Kaleberg Archive for September 2018

Next tides for La Push
12/16/18 1:39 PM 2.7 ft
12/28/18 11:01 AM 2.46 ft
12/29/18 12:18 PM 2.14 ft
12/30/18 1:34 PM 1.59 ft
1/13/19 11:35 AM 2.8 ft
1/14/19 12:43 PM 2.34 ft
1/15/19 1:49 PM 1.66 ft

Next tides for Dungeness
1/26/19 2:16 PM 2.82 ft
2/10/19 1:31 PM 2.92 ft
2/11/19 2:20 PM 2.24 ft
2/12/19 3:11 PM 1.52 ft
2/22/19 11:31 AM 2.66 ft
2/23/19 12:26 PM 1.99 ft
2/24/19 1:22 PM 1.46 ft

Next tides for Cape Alava
12/29/18 12:58 PM 2.94 ft
12/30/18 2:17 PM 2.2 ft
1/14/19 1:29 PM 3 ft
1/15/19 2:37 PM 2.15 ft
1/25/19 10:03 AM 2.7 ft
1/26/19 11:12 AM 2.48 ft
1/27/19 12:28 PM 2.17 ft

August 2018

September 2018

October 2018

09/30 - Hurricane Hill Reopened Hurricane Hill has finally been reopened, at least for three days a week until the road is closed by snow. The trail is one of the most popular in the park, and it has shown a lot of wear. It is being rebuilt, widened, repaved and restored. For now, the Hurricane Hill road only runs to the second picnic area. The parking area at the usual trailhead is full of building materials for the trail work. We got an early start. This was a good idea since just about every parking space was taken when we returned from our hike around noon. The hike was as beautiful as ever. One day we expect to see Mount Olympus itself covered in construction scaffolding, but, for now, the mountains are being left to their own devices. We took in some amazing views, admired a few late blooming flowers and the golden grasses and checked out the sap covered pine cones. Check the park web site before you go. The trail is only open three days a week (Friday, Saturday and Sunday), but it is well worth the effort.	A common sight in 2018 - road closed
Hurricane Hill Trail widened	The new trail with have a lot of stone work to encourage people to stay on the trail.
The Olympic Mountains seen from Hurricane Hill Trail	Autumn color
More autumn color	Even more autumn color
Good grief, even more autumn color	Fields of gold
Fields of gold with distant mountains	More fields of gold, more mountains
Variation on a theme	One of the late harebells
Pine cones	More pine cones
Autumn color by the trail	Autumn color and more stones for the trail work

Keywords: hurricane hill, trails

09/26 - Dungeness Spit to the Lighthouse We are getting into the autumn tides which make it hard to get out to the Dungeness Spit. The walk takes from three to four hours, and when the tide is above three feet, it can be rough going. We managed to catch a good tide in late September and, much to our surprise, made it all the way out to the lighthouse for a ten mile round trip walk. As usual, the spit was hypnotic. It's a long narrow strip of beach that just heads out to sea. On one side of the path is Strait of San Juan de Fuca and on the other side there is a low rise decorated with driftwood and beach shrubs. The best walking is down towards the water. Above there is sand, rocks and pebbles.	An overview of Dungeness Spit
A hypnotic walk	More of the spit
Beach life	The bay protected by the spit
The lighthouse in the distance	The lighthouse as we approached
The spit on our return walk	Ribsy - one of our landmarks, about a mile out

Keywords: autumn, dungeness spit, tides

09/15 - Anchorage to Seattle We had great seats on the flight from Anchorage to Seattle. Here are some photos, including some of the glaciers in Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, some mountains and coastline and then our approach to Seattle.	Far north
Glaciers below	Another great glacier
Another view	Coastline
Mountains	More of the same, yawn
More mountains, closer to home	Much closer to home
Seattle	Mount Rainier

Keywords: alaska, seattle

09/14 - Anchorage Sunset

The evening light in Anchorage was beautiful for our last evening in town.

Sunset in Anchorage

Keywords: alaska

09/13 - Byron Glacier To be honest, we never got that close to the Byron Glacier. We followed the trail to the clutter of rocks that the glacier left in its track. We made our way along the rocks. Then, we came to a wall of rocks, perhaps 15-20 feet high, and we decided that we had seen plenty of glaciers and that it just wasn't worth climbing that many rocks to see yet another one. Maybe we were getting jaded. More likely, we realized that this was a bit more climbing than we were good for.	The trail to Byron Glacier
Some snow en route	A field of rocks, then a wall of rocks, kind of rough going
Still, a pretty hike	A lovely river

Keywords: alaska

09/12 - Kenai Fjords - Part 2 There were other glaciers to stare at in amazement, and there were sea birds - puffins, cormorants and others. Our route back took us to some of the little islands full of birds and sea lions and mystery.	It was a perfect day to be on the water.
The seals on ice, again	Scenery
More scenery, mountains, ice and clouds	There's a little glacier peeking out there.
A tiny, little baby glacier	Mountains and ice
There was a bit more haze in the afternoon.	There was also a bit of cloud.
Even more scenery	Near and far
Birds on the rocks	A dramatic cliff
Sunning Steller sea lions	More sea lions
Another view	Yet another look
Yet another glacier	A closer look

Keywords: alaska

09/11 - Kenai Fjords - Part 1 Having spent some time on ice and some time on land, we spent the next day on the water. We took a Major Marine tour, and while we had an indoor table available to us, we spent almost the entire trip out on the deck. The scenery was spectacular. The harbor itself was beautiful, blue water surrounded by mountains and glaciers. We headed south towards more spectacular scenery. We took a detour to visit an orca, then headed into the next fjord over and made our way to a spectacular glacier. The ice was covered with seals, and we lucked out and saw a few chunks of ice break off of the glacier and plunge into the icy water.	Seward harbor
A mountain with a minor glacier	More mountains, more snow and ice
A major ice field	More water, mountains and ice
Rock formations	Another bit of water
An orca, exhaling	Approaching the big glacier
More scenic islands	More scenery; Alaska has no shortage of scenery
Rock formations	The big glacier
Seals on the ice	The glacier and sea ice
Blue ice	Caves to explore another time
The glacier again	Another view of the seals

Keywords: alaska

09/10 - Exit Glacier and the Seward Aquarium Our first day in Seward we hiked towards the Exit Glacier. We followed the trail along the river bed up towards the glacier melt line. We walked out on the river bed a bit and enjoyed the bright day and wonderful views. Then we started climbing the trail that leads up the valley and, if one can climb the necessary 3,000 feet, offers more views of the glacier. We didn't get all that far, but we did enjoy the forest and the streams and the occasional glimpses through the trees. We returned to the ranger station and marveled at some of the reported wildlife sightings. Back in Seward, we visited the aquarium and checked out the sea lions, fish, puffins and other sea birds. It was feeding time for the animals, and then it was feeding time for us. We ate dinner across the street from the Best Western at the Cookery which is a seriously good restaurant.	The river flowing from the glacier
Our first peek at the glacier	The river bed
Another view across the river bed	Another view of the glacier
And yet another	A view on our way up
The forest and sunlight	Trees, sunlight, variation on a theme
More trees and sunlight	The trail climbing through trees and sunlight
Wildlife sightings - Click the image for a better view.	A sea otter
Feeding time for the birds	One of the puffins
One of the enclosures at the aquarium	More feeding time

Keywords: alaska

09/09 - On to Seward The view from our luxury lodge was lovely, but despite our love of luxury, it wasn't for us. We left and made our way to Seward where we checked into a Best Western, and a very nice one at that.	The view from our luxury lodge
The view from Seward	Along the Seward waterfront
Another view of Kenai Fjord	The marina at Seward

Keywords: alaska

09/08 - Alaskan Glacier Adventure We couldn't take the smoke from the forest fires in BC anymore, so we headed up north to Alaska. Our trip started with a bit of a misadventure, but we also got to walk on a glacier well past anywhere, somewhere north and east of Anchorage. It was one of those Alaska adventures with an airplane flight across miles of flat land and mountains and then another flight in a helicopter onto a glacier. There air was fresh and clear, and the scenery was spectacular.	We wonder who lives here and how they get here.
Power lines across the rolling flatlands	Mountains and the glacier
Looking across the gray ice	A crevasse
View of the glacier	The first flower we saw
Another view	And yet another as we cross the rubble field and climbed
Life among the stones	The big picture
Fractured rock, like an ancient wall	More life
More stone works	More life as we descended away from the glacier
One of the corn lilies, our first corn lily picture of the year	The fallen castle
Lupines of Alaska doing well	Ice in the water

Keywords: alaska

August 2018

September 2018

October 2018