October 6, 2015 Mt Rainier to Olympic National Park, Washington

Cool, cloudy and misty today.

Before leaving Mt Rainier we stopped at a sculpture park in Ashford, Washington called Recycled Spirits Of Iron by Dan Klennert. Beautiful and really unique. Dan says “I ask you please to, not only look at what I have created, also look at what I have used to create them.” He likes to think that he is recycling the spirit of the piece, giving it new life.

 

Part of his horse herd. I love the use of this bicycle seat for the face of the deer.

 

Field of Dreams in the back with all of his materials.  Another horse from the herd.

  

A  giant giraffe and last but not least the R-rated piece, Moanin Lisa.

  

Views on the way to Olympic National Park. We drove from the wilds of Rainier, thru civilization at Tacoma over the Tacoma Narrows bridge, across some islands in the Puget Sound, back to the wilds of the Olympic Peninsula . The first views of the mountains in the park. Through Port Angeles, where the mountains meet the sea, where they have a John Wayne Marina. John Wayne donated the land for the marina so everyone could fish in his favorite place.  We stopped for gas  in Jamestown, on the S’Klallam Indian Reservation. At the gas station and convenience store were a bunch of authentic totem poles carved by Indian artists on the reservation. These are photos of the same one, called Bringer of Salmon. It was too big to fit in one photo, so I took it in two. This was one of many in town. Very impressive.

 

On down the road. Fall colors are kicking. The middle photo is Crescent Lake in Olympic National Park.  We are having typical Pacific Northwest weather. Cloudy and cool and not the best color for photos. This area is one of the wettest in the US.  The coach parked at Sol Duc Hot Springs RV park. There is also a park service campground just down the road. We are having a problem with either the batteries or the inverter-which are both brand new, probably some small connection issue. If we are not plugged in we have to use the generator to run the heat and microwave. Will stop and get that fixed later, but for now we are plugging in. We have the place to ourselves.

 

There is a fancy hot spring resort here. We are camped next door and can walk over and use the pools.  AAAAAAHHHHHH.

Sol Duc Lodge and Hot Springs. A deer on the lawn.