I went over to the Sandy River for a look see a week ago Thursday. I’d been parking at the Wal-Mart for weeks and was passing Troutdale where the river is nearly every day. I hadn’t been there since we (the family) scattered my parents ashes there in the river 9 years ago. The Sandy drains into the Columbia and during some months is a raging river.
I like the RR bridge there so I went down for a few pictures. The river is the site of several drownings every year as there are several places to jump off of rocks and when you mix in beer, well, you know. It use to be the place to go for those little tiny fish that show up every other year. Can’t remember their name but there were several times over the years that we went down and scooped up a bucket full or had them given to us. Good eating but hard to clean them since they were so small. But you could get 20 lbs of them in about 15 minutes when they were running upstream.
The road into the state park:
Quiet time on the river (just wait for winter tho), here we’re looking toward the Columbia which is north, the bridge there is the I-84 freeway:
The bridge:
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The next day, I headed North to the Olympic National Park which is part of the Olympic Peninsula. The park wasn’t my destination really, I was heading to a state park named ‘Fort Flagler State Park’. I’d communicated with the park ranger there about being a campground host for a few weeks (the position was filled before I could get up there) and wanted to see the place. The park sounded interesting and worth a visit.
Heading up the peninsula. That’s Hood Canal (actually a fjord):
Looking toward the north…that’s Port Angles over there on another peninsula. There’s a ferry port there with many routes that will take you to Canada or Seattle or Bremerton:
Here’s the CG. Not to crowded since I took this picture on a Sunday afternoon and allot of people had left already:
The shore line. Not a really inviting beach here what with the ‘Red Tide’ problem and the green slime that’s everywhere, but some people do swim here occasionally:
red tide…I’ve heard of that, it makes muscles and other shelled creatures like that poisonous, right? i seem to remember that it’s OK to eat shrimp and lobster despite it because they don’t filter feed on the algae. i love your blog. it’s like taking a holiday without leaving home. someday I’ll be done with school and be able to actually travel and maybe see some of the things you photograph.
Yes, you’re right. The disease affects mostly things like clams and muscles. It’s a big problem up here in Puget Sound right now. There have been enough people get sick that shell fishing has been banned. There were signs all up and down the peninsula. Scientists think it’s because of the unseasonable warmth of the water. Promotes the growth of bacteria.
That’s not the real scary story around here though since that happens here once a decade or so (it’s happening more and more often tho).
The scary thing is off the coast of Oregon. There is a new, huge, never seen before dead zone where nothing survives. The water is usually very cold as it wells up from deep under ocean but for the last few years the cold water has disappeared and this warm water pool has been growing off the coast killing all life. The thing seems to kill everything in it’s path. Jacques Cousteau was right.
Thanks for your kind comments! Keep them coming.