Our second trip was to the Pacific Northwest, in May 2001.  Here we saw ecosystems ranging from rainforests to deserts, from the coast to the mountains.  A central theme of the trip was the endangered salmon fisheries of the area, and we saw smolt out migrating through urbanized estuaries in Seattle, and adults in the fish ladders in the controversial Snake River dams.  We also saw  major irrigation projects, logging sites, saw mills, big volcanoes, beautiful waterfalls,  and  the desolate Hanford reservation, where the federal government is attempting to clean up the contamination caused from decades of plutonium production. Below you can click on any area to see photos from the trip, or you can follow it chronologically.