Thousand Trails La Conner

Lone Tree Point and Hope Island

The Swinomish Indians share some of their land with the Thousand Trails La Conner Preserve in Washington.  La Conner Thousand Trails  is on the Puget Sound just north of Seattle.  Lone Tree Point is a sacred spot for the natives in the area.

Here’s a map of the area, compliments of the Swinomish Indian Tribe

Swinomish Indian Reservation

And an aerial view of the point:

Lone Tree

On the point of land is a single lone tree.  Over the years, storms have ravaged the tree, and it is smaller than it was when we were last here in 2006.  The tribe is growing seedlings from the seeds of the Lone Tree to eventually replace the old tree.  The Swinomish tribe has established a marine interpretive center primarily focused on the clam re-seeding program.  There are several informative signs explaining what the tribe is doing.  They are experimenting with raising clam varieties that are better suited for eating than the invasive non-native pacific clams.

From Lone Tree Point, out in the sound is a large floating nest of pens where salmon are farm raised.  These do not belong to the Swinomish Indians and the tribe has erected a sign explaining the amount of pollution created by these pens.

Getting Some Pictures

Great weather continued during our visit to thousand Trails La Conner, and I spent a couple of hours out on Lone Tree Point enjoying the sea breeze.  On a couple of visits I flew the DJI Mavic Drone to capture the beautiful scenery.

Here’s the flight path on one of the flights (using Air Data):

Hope Island Flight

I have been experimenting with using D-Log and the GC-Heron LUT (Look Up Table) for color adjustment from RTH Studios (non-paid reference).  I have found it a challenge to dial in the drone camera settings and the right post production settings.  More drone photography experiments to come!  {Updated Video with Corrected Color Grading}

Back to Oregon

As I mentioned in a previous post about our arrival in La Conner, in May and June we were in the middle of getting my dad’s house  ready for sale.  Fortunately my brother was able to maintain the house and get a new roof up prior to Christine and I arriving to get it ready for sale.  We remodeled the kitchen and bathrooms, put new siding on the house and painted it inside and out.  Thank goodness my younger daughter and her husband were able to take some time off from their busy schedule or we would probably still be up in Oregon getting it fixed up.  Thank you!

Dad’s house

What’s next?

As a retired couple full-timing in their RV, life is a breeze, eh?  Not!  We purchased a true fixer-upper close by our daughters in the Sacramento area and are currently busy ripping out carpets, remodeling bathrooms and the kitchen and hauling trash away!  Almost feels like work.  Good thing we have Lola to live in during these crazy times.

We are headed to Albuquerque for the Balloon Festival and are busy planning our winter visit to Arizona and South Texas.  Stay tuned!   We will explore more of Nevada, Utah, Arizona and New Mexico on our way to the festival.

New Mexico here we come

In the meantime I want to do some reviews of tools we have been using successfully and NOT over the past full year of full-timing in Lola.

Jeff and Christine

Happy Trails