Mini Vacation

Wednesday evening, after I arrived home from work, we jumped into our RV and headed out for a two day break before our upcoming busy weekend. We drove up island to the Keystone Ferry, a twenty minute crossing to Port Townsend, then about an hour's drive to the campground.

We arrived around nine PM pulled into our campsite and crawled into bed for a good nights rest lulled to sleep by the noise of the water as it flowed over the rocks of the river just about twenty feet from our RV.

The camp ground is fairly small, with just eight campsites in this beautiful forested area right beside the river.

The trees are hung with moss and the ferns grow very large.

There had been a huge tree felled next to our campsite and as you can see, the two pieces of the tree trunk make our small RV seem even smaller.

Yesterday we explored the area around the camp area. We walked through the forest beside the Dungeness River.( About forty feet in front of our campsite) Some of the rocks were the size of a VW bug.
At one spot where we had come down beside the river, I spied something in the water. I cried out to Mr.C "Look there" he says " where?" and I pointed at a huge salmon which had come up the river to spawn. The salmon had actually found it's way up a side branch of the main river and as we moved in for a closer look, it took off back down the way it had come, we were hoping it found it's way to the main flow.

We walked further up the river bank and came across this deeper pool of water just below a small rapid. Here we saw three large salmon resting before their swim up through the rapidly flowing water to their spawning ground.

If you look in the center of the picture, you can just make out the two dark shapes in the center of the water. These are two of the salmon.

Later in the day, we went exploring the Greywolf River.( about twenty feet to the right of our campsite) Both the Greywolf and Dungeness rivers converge very near the campground.

A young salmon (center) in one of the small pools.

There were many of these brightly colored butterflies flitting all around, and drinking up the minerals from the muddy patches along the riverbank.

This little beetle was enjoying warming itself on the rock.

Last evening we did the all American (well almost American) cookout. We roasted German sausage over the embers. Oh! Boy! they were good.

And a cookout is not complete with out perfectly toasted marshmallows.

We left the campground fairly early this morning and decided to return home continuing on past the campground on the forest service road which would connect with SR101 Well we took a wrong turn at a Y and drove up to this point before deciding to turn around and take the other leg of the Y which did eventually take us back to SR101. A beautiful drive indeed.

Back at Port Townsend ready to catch the ferry home.

Goodbye Port Townsend.

Mr.C has some more on the trip HERE