Roadtrip to the Land of Giants

June 10, 2024 by Nicole Harrison in United States

In the first half of 2024, we took a break from international travel and took a road trip closer to home. I had been wanting to drive down to the southern Oregon coast and visit the California redwoods. The trip ended up being about 1400 miles over seven days, and we stopped at eight state parks, two national parks, a national monument, and a state scenic area.

Our first stop was a campsite in Sunset Bay State Park, where we set up camp and then spent some time hiking along the beach.

Sunset Bay beach at low tide (photo/Jason Rafal)

Nicole standing in front of a culvert to walk under a road. — A giant culvert to the beach (photo/Jason Rafal)

A wooden sign with an image of a route over the northern United States and a hot air balloon that says "From this point on October 4, 1973 Malcom Forbes of New York began the first transcontinental crossing of the United States in a hot air balloon." — There are a lot of interesting transcontinental journeys that began or ended in Oregon (photo/Jason Rafal)

A large, green, shiny leaf. — Giant leaves on the edge of the forest (photo/Jason Rafal)

Action shot of Nicole jumping over part of a muddle trail. — Mud obstacle course (photo/Jason Rafal)

A lighthouse perched on a rocky stretch of land, with ocean and rocks in the foreground. — Cape Arago Lighthouse (photo/Jason Rafal)

In the morning, we hiked down toward Cape Arago, where I had heard we could find some sea lions. The hike started with plants, birds, and a surprise deer on the beach.

An orange flower. — A pretty coastal flower (photo/Jason Rafal)

A deer trotting over a beach. — A deer ran across the beach on our morning hike (photo/Jason Rafal)

A small bird perched on a branch. — A cute Swainson’s Thrush (photo/Jason Rafal)

We heard them before we saw them, and once we got to the Simpson Reef lookout, we could see dozens of sea lions lounging on the beach. We could also see a lot of them swimming around the area.

Dozens of sea lions laying on a beach, surrounded by rocks. — Sea lions lounging on the beach at Simpson Reef (photo/Jason Rafal)

A rocky outcropping in the ocean, with some sea lions on the rocks and some swimming. — Lots of sea lions playing and lounging (photo/Jason Rafal)

We were looking for sea lions, but we also had a great view of lots of birds (we saw a crazy number of bald eagles during this trip) and some very sleepy harbor seals.

A bald eagle flying over the ocean and rocks, with seals asleep below it. — A bald eagle flies over sleeping harbor seals (photo/Jason Rafal)

After our morning hike, we packed up and headed down the coast to a room we rented for the night in Brookings, Oregon. On the way, we made a few stops for short hikes and pretty coastal views.

Looking down at two arches under the cliffs on the coastline. — Afternoon sun at Natural Bridges - you can see a person on top of the left one if you squint (photo/Jason Rafal)

Our VRBO was very close to Harris Beach State Park, which has a beautiful rocky beach.

Nicole on the beach, with a sunstar behind her. — On Harris Beach (photo/Jason Rafal)

The house we were staying at had amazing views of the ocean, and we spent a lot of time that evening watching the orange sunset over the rocks and water.

Jason and Nicole in front of a rocky beach. — Sunset views at our place (photo/Jason Rafal)

The sun setting beyond the ocean, with large rocks in the water in the foreground. — Sunset from our VRBO (photo/Jason Rafal)

Eight pelicans flying over the water. — Watching pelicans from our deck (photo/Jason Rafal)

We spent a beautiful morning at the beach before driving to California. The plants and animals that live among the rocks are so fun to watch.

The lovely Secret Beach (photo/Jason Rafal)

Small plants growing on top of a coastal rock, lit up by the morning sun. — Morning light on a very vegetation-covered rock (photo/Jason Rafal)

A dark rock face with black and white birds nesting. — Pigeon guillemots perched on a rock face (photo/Jason Rafal)

By the afternoon, we were hiking among giants in Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park. I love hanging out with these trees; their sheer size and the amount that has happened during their lifetimes is both amazing and comforting to me. They’re very difficult to photograph, but looking up is a good way to convey the feeling of being so very small.

Looking up at the top of a grove of redwood trees. — Looking up at the giant redwoods (photo/Jason Rafal)

A sunstar shining through the leaves of a giant tree. — A very large tree (photo/Jason Rafal)

The view through the tunnel created next to a redwood that fell over. — A very cool plant tunnel next to a fallen redwood (photo/Jason Rafal)

We spent the next couple of nights camping in Del Norte Coast Redwoods State Park, with very little service and lots of big trees.

Nicole standing between two large redwood trees. — Very large trees (photo/Jason Rafal)

A small, white, striped flower amidst leaves and a cobweb. — A delicate flower in the forest (photo/Jason Rafal)

A squirrel on a fallen tree. — A cute little squirrel (photo/Jason Rafal)

Ferns and other plants growing out of a fallen redwood tree stump. — I love how many plants a fallen tree in the forest can support (photo/Jason Rafal)

Nicole hugging a huge redwood tree. — In my happy place (photo/Jason Rafal)

A bright yellow slug. — A banana slug with a leaf hat (photo/Jason Rafal)

When we were driving to the beach to have lunch on the second day, we saw a sign for a skunk cabbage trail. I love skunk cabbage; there’s a ton of it where I grew up in Crested Butte during the summer, and I’ve never seen a large quantity outside of that. We didn’t see as much as we’d hoped for, but it was still a beautiful trail covered with ferns.

Nicole smiling at ferns and skunk cabbage. — Looking at the ferns and skunk cabbage (photo/Jason Rafal)

Plant stalks growing through the leaves of another plant. — A plant growing through the leaves of another plant (photo/Jason Rafal)

The next day, we drove to central Oregon, stopping at Crater Lake on the way. There was still quite a bit of snow, and the Rim Road isn’t open until July, but we drove to Discovery Point and walked around a bit to take some pictures. I didn’t have a lot of expectations, but the lake was really cool, with its absurdly deep blue water and snowy ridges on all sides.

Crater Lake, with snow in the foreground. — A sunny day at a snowy Crater Lake (photo/Jason Rafal)

We kept an eye out for the Clark’s Nutcracker, which lives at Crater Lake, and we saw them pretty quickly. They’re very loud, fluffy birds with big black beaks.

A gray and black bird perched on the edge of a dead branch. — A Clark's nutcracker perched on a dead tree (photo/Jason Rafal)

A gray bird with a large beak perched on an evergreen branch. — The nutcrackers, while larger than I expected, were adorable and fluffy (photo/Jason Rafal)

Our next couple of days were spent in Bend, where Jason worked some and we did some small afternoon hikes at Smith Rock and Newberry National Volcanic Monument.

Looking down at the Crooked River winding through large rock faces. — Dramatic views at Smith Rock State Park (photo/Jason Rafal)

A river and green plants running between tall rock towers. — More beautiful views (photo/Jason Rafal)

Looking up at a steep rock face, with lots of chalk spots from climbers on the rock. — We liked seeing the chalk from climbers on the sides of the rock face (photo/Jason Rafal)

Our last day in central Oregon was also very clear, and we had great views of the snow-capped peaks of the Sisters, Broken Top, and Bachelor. We went out to the Lava Butte lookout, where we hiked around the very apocalyptic-looking lava flow area.

A firetower on the edge of a caldera, with snow-capped mountain peaks in the background. — The view from the trail at the Lava Butte lookout, with the Sisters in the background (photo/Jason Rafal)

The apocalyptic scene from the caldera (photo/Jason Rafal)

A small plant with a flower made of tiny bulbs in the volcanic rock. — Little lava plants (photo/Jason Rafal)

A black lizard sitting on dark lava rock. — A little black lava lizard (photo/Jason Rafal)

Overall it was a great trip, with a variety of beautiful landscapes and a lot of lovely hikes. It was fun to get to explore more of the Pacific Northwest, and to hang out with some very old, very large trees.

2023 in Review

February 08, 2024 by Nicole Harrison in United States, Canada

2023 was perhaps not as balanced as we’d been planning originally - we ended up going to 8 countries, 7 of them in the last 6 months of the year. While it’s been amazing to travel so much, we’ve been missing having more time in Seattle, and it’s been really nice to take a look back at some of our local adventures, especially in the first half of the year.

Classic Puget Sound views - mountains and sailboats (photo/Jason Rafal)

A sailboat sitting on the water in the Puget Sound, with fluffy clouds in the background. — Jason continues lusting after sailboats (photo/Jason Rafal)

Close-up portrait photo of Caprica's face. — Testing out a new lens on Caprica (photo/Jason Rafal)

In February, we went to San Diego with friends for a long weekend and spent some time soaking in the beautiful sun and eating a lot of Mexican food.

People walking along the beach, with large sand cliffs on the right. — Looking for fun shore things at Torrey Pines (photo/Jason Rafal)

A pelican flying along over a rocky cliff alongside the ocean. — Many shorebirds (photo/Jason Rafal)

Several sea lions sitting on a large rock outcropping. — I always enjoy large piles of sea lions (photo/Jason Rafal)

Silhouettes of children climbing cliff rocks in the setting sun. — Sunset silhouettes (photo/Jason Rafal)

We also were able to fit in some camping over the summer, and we used our little drone to get some amazing pictures of the Washington wilderness. I had fun learning to fly the drone and clumsily edit together footage.

A drone shot looking down on the treetops of a forest. — Looking down at our campsite - see if you can spot us (photo/Jason Rafal)

A sunset drone photo of a dirt road winding through a forest, with snowcapped peaks in the background. — I love this wilderness so much (photo/Jason Rafal)

Sunset drone photo looking over forests and meadows toward snow-capped mountains. — A second view because I couldn’t pick one (photo/Jason Rafal)

Nicole holding a drone controller and looking up at the sky. — This is what it looks like to learn to fly a drone (photo/Jason Rafal)

Close-up of Nicole looking at the camera while holding a beer. — More experimentation with a new lens (photo/Jason Rafal)

Nicole lying in a red hammock in the woods. — The joys of camping (photo/Jason Rafal)

For Fourth of July weekend we drove up to Canada, where we stayed at a lakeside guest house outside of Vancouver and spent a couple of days relaxing and taking in amazing water views.

Dozens of kayakers paddling past two small docks at dusk. — Our relaxing sunset view (photo/Jason Rafal)

We also found some beautiful hikes in the area. British Columbia never ceases to amaze with its beauty.

Sunlight hitting the top of a waterfall and spilling down the side of the mountain. — Dramatic sunlight at Shannon Falls (photo/Jason Rafal)

Looking out toward a road winding between a mountain range and a large, turquoise body of water. — Looking south down Howe Sound (photo/Jason Rafal)

Jason got much more into birding this year, and he had fun learning about species of birds and how best to photograph them.

A cormorant sitting on the water with a small fish in its mouth, surrounded by three seagulls who want to take the fish. — Seagulls are always being jerks and trying to steal things (photo/Jason Rafal)

A cormorant floating on the water with a fish in its mouth. — A cormorant with a treat (photo/Jason Rafal)

A bird with beige, yellow, gray, and black feathers perching on a branch. — A beautiful cedar waxwing (photo/Jason Rafal)

A small bird sitting on a reed with its mouth open mid-song. — A very noisy songbird (photo/Jason Rafal)

Four strings of barbed wire, with two birds on the top wire and two on the second wire. — Birds on a line (photo/Jason Rafal)

Close-up of a small bird sitting on a string of barbed wire and glaring at the camera. — Glaring at the camera (photo/Jason Rafal)

A great blue heron sits on a ledge and releases a feather from its beak. — This heron was preening itself and releasing its feathers into the wind (photo/Jason Rafal)

Dozens of shore birds flying together low over the surf. — A collection of shorebirds (photo/Jason Rafal)

A fluffy owl perched on a branch in dense foliage. — A little owl peering down at us (photo/Jason Rafal)

As always, there were also lots of fun plants and animals.

A fuzzy bee hovering next to purple flowers. — A pastoral bee (photo/Jason Rafal)

A white flower with a bee in the middle, with green leaves and the blue sky in the background. — More flowers and bees (photo/Jason Rafal)

A rat perching on a small tree trunk and looking down at the ground, with its tail wound around the tree. — A rat in a tree (photo/Jason Rafal)

A small branch with yellow and pink flowers. — Weird little flower leaf things (photo/Jason Rafal)

A creek flowing through mossy rocks and logs. — We have so many of these pictures from around Washington and I love them all (photo/Jason Rafal)

A marmot sitting on a rock with a snowy meadow and a mountain in the background. — One of posing marmots in Mt. Rainier National Park (photo/Jason Rafal)

We went camping in Oregon with friends during the Perseid meteor shower, and while we weren’t in the best place to see a ton of meteors, it was incredibly peaceful to just lay on our backs and marvel at the stars.

Looking up between the silhouettes of tree branches at a night sky with shooting stars. — The stars I always miss in Seattle (photo/Jason Rafal)

Nicole riding a bike on a dirt road through a forest. — Riding a bike through a beautiful Oregon forest (photo/Jason Rafal)

We had friends visit from Colorado, and we showed them around both the wilderness and the city.

Martin opening a wooden box hanging from a log. — Martin opens some sort of geocache (photo/Jason Rafal)

A salmon staring through a glass window as it swims by. — Salmon at the Ballard fish ladder (photo/Jason Rafal)

A man assisting with the lock leans toward a boat to shout instructions. — Watching the sometimes chaos of the Ballard Locks (photo/Jason Rafal)

Martin, Rachel, and Nicole standing on the beach as sunset fades to dusk. — Inviting our friends to sunsets at Golden Gardens (photo/Jason Rafal)

A view of the Seattle waterfront from behind apartment and public storage buildings. — Moody Seattle waterfront (photo/Jason Rafal)

We were gone for a lot of the second half of the year, but it was an amazing autumn, and we spent much of our time in town on walks and hikes to marvel at the fall colors.

Close up photo of a spider in a web with colorful fall leaves in the background. — Fall mood spider (photo/Jason Rafal)

View looking up at an art installation of small suspended glass pieces made into a net. — An art installation at the Arboretum (photo/Jason Rafal)

View of a turquoise lake through pine trees. — The Cascade lake colors are always amazing (photo/Jason Rafal)

View across a lake to a cliff face with a lookout tower on top. — An alpine lake with a lookout far above (photo/Jason Rafal)

View across an alpine lake with colorful bushes and pine trees on the other side. — If you squint, you can see the side of Mt. Rainier in the background (photo/Jason Rafal)

Autumn light falling between a metal tower and a brick building with an orange-leaf tree behind. — Light (photo/Jason Rafal)

Close up photo of dozens of tiny mushrooms on a tree trunk. — So many tiny mushrooms (photo/Jason Rafal)

Looking up a large tree trunk covered in ferns. — An incredible tree completely enveloped by other plants (photo/Jason Rafal)

A moss-covered branch with red leaves in the background. — I will forever love all of the moss here (photo/Jason Rafal)

Black and white photo looking out from under a bridge to a beach, with the Olympic mountains in the distance. — Moody beach days (photo/Jason Rafal)

Nicole walking on a street corner with sunshine shining through yellow leaves. — That autumn sun and those yellow leaves (photo/Jason Rafal)

People sitting on the lawn in front of Green Lake in the afternoon sun with a flock of geese flying overhead. — Green Lake is always a pretty magical place, but fall is an especially special time there (photo/Jason Rafal)

As always, thanks for reading along with our adventures this year, and we hope you’ve enjoyed the pictures. We’re going for more balance in 2024, but as always, we’ll just have to see what life brings us. We feel so lucky to live in this beautiful place and be able to explore so much!

Nicole and Jason standing on a log in front of a lake and forested mountains. — Us on a backpacking trip in 2023 (yes, Jason is wearing a bug suit) (photo/Martin Brandt)

2022 in Review

February 22, 2023 by Nicole Harrison in United States

We did a lot in 2022, from traveling to attending weddings to seeing friends. These photos from the year aren’t from one of our large trips, but they encompass more of what made the year special overall.

The Space Needle from the Bainbridge ferry, with a dock and apartment buildings in the foreground. — One of the best views of Seattle is from the Bainbridge ferry (photo/Jason Rafal)

We spent most of the spring in the Seattle area, where we hiked and enjoyed the views as the days got longer.

The beautiful Olympic mountains on a rare sunny winter day

A surprise baby seal at Discovery Park

A fun trail obstacle

A lovely view from Queen Anne

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A winter sunstar in Leavenworth

In March, we got together with Jason’s family for the GOES-T launch in Cocoa Beach. Between the launch, visiting the Kennedy Space Center, and spending time at the beach, we all enjoyed ourselves. Jason rented a big lens just for the occasion.

Our view of the GOES-T launch at Kennedy Space Center

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The Firing Room Theater at the Kennedy Space Center

The Saturn V rocket

Nicole and Ally at the beach

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An extensive mini golf course with the Rafals

Since we were on the East Coast anyway, we flew up to Virginia to spend some time with Jason’s family and visit a whole lot of baby animals. I always love an excuse to cuddle with baby goats.

The adorable Adele

Hiking at Ivy Creek

Cuddling with baby goats <3

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This is what happiness looks like

In August, we went to a wedding at Lake Tahoe. I had never been and was really excited, and it didn’t disappoint. There were parts of the area that felt surprisingly similar to Colorado, but the giant, beautiful lake is really one of a kind. We’d love to go back.

Lake Tahoe is amazing for drone shots

Eagle Lake

Jason took lots of beautiful pictures of plants and flowers over the year.

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Jason wanted me to specify that this one was in Texas, not Washington

Jason also took a lot of photos of animals, from pets to wild birds (he’s getting increasingly into birding).

Albus posing adorably, as usual

Trying out a new zoom lens on Caprica

A cute little Canada Jay

We spent some time in the summer camping, hiking, and exploring. It was nice to see friends and get the Jeep dirty.

Nicole and Megan on the Olympic Peninsula

Find the people climbing down the trail

A dirty Jeep is a happy Jeep

Jarod catching a fish

We also got a little drone, and we took some pretty shots from above our house.

An aerial view of the rose garden near our house

A sunset view of city

Our house is near the Seattle Zoo, so we got memberships to add it to our walking options around our place. Jason enjoyed practicing his wildlife photography, particularly once the birds were let out again after the avian flu quarantine.

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As always, Seattle is beautiful and we feel lucky to live here. We’ll see where 2023 takes us.

Two boats on the Puget Sound at sunset with the Olympic mountains in the background. — Sailors at sunset from Golden Gardens park (photo/Jason Rafal)

2021 in Review

January 30, 2022 by Nicole Harrison in United States

In 2021, we tried to balance a lot of outdoor time with finally getting to see people in person. We moved out of our downtown apartment and bought a townhouse, and we spent a lot of time exploring our new neighborhood as well. We miss the view from our apartment, but I’m really enjoying having a private door to the outside. The pandemic has continued to be rough in many ways, but we’ve been very lucky to keep having new experiences in our adopted PNW home.

Something I have really learned to appreciate in Seattle is sunlight in January. It’s rare, but when it does happen, the low angle of the light is always beautiful, no matter what time of day. It’s almost special enough to make all of the gray days worth it.

Sunlight through the Boulder River canyon

Nicole at Boulder River Falls

More light through the canyon

In the spring, we spent some time playing in the snow, which I still miss from living in Colorado. Seattle stays pretty snow-free in the winter, but the snowy mountains are just a couple of hours away.

Dramatic clouds around the Mt. Baker ski area

The start of an ill-fated snowshoe trip

Hikers taking a picture on top of frozen Lake Twentytwo

Spring also brought a lot of beautiful flowers.

Spring blossoms

A flowering bush

A striking water lily flower

Jason found many small creatures to take pictures of.

On one of our hikes, Jason spent a long time trying to take the right picture of a dragonfly (I think this one succeeded)

A bee and a flower

Jason has been getting into taking photos of birds, which is concerning for his lens collection

A smaller bee with a bigger flower

A small lizard friend

A coho salmon swimming upstream

Our first camping trip of the year was at the end of a washed out forest service road, and it had an amazing view. The Jeep has opened up a lot of dispersed camping options for us, and we love it.

Photo of a tent next to a Jeep next to a grove of trees, with mountains in the background. — One of my favorite campsites

The summer was full of beautiful landscapes.

The view at Packwood Lake

The view from Dog Mountain

A beautiful autumn stream

Sunset near Mt. Ellinor

The view over the North Fork Nooksack River

A set of small waterfalls

For my birthday weekend we met friends at a cabin near Mt. Adams, where we stared at the views of the mountain at every single time of day.

I woke up at random, saw this sunrise, and made Jason get up to photograph it

Midday

Sunset

Dusk

A selection of water pictures from the summer - waterfalls, streams, and rivers.

Nicole and Martin behind a waterfall

Martin, waterfall model

From the inside of a waterfall

A stream and a sunbeam on my birthday

A picturesque lunch spot on a backpacking trip

The view from one of our campsites

Nooksack Falls

In the fall, Jason had a short work trip to New York. It was wonderful to be able to walk around the city and eat all the amazing food.

Jason had a weekend trip with friends to Palm Springs and Joshua Tree, where he took a lot of pictures of spiky plants.

A cactus in Joshua Tree National Park

Abstracted leaves

The world of Joshua trees

The view at Joshua Tree National Park

Washington is, as always, full of tiny, fascinating plants and animals.

Tiny mushrooms

A spiderweb contrasting with the human-made signage

Cold autumn leaves

Tiny tiny organisms

Since we live four blocks from the zoo, we decided we had to go see the animals.

Happy penguins

Some zebras pass by a giraffe

A resting warthog

I believe this is a Steller’s sea eagle

A passing gorilla

This is a somewhat random collection of photos from around town over the year.

Caprica on our new roof deck

One of the final sunrise views before we moved out of our downtown apartment.

Nicole with the Fremont Troll in our new neighborhood

Floating lanterns at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Ceremony at Green Lake

The adventurous Pika at St. Edward State Park.

Pike and the sunset

And then some random photos from day and weekend trips.

The mouth of the Columbia River from Astoria

Nicole points out…something

Nicole and Megan at a beautiful lunch spot

The life of Portland Party Puppy, Instagram star

Albus…sniffing the water

The sun through the trees from our cabin porch on a weekend trip

We ended the year in Astoria with this view of a tree and a cat.

Waves and Mountains

December 14, 2021 by Nicole Harrison in United States

Halfway through our trip, we moved to a resort in Wailea, on the southern coast. It was much flatter and drier on that side of the island, but the feral chickens remained (they seem to be everywhere, and I don’t hate it).

A rooster slowly circles us at Maui Brewing (photo/Jason Rafal)

One of the handsome feral colony cats (photo/Jason Rafal)

Sunsets on the beach (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of two naked people made of sand on the beach — A magnificent art piece we found on the beach (photo/Jason Rafal)

We went on a snorkeling and scuba trip to Molokini Crater, which is one of the classic snorkeling spots off the coast. We also opted to try Snuba as a less-intense intro to see whether we’d ever be interested in scuba diving.

I’m a nose breather and get paranoid about running out of air, so it was difficult for me to adjust to the basic breathing mechanics of Snuba. Our instructor, who was exceedingly patient, finally told me to just stop thinking and stay underwater. I still wasn’t extremely comfortable after that, but I was able to enjoy the beautiful fish and have some fun. After a few minutes of Snuba, we did some normal snorkeling and saw a rare Hawaiian monk seal, which you’ll have to take my word for because we didn’t have a camera with that range underwater.

Photo of Nicole in the water with Snuba equipment on — I was still trying to figure out what I was doing (photo/Jason Rafal)

Underwater photo of fish and the legs of swimming people — Honestly the iPhone-in-a-bag thing worked better than expected (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of Nicole under the water in Snuba equipment — Learning the ropes (photo/Jason Rafal)

Beautifully patterned fish (photo/Jason Rafal)

When it started to look like the weather might get less favorable in the next couple of days, we decided to go up to Haleakala National Park for sunset. The classic trip is going up for sunrise, but that required either obtaining a rare permit or joining a group tour bus, and we didn’t feel like we wanted it that bad. We thought we had more time, but there was a long line to get into the park, so we got to the visitor center right before sunset and had to jog up to the summit. Jogging at 10,000 feet is no joke. We made it up to the top the minute the sun started to touch the horizon and watched with a few dozen people while it went down and the entire sky began to glow with bands of color. We both agreed that it was worth the drive, and also that we’d come up during the day and hike around next time. I’d also love to go up for stargazing - the incredibly clear 360 degree views would be incredible.

Photo of the Haleakala Observatory in front of a sunset — The Haleakala Observatory on our run up to the summit (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of the Haleakala Crater covered in clouds at sunset — The cloud-covered Haleakala crater with the shadow of the summit behind (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of the Haleakala sunset — Instagram version - all alone at the top (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of people taking pictures of the Haleakala sunset — Reality - jostling for space at the summit (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of a man standing on the roof of a car watching the Haleakala sunset — A man watches the sunset fade from the roof of his car (photo/Jason Rafal)

After a full day of relaxing (kind of crazy for us), we checked out on Monday and went on a drive around West Maui before our red eye flight. We started out by driving to Lahaina, which is a very pretty and very touristy beach town that was the capital of the Hawaiian kingdom in the early 1800s. Apparently the town was a center of prostitution as the sailors came into port until the newly converted queen made it illegal.

Our next stop was Honolua Bay, which is amazing in a few ways. To get there, you have to walk through a forest of huge trees that’s apparently also full of unmarked graves. The path itself is on private land, but all beaches in Hawaii are public so there has to be some sort of access. The beach is rocky but fairly protected, and there were several people snorkeling. The beach also provides a good view of the surfers at the edge of the bay, so we watched them for a while.

Photo of tree branches covered in vines — Massive trees covered in vines (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of a rooster — A very handsome rooster (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of a heron flying over the ocean — A heron flies over the ocean (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of surfers in the water — Watching surfers from Honolua Bay (photo/Jason Rafal)

The next stop was Nakalele Blowhole, which we had seen from above on our helicopter tour. It’s a blowhole on the coast surrounded by volcanic rock, and it reminds me of the geysers in Yellowstone. It’s surprisingly large at times, and the spray kept creating rainbows as it dissipated. My favorite part was actually the coral-like volcanic rocks, which were often smooth on one side and sharp and spiky on the other.

Photo of the Nakalele Blowhole — The Nakalele Blowhole, which we also saw from the helicopter (photo/Jason Rafal)

After the blowhole, our audio guide firmly recommended that we turn around and drive back the way we came, and I made the call to keep going around the north shore of the island. This turned out to be a highly questionable decision, as it took us on an often one-lane mountain pass. Trying to pass other people was dangerous at the best of times and impossible at the worst. At one point we had to inch past a rental mustang that had tried to get around someone and had gotten stuck halfway off the side of the cliff (we saw the driver down the road on the phone, and then a tow truck with a very grumpy driver coming up the road a few minutes later). I was continuously thankful that Jason is such a good driver as we inched around blind corners and I scouted for oncoming cars as we drove along the hillside. You can tell we were stressed because we have zero pictures. For what it’s worth, it was incredibly remote and gorgeous, but I don’t think Jason would want to drive it again.

Once we got down to Kahului, we went to a beach and spent an hour sitting, drinking a beer, and watched the kite surfers as the sun dropped low in the sky. It was an excellent way to end the trip.

Photo of wind surfers with west Maui in the background — Sitting and watching the kitesurfers (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of a man jumping above the water while kitesurfing — Things I would never be able to do (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of a beach at sunset with kites in the air and on the ground — The last sunset of the trip (photo/Jason Rafal)

If you’ve read this far, here are some restaurant recommendations from our trip:

Paia Fish Market: there are a few locations, but we went to the one in Paia. It features customizable entrees and quality fish.
Mama’s Fish House: this is definitely a more upscale choice, but the ambience, drinks, and food were all very enjoyable, and the restaurant has a beautiful location on the beach.
Baked on Maui: this is a great breakfast and lunch place near the start of the Road to Hana.
Monkeypod Kitchen: there are a couple of locations. The food is really solid and the drinks are amazing - it’s always on the top of the list for best Mai Tai in Hawaii.
Kihei Caffe: another good breakfast and lunch place with a great loco moco
Cuatro: a BYOB latin fusion restaurant with two seatings per day. The food is excellent and it has an unassuming vibe.
Drift Coffee: the best coffee we had on the island.
Star Noodle: a picturesque restaurant on the water with a variety of soup and dry noodle dishes.

Basically, go to Maui. It’s amazing.

Far Above Jurassic Park

December 08, 2021 by Nicole Harrison in United States

During our trip to Maui we took a helicopter ride, and this beautiful collection of photos seemed to deserve their own blog post.

It was a struggle to find a company that would have doors off and also allow Jason to bring a real camera, and we ended up booking a private tour with Go Fly Maui, a small company that’s mostly a helicopter pilot training school but also does some private photography flights. The co-owner and our pilot, Nick, recommended a flight path and then we set off over western Maui.

Photo of an aerial map of the Hawaiian islands — The map Nick used to suggest routes (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of ocean waves from above — Waves from above (photo/Jason Rafal)

Doors-off helicopter flights aren’t for everyone - I think I would have been pretty nervous if I hadn’t been up in both a helicopter and an open-cockpit biplane before. It helped knowing that our pilot was good enough to both teach other people and put up with crazy professional photographers. Nick was also fun to hang out with and pointed out all the points of interest.

Photo of the Maui coast — Flying along the west Maui coast (photo/Jason Rafal)

We started off by flying along the northern coast of Maui, where we saw jagged cliffs, surfers, and beautiful beaches.

The Nakalele blowhole from above (photo/Jason Rafal)

After we hit the northernmost edge of the island, we headed up into the mountains. The mountains of west Maui are largely inaccessible except by helicopter or backcountry expedition, and I was excited to get to see the area. It’s a ton of absurdly lush jungle with absurdly tall waterfalls and, predictably, looks a lot like Jurassic Park. There’s a drought right now, but the majority of the waterfalls still had water tumbling down hundreds of feet of cliffs. The scale was impossible for my mind to comprehend - I kept trying to look at trees to figure out relative sizing, but it only got me so far. I have rarely felt so small.

Photo of Honokohau Falls — The awe-inspiring, 1,100-foot Honokohau Falls (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo looking down a waterfall — Looking down (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of a helicopter cockpit — I tried to just let Nick worry about what all of these meant (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of the Wall of Tears — The Wall of Tears (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of the Needle — The Needle (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of a mountain ridge with the ocean in the background — Looking south (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of mountains with the ocean in the background — West Maui Forest Reserve with Pacific Ocean behind (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of mountains — Looking east (photo/Jason Rafal)

After the mountains we headed back toward the airport, over ground that looked very flat and brown by comparison. Maui had sugar cane processing until 2016, and Nick pointed out the old equipment as we flew overhead.

Photo of sugar processing equipment — Old sugar processing equipment (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of Nicole on the helicopter — Back on the ground; obviously had a terrible time (photo/Jason Rafal)

If you can’t tell from the above photos, the helicopter ride was amazing. If you’re not afraid of heights and are okay with the expense (it was the most we spent on an activity on the island by far), we would definitely recommend it. When we drove around the west side of Maui later in the trip, it was really cool to see some of the coastal places we had flown by at ground level as well.

Bugs, Beaches, Banana Bread

December 04, 2021 by Nicole Harrison in United States

Maui was our first trip out of the continental US in two years, and after having to cancel two planned trips due to covid, neither of us was actually able to get excited about being on a trip until we actually got to the island. After about 24 hours, I started to feel like I could relax and believe that I was on vacation. It helps that Maui is gorgeous and easy to get around, and the food is wonderful.

For the first half of our trip we stayed in an Airbnb in Upcountry Maui near Makawao. The listing warned that we’d need to be alright with jungle sounds, which I was excited about. We got to the cabin after dark and the surrounding forest was full of the sounds of bugs, wind through leaves, and the occasional feral chicken cluck. In the morning we were woken by roosters (several times) and treated to an expansive view of forest, mountains, and a bit of ocean. Our host gave us a tour of her property, which is a garbage-dump-turned-coffee-farm that is dotted with fruit trees, ancient burial sites, and some amazing rock drawings along the river. We also each got approximately 30 bug bites on the tour, which we treated with calamine lotion from the cabin while being overwhelmed by nostalgia.

Phot of the view from the cabin over a jungle with mountains in the distance — The view from our cabin in Upcountry Maui (photo/Jason Rafal)

The spiders were equal parts harmless and alarming (photo/Jason Rafal)

Learning about the pictographs and petroglyphs

Riding around with Sydney

An incredibly old mango tree

Trees on the property

Coffee plants with coffee berries

The mesmerizing banyan tree, with new roots dropping toward the ground

A lifebuoy at one of the swimming holes

On our first afternoon we decided to drive a little bit up the road to Hana to see a couple of attractions and get some food at a roadside stand. The stand was closed, either from covid or it being Thanksgiving week, so we pressed on to the next stand and ate banana bread for lunch before doing a little exploring. First lesson learned: never count on availability of food on the road to Hana. Once we had at least some food, our first visit was to the Keanae peninsula, where we ate bread and watched the waves crash against the dark volcanic rocks. The banana bread (Aunty Sandy’s) and the coast are both worth a stop in their own right, but together they are really excellent.

Delicious banana bread after a long drive

The view at Keanae Lookout

After the peninsula we went back toward town and stopped at the Garden of Eden arboretum, which is one of many stops on the road to Hana that is privately owned. Land rights for these areas are very interesting - some of them are private and you pay to go onto the land, some are private and you will be trespassing if you go onto the land, and some (though not a lot) are public land (state, regional, or national parks). The Garden of Eden charges admission but is definitely worth a visit to see a beautiful variety of tropical plants.

Photo of an older black dog with a lei and a ribbon that says "Hawaii" — The garden’s guard dog, a sweetheart named Dan D Lion (photo/Jason Rafal)

I’m still trying to figure out what kind of tree this is, but it was amazing to stand under (photo/Jason Rafal)

We spent sunset on a local beach, hanging out with sea turtles. They’re awesome and calming all at the same time.

On Wednesday we set out early to do the full road to Hana. It’s a wonderful experience, but it’s an incredibly long day trip. We made 8 stops with some short hikes and didn’t swim at all, and it took almost 12 hours round trip. I’ve heard that some people stay overnight in Hana, which is definitely a good idea if you want to see more. It’s also a good idea to get an audio guide that you can play in your car. We bought one from the (somewhat problematically named) GyPSy Guides, but once we got back I heard there’s a local version as well. The guides are downloadable and tell you information when you hit certain GPS points, which is really helpful in areas without service, and they also share a lot of interesting history and culture.

Since we got an early start, we were able to get parking at the very popular Twin Falls, which includes a short hike to a couple of lovely waterfalls. Some of the non-volcanic rock walls here have a beautiful honeycomb pattern, which makes the waterfalls even more interesting to me. We didn’t swim because it was 8 am and 65 degrees out, but it would have been a nice place to swim.

The waterfall at the end of the Twin Falls trail - if you look closely, you can see two annoying drones

I love the honeycomb rocks at this waterfall

Stupid invasive fire ants

A tiny friend

A collection of businesses on the road to Hana

Our next stop was the Hana Lava Tube, where we explored the large cavern with flashlights while reading informative signs. The cave was relatively untouched and completely unlit, which was a nice alternative to some other caves we’ve been to, and we saw a lot of stalactites and stalagmites.

Reading the signs in the lava tube

A very bold plant trying to grow in the darkness

My favorite part was the view up to the entrance

Our next stop was Wai'ānapanapa State Park, which was one of my favorite areas of the day. They recently switched to a reservation system, so you have to book a time slot in advance and be in and out within that 2.5 hour window. There’s a black sand beach, which was quite crowded but still awesome, and a hiking trail that winds through black rocks and neon green vegetation along the coast. It was pretty amazing.

The somewhat crowded black sand beach

Tell me you spent 3 days in the jungle without telling me

We ate lunch in Hana, which is tiny and adorable and has several food trucks (though most of them were closed). After lunch we pressed on.

Since there was parking available and we had to take advantage of that, we stopped quickly at Waioka pond, which would be an amazing place to jump off rocks and swim if you’re not in a hurry, and then Wailua falls, which is another beautiful and quite tall waterfall.

The Hana Highway from an overlook

Insane water colors at Waioka pond

An adorable cat at one of the parks

The lovely Wailua Falls

Our last top was just inside Haleakalā National Park, where we took the Pīpīwai Trail. This was my other favorite part of the day. We hiked through a bamboo forest, where the wind made the bamboo stalks clink together, and I felt like I was surrounded by a giant wooden wind chime. The end of the trail is a valley with a huge waterfall, which was beautiful as well. The bamboo forest alone makes it worth the trip, but it is half an hour past Hana and takes some extra time. The park also has smaller waterfalls, pools, and a beautiful rugged coastline.

An amazing Banyan tree on the trail

A moment of peace in the bamboo forest

Waimoku Falls

Photo of a stone bridge over two waterfalls against the backdrop of a forest — The view looking up ‘Ohe’o Gulch (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of Nicole sitting on a rock with the ocean on the background — Nicole on the coast next to ‘Ohe’o Gulch (photo/Jason Rafal)

Since the road to Hana is busy tourist destination with complicated property laws and access rules, these are the general tourist guidelines that should always be followed:

Pull over to let locals pass
Don’t go on private property unless explicitly invited to do so
Don’t stop or park on the road
Respect No Parking signs
Don’t use drones
Generally, just be respectful and kind and ready to change plans when needed

After our long driving day, we spent Thanksgiving cooking and relaxing in the cabin before we migrated to the other side of the island for the rest of our trip.

Photo of Nicole sitting on the porch of a cabin with a rainbow over the jungle in the background — We got a rainbow for Thanksgiving on our last morning at the cabin (photo/Jason Rafal)

Off to the Islands

July 11, 2021 by Nicole Harrison in United States

At the start of the year, when we weren’t sure what covid would look like by mid-year and whether we’d be vaccinated, we booked a 4th of July trip to Orcas Island as an excursion that would be fairly local but also pretty different from our normal lives. Even when we were able to get vaccinated in April and May, we were excited to spend some time in the islands.

Orcas Island is the largest of the San Juan islands, which are near the Canadian border and are just as close to Vancouver Island as the Washington mainland. The trip from Seattle involves an hour and a half drive and then an hour ferry ride, so it feels like a fairly significant trip. Orcas is known for its beauty and plethora of outdoor recreation opportunities. We stayed in the little town of Eastsound, where we could walk to restaurants and also enjoy water views.

A ridiculously beautiful potato dish (photo/Jason Rafal)

Dinner on a beautiful patio (photo/Jason Rafal)

Our first non-food activity was the one I was most unsure whether I wanted to do - a biplane ride. A husband and wife team run a small business taking people on flights in a 1927 biplane, and when Jason said he wanted to go, I decided I would probably be able to get through it without throwing up.

Our plane (which was a whole 5 years newer than the stamp claimed) (photo/Jason Rafal)

After receiving our safety briefing, life jackets, ear plugs, caps, and goggles, we climbed into the plane. We just barely fit in the side by side seat in the front (it was made for much smaller people), and our pilot sat in the seat behind us. Climbing into the plane did not raise my confidence - at first glance, it looks flimsy at best and hazardous at worst. It’s all delicate wings and small sticks tied together. As soon as we took off, though, I felt immediately better. The plane is loud, since it’s not a closed cockpit, but it’s so light that ascending felt effortless.

The view from the air (photo/Jason Rafal)

We saw dozens of sailboats hanging out in coves (photo/Jason Rafal)

A view of the terrifying plane wings in the evening light (photo/Jason Rafal)

For an hour, we flew around the islands, flying to the top of Mount Constitution at 2400 feet elevation before dropping down to almost skim the water. It was exceptionally fun, even as I kept turning sideways to give Jason a little more room to take pictures.

A peek of the Mount Constitution tower (photo/Jason Rafal)

Mount Constitution with the San Juan Islands in the distance (photo/Jason Rafal)

Flying low around an island (photo/Jason Rafal)

Circling while waiting for our turn to land (photo/Jason Rafal)

The next day, we drove to the top of Mount Constitution to take in the sights. The mountain is in Moran State Park, which has lovely forests, lakes, and views of the islands. The top of the mountain has a weird medieval-style tower built by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 30s, which is visually confusing but gets you up a little higher to see the views. We could see Mount Baker in the distance on the mainland, as well as some of the Cascades and a tiny bit of Mount Rainier.

In my happy place: on top of a mountain (photo/Jason Rafal)

Mount Baker on the mainland (photo/Jason Rafal)

A rather flustered bird (photo/Jason Rafal)

From the top of the mountain, we took a hike before heading to Buck Bay Shellfish Farm for lunch. This restaurant came highly recommended, and for good reason - it’s casual, has lovely outdoor seating, and the food is great.

After lunch we headed back to the park to paddle board on one of the lakes, where we alternated between laying in the sun and doing some strenuous paddling against the wind.

Jason floats in the sun (photo/Nicole Harrison)

On Sunday we hiked in Turtleback Mountain Preserve on the other side of the island, which had similarly great views of San Juan Island and Canada, and then spent the rest of the day hanging out and browsing the shops in Eastsound.

Some very green marsh scum (photo/Jason Rafal)

We joined the handful of people at Orcas Knob (photo/Jason Rafal)

Foxgloves on the trail (photo/Jason Rafal)

The north beaches of Orcas have exceptional sunsets, so we headed over there at about 9:00 each night to take in the views. There’s no large public beach, but there are a couple of small chunks of coast where we could sit with our fellow sunset seekers and take in the view.

Taking in the colors (photo/Jason Rafal)

The sun touches the horizon on a clear evening (photo/Jason Rafal)

The waves created by boats made a lovely texture contrast (photo/Jason Rafal)

It was a wonderful long weekend, only slightly soured by the cancelation of a ferry that resulted in us waiting for about 4 hours to board the next one. I suppose that’s island life.

2020 in Review

January 01, 2021 by Nicole Harrison in United States

I already wrote a little about 2020 in a previous post, As Far West As We Could Go, but it’s been quite a sobering ride. Looking back through photos, it’s bizarre but really nice to see pictures that feel like forever ago when it’s felt like time has been frozen for so long. I’ve been learning to appreciate how lucky we were in 2020, and these photos really back that up.

Right before everything shut down, we had two friends come out to visit us a week apart. Sage and I got tattoos; we went exploring on an island with Martin; we all spent time with Loki before losing him about six weeks later. In the first part of the year, we also spent time at social events without masks, which just looks wrong now.

Family picture with Sage

The initial outline of my tattoo

A man and his stick

A dragon sneaks up during a Chinese New Year celebration

And then, suddenly, none of those things were happening anymore.

A deserted scene in Pike Place Market (photo/Jason Rafal)

We went to Astoria, Oregon and the nearby coast to spend some socially distant time with friends and family a couple times over the year.

We saw a lot of fun and crazy looking plants and animals on our hikes.

We had some wonderful times at lakes.

Paddleboarding on Baker Lake

A sunny morning on Fish Lake

The beautiful view at Picture Lake

Lily Lake in the snow

We also spend some beautiful times at the coast (and sound).

A sunset at Cape Disappointment

Dramatic mountain views from the Dungeness Spit

Riding the ferry back to Seattle from Bainbridge at sunset

Looking out over Samish Bay

A paraglider at the Samish Overlook

I am running out of categories, so here are some random photos from hikes in 2020.

Of course, I have to include some photos of our amazing view of Seattle, especially since we will be leaving this apartment soon. Please enjoy a sunrise, a few pictures of the moon (one with a bonus firework), and a picture of the awful air quality during the late summer fires.

Thanks for following along with this year’s adventures in the Pacific Northwest. It’s been a really rough year in a lot of ways, but we’re grateful to have spent it together in this beautiful place. Hopefully we’ll get to see some of you in person in 2021.

Mount Rainier, This Time in Winter

December 30, 2020 by Nicole Harrison in United States

Between Christmas and New Year’s, we spent a couple of days in a cabin near Mount Rainier. We got incredibly lucky with weather, as we were there between snow storms, and we were able to do a lot of beautiful hiking and snowshoeing.

Some mushrooms that look like potato chips (photo/Jason Rafal)

The lower elevations in the park were incredibly green (photo/Jason Rafal)

A log providing a home for other plants (photo/Jason Rafal)

A somewhat rare photo of both of us (photo/Jason Rafal)

We got lucky with weather for the entire trip, but the day we went snowshoeing was amazing - we had a completely clear, bright blue sky above the snow-covered mountain. It was visually overwhelming, but very beautiful.

Jason is enjoying sunstars on his new camera (photo/Jason Rafal)

Following tracks down the slope (photo/Jason Rafal)

Windswept snow against a saturated sky (photo/Jason Rafal)

I insisted on sitting in the snow, but I almost took us both down trying to get back up (photo/Jason Rafal)

A classic winter scene (photo/Jason Rafal)

After a day of snowshoeing, we went to Alder Lake, down the valley from Rainier, and spent some time exploring the otherworldly land of mud and stumps.

A wholly different planet than earlier in the day (photo/Jason Rafal)

In addition to sunstars, he’s also leaning into black and white (photo/Jason Rafal)

On our way home, we decided to hike to a set of waterfalls. The hike was a bit harder than anticipated on tired legs, but the waterfalls were all wonderful.

It had a very Jurassic Park feel (photo/Jason Rafal)

Slightly frozen mud everywhere (photo/Jason Rafal)

A tiny, very bright fungus (photo/Jason Rafal)

It was a very fun trip to finish off an exceptionally rough year, and I find myself very grateful to be in Washington right now.

Moody Weather in Glacier National Park

October 17, 2020 by Nicole Harrison in United States

In early October, following a crazy couple of months of work, we drove to northern Montana for a few days at Glacier National Park. Glacier had been on my list for a while, and I was especially excited to be able to get out there in 2020. In a somewhat unfortunate turn of events, the Going to the Sun road through the park closed due to snow and never opened up again while we were there, but it actually made it a little easier to just focus on the western side of the park.

The weather was definitely challenging, with a lot of rain and moody clouds. There were also more people than usual in the western area of the park; this was partially due to an increase in covid-driven visitation, and partially because only a third of the park was open. We ended up getting creative with which area we visited at which time, which was essential to handle both the weather and the unexpected crowds.

A dim sunrise over Lake McDonald on our first morning at the park (photo/Jason Rafal)

We were there at a great time for fall colors. Many of the aspens were a bright yellow, and the larches were beginning to turn too.

Contrasting trees and dramatic clouds (photo/Jason Rafal)

Birds flying away from a colorful aspen tree (photo/Jason Rafal)

When the main road was too busy for our comfort level, we went out to Bowman Lake, which ended up being an amazing choice. The weather cleared somewhat while we were there, and the sun rays were beautiful against the mountains.

Quickly moving clouds at Bowman Lake (photo/Jason Rafal)

More beautiful scenery at Bowman Lake (photo/Jason Rafal)

I know, it’s the same mountains, but they are just so beautiful (photo/Jason Rafal)

We were also able to spend some time at the Avalanche area, which is a top destination in the park for a reason. It’s incredibly beautiful, and Avalanche Creek, which runs along the trail to Avalanche Lake, has amazing carved red rocks that contrast with the green moss and clear blue-green water.

Looking down into the creek (photo/Jason Rafal)

The view up the creek (photo/Jason Rafal)

Avalanche Lake is much smaller than Bowman Lake, but incredibly dramatic - it reminded me of some of the lakes in Rocky Mountain National Park.

The view from the other side of Avalanche Lake (photo/Jason Rafal)

I can’t remember what Jason was saying, but he was being funny (photo/Jason Rafal)

More mountain views from the lake (photo/Jason Rafal)

Going to Glacier for a few days was wonderful, and we will definitely be going back to see the rest of the park (slightly earlier in the year). For now, I’ll leave you with this adorable donkey that lived next to our Airbnb.

Hundreds of Views of Mount Rainier

September 09, 2020 by Nicole Harrison in United States

For Labor Day weekend, we got a campsite near Mount Rainier National Park and had an amazing weekend exploring. It was definitely one of my favorite weekends of 2020.

In our experience, the secret to visiting a national park on a holiday weekend and not going insane is to get up early to see the parts of the park you really want to see, and then spend the afternoon relaxing while everyone is is crowding them. For us, relaxing happened at our large, very forested campsite.

One of my very favorite campsites (photo/Nicole Harrison)

A small lake against the backdrop of shorter mountains in the park (photo/Jason Rafal)

Any trip to Mount Rainier National Park, when it’s clear out at least, involves a lot of staring at the weirdly captivating and gigantic mountain. I was used to 14ers in Colorado, but they fit in there; in an area that’s generally much closer to sea level, a peak over 14,000 feet looks very out of place.

The mountain, with the moon above (photo/Jason Rafal)

More views of Mount Rainier (photo/Jason Rafal)

A watchtower perched high above the clouds (photo/Jason Rafal)

We saw a lot of wildlife at the park, even more than we had expected.

A herd of mountain goats (photo/Jason Rafal)

If you squint, you can see a bear in the field (photo/Jason Rafal)

The next day, we went to another area of the park to see some other angles of the same mountain (you’d think it would get old, but it somehow doesn’t).

A waterfall on our hike (photo/Jason Rafal)

Taking a break after a hike up (photo/Jason Rafal)

Mount Rainier in the aptly-named Reflection Lake (photo/Jason Rafal)

Another view in Reflection Lake (photo/Jason Rafal)

A path to Mount Rainier (photo/Jason Rafal)

A classic view of Myrtle Falls (photo/Jason Rafal)

As Far West As We Could Go

August 03, 2020 by Nicole Harrison in United States

I’m not even sure how to talk about 2020. It was a brutal year for so many reasons, and not being able to travel internationally seems very far down on the list, especially since we are privileged in so many ways. We were incredibly lucky to be able to take some time to explore some of the beautiful places a little closer to home this year, and while I don’t usually blog weekend trips, these ones felt extra special this year. On a logistical note, I’m writing this in December, but backdating the trips to when we took them for my future sanity.

We had never really spent time in the southwestern corner of the Olympic Peninsula before, so in July we took a Friday off and drove to one of the campgrounds. Driving around the Olympic peninsula always takes longer than I’d expect - it’s not that big, but there isn’t really a way to drive through it - so it ended up being a driving-heavy weekend, but a beautiful one.

On our first afternoon, we saw some of the area near our campsite (near, in this case, meaning within an hour). I got to hang out with a giant tree, which I always love, and we found a beautiful waterfall just off the road.

Self portrait in sunglasses (photo/Jason Rafal)

Approaching the largest Sitka spruce tree in the world (photo/Jason Rafal)

Wide angle makes both me and the tree look much longer (photo/Jason Rafal)

A waterfall with a Jurassic Park feel (photo/Jason Rafal)

On our full day, we drove out to Ruby Beach. It’s a popular destination, but since it’s a pretty long beach, it didn’t feel too crowded. We were there on a misty, somewhat sunny day, and it was really beautiful. Beaches in the Pacific Northwest seem to be characterized by small rock islands close to the shore, which is an excellent feature.

Emerging onto Ruby Beach in the mist (photo/Jason Rafal)

Enjoying the lunchtime views (photo/Jason Rafal)

Watching waves through caves (photo/Jason Rafal)

A shiny shell among the rocks (photo/Jason Rafal)

Misty rocks on the beach (photo/Jason Rafal)

Windswept trees through the mist (photo/Jason Rafal)

After the beach, we ventured into the Hoh Rainforest. Since it was mid-summer, the rainforest was fairly dry, but we got to spend some time among mossy trees and waterfalls along the river. There are so many shades of green in the Pacific Northwest forests, and I don’t think I’ll ever get over it.

So many shades of green (photo/Jason Rafal)

Crossing a creek in the rainforest (photo/Jason Rafal)

Our campsite was walk-in, had no road noise, and was next to a lake. It was lovely.

Views from the lake where our campsite was (photo/Jason Rafal)

Pretty light at our campsite while Jason cooks (photo/Nicole Harrison)

The view when I took the paddle board out on our final morning (photo/Nicole Harrison)

2019 in Review

January 26, 2020 by Nicole Harrison in United States

2019 was a crazy year for us. We sold our house, moved across the country, got new jobs, missed a vacation due to some awful travel luck, explored a new state, took a surprise trip to Paris a week before our planned Asia vacation, managed to make it back to Colorado for the grand opening of our friends’ distillery, spent Thanksgiving with Jason’s family on the East Coast, and ended the year with a family trip to Morocco and Lisbon. Eight states, eight countries, four continents. An absurd number of travel issues and wonderful new experiences.

We blogged our trips to Canada, Paris, Asia, and Morocco separately, but we also did a ton of exploring in Oregon and Washington, and we wanted to share some of what we experienced outside of our big international trips.

There are a lot of pictures in this blog, so I decided to really push the limit of our new CMS and just create more carousels than should ever be on one page. Please enjoy a snapshot of our first year in the Pacific Northwest.

I’ll start with some photos from our apartment. We love our apartment view, which looks out over Capitol Hill and First Hill. It’s beautiful at all times of day and all times of year. I’ve also included a few pictures from our apartment building’s 41st story rooftop, which has a lovely view of the Space Needle and sound.

The Center for Wooden Boats is a very cool society that gives free boat rides on Lake Union on Sunday mornings. If you’re willing to wait in line to sign up, it’s a great way to get out on the water. We got to hang out on a sailboat with a volunteer who told us about the radioactive tomatoes that grew in Gas Works Park when he was a kid.

In April, we decided to go to the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival, which is north of Seattle. In order to avoid the rather intense crowds and traffic, we got up absurdly early and got there for sunrise, where we hung out in the fields and took pictures with a handful of other photographers.

In early June, we started out a month of family visits by heading to Astoria to see Nicole’s family. We hung out with friendly cats, hiked through the woods, and took in the views from the Astoria Column.

A few days after we got back from Astoria, Jason’s parents came to visit us in Seattle. While they were here, we did a day trip out on the water to look for whales. We learned a lot about Orcas, transient and resident, and saw a lot of other birds and wildlife as well.

For Pride weekend, our friend Sage came to visit us. Along with partying way too hard, we also went to Whidbey Island and visited some of Sage’s favorite places from when his grandparents lived there.

Seattle has some wonderful parks. These pictures are from Gas Works Park and the Japanese Garden.

At one point during the summer, we spent a weekend on Whidbey Island. We stayed in a cabin in the woods, hiked along the shore, and hung out with some very old trees. It was a good weekend.

I know this may be hard to believe, but I am running out of categorizations. So, here we have A Brief Study in Seattle Architecture.

Emilie and Ally came to visit us in August, and we went to Olympic National Park for a couple of days. It was incredibly stunning - it was a gorgeous weekend, and we had a pretty crazy cloud inversion when we were on Hurricane Ridge. We also did a short but exceptionally difficult hike overlooking Lake Crescent. On our way home, we stopped at a beach to enjoy the sun. The Olympic Peninsula is a pretty incredible place.

We went on quite a few hikes over the summer. They ranged from incredibly rainy to sunny and clear, but they were all incredibly green and beautiful. Goat Lake was one of my favorites.

In October, we met a few friends out by Levenworth, WA for a weekend. Levenworth is a very odd place - it’s a Bavarian themed village, a concept thought up by the University of Washington as a response to the town’s concern about staying financially afloat. Oktoberfest in Levenworth is, of course, a huge thing, and the weekended ended up being a fun combination of outdoor adventuring and tipsy people watching.

We spent a lot of time walking around Seattle with friends, going to parades, drinking coffee, reviewing local art, and everything in between. This collection is an assortment of photos from those random outings.

In November, we went to Astoria to see Nicole’s sister and dad, and our friend Megan met us out there as well. We went to Youngs River Falls, which still had some beautiful fall colors.

In December, we visited Cannon Beach for the first time with Megan and her incredibly fluffy dog, Albus. The Oregon coast is amazingly beautiful, and we had a lovely sunny, misty day on the beach. We also hung out in Astoria again, where we visited the Maritime Museum (this attraction comes highly recommended, and we agree completely).

To finish the 2019 set, here are some of the adorable dogs around Seattle that we were able to see and spend time with. Seattle has some great dog parks and dog events, and we were able to be brief, vicarious dog owners with friends and strangers.

An Unlikely Geological Hotspot

July 15, 2018 by Nicole Harrison in United States

On Thursday night, I got pretty sick. Sick enough that when we left Old Faithful on Friday morning after walking around for a couple of hours, I was very grateful to my body for not feeling the need to throw up at the geyser.

I wasn’t really able to sleep in, so we got an early start to Old Faithful as planned. Old Faithful goes off approximately every hour and a half, so we had a loose idea of when would be a good time to arrive, but tried not to get too excited about a specific plan.

We got to the geyser about half an hour before it was maybe supposed to erupt (plus or minus 16 minutes, according to the prediction calculator), so we had a seat and waited. It’s hard to see the geyser erupt without being surrounded by people because they slowly trickle in during the hour and a half proceeding the eruption, so even though it was shortly after 8:00 am, we were certainly nowhere near alone. By the time we left a couple of hours later, though, the number of people hanging out about the geyser had increased dramatically.

Old Faithful (Photo/Jason Rafal)

I’m going to be honest here - unusual geothermal activity is pretty cool, but it doesn’t make me insanely excited. Old Faithful wasn’t the craziest thing I’ve ever seen, but it is pretty awesome to see nature explode in any way, whether arbitrarily or (approximately) on a schedule.

After we saw Old Faithful do its thing, we (slowly, and with several breaks to sit down) walked a couple of miles through the area to see the other geysers and hydrothermal elements. Honestly, this part is a bit fuzzy in my memory, so I can’t teach you much about all this stuff. But it was cool, and here are some pictures.

A view of the hillside and the Old Faithful Inn, which is the first example of parkitecture and the largest log structure in the world (Photo/Jason Rafal)

A yellow-bellied marmot (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Some sort of crazy hot water thing (Photo/Jason Rafal)

We next drove to the Grand Prismatic Spring, where Jason’s parking luck paid off and we got a spot in the very busy parking lot. Despite my general state of discomfort, the Spring was amazing. It’s a rainbow of deep, rich colors, starting with blue in the middle and ending at orange on the sides. The colors are from the water temperature, which supports the growth of different types and colors of microbes. Possibly my favorite part was the steam off of the Spring, which was all of the colors that showed in the water. It’s really beautiful, in a crazy, abstract sort of way.

People taking pictures of the Grand Prismatic Spring (Photo/Jason Rafal)

The multi-colored steam was my favorite part (Photo/Jason Rafal)

The Spring is great for abstract photography - notice the reflection of the trees along the lower edge of the orange part (Photo/Jason Rafal)

After the Spring we got some food (Jason) and probiotics (me) at Canyon Village. Yellowstone is kind of odd in that there are a few groups of stores, gas stations, and hotels in the middle of the park. It’s weird having a random cafeteria filled with tourists in the middle of a national park, five miles away from a field of wildlife that has zero humans in it. It’s an interesting dichotomy, but also nice to know that one can always get away from the crowds there.

Our next stop was Hayden Valley, where we joined the other visitors in the great American pastime of taking many pictures of bison. I am constantly bemoaning the lack of this continent’s megafauna (thanks, Quaternary extinction event), and bison are great. They are huge, they are fluffy, they have curious bovine eyes, and they are just entertaining to watch.

A bison wallowing (rolling in the dirt) (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Our campsite was next to Yellowstone lake, which is massive and lovely, though I missed the sight of the Tetons on the other side. We stopped on our way in to take some pictures of the very chill young male elk that were hanging out in the shade.

Relaxing elk (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Grazing elk (Photo/Jason Rafal)

A ladybug in the grass (Photo/Jason Rafal)

On Saturday I felt somewhat better, and we headed to Artist’s Point early to see the lower falls. On the way, after stopping to take some more pictures of bison

I love their eyes (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Bison and steam (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Yellowstone in all of its otherworldliness (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Bison butts (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Bison calves play fighting (Photo/Jason Rafal)

A young bison soaks up the early morning sun (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Uncle Tom’s trail was closed, which was frustrating but also a relief, because I’m not sure how I would have done with that many stairs. Artist’s Point, though, is a short walk to a lovely view of the lower falls, and the sun kept peeking out from behind the clouds to bathe the water and mist in a warm light. From Artist’s Point we went to see the lower falls and the brink of the upper falls. Aside from the waterfall being super dramatic, the canyon is a beautiful yellow and orange.

Upper Yellowstone Falls (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Another shot of the Falls showing the colorful canyon (Photo/Jason Rafal)

An adorable and very twitchy squirrel (Photo/Jason Rafal)

After we saw the falls from several angles, we left to head for the Norris Geyser Basin area. On the drive, we saw a crowd of people peering at something over a cliff, so I demanded we stop to investigate. It was a baby black bear and its mother, who was being incredibly tolerant of the people standing far closer than the suggested 100 meters as they oohed and aahed. Jason had a pretty long telephoto lens, so we were able to get a couple of pictures while staying a little further back. After a couple of minutes the bears headed off, and we continued to see more geyers. Mama bear (Photo/Jason Rafal) Baby bear (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Norris Geyser Basin looks like the scene of the apocalypse. There are forests on all sides, but the ground in the area is very light, devoid of trees, and usually looks very dry and salty (except when there are geysers and pools). Mammoth Hot Springs is known for its beautiful, multicolored terraces, over which the hot water flows and steams. It’s weird, and remarkable, and mesmerizing.

The basin (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Steam escaping from a hillside (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Canary Spring (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Palette Spring and Terrace (Photo/Jason Rafal)

After eating lunch in Mammoth along with everyone else who was in the northern tip of the park, we headed out east to Lamar Valley. On our way, we saw another mother and baby bear by the side of the road. There were rangers keeping people from stopping because the bears were so close, so we kept driving. Once we got into the valley we stopped and got out of the car to look at the herds of bison.

There were just so many bison (Photo/Jason Rafal)

After we officially left Yellowstone, we drove over Dead Indian Pass, which is so poorly named I am hardly willing to say it. But the view from the top of the pass is absolutely incredible, so I wanted to share that. It has a tragic story involving a tribe fleeing to a new valley, and a dying man who was left behind.

The incredible view from the top of the pass (Photo/Jason Rafal)

We spent our last night in a beautiful guest house in Wyoming, where we watched the sun set and the stars come out. It was a lovely end to the trip, and there was an adorable dog who came to say hi in the morning as well.

Sunset over the hay fields (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Stars in the evening sky (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Our dog friend (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Yellowstone has a lot of really cool places to see, but I think the most impressive thing about the park is that approximately three million people each year come here to watch…nature. Even with all that has changed in the past 100 years, a beautiful, weird park in the middle of nowhere Wyoming is still one of our nation’s top internationally visited treasures. It gives me a tiny bit of faith in humanity.

Pointed Mountains and Clear Lakes

July 12, 2018 by Nicole Harrison in United States

For the 4th of July, Jason and I took a road trip to the Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks. Despite both having spent considerable amounts of time living in the West, neither of us had ever been, and the mid-week holiday seemed like a good excuse to take a couple more days off.

Approaching the Teton range (Photo/Jason Rafal)

The Tetons, looking fake (Photo/Jason Rafal)

A classic barn-and-Tetons shot (Photo/Jason Rafal)

We arrived mid-afternoon on Wednesday, and after securing a camping spot so that I could stop having so much anxiety about where we were sleeping, we set off on a hike to Taggart and Bradley lakes.

Taggart Creek (Photo/Jason Rafal)

I have spent a considerable amount of time around dramatic mountains - I’ve been in Colorado nearly my whole life, and have marveled at all of our lovely ranges. The Tetons, though, still amazed me. They are granite, and they have snow and glaciers year round, which gives them an arresting black and white look. They are also very steep, with angles jutting into the sky. They do not blend into the landscape at all, and they are very beautiful.

The trail to the lakes (Photo/Jason Rafal)

The view at Bradley Lake (Photo/Jason Rafal)

We were not prepared for the mosquitoes. Mosquitoes love Jason, but we hadn’t had to deal with them in large numbers on any of our recent vacations, so we spaced bug spray on that first hike and had to take a slightly more hasty pace back to the car so that Jason could escape the swarms. The lakes were very photogenic, despite the bugs.

A thickly forested trail (Photo/Jason Rafal)

After our hike, we headed to Jackson to see what it was like. It was kind of like a Colorado ski town, just more western. It was simultaneously familiar and odd, just like any mountain town, but it’s a beautiful place.

Jackson has four giant arches built of antlers, because why not (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Sunset at our campsite (Photo/Jason Rafal)

On Thursday we got up early so that Jason could take sunrise pictures at the Snake River Overlook, which is where one of Ansel Adams’ famous photographs was taken. It was absurdly early, and rather cold, and incredibly beautiful. When the sun was up we drove to Schwabacher’s Landing, where there were a number of photographers already taking lovely reflection photos in the morning light.

The Tetons photograph especially well in black and white (Photo/Jason Rafal)

A stunning mountain sunrise (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Another very similar photo because we couldn’t pick one (Photo/Jason Rafal)

The reflections at Schwabacher’s Landing were incredible (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Cloud reflections (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Dedicated sunrise photographers (Photo/Jason Rafal)

With our sunrise pictures out of the way, we headed next to Jenny Lake, where we took the first ferry over to Hidden Falls and Cascade Canyon, which were nearly unoccupied at 7:15 am. This side of the lake features the beautiful waterfall, overlooks of the lake, and the typical outstanding views of the Tetons. We hiked around for a couple of hours before taking the ferry back and packing up our campsite.

The first boat across the lake (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Early morning light on the mountains (Photo/Jason Rafal)

More beautiful mountains and water (Photo/Jason Rafal)

The dock on the other side of the lake (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Hidden Falls (Photo/Jason Rafal)

The ferry on Jenny Lake (Photo/Jason Rafal)

For the rest of the afternoon, we drove by Jackson Lake all the way up to Moose Falls in Yellowstone, where we hung out for a while before driving back to our cabin for the night in Colter Bay, where we cooked dinner next to the surprisingly clear lake and tried to obtain minimal additional mosquito bites.

Boats on Jackson Lake (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Sunset, Tetons, and Jackson Lake (Photo/Jason Rafal)

The lovely Moose Falls, where we were unfortunately not allowed to swim (Photo/Jason Rafal)

At the Mouth of the Columbia River

June 10, 2018 by Nicole Harrison in United States

For Memorial Day weekend, we went to the riverside town of Astoria, Oregon, which is famous for being where Lewis and Clark spent a miserable winter after finally reaching the Pacific. It’s an old town that is not so slowly becoming a favorite of Portland dwellers and hipsters, and it’s quickly gentrifying as the old houses and shops are remodeled and repurposed. Nicole’s grandparents bought an old house and are slowly doing some restoration.

The grand Liberty Theatre (Photo/Jason Rafal)

The riverfront is very scenic, with Washington visible across the Columbia River and massive container ships frequently passing below the bridge on their way to and from the ocean. Wooden supports, remnants of a long-ago burned pier that are now covered in algae, line much of the Astoria Riverwalk.

A very large, very orange cargo ship heading out to sea (Photo/Jason Rafal)

The remains of something that might be a boiler (Photo/Jason Rafal)

After arriving in town and getting some food, Jason and I headed to the Astoria Column, which I saw from outside the restaurant and set my heart on visiting. The Astoria Column is a significant tower on top of a hill that overlooks the town of Astoria, the Colombia and Youngs Rivers, and the dense green forest to the east. It’s an incredible 360-degree view. We hiked up through the dense, green forest from the community college to climb the tower, and then made our way back to the house along the top of the ridgeline.

Nicole is confused by some sticks at the start of the trail (Photo/Jason Rafal)

The view of Astoria and the Columbia River from the Column (Photo/Jason Rafal)

The forest beyond the city (Photo/Jason Rafal)

The Astoria-Megler Bridge at sunset (Photo/Jason Rafal)

A large private garden that has welcomed the community to spend time there (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Although Astoria is not actually on the ocean, it’s very close, and we had to go to the beach while we were there. We went to Fort Stevens, which had a lot of civil war memorabilia and education in honor of Memorial Day. We greeted the horses and the educators before walking through the forest to the beach.

A typical Civil War-era scene. With a stroller behind it. (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Martha discusses the horses with one of the educators (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Portrait of a mustang (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Surveying the landscape (Photo/Nicole Harrison)

Walking out onto the beach (Photo/Jason Rafal)

The view from the jetty (Photo/Jason Rafal)

On Sunday night, after a delicious seafood dinner, Jason, Nicole, and Eric went to the Fort George Brewery to see live music and eat dessert. The band, All Our Exes Live in Texas, was composed of four women from Australia who turned out to be great folk artists who were, for some reason, stopping at a brewery to play at the start of their U.S. tour. The brewery was packed, the music was lively, and the musicians even sang happy birthday to one of the children dancing in front of the stage. It was a thoroughly enjoyable evening.

A sign from above (Photo/Jason Rafal)

A jumble of reflections (Photo/Jason Rafal)

The band (Photo/Jason Rafal)

After the music was over and the dessert consumed, we walked back to the house through the city streets and the hillside passageways that allowed pedestrians to walk up and down between the houses. We took about 6 of these passageways while we were in town, but we definitely got the feeling that there were more of these secret paths than we could find in a week.

The Garden of Surging Waves, a tribute to early Chinese immigrants (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Bizarre window decorations (Photo/Jason Rafal)

More bizarre window decorations (Photo/Jason Rafal)

The Flavel House Museum, which is a bit creepy at night (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Astoria is intriguing both for its history and its current state of transition, and we will definitely be back to explore further.

There were deer everywhere (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Soaking up the plentiful summer sun (Photo/Jason Rafal)

An impressive item at the fantastic Vintage Hardware (Photo/Nicole Harrison)

A vehicle for the Cannery Pier Hotel (Photo/Jason Rafal)

A piece of a 620-year old Douglas Fir, which is protected by some presumably younger wood (Photo/Jason Rafal)

It’s Coarse and Rough...and It Gets Everywhere

September 28, 2016 by Nicole Harrison in United States

Story by Nicole

We went with a group of friends to the Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve for the full moon in September. The sand dunes are a pretty amazing natural feature of Colorado. They are large and dramatic and surrounded by mountains. Even though Jason has a great dislike of sand, he was lured by the friends, camping, and promise of pretty photos.

On Friday night, we camped at Valley View Hot Springs, which is a secluded, beautiful hot springs nestled against the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. We spent the evening soaking in the warm water and explored the area a little more in the daylight before setting off for the sand dunes.The view from our campsite (Photo/Jason Rafal)Exploring the Orient Land Trust area (Photo/Jason Rafal)

The sand dunes are visible from a distance as you drive along the highway, but you don’t really have a good sense of their massive scale until you get much closer. We stopped at the dunes to try to get a campsite (in a stroke of luck, we actually got the last campsite available within the park) before heading to Alamosa for lunch.

On the way back from lunch, we stopped to hike at the Zapata Falls area to do some hiking. We had fun doing some mild off-roading to the trailhead (the people in the backseat were less amused) so we could explore the creek and get some nice views of the sand dunes.Looking up the canyon (Photo/Jason Rafal)Contemplating the creek (Photo/Jason Rafal)The dunes in the distance (Photo/Jason Rafal)

After hiking, we headed to the dunes to set up camp. Most of Colorado has had a fire ban this fall because it’s been so windy and dry, but thankfully we were still allowed to have fire in a an established campsite grill. After cooking, eating, and warming up by the fire, we headed out into the darkness to hike the dunes.Sunset creeps closer (Photo/Jason Rafal)The beautiful shadows of the dunes at dusk (Photo/Jason Rafal)

I’m going to disappoint you right now and tell you that we don’t have any fantastic dune pictures from our hike. The full moon allowed us to see fairly well, but it wasn’t quite bright enough for Jason to justify bringing his camera. I will tell you, though, that hiking on the dunes in the moonlight is amazing. The shadows are disorienting, and it’s impossible to tell how steep or high each dune is. It’s like being on another planet.

After we got back, Jason and Eric took some photos with a tripod, which turned out pretty cool.A plane crosses the starry sky (Photo/Jason Rafal)Eric is dramatic in the moonlight (Photo/Jason Rafal)

On Sunday morning, Eric and I took a hike on the dunes before we headed back to Denver (Jason was done with the sand at that point). The dunes are totally different during the day—much less mysterious and unnerving, but still very impressive. After spending some time hiking up and sitting on the vast ridges of sand, we went back to camp to pack up and head back to civilization.Footsteps in the sand dunes (Photo/Nicole Harrison)

On the way back to Denver, we stopped at Kenosha Pass to take some pictures of the fall colors. I would highly recommend visiting Kenosha in mid to late September. There are huge aspen groves that turn from bright green to yellow and deep orange. It was a beautiful day, and it definitely felt like fall. I hope the lovely season doesn’t pass too quickly.A variety of fall colors (Photo/Jason Rafal)More mountain colors (Photo/Jason Rafal)

The One with All the Pictures

September 02, 2016 by Nicole Harrison in United States

Story by Nicole

Our last day in Alaska was full of activities.

Since we were unable to take a plane ride in Talkeetna, we decided we would try to find one in the Seward area. Because Seward is close to most of the things that people want to fly over, though, helicopter rides are a little more common in that area, so we settled on going up in a helicopter. Helicopters also allow you to get a little closer to the ground, which is nice when looking at animals and glaciers down below. We found one company that did a trip northeast of Seward instead of southwest, and since we were already going southwest in a boat, we opted to fly in the other direction.

Walking up to the helicopter (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Neither of us had ever been in a helicopter before. Jason was pretty comfortable with the idea, but I was quite nervous. Within a minute of taking off, though, I was feeling fairly comfortable, mostly because our pilot, Mike, was great at flying. Even when we flew through the wind coming off of the larger glaciers, the helicopter stayed pretty stable.

The view from the helicopter was amazing. We flew over glaciers and rivers and even some mountain goats. The best part was how we were able to see an area that’s really only accessible by helicopter. Mike said he sometimes drops people off out there to kayak or backpack for a few days and then picks them up later, which sounds awesome but also a little scary.

View of a glacier from above (Photo/Jason Rafal)

A peaceful pond (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Glacial ice floating in the water (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Color contrast (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Flying along the coast (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Unexpected sunbeam (Photo/Jason Rafal)

A marshy clearing (Photo/Jason Rafal)

A semi-frozen pond (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Ribbons of water (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Heading back to the launch site (Photo/Jason Rafal)

After the helicopter ride, we asked Mike and his receptionist what we should do for a couple of hours, and they recommended the Alaska SeaLife Center, which ended up being a great aquarium and rehabilitation center. They had a bird room with a lot of very unperturbed birds, and we were able to get within several inches of puffins, which was pretty great. There were also seals and sea lions on display. All of the big display tanks had viewing both above and below the water line, which was pretty cool.

A tufted puffin (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Puffins in the water (Photo/Jason Rafal)

A horned puffin (Photo/Jason Rafal)

A fish loses interest in us (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Dramatic fish (Photo/Jason Rafal)

A seal prepares to dive (Photo/Jason Rafal)

We had the very good luck of arriving about 15 minutes before the first viewing of Perl, a 10-week old sea lion pup. When we first arrived at the SeaLife Center, Pilot, the father, was in the tank. After we wandered around and looked at the seals, we came back to see Perl and her mom, Eden, emerging. Perl is adorable. Eden was a little protective, but she started relaxing after a few minutes.

Eden is tempted outside with fish (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Eden is not thrilled (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Eden and Perl (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Perl hanging out at the edge of the water (Photo/Jason Rafal)

After the SeaLife center, we had lunch and walked around until our ride to Anchorage picked us up. Our driver was a very nice woman who spends summers in Seward and winters in Oregon, and all the time fishing. On the way to Anchorage, we stopped at the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center to see the animals. The Center was wonderful. They have a lot of happy animals in nice habitats, and they also work to rehabilitate and reintroduce animals into the wild.

Baby moose are the cutest (Photo/Jason Rafal)

An adorable red fox (Photo/Jason Rafal)

A musk ox enjoys the sunshine (Photo/Jason Rafal)

A bear blowing bubbles (Photo/Jason Rafal)

After an hour, we got back on the road for the rest of the drive to Anchorage. There is only one main road between Anchorage and Seward, and it is incredibly beautiful and very dangerous (between all the tourists looking at the scenery and the locals trying to get around the slow tourists). Our driver stopped at her favorite spot on the Turnagain Arm (so named because Captain Cook went up it looking for the Northwest Passage and was disappointed to have to turn around) so that we could look at the beautiful scenery. When we got to Anchorage, we walked around a surprisingly large open-air market, had a long dinner, went to a coffee shop, and then went to a great improv show at a brewery. Around one in the morning, we finally boarded the plane to go back to Seattle and then Denver.

It was a fantastic trip. We would definitely recommend Alaska. We’ll be going back at some point to visit Denali National Park.

The Stuffted Tufted Puffin and Other Tales

August 31, 2016 by Nicole Harrison in United States

Story by Nicole

On Friday we took an all-day cruise out to Northwestern Glacier. We were already excited about it because our kayak trip guide, JD, had gotten so excited when we mentioned it. Apparently it’s a fairly remote area and they haven’t been doing cruises out there very long, so not a lot of people have ever seen the glacier up close.

A glacier coming down toward the ocean (Photo/Jason Rafal)

We had mostly chosen this cruise because it emphasized seeing glaciers instead of wildlife, and Jason (probably correctly) thought that going on a cruise specifically to see wildlife was a good way to not see wildlife. Besides, we were more excited about seeing glaciers anyway.

We did see a lot of glaciers. I cannot remember all of their names and I was bad at taking notes, so you’ll just have to appreciate the pictures. Fun glacier facts that may be slightly inaccurate: glaciers are blue because the snow has condensed so much that they only reflect the blue light back, and they take about 15 years to condense this much. We have glaciers in Colorado, but the ones in Alaska are on an entirely different scale.

Another glacier (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Deep cracks in the glacial ice (Photo/Jason Rafal)

The moon appears above a glacier (Photo/Jason Rafal)

After we got to Northwestern Glacier, we sat for a while and watched for glacier calving. We saw several chunks of ice come crashing down into the water.

The glacier calves near the water (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Calving from another side of the glacier (Photo/Jason Rafal)

We did see a lot of animals. We saw lots of birds, including red-faced cormorants, black oystercatchers, horned and tufted puffins (Jason’s favorite), gulls, and some others. Our captain told us to look out for stuffted tufted puffins, which are puffins that have eaten too much for them to fly away, so they just flap along on the surface of the water and are unable to take off. Once he mentioned it, we saw them everywhere. Apparently puffins frequently eat too much.

Puffins flying low over the water (Photo/Jason Rafal)

A bait ball of birds catching food (Photo/Jason Rafal)

In front of Northwestern Glacier, there were also a lot of seals laying out on chunks of ice that had broken off of the glacier. They stay out of the water for long periods of time to stay warm, so our captain was careful to keep the boat far away enough to not flush them into the water.

The seals in front of Northwestern glacier (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Seals watching us (Photo/Jason Rafal)

We also saw a few humpback whales. Until you see the tail, a humpback whale really looks like the Loch Ness Monster. We followed a couple of whales around until we saw the tails - tail up, whale down, as the captain said.

Small signs of a large whale (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Whale tail (Photo/Jason Rafal)

We also saw some seal lions (look closely) (Photo/Jason Rafal)

On the way back, we stopped at a beautiful waterfall to take pictures. Our captain, very impressively, kept the boat at almost a standstill about 5 feet from the waterfall while everyone took pictures. In some semblance of order, the crew lined everyone up and took pictures of them one-by-one instead of dealing with the usual barage of selfies.

Pretty waterfall (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Us with the waterfall (Photo/Jason Rafal)

With that, we headed back to Seward. The cruise was a little long - 9 hours - but we got to see a ton, and it was worth it.

A last view of the area (Photo/Jason Rafal)