Somplace a little different

Earlier this year we decided we needed to escape the heat of the desert….so we went some place as different as we could come up with and escaped off to the Olympic Peninsula and Mount Rainier. According to my Fitbit, while we were away, I walked 125 miles, 293,708 steps and climbed the equivalent of 1823 floors. We saw lots and lots of creatures including black tailed deer, elk, a harbor seal, a family of river otters, numerous birds (including some brown pelicans), mountain goats, marmots, pikas, sea anemones, starfish, banana slugs and  a black bear.  Also learned about a strange creature called a Mountain Beaver – had to ask a ranger about it after I spied one gardening near a trail while I was out hiking – apparently they are quite rare to spot, as they will typically dive into their burrows if they sense you coming.

Full photo albums can be found here…but in case you don’t want to click through, here are a handful of my favorites (sadly, no photos of the mountain beaver as it took off into a nearby burrow hole while I was attempting to dig out my camera):