I was walking along the beach at Fort Worden State Park (Port Townsend, WA) when a river otter came out of the water and climbed up onto the rocks in front of me. It seemed fairly unconcerned with my taking photos, but did keep watching me. Fine with me … eye contact is good.
The Nisqually Delta is outside of Olympia, WA and is home of the Nisqually – Billy Frank, Jr. National Wildlife Reserve. It had been diked, drained and converted to farmland back 100 years ago or so, but the dike was intentionally breached and the interior is now salt marsh and provides home to young salmon. They built a wonderful walkway that runs most of a mile out for viewing birds and other critters. I took this image across to Luhr Beach (the buildings on the water) and the boat ramp. I didn’t notice the mountains visible in the cloud gaps until recently. They are the southeast corner of the Olympic Mountains from about Mount Ellinor to The Brothers.
These are both images of grass along the beach. The top one has the grass growing almost on a vertical bank with just a few green shoots coming up through the yellowed remains. It was taken with my iPhone, while the bottom image was taken with a film camera. You can see the film grain pretty clear in it, especially in the sky. Also, the wind was blowing the grass below … but in both you can see the effects of the wind.
The waterfront in Port Townsend is a great place to find interesting details. The saltwater, sea air and various living creatures work together to eliminate these intruders.
When I visited Haines, Alaska a couple times, I stayed in a small cabin close to the ferry terminal. As I was out for an after-dinner walk, I got this image of an old truck with one of the Alaska ferries in the distance. This is one of the smaller ferries that usually runs between towns, not the larger vessels that make the run from Bellingham, Washington.
The cabin had a number of grouse living in the yard. They were quite tame and I think were looking for handouts. I gave them a copy of my itinerary, but they didn’t seem interested in that type of handout.
