August, 2017
So much to tell you!
This was a 5-day camping trip … one day to get there, three full days there, and one day to get back home. My gosh, I certainly did pack a lot of adventures into those middle three days. There was so much to see and do and so many places to explore and so many people to talk with. I’ll share everything, but I’ll share just a couple of things in each post, rather than posting a full day’s experiences.
I did quite a lot of walking. The campground was full of trails and there were trails in the woods around the perimeter of the campground too. I saw so many plants and trees that I couldn’t identify. Lots of them I could identify but I really did need a botanist along on this trip.
So here are some photos from various “hikes” around the campground. This post is heavy on photos, light on words. I wish I could share how rich and healthy the forest smelled.
Are those Woodpecker holes in that weathered old tree stump?
The trail led me along a ledge that bordered the shore of Lake Wynoochee.
The trail emptied out onto the public day-use area of the Coho Campground.
A Park Ranger told me that this area in the two photos above had burned a few years ago and is now growing back.
This was looking a different direction at a different peak.
There was a small clearing near the Rangers’ shop where old picnic tables were given a quiet corner in which to rest after many years of service. Could this really have been table #1, the first picnic table ever at Coho Campground? I like to think so.
This person is a Pine Squirrel (genus Tamiasciurus). I think it’s a Douglas Squirrel (Tamiasciurus douglasii) because it has a tan belly. American Red Squirrels (Tamiasciurus hudsonicus) have a white belly. That’s according to the internet, of course. These little people are native to western North America, unlike the more commonly seen, and larger, Eastern Gray Squirrel who is native to the eastern portions of North America. This one particular neighbor of mine in the photo above continued to jump on along ahead of me for quite awhile on my trek though the campground.