The week of labor day we went on vacation to Oregon and Washington. On the last day of the trip, we talked about what we had done in the last week. We decided we would describe the trip as:
-Fun
-Tiring
-A learning experience
It definitely was fun; we explored a large area of the Pacific Northwest, hiked a LOT (Liz hiked 40 miles in the first three days) and got a really good idea of what we want (and don't want) our camper van to have in the future. Here's a bit about our trip, with photos!
DAY 1
We started out near Upper Klamath Lake just inside Oregon. We hiked the Clover Creek Trail....we thought it would be about a 8-10 mile hike, but got sidetracked in a "bonus" loop...the loop turned out to be way longer than expected and we dragged ourselves a whole 18+ miles on the first day! Tired feet to start the trip.
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| Liz approaching Harriet Lake. It's like a tiny Crater Lake, with pretty coloring. I think at this point we were about 11-12 miles in... |
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| The dogs afterward. Carex is eating laying down. I think we tired them out for once! |
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| Our campsite, which was just a parking area at the trailhead. I am definitely still getting used to (read: still totally not used to) just parking the van far off from other people to sleep. This place was definitely alone (we were the only car there) and off the beaten path. However, I decided in the end that I liked it because the dogs could roam free and it was really quiet! |
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| After hiking 18 miles, we (crazy people) decided to take a jaunt through Crater Lake National Park. We cooked dinner there at a picnic area (a bit cold and windy!) and grabbed free showers in a campground before continuing on northward. |
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| The van at Crater Lake! |
DAY 2
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| After our crazy first day, we camped at a campground outside of Sisters but left very early and ended up at the McKenzie River (Clear Lake picnic area). We made breakfast there--a beautiful spot! Adam took off on his mountain bike and Liz hiked the dogs. |
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| Clear Lake. Notice that deep blue-turquoise area of the lake--the camera didn't capture it well but the whole lake and river glowed that intense color! |
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| We saw three waterfalls, from both sides of the river! (Liz and dogs hiked ~10 miles, Adam MTB-ed about 30) |
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| McKenzie River trail--awesome! |
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| After the McKenzie river, we drove on a scenic highway to an observatory--where you could look out and see these amazing lava fields! This picture shows a lava flow surrounding two islands of trees left intact. |
DAY 3
At the end of day 2 we ended up at the Columbia River Gorge, at the Eagle Creek Campground. We cooked a nice dinner there and woke up ready to hike Eagle Creek! This trail was another one that followed a river, but this time in more of a gorge setting, where parts of the trail were literally carved into the rock, with a cable attached to the rock for a hand-hold. There were also lots of bridges and some amazing waterfalls. We did a 12 mile hike, going out to Tunnel Falls.
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| Family shot! Love Dude's sunlit whiskers and Carex's smooshed position. |
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| Tunnel Falls! There's a tunnel that goes behind the falls. Liz almost made it that far...but it's really high up and cliff-y. |
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| Liz crossing "High Bridge" for the second time. It really is high! Notice my grip on the bridge rail and on Adam's backpack! |
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| Dude passed out after a third long hiking day! He LOVES the bed. |
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| After the Columbia River Gorge we drove all the way up to Leavenworth in the North Cascades in Washington State. There we were greeted with rain, so this is Adam and the dogs hanging out in the van at a tiny campground outside of town. (6 sites total, and two were really hidden!) This night we actually went out to dinner in Leavenworth (a touristy "Bavarian" town) and had FANTASTIC bavarian themed dinner! So good! DAY 4 We actually didn't hike this day! We took the dogs for a romp at the local ski hill (trails in summer, nothing special) and explored the town of Leavenworth, ran errands, and rested up a bit. Here's a photo of the campground in the morning--still rainy! |
We had planned on backpacking for two nights, starting on Day 4. At this point we had reduced that to 1 night, hoping for the rain to clear up. We drove from Leavenworth out near Skykomish, through the Cascades. The rain continued, and after talking to a ranger at the local station, we decided to just forget backpacking and continue with our daily hikes, sleeping in the comfort and dryness of the van. We headed out to find a dispersed campsite near our hiking destination.
Later, still raining lightly but steadily, we have set up camp!
Before dinner, we went to check out the trail (about a minute walk from the campsite) we were to hike tomorrow. The dogs were riled in spite of the rain! Gotta love 2 wet dogs and 2 wet people sleeping in a van....
DAY 5
We packed up our campsite before leaving, but camped so close to the trailhead that we just left the van were it was. The goal was to hike to the second or third lake in a row of lakes spread over about 7 miles. The rain was getting us down, so we decided to turn back before the second lake (still hiked far up the mountain, but probably only about 6 or 7 miles total). The views were amazing of the rugged river and green forest.
This trail is apparently extremely heavily used--the hiking book I had said to avoid it if possible--but due to the rain, we saw only three other people, and they were hiking all together!
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| Super old Doug Fir. |
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| Wild River (Actually the West Fork Foss River) |
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| Dude exemplifies the mood of the day! |
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| Still having fun! |
After our hike, we drove out to Darrington (farther north in the Cascades) and set up camp in a deserted campground (Clear Creek Campground) that had very friendly campground hosts! The retired man greeted us at our site, brought us firewood, and stopped by to chat a couple of times. He was great!
DAY 6
After a visit to the Ranger Station, we decided to hike up the flanks of Mt. Pugh (really Mt. "Pew" but to us, Mt. "Poo") to Stujack Pass. This is another crazy hike--we gained over 3200' in elevation, just switchbacking up to the pass! Once we high enough to be out of the classic dense, green, damp Cascades forest, we entered a beautiful world of high altitude wildflowers, rocks and rodents (which I guessed were picas--they looked like big fat mice, and spoke to each other with little chirps). I, of course, didn't like the heights, but we made it up into the rocks and flowers and stopped for lunch. The clouds parted and we got one view down to the valley below. Within minutes the clouds totally enclosed the whole mountain, and we decided we had gone far enough (no more views to be had!).
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| Trail on the way up! Pretty much looks like this the whole way... |
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| Emerge into the rocky flower show! |
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| Picas? |
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| Campanularias? |
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| Me: Really, do we have to go higher? I'm going to have some sort of breakdown dealing with this whole I'm-afraid-of-heights thing... Adam: Yes, we have to go higher... YOU'RE FINE!! (I heard that, "You're fine" a lot during this week of travel........he was always right...) |
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| Look, a view!! |
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| Wait...the clouds are coming back! |
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| View gone. |
After this hike, we drove back to civilization! Out to Whidbey Island in the San Juans, cooked amazing salmon dinner, and camped at the Deception Pass State Park.
At this point, we were done (probably forever) with the North Cascades forest...we LOVE views, and the forest was so dense everywhere (plus the unlucky weather events) we went that we were ready for a change.
Deception Pass Bridge: Views! Sun! To high for Liz to muster the emotional strength to walk out onto it!
DAY 7
We hiked around Deception Pass State Park before getting showered off, and heading into Seattle. The big events of this day were buying a new fridge for the van in Seattle (Adam had found a great deal online before we left--might as well save on shipping!) and seeing my cousin and her family for dinner!
Got to ride the ferry--by this time we were both pretty tired, Adam had been doing all of the driving up to this point and I think it was wearing on him a bit, so he let me take over!
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| Napping in the back while waiting to get onto the ferry! |
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| This moss had been on the antenna since Day 3! It made it all the way home with us! |
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| Carex in her usual spot, as close to us as possible. |
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| Dude in his usual spot, on the bed. Note the van seems to be getting smaller now that we have a fridge in a massive box with us! |
After seeing my family, we drove out to Bellvue and found an awesome parking spot to sleep. We were right next to a park (with clean bathrooms!) in a semi-residential area (not parking were we could look like some random suspicious van) and were ready the next morning.
DAY 8
We drove a short distance to meet up with Adam's cousin Dawn and her family for breakfast. Then we hit the road, Adam giving into my (unusual) desire to get home as fast as possible, driving the whole way in one day, which we did, trading off driving and napping.
DAY 9
Home. So glad we had a full day to deal with the mess we made unpacking! Check out the pics of the new fridge, too.
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| Ahhh! |
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| Bruce the cat stayed with my parents while we were gone, I think he missed Carex! |
Sweet new fridge!
More to come on updated Van Plans! Stay tuned!
