Alaska and Canada

Greetings from an RV park inside Glacier National Park – part of the Canadian Rockies. It’s been a while since I rapped at you, but as you may not know, Wifi has not been installed in the woods yet, so it’s tough going on the interneting department. I’ll try to make this blog as compact as possible since it covers two weeks.

So Monday two weeks ago we got up and left Anchorage and headed south towards Seward on the Kenai Peninsula. We decided to stop at the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center on the way because we feared that with our luck we wouldn’t see any wildlife in Alaska. They had black and grizzly bears, moose, elk, a bald eagle with only one wing, musk oxen and wood buffalo, a species of bison once native to Alaska but has been extinct there for a century. They got some wood buffalo from Canada and have been breeding them for a few years. Next summer they will release a herd back into the Alaskan bush and then people should be able to see them as they’re supposed to be seen. From there we went to Seward, set up camp and then went to the Marina for a dinner boat cruise around Resurrection Bay, which is part of Kenai Fjords National Park. The boat was equipped with a park ranger to point out wildlife and explain the history of the bay (named by the Russians because they discovered it around Easter) and a salmon/prime rib buffet for $19, which was by far the best food value we encountered in Alaska. After dinner we made it near the edge of the bay, close to Bear Glacier where Humpback Whales were feeding. We were able to watch them jump in the air, then show some whale tale before descending hundreds of feet down to feed. It was about this time Alicia got a little sea sick, so she went down into the cabin and talked to the chef, who said this was only his second time seeing whales in the bay. We also saw some Dall’s porpoises, mountain goats, sea lions, puffins, and eagles. All in all it was a pretty nice cruise.

Tuesday we got up and went to Exit Glacier, just outside of Seward. Like most glaciers on earth, the Exit Glacier has been shrinking since the end of the Little Ice Age. Along the road they marked where the glacier once extended to, going back to 1815. In the last 200 hundred years the glacier has receded by at least a mile, if not more, which is kind of sad, but the way things are going. We hiked to a viewpoint of the glacier, then took a treacherous rouge trail along a Cliffside to actually go up to the glacier. Unlike the Root Glacier from Wrangell-St. Elias, you couldn’t easily climb on the Exit Glacier for it was too steep. That afternoon we tried to find bears but couldn’t not and then relaxed in town and destroyed some crab legs for dinner.

Wednesday we got up and drove north towards Denali State Park. We stocked up in Anchorage, where things are so much cheaper than anywhere else in Alaska. Gas was under $4 a gallon, which was the cheapest we’d paid since probably Idaho. We made it to Denali SP around dinnertime to much cloud cover, which is common in the area. On a clear day we would have been able to see Mt. McKinley. We took a short hike around Byers Lake, prepared for a night of rain and ate a delicious pork loin cooked over the coals.

Thursday we got up and drove to Denali National Park. After visiting the visitor center and learning about migratory birds (the Arctic Tern migrates from the Arctic to the Antarctic twice a year, chasing the sun) we drove as far as anyone can into the park (15 miles) in hopes of seeing some wildlife or the mountain. No major to wildlife to speak of, but we did catch a tiny glimpse of the corner of McKinley. We could only see it with our binoculars. Not enough to really count, but it was something. We set up camp, made a fire and prepared for the long bus ride into the heart of Denali on Friday. We went to bed with clear skies and woke up a few hours later to a steady rain that last most of the rest of the night.

Friday we got up early for our 7:15 bus ride and put the EZ-Up over the tent to avoid total seepage and soakage during the day. Of course by the time we got back we discovered it hadn’t rained all day. We caught our bus, an old, uncomfortable school bus and headed the 85 miles one way to Wonder Lake. Just as soon as we pulled out of the parking lot we saw a mother moose and her two calves snacking on the willows on the side of the road. Throughout the day we saw more moose, but not as close, Dall’s sheep high on the ridges, two large herds of Caribou (more Caribou than our bus driver had ever seen in a day) two blonde grizzlies. They were weren’t very close and hard to spot but it was still cool seeing grizzlies in the wild. We stopped for lunch at the Eileson Visitor Center and had a view of where Mt. McKinley would have been if it was clear. We drove on towards Wonder Lake and at some point the clouds cleared just enough and 12,000 feet above the next highest mountains, a snowcapped peak appeared. Even though it was just a tiny triangle in the sky it was incredible. Mt. Everest may be the highest mountain in the world, but McKinley has more distance between its peak and any surrounding peaks, 12,000 feet, like I said, so a peak appearing by itself so high in the sky was impressive none the less. We drove on to Wonder Lake, which in the 1920’s was originally intended to be the site of a resort, but by the 1960’s environmental issues finally squashed any plans to build there, so it’s just a lake and the second to last possible stop on the Denali bus tours. On the way back we saw the same moose eating in the same location, more Dall’s sheep and Caribou high on the ridge of the mountains, avoiding mosquitoes. All in all not a bad day of wildlife/mountain viewing. Only 30% of visitors to Denali get to see the mountain so I suppose seeing the peak puts us in that club. We bought a 30% club shot glass to commemorate that experience, so I guess we’re officially in the club.

Saturday we got up in the rain and packed up. The bus driver said Denali only gets 15 inches of rain a year, so it was unusually wet while we were there. We headed north, through road construction towards Fairbanks and checked into our hotel. You would think cities like Anchorage or Fairbanks would cater to tourists, but they really don’t. No touristy areas with restaurants and shopping. Nothing really. We ate some good Thai food, got some ice cream, got some booze and spent the evening in the hotel room. We had to get up early for our 7:30am bus ride to the Arctic Circle.

Sunday we got up and early and made our way to the tour company headquarters for our nearly 17 hour round trip bus ride to the Arctic Circle. It was expensive but from what we heard the Dalton Highway (the Ice Road Truckers road) was pretty rough. It’s mostly unpaved and a victim to the weather, but it wasn’t any worse than the McCarthy Road we did a week before, so we could have saved some money and did it ourselves, but we got a pretty good tour of it. Out of the 23 participants on this tour, 19 were from Kansas and part of a larger tour group. The rest of their group mates went on the 6:30 tour. We ended up sitting next to the only other couple not from Kansas, a retired couple from Florida and we spent the last 4 hours or so chatting with them about travels. Our bus drive/tour guide was John, a 22 year old college student at the University of Alaska-Fairbanks. You could tell the old Kansans were worried about his age initially, but he turned out to be a capable driver and an all-around interesting guy. When he finishes school he wants to buy some land on the Yukon River and work in Prudhoe Bay doing mathematics for the oil companies. We first stopped in Joy, AK at gift shop/rest stop. The town was named after store owner and wife of the original settler to the area, Joy. Her husband’s name is Dick, so Joy was the better choice. We were given baggies of baby carrots, which was kind of neat. We next stopped near the Alaskan Pipeline for pictures before watching a PBS documentary about the building of the pipeline. We drove on to the Yukon Camp, a restaurant/lodging on the north side of the Yukon River, right next to the only bridge crossing the river west of Whitehorse, YT. There is a man whose job is to watch the bridge and make sure no one stops on the bridge for fear that someone will blow it up. The oil companies have made bank from Prudhoe Bay and it would cut off any supplies to and from the area. We picked up our sandwiches and drove on. A few hours later we stopped at Finger Mountain, which is basically a rock sticking out of the ground that kind of looks like a finger. They say it points directly to Fairbanks but that’s unconfirmed. Finally around 3pm we arrived at the Arctic Circle, the imaginary line in the ground at 66’ 33” North latitude. The line basically means that on the Winter Solstice the sun doesn’t rise above the line and on the Solstice the sun doesn’t set. John rolled out a red carpet with a line on it and we all posed for pictures by the sign. There was really nothing spectacular about the location, but it was neat going north of the line, I suppose. At the end of the trip we received certificates with our accomplishment, so you bet those’ll get framed. John served us chocolate cake with whipped cream to celebrate.  On the way back we stopped to walk on the squishy tundra and pick wild blueberries that were just becoming ripe. We ate a pretty good at the Yukon River Camp and made it back into Fairbanks at 11:30 that night. Quite a long day.

Monday we got up and left Fairbanks and stopped in North Pole, AK the Christmas themed town a few miles out of town. This was our last few hours in Alaska. We left the state on the Taylor Highway headed towards Dawson City, YT. We had our easiest border crossing into Canada and drove on the Top of the World Highway once we got it Canada. We were basically on driving on ridgelines until we descended near Dawson City. We took the fairy across the Yukon River and entered Dawson City, which hasn’t changed aesthetically since it was founded over 100 years ago. That evening we went to Diamond Tooth Gerties, Canada’s oldest Casino. We lost $10 on the slots and watched the midnight performance of singing and dancing.

Tuesday we got up and drove to Whitehorse. We soaked in the Takhini Hot Springs and called it a day.

Wednesday we drove a long, long way to Fort Nelson BC, about 13 hours in total. We stopped at the Sign Post forest in Watson Lake and looked around a bit and drove some more. We did see a bunch of black bears near the road as well as Wood Buffalo.

Thursday was another long, 13 hour day: From Fort Nelson to Jasper National Park. After lunch at Boston Pizza (apparently “Boston-style” pizza is only a Canadian thing and is slightly better but much more expensive that CiCi’s pizza) it began to rain. We stocked up for a few days in Grand Prairie, AB and descended upon the park on the first night it got dark at a somewhat reasonable hour. It was still raining and 45 degrees outside and Alicia wasn’t happy of course, but we got the tent set up and entered a pretty dry tent, chugged some wine and slept.

Friday we got up, showered for the first time since Fairbanks, ate at a diner and began our visit to the park. Finally vacation could resume again. It was still cold and overcast, but at least the rain had stopped. We drove down to Maligne Lake and then Maligne Canyon, a very narrow Canyon. We drove in the valley between some gorgeous, jutting mountains and camped at the Honeymoon Campground. I

Saturday we drove to the cluster**** that is Banff National Park. The park itself was beautiful but of course it was a Saturday in July so it was insane. Fortunately I’m adept at parking in busy lots, a skill I learned from working at Crabtree Valley Mall for a couple of Christmases. For the amount of people there, parking was never an issue in Banff. We first went to Lake Louise, with its green waters and then to my favorite lake, Moraine Lake.

Sunday we drove down to the town of Banff, soaked in the Upper Hot Springs, walked around the town and what not and called it a day.

Today we drove through Yoho National Park, Glacier NP (Canada) to Mt. Revelstoke National Park up the Meadow in the Sky parkway to the top of Mt. Revelstoke which is known for its wildflowers, unfortunately the wildflowers weren’t in full bloom yet, but some were. We hiked around a bit and took lots of pictures.

No pictures this time because internet is shady but I promise anyone full picture/video slideshows as well as more detailed stories when we get home. All you have to do is ask. Only 12 days left. It’s hard to believe we’ve been on the road for over 40 days now. Wednesday night we’re really celebrating our anniversary by staying at the Prince of Wales hotel in Waterton Lakes National Park (look it up). See everyone soon!

Mosquitoes and the Midnight Sun

Greetings from Anchorage, Alaska! Tonight we’re staying at the Qupqugiac Inn, which means “ten-legged Polar Bear”, an animal believed to have once existed, apparently. We were slated to stay at an RV park in town, but since it was two blocks from a homeless shelter and an RV park in a city, we decided to stay elsewhere. We got here in time for the BBQ (cookout) and chatted with a few people who work for the oil industry and have recently moved up here. It was a pretty good decision. So last time I didn’t get caught up to where we were. It was eleven o’clock and we had to get up to back on the ferry at 5 in the morning. I hope you all understand. Unfortunately the internet is really slow, so I probably only have the patience to upload one or two pictures.

Alicia and I got in line for the ferry in Prince Rupert, BC at 10:30 for our 2pm departure and by 2pm they really mean 3pm because even though the ferry terminal is Canada, it is leased by the US, so they were on Alaska-time. We got on the boat only to realize that the berth we thought we booked online didn’t go through because we booked it online (they’ve been having issues apparently). Fortunately they still had berths available and fortunately we would be able to get it cheaper if waited until we got to Ketchican instead of booking it Prince Rupert. So we put our stuff in a locker, mixed some rum and cokes and settled in in the Recliner Room (not real recliners) and watched Frozen and Captain Phillips (an interesting choice for a boat on the treacherous Canadian waters) with a bunch of high schoolers. After the movies we joined the high schoolers in the microwave line and made some mac n cheese. At about 7:30 we arrived in Ketchican for a three hour docking. As the ferry was pulling into port a bald eagle soared overhead. It was very majestic! We got off and ate dinner, then got our berth. It had no windows, which helped us sleep for twelve hours. It wasn’t completely uninterrupted sleep, because for some reason they thought we were getting off in Wrangell. The purser knocked on our door a few times, starting at 5am, until we had regained enough consciousness to let them know we were not in fact getting off in Wrangell.

The ferry wasn’t a bad experience overall, but it definitely wasn’t a cruise ship. It was too cold and windy to spend much time outdoors and while the shoreline was rugged and beautiful, it looked exactly the same for the entire voyage. We were under the impression that there would be bears bringing down moose on the shoreline, elk grazing in clearings, and wolves howling at the moo…midnight sun, but sadly there were just trees. We did see a few whale tales and blow holes, which was cool. About 6pm on Wednesday we arrived in Juneau. We drove past the Mendenhall Glacier into town and found our hotel, the Alaskan Inn, an old hotel from the early 20^th century. It was very rustic, but nice. The hotel was in the downtown area, right where they dock the behemoth cruise ships. We ate a King Crab leg at a local shack. The leg was the size of an infant’s arm and as a delicious as a lobster. After eating microwavable crap for two days it was a much needed break. After dinner we drove back to the Mendenhall Glacier to take pictures, viewed eagles from the wildlife refuge along the highway and then returned to the hotel.

Sunsets and Icebergs at the Mendenhall Glacier (not pictured)

Thursday we got up early to catch our ferry was Juneau to Haines. The scenery was better on this leg of the trip. Glaciers slowly eroded mountains and the captain made the following announcement: Attention passengers, Killer Whales have been sighted nearby. And they’re jumping. I of course jumped up and was able to get a picture of said jumping Killer Whales. At around noon we arrived in Haines, got back to the car, drove the forty miles to the Canadian border and returned to America’s half-sibling. The funny thing about borders is that they sometimes seem to drawn randomly, but when you notice that the terrain changes almost exactly at that line, then it makes since. Once into Canada, the trees disappeared and we were in the tundra. We ate Chicken Penne and a Chicken Pot Pie at a bakery in Haines Junction, Yukon Territory and then drove by Kluane National Park which had snowcapped mountains and super blue lakes. We drove on and on. The roads turned sketchy and finally we were at our end destination for the day, Beaver Creek, YT, the western-most community in Canada. We were instantly greeted by swarms of mosquitos. We set up our tent, ordered a pizza from Buckshot Betty’s and did some laundry. There were no mosquitos in the laundromat. The laundry was done at 11pm and the sun was still shining. Still shining like it was 6pm in North Carolina, so we put on our eye masks and fell asleep. I woke up at some time in the middle of the night to pee and it was darkish, like it was 8:30 or so at home.

Friday we got up and drove the thirty miles to the Alaska border. Once they found out we didn’t have any Canadian citrus we were essentially waved across. It was by far the easiest border crossing yet. We drove on to Tok, ate breakfast at Fast Eddies and then headed towards Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, the largest National Park in the US – six times larger than Yellowstone, which itself is larger than the state of Rhode Island, which is the only US license plate we haven’t seen yet. On the way we saw a porcupine crossing the road. Wrangell-St. Elias may the largest park, but it’s barely accessible by car. Sixty miles and two hours later we were at the end of the dirt road and greeted by more mosquitoes than thought to be humanly possible. Even with mosquito suits and bug spray that’s 98% deet, the mosquitoes still swarmed. We ate dinner in the car, but of course the mosquitos had gotten in, so we spent half the meal squashing them. So at the end of the road there’s just a foot bridge, no car bridge available to the general public. Half a mile from the bridge is the town of McCarthy. We walked around but not much was going on - mostly rustic but run down looking buildings. We went back to the campground, fought through the mosquitos and retreated into the safety of the tent.

Alicia on the Root Glacier

Saturday we got up, ate oatmeal in the car, then walked back across the foot bridge and caught a shuttle bus to the town of Kennicot, five more miles up the road. Kennicot was the site of the formerly most profitable mine in the world, specializing in copper. The NPS is working on the red mine and mill buildings. The buildings were cool and all, but to top it all off, the Root Glacier was only a mile and a half hike a way. A real life glacier from the ice age was within walking distance. Alicia and I made the hike and got to walk on a freaking glacier. For a huge piece of ice it had good traction. We saw crevices forming and heard ice breaking. The ice was an intense blue –  and oh so beautiful! We hiked back and ate some pizza made on a bus, listened to a ranger talk about wilderness and then decided to hike the five miles back to the campsite while fighting off mosquitos and dealing with rain. Needless to say my calves hurt today.

And finally today. We woke up, drove the 60 miles back to the paved road, then drove a few hundred more miles towards Anchorage. We saw amazing vistas of the Chugach Mountains, complete with glaciers and ice fields. We came to the town of Palmer, passed a sign that said there had been zero moose hit on the highway since July 1^st, then passed a dead moose in the medium and smashed up car on the side of the road. I assume that sign has already been changed. We arrived in Anchorage, said no to the RV park and found Qupqugiac Inn. It’s now about 12:30 and only kind of sort of dark. 

Greetings from Juneau, Alaska

We made it! We’re in Alaska! Not the mainland part, but Alaska none-the-less. We made it through British Columbia: huge, vast BC. We’ve made it as far north as either of us has been before. It’s 10:15 right now in Juneau and the sun hasn’t set yet. We have a few more hours tomorrow on the ferry and then we’ll be driving through the Yukon Territory, which seems crazy. We’ve seen eagles and whales and glaciers! We made it!

So back to a week ago, back to the lower forty eight. It seems like forever ago. Last Wednesday, before we crossed the border, we got the oil changed. At that point we’d already traveled almost 5,500 miles. I’m pretty sure I lowballed the mileage estimate for this trip when I told people it’d probably be 15,000 miles. So anyway, we crossed the border and made our way to Vancouver and checked into the Victorian, a pretty nice Victorian-era hotel near Gastown. My first impression of Vancouver is that it looks similar to Panama City, Panama: tall high rises made with an abundance of glass on the water. After getting settled into the hotel we walked down to Gastown, saw the old gas-powered clock, walked past the Gassy Jack statue and decided on a Tapas bar for dinner. We drank Spanish beer and shared prunes stuffed with cheese, wrapped in ham and prawns in garlic. In Canada they call shrimp prawns. They also drive really slow. I mean, I got to do 100 on the highway, but that was in kilometers, so it was really 60 miles per hour. That’s the fastest speed limit I’ve seen. That’s a huge drop from some places out west where the speed limit was 80 mph. I guess it does help cut down on gas use, which is nice since gas costs an equivalent to $5 a gallon.

Thursday we got up and drove around Stanley Park, probably the biggest park in Vancouver. We didn’t get out since we would’ve had to pay to park, but we saw totem poles and Vancouver from across the water. We then boarded a ferry for Vancouver Island, drove around Victoria for a bit and then went to Butchart Gardens just outside of Victoria. Butchart Gardens is an expansive garden that was created over 100 years ago but Jennie Butchart on her husbands depleted quarry. The main garden is called the Sunken Garden which was developed in the actual quarry. There was also a Japanese garden, rose garden, and Italian garden. We took hundreds of pictures of the flowers. Alicia was impressed by the many varieties and colors of the flowers. We may have one variety around home, but here they had it in eight different colors. Following the gardens we made our way to our campsite and enjoyed the last night of good weather we’d see for a few days. We camped amongst the large conifers at Goldstream Provincial Park.

Friday we got up and made our way up Vancouver Island towards Pacific Rim National Park, our first Canadian National Park. This being the Pacific it meant the good weather couldn’t last and we drove down winding roads in a light but steady rain. We found our campsite and then went for a walk on the beach. Fortunately for us, the rain stopped for a bit. We climbed over huge rocks jutting out of the ocean and watched the clouds roll over the tree-lined hills. Alicia spotted Sea Lions surfing the waves just off shore. We then drove down the coastal road towards Tofino, taking a short hike through the rain forest. The rain began again just as Alicia finished making dinner. It was a damp night, but nothing too bad.

Saturday we woke up and packed in the rain, drove back down the rainy, twisting roads back to the ferry, took the ferry back to the mainland and drove the Sea to Sky road towards Nairn Falls Provincial Park, which is just outside of Whistler, BC. Whistler is an expensive ski town which is akin to say Vail, Colorado. It hosted the ski and snowboard events when Vancouver held the 2010 Winter Olympics. We stopped there to grocery shop for dinner and everything seemed to be expensive simply because it could be, I suppose. We then drove on to Nairn Falls, made dinner, enjoyed a campfire and called it a day.

Sunday we woke up to rain, packed quickly and began the long drive northward towards Prince George. The early part of the day was spent driving through snowcapped mountains on winding roads. Around noon we made it to Cache Creek, got on another highway and found ourselves driving through beautiful meadows. Around five we finally made it to Prince George. We found our campsite, spent some time by the pool (the sun was out and it was a relatively warm 75 degrees), then made dinner and relaxed for the rest of the night.

Monday we got up early and began our drive to Prince Rupert, the port town where we could board the ferry. We ate breakfast at the saddest Subway I’ve ever been to (in Vanderhoof, BC) and drove on and on and on around north western BC. Not too much to say about the drive. As we got closer to the coast the clouds started building and it began to drizzle. We approached the mountains, but followed a river, so we didn’t have to drive over them, made our way into Prince Rupert and set up camp for the night. It looked like it might rain, but nothing came up of it. We woke up the next morning and our air mattress had considerably less air in it than the night before so we had to go to Wal-Mart and get a new one. Alicia really liked her old one, so it was a bit traumatic.

We then headed towards the ferry. I’m actually really tired right now and we have to get up early to catch the ferry for our last leg of the ferry trip so I’m gonna stop here for now. Next time I’ll continue with the ferry, which really wasn’t super exciting. Really, Canada hasn’t been that exciting. It looks like much of the Pacific Northwest, which we’ve already seen. It’s been kind of a lull on the trip – long days in the car, not much to see or look forward to. I know that’ll quickly change once we get into mainland Alaska! Sorry, no pictures this time. We really haven’t taken many the past few days and like I said, am really tired and it takes a while for them to load. I promise some next time.

Greetings from Washington

Greetings from the sunny Pacific Northwest, formerly the dreary Pacific Northwest. Right now we’re in Burlington, WA spending in last night in the Continental US for the next month or so. Tomorrow we enter Canada, then Alaska, then some more time in Canada. We won’t be back to the lower 48 until the end of July. Phase two of our trip will be beginning. We’re expecting longer days, bigger bugs, and more rain.

Me and Delicate Arch

Oh so long ago was Monday a week and on Monday a week it was 95 degrees and sunny. We got up and prepared ourselves for a day at Arches National Park. We filled up our camelpaks and headed into the red butte and arched desert. The Arches drive takes you to and through a few neighborhoods in the park. The first stop being Park Avenue. From there we hiked a little ways and got excellent views of eroded rock formations. After Park Avenue is the Windows section which gave us our first up close experience with arches. The arches in this region were formed because salt from the long extinct seas that used to cover that area forced its way up causing the rocks to jut out. Erosion formed many of the jutting rocks into arches. At the Windows we hiked up to and hung out under the giant arches. Next up was Delicate Arch, the most iconic arch in the park and the arch that was on many signs and pictures in the Moab area. It’s even on Utah’s new license plates. There’s a three mile round-trip hike up to Delicate Arch, but Alicia and I decided to view it from the viewing area instead. From there we hiked up an escalating ridge to get a great view of it from across a gulch. I’m not sure we were supposed to go up there, but it made the decision not to do the official hike worth it. The last stop was the Devil’s Garden which has a plethora of arches, including most famously, Landscape Arch. We hiked to the arch, took our pictures and got out of the scorching sun with only slight sun burns to our name. We then drove back through the park, took a scenic drive along the Colorado River through a canyon and then went back to the campground to relax by the pool. For dinner we went to what we thought was a roadhouse right next to the campground only to find out it was a fine dining roadhouse. So classy was it that they used bandanas for napkins. Alicia had the duck bacon tamales and I had the Mole Turkey Enchiladas. We finished dinner as the sun was beginning to set and decided to go back out into the park to take sunset pictures. We did and some look pretty cool. We watched the sunset from Balanced Rock.

Canyonlands!

Tuesday was a trip to Canyonlands, Moab’s other National Park. Canyonlands is a little further away and split into two parts, Islands in the Sky, which we visited, and Needles, which was a hundred miles in the other direction. We planned on going to Needles but we were exhausted from the first part and chose to spend another afternoon by the pool. Islands in the Sky was definitely worth the visit. We climbed the mesa leading to the park entrance and were greeted with a grand view of a canyon that was carved by now non-existent water. Alicia and I took photos from precarious places and saw more epic vistas of the water formed canyons. I climbed up Mesa arch which overlooks a canyon probably over a thousand feet down. The canyon floor looks like fingers carved into the ground, or maybe like cracks caused by ice. Alicia is family geologist, so you’ll have to ask her about all of the layers of rocks exposed on the walls. All I can tell you is that the ranger giving a lecture on the canyon geology named all of the “neighborhoods” at our campground. Layers like Moenkopi and Morrison. After the pool and a shower we went into Moab and got some ice cream and went into a few shops on the strip. Moab is kind of like Jackson, Wyoming only red instead of green and not as classy. Nice none-the-less.

Petroglyphs at Capitol Reef

Wednesday we packed up camp and headed on our way to Idaho with a stop at Capitol Reef National Park along the way. Capitol Reef is probably Utah’s least known national park and it doesn’t help that it’s in the middle, with Arches and Canyonlands to the east and Zion and Bryce to the west. We could see many of the same geographic features from the other four parks in Capitol Reef: the white rocks and swirls of Zion, the intense redness of Bryce, the arches of Arches, and the long vistas of Canyonlands. We took the scenic drive, but like I said, it wasn’t anything new, though the trek through Capitol Gorge was pretty cool. Capitol Reef does have Native America petroglyphs from about 800 years ago still etched into the walls of the cliffs. It has 19^th century graffiti from Mormons who went through the area. After that we drove north through Utah, getting to Salt Lake City right at five. Fortunately they have an HOV lane so we basically cruised up I-15. Not far across the border into Idaho is Preston, the town where Napoleon Dynamite was filmed. If you knew me in 2004 you knew I was somewhat obsessed with the film. I took pictures by the town sign and in front of the high school. We took a picture of what may be Pedro’s house and were disappointed not to find any tetherball poles in town. Our destination for the night was Pocatello, where we found a cheap, but nice motel across from Idaho State University (Go Bengals) ate at a diner and went to bed.

Alicia blowing away at Craters of the Moon

Thursday we drove deeper into the heart of Idaho. First up was Craters of the Moon National Monument. CotM was the site of a volcanic eruption a few thousand years ago, so the landscape is covered in jagged volcanic rock, which looks like a blackish-red version of the moon. The Oregon Trail went through the area. We hiked a few trails where we learned how humans destroyed a lot of the rocks and hills and cones by walking on them, then summited a large hill common to the area that was covered in volcanic rock. The entire area was windy. Maybe not as windy as Kansas, but the top of that hill definitely was. We planned on cooking hotdogs on our stove but we would have never gotten the stove lit in that wind. We then made our way north to the Sawtooth Mountains and just like that we were back to snowcapped peaks and alpine forests. After driving up and through the mountains we found a campsite by ourselves by a roaring river. I made a fire and we enjoyed a quiet evening alone.

The Sawtooths

Hell's Canyon

Friday, with rain threatening, we packed and headed into Boise to give it a look, then headed northwest towards Hell’s Canyon, the deepest Canyon in the US. The yellow rolling hills gradually get darker and higher as you drive down a narrow winding road, avoiding fallen rocks and other cars riding the yellow line. They say that in parts of the canyon, the rim is over 7000 feet above. They don’t let you drive down that far and neither Alicia nor I are known for our maritime skills, though I did earn Canoeing Merit Badge, so we settled seeing at not at its most hellish, but it’s an impressive canyon and the dark rock only makes it more imposing. From there we drove back the way came in and then crossed over into Oregon, took a winding mountain road over a mountain, met up with the rain, and arrived at our destination for the night, Wallowa Lake State Park near Joseph, Oregon. Wallowa Lake is a picturesque lake overlooked by snowcapped mountains. It was a busy park, which was a complete flip from the night before. We found our spot, set up the tent and the awning and prepared for a soggy night in the Northwest. During dinner it cleared and we drove around the lake taking foggy, cloudy, good light photos. We then went to bad as the rain began again, making for a wet morning.

Lowering Sun at Wallowa Lake

Unfortunately, Friday was dryer than Saturday. The day actually began overcast, cleared up as we drove through Washington, then began to cloud and then rain just after Yakima, less than 60 miles from Mount Rainier National Park. We drove up and over mountains only to find foggy, rainy conditions with zero visibility. I mean, we’re camping on a huge mountain, one that is clearly visible and a noticeably imposing view on the skyline, and we can’t see it. We’re driving through beautiful snowcapped peaks, with partially frozen lakes only a few days before July. We came upon pullouts without trees that certainly held majestic views of this gargantuan mountain. We saw absolutely nothing. When we arrived at the campsite it was soggy and drizzling, so we set up the tent under the awning and made a tarp awning that draped over the picnic table and a large, fallen tree. That came in handy as it began to rain harder. It allowed us place to hang out that wasn’t in the car on lying down in the tent (we have a small tent). By the next morning the rain had stopped but it was still damp and overcast. We packed everything up fairly wet, so good bye to the curious chipmunks, and left the park, hoping to catch a glimpse of the behemoth, unfortunately, it was not to be.

We drove on through Washington, which was alternating between rainy and overcast, bought some Bing and Rainier cherries from a road sign stand, and headed east towards the Olympic Peninsula. Then, a funny thing happened after we passed Olympia – the clouds went away and the sun came out like “What? You think I went away forever?” and the temperatures went into the seventies (from the lower forties earlier in the day) and we arrived at the Pacific Ocean. Did I mention it was sunny for real and pleasant? We had plans to camp in the Hoh Rain forest, but said no thanks and found one of the last available spots at the Kalloloch Campground. The site was still very wet from an earlier shower, but with no threat of rain, who cares. This was National Park land and their aim was to preserve the coastal forest, and since they get a whole lot of rain, the forest was lush and mossy, and the ocean was about 100 yards away. We could hear the crashing waves from our site. After dinner we drove down to Ruby Beach, a pebble beach that overlooked a few rock outcroppings in the ocean. It was sunset, so Alicia and I drank some wine and snapped a lot of photographs of the islands/outcroppings silhouetted in the waning sun. I was kind of looking forward to the rainforest, but this was way better than the forest would have been. It’s amazing what a little sun will do for the spirits.

Sunset over the Pacific at Olympic National Park

Monday we got up and prepared for our day on the Olympic Peninsula and it looked like another great day of weather. We first went to the Hoh Rain Forest, saw some enormous Sitka Spruces, Cedars, and Hemlocks, many covered in moss. The bright greens were illuminated by the bright sun. We walked the Hall of Mosses, saw the biggest maples I’ve ever seen, and marveled at some massive trees. On the last trip we went to the Redwoods and saw a few Sequoias, and while these trees aren’t as big, I do enjoy being around the large trees. I’m glad we didn’t do both the Redwoods and Olympic on the same trip because I feel like the bigness and grandeur of these trees would have been diminished by the Redwoods, but on their own, they were one of my highlights so far.

After Hoh we began Alicia’s Twilight tour by visiting Forks and La Push, two major settings in those books. Forks had Twilight stuff in all the stores and many businesses and ads were still on the bandwagon. We crossed the Vampire/Werewolf treaty line on the way to La Push and bought Twilight postcards from the grocery store. It actually wasn’t too overdone, but then again, we didn’t take the Twilight tour. From La Push we continued on the 101 and drove alongside Crescent Lake and marveled at its blue waters before driving through Port Angeles and setting up camp at Heart o’ the Hills campground. We had a clean-out-the-cooler dinner before driving up to Hurricane Ridge, a grassy mountain top that has a commanding view of the Olympic Mountains, including Mount Olympus as well as distant Mount Baker in the North Cascades and Vancouver Island, on the other side of the Strait of Juan de Fuca. We took a short hike and had close encounters with grazing deer and some noisy ravens before heading back to camp for a fire and card games.

We woke up today and it was still sunny – two and a half days bright and sunny days in the Pacific Northwest.

We packed up and headed to Bainbridge Island to catch the ferry into Seattle. About thirty minutes into the drive we got up in traffic. An hour later, we had traveled about a mile and passed what was causing the delay, which was a Semi which did its best to run over a minivan which it seems had pulled out in front of it. The EMT’s were gone but the cops weren’t exactly sure, it seems what to do about the wreckage. Fortunately, it was smooth sailing after that. We rode the ferry across the Puget Sound and got our first real view of Mt. Rainier, hulking off to the southeast,went to Pike’s Market, the large market, tourist area in Seattle. We watched the fish mongers toss fish, marveled at other massive, delicious looking seafood, veggies, and flowers and squeezed our way through throngs of tourists. We then walked the mile to the Space Needle, rode the forty two second elevator ride to the top, and spent some time circling the top of the needle, taking pictures of the clear vistas that it provided. On the elevator ride down we learned that Mt. Baker, the second largest mountain in sight was only visible 70-80 days out of the year, so we were lucky to have received such good weather. We then walked back to the car, left Seattle, and are now about an hour south of Canada.

Hey, it's Mt. Rainier! (From the Space Needle)