Flaming Geyser State Park & Snohomish Slough 2/8-9/14

Yesterday was a fun day to check out a state park Dave had noticed last week. Flaming Geyser State Park is pretty interesting with a history of coal mine exploration and a flame burning at the flaming geyser where a methane pocket deep below the ground (1400 ft if I read the sign right) is seeping out. 

It also has kind of a mudpot geyser where more methane bubbles up through some mud and water near a stream that flows into the Green River.

 Here is a video of the mudpot:
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=moHrCs32cP0&feature=youtu.be

It was an icy day and the water had frozen in cool shapes along the stream.

Flaming Geyser State Park had great picnic table areas, lots of river access for fishing or cooling down in the summer, and big field areas too.It seems like it would be a good place to come back to and check out again!
Later that afternoon we found ourselves in a snowstorm halfway up a windy steep hill that our GPS had led us up putting chains on the tires while other people slid off the road as they tried to come up or down it.

We got maybe 3 inches, but it melted a lot this morning and only about 1 1/2 inches of snow were left by the time we headed outdoors.  We have been wanting to do our Snohomish slough walk in the snow and this may have been our last chance this winter, so we took Cedar, picked up Junior and took both dogs out.

 What a great day for a walk there!  We saw tons of ducks and both our eagles flying up to their nest! What huge birds to come to a landing between the branches like that!  We saw robins, flickers, jays, a killdeer and a heron also!

Then on our way back along the dike, we got a real treat!  A squeaky otter was floating around talking to us.  This totally made our day.  : ) 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Qf7fEAh91k&feature=youtu.be
(if you turn up your speakers you can hear this little guy chirping as he swims)

Around the Sound

I have been doing a little bit of everything lately and it's catch up time!  First of all, a little bit of awwwww.  This little guy was spotted on a ferry ride to the peninsula.

Another ferry ride to the peninsula, unfortunately not any of the dolphins Dave and I saw twice.  We were enjoying the cormorants, some vintage aircraft flying in formation and a blue heron when we noticed some scuba divers crossing the line into the Edmonds Ferry area.  This is a major no-no, so I figured something was wrong.  There were three of them, and one was being towed by another.  The ferry deployed its emergency response raft and took them to shore.  I went and asked what was wrong and the divers were just tired. 

One drive Dave and I did before we went to California was up to Spada lake.  I had never been there, and it was lovely.  An interesting dam, waterfalls around the lake and a lot of places to park and walk around and enjoy.  It is a really large lake!

Adventure Dog gave me a dirty look for taking his picture here.

We also made another trip out to the Spirit Island wetlands area.  Instead of being dead and muddy, the plants were all green and there were flowers. 

And it was still muddy.  Junior stepped through a thick layer of grass and plopped right into a mudhole face first.

Let's zoom in, shall we?  hahahaha!