Welcome back friends! I hope everyone is having a spooky time! (Edit note: I wrote this on Halloween… picture editing took a bit) We are currently in Scottsdale, Arizona. With a perfect view of Four-Peaks Mountains and an expected full moon tonight should make for a stunning evening.
Last I checked in we had finished up in Colorado, and we were headed for Yellowstone, the first and original National Park! For this part of the trip we would be going through Wyoming. I don’t know what a Wyom is or how one actively does it but it seems to be the only state that is also an active verb.
We took to I-25 headed north out of Denver, and we went through Cheyenne, Casper and then west over to Cody, the “Rodeo Capital of the World”. Most of this part of the trip was pretty uniform in how arid the environment was, clearly vast amounts of pasture land and rolling hills lead us up into the mountains right outside of Yellowstone.
We stayed the night in Cody before heading into Yellowstone. It was obvious this evening that fall was becoming less ignorable and that we would need to start to prep for colder weather. We had some pretty cold moments in Colorado, so we had gotten better at wearing layers to sleep. It’s not ideal or realistic to leave the van running, so we ended up getting a small electric heater to plug into the Jackery, not more than 200w, so my expectations of it were pretty realistically low. But with enough clothes and sleeping bags, 2 people and a dog can keep a camper warm enough. At least for now, it’s obvious we won’t be attempting to winter-over in some northern climate.
Yellowstone had a lot of hype but justifiably so, stunning mountains surround the lake that is the center of the old super volcano. Geothermic vents are found everywhere around the parks which give it unique and exotic features, combined with a stunning abundance of wildlife, it really was everything it was hyped to be. I think being a fall visitor had its perks in that the crowd was pretty slim, compared to what I have heard about the summer months.
We spent the day going to and from the parks main features and had many wonderful encounters with Buffalo, Deer, Antelope, Goats and Elk. Including a couple traffic jams and an amazing Elk Buck who was serenading the hills from the center of one of the main Yellowstone villages. We stayed the night and listened to them into the evening and was greeted by a couple large herds in the morning.
With much regret we skipped The Grand Teton National Park, but we were headed for Glacier National Park in Montana and decided it was an ok compromise to have something new to see next time we passed through.
After Yellowstone, we were headed north on the Lewis and Clark trail highway (US-89), through Bozeman MT and up to the north border of Montana with Canada. We slowly rolled into the Blackfoot Reservation and decided to get lunch in Browning. Browning was a struggling community and heavily effected by COVID-19, it seemed most stores were closed or were closed most of the day except for small windows of time.
We didn’t stay long and attempted to enter the park from the East entrance. It was about 45 min from the middle of Browning. It had amazing views of the backside of the range that makes up Glacier National Park, and we could see the very stunning Saint Mary Lake shimmering like a sapphire… but something was off. There was no traffic and for it being one of the top-rated parks in the country I thought something was afoot. Well, it was as we soon found out. The East Gate was closed for the season, with a chain across it. Also, we had no internet at this point. So we backtracked our way back out to Browning and found our way around the south end of the valley and into the West Gate, a detour of about an hour or two. It was a nice drive between East Glacier Village and West Gate along US-2.
We got in just as the sun was starting to set, and we managed to settle into a nice spot for the evening along the shore of a very stunning Lake McDonald. We walked the shoreline and enjoyed a very moving sunset before sleeping for the night. The following day was our trip over the Going-to-the-Sun road. A very long route through Glacier that takes you up the mountains and along sheer cliffs with some of the best scenic views on a drive in the entire continent and if not anywhere in the world. I am usually only prone to minor exaggerations but I would argue it gave more to see in its small round trip drive then we had seen the entire trip through the Rockies and even our trip through the Alps in 2019. A stunning must-see destination and will be one of my top spots for the foreseeable future.
With the beautiful Lewis and Clark Ranges behind us, we’re finally headed for the west coast. Montana was a gem that we wouldn’t forget, but a shocker spot along the way was the Idaho city of Coeur d’Alene. It sits in the I-90 corridor, in the top panhandle of Idaho. A lake city with an amazing view and lots going on in the center of town. Also, a hub for events and festivals, it was a nice place to stay the night as we pressed west.
Without too much delay we crossed the arid and oddly flat and boring terrain of western Washington and zigzagged our way to Mt Rainier for a quick selfie on our way into Seattle.
For those unaware, Mt Rainier is a stunning standalone large active stratovolcano that sits kind of on its own outside the Cascade Mountains. It stands at 14,411 and has very noticeable permanent glacial ice that adds to its already eye-catching profile. We stayed the afternoon and got to see a variety of angles, including a trip up to ‘Paradise’, which sits at the base of the mountain with various national park swag and a visitor center.
After some pretty dope selfies we packed into the Van and made for Seattle at last. We didn’t get far before the fog of the northwest coast ate us. What started as a bright sunny day near Mr Rainier, ended in overcast, heavy-hanging fog for our evening. We went to an awesome outdoor Bavarian themed pop-up spot for dinner and finally put it in a park in downtown Seattle, across from the Ferris Wheel. We were ready for Pike Place Market in the morning.
The morning came quick with the city waking up around us. Traffic and the usual noise of a downtown area had us out of bed pretty early. Thankfully the original Starbucks was our first stop spot. We got in on that merch and started to browse the market. It was quite the spot even during a pandemic (with masks and most inside places closed or limited) we strolled through the open market and watched the show as shopkeepers and patrons interacted with all sorts of fruit, flowers, fish, and fashion. We learned at this point Seattle is a very dog-friendly city. Milk-bones materialized from the pockets of almost everyone we said hello to and were eagerly devoured into the bottomless hole that is our Aussie.
I’d love to return to Seattle when there’s a bit less of a pandemic threat. The amount of neat shops, artisan goods and interesting restaurants was quite alluring and could keep us entertained for weeks if not months.
Join us next time as we travel along the pacific coast. Sinclair Dino’s, Oregon with its volcano alley and stunning ocean views, and into ‘The Golden State’ with its giant Redwoods and and even larger gas prices!
