Our trip to Dosewallips State Park - November 2006...
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We spent the weekend at Dosewallips State Park with two of our favorite couples, Mike and Carol, and Cecil and Linda. Dosewallips is a pretty nice park with full hookups at $22.00 a night (to be raised $2.00 in 2007). You can read about the park or make reservations here. |
| We pulled in pretty late in light rain. Our friends had arrived earlier. Saturday morning dawned bright and reasonably clear although you can tell it had been raining recently. We're on the left, Cecil and Linda in the center, and Mike and Carol on the right. The campsites are nicely laid out in a sort of "wagon wheel" off of the main road. We're in the loop containing sites 10 - 20. |
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The loop containg sites 1 - 10 (and several other loops as well) were closed off due to water over the roadway and campsites. |
| Cecil and Linda were parked in site 14 next to us. As you can see, these are very nice campsites. |
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Here's a view back down the main road. Campsite loops are to the left and right off this road. One in each group of trees. |
| Jackie and I took several walks on Saturday. Here she is now... |
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Looking back towards our loop. Lots of wide open grassy areas between the loops. |
| Here's the camp hosts. We didn't get to meet them. |
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Elk like to travel through this campground, too. Their droppings were everywhere... |
| One of the very large cottonwood trees in the campground... |
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Under the overpass on the side of the road was a nice plaque and some very nice bronze sculptures depicting the life of Salmon.... |
| They started with the Salmon roe (or eggs) and young salmon and progressed through the life of the salmon... |
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Very nicely done.... |
| Overall, the scene was probably thirty feet long... |
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And ended with the adult salmon spawining to start the new generation.... |
| Here's a view towards the mouth of the Dosewallips river... |
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Racoons frequented the river shore as well.... |
| This was one of our favorite campsites. It was on the river and private but no services here... |
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This busy squirrel, in a tree by our campsites, was hauling cones as large as itself up the tree where it would sit and eat while keeping an eye out for danger below... |
| When the squirrel was done there was nothing left of the cone but the bare center... |
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After enjoying the bronze sculptures of the salmon we were thrilled to see live salmon in this creek. These were holding in a pool below some culverts... |
| This pair was very beaten up and most likely had already spawned. I don't imagine they would last much longer. We tried not to disturb them too much.. |
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A closer look revealed shredded fins and missing scales and skin... |
| Hooked noses were evident along with patchy red scales. It was hard not to feel a bit sorry for them but there was really no need. Like all life, this is just one part of it... |
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Overall, these fish were more than 2 feet long but it was clear that they had expended most of their energy to make it this far... |
| This salmon, on the other hand, appeared to be much more vigorous and in much better shape.. But it had a long way to go... |
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Of course, all of them would eventually end up like this one. Food for the bears, eagles and other critters in the area who depend upon these runs for their food... |
| Moving on, we were pleased to see that fire danger was low. Of course, given that it had been raining off and on for the last month we weren't too surprised... |
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We wondered what these "Platform Tents" were that rented for $40.00 a night... |
| They turned out to be very nice (although we still thought they were overpriced... |
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They had a double bed inside the door with a table, lamp and electric heater... |
| Bunk beds in the back, rug on the floor and bench with chairs... |
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They were in a pretty nice setting, too... |
| Here's a view upstream on the Dosewallips river. Leaves are gone from the trees and there is a light snow in the mountains. You are looking into the Olympic National Forest here... |
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Cecil and Linda hosted dinner in their RV. You couldn't ask for a finer pair of hosts... |
| Linda arranges things for our dinner. We had potluck, as always, and, as always, it was terrific.. |
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We thought we'd died and gone to heaven with all of the delicious deserts, too... |
| There was definitely a spread... |
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I didn't get a picture of Mike and Carol but we really enjoyed our visit with them. Their RV is very nice and comfortable although Mike has nothing nice to say about how the dealer or Fleetwood stand behind his new RV. Sunday morning we all awoke to pouring rain... |
| Here's Cecil hooking up the toad in the rain as they prepare to depart for home. Mike and Carol left next and we weren't too far behind. We look forward to our next visit already... |
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