I was lucky to have some downtime in Seattle before a recent business trip to Vancouver, so one of my best friends – Jessica – popped up from San Francisco to join me for some National Park adventures and whale watching!  I love exploring our National Park system and its jewels – and we packed a lot of them into one weekend.

Our first stop was Mt. Rainier National Park – America’s fifth oldest national park.  Blessed with amazingly perfect sunny weather, we spent Saturday driving through the park and stopping along the way to appreciate its beauty.  The Nisqually Entrance is open year round, and with an SUV its an easy drive through the park with lots of scenic overlooks.  But winter at Mt. Rainier means renting chains to carry in your car – even if you’re not required to put them on – or you’ll have to turn around and drive to the nearest rental place (like we did!).  Plan time to stop at the Longmire and Paradise Visitors Centers to learn more about the park’s history, ask a ranger questions, or get a souvenir!

Mt. Rainier

On Sunday, we took a 4-5 hour whale watching trip with Island Adventures out of downtown Seattle – I’d highly recommend this company, and Tyson our naturalist was very knowledgeable!  While January isn’t peak whale watching season, they still run a trip everyday and have luck spotting resident orcas or a humpback here and there.  While the first few hours of our trip were pretty quiet and peaceful, we were excited to find Speckles the Humpback Whale – a juvenile humpback that has been spending a lot of time in the area.  Named Speckles for his distinguishing marks on his back and tail, this little guy gave us a show for about an hour fishing, surfacing, and even blowing his whale stench in our direction (quite a smell if you’ve never experienced it!).

Speckles and his Speckles

Speckles really gave the two guys on this boat a close encounter!

Speckles the Humpback Whale 

We finished the weekend with a scenic drive through the Western part of North Cascades National Park.  While there were many breathtaking views, it was mostly closed for the season (or for Martin Luther King Day) – so we’ll have to come another time when its warmer.  It was still worth taking the longer loop back to the airport (vs. the interstate) for views like this:

North Cascades National Park

More photos from my trip can be found in my album here, or check out Ed’s previous post with additional whale photos.

Thanks for reading about my whale of a trip.  Now go make some photos!

©2017, MK Rosack. All rights reserved