Sunday, September 02, 2012

Mountain Ocean Etc.

We made two forays into Olympic National Park. We went up to Hurricane Ridge on Sunday morning. The air was a bit murky, the view was not glorious, the wildflowers all but over, and our total wildlife tally for the week appeared in the person of one deer in the Hurricane Hill trailhead parking lot. None of this floated EBD's boat, though she was politely appreciative.

August 26, 2012. Late season flowers on the Hurricane Hill Trail. (Click for larger image.)
The Bailey Range and Mount Olympus, morning, August 26, 2012 (Click for larger image.)

On Monday, we went out to the outer coast, to Rialto Beach. EBD mentioned that people do not seem to swim in our ocean. "Honey," I said, "people do not swim in the ocean anywhere north of Santa Barbara. You have the Atlantic Coastal Plain's flat sandy beaches, and the Gulf Stream to warm them, all the way north to Cape Cod. We have cold currents coming down from the Gulf of Alaska, and mostly rocky places." This did not clarify matters for her. Later she mentioned politely that it was "a very unusual beach."

Kite Weather on Rialto Beach, August 27, 2012 (Click for larger image.)
The Tide Was Going Out (Click for larger image.)

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