Grayland Beach State Park

Last night, we returned from our latest adventure to Grayland Beach State Park.  Conveniently located about 10 minutes south of Westport, Washington this park is on the Pacific Coast, with a short walk to the beach.  The weather, although somewhat lacking, was considerably better than on our last trip here in December. 

Probably should have put sunscreen on.

Anyway, the highlight of the trip was the, apparently now annual, deep sea fishing expedition.  Last year featured Dakota, Colton, and me going salmon fishing on a charter boat out of Westport.  Followed by me going bottom fishing a couple of days later on the same charter boat.  I had so much fun bottom fishing that I decided this year, I'd take the kids to do that instead of salmon.

 

 The ride out was a bit wet going over the bar.  The kids were not exactly happy when they found out that we would be going out about 2 1/2 hours to the fishing area.  But that didn't last long when it was found that we had to stop part way to catch live bait for the Ling Cod fishing.  We used squid chunks to catch flounder which were collected and placed in the live bait well.  Colton broke his salmon jinx from last year, catching 8 or 10.  Stocked up for Ling Cod, we continued the journey.  We eventually arrived and rigged up for Ling Cod.  There was quite a current over the rocks and the captain was trying to hold us over them.  With 19 anglers dropping tackle over two hundred feet to the bottom, tangles were horrendous.  I did get a bit frustrated, spending it seemed 90 percent of the first half hour or so tangled.  But my last tangle occurred as I hooked up with my first Ling of the day.  Once I got untangled, the fight was on.  It was apparent to me that it was a big guy (at least by what I've caught in the past).  He made me realize that 300 feet down is a long ways.  Finally got him to the boat.

My largest Ling so far...

Mikee caught two, and Dakota caught one as well.  Unfortunately, I didn't get a photo of Dakota with his.

Mikee's Biggest Ling

 Once we had hammered the Lings, we took a short break while the deckhands rigged up our gear for rockfish.  The rockfish were actually kind of a letdown.  They came on board so quickly that it only took about 20 minutes for the boat to limit out with 200.  Rhett knows his stuff out here!  They were all yellow tail rockfish, with a couple of yellow eye rockfish thrown in.  Unfortunately, the yellow eyes are a protected species, and you can't keep them.  They are beautiful, as the photo below of Rhett trying to decompress one shows.  Unfortunately, they usually don't go back down, dying on the surface...

Yellow Eye Rockfish.  It did die despite Rhett's best efforts...

Yellowtails stacking up on the starboard deck!

Holy cow!  And on the port!

 The trip back to the dock was fairly uneventful.  Mikee helped me with seal-a-mealing most all of the fish, and then she and Dakota took the fish home in the Saturn the next morning.  Unfortunately, some water must have spilled out of the cooler, because now the car smells like fish!  And, the freezer is full!
The rest of the trip was mostly just hanging out, and hitting the beach for some sun.  Although, we did see mostly cloudy and rainy weather.  Oh well.  Next week we'll go back to Grayland Beach State Park.  This time, we'll have the Saturn with us the whole time.  So crabbing and touring Westport are on the agenda...

Alta Lake State Park

Our trip began on June 24th, with a trip up and over Chinook Pass.  The pass had just opened the day before after a record winter snowfall (over 700 inches at nearby Crystal Mountain Ski Resort).  Colton was pretty impressed with the walls of snow, and we had to stop for photos near the top of the pass.  The rest of the trip to Yakima was pretty much uneventful.  We arrived safely at Yakima Sportsman State Park for our stay.  There's not much to say about the park.  No, really, there's not much to say.  We had never stayed there before.  And we probably won't go back.  I mean it was ok if you just need a place to stay.  But there really wasn't much to do in the area.  Colton caught a few fish in the youth only pond, but it wasn't much fun for Mom and Dad.  We did find they have quite a few mosquitoes.  And my escape from my allergies didn't quite work out, as the Cottonwoods were in full release.  It looked like a heavy snow storm a couple of times.  Unfortunately, we stayed there many days.  Alta Lake State Park couldn't come soon enough...

The beach at Alta Lake State Park

And then we arrived at Alta Lake.  Nice and warm, with a breeze.  Colton and I enjoyed the beach and lake several times.  I will not scar you with photos of myself in a swimsuit!  While the park is very nice, I had an ulterior motive.  You see, many, many years ago, when I was a kid, the family camped here many times.  I recall it being Mom's favorite place to camp.  Well one trip, I took Jeff Forgey along.  He and I decided we were going to hike the trail up to the viewpoint.  Well after about only a quarter of a mile, I nearly stepped on a Rattlesnake.  Now, I never liked snakes, and that sealed the deal.  We never made it up the trail after that.  So, my plan was to finally hike up to the viewpoint.  The first spur I tried was fairly overgrown, which didn't ease my concern for snakes.  The second was better and soon I was moving upward on the trail.  I did eventually reach the viewpoint.  And it was indeed a good day.

This viewpoint photo, only 35 years in the making!

My next goal was to get Colton to the Grand Coulee Dam.  I have enjoyed the place many times, and thought he would as well.  We loaded up the car and went to Coulee City.  The dam was bleeding lots of water over the spillways and was quite spectacular.  We took photos from the usual viewpoints and then headed to the third powerhouse area for the tour.  I had somehow avoided this in my prior trips.  It was great.  We passed through security and loaded into little tour buses.  We got to go through the third powerhouse, right at the base of the dam, and then up and across the top.  No one had been allowed up there since 9-11-01.  This summer they opened it back up.  Wow...  It was amazing...

Lots of surplus water this year.

Inside the third powerhouse.

On top of the dam.  Lake Roosevelt to the right.

And over the spillway.

We wanted to see the Laser Show, but didn't want to stay longer that day, so we went back to the motorhome.  But, silly us, went back the next evening.  It's only about an hour and a half each way.  It was fun though.  I mean the show was no LaserFloyd, but it was neat seeing the show on the flowing spillway of the dam.  And on the way back to the park in the dark, lonely stretches of the highway, we pulled out Google Sky Map and showed Colton many constellations.  And the Milky Way!  The next day, we pulled up stakes and headed home.  Next up...  An old favorite, Silver Springs NFS campground!