Whale Watching

We arrived at our first official destination on Sunday afternoon.  Anacortes, WA.  It is part of the San Juan Islands off the northwest coast of Washington.  We decided to schedule our whale watching trip for Monday since the weather was still good. 

 

We made reservations online, but had to check in the next morning at the gift shop.  Really? :)

The big white boat with the red trim was our boat.

 

Waiting to board.

 

Our boat left from the docks at 11:00 am for a 6 hour trip north through the San Juan islands.  During the trip we passed the large Washington ferries that take passengers and vehicles across to different islands.  We also saw small water taxies as well as a few seaplane taxies.

Ready to lift off...

and away he goes.

Washington ferry docking.


As we traveled along we saw lots of houses on the sides of the island mountains.

 

  We had a great view of Mt. Baker in the distance.  Our captain said you didn't get that nice of a view often because of low clouds.

Washington ferry with Mt. Baker in background.

A really neat lighthouse on the edge of island.

 

 

Our first sighting of the Orca whales.  They travel in pods.  We saw as many as 20+ at a time. 

 

There were lots of whale watching boats in the area where the Orca whales were playing and hunting for fish.  Some of the boats were from Canada.  We actually crossed over into Canadian waters in order to get to where the whales were.  The boat captain played the Canadian anthem and made everyone say "Eh" when we crossed over to Canada.  :)  The whales headed south and so did we. 

 

  

 

This was the last sighting of the whales.  You can see the whales blowing water.

 

It was cold and misty on the 2 1/2 hour trip back to Anacortes.  We sat next to a service dog for much of the trip.  Just wanted to hug her.

 

 

 

 

It was a very successful day whale watching.

North Cascade Loop Highway

We got up early Sunday morning to travel over the snow covered mountains on the North Cascade Loop Highway.  As we started our journey, we could see the snow covered mountains far off in the distance.  It wasn't long before we started our long climb up those mountains.  We had heard good things about the scenery on the highway and we weren't disappointed!  There was still plenty of snow at the highest elevations on the mountains.  The road has lots of pullover spots for stopping to take pictures and play in the snow.  The section of the Loop we traveled was approximately 140 miles and most of that was in the mountains.  The highest pass was Washington Pass with an elevation of 5,476 feet.   However, just east of Twist we went over Loup Loup Pass which was only 4,020 feet, but had the longest and steepest descent.  These are some of the many great views and gorgeous sights that we saw along the way. 

I was throwing snowballs at Alan.  If you look close you can see the snowball.

What?????  We passed lots of people on bicycles at the very top of the mountains.  If you enlarge the photo (above) you can see the section of the road we were just on far, far below.

 

 

A view from the inside of the Motorhome.

 

 

Waterfalls were abundant along the way.

 

Ross Lake was down between the mountains.  If you look close you can see people in kyayks below.

 

 

 

This was one of two short tunnels we passed through.

 

The wild flowers were abundant along the sides of the roads. 

 

 

Leaving Grand Couee Dam

High in the Cascades we spotted.....oh, could it really be?????

 

 Some people say Sasquatch exits and roams these mountains. 

 

It turns out this was a large metal sculpture created by a local Indian artist named Virgil Marchand.  It was quite a sight as we came around the bend in the road.  I guess we now have to be on the lookout for DB Cooper.

 

Twist, WA. was our next stop as we head  the North Cascade Loop Highway.  It is a small town at the start of our journey on the Loop.  We took a day trip to another small town a few miles away called Winthrop.  It is a touristy town with lots of shops and galleries.  All the buildings are western themed.  Really unique.  People come here from all over to bike and ride motorcycles through the mountains....as well as kayak, raft and do all sorts of outdoor activities.  Great hiking trails are throughout the area as well.
As we were driving around we spotted a sign pointing to the original North Cascade Smokejumper Base located at the small airport about 3 miles outside of town.  We rode out there, but the museum hours were by appointment.  However, we were able to walk around and get some photos. 
   

 

 

 

 

Grand Coulee Dam

The Grand Coulee Dam is located in Grand Coulee, WA.  The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation completed the dam in 1942.  The three important functions of the dam are irrigation, power and flood control.  Although electricity was not foreseen as a primary function when the dam was built, today the production of electrical energy is one of Grand Coulee Dam's most important jobs.  It generates more power than a million locomotives.  An engineering wonder, it is also the country's largest hydroelectric project.  It is larger than the Hoover Dam.  While the Hoover Dam is much higher, the Grand Coulee is longer.  In fact, the Grand Coulee is almost one mile across.  Coulee Dam is one of the largest concrete structures in the world.  It contains nearly 12 million yards of concrete.

As we drove down the steep road leading to the town of Grand Coulee, we had a grand view of the lake, dam and surrounding area.  Quite a sight from that high up. 

As we approached the dam area we were on the lake side of the dam.

As we passed the dam we saw the water rushing over the spillway to the river below.  We drove down to the visitor center parking lot to get a closer look at the dam before head to the campground.

 

 

We had to cross a narrow metal  bridge to get to the tour center.  We were in the motorhome and as we approached the bridge we had to wait for the oncoming traffic. 

 

 

When we got to the tour center we had to go through a security check similar to the airports.  We were limited on what we could take with us on the bus and what we could take photos of.  We had an armed police escort in a lead vehicle from the tour center to the top of the dam.  He was also with us throughout the tour.  The bus driver let everyone off  when we arrived on the dam and went to the other end to turn around.

 

Our tour guide was very informative and even took pictures for everyone.

The first thing everyone did was to look over the rail at the spillway with the water rushing down to the river.

Just another angle looking over the rail.  The vents on each side of the dam also releases water down the side.

 

Below are some photos of the area taken from on top of the dam.  You can get an idea of how high the dam is from this view of the visitor center below.  Some of the locals refer to the visitor center as looking like a bottle cap. 

 

 

This is the bridge we traveled over to get to the tour center.  If you look close, you can see a truck exiting the bridge on left. 

 

   

Each night in the summer there is a laser light show shown on the water spilling down from the dam.  A new  2 million dollar show started last month.  It tells a story about the history of the dam.  The show starts at 10 pm and lasts 30 minutes.  There are two nice parks at the visitor center for viewing the show.   It was great!

Our tour guide had told us about a park on the top of one of the surrounding mountains called Crown Visa Point.  You can drive up to the viewing area for an overall view of the dam and surrounding town.  We drove up the morning before we left Grand Coulee to take a few more pictures.

 

Overlooking the town. 

 

Overlooking the river.

 

 

Now that folks is the Grand Coulee Dam!

Did I mention that there is a CASINO in town? 

We stopped in to give them my $20 bucks and Alan decided to stick a dollar in one of the slots.  He hit the jackpot and won $12.  He gave it to me and I lost another $12.
I'm a happy camper now that I have that out of my system.