We also went hiking to Staircase Rapids, in Olympic National Park. We went on a ranger led hike with Ranger Jeff. He taught me about spittle bugs, banana slugs, caterpillars and showed us baby Osprey's trying to flap their wings. He told us that banana slugs can get 2 feet long. We also learned that people came here and hunted down elk for just four teeth to use in jewelry for the Elks Club. I said if I was in the Elks club I would want to have that jewelry but not kill the animal. It's not good to kill an animal just for it's teeth. They left piles of dead elk everywhere because they didn't use the rest of the body. It would be better to find a dead animal and use those teeth instead of killing an animal. It made me feel very bad because they killed them for no reason and wasted their body. I think that is part of the reason why this area became a national park.
While we were there we went to our friends wedding. Jen and Timmy were married in Olympia on a farm. I played games at the wedding and I took a tractor tour, it was so fun. When my mom went on the tour there were a lot of other grownups that went on too. When she came on I started talking on the speaker because I had gone on the tour before. I told everybody about one baby cow and how he was a year old. The tractor was green and the trailer was wooden brown. It went through trails in the woods where there were a lot of cows. Some of them followed the tractor. After the tour we went to go dance, we took pictures in the photo booth with a lot of my friends, my mom, and Jennifer and Timmy.
We left Stacy and Pauls and went to Mt. Rainier. We saw two foxes at a lookout on the snow. One was sitting looking at the people, one was behind the tree on the snow. People fed these foxes so now they sit and keep waiting for food and they could die because these people fed them and they forget how to hunt. The signs say a fed animal is a dead animal. When the foxes were begging the people were looking at them and taking pictures.
When we went to the first visitors center at Paradise, there were no animals. It was really foggy so we couldn't see Mt. Rainier. There was a lot of snow on the ground. I started playing snow ball fight with my Mom and some other kids. In the visitors center we watched a movie about Mt. Rainier, and went to a ranger program on climate change. After the ranger program a ranger gave me my Junior Ranger Booklet to work on and we explored the visitors center. When we left Paradise we drove down the mountain and then we started seeing Mt. Rainier. We headed to the Ohanapecosh visitors center to turn in my Junior Ranger Booklet and receive my badge. I also always get to keep my booklet.
After I received my badge we went hiking behind the visitors center, then we drove to go see Mt. Rainier at the Sunrise Visitors Center. Oh my gosh it was so beautiful because we got to see Mt. Rainier and it was humongous and we even got to see the top of Mt. Rainier. I took some pictures with my moms camera.
When we were driving down we were worried that we would run out of gas, but luckily we survived and we didn't run out of gas. We finally got gas at the gas station in the second town. When we saw Mt. Rainier from the town we saw this brown horse chasing this black horse to play with him. We started taking pictures of those horses and the brown horse was being a really great poser for my mom. Mt. Rainier was behind them so we got them both with Mt. Rainier behind them, YEAH!
When we saw those horses we remembered we had to get gas so we went and bought gas and came back to take pictures. Then we had to go to a friends house named Tyler. I'll write more about that later. Bye, Bye.
Had fun getting to know you, Conner. Hope we get to see you and your mom again soon.
ReplyDeleteSounds like you guys are having an awesome trip! I can't wait to see you when you guys head towards NC! Love you and miss you!
ReplyDeleteWow, Connor! You sure are getting your dose of snowball making in the summer this year, aren't you? The story you told about the elk is so sad! It's funny and sad the way man has changed the lives of animals (elk, fox). I'm glad you're learning about such things so you can teach others how to help, not hurt animals. Have fun and keep in touch! Ms. London
ReplyDeleteHi Conner! It sounds like you and your mom are having a great time and learning a lot about our country. I loved reading what you wrote. That was a really neat story about the foxes and a good tip about not feeding wildlife. Hope you guys continue to have a fun, safe trip. See you in a couple months!
ReplyDeleteLove,
Lyn, Ivan, Nadia and Saige
Thank you for liking what I wrote. I am having a really great time, I hope you are having a really great time too.
ReplyDeleteAunt Lyn, I like what you said about not feeding wildlife. I will be able to see you in 3 months, I miss you guys, Love Conner.
Ms. London, I am getting to do so much snow ball making because they are humongous mountains where we are going and there is a lot of snow. There is a lot of snow because the mountains are tall and because they had a lot of snow this winter and it is left over. Usually they don't have this much snow in August. It should have melted last month. I feel happy because there is a lot of snow and the snow makes it really fun for the trip.
Hi Conner!
ReplyDeleteI'm so glad you have pictures with your writing. Even though you described how beautiful Mt. Rainier was, when I saw the picture, I said, "WOW!!" You are right - the horses in the foreground of the picture is just perfect. Do you think your mom will paint that one? : ) You are so lucky to have this opportunity to learn about the parks, the animals, and the environment. When you grow up do you want to be a park ranger? Mrs. I.