7.09.2006

for the birds

I love the West Coast! We climbed a mountain one day and went to the beach the next!

On Friday, we hiked a rather treacherous trail up Saddle Mountain, about half an hour from Astoria. It was absolutely beautiful, and well worth the life-threatening feats it took to make it to the summit. (I'm exaggerating, Mom...slightly...) From the top, we could see the peaks of all five snow-capped mountains in the region -- St. Helens, Hood, Rainier, Adams, and Jefferson. The trail has a lot of biodiversity, beginning in dense forest and ending in wild-flower covered prairies.

Saturday we went to a number of local beaches on the hunt for a Tufted Puffin. After driving five hours to where we heard they were breeding, we arrived only to find out that abnormally high tides had recently washed away their habitat. We still managed to see some other interesting birds, though, like Common Murres, a Rhinoceros Auklet, and a White-tailed Kite. It was pretty chilly, so no swimming this weekend, but as soon as the weather gets a little warmer, we'll definitely be back.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Love your new blog and getting to see and hear of your adventures. Enjoyed your links, too. Our vast country certainly is unique and beautiful! Looking forward to our visit. . . .

Anonymous said...

Hey girl. Nice blog! You will have to show me how to do this sometime... not that I have anything really interesting to post. "Hey everybody, here is the bar I went to tonight..." Ha. Well, I am jealous that you get to see such beautiful surroundings every day. The corn out here is getting tall. That is just as good as mountains, isn't it? Ugh, no. Love you guys. Looking forward to seeing you in September!

Sarah M. said...

Hey lady!

Loved the pics - sounds like it is working out to be an unbelievable summer :) So happy for you guys...
S