Diet And Travel

..A Photoblog post of my random travels.

I am sharing some of my random travel photos, this is not only for my followers but more of a reminder for me and my hubby of where we have been and what we have seen over the years. All good memories for us, I hope you enjoy too.

"A traveler without observation is like a bird without wings." unknown

Some views of the Stehekin Landing Resort in the North Cascades National Park, Washington State.  Above and the below are photos of the Stehekin Schoolhouse.

A view of the Stehekin Landing Resort our hotel for a couple of nights, reached only by the ferry or float plane.

 A few cabins

 A bakery and store.

I hope you enjoyed! Thanks for stopping by, enjoy your day!

" We take photos as a return ticket to a moment otherwise gone." unknown

I am link up with Scenic Sunday  with some pic's of the Rockport State Park and its old growth forest.

Being married to a tree hugger visiting the Rockport State Park during our North Cascades trip last fall was a must do. The Rockport State Park is an old growth forest and is 670 acres located along the lower Skagit River. The park has over 600 acres of old growth timber and has an ecosystem that has never been disrupted. It is a natural forest with a canopy so dense that only minimal sunlight penetrates to the ground.

 I am not positive but it seems that only the western states have the old growth forest. If anyone knows where we can find some more old growth forest on the east coast, hubby and I would love to visit. Since being married I have visited the tall Redwoods National Park, Sequoia National Park, I believe there were some old growth trees located in Yosemite when we visited and this last visit to the North Cascades National Park.

Walking along the trail, we saw these beautiful ferns and the gorgeous trees. It was a quiet place with only sounds of birds and sometimes the sound of water could be heard.

 

I have found a website showing the loss of old growth forest over the years and found it to be very alarming and sad. Here is a link Old growth forest. Looking at the map my state of Maryland does not show any old growth forest. It is no surprise the Forestry managers of Md seem to like the idea of clear cutting. You can click on the link to find your own state to see if there any old growth forest.

My photo below does not really show the size of this downed tree, but walking along next to it I felt small. Even dead trees provide shelter for mammals, birds and insect species.

I am one of the few who love these old forest and would hate to loose them all. I read that in the Pacific Northwest 80 percent of the forest are slated to be logged.  Old growth trees provide crucial resources that younger forest can not provide. From the canopy to the fallen decomposing trees old growth forest sustain a web of life from soil building organisms all the way up the food chain. What old growth forest are left in the USA need to be conserved.

I loved this early morning foggy Skagit River scene. The Pacific Northwest is beautiful area to visit.

Leavenworth goats, farm next to the sidewalk in town. 

Mt Baker..From a distance the goats looked like white rocks on the ground that is until they got up and walked away.

The Nooksack Falls is located a short distance off of the scenic Mt Baker Hwy. The Nooksack river flows thru a narrow valley and drops 88ft into the rocky river canyon.

 

These are my Watery Wednesday and Outdoor Wednesday thanks to both of the host 2sweetnsaxy and Susan. Also, thank you for stopping by to see my post.

On the last day at Stehekin we had just enough time to take the shuttle to the Rainbow Falls before we had to take the Lady Express back to Chelan. It was a one hour tour to the waterfalls and a stop at a one room school in Stehekin.  The weather was beautiful and a great day for our boat ride back to our car.

Rainbow Falls






















Lady Express leaving Stehekin, the skies were looking beautiful on our boat ride back to Chelan.






































After arriving back in the city of Chelan we hopped in our rental car and took off for our next stop along the Cascade Loop in the city of Leavenworth. You can see some of my Leavenworth photos here: http://viewingnaturewitheileen.blogspot.com/2010/09/leavenworth.html

You can check out these memes I am link up with 2 sweetnsaxy's  Watery Wednesday,  Susan's Outdoor Wednesday and my Skywatch Friday.


Thanks to all the wonderful hosts of these fun memes. Also thanks for visiting my blog and checking out my post.

Two and a half days of our Washington State vacation was spent in Stehekin which is part of the North Cascades National Park. The only way to get to Stehekin is by boat ride, float plane or by hiking in. We chose the Lady of the Lake  boat ride which starts in the town Lake Chelan and goes for 55 miles to Stehekin. There are two choices the slow boat Lady of the Lake for 4 hours or the Lady express for 2 and half hours. Our stay at Stehekin was for two nights so we just packed up what we needed for these days for our stay at the Stehekin Landing Resort. We decided to do the four hour boat ride on the first day and come back on the express. We would leave the dock at Lake Chelan at 8:30am and arrive in Stehekin at 12:30. We did make three stops along the way in places called Field Pt, Lucerne and another when we pulled to shore to pick up some backpackers. It is a very scenic boat ride starting off with beautiful lake homes, fields of apple trees and some vineyards near the town of Lake Chelan and eventually becoming all mountains on both sides of the lake. It did not rain but it was a very cloudy overcast day. The clouds added to the scene hanging low on the mountains. More about Stehekin on another post.


There were waterfalls along the lakeshore



I am linking up to Watery Wednesday and Outdoor Wednesday thanks to 2sweetnsaxy and Susan for hosting these great memes.

And thanks for stopping by to see my post and blog. I hope you enjoyed my post.