Haloweenies

Old Robe Valley & Big 4 Ice Caves, 10/31/09, 5 miles, 100 elevation

Forget the Trick-or-Treaters. Forget the parties. Give me a rainy Halloween in the woods.

A few years ago, a friend invited us on a Halloween hike. However, we had other plans and had to forego the fun. Another invitation came this year and we pushed aside all other invitations to go. The name our friends were giving to our day of hiking was the Tunnels of Terror. The only terror, was that I'd actually hike with an umbrella. Yes the rain was falling so heavily as we started out down the Robe Valley that I actually pulled out the umbrella. I'm a true Seattleite and hiking with an umbrella just seems wrong. But after a backpack in Mt Rainer a few years ago when it rained all 5 days of our outing, I decided getting soaked thru-and-thru may not be the most enjoyable way to spend a day.

We finished the Robe Valley hike without reaching the washed out section right before railroad tunnel. We then decided to head up to the Big Four Ice Caves for a quick picnic and another short hike. For lunch, we broke out our costumes and bags of candy to share. Then we were off on the trail to the ice caves. Rain continued to drench our boots from both the top and the bottom from the puddles accumulating in the trail. At points, the trail itself was a stream bed for a stream that had over run its banks.

We played a bit at the caves then returned to town for well deserved hot cocoa and dry socks and looking forward to another Halloween hike. You too can find fun places to hike on Halloween. But don't forget your costumes and don't leave behind the candy, Halloween is for the kid in all of us after all.

A Little Fall Color

Hoh Rainforest, 10/23/09-10/25/09

When I was a young girl, my family would spend a week in the Hoh Rainforest every other summer. Some summers were wetter than others and I can remember hours spent inside our trailer reading as rain pattered on the roof and windows. There was something special in the rainforest. I knew it even then. So now when I want some time to feel the primal forces of life, I head to the rainforest. I love the rainforest in the summer, but began to appreciate what the forest had to offer in the autumn and will often take refuge in the cooler damper days of October.

This year I took a group of photographers with me to explore the old growth trees adorned with thick moss. We camped in the campground inside the park and woke to elk foraging through the undergrowth. A few of my fellow campers gathered at a safe distance to set up cameras as the elk settled in for a mid-morning nap. We took our leave of the dozing elk to meander through the Hall of Mosses nature trail.

We stopped to photograph a Pileated Woodpecker high on a snag. A stream then held our attention for a while before we started up the hill to the trail. Our group laughed and talked and photographed all morning and early afternoon. On our way out wee were stopped by the sighting of a Northern Pygmy Owl and we just couldn't seem to tear ourselves away. But we had to as the promise of a sunset at Ruby Beach was becoming more of a reality.

As we sat at Ruby Beach waiting for the sun to lower below the horizon we noticed our promise of color would be blocked by a fast approaching cloud bank. Not wanting to waste an opportunity, I began to photograph the waves as they came up the beach. Their foam trails heading back out to sea excited me and the rest of the group had to pull me away for dinner.

The next morning, the elk had moved on and so would we - onto Sol Duc Falls and more moss-covered forest. Each photographer that had joined me on my outing to my corner of living forest came away with great memories, photos and stories.

Colorado National Monument

10/10/09

We were finally coming to an end. We had left Mesa Verde early in the morning, stopped to see the Black Canyon of the Gunnison then veered off the highway to one last little green spot on the map - Colorado National Monument. It took a little wheedling but I convinced Michael that we should at least see what this was all about. He wasn't too sure - how could anything interesting be found so close to Grand Junction. He was wrong.

Nestled into the hills are a network of canyons and mesas, needing to be explored. Not by us, at least not yet. Ute Canyon was the most intriguing for me and the creek wove its way through the cottonwoods just starting to turn. It seemed like a fabulous fantasy world and I wanted to follow the creek into another world. It was not to be - we needed to be on our way.

Add yet another treasure to the list of need to see more.

Black Canyon of the Gunnison

10/10/09

Talk about places we visited and didn't stay long enough, Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park would be at the top of that list. One quick run into the visitor center then a short drive up the rim road was all the time we spared. How silly of us!

Here is a place of grand geologic proportions that an hour is far too little to even scratch the surface. All I could do was take a few snapshots and read the pamphlet to better understand what I was missing. Do not make the same mistake - find the time to explore this wonder.

Mesa Verde

10/9/09

The alcove was filled with a sort of revered silence, the sort you "hear" in a cathedral or museum. The ancient masonry seemed to echo the silence all around, hushing our voices into a whisper. It was hard to imagine a lively bustling world here - children running, laughing around their mothers who ground grain gossiping about the latest romances, men bringing in their latest hunting successes. That was hundreds of years ago. Now it was a small group of tourists speaking in hushed tones in deference to the spirits that seemed to be watching us.

A little paranoid? Maybe. However, whenever I walk through an old ruin such as this, I have a sense that i am sharing this space with those who walked before. I first felt these other "souls" while visiting the castles of Germany. Late in the afternoon, when few people were around, I could almost sense the bustle of castle life around me.

here at Cliff Palace, early in the morning with only a dozen other tourists in our group, the effect was similar. Except there was no bustle just the answering tones of hushed voices in the shadows. It could have been a echo from our conversations, but I like the fantasy of a place so special it holds the essence of those who once lived there.

As the day wore on and we were surrounded by more tourists, the effect was lost. It wouldn't be lost on my memory - to have sensed the life a place once held.

Chaco Canyon

10/7/09

Dark and lonely rural road late at night. No one else around as we drove along, static playing intermittently on the radio scanning for a station - any station. "Make a right up here." We turned just as another set of headlights appeared coming toward us. They turned to follow. They appeared to be catching up. I didn't say a word, but I knew what Michael was thinking. He had watched one too many horror movies. As the car following gained on us, Michael pushed the gas pedal closer to the floor. And he wonders why I don't watch those types of movies. "Our turn is coming up." I hoped the car wouldn't make this turn also - Michael's paranoia was rubbing off on me. We turned, the other car continued on. whew. But that would not be the last of our concerns. The last 20 miles to Chaco Canyon were on a heavily potholed and washboarded dirt road. If we broke an axle out here . . . I don't want to think about what would have happened. Sure, someone would have come along at some point.

As the next day dawned, we were rewarded with Chaco Canyon and its wondrous ruins. I saw my first pueblo ruins while in New Mexico several years ago and was enraptured by the story and the fantasy of it all. Walking through the ruins of the Chaco Culture only emboldened the images in my mind. Here was a valley filled with communities large and small of lives lived centuries ago.

There are 6 pueblos along the road through Chaco Canyon all within easy walking distance of each other. We meandered from one to the other, stopping to observe petroglyphs on the sandstone cliffs or watch the Cliff Sparrows flit in and out of their nests. We had a wonderful morning speculating what the drawings meant or how the ancient people lived. All the while we wondered when we could come back to explore the 6 backcountry ruins.

We both became fascinated with the different construction methods - how the bricks were laid, the wood supports. Including how these structures have been able to stand over the elements and the years. Time and weather have taken their toll and we watched as park employees worked on shoring up the crumbling walls. It may be race against inevitability,but while the structures last, we have a small window to view a past in all our lives.

Petrified Forest

10/6/09

In the deserts of eastern Arizona is a magical colorful place - Petrified Forest National Park. We were hurtling down the interstate late in the day as we came upon the park that straddles the highway. Since we weere herre to explore, we decided to make a quick drive through as much of the park as we could with at least one stop for a nature hike.

Our first stop overlooked the painted desert unit of the park. I was immediately struck by how much the colors reminded me of the Painted Hills in Eastern Oregon. In the late afternoon sun, they seemed to radiate with color. We hastened our way along to our next stop, pueblan ruins and petroglyphs. Our view was of flat prairie extending seemingly forever. I felt uneasy the first time I had ever seen the prairie-lands in their immensity. I grew up in the forest-cloistered northwest where our next view was always obstructed by another tree. As I lived longer in the midwest and its prairies, I began to recognize the beauty in them. This afternoon, the extensive views were relaxing, a soothing presence to my soul.

Up to this point, we hadn't seen much of the petrified forest but as we drove along we began to see the ancient logs, the wood fibers replaced by silicone particles lying about the eroded hills. It was here we decided to get out of the car for a stroll along a pathway through eroded hills that slowly exposed the fallen trees. The lowering sun cast dramatic shadows along the hillsides highlighting the cracks and crevices, exposing trees still embedded in the sandstone. It was a fascinating place that deserves more than the little time we devoted to it. I can only hope we are able to return soon.