Washington state and Seattle

From Oregon, we continued to travel north to Washington.  One of the highlights of the state is Olympic National Park, which contains the Olympic mountains and some beautiful glacier-fed lakes. We considered camping but this early in the season (early May) the nights would have been very cold.  

So, instead, we stayed at a lovely and comfy lodge.  Here I (Tony) am basking in a glacial lake (Crescent Lake) at the lodge.  Can you guess how long I stayed in the water, even with my wet suit on?

Carolyn is surveying Cresent lake after an evening hike  

There are natural hot springs in the park.  To get there, you need to drive for about half an hour up a fairly steep lane, then hike for another 45 minutes. As you might expect, given the journey to get there, along with the time of year, the springs were mostly deserted.  All that was missing was a glass of wine.     

On the way up to the Springs, we stopped at a view point overlooking an azure-coloured lake.  

Here are some of the peaks of the Olympic mountains on the way up to Hurricane Ridge, an amazing destination at the top of one of the mountains. It affords a wonderful view of  the range.

At the top of Hurricane Ridge, we walked on one of the roads servicing the lookout.  They had had so much snow this winter, the banks of road were about 20 feet tall.

On to Seattle...  One of the first stops was the famous Space Needle.  Although it may seem to be only twice as tall as Carolyn, it is somewhat taller and affords a great view of the city.  

 Clear skies did not hurt either in a city known for its rain.  

An outdoor sculpture park.  The sculptures are in brown, not blue.  

The harbour front.  Seattle is a pretty city, and we were fortunate to have a couple of sunny days to explore it.  

 Next is our return to Canada (starting in Victoria) after about 5 months away in the U. S.  Onward! Till then,  C & T