Olympic Nat'l Park, August 16

I forgot to mention the last day in Seattle. George, who by the way, is doing such a good job navigating our trip and doing all the planning, picked a gem of a place for us to go. The Chittenton locks which are run by the Army Corps of Engineers was really interesting. We have done some lock trips and this one was unique. We followed a ranger who explained all about the lock operation and then took us to a fish ladder that we could see salmon swimming from the sea back to where they were hatched. Their sense of smell takes them back to the point in the river where they came from. We watched while they climbed this ladder on the sea side,21 feet, and once they got through, they were in fresh water. So interesting! I have never seen anything like it. Then they go back to their spawning area and lay their eggs. How about that! Amazing how they just know how to do it.
We arrived at our park this morning and it is lovely. The mountain range is incredible! Olympic is a unique park, in that it is known for its biological diversity. Isolated for ions by glacial ice, and later the waters of Puget Sound and the Strait of Juan de Fuca, the Olympic Peninsula has developed its own distinct array of plants and animals. Eight kinds of plants and 15 kinds of animals are found on the peninsula but nowhere else on Earth. I could not believe the vast amount of wildflowers. The park is preparing for the largest dam removal in U.S. history and celebrating the "last dam summer" in the Elwha River Valley. Next summer, removal of Elwha and Glines Canyon dams on the Elwha river will begin the culminating step in a process that will free the river and allow thousands of salmon to return to over 70 miles of river and stream in a pristine and protected ecosystem.
This a park with 8 months of winter and a short Spring and Summer. We drove up to Hurricane Ridge, aptly named because they have hurricane force winds all winter. Did you know that bears do not hibernate? A little trivia. Love you