We reached the final Corner of our Circumnavigation! We also saw Roosevelt Elk, a pair of Bald Eagles and more Stellar Sea Lions.
I misjudged the time (again?) and we didn't get to the RV park until after 8 PM, so I haven't finished updating another blog entry (although I did work on the photo's for the next one). Not to worry, even though we expect to make it home tomorrow - I will finish all the blog entries!!! Hopefully it will only take a week or so, afterall I won't be driving and sightseeing all day... ... or month or two...
It was partly sunny most of the day, some light rain from time to time, but not very much. Mom's mood was slightly better most of the day, but she's ready to go home. We did stop briefly in Forks. They have a nice little city park with some history (big, big fire back in 1951 that traveled 18 miles in 6 hours and burned some 30k acres). They also have a locomotive on display that was used to haul logs and supplies between town and logging camps.

Today shortly after starting out we saw a large herd of Roosevelt Elk, maybe 36 animals? They were right up close to Hwy 101 also, so I got some great shots.


We passed Beaver Waterfalls on Hwy 113 - very nice.


We also drove by some rugged coastline and rocky beaches. There are a few rocks along the Straight of San Juan de Fuca between the Olympic Penninsula and Vancouver Island, Canada. They make for some interesting scenery also.

Some rocks also seem popular with Sea Lions and sea gulls. I didn't notice it when I took the picture, but if you look closely, there is also a pair of bald eagles sitting on top of this rock!

I stopped to pick up rocks at Clallam Bay, Mom just about fired me but she didn't want to drive the RV so I guess she's forgiven me. I got a couple of agates, but mostly quartz, which I find attractive for some reason.

We went thru the Makah Museum, which was quite well done as well as informative (no photography however).
Finally, we made it to the far northwest corner of Washington State and the final 'corner' of the lower 48 for our Circumnavigation (not that there really are corners). At the end of the road is a parking lot, then a 1/2 mile trail that is pretty steep and rugged, too much for Mom of course so we took our picture at the trail head.

Then Mom stayed in the RV while I hiked on down and took pictures. Here are a couple shots of the trail and a tree along the trail deformed by the rough weather out here (a small version of an 'octopus' tree?).


At the end of the trail is a viewing platfrom:


From here, everything to your left is behind you, and everything to your right is behind you. This is a true Cape - no mincing words here. Here is a shot of the coast south of the point. Very awesome place.

Offshore a little further, but quite visible from the platform, is Tatoosh Island.

There is a lighthouse on Tatoosh Island, but it's quite hard to see without binoculars (or a good zoom lens).
Just north of the island was a small rock that the Sea Lions seemed to prefer. This was probably a bit too far for my camera, but between the 12x zoom and cropping, I took a shot anyway.

The waters off Cape Flattery are teaming with fish and other wildlife, probably has something to do with the ocean currents being affected by the point. The Makah tribe takes advantage of this for some of their livelyhood (I think they are one of the few tribes that have avoided getting into the Casino business, I'm not sure). This boat was just off Tatoosh Island.

I also caught this surf scooter below the viewing platform looking for some dinner.

And then in the rocks just to the right of the platform were two black oyster catchers. They blended into the scenery so well I almost didn't see them. Fortunately there was a better birder on the platform who took the time to point them out so I could get a picture.

Reluctantly, I did finally leave the point and we started the long drive to Sequim. Along the way, we had some beautiful views of the Olympic Mountains - very, very steep.

The clouds actually parted just enough for us to also catch a glimpse of the sunset.

I had made reservations at a membership campground near Sequim, doesn't cost me to stay here (other then the membership of course), but if I'd bothered to look at a map and see how far this was from Cape Flattery, I'd have stayed somewhere else. This is all the way across the Olympic penninsula - a LONG way from Cape Flattery, so we didn't get to the campground until after 8 PM. On the plus side is that we saw a pair of Bald Eagles on the way - right up by the road where I could get some great shots of them!
What a way to cap off the trip, awesome cape, wild elk, and a pair of bald eagles!



We're only 80 miles from home, so it should be an easy drive tomorrow. You might want to keep an eye on the blog for a couple of weeks - I should have all the entries caught up by then. I've simply got too many great photo's not to share them! Also, my goal has always been to use the blog as my travel journal and to print it all out when we got done, so can't do that until the rest is updated.