Heading South.

Time to leave Seattle and head south. A misty start to the day and the forecast is for some sun but showers later in the day. Left the hotel just after nine and headed for NorthWest Trek

“Northwest Trek Wildlife Park is a treasure for wildlife enthusiasts.
This 725-acre park has a little bit of everything: lakes, trails, meadows and plenty of animals. Northwest Trek is home to more than 200 North American animals.”


I am not a great fan of zoos or wildlife parks but his was a great chance to see some of the wild animals of the area so I thought I would give it a go. The drive down went through Seattle on Interstate 5 past the Space Needle, the skyscrapers and SeaTac International airport. There were reasonable views of Mount Rainier through the hazy sunshine and clouds.

Once at Northwest Trek, the next available tram ride (which gives a conducted tour of the big herbivores in the park) was 50 minutes away so I had a chance to go around the walking tour which looks in on enclosures with bears, cats and dogs, BIG cats and dogs.

Wolf

There were wolves, coyotes, lynx, cougar, bobcats as well as black and grizzly bears.  There are smaller enclosures with skunk, beaver, river otter, racoon and wolverine. The animals are very well cared for but seeing the cougars pacing round their enclosure waiting to be fed was a little sad to see.

Grizzly, snoozing

Badger (apparently!)

On the tram there were great views of bison, mountain goats, bighorn sheep, deer and elk. The tour lasted about an hour after which I had another look around the walking tour until it started to rain so had some lunch and set off on the road.

Big Horn sheep, female.

The rain fell and fell. It was mostly light but with occasional heavier bursts. One noticeable difference with the lorries (or rather trucks) in America is that they do not have spray suppressors on the wheels as we do in Europe consequently on the Interstate (motorway) and highway (trunk road) visibility is not great(!) when passing or being overtaken. Couple that with the fact that vehicles can overtake on both sides and it leads to exciting travelling in heavy rain. Fortunately, all went well and the last hour or so of the journey was on quieter roads so spray was less of a problem. The visibility away from the roads was still poor so what I expect was spectacular scenery was completely out of sight. If the weather continues like this the journey down the Oregon coast might be less than spectacular. The forecast is for bright spells and showers so it should be okay some of the time – fingers crossed!

So where am I tonight? Well a place called Astoria, Oregon on the mouth of the Columbia river. Unfortunately, it was pouring with rain and getting dark (at 6P.M.) when I arrived so I can’t comment further today other than to say it sounds like I’ll be serenaded to sleep by sea lions or seals as I can hear them calling not far from my window - you don’t get that in Seattle!