8-31-05: On my days off, Steve and I decided to hike the Cape Alava trail. Its a nine mile loop through the woods, along the beach and back. Near the beginning of the trail is this strange red stream. I don't know what makes the water so red, but the photo is quite accurate to the way it looked in real life.

8-31-05: We made it to the beach for lunch. We had lunch on top of some rocks, and watched the waves roll in.

8-31-05: Down the beach a bit there were some sea stacks. Of the one on the left, Steve said, It reminds me of some relationships I've been in...

8-31-05: Another sea stack. I like the contrast between the nearby rock and the far away sea stack.

8-31-05: We found this set of bones while walking along the beach. After a little eying we were able to figure out that it is the front limb of a sea lion. The hide to the right still had quite a bit of fur on it, which is what made us favor sea lion over seal. You can see the flattened humerous, the very short radius and ulna, and three finger bones. To Steve's credit, he wasn't grossed out by my extensive poking about in the rotting corpse.

8-31-05: One of the neatest things about the Cape Alava trail is the Native American petroglyphs carved into the rocks along the beach. They are from the time of the first European explorers. This carving shows a galleon.

8-31-05: The carvings are not always easy to spot among the rocks. This symbol is very common.

8-31-05: What does this carving mean? Steve takes a closer look...

I checked the guide book given to us at the ranger station. It says the ovals with a line in the middle are a female fertility symbol.

8-31-05: Oh, I get it, says Steve. This is graffiti. I can just imagine some fourteen year old Native American kid going, This is me. You can tell its me, because I'm surrounded by chicks.

8-31-05: Some of the carvings are a little hard to see, but I particularly liked this one.

8-31-05: Spoiler.

I'm sure guns and dogs were pretty impressive. Its interesting that the dog is bigger than the guy with the gun.