Seeing Seattle

I flew out to Seattle airport early Wednesday morning. After a quick shower I went over to the conference and caught up with a bunch of people I have worked with over the last few summers and I fell asleep soon after that.

I gave a presentation about the postdoc position I have taken in RI, took a tour of the facility where the conference was held, and now have until Sunday night to enjoy the area. Alan Burke and I then left for Olympic National Park. What a place! We went in through the Hurricane ridge entrance and, after enduring some pretty heavy fog on the windy road up, ended up with this view:

With places to be we soon turned around and headed back to Seattle. I got in touch with friends I knew from last summer, had a few beers in Seattle, and called it a night. Oh, but did we have plans!

We were up early, but did not get moving on the road until about 10am. The plan was to drive entirely around Olympic Nat. Park and check out a couple of the visitor centers. Heading South from Seattle we passed through Tacoma and then headed west until we got to Aberdeen on the coast. It would be over an hour until we were treated to this view of the approaching mountains:

a little further down the road:
Soon after this the road began to follow the beach. We stopped at one entrance and stayed for about an hour.

a whale jaw:and a bald eagle!I could see the mist rising right off of the ocean. This, combined with the mountains which quickly chill and decompress the air, leads to over 240 inches of rain a year on the western side of the Olympic range. Because the temperature is also quite stable year round, despite the latitude and the fact that there are actually glaciers starting at about 7000 feet, there are actually three distinct temperate rain forests in the park. The only rain forests in North America. We stopped at the Hoh rain forest and took a walk through a couple of loops.

we saw a herd of about 10 elk:We made it back to the northern part of the park just in time to check out Hurricane Ridge again. It was just as beautiful and striking, but much different from the day before.

this is the view west from the top of ridge, all I could see the day before was white: