Road Trip - Olympic National Park

First of all, we drove through a city called Lacey on the way to the Olympic peninsula, so that was exciting!

We also drove through a small town called Humptulips, which made us both laugh like little kids. Anyway, we made it to Olympic National Park and got ourselves a campsite at the Hoh Rainforest Campground. The Hoh river runs through a valley in Olympic National Park that receives upwards of 12 feet of rain every year. The river is fed by snow melt and a glacier and is surrounded by a rainforest. The morning after we arrived at the park we got up and went for a 10.5 mile hike up the river through the rainforest. The forest was so thick and every tree was covered in moss, it was like being in Fern Gully! 

Speaking of Fern Gully?

Some giant Douglas Firs

A spittlebug safe in its foam case while eating a plant

The Olympic mountain range from our stopping point at 5 Mile Island

Roastin' some 'mallows

We camped one more night, very tired from our long hike, and headed out the next day to drive around the peninsula. On our drive we stopped at Rialto Beach, Crescent Lake and finally at Hurricane Ridge. Those three stops, along with our time in the Hoh Rain Forest, really gave us a good taste of all Olympic has to offer. What an awesome place!

Rialto Beach on the Western Olympic peninsula

Lacey next to a huge piece of driftwood, it was cold on that beach

Crescent Lake from near our picnic site

The Olympic range from Hurricane Ridge

Lacey and I on the ridge

A panoramic picture of the Olympic Range from Hurricane Ridge

That night we made our way to Bainbridge Island to camp on the beach. The campground was okay, but not great. The walk on the beach, though, was a lot of fun. It was also fun watching Lacey try to skip rocks :) We hung out at camp, made some dinner, played some games, and even got see a pretty good lightning show before going in the tent and getting rained on. 

More driftwood (yeah, we're obsessed)

Hanging out on the beach overlooking the Puget Sound

Oh yeah, and we drove through Forks, WA. For all of you who aren't teenagers or nerds, that's where the Twilight movies were filmed (we didn't know either).

Road Trip - Mt. Rainier

I'd only seen Mt. Rainier from Seattle or from the plane, so seeing it up close was... disappointing? That may sound weird, but it took a while for me see the hugeness of the mountain from up close. We drove in from the Southeast side and crossed all the way along the South side of the mountain towards Paradise (yeah, Paradise is a place at Mt. Rainier National Park).

 Rainier

Lacey and I at the Longmire trestle bridge

Sally taking in the beautiful views at the park

A blonde fox that wondered through our campsite

We spent the first night in the park at Cougar Rock campground (yeah, second campground with cougar in its name in a row, weird) and had a great time playing cards and dice, enjoying our fire, and drinking a beer or two.

The next day we set out on a backcountry adventure on the Wonderland Trail. We only had a couple options for trails because of more snow (SURPRISE!) and chose the Southern portion of the trail along the Paradise River. The campsite was nice, the hike was nice, but not enough views of the mountain for us. We did hike up to Narada Falls from our campsite, though, and that was pretty nice despite all the tourists who had much easier access from the parking lot above the falls than we did.

Narada Falls

We only spent one night in the backcountry before heading back out and leaving the park. Another time, much later in the summer, we can come back and explore more. Enjoy some more pictures as we head to Olympic National Park!

Our campsite in the woods

Lacey at Narada Falls

Lacey and I enjoying our tiny table from Gavin & Kristi (Thanks guys!)

Rainier, showing us a perfect cloud cap on our way out of the park

Road Trip - Mt. St. Helens

We finally crossed the Oregon/Washington border and headed for Mt. St. Helens. Originally we had planned on just driving through, but we had an extra day so decided to stay near the park and spend some more time. The first day we drove up to check things out, but clouds and storms were covering the top of the mountain so thick that we could only see the bottom third or so of the volcano. It was a bit of a bummer, but we found out about a lava flow canyon with a river running through it and decided to check it out. 

Lava Canyon is a beautiful river bed that, until the eruption of 1980, was largely undiscovered. When the eruption occurred a heavy lava flow of silt, rocks, and water came down the side of the mountain and wiped out all the trees in the river bed, exposing a canyon cut out of the rock with a beautiful glacial stream running through it. 

The river running through the lava rock

Lacey on the suspension bridge with her fake "I'm scared of this bridge" smile

Me on the same suspension bridge, a little different reaction

The waterfall area of the lava canyon river

A slightly longer shutter speed for that "soft water" effect (I'm learning a bit about photography on this trip)

After lava canyon we drove to Ape Cave. We really had no idea what it was until arriving at the visitor center there, but learned that it is a 13,000+ foot lava tube that was created as hot lava flowed from the volcano and solidified on top due to contact with the air. As the lava flowed out of the interior towards lower ground it left a large cylindrical cave that can be explored by tourists like us on a self-guided tour. The cave has no installed lights, and believe me, it's freakin' dark down there when you turn the head lamps off.

We camped that night at Cougar Park on Yale Lake (actually a reservoir ran by PacifiCorp Energy). The campground was nice and our site near the lake was beautiful.

Our tent, hanging out by the lake

Yale Lake at sunset

The next day we got up, packed up camp, and headed up the road towards Mt. Rainier with, fortunately, some great views of the now cloudless Mt. St. Helens. The only bad news was that the road to an area where you can view the eruption site was closed because of snow. It'll have to wait until next time I guess :)

Lacey at a great Mt. St. Helens overlook area

Another self portrait

 

A very wide panoramic view of the volcano/mountain and surrounding stuff

Road Trip - Corvallis, Eugene, and the Oregon Coast

So after our night in Bend, we headed West towards Corvallis and stopped in at Black Butte in the Deschutes National Forest for a quick hike. From the trail we could see the Three Sisters Wilderness, where three peaks that are more than 10,000 feet dominate the horizon. They were cloud-covered while we were hiking, but still beautiful.

Lacey and Smokey at the ranger station

One of the Three Sisters shrouded in clouds

The fire watch tower at the top of Black Butte

After the hike we finished our drive to Corvallis to meet Kari, Peter, Shale, Jack and Rainer. Lacey was Jack and Shale's nanny in Marquette, MI and the family has since moved to Corvallis. We had an amazing time hanging out with them. The list of great times included a bunch of awesome meals, playing outside with the boys, reading stories at night with the boys, picking fresh fruits and veggies in the garden, and a whole lot of great conversation with Kari and Peter. Those were definitely two of the best nights of our trip so far.

Reading a TinTin book before bed

Lacey picking some berries for the road

Excellent raspberries, some of the best we've ever had

Breakfast with Rainer

From Corvallis we headed South the Eugene to meet up with the Skovs. Josh was one of my professors at UCSD when I took extra classes in the school of management and lives in Eugene where he co-founded an environmental consulting (to put it overly simply) company. Lacey had never met him and I had never met any of the other members of his family, so were a bit apprehensive about staying. By the time we had been in Eugene for a couple hours that nervousness was gone. They were great hosts and we had a blast staying at the "Hotel Del Lynn/Skov." We had a great dinner with the family, got to hear Aria read a book (very fun), had some great times listening to Jasmine tell stories, and had some more great conversation about how Josh was completely appalled by our lack of planning on this trip.  :)

We were also able to go over to the University of Oregon and check out the US Olympic Track Qualifying for a while! The tickets were not cheap, but they had a free fan zone outside the stadium where you could watch the events on big screens and check out some cool exhibits. That was a great time!

Aria reading a book for Lacey and I

Lacey reading to Jasmine

We parted ways once again and headed further West to the Oregon coast. We spent a few days there taking in great beaches, awesome cliffs, and some good camping. We also took in a movie in Lincoln City, OR. We went and saw Ted, the new Mark Wahlberg and Seth McFarlane movie. Let me save you some trouble, it has its moments, but it is definitely not worth the money to see in the theater.  We also got to tour both the Rogue Brewery and the Tillamook Cheese Factory! That place gives away free samples like it's going out of style. Or, at least we took advantage of their free samples like it was going out of style. Either way, the cheese was really good.

Anyway, the coast is beautiful and Oregon has now overtaken Colorado as our favorite state on this trip.

 The Oregon Coast dunes

Dad's beer koozie... with a great view.

 

Us at Rogue Brewery, takin' the tour

Our tasting rack, all IPA's

The entrance to the brewery

The view of Cape Somethingorother (don't remember the name)

Another awesome picture of the coastline

Lacey on the beach at Pacific City, OR

Me on the same beach

A large piece of driftwood on the beach at Cape Lookout State Park

Sunset on the Oregon coast

 

 

The cheese factory