Northwest Ramblings

Last month, before the eclipse, I ambled around the Pacific Northwest, going to places both familiar and new.  This is Multnomah Falls on August 20, the day before the eclipse, with the usual summer load of tourons thronging.  Less than two weeks later a huge fire developed in the Columbia Gorge, burning many beautiful areas that I have frequented for over half a century.  Fortunately the firefighters saved the historic lodge at the falls...not pictured here...and the vegetation in the immediate vicinity.

The fire was started by airheaded teenagers detonating fireworks near this area on the Eagle Creek trail, about ten miles east (upstream) from Multnomah.  

Here's the trail, with a cool tunnel of moss.  But the weather was warm and dry, and had been for a couple of months.  Fire danger was high.

A suspension bridge near the Eagle Creek trailhead.

A couple days earlier, I stopped at the Neahkanie Mountain viewpoint to admire the panorama.  Stayed at Manzanita with my friends Dave and Johnny.  Johnny now has an ocean view from his house, courtesy of a tornado (?!) that rolled through his neighborhood in October 2016, missing his place by half a block and taking out a hundred trees or so.  Bizarre!

A couple days before visiting Manzanita, my friend Ed and I took the ferry across the sound to Whidbey Island, passing a sister ferry enroute.  It was a mostly gray, calm, tranquil day.  I love such days on Puget Sound...they're peaceful and brooding, but not in a grim way.

A totem pole at Langley, on Whidbey Island.  Though I've been on the island numerous times, I'd never been to this town, which is off the main highway.  It's very pleasant and bucolic, with several nice cafes.

The beach at Langley.