Olympia and the I-5 Corridor
Olympia and the I-5 Corridor
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From Port Townsend, we wandered down through the riotous green forests on the western side of Puget Sound to Washington's pretty little capitol city of Olympia, Sienna's hometown.
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Spring had arrived in Olympia. The farmer's market was teeming, and we had a great walk with Iverson along the river. He's just enough puppy to still enjoy jumping in the river after a thrown stick.
Sienna's waterdog Iversen |
 spring leaves in Sienna's yard
As a photographer, my vocation is clearly limited by circumstance. When there's family around, pictures are few. Sienna's a good chronicler of the Northwestern scene, and I refer you to her website. |
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Rivers and mountains squeeze commerce to a thread from Olympia southward, and so I-5 was our only choice: quick and, on a fine day, relatively painless. Beyond Portland, we were back on two-lane roads through berry, hops, sugar beets, and turf farms as we wound our way to Silverton, where Rochelle's brother lives..
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We visited Oregon Gardens in Silverton with high hopes, but found it strangely unphotogenic. You can grow anything in Oregon, and they have. The most interesting detail is that the water problem is solved by piping in treated water from the local sewage plant.
Rochelle's niece Vanessa insisted on taking us to her favorite bit of woods, Butte Creek Falls. The volcanic Cascades near Silverton rise above a hard bench of rock that rests on softer stuff, creating a perfect place for waterfalls. South of Butte Creek, the showy Silver Falls State Park shows this feature off for the tourists, but Butte Creek is little known (except by local teenagers.) |
 heart of the Oregon forest |
 Upper Butte Creek Fall |
 Lower Butte Creek Fall |
 "wet wall" beside the lower falls
Vanessa had just graduated from high school, and is in that blessed gap before college, glowing with curiosity and the first blush of accomplishment. Her parents are near to bursting with pride: two good daughters mostly launched!
Aunt Rochelle and Vanessa |
Oregonians joke about their "Rain Festival: Jan 1 to Dec 31" but on a sunny day, the benefits of precipitation are obvious. Here beside the falls, wet walls are covered by mosses and water-loving plants so that few specks of wall show through.
This is not melt water, but water stored in the spongy soil and duff of higher forests, and so it's swimmable. Daredevil youths jump from the rock into the boiling cauldron below.
A too-short visit with Rochelle's younger brother Chuck and his wife, but we had to be in Ashland and ready for drama! So after a little winding about choreographed by our on-board GPS navigator, we submitted ourselves once again to I-5. |
The way from Silverton to Ashland is familiar, but again I-5 dominates. Triple-unit trucks and hilly stretches make this segment trying to drive, despite the forested hills and verdant agricultural plains. We came to rest in Grants Pass, on the upper Rogue River.
Rogue River out our motel window
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