Natural History Journal

This is it!  We have finally reached the last stop on our summer road trip through the Pacific Northwest: Crater Lake National Park.   Way back in June, Eric and I spent a couple of [largely rainy] weeks exploring the Pacific Northwest's forests, mountains, beaches, birds and historic sites.  As summer is rapidly fading away, I clearly need to get it together and finish this series of posts!   Part I:  Seabird Colony at Haystack Rock Part II:  Birding the Pacific Northwest Coast Part III:  Inland Valley and Lowland Forests Part IV:  Olympic National Park Part V:  North Cascades National Park Part VI:  Mount Rainier National Park Part VII:  Crater Lake National Park We reached Crater Lake National Park after a long and rather soggy sojourn through Olympic, North Cascades and Mount Rainier National Parks.  After being rained on for at least part of the day for something like eleven or twelve days in a row (which, by the way, is unheard of for us Californians), we were eagerly antici

Next stop on our summer roadtrip through the Pacific Northwest: Mount Rainier National Park! Catch up on our summer travels here: Part I:  Seabird Colony at Haystack Rock Part II:  Birding the Pacific Northwest Coast Part III:  Inland Valley and Lowland Forests Part IV:  Olympic National Park Part V:  North Cascades National Park Part VI:  Mount Rainier National Park Part VII:  Crater Lake National Park Way back in June, we spent a couple of nights camping in Mount Rainier National Park.  The perks of visiting the park early in the season were very light crowds, quiet trails, and the opportunity to catch birds early in their breeding season.  The pitfalls of visiting at this time, however, were significant: deep snow made hiking the iconic high-elevation trails around the mountain impossible, the wildflowers were not yet blooming, and... it rained.  A lot.   But we still thoroughly enjoyed ourselves, as we hiked in the atmospheric forests and explored crashing waterfalls at lower eleva