Flaming Geyser State Park
Hi Everyone! How's the weather back home? You can start to feel a chill in the air out here as fall is settling in. We've had some colder, rainier weather lately but this weekend was fantastic. I mostly stayed around home yesterday (Saturday) but I got out and enjoyed the sun today. I also had another bear encounter, sorta. But we'll get to that.
First off, I stopped to get a photo of Mt. Rainier. This is the view from Auburn.
Flaming Geyser State Park is only 11 miles from home and it's a really nice "Sunday drive" through quaint farm land to get there. When I arrived at 10am this morning I saw three deer grazing just inside the park entrance. I've never seen so many deer as I have in this state. And I never get tired of photographing them either.
Then I stopped at the Green River. Now I know why they call it that.
Below: Fisherman reeling in a salmon. I saw a ton of salmon and also some very large steelhead.
The rocky shore behind him is where I was standing when I heard a bear. That's right, apparently I'm a bear magnet or something. I heard a grunt, snort, growl coming from the bushes to my left. I walked over to investigate and saw big juicy blackberries and rasberries and thought 'Great. Here I am in the middle of prime bear habitat again, surrounded by a bounty of fish and berries; everything a bear needs to fatten up for hibernation. . Let's just hope I'm not on the menu.'
But I didn't see a bear and I didn't hear leaves rustling or branches cracking like you would expect to hear. I thought I must be losing my damn mind. Later I realized that sound carries very strangely down there. It often comes from the direction opposite where you hear it coming from. I concluded that the bear must have been on the other side of the river. Which makes perfect sense because it's dense woods over there, no people. I was in a relatively exposed area with a bunch of people around. Not that a bear wouldn't venture over, they can be pretty fearless. But he kept his distance. I haven't told Mom about this yet. No need to give her a coronary. Hopefully she's like most people and just skims the pictures, lol.
Moving along, there wasn't a lot going on so I had to look hard for photo ops.
That's right, I'm resorting to spider webs. But these were cool, they glimmered in the sun with a rainbow of colors and the huge tree was FULL of them. They must have had me mesmerized or something because I spent 45 minutes photographing them. 'Ooh, shiny. Must take picture.'
Finally I made my way down to the the park's namesake.
Below: Look closely and you'll see the little flame in the middle of the rocks.
It's pretty small and may not seem like anything to write home about but it's pretty f'in cool if you think about it - that flame is coming out of the ground. There's no propane tank nearby that it's rigged to, it's a natural gas vent coming from deep within the earth I'd imagine. What, you don't find that fascinating? Call me easily impressed, but I love that kind of stuff.
Afterward I drove up to Tiger Mountain State Forest and did a little hiking. Very little. I hope to do more hiking up there before the weather turns too ugly. Oh, forgot to say I returned my new camera for another model. I'm back with a Kodak Easyshare, it's just the brand I'm used to and I'm liking it. I'm getting better quality close-ups with a 12x zoom as opposed to the 5x on my old Kodak. I'm still keeping the old one as a back-up, it's a good little camera. I even talked my Mom into buying an Easyshare and she loves it.
Well. that's all folks. Thanks for stopping by. Leave me a comment or shoot me an e-mail to let me know what you're up to. Or better yet, start a blog and send me the link! 'Cause I love reading blogs... and I just don't spend enough quality time lost in the endless abyss of cyber space these days. :)
And now, I leave you with more spiderwebs cuz I'm clearly obsessed. Enjoy!
