant subjects.  The bridges of Gray's Harbor County.  

This last picture is not from the river...it's my sister's squash (pumpkin?) blossoms.  

They are as beautiful as she is.  

xoxo

Nikon D3300

Travelogue: Marin Headlands San Francisco Bay Area 10/2016

I am so excited about this post!  

In my last post, I showed you how I accidentally visited a pod of pelicans.

Today we're going to visit one of the most magnificent and interesting places in California - the Marin Headlands.  Home of the Golden Gate as well as many varieties of wildlife and rugged nature, including Redwoods, today we'll focus on the views from Hawk Hill and some of the intricate network of military bunkers used to protect this important port in days gone past. 

I tried to get down here before the sun rose as I wanted to try my hand at capturing the beautiful Golden Gate Bridge at sunrise.  As it happens, I got here about 20 minutes after sunrise, but it still made for amazing photos!  I love the black and white rendition above; it's one of my absolute photos of the day!

And the ones in color aren't too shabby either!

After the sun was above the City, I turned to my secondary occupation.  Pokemon Go.  Well, that and exploring some of the bunkers.  I didn't actually stop by one of the main bunkers, Battery Spencer, because I wanted to try to locate some of the "hidden" ones that supposedly dot the hills. 

This one wasn't exactly hidden as you can see.  It's right off the road. 

So cool looking!  I had to try to get an "artsy" shot of the rings leading up the side.  I wonder what they were used for?

In search of the hidden, I climbed up the hill to the top of the ridge.  It was slippery!

But at the very top, I found immediate gratification!

A rusty air vent led down into the bunker below, while at the upper right of the photo above, you can see the top of a camouflaged bunker peaking out.

Here's a closer look.

Meanwhile, my vantage point of the road had changed quite a bit.  

The fog was leaving it's dewy wake on copious spiderwebs in the underbrush. They were all over the place, and I'm thankful for the fog to show me where NOT to step!

As I continued my way up the ridge, I found more signs of the hidden bunkers that were buried beneath me.  Such as this even better hidden air vent. 

And another entrance on the back of the ridge.  This one showed some signs of partying in graffiti and beer cans. 

This is the view over to Hawk's Hill.  You can see one of the main tunnels in the distance.  More on that later. 

The fog seemed on a quest of it's own, slithering over the curves of the road and settling on top of the hills in search of something before fading away.  

I half climbed and half slid my way back down to the road and then hiked up the hill to the parking lot where I had left my car.  

This is Installation 129, an unfinished battery on Hawk Hill.  Hawk Hill is so named because it is a perfect spot to watch the fall migration of raptors due to the thermals in the area.  I was there too early and didn't see any on this day.  But that's okay because there were plenty of other things to see.

I headed through the tunnel eager to see what was on the other side.  I knew I would be able to look across at the ridge where I had been hiking and was curious if I could distinguish the spot with the hidden bunker entrance.

This is the tunnel that was visible in my previous picture!

I put a little pink star just under the hidden entrance.  Otherwise, you could barely see it!  I really wonder what is under this ridge that I hiked along.  The road is on the other side and maybe the entire thing has a hidden world underneath it, now closed forever. 

On this side, the buildings are really quite interesting and a little bit creepy!  

In this next tunnel, there were some dark and dank rooms you could enter.  I walked in but quickly left because I was scared!  I need to take a flashlight next time. 

And on the other side was a huge circular room that probably used to hold a gun or radar or something equally exciting.  But now all was just graffiti and silence.

Turning around was a path that looked as if it led off the cliff thanks to the fog.

I stood there and looked down into the fog and could hear the ocean crashing below.  I glanced to my left and saw the equally mysterious and mesmerizing Sutro Tower.  The rail encouraged me to walk that way and off into oblivion.

I pulled myself from the fog's spell and turned to the light, which had another path that led to the batteries atop the installation. 

This path held people and ravens (crows?) to show that I had made the right choice.  

 Such an amazing blend of history and nature!

  With views that just couldn't be beat! 

And ravens (crows??).

I think this one is definitely a raven!  

"Nevermore!"

Next post, we head for a black-sand beach with an amazing earth bridge and lagoon. TTFN!

xoxo

Nikon D3300