And, I am a day late. Here is the second set of pictures from my trip last week.
I don’t know why I like starfish. They are slimy and sticky. When you watch them they do nothing. But starfish are dang cool to find.
I found the starfish at this beach. At, this beach I also found the tree growing sideways out of the side of a cliff.
Being as we were looking for small snakes. One of the things we (and when I say we I meant the scientists) were also looking for were things that may eat small snakes. Apparently wild turkeys may eat small snakes. Wild turkeys are everywhere.
It may be June, but high temps were only in the 50’s all but one day. Combine that with lots of rain, and you dress like this. P.S. The guy on they left behind me lives in a teepee and a yurt and has an outdoor kitchen on his property. I visited his home and wanted to take pictures, but I felt weird about asking so I refrained.
There are foxes running around on one of the islands. They have no fear of humans either. We pulled over on the side of the road and half a dozen or so ran right up to the car looking for handouts.
This particular fox was the least shy, and most bizarre looking.
The last full day of the trip we took a boat ride to view BLM properties that were on islands not accessible by ferry. On Patos Island there were dozens of seals getting warm on the rocky beach. This guy was perched on a rock that looked too small for his body.
I loved everything I got to see while hiking around the islands. The scenery was breathtaking. By far my favorite activity we did was hiking through the forest areas. Everything is green, almost like a rain forest.
As we waited in line for the ferry to take us off the island and back to “America” as the locals say, we went down to the beach to dip our fingers in the water and taste the salt. I found a rock covered in tiny little purple shells.
And, now I am home. One of the reasons I love Washington so much is the water on the western side of the state. The Norwegian in me needs to smell salt in the air. Hopefully it won’t be as long until the next time I am able to make it back to the water.
The Pilver 
Awesome! These are some really great pictures. I need to get out in nature more. 🙂
How far from nature are you?
That one fox looks like a wolf. Scary.
Kinda, it was teeny…only large cat sized.
Not too far, I guess. I live in upstate NY. But there’s not so much wildlife, except for deer and crows and chipmunks and mice.
One thing that is fun to do with starfish is to wait until super low tide and go about rescuing stranded starfish and huck them back into the water. I call them “ninja star fish” and throw back into the water ninja star style. Secondly, that seal is waaaay to small for the rock it was on. Also, sideways tree is hella cool.
I am going to the peninsula next weekend, I may have to try ninja starfish.
I love the green-ey fern-ey areas too. I have a fern in front of my house that grows amazingly well because my broken gutters make sure it stays plenty wet. Might be ruining the foundation, but at least I have a huge fern…
Beauty outshines building stability every time.