More fun and more marmots this year as we did another week of marmot monitoring in Olympic National Park. Such a cool program.
Many of the specifics about the survey areas, campsite, etc., are the same as last year, so feel free to take a look at that post. If you do, please join me in being amazed at how much Franklin has grown! Totally legitimate big kid now!
Tuesday
We set out first thing. Well, at noon, when we were finally packed. But we were ready to monitor some marmots!
Found a nice campsite.
Turned out it rained that night. Actually it rained almost every night... But our tent kept us nice and dry, so it all worked out.
Wednesday
Did the training Wednesday. We'd seen most of it before, but it's a nice reminder.
And speaking of nice, they even did their best to get a shirt small enough for Franklin:
Not quite his size, but a nice gesture.
Now just to be clear, we took a ton of photos and videos. There are a lot in this post, but if you want a too see even more, or see them all together without all these words, here you go:
Also all in one Flickr album.
Pretty chilly the first couple of days, but we stayed warm:
Decided that cooking dinner outside in the rain was okay once but not twice, so went into Port Angeles for dinner:
And picked up some reading (and coloring) material:
Thursday
Rainy and cold at our campsite. But up on Hurricane Ridge?
Yep.
A friendly ranger suggested driving over to the Sol Duc area. And we were happy to run into one of Franklin's classmates there!
Also saw some absolutely amazing salmon trying to work their way up the river:
These photos and videos aren't half as amazing as seeing it live, but at least a nice reminder...
You can read a little more about the Sol Duc Salmon Cascades here.
The ranger also suggested taking a look at the Elwah Restoration. That link has great stuff by the way, including background info, interactive graphics, and live webcams.
Anyway, it was amazing to see the changes at the site of the former Glines Canyon Dam and former Lake Mills:
Couldn't stay away from our rainy campsite forever. Luckily Franklin was great about the whole experience:
I mean really, his willingness to happily eat his dinner while standing in the rain made the whole thing pretty fun:
Friday
Finally the weather turned and we could look for marmots:
Found one pretty easily too, right off of the Wolf Creek Trail:
See him?
How about here:
So cool to hike with this guy:
And we were happy to see that a dry campsite can be fun too!
Saturday
Did some serious off trail hiking near Steeple Rock. Franklin was awesome.
No marmots, but plenty of fun and beautiful scenery.
But what about Klahhane Ridge, you ask? How about four marmots sitting out in the sun! Woo!
Sunday
One last morning in camp:
Can you spot the ball he'd just thrown?
Not a bad way to end a trip:
Well, that's all. Hooray for Emily, hooray for Franklin, and hooray for the Olympic marmot!
Fantastic!
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