Table of Contents
Part One
Part Two
Map
The Big Trip - Part 1
Having really enjoyed living in the Bay Area for the last 5 years, after meeting so many great people and sharing so many great experiences, I was quite worried about wether or not I'd be able to leave at all. I mean, I was really worried about it. But there's nothing like a 1.5 hour trip to the DMV to take care of that. After standing in line for an hour and taking care of some last minute motorcycle title business, we waved goodbye to the wonderful Bay and headed for Los Angeles. Our plan was to stay with my uncle in Valencia for one night, then head to Newport Beach for a night, to visit with friends, then off to Catalina Island for a night.
The Drive Down Route 5
Sunday July 7th, 2002 - Catalina
Catalina Island is one of the most beautiful, friendly islands I've ever been to. The first day, we rented snorkel gear and went snokeling at Lovers Cove, home of some of the most aggressive fish I've ever seen. Its probably because of all the snorkelers who bring food to feed them. Beverly had a bag of fish food taken right out of her hands by a particularly aggressive Sand Bass. Another problem with Lovers Cove is the glass-bottom tour boats that run constantly through there. Snorkelers Beware! Sunday night we went on a flying fish tour, which goes out at night and uses large spot lights to attract flying fish. We saw two the whole time, which was kinda a let down.
On Monday, I slept late while Beverly went on a refresher SCUBA dive. The last time Beverly went diving was 12 years ago on Cozumel so she was a little nervous but all went well. She said the dive was beautiful-- down to about 40 feet surrounded by kelp beds. It was liking being lost in a giant underwater garden. She saw sting rays, an octopus and all kinds of fish. Beverly fancies herself a mermaid now.We then hit the Descanso Beach Club to sit in the sun and do a little snorkeling. Not as many fish, but no tour boats either.
There was a public art exhibit featuring
Buffalo, painted all different styles. Here is a Cubs Themed Buffalo.
Catalina Harbor
Another view of Catalina
We then headed back to my uncle's place to relax and regroup. Turns out there had been a pretty big brush fire while we were on Catalina. My uncle's house was okay, but one home was destroyed.
The View from my Uncle's House, Valencia,
CA
Tuesday July 9th, 2002 - Leaving LA
This morning we realized we had simply too much stuff in the car. I had underestimated the amount of stuff we had left in the apartment. With my Uncle's help, we shipped 5 boxes off to my parents house. That was a pain in the arse, but it made the car much lighter, which is A Good Thing when the 4 cylinder Outback is struggling to make it up serious hills. Valencia was HOT! I mean, really hot. Like 100 degrees. Having lived in the Bay Area for the last 5 years, we were NOT used to heat like that.
After leaving Valencia we booted north, and made it to Whiskeytown, a park service run national recreation area. Whiskytown is BEAUTIFUL. There's a lake, great camping, and supposedly some good hiking (we are just passing through). I highly recommend checking it out if you're ever in the Redding, CA area. We are poised and ready to get to Crater Lake sometime tommorow.
Whiskytown lake, Whiskytown, CA (I just love saying 'Whiskytown')
A cool Greyhound Bus station in Redding,
CA
Wednesday July 10th, 2002 - Crater Lake
Wow- the drive up from Whiskytown was smoking! The weatherpeople said it was going to break records as the temperature was supposed to hit 116 degrees! Yow! It sure felt that hot. I was worried about the car overheating, but the Subaru pulled through like a champ. There are some stunning views of Mt. Shasta along the way. Here's a pic.
A view of Mount Shasta, Mount Shasta, CA
We arrived at Crater Lake around 4pm. After securing a great campsite, we went for a drive around the rim of the crater. Wow! Crater lake is a huge lake formed when a volcano collapsed. The color of the water has to be seen to be believed. They call Crater Lake "The Jewel of the Cascades". A rather apt description, as you can see.
A view of Crater Lake
Another view of Crater Lake
Thursday July 11th, 2002 - Crater Lake to Mt. Hood
Today we left Crater Lake to begin the trek to Mt. Hood, Oregon. My allergies have really started to act up, giving me uncontrollable bouts of sneezing. Bought some antihistamine to combat it, things seem OK. On the way to Mt Hood, we drove through the Warm Springs Native American Reservation. On that reservation is a town called Simnasho, where 70 years ago, my grandfather was stationed as a fire jumper. We took a bunch of pictures to show him when we get home. It was beautiful.
Simnasho Reservation, Oregon
Mt. Hood, Oregon
Friday July 12th, 2002 - Skedaddle to Seattle
We woke early this morning and drove up to the base lodge on Mt Hood and checked out the beautiful old lodge there, The Timberline Lodge. There were quite a few people snowboarding and skiing, with more than a few racing teams. After hanging out for awhile, we decided to get on the road. We stopped in Portland, Oregon for lunch, then pointed the nose of the 'ru straight north to get to Seattle where we are staying with our friends Nick and Joie. We arrived around 6pm, had a few beers, then went to meet some friends of theirs, whom I know from NOLA Jazz Festival. We spent the night eating, drinking and catching up. Seattle seems pretty cool.
Saturday July 13th, 2002 - Around Seattle
Today was our 'tourist' day, spent checking out Seattle's finer points. Nick and Joie showed us around The Space Needle, which was cool (and very tourist-y), then Pike Market. It was a beautiful day- sunny and warm. Marvelous. That night, Beverly and I went and had dinner at a place Joie reccommended, Anthony's. It was a beautiful seafood restaurant located right on Puget sound. We walked right up to an outdoor table with an amazing view of the mountains, the water, complete with fish jumping out of the water. Truly an amazing outdoor and dining experience. That night, Beverly was pooped so she went back to Nick's, and I met Nick and Joie at a party. It was great spending time with Nick and Joie because they're getting married on Hawaii in September, and we can't make the wedding. Congratulations, guys! Wish we could be there!
View from the Space Needle
The view from our table at Anthony's Restaurant (Really!)
Sunday July 14th, 2002 - Seattle to Idaho (Udaho?)
Went for an excellent breakfast with Nick and Joie before departing for Idaho. Leaving was sad, but we must press on. Unfortunately, my allergies reared their ugly head again in the form of clogged sinuses, and when we went over the Cascades, I received a splitting sinus headache from the altitude. I spent most of the day curled up in the fetal position in the passenger seat. Beverly was wonderful enough to drive the entire day, and we ended up in Cour D'Aleine, Idaho at a Best Western. Not much else to say about that day, except that I'm glad its over.
Monday July 15th, 2002 - Idaho to Just Outside Yellowstone
My headache seems to have abated, and we're driving through beautiful Montana. Wow. Big Sky country for sure. The radio warns of thunderstorms tonight, which will hopefully give us a break from this heat we've had for over a week now. We passed through Missoula for lunch, and Bozeman for dinner. I really liked Bozeman. I used to know some guys who lived there as ski bums, and I can now see why they liked it. Very mellow place with lots of young, hip people around. We ate dinner at a sports bar there and had possibly the friendliest, best waitress ever. With it staying light so late, we decided to camp close to Yellowstone tonite. We're staying tonite at the Yellowstone RV Park, a nice enough RV-type campground right alongside the Yellowstone river. We arrived at around 7:30pm, set up our tent, and I went to bed, again with a mild headache.
Bozeman, Montana
View from our campsite at Yellowstone RV park
Boy did it storm last night! Insane thunderstorms, lightning crashing all around us for the better part of the night. We were able to get all our gear into the car before it rained, then we battened down the tent and rode it out. A VERY impressive storm, kinda scary being in a flimsy tent, but the tent held up great. Today we drove to Yellowstone Park and entered through the north entrance. Again- WOW. I've been to quite a few national parks, but Yellowstone seems to be one of the best. First off, its HUGE. Really big. Its also the first national park, ever. Spent the first part of the day checking out a few roadside things, such as the sulfur pools and Sheepeater Cliff. Then we went and found a campsite, which is one of the best ones we had yet. There's a bunch of Yale students here who are on a cross country bike ride to benefit the homeless. They're going from Connectitut to Seattle. Very impressive but insane.
After a quick PB&J for lunch, we headed out again and found Firehole Swimming area, which our friend Sarah had told us about. Its a pretty fast river which is spring fed from a hot spring, so the water was the perfect temperature. There's a section where you can jump off some rocks into a very strong current (almost whitewater) and get pulled through a small canyon by the current. Very fun, and we both exhausted ourselves (the current was STRONG). We eventually headed out and checked out Old Faithful. Again, very impressive, but kinda mobbed. One of the nice things about Yellowstone being so huge is that its not particularly crowded in any one area (except Old Faithful). Along the road we've experienced several animal jams-- cars lining the side if the road to look at an animal. We've had a bison jam, a moose jam and possibly a wolf jam. We pulled over to the side to see what everyone was looking at and saw two dog-like animals running and leaping over each other in a distant field. They also began to howl and sing. Beverly was convinced they were coyotes because, how could we possibly be that lucky to see wolves? I asked a man with big binoculars what he saw out there. "That there son is a pack of wolves," he replied in a definitive voice. We'll never know for sure although Yellowstone is the only place in the lower 48 with wolves.
At the gift shop there Beverly purchased a fly fishing rod, one of those all-inclusive jobbers. We headed back to the river near our campsite to give it a spin (pun intended). We were kinda bummed because we had brought our normal fishing rods, but everything up here says "Fly Fishing Only". When in Rome, one must do as the Romans, tho. Needless to say, I don't think either one of us will be entering a tournement anytime soon (although Beverly thinks her cast is excellent). We spent the evening in front of the campfire, making dinner and talking, till we eventually nodded off to sleep. The weather has cooled down some, so sleeping is now a pleasure (except Beverly heard bears all night after reading a book on bear attacks while in Seattle). Otherwise it was a perfect camping experience.
One interesting incident- we were driving through a parking lot of one of the geysers, and every car was from a different state. It started off as a joke- "Hey look- a car from Delaware!", then as we drove down the lot, it was just a list of states- Florida, Colorado, Idahoe, New Hampshire, Vermont, New York, Georgia, New Mexico, Texas. No two cars were from the same state. It was nice to see so many people, from so many different parts of the country enjoying this truly National Park. Saw quite a few anti-George W Bush bumper stickers too, which was encouraging, especially after driving through Washington. Washington State LOVES George W. Must be the gun thing.
Firehole Swimming area. You jump in at the whitewater near the top of the picture
Me, nearly drowning - The current was FAST!
Wednesday July 17th, 2002 - Yellowstone
Today we woke up early and headed straight back to the Firehole swimming area. We got there around 9:30am, before it was really crowded. We swam and jumped in the rapids until about noon, then we decided to head down to Grand Teton National Park. It was a pretty long drive to get down there, so we stopped a lot on the way. One place we found by accident was Buffalo Hole, a waterfall swimming area. There was about a 40 to 50 foot cliff with a sizable waterfall running over it. There were a bunch of people jumping off the cliff into the pool of warm water below. Pictures are the best way to describe it.
Buffalo Hole
Some guy jumping in
After getting our fill of swimming (yet again), we headed for the Tetons, which are incredible. There were some spooky looking clouds lingering over the peaks, which made them look pretty ominous.
After getting our fill of swimming (yet again), we headed for the Tetons, which are incredible. There were some spooky looking clouds lingering over the peaks, which made them look pretty ominous.
The Tetons
More Tetons (Spooooooky!)
Thats it for now...stay tuned for Part Two!