Oregon & Washington

Mt Saint Helen's Volcano Early Autumn Colors, WA
& Mud Flow Path, WA


Oregon Aquarium - Otters & Puffins


Oregon Coast - Miles & Miles of Beautiful Shoreline

Crater Lake & McKenzie Pass, OR

This is what's left of a volcanic eruption. The water in Crater Lake is 1943' deep and the cliffs are nearly 2,000 feet tall. It's the deepest lake in the US and ranks 7th in the world.

Look at those colors !! There were many of these clefts in the rock face we passed. We could hear a small waterfall far below this cliff, but the photos were too distant to see it well.

The Dee Wright Observatory is a stone memorial located in the middle of a massive lava flow and offers panoramic views of the Cascade Mountain Range, as far north as Mt. Hood. Each of the openings in the outer wall points to a different mountain in the distance. There are plaques next to the openings that name the mountains. Awesome !! On top is a large brass circular plate with compass points and the names of all the mountains within view (there were about 10 of them). This is 5,325 feet in elevation and all that black stuff, along with the walls of the observatory is lava rock !! The ground is covered in this rock for miles around.

Burney Falls, CA

McArthur Burney Falls is located in the Cascade Range in California. It's 129' tall and 100 million gallons of water flow over its edge daily.

Mount Shasta, CA

Pretty impressive, huh? Mount Shasta is 14,162 feet high and has glacial snow that stays on the mountain year round. Jill & Judi even played in some of it.



This is a steam vent on the mountainside. We could hear a noise down the shoot that sounded like boiling water !! The chipmunks are tame and will beg for food if you stop -- gotta make sure you give them something healthy.

Hillsboro, OR

Back at Pat's home in Hillsboro, but we're not yet ready to drive the Tioga out to the north 40 !!

We're planning a trip to Mount Shasta in Northern California later this week & we're taking Jill and Elaine with us !! More pix on the way :)

Scenery through the West

What do you think of the scenery?

Pat was very worldly about all of this, but Judi was seriously impressed. These pix are from Wyoming, Idaho, Washington and Oregon.

Yellowstone National Park

A small portion of Yellowstone Lake.



At Yellowstone, there are geysers everywhere, but Old Faithful is the most dependable in its eruptions, so it's the famous one.




Isn't Mammoth Hot Springs beautiful? It's difficult to breathe when you're too close to them, but look at the colors created by chemical reaction !!

Buffalo Bill & Cody, WY

We went to Cody, WY to see the Buffalo Bill Historical Museums. There are 5 museums dedicated to Natural History with lots of western type critters, Indian History and their lore, including their practice of drawing the past year's happenings on animal skins, Western History, Firearms (wow, what a collection) & the life of Buffalo Bill Cody and Annie Oakley. We were there all day & could have easily stayed two more.

Later, we visited the Buffalo Bill Dam and got this beautiful shot.

Mount Rushmore

Wow, this is impressive !! The sculptures at Mt Rushmore are the largest in the world & the heads measure 60' tall. How about that??

Some scenery in Wyoming

These are the Rushmore Caves -- a cave system we'd never heard of before. What a treat :)

Wisconsin, Minnesota & South Dakota

We've been traveling through some beautiful farm land, prairie and hills along I-90 in Wisconsin, Minnesota & South Dakota. Here is some of the scenery we've been looking at.

Missouri River in South Dakota

Fields with bales of hay in Minnesota

Last year's Corn Palace in South Dakota

Most of the exterior is covered in the ears, silk & husks of corn

Part of this year's front wall of Corn Palace

All these pictures are made of corn mosaics

Motor home at Blue Earth County Office building

in Lake Crystal MN where our father was born

Tranquil lake in Wisconsin

Corn fields stretched further than we could see in all directions

Mackinac Island, MI

We came to Mackinac Island (pronounced like the city but spelled differently) from Mackinaw City, MI, on a large catamaran and had a great photo op before landing. The 5-mile long bridge over the Straits of Mackinac separates Lake Huron from Lake Michigan and 2 lighthouses watch over the entrance to the island. Mackinac Island has no automobiles, except for a recently acquired fire truck, an ambulance & a police car; the only other motorized vehicle allowed on the island is an emergency helicopter. All other vehicles are horse drawn carriages, buggies and wagons. You are allowed to ride bicycles and walk.

If you saw the movie, “Somewhere in Time”, you’d probably recognize the Grand Hotel. We took one of the carriage rides around the island where we saw the Hotel, the State Park, the Governor’s mansion, Arch Rock, Fort Mackinac, some really impressive old cemeteries, the stables and the carriage museum. College students consider themselves privileged to be chosen as drivers for the summer season on the island. Down in the village, souvenir shops, tee shirt stores, leathers, horsy stuff, restaurants and 19 fudge shops can be found and every one of the fudge shops gives free samples. Heaven, huh?