On the Road is a weekday feature spotlighting reader photo submissions.
From the exotic to the familiar, whether you’re traveling or in your own backyard, we would love to see the world through your eyes.
On the Road: Week of March 8 (5 am)
Albatrossity – Raptor Trapping and Banding
pat – Eagles and Hawks in Flight
?BillinGlendaleCA – Tiny Planet, Southern California Edition
UncleEbeneezer – Valentines (Part 2): Exploring Saigon On Foot
ChasM – ChasM in the USSR 3/3
? And now, a lovely treat from Mike in Oly!
Mike in Oly
A handful of photos that I feel evoke the mood of the land here in western Washington. That wonderful zone between the mountains and the Pacific ocean.
Beach 4 on the northern coast. Every beach here is different and interesting. I never tire of visiting the various stops along the coastline. It is so rugged and wild.
Another section of the coast, down at the SW corner of the State. A view of the Cape Disappointment lighthouse from Waikiki beach.
A shot at Grays Harbor National Wildlife Refuge, Bowerman Basin. I love these extensive mudflats with the old rootwads left behind by winter storms of years past looking like ancient skeletons of some wild sea beast.
Somewhere between the tides on Eld Inlet, west of Olympia, WA. A solitary eagle keeps watch over the still waters.
A view of the Olympic Mountains from the Billy Frank Jr.-Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge. Looking over the grasslands that border the tidal flats.
Winter rain combines with winter sun and rainforest moss to create an image dripping with everything that makes the PNW iconic.
The beautiful Iron Creek Falls, in the Gifford Pinchot Nat. Forest. Waterfalls abound in this wet climate. They carve beautiful cascades down the mountainsides.
The spectacular, and difficult to reach, Lower Lewis Falls. Nothing is more emblematic of Washington than a spectacular natural feature that is inconvenient to get to and hard to get a good shot of. Hope you enjoyed this brief peek into the area I live in.
sab
Washington is one of th most beautiful states in the nation. Thanks for sharing.
Van Buren
Great photos.
rikyrah
Gorgeous. Pictures??
Benw
Wow
KSinMA
Wow!
raven
I was stationed at Ft Lewis for about 6 months in 1968 and have only gotten to go back once since. The trip to Orcas island and then driving the North Cascade Loop was awesome. I’d love to go surf fish with that dude!
JeanneT
I got to spend time in western Washington, back when I was young and spry. Such an amazing and beautiful variety of environments. Thanks for taking me back!
Geoduck
And the eastern half of the state, beyond the Cascade Mountains, is completely different as well, much drier with lots of open rolling hills.
p.a.
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Jerry
Beautiful! Especially the lonely bald eagle, keeping a watchful eye out for wayward salmon.
Albatrossity
“Nothing is more emblematic of Washington than a spectacular natural feature that is inconvenient to get to and hard to get a good shot of.”
Perfect!
Thanks for these. Hard to pick a favorite!
Wag
In 89 I did a ferry hopping bicycle trip from Victoria BC , through the Gulf Spring Islands, through the San Juans, then down the west side of Puget Sound. An epic and scenic route. You captured the essence of what makes the Washington coast special.
susanna
These photographs set a mood made by nature. Loved them all. Thank you and hope you have others to share.
JanieM
You’re breakin’ my heart, Mike in Oly. These are beautiful pictures, and unlike yesterday’s shots of Provence, which were evocative of a place I’ve never seen and probably never will, these evoke actual (amazing) memories.
In 1972, three friends and I hiked from LaPush northward and spent several days on the beach, then later from around Lake Ozette southward. We also hiked into the mountains from a couple of different directions. I remember adventures with a bear, and with a helicopter landing in the meadow, looking for an injured hiker, and playing improvied chess on the beach, and … lots of flies, but they seem to drop out of the memories. I remember a big sign just outside Forks on 101: “Forks needs doctors.”
If I combine the physical features of your first shot with the light and sky of your second, that’s my memory of the beach hike. I realize that we lucked out in getting a couple of weeks of the only non-rainy days of the year, and that the rain is heavily responsible for the lush beauty…..
We wanted to move there. We only made it as far west as Wisconsin for a few years before heading back east where all our friends and job possibilities were — but at least it was Maine we landed in, which at the time made me happy enough because it felt kind of like a toy version of western Washington. It isn’t, as it turned out — a fact that will surprise no one. But the similarities helped me reconcile myself to the decision, and I came to love Maine. But I still hope to get back to the Olympics someday.
Thanks for the memories, and for such a lovely peek into your world.
beckya57
Thanks for reminding me again how lucky I am to live in western WA (I’m north of you, in Tacoma). I get to see this amazing stuff on a regular basis. I decided when I was 12, and living in the Midwest, that I wanted to move to the Seattle area when I grew up. I did it and have never been sorry. This is truly a special place.
JanieM
@JanieM:
My comment about Provence wasn’t meant to rate Provence vs the Olympics, but rather to say: both sets of pics are deeply evocative, but for me what they’re evoking is quite different. One brings a longing to see places I’ve never been to, the other brings memories — and a longing to go back!
@beckya57:
My grad school choices came down to UW and Yale. I chose Yale, in large part because the person I was involved with was also going there. Also maybe I was a little hesitant to choose the unknown, because I had never actually been to Washington at that point. The road taken, the road not taken — I’m glad you’re happy with your choice. Your child self was wise! My child self knew I never wanted to be a commuter. The world has finally caught up with me in terms of the feasibility of working from home. ;-)
Though a lot of people, I’m sure, can’t wait to get back to the office. ??
Steve from Mendocino
Beautiful pictures of beautiful places. I’ve never enjoyed hiking, so my experience with these places is always through the lenses of people like you with a good eye and good understanding of photography who generously share a bit of them. Thank you.
JanieM
I love the story of FDR’s role in the creation of the national park.
J R in WV
We went to Seattle and points surrounding on our first real vacation traveling — there were great sales on airfare going on, and I said to myself, F–k it, we’re going on a vacation! At the time I had several relatives in the area, an aunt and uncle now long passed, and a cousin I am still close to. We rented a Rent-a-Wreck which turned out to be an Audi Fox with 255,000 miles on it — it drove like a new car, the folks running the tiny rental place were Polish immigrants, and back then in Poland if you somehow came into an Audi, it had to last the rest of your life, so they knew well how to maintain it like new.
We drove north to cousin’s rural place near a creek where they would go out and pick up salmon. She took me out in the morning fog to show me the majic mushrooms growing in the grass, on our knees in the dew-wet grass — her kids called her Mushroom Queen she told us.
Somewhere there is a book with those very ‘shrooms pressed and dry in the pages of the book. Then we drove through rural agricultural land, and saw the same giant trucks that haul coal in WV, but these were full of carrots, which like the coal would fall out as the overloaded trucks turned 90 degrees from the rural one-lane road onto the 2-lane highway, leaving a pile of bright orange vegetables on the shoulder of the intersection.
Then onto ferry rides across the sound thru the San Juan Islands, where aunt and uncle had a little place on a tiny island, then to Port Elizabeth and a B&B. We went through town to a restaurant the innkeeper recommended, right on the sound. We wondered about the mussels on the menu, and asked where they came from, and she pointed out the window and said “They’re gathered on that little island right over there!” They were the best mussels we’ve ever had.
Then we drove to Olympic National Park, and drove from sea level up to the glaciers, and saw I forget how many huge icy slumbering giants in the mountain tops above the Pacific – dozens I think. This was all in 1987, or maybe ’88? who can remember for sure that far back.
Anyway, these photos bring back the memories of that great trip, our first of many. We took Amtrak south, spent a short week in Oregon driving a big loop along the coast there, then more train to San Francisco, which was a nice small town back in the pre- computer days. Then more train across the mountains and deserts eventually to Denver, from whence we flew home. And the train across the two mountain ranges with the desert between was great, but the Pacific Coast, you just can’t beat that country …
Thanks for the great evocative photos, really wonderful !!!
JanieM
@J R in WV:
This story reminds me of the steak my friends and I had in a little joint in White Lake, SD, on that same trip in 1972. We were hungry (SD goes on forevere!), so we just got off the highway at the next exit. The pavement ended more or less with the exit ramp, the place looked like a set for a western movie. A saloon, a few other buildings, rangeland all around. Gorgeous steak dinner, $3. (Well, it was 1972, but the meal would probably have cost $10 at the very least back in Boston.)
StringOnAStick
Gorgeous! So gorgeous that I’m going to fire up my PC to get a better look than I can get on my kindle.
way2blue
My favorite is your photo of the bald eagle in Eld Inlet. Lovely composition. Thanks for sharing.
A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)
@Geoduck: The famous “rain shadow effect”. It surprised me when I first learned in college that Eastern WA was quite dry (and quite conservative)
ETA: Gorgeous landscapes. I love the one with the bald eagle.
Dan B
Although my favorite terrain in Washington is the North Cascades, specifically the Glacier Peak Wilderness and the North Cascades – Park and adjacent lands, I’ve spent a lot of time on the coast, islands, and areas around “the Sound”. Visits to all these areas are memorable. I don’t know why they evoke such deep emotions but I’m glad to just take in the feeling.
lurker
@A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan):
@Geoduck:
Having lived in eastern WA and western OR, the rain shadow is real. Interestingly, the raid shadow really only affects the central third of those states. You get to the far eastern end of WA in particular, and you see the palouse – rolling hills of grain fenced off into farms. The central third of WA tends to be a combination of open scrub – sagebrush and a lot of dirt – along with farms irrigated by water from the Columbia river. Added in are a few server farms here and there now. The northern part of WA also has apple orchards around areas like Wenatchee and the Okanogan forest, which is just as green as the western part of the state.
Central OR has less dirt and more of a volcanic scrub – plants growing out of rock formations where the rocks look like stuff bubbled out of them (because volcanic gases bubbled out when they were formed).
Those beaches with misty or overcast environments definitely bring back memories from living in the NW. Lots of outdoor recreation activities throughout both states, which are easy to lose sight of when planning a trip to Seattle or Portland.
MjOregon
I’m getting nostalgic in my old age during this time of COVID isolation. We lived in Aberdeen for eight years – late 70’s to early 80’s – and explored the Olympics and the coast as often as we could. Your photos brought back so many lovely memories of when I was younger and learning about my newly adopted west coast, such a change from Philadelphia. I knew that first photo was from the upper coast area before I read the location. We hiked many weekend mornings from campsites along that coast over the years. The Oregon coast doesn’t have the same ancient and wild atmosphere, not even close. Feeling melancholy this afternoon, so thanks for reviving memories of some of my best times!
Mike in Oly
So glad you all enjoyed this these. I love roaming around this beautiful State and photographing it. It is so entirely different in every way from where I grew up – in the middle of the corn in the middle of Illinois. I never get tired of the mountains and the water. It is so different everywhere you go. Each area has its own personality. I would love to spend more time exploring the eastside of the State, and have done so a little. Maybe when the pandemic ends we can plan some trips further afield. I’d love to see the Okanogan area, and the Paloose. So much out here I’ve yet to see even after 25 years here.