Vacation continues, in the U.S.

[urbpan]

We outsmarted our own stupidity and got the pre-dawn ferry back to Washington State.





And soon found ourselves eating breakfast in Port Angeles, receiving our first Dirty Looks from Strangers. Funny, that never happened while we were in Canada.

We drove on, and stopped at Crescent Lake, a huge glacial kettlehole type of thing:



And then we made our way to the coastal road, seeing, among other things:



more lichen,





mysterious beach crustaceans,



thistles with western tiger swallowtails (in rough shape).



A grand view past the fireweed.



And, of course, more giant trees.



Some of which were covered with this long curly moss fur.

Comments

[phlogiston-5.livejournal.com]

Looks like Washington state has the same old Cirsium vulgare that we have back east. Nice shots.

[brush-rat.livejournal.com]

Ah yes. Bull thistle.


Alright, I googled it, but at least I think I'm getting smarter.

[droserary.livejournal.com]

I love the old, twisted bigleaf maples (Acer macrophyllum) that you find in the middle of a coniferous forest. The breadth of their crown is amazing.

Oh, and Crescent Lake is quite amazing. My partner and I did a drive on 101 around the peninsula once and stopped there. He took some amazing pictures with his digital SLR (color me jealous).