Yellowstone and beyond...

I have always loved road trips. The first official road trip I can remember was when I was 4. Mom packed me, Dave, Melissa, James and Ben into the station wagon and we headed West. We hit up Yellowstone, Disney Land, Tijuana, and even picked up a turtle in Nebraska. I can't tell you for sure every where we went, I only remember two things from that trip. 1) Prairie dogs at Yellowstone and 2) how darn hard it is to get Chip and Dale at Disney Land to sit still for 2 seconds to take a picture.

So given my love for road trips, I try my best to never pass one up. For the past summer Tom and I have been planning a trip, we weren't sure where we would go, but we knew it had to be fun. We took out our computers and simply estimated how far we thought we could drive and then we got out a calendar and determined how many days we thought we could get away from work. We landed on a trip to Yellowstone!

We departed MN around 5-6 on Wednesday afternoon. We arrived Fargo some where around 9-10. We ate at Granite City until around 10-11. We then drove through the night across North Dakota and into Montana. By dawn we had arrived in Red Lodge, which we viewed as our gateway to Yellowstone - the final city before we road the Bear Tooth Highway into Yellowstone. So to start the day off we and to take a break from our non-stop driving we stopped at a grocery store for some food. While there we stretched, brushed our teeth, got some food and were told the Bear Tooth Highway had been closed overnight due to 'weather'. Not willing to be stopped or to turn around and head towards an alternative route into Yellowstone we drove on (even past road closed ahead signs). Thankfully the road in Montana was not closed. We did however hit the Wyoming border to find it closed. There were however quite a few other cars waiting and informed us that the snow plow was plowing the road out. So we played around in the mountains for a while.

After we got though we were finally in Yellowstone, the Bear Tooth Highway provided us with some amazing views. Then once in the park we visited Mammoth Hot Springs and were able to find a few wildlife along the way.

On our second day in Yellowstone we visited the popular Geysers. Being stubborn and wanting to see something besides Old Faithful blow we waited 2 hours in the sun to watch the Grand Geyser (which goes longer and higher than Old Faithful) blow. It was well worth it, also while waiting we were able to see Old Faithful blow twice ....in the distance. :)

Day 3 was in the Grand Tetons. We had an awesome time stopping to take pictures, hiking and enjoying the mountain air. We however did not have a great time finding a campsite, so that was a tad stressful - but in the end we were able to secure a site for the evening.

Day 4 I woke everyone up at 5:30 so we could be on the road by 6 so we could then hike to a lake in hopes of seeing moose early in the morning at the lake. We did not see any moose at the lake but we saw at least 3-4 herds of Elk along the way. Once done looking for animals we at some flap jacks and then headed East.

We drove all day and we stopped to see Devil's tower - no encounters of the third kind :(. And by 1am we made it to the Johnson farm near Madison.

That about sums up the trip, enjoy the pics!

PacNW - Day 8

Day 8! Our final day!

So we learned the day before that parking in Seattle sucks. It's expensive and it's not all that easy to come by - it typically is about $4 for the first 30 minutes to hour. So we did some research and found out that if we got there before 9:30 am you got the early bird special! So not wanting to pay $20 for parking for the day we went early so we only had to pay $10 - I recommend doing this if you plan to spend the whole day down there.

So we got there early and at the time of day we arrived the vendors were still setting up for the day. Which was fun to see the vendors with set spots getting their fish, flowers, fruits and other products set out of the day. It was also interesting to see vendors who just show up jockey for spaces to sell their goods....it brought me back to my old craft show days!!

Once everything was setup we enjoyed some apple fritters and watched the guys of Pikes Place Fish Market make a laugh. Those guys are hilarious, certainly worth stopping at the market to just see them. Brian of course drooled over the crab the whole entire time!

I could not resist taking a picture of this book....

After the morning browsing the market we headed off to the Seattle Aquarium. I'd say it isn't necessarily the BEST aquarium, but I believe that is just due to the fact that they had a lot of Pacific Fish to show off - which really aren't that colorful/exciting. They did however have a Giant Octopus, Seals, and a very nice Caribbean Fish section. Needless we kept coming back to the aquarium to just sit and watch the fish since we were downtown most the day it was nice to have a quiet place (despite what seemed like hundreds of kids) to sit down and just watch fish.

Throughout the day we spent time walking around Seattle, we visited Pioneer Square a bit - which wasn't too exciting, but they did have many nice shops. We walked the pier and saw ferries go in and out along with many cruise ships.

We wrapped the evening up with the best meal of the whole trip. So even before we left we had planned our meal location in Seattle - the Crab Pot. If you love Seafood and you love crab, the Crab Pot is the spot for you! They have on the menu 4 different feast. We chose to go for the biggest - "The Alaskan". The Alaskan included King Crab, Dungeness Crab, Snow Crab, Shrimp in the Shell, Steamed Clams, Pacific Mussels, and Audouille sausage, corn on the cob, and red potatoes in their jackets. The food was amazing and we finished every last piece. Needless to say I believe eating at the crab pot was probably one of the favorite parts of the trip for Brian.

Once we finished dinner we headed back to the hotel to pack for the early morning flight the next day. Once we returned home we immediately missed the cool and low humidity weather of the Pacific Northwest but were still happy to be home to see the kitties and the pup!

PacNW - Day 7

Day 7 - On the Mountain!

We woke up Friday and became our climb up to Hurricane Ridge. Breathtaking. It gives a wide view of the Mt. Olympus and the surrounding Mountains. There were wild flowers, bunnies, deer, SNOW 5' high and practically no people. Beautiful way to start out the day.

Once done with Hurricane Ridge we began our journey to Seattle. Along the way we drove over the bridge which was the replacement for the Galloping Gurdy otherwise know as the Tacoma Narrows Bridge.

Once we got closer to Seattle we found a real legitimate hotel to spend the next couple of nights in SeaTac, WA. After we got checked in, showered, and watched a bit of TV we headed off for the Locks otherwise known as the Hiram M. Chittenden Locks. We watched a few boats go in and out of the locks - which was pretty cool to see how the whole operation works. Additionally they have what they call a salmon ladder there which has a viewing area where you can watch the salmon going up the ladder to spawn. Very fun to just sit and watch the fish swim and struggle to get through the ladder. We spent a couple hours here just sitting, enjoying the water and the view.

PacNW - Day 6

Day 6 - Move on to the mountain...

We headed out from the HOH Rainforest to visit La Push where we would see First Beach and Rialto Beach. Unfortunately we didn't even get out of the car at First Beach due to a huge stray dog just roaming around. But we were able to get out and explore Rialto Beach. It's quite crazy the huge trees you find all along the shore. It was fun to crawl around on them for a bit.

After we were done with the beach we haded out to the most north-western type of the continental United States - Cape Flattery. It takes about 1 hour one way to get here, but WORTH it! You drive and drive along the coast until you get to Makah Indian Reservation. You find a place to park and you do a 15-30 minute hike out to the cape. It was fun to stand at the edge of the country and look out upon the ocean...Ocean on one side and the Strait De Juan de Fuca, beautiful!

Once after we fully enjoyed the experience we headed off for Port Angeles and the Heart O' the Hills camp ground. Along the way we saw lake Crescent and the Sol Duc waterfall. We didn't stop to take much time at lake Crescent but we certainly took the time to view the waterfall, very nice!

Then we got to Heart O' the Hills, set up camp and headed off for Port Angeles for dinner. According to our tour book there was this great place - it however turned out to be Perkins quality food at Olive Garden....it became what we called ANOTHER TRAP! Oh well, live and learn.

PacNW - Day 5

Day 5, more big trees?

Day 5 we made the push from Lincoln City to the Hoh Rainforest.

Along the way we stopped for breakfast in Seaside and enjoyed some bagels on the beach.

After that we did a quick stop in Astoria - an for all you Goonies fans we took the time to find the address of the house in the Goonies and walked up the street to take a picture of the place. We felt a bit like creepos, but oh well. The visitor center told us we could :).

We were able to get a campground in the actual rainforest, which was really cool. It was another fun experience to one day have seen the Redwoods and to then get into Washington to see some more enormous trees. Once we had camp set up we headed off for the few trails that were day trails. Impressive. So I've always thought moss was interesting, but in the rainforest it is down right cool. There is a trail of mosses there which is awesome. It is also interesting to learn of how in the rainforest when a tree falls and dies, it because almost a breeding grown for new trees. So in many instances you'll see a line of trees which grew from the remains of a tree that had fallen. Very interesting to see. Once we finished all the hikes we turned in for the evening.

PacNW - Day 4

Day 4 - BIG TREES!

So we learned from the State Park that there were tide pool walks given by rangers every once in a while. We however were so tired the day before that we didn't bother to see what time they were at. The one for this particular day was at 7:30 am. We woke up around 6:30, but by the time we got everything packed up and showered it was about 7:45 before we got to the tide pool. There was no ranger there, so I don't believe they ever showed up. So we went exploring through the tide pool on our own. The water was cold but we found a few cool things along the way.

IT'S A TRAP! Day 4 we fell into our first tourist trap. We paid $5 to drive through a Redwood tree. Literally you drive up a hill into a turn around and then drive through the tree to just drive back down the road you drove up. Since it was early morning and the owners were not there to lay down the rules we paid our $5 and headed up the hill and then proceeded to get our $5 worth of driving through a tree - I'm pretty sure we went through about 3 times.

After that we went to a scenic overlook of the ocean where the ranger the day before said that his 'fellow ranger' had seen whales. So we drove about 30 minutes one way on a curvy hilly road to an scenic overlook. As you can see from the picture at the hour we went it was not so scenic :(.

Then it was off to hike and drive through more of what Brian likes to refer to as 'old growth' redwoods. Which, I will admit, are a bit cooler than some of the new growth. We drove down an old wagon road which was still gravel and the whole experience was like stepping into a different world. The trees are just so big. We also did a bit of hiking which was cool to explore and play around the big trees.

We spent the majority of our day just exploring and taking pictures. After it was all done we started our way up the Oregon coast on our way back up to Washington. We made another 300 miles up to Lincoln City Oregon were we were unfortunate enough to stay at a KOA. Not to bash the KOA or anything, but after a quiet evening in a camp ground surrounded by redwoods an open field surrounded by screaming kids was not what we called a fun idea. We were however not able to find any other hotel/motel/camp ground to sleep - everything else was no vacancy :(.