The South Riding RV Travels

641

23rd September 2011 - The Chase Garden, Puyallup WA to Port Angeles WA

We collected the RV and spent a day shopping and getting the RV serviced before driving a short distance to a campsite at Puyallup, just south of Seattle.

The view is from the Chase Gardens near there and is of Mount Rainier. A rare shot because the mountain is usually hidden in cloud.

The gardens were small and we were the only visitors. The originators have now died but a conservation group has taken over and the 5 acres of gardens are looked after by an enthusiastic group of volunteers.
This is a young dawn redwood. The problem with planting trees is that they generally outlive you.
We aren't sure what this is but the leaf shape was interesting. There were a lot of native plants in the garden.
I did think this grouping of trees was spectacular. The sun angle did not help with the photo though.
The setting of the garden is idyllic with the mountain on the horizon. It is not a densely populated area but that simply means they have more of a problem with wildlife, especially deer.
September is not a good time to visit natural gardens as  most of the colour is dying but the different greens in the trees is always attractive.
.The soil must be fairly acid because the predominant colour of those plants which were still flowering was blue. This is a hydrangea.
Another hydrangea and of a particularly vivid hue.
Most of our hostas get eaten by slugs. This must be a slug free zone.
We normally think of cyclamen as being something you grow in pots. But these are naturalised and spreading all over the forest floor.
Yet another sort of hydrangea. This one does particularly well in the local climate.
I said that the volunteers (ladies) were enthusiastic. They were having a plant sale the following day and one had a carload of plants for the sale. The inside of the car was full too.
So we travelled on from Puyallup and the gardens towards Port Angeles on the Olympic Peninsula. This is the famous suspension bridge over the Tacoma Narrows..
The US Navy base at Kitsap is the home of Carrier Strike Force 3 although there seem to be several carriers here. The nuclear submarine base is just round the corner.
A few miles further on the road crosses another major waterway. This is the Hood Canal. The bridge is built on floating concrete pontoons with rubber seals between the sections. At 2400m long it is the third longest bridge of this type in the world and the longest over a saltwater tidal basin.