Day 24

Ok ... So we lied ... We got home late Saturday afternoon!

We decided about a week ago, to alter our trip plan slightly, so that we would get home on Saturday afternoon instead of Sunday night. Instead of spending 2 nights at Redwood National Park and Lassen National Park, we spent one night at each instead, and started our journey home on Wednesday afternoon instead of Friday morning. In reality, it didn't change anything, in terms of what we saw and did.

We had an awesome time, and I would gladly have added another week or two to the trip if we could have. In total, we drove 8258 miles (I went to Costco today and bought 4 new tires!).

It was good getting home a day early so that I had today to get our gear unloaded and put away, get some laundry done, etc.

Tomorrow, it's back to work and reality ... BUMMER!

Day 23

It was a LONG day … We woke up bright and early, got our camp packed up, and hit the road to begin our 14 hour drive to Rawlins, WY.

The drive was mostly uneventful, other than the incredibly annoying construction zones (where there was no actual construction going on … just lane closures and speed reductions … not that that was annoying or anything).

Nevada is an interesting state … if it weren't for casino gambling, it seems pretty likely that there'd be absolutely NOTHING there … at least from the perspective of Interstate 80. There are essentially only four towns across the entire state, along the I-80 corridor … all 380+ miles of it. There's Reno on the Western border and a town called Wendover on the Eastern border. In between there were two other towns, both of which simply seemed to exist primarily to provide casinos to travelers and truckers.

After Nevada, we entered Utah, crossing the Bonneville Salt Flats. That was actually really interesting … it's amazing how flat and far across it is. Over 40 miles across following I-80! We then traveled through Salt Lake City and past the Park City ski resort area. After that, there really wasn't anything else until we crossed into Nebraska.

Nebraska didn't have very much to offer either! There was one decent sized town on the border with Utah, and not much else until we reached or destination of Rawlins, WY. We're spending the night in a hotel here, and we'll be leaving first thing in the morning to continue on to Princeton, Illinois.

Back tomorrow night with tomorrow's drive report!

Day 22

It was a pretty cold night! We woke up this morning to a beautiful day. The campground here is a bit of a “dust bowl”, so we've got dust all over the tent and ourselves. At least on the bright side, after tonight, we won't need the tent anymore.

After breakfast, we headed out to the visitor's center and watched a short movie about the park. After that, we started driving the main park road, stopping at several viewpoints and interesting areas along the way. There was a pretty bad forest fire here last year, and there are some very large areas of the forest that show the effects of that fire.

When we arrived at the Lassen Peak Trail, we found out that it was only open part of the way. They're reconstructing the trail, so we wouldn't be able to go all the way to the top. Based on that, we decided not to bother doing the hike at all.

We then moved on to the park's main geo-thermal feature, an area known as Bumpass Hell. To see this area requires a three mile round trip hike. The terrain wasn't too rough, but it was pretty hot. When we reached the geo-thermal area, we walked around and viewed all of the “smelly smoking holes”, a term coined by Patty when we were in Yellowstone National Park quite a few years ago. We then drove the rest of the park road to the Southern entrance. There wasn't too much else to see or do, so we simply turned around and drove back through the park to our campground.

We spent the rest of the afternoon playing games and then we cooked our last camp dinner of the trip. We're planning to wake up very early tomorrow, eat a quick breakfast, get packed up and hit the road. We have a LONG drive to our first return trip destination of Rawlins, WY.

Along the way tomorrow, I'll try to post yesterday and today's blog posts.

Day 21

Today, we began our journey East, traveling from Redwood National Park to Lassen Volcanic National Park. We drove down the Pacific coast on highway 101 to a town called Arcata, and then turned inland and headed East, away from the Pacific.

It was amazing how quickly the landscape went from lush green forests, to dry, brown mountainsides. As soon as we crossed over the first mountain pass of our trip, the transformation began. It became very obvious how the mountains act as a “wall”, blocking moisture from the Pacific from reaching inland. In fact, there was a lot of smoke in the air, from a forest fire that apparently had been burning recently. We saw lots of fire trucks seemingly leaving the area, their job having been completed.

We had taken our time getting out this morning, as we were in no particular hurry. When we reached Redding, California, we got our first views of Lassen Peak, some 35 miles away. We could also see Mount Shasta from Redding as well.

 Mt. Shasta

Lassen Peak

We arrived at the park and got our camp site set up. It's very dry and dusty here, and it was pretty warm when we arrived, even though we're at an elevation of approximately 5500 feet. We've been told that it gets pretty cold at night … down into the low 40's.

Our plan is to tour the park tomorrow, doing a couple of hikes in the process. Then, it's back to our camp site for our FINAL night of camping. After that, we leave first thing Friday morning to begin our real journey back home.

That's it for tonight, though I won't be able to publish this post until Friday when we reach interstate 80 near Reno, Nevada. Once again, we have no internet access or cellular connections here in the wilderness.

Day 20

We spent today in and around Redwood National Park. We saw and hiked some more of the coastal redwood groves, including this fascinating spot.

Duh!!!

Tomorrow, we begin our journey back to the East, as we travel to our final location, Lassen Volcanic National Park. It's about a 5-6 hour drive to get there, so we'll probably just settle in to our camp site when we arrive and hang out.

Once again, we're not expecting to have internet access there, so our final posts may have to wait until we begin our real journey home on Friday morning.

Day 19

Today we made the relatively short trip from Crater Lake National Park to Redwoods National Park in Northern California. When we arrived, we immediately drove through the Jedediah Smith portion of the park, and took a short hike through a grove of coastal redwood trees. These trees are cousins of the giant Sequoia trees we had seen two years ago when we traveled to Sequoia National Park. The coastal redwoods are generally taller and less voluminous than their inland cousins. In any event, they were very impressive.

After seeing the trees, we traveled into Crescent City, California, which is located on the Pacific Ocean. We took the opportunity to get our feet wet in the Pacific, venturing onto Crescent Beach.

We then drove further down the coast, where we got an opportunity to see dozens of fishermen catching salmon as they were beginning to make their upstream runs in the Klamath River. Some of the fishermen we saw were actually sea lions, catching their afternoon meal.

Finally, we made it to our campground, where we set up camp and made dinner. With only three nights of camping left, we're in “pot-luck” mode, where we're just cooking whatever it is that we have left so that we get rid of most of our food. Tonight's menu was cheese quesadillas (which turned out really well) as an appetizer, with left over kielbasa from our jambalaya dinner, paired with scalloped potatoes with cheese sauce. Josh & I were both very happy with the results!

Tomorrow, we'll be spending the day here in Redwoods National Park. On Wednesday, we move on to our final destination … Lassen Volcanic National Park.

It really is hard to believe that this is all coming to an end … there's definitely more sadness than joy about this.

With no internet access once again, this post will have to wait until tomorrow, when we're in one of the towns along highway 101, where we'll have connectivity.

Day 18

Today was spent sight-seeing Crater Lake. Overall, it was a pretty relaxing day, as the main thing to do here is to drive the road around the lake, stopping at the viewpoints along the way. Unfortunately, there are some forest fires burning not too far away, so there was a lot of smoke in the air making the views of the lake and the surrounding areas a little hazy.

We took several short hikes, though they were pretty tough, as once again, the terrain here is very steep. One of the hikes we took brought us down to the lake itself. It's the only way to access the lake. It was a 1.1 mile hike, that covered approximately 700 feet of elevation! When we got to the bottom (the lake), Josh took his shoes off and waded into the 55 degree water. I chose to simply dip my hand in. There were lots of people who were swimming in the lake, though generally, just for a few minutes … better them than me!

It was a beautiful day, following a very cold night … it took a lot of courage to get out of the sleeping bags this morning! It's supposed to be pretty cold again tonight, with lows in the low 40's.

Tomorrow morning, we move on to Redwoods National Park in Northern California. It's hard to believe, but our journey is rapidly coming to an end. We have only two destinations left, with a total of four camping nights after tonight. Both Josh and I agree, that we could easily continue to do this for at least another week, maybe more. At this point two years ago, I think we were both ready to call it quits, but this time round, it seems to be a lot different. I think the plan to spend two nights at each park has been really helpful, in terms of keeping the pace a little more relaxed, which in turn, has translated into a less stressful experience overall. Definitely food for thought for any future trips like this.

Fortunately, today was a beautiful day, and this morning we were able to hang up our tarp that had gotten “trashed” in the thunderstorms we had at Mount Rainier two nights ago. By the time we got back to our campground this afternoon, the tarp was completely dry, and all of the dirt had just “fallen off” of it. This is great news in case we need it again.

Still without internet access here in our campground, so I'll have to put this post up tomorrow on our way to Redwoods National Park.

Day 17

We had some really nasty thunderstorms last night. The lightning and thunder seemed to be really close to us, and there were some torrential downpours. When I woke up in the morning, I went outside to see how the tarp I had hung had performed. It actually worked pretty well. Most of the water followed the tarp “downhill”, and landed beyond the sides of the tent. I noticed a small white pile in the corner where I had directed the bulk of the water and walked over to take a closer look. It turn out to be a pile of ice, made up of hundreds of ice pellets, the size of a very large pea … apparently, the storm was packing some hail in addition to the rain!

We got our gear together, loaded the car and headed out for what was to be a long travel day. The plan was to travel from Mount Rainier to Crater Lake National Park, stopping at Mount St. Helens along the way. We spent about an hour and a half at Mount St. Helens. It is absolutely amazing to see first-hand the destruction from the 1980 eruption, and this after 33 years have gone by! Unfortunately, there were a lot of clouds in the area, so we didn't get to see really great views of the mountain.

After leaving Mount St. Helens, we traveled the rest of the way to Crater Lake National Park. It was a long drive! We finally arrived at about 7:30 in the evening, got our camp set up fairly quickly, and made dinner. It's pretty cold here tonight, in fact, these are probably the coldest temperatures we've experienced so far on this trip. A few days before we left, I had gone to BJ's Wholesale Club to buy some food items we were going to need. When I was there, they had some Coleman light-weight fleece sleeping bags on clearance for $9.99 each. I decided to buy a couple of them, figuring for $10 bucks, how could you go wrong? As it has turned out, that was about the best $20 bucks I've spent in a long time. These fleece bags have been amazing for us … they've been great on the warm nights we've had, and on the cold nights, we've been using them as liners in our regular bags. We'll really need them tonight in that role!

Tomorrow, we're going to spend the day sight-seeing Crater Lake. From what we saw on our way in, it should be a pretty awesome day.

Unfortunately, we don't have internet access here, as expected, so this blog post will have to wait until Monday, when we leave Crater Lake National Park and drive to Redwoods National Park in California.

Day 16

We did some hiking on Mount Rainier today. We hiked the Skyline Trail, which is about a 6 mile hike from the Paradise Visitor's Center to a point on the mountain known as Panorama Point. The hike included approximately 1700 feet of elevation change in two miles. This is considered fairly steep!

It was a beautiful day, and we had started our hike nice and early to beat the afternoon sun. We also included a side trip on a trail called the Paradise Glacier viewpoint, which added an additional 1.5 miles of hiking. By the time we were done, we were pretty tired. The scenery was beautiful … the meadows were absolutely bursting with flowers and we really enjoyed the hike. We also saw quite a few marmots, which looked a lot like groundhogs to me.

After we finished, we ate lunch and then watched a short movie in the Visitor's Center. Then, we drove to see a waterfall called Narada Falls. It was really pretty. While we were there, a couple of, what I can only describe as “hippies”, came running down the trail. I had a pretty good idea of what was about to happen, and sure enough, a few minutes later, they emerged from the woods into the river at the top of the waterfall … it was hard to tell for sure from where we were standing … but I don't think they were wearing anything! Fortunately, they didn't fall over the edge, which would have meant certain death.

After that, we did a little driving through the park and then headed back to our campground to play some games and make dinner.

Tomorrow, we have a long travel day ahead of us, which also includes a stop at Mount St. Helens. We're planning to wake up nice and early and get packed up quickly and get on the road. Our destination is Crater Lake, Oregon. Along the way, I plan to publish these last two blog posts and call home. Once again, I'm not expecting to have cellular service once we reach Crater Lake.

It's just starting to rain now, and we're also hearing some thunder. I have a tarp set up over the tent, and I'm hoping that it will keep us dry overnight, and if necessary, provide “shelter” for us in the morning as we pack up the tent and our belongings, so that we don't arrive at Crater Lake with a bunch of wet stuff. We'll see how it goes.

That's it for now.

Day 15

Today we traveled from Olympic National Park to Mount Rainier National Park. Mount Rainier is the tallest mountain in the continental U.S., excluding Alaska. We got our first views of it some 60 miles away (using roads, not as the “crow flies”) when we reached Tacoma, Washington. It really is an impressive sight.

When we arrived at the park, we drove to one of the most popular visitor areas, a place known as Paradise. There are excellent views of the mountain here, and many of the more popular hiking trails begin at this location.

As expected, there is no cellular service in the park. In fact, we lost cellular service when we were over 20 miles from the park entrance, and once we entered the park, we travelled another 20 miles to reach our campground.

Tomorrow, we plan to hike the “Skyline” trail. It's a 6 mile trail that ascends more than 1600 feet in the first two miles. It's going to be a very strenuous hike, but we're planning to just take it slow. After that, we may do one or two more shorter, easier hikes, but we'll have to see how the day is going. The weather forecast is calling for afternoon thunderstorms tomorrow, so we'll have to wait and see.

That's about it for tonight … this blog post will have to wait until Saturday morning, when we leave Mount Rainier to head for Crater Lake National Park. I'm not expecting to have cellular service at Crater Lake either, but we will be traveling along I-5 for a good part of the day, passing by Portland, Oregon, so we should be able to stop briefly to post this entry and call home.

Day 14

Today, we started out by hiking in the Elwha Valley of Olympic National Park. We had to drive along a 5 mile, one lane gravel road to get to the trailheads. When we arrived, we did about a 4 and half mile hike, that took us along the Elwha River, though at a point along the mountainside well above the river itself.

This is an interesting area, in that there are (were) two dams that had been built many years ago, to provide hydroelectric power. The problem was, these dams were apparently built illegally, because they  did not provide a way for the fish (salmon) that had previously used this river as a spawning ground to continue to use it. In the early 1990's, the Federal government purchased the dams and has now begun tearing them down, in order to return the area to its original state. One of the dams is currently being dismantled, and it was pretty interesting to see the empty lake that had at one time existed due to the dam's presence. Unfortunately, this area of the park is closed to visitors and I wasn't able to get any pictures.

Anyway, the hike itself wasn't particularly spectacular, though it was certainly a nice walk in the woods. The whole time we were hiking, I couldn't help think about how awesome the trail we were walking would have been for a mountain bike! There were a couple of old cabins along the trail that had been built in the early 1900's, though they've been maintained and refurbished by the Parks Service, that had been used by early "pioneers" in this area.

After our hike, we planned to visit Hurricane Ridge, the Alpine part of Olympic National Park. As we were driving back down the gravel road, the gravel had other ideas for our plans, and I got to do something I haven't done in years ... change a flat tire!!! Yes ... we got a flat tire with about 1 mile to go before the end of the gravel road. Fortunately, we were able to make it the rest of the way down, and I changed the tire in the parking lot of a Ranger station.

After that, we headed back to town, and fortunately, Siri (Josh asked the iPad where we could find a tire repair center) was able to find a tire center for us in the town of Port Angeles, less than 1 mile from where we were at the time. Luckily, they were able to patch the tire, and after a very short interruption, we were back on our way.

We drove to the top of Hurricane Ridge, and the views were incredible.

Tomorrow, we head to Mount Rainier National Park. Once again, I think there's a really good possibility that we won't have any cellular service or internet access, but I guess you never know. Maybe the National Parks Service has recognized that having cellular service in the park campgrounds is a good safety measure.

So, if we have access, I'll be back tomorrow night with another blog post ... if not, it will have to wait a couple of days until we're on the road from Mount Rainier to Crater Lake, Oregon.

Day 13

We spent the day today, sightseeing in Olympic National Park. This park is very different than most of the other National Parks we've been to. First, not unlike many of the others, it's huge. But what's different about this park is that there are no roads that go through the park, connecting the different areas. If you want to go from one area to another at this park, you have to drive around the outer perimeter ... this makes for some VERY long drives.

The park has several very different areas, from alpine mountains, to temperate rain-forests, from river valleys to shoreline. Today, we visited the Hoh rainforest and the Mora shoreline area, specifically a place called Rialto Beach. Apparently, the Twilight movies were filmed in these areas, and there is a lot of funny stuff to be seen relative to the movies. For example, on one building, we saw a take-off on the typical forest fire danger "meter" that in this case, was measuring current "vampire threat" levels! There are also quite a few "tour companies" that will take you on Twilight tours, I guess bringing you to some of the specific areas that were used for filming.

Anyway, as far as the scenery was concerned, it was nice, but I have to say, having come from Glacier National Park and North Cascades National Park, Olympic National Park just doesn't measure up ... at least not based on what we've seen so far.

Tomorrow, we plan to visit two other areas, one called the Elwa Valley and the other called Hurricane Ridge. The Elwa Valley is an area of hydro-electric dams that are actually being dismantled in order to return this area to its original state. Supposedly, it's pretty interesting to see these areas as they are being transformed. The Hurricane Ridge area represents the alpine terrain that Olympic National Park is famous for.

Day 12

Today, we traveled from North Cascades National Park to the Olympic Peninsula of Washington State. On the way, we decided to take a detour to stop at the Pike Street Market in downtown Seattle. It wasn't originally in our plan, particularly because we've already been there, but since we were so close, and didn't have much else to do today, we decided to go anyway.

On the bright side, the last time we were here, it was early on a Sunday morning, and there wasn't too much going on. Today, on the other hand, Josh got to see them tossing fish, which of course, he got a big kick out of. We bought some salmon to make for dinner, and it turned out really well!

After we left the market, we boarded a ferry to take us to the Olympic Peninsula, leaving Seattle behind.

Tomorrow, we're planning to head down to the Hoh rainforest, which is part of Olympic National Park, to spend the day there hiking, and seeing whatever we can.

It's hard to believe, but our trip is now half way done, and it really feels like it's going fast now ... so far, it's been an awesome trip and I hope it continues to be so.

Day 11

We spent the day today hiking in North Cascades National Park. We did four smaller hikes, rather than doing one big one, so that we could see different areas of the park. In all, we hiked about 7 miles. Two of the hikes were a little tougher, as the mountains here are VERY steep. Most of the trails are laid out with LOTS of switch-backs, in order to make the climbs more manageable.

The terrain here, to repeat, is just beautiful. We had a picture perfect day, weather-wise, and it was just awesome.

To be clear, I think the primary reason this park exists, is because of the dams that have been built here to provide power for the city of Seattle, WA. In fact, I'm sure that the only reason we have cellular service, is because our campground is right next to the little town that was created to house the employees of the Seattle City Light Company, the operator of the hydroelectric plants here.

There are several dams within the park, the most impressive of which is the Ross Dam, pictured below. One of the hikes we did today took us from the main road that traverses the park, down a very steep mountainside, ending at the top of the dam. The bad news, was that we then had to climb back up!!! Unfortunately, the spillways on the dam were closed ... based on the look of the spillways, I bet it would be pretty cool to see the water going down through them.

After our day of hiking, we went back to our campground to rest and relax. Josh kicked my butt in a game of Monopoly (he always seems to win the games we play that involve rolling dice). After that, I made a dutch oven lasagna ... it turned out pretty darn good!!!

Tomorrow morning, we leave here and head towards Seattle, WA and the Olympic Peninsula. It's not too long of a drive (about 4 hours), so the plan is to take our time getting out in the morning, and then spend some time having some fun at the campground when we get there.