The morning of Day 4 (Tuesday) dawned cool and foggy. It had gotten down to about 45 deg the night before, enough to prompt an extra layer in Bones to stay warm. The fog had settled into the little creek valley and plunged our campsite into low visibility mist. We'd had no more visitation or…Read more Washington With Bones – Part 4A: Mt. Rainier From Paradise
Two Comets and a Shower!
Hey All, I need to interrupt my ongoing discussion of campervan adventures in Washington state to talk about some upcoming backyard astronomy opportunities. We've got TWO marginal comets in the sky right now - one getting dimmer, and one getting brighter (but potentially lower). Neither is easy or straightforward, but worth the effort to seek.…Read more Two Comets and a Shower!
Washington With Bones – Part 3: Hoh Rainforest
The Hoh Rainforest gets an average of 140 inches of rain every year. That's more than 3 times as much as stereotypically rainy Seattle, only 100 miles away, gets. The Olympic Range catches all the moisture coming in off the Pacific and dumps it onto the westward slopes, generating the famous temperate rainforests, of which…Read more Washington With Bones – Part 3: Hoh Rainforest
Washington With Bones – Part 2C: Sol Duc and Rialto Beach
It had already been a long day by the time we navigated the windy road down off Hurricane Ridge and traveled, once again, along the south shore of Lake Crescent. The lake is beautiful, but I was really starting to feel stuck in this one little area. We'd been back and forth along this stretch…Read more Washington With Bones – Part 2C: Sol Duc and Rialto Beach
Washington With Bones – Part 2B: Hurricane Ridge
Leaving Marymere Falls, we headed back out toward Port Angeles to visit the destination we didn't have time for the day before - Hurricane Ridge. It's a commonly visited spot, at the end of the main National Park access road out of Port Angeles, but it's popular for a reason, and even though it represented…Read more Washington With Bones – Part 2B: Hurricane Ridge
Washington With Bones – Part 2A: Marymere Falls
Before I get into this update, a note: Now that we were fully immersed in this trip, things got busy - so I'm going to break days into individual locations and hikes for the sake of utility and the ability to do each part justice without making these posts overly long. As is typically the…Read more Washington With Bones – Part 2A: Marymere Falls
Washington With Bones – Part 1: Arrival, Olympic
https://youtu.be/b0whnnlf7ZU There's one advantage to getting up at 3am to catch an early flight from the US east coast to the west coast. Time zones work to your advantage in this direction, so you can make this trip and still arrive before local lunch time, leaving plenty of time to get a half-day in to…Read more Washington With Bones – Part 1: Arrival, Olympic
A Week In Washington With “Bones” – Campervan Adventures Across Three National Parks (Intro)
I had the blessed opportunity to take a week off from doom-scrolling and posting to the internet last week. We spent the time off grid, out of range of the mobile towers, exploring Olympic, Mt. Rainier, and North Cascades National Parks, and all the various State and National Forests that surround them (Olympic, Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie,…Read more A Week In Washington With “Bones” – Campervan Adventures Across Three National Parks (Intro)
Weather Prediction via Persimmon Trees (?)
There's lots of folklore out there around how to use natural phenomena to predict the severity of the upcoming winter. For example, mast seasons for oak and other nut-bearing trees are often described as indicators of harsh winters to come - this is good news for squirrels who have a bumper crop of acorns to…Read more Weather Prediction via Persimmon Trees (?)
Happy Pythagoras Day!
I'm late in the day here, apologies - it snuck up on me. But... Happy Pythagoras Day! If you're not tracking, let me remind you quickly of your high-school math classes. The Pythagorean Theorem says that given a right triangle - a triangle where one angle is 90-degrees, a "square" angle - if you square…Read more Happy Pythagoras Day!
Myrtle Point (Sept 14, 2025)
Today I'm recapping a short (2 mile) perimeter walk at Myrtle Point Park, in southern Maryland, highlighting some later summer/fall flora and calm river views. Late summer has been great for getting outdoors in the mid-Atlantic. Even before Labor Day, the temps were cool and the air was dry. We've seen a few days back…Read more Myrtle Point (Sept 14, 2025)
Lakes and Caverns (Hershey, PA)
Earlier in the week I wrote about one aspect of a Labor Day weekend camping trip near Hershey, PA, focusing on the butterflies at Hershey Gardens. Today I wanted to touch on the rest of the trip. We were camped at Gifford Pinchot State Park, a lovely park with lots of amenities situated around Pinchot…Read more Lakes and Caverns (Hershey, PA)
Butterflies!
While we were technically camping last weekend in southern Pennsylvania, we treated our little travel trailer as a home base for day tripping in and around the Hershey, PA area. One of our stops was Hershey Gardens, perched up on a hilltop across the main road from Hersheypark, where we could see (and hear the…Read more Butterflies!
Calvert Cliffs, MD (Sept 1, 2025)
This past week has been absolutely gorgeous through the Mid-Atlantic. An early glimpse of fall, the temps have been low, the humidity non-existent. There's a hint of a chill in the air, and certain trees seem to suddenly have gotten the cue to start changing color (though, this is almost certainly more due to water…Read more Calvert Cliffs, MD (Sept 1, 2025)
Paw Paw Season!
I just want to point out that paw paws are starting to become edible here in Maryland! These trees have a habit of having their fruit get ripe at wildly differing times, so you can find rotten paw paws and hard-as-a-rock unripe ones hanging right next to each other... but today I started finding some…Read more Paw Paw Season!