Dear Internet,
Welp, I'm back! Will and I had a fantastic road trip last week and he's in his first week as a hotshot now in Quincy, CA. I'll just get right into it.
Here was our route:
We started of Monday morning heading west through Missoula and Spokane, WA (which was a pretty cool little town), then down through the
Columbia River Gorge on the border between Washington and Oregon. We'd had no idea we were in for such a gorgeous drive!
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| The Columbia River Gorge (and Will) |
Then we crossed into Oregon and camped near Mount Hood just east of Portland.
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| Mount Hood, apple orchards. |
It was pretty cold and even snowed/sleeted on us in the night, but the next morning we continued west toward Portland. On the way, we stopped at Multnomah Falls.
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| Multnomah Falls |
In Portland, we went to the
International Rose Test Garden, which was pretty un-rosey since it's still early in the season, but it was nice to walk around. Then, we went to all the rest of the typical touristy things:
Voodoo Doughnut,
Powell's Books, the
Portlandia statue,
Mill Ends Park (at 2 feet in diameter, it's the smallest park in the world), and even a Thai food cart.
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| At the International Rose Test Garden |
Then we headed south to Eugene, where Ben is in school at the
University of Oregon. He showed us around campus and the town and made me kind of jealous - it's a pretty cool place! Will and I went for pizza while he did some homework, and then we hung out with some of his friends and spent the night on his dorm room floor - pretty close quarters!
In the morning we saw Ben off to class and continued south toward the Redwoods with a detour at
Crater Lake. It was beautiful, but still covered in snow, so many of the trails and roads were closed. We walked up the one plowed road to get some great views of the lake:
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| Crater Lake, the deepest lake in the US. |
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| Not kidding - TONS of snow! |
After our walk, we continued on our way to
the Redwoods! It was a beautiful park on the coast. We went on a nice drive through a grove of redwoods (the tallest trees on Earth!) and camped on the coast.
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| Redwoods |
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We camped just down the coast on the cliffs here. But there
was a path down to the beach! |
Psst... we camped without a permit. Don't tell anyone. We got there about 30 minutes after the office that issues permits closed and the guy on the phone was absolutely unhelpful at finding some kind of alternative... so we just camped there anyway! Ooops.
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| My little car has been from coast to coast! |
The "plan" at this point was to head to Quincy the next day, drop Will off, and spend Friday driving back to Montana for my
Color Me Rad 5k in Missoula on Saturday morning. This was both so that I could make the race and so Will could have a couple days to meet everyone on his crew, get to know Quincy, and so on. But, when he suggested that we extend the trip until Sunday and go see Yosemite instead of heading straight to Quincy... how could I say no?!
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| From the beach near our campsite |
So the next morning, we continued south through the park (instead of east out of it) and just
had to go through one of those famous drive-through trees. This one - the Chandlier Tree - was in Leggett, CA.
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| Car in a tree! |
Then, since we were going within about 12 miles of it on our way to Yosemite, we decided to stop by the Golden Gate Bridge!
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One of my VISTA friends in Helena, who used to live in San
Francisco, recommended that we go to the Marin Headlands
for the best view of the Bridge. Great tip! |
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| Cheesin' it |
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| Will, not cheesin' it |
After a mild GPS hiccup (who would have thought there would be a city square called Yosemite Park almost 3 hours west of the
National Park?!), we made it to Yosemite that night and camped just outside the park.
In the morning, we visited Merced Sequoia Grove (within Yosemite). Turns out sequoias are the biggest trees (as in, biggest around), while redwoods are the tallest. So we needed to see the absolute biggest!
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Sequoias at Merced Grove... see Will down there
at the bottom? |
Then we headed into the famed Yosemite Valley for some hiking! After the (amazingly uncrowded) drive through the Valley, we decided to hike about 4.5 miles up
Yosemite Falls, which (fun fact) I just found out is haunted.
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| El Capitan |
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| Will, Half Dome, and the Yosemite Valley from the hike up Yosemite Falls |
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| Yosemite Falls and Half Dome |
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A rock climber on the Lost Arrow, a section of rock which separated
from the rest of the cliff that hosts Yosemite Falls. Impressive! |
After a
great hike (one of my favorites, probably!), we debated staying in Yosemite for another night or jamming in one more activity before we had to split up the next day. In the end, we decided to drive up to Lake Tahoe for one last adventure! We stopped about an hour south of the lake and camped by the side of the road in the National Forest around 11pm.
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| Lake Tahoe, seen from Emerald Bay at the south end. |
We did a couple short hikes around Eagle Falls, which feeds into the Lake, and Vikingsholm, a castle-y home built by a wealthy widow in 1929 because Lake Tahoe reminded her of a fjord. She also built a tea house on an island in Emerald Bay (at the south end of the lake), which she only used a few times a year.
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| The island tea house |
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| Vikingsholm |
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| Another view of Lake Tahoe |
We drove around the east side of Tahoe (and stopped for a delicious lunch at an
In-N-Out Burger), then over to Quincy and Will's base. After a walk around the town, some groceries, and showers, we said goodbye and I drove to Reno, NV for the night.
My uncle and his new wife hosted me in Reno for the night, which was great. They were nice enough to take me out to dinner (and dessert!) and show me around town a little. It was great to see them since I couldn't make it to their wedding last summer!
The next morning, I left early for my drive home. On the way I stopped at
Craters of the Moon National Monument and Preserve (not sure what the "monument" part of that is). Will and our friend Andrew from ERT had hitchhiked past Craters of the Moon in the dark last fall when they biked from Butte to the coast of Oregon, but hadn't had a chance to check it out. So I did!
It is not a very pretty park. But it is very cool - 2,000 year-old cooled lava flows and other remnants of volcanic activity, frozen in time. The park has a 7-mile loop you can drive and stop at places that look interesting (including "Devil's Orchard," "Spatter Cones," and "Molded Trees"). It was tough to limit myself to only a few places so that I stayed on schedule!
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| Lava at the North Crater Lava Flow. |
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| Texture |
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| Porous volcanic rocks |
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| Spatter Cones, or miniature volcanoes |
Then I finished the last leg of my journey home - and that's about it! It was an incredible week, with just the right amount of spontaneity, and I wish we were still road trippin'. It will be a long summer, and I can't wait 'till October or so when Will comes home. Who knows - maybe another road trip will be in order?
xoxo Liz
