This is a view of the roadway in the Avenue of the Giants. It is a road that dates from a stage coach route through the Redwood forest. As you can see, the trees are right up against the road. The more dramatic spot was in the Jedediah Smith State Park farther north. There, the road was much narrower and weaved in and around the trees big time. Switchbacks everywhere. I would have taken photos; but I had cars breathing down my back the whole way.

On Saturday, we spent the day visiting the Redwood National Park. Here we are standing in front of the "Big Tree." Actually it is not the largest; but, at a 21.6 foot circumference it is pretty fat at the base. It was raining all day and quite dramatic.

This is the lens of the Yaquina Head Lighthouse. It is the coolest and we got to go up into this amazing lighthouse on Thursday. On Friday we drove to Crescent City and saw more of the dramatic Oregon coastline.

On March 2 we crossed the Astoria Bridge from Washington into Oregon.  The bridge is so tall that the large ships can go underneath it.  Then we had a great visit with Ed & Barbara Lee at their place in Seaside. It was so fun to be with Edmonds friends on our trip.

We spent our first night in Westport.  During the night and in the morning, it was very windy and stormy.  The wind was strong and the first picture shows the water coming up over the breakwater.  The Grays Harbor Lighthouse is the tallest lighthouse in Washington.

More on the Olympic Peninsula trip

Here we are standing on the little deck built by the Makah Tribe overlooking the Northwestern most point in the contiguous United States. To Ann's right is the Pacific Ocean. To my left is the Strait of Juan de Fuca and the entrance to Puget Sound. Behind us is Tatoosh island - a section of land the broke off of where we were standing a long time ago. There is a sign that makes mention of the numerous caves carved into the limestone below where we were standing and about how when the waves crash into them you can feel the ground move. Sure enough we felt this phenomenon and felt a little uneasy too.

 Here is the view a few feet to Ann's right looking over the railing. This was well worth the trip to see.

Our trip to the Olympic National Park and Cape Flattery

The day after Thanksgiving, we drove over to the the Olympic Peninsula. We had hoped to visit Hurricane Ridge; but the road was closed due to snow. We had dinner at Pacific Pizza in Forks. It was outstanding food and we would go back again. As you may have heard, there are Twilight references everywhere in Forks. We stayed the night at a B&B called the Hoh Humm Ranch 20 miles south of Forks. The name comes from the facts that they are next to the Hoh river and they keep Llamas. Llama mothers hum to their offspring. Kinda cute huh?
The very next morning we set off for Ruby Beach which gets it's name from the garnet in the sand - very picturesque.

Here you see the Duncan Cedar tree. There was a sign on Highway 101 that lured us to go see what it was all about. It was about four miles off the highway and well worth the side trip. Turns out this is the oldest living Western Red Cedar tree in the world. 178' tall and 19 1/2' diameter - and it is still alive. It was amazing.

Our next stop was the Hoh Rain Forrest some 18 miles off the road. It was so cool - both literally and figuratively. There are two trails one with moss and lichens galore the other with gigantic Sitka Spruce trees and other cool stuff too.