Days 27 through 32

Day 27

Left the Wallace Inn nice and refreshed this morning.  Headed out to Glacier pretty early.  It was a beautiful drive, but nothing compared to the campsite.  We were camped right on the lake (pictured below) that was filled with perfect skipping stones.  All perfectly flat and multicolored.  The girls would have loved to take the entire beach home, but settled for spending a long while playing in the water and throwing stones.

Day 28 

The last time Jamey and I were in Glacier we had a completely different experience than this time around.  We backpacked everywhere last time and were convinced that Glacier was only visited by a few people.  It is actually packed with people and started our new slogan - "National Parks - where you always need to worry about peeing and parking".  The lines for everything were crazy and we couldn't even find a parking spot for one of the hikes that we wanted to do.  However, flexibility being our motto, we found some other fantastic hikes that had fewer people on them.  Waterfalls were part of one of the hikes.  

The drive between hiking spots was also spectacular, filled with glaciers, waterfalls, and peaks!!  The girls even got out and touched a glacier.

 

Another hike involved old growth cedar trees and, of course, more waterfalls.

We moved to a more remote campsite on the other side of the same lake today.  After all of our touring the first thing the girls did was put on their bathing suits.  We stayed by the water until sunset and then headed back to the campsite (a 40 second trek - literally).

Day 29

Woke up early to find that elusive parking spot we missed yesterday.  Find it we did and went on an amazing hike through the alpine tundra and across the glaciers to find the hidden lake.  On the way up the hike we found a ton of animals - at least 9 mountain goats (including little babes), a posing ground squirrel, boxing marmots (that is right, they were right in front of us boxing for dominance), and some big horn sheep watching us from above.

The hike was beautiful, but if you look closely you can see that we are wearing sandals.  None of us realized how much snow and ice we would be walking across.  In the end, it was very worth it and there were others with sandals at the top.  "Nice sandals."

 Day 30

We were all really sad to leave Glacier, but Yellowstone also had so much to offer.  On the first 10 minutes of our drive we came across three male elk (all with large racks).  

The heart of Yellowstone is wildlife and tectonic activity and so we headed towards our first vents.  Here is Brianna posing outside the Dragon's Mouth vent - if only you could smell the sulfur and feel the heat through the computer.  It was something.  Steamy and stinky.

The buffalo herd was huge and scattered throughout the park.  They definitely didn't mind all the geothermal activity.  I think they actually liked how it kept them warm at night.  Yellowstone nights got down to 39 F, so anything would help that!  At first Eiley was upset that they were so far away, then they started crossing the road right in front of us.  The right hand picture of the buffalo was as it was walking by Eiley's window (no zoom required).

We decided to go to the less visited side of the park this afternoon, since we got a kind of late start.  It was filled with a beautiful canyon and several waterfalls.  Not to mention drives past mountain meadows in bloom.

We ended the day with Mammoth Hot Springs on the busier side of the park.  It rained right before we got there, so the crowd had completely cleared out and parking was easy-peasey.  We ate at the grill there and the girls had their first caffeinated beverage (they have tried it before, but never had a whole cup).  The result was hilarious!  They were so wired they were bouncing in their seats with excitement, which is actually something they needed at this point.

Finally, the girls had been complaining about the lack of s'more action this summer, so we bought some wood and fired up a bunch of them to make happy children.

 Day 31

Woke up early to beat that National Park crowd and were rewarded with a glorious eruption of Old Faithful.

Later we saw other geysers, but the girls were just as excited about each one. I was pleasantly surprised, since I thought they would get bored of seeing the same thing over and over.  In reality, each feature is just very unique.

We especially loved all the springs.  It is hard to tell with these pictures, but the color of the steam coming off Grand Prismatic spring (the one on the left) is even rainbow hued.

We decided to get off the beaten path for the afternoon and headed down to the Tetons for a nice leisurely and quiet picnic on Jackson Lake.  We played cards, the girls played in the water, and we all stared at the beautiful scenery until it was time to go back to camp and get some more s'more action.

Day 32

Got to Cody, WY today and started to feel like we were in the Wild West.  We stayed at the Irma Hotel, which had a ton of charm and character.  All the hotel staff dress like they are from the early 1900's (when the hotel was started by Buffalo Bill) and the gunfighting show was held right outside the hotel.  The show featured Wild Bill Hickok, Calamity Jane, Doc Holiday, the Sundance kid, etc.  The show was definitely fun, but the best part was that Eiley got a poster and had it signed by all the actors.   Two of the female players even started singing "New York, New York" for Eiley.  All of us decided that the actors might like New York, but we also like Wyoming - very fun for all!

 

Days 22 through 26

Day 22

We decided to become astronauts today and landed on the moon.  Really, this is where the astronauts trained for the lunar landing way back in the 60s.  Newberry Volcanic Monument is still strange today – fields of lava that seem to go on endlessly.  They were kind enough to pave a path for us, but it really didn’t change how strange it was to walk through.  The best part was that when the pumice stones rubbed together, it sounded like Styrofoam rubbing together (Jamey’s least favorite noise).  The girls had a lot of fun with that!

You could see the snow-capped peaks of Mount Bachelor and the three sisters in the background of the lava fields.  We wanted to get the full feel of what it was like to be a lava flow, so we went caving in the local lava tube.  Pretty cool mile long trek through a very dark cavern that ranged from 30 feet high, to just about 6 feet.  42 degrees F.  Not a lot of stalactites or anything, but there were lavasicles J 

We decided to drive a little farther north than originally planned – wildfires were raging through Oregon and a mtn road with more switchbacks were great deterrents.  It ended up being a beautiful drive through the Willamette Forest.  I could definitely live in this area – until I saw the clear-cuts.  We stopped at a random rest area and found these beautiful falls (created by lava flows, just to keep with the volcanic theme of the past few days).   You can see Eiley was ready to get rid of her sister.   When Bri decided she would just go, Eiley changed her mind.  Hold on Eiley, we don’t want her to go over.

Back to the Pacific Ocean again - Oh yeah, landed on the beach of anyone’s dreams – the Oregon Dunes!!  2 ½ miles deep, you can just barely see ocean waves in the distance.  Rolling dunes that are 100 feet tall – what else would you do but start to roll down them.

The dunes were beautiful, not only were we treated to the sunset of our dreams (you could see the Pacific, so it counts), but there was a rainbow behind us.  What more could you ask for. 

still looking for that "green flash" at sunset.... not this time

Day 23

The girls spent the morning building lots of fairy homes at the campsite.  The trees are so mossy with funky roots here.  Perfect fairy home habitat.

I was shocked when the girls didn’t wake up all bruised the next day.  Oh no, they were ready for some more rolling down the dunes the next morning.  That little speck at the top is Brianna who is also about to come rolling down.   

The girls were really sad to leave the sand dunes.  We have all decided that we could stay at this exact same place for at least a week before we got tired of it.  We went up the Oregon coast a little farther and found a beautiful beach so they could wash their sorrows away!  They played hard among the sea stacks – beautiful views for me while we got chased up the beach by the rising tide!! 

At one point Brianna was writing with her feather quill and said to me, “Hey Mom, look! I developed ‘sandscript’ – ha, ha.

We decided to leave this beach in search of some grub.  Went to a quaint town called Seaside.  Nice boardwalk with a fantastic beach and view of the ocean.  We got cups of Norma’s famous clam chowder (it was in one of those "best of" books) to go, sat down on the boardwalk and watched the sunset while listening to a jazz saxophone busker.  FANTASTIC, though I left the camera in the car ;)  The girls even got some cherry and marionberry homemade ice cream to watch the sunset – bliss to my  little sweet tooths!

Day 24

Woke up to drizzly weather – first time we have had to strike camp in the rain.  Yuck!  However, as soon as we were done the rain stopped ;)  Guess we should have waited the 10 minutes.  It did give us the perfect weather for viewing the Peter Iredale shipwreck at the shore.  Not a lot left of it but a rusty shell. 

Headed to La Push – a lot of the scenic route was foggy.  You got glimpses of some beautiful areas, but mostly the clouds were just trying to eat everything.  Given the chance of thunderstorms we decided to camp a couple miles off the beach rather than right on it.  In retrospect this was a good idea.  The rain wasn’t bad, but the wind was intense on the beach.  It made for some beautiful waves, but the poor tent would have been thrown around a lot. 

We got to Second Beach and it was amazing!!  The tidal pools were filled with different kinds of anemones, starfish, hermit crabs, some sort of spider crab, limpets, mussels, etc.

Brianna’s favorite anemones were the green ones (of course!).

We left Second Beach before sunset, since the hike in was steep and windy.  On the way out we found our first banana slug!  Cool, though Jamey found out it is also crazy sticky – is this what they use to create super glue?

On the way up the steep hill Eiley says, “I am hiking fast guys, for a slug.”

We also found many more fairy homes, our favorite was saguaro village.

Headed to Rialto beach for the sunset.  Yes, it was cold and windy!  Eiley and I are sharing a blanket and Jamey is wearing thermals under the sweatshirt – did I mention I was glad we slept in the calm woods that night.  The driftwood made a perfect shelter and the sunset was beautiful!

again, no green flash!

Day 25

Went to the Hoh Rainforest this morning in Olympic National Park.  Yeah, that’s right – even the phone gets mossed over.  Lush and gorgeous here. 

I felt like Bri was shaking hands with an Ent (from Lord of the Rings for all those not in the know) here.  The trees are covered with moss, ferns, liken, and even other trees.  

Eiley decided to try her hand on holding the banana slug – later she regrets it while washing her hand with soap and water three times and three hand wipes barely get all the slime off.  Once it is all gone, she was glad she held it, though she admits she probably wouldn’t again.  She passes up holding what comes to be called the poo slug later on (Jamey and I have no idea what it is really called, but when it felt threatened by us it rolled itself up into what looked like feces).

Changed our plans, so that we will not have such a scenic drive through the Methow Valley.  Unfortunately, we got smoked out of that area – our thoughts are with all the people that have already lost their homes and those that aren’t sure if they will.  Haven’t seen the news in a couple of days, but I hope the fires are more contained now!!  Anyway, we will drive 90 towards Couer D’Alene tomorrow instead. 

This drive is also pretty scenic!  Ended up at a campsite with a beautiful waterfall and a mossy old tree to watch over us.  Played lots of games at the campsite, though our newest game Salmon Run was a bust. 

Day 26

Started our long drive towards Coeur D’Alene only to find out that all the hotels are booked.  Apparently there is some large gun convention here this weekend.  Found a beautiful little place less than an hour away east.  It is tucked away with beautiful scenery, a fantastic pool, and room service.  Most posh place we have stayed at so far.  Also, there is a laundromat nearby – thank goodness!!!!  We have gone almost a week without doing laundry (usually every 2-4 days).  The last couple places were too remote to have anything close enough and we have been wearing our cold weather clothes for too long!!  Be glad you can’t smell us through the computer ;)