Oregon Trail

My first glimpse of Oregon was a logging mill on the Columbia River just after I passed through Longview, WA.



Finally!! Yes that really says welcome to Oregon...



Believe it or not, this stretch of the drive was along Lincoln Highway, U.S. Rt 30, and there was no construction!

View looking through the back window toward Longview and the Columbia River. Not bad for a no look point and shoot, eh? And look what else popped into the photo, Mt. St. Helens! I seriously just noticed her as I was posting this...



I continued on for a good hour, and there were multiple parts of the drive where I could have sworn I was driving through the green hills of Pennsylvania. After entering Oregon I set my navigation for Lewis and Clark National Park. Still working the spontaneity front, I had no idea what to expect, and planned on pitching my tent in the park for the night.

I finally reached the town of Astoria, OR, and wow, what a picture perfect scene. The park was on the western side of town, so I headed there first, and after some confusion as to where the park was actually located, and what I was trying to see, I found it.



Since I was flying by the seat of my pants during this leg of the journey, and really just hitting up L&C NP to pitch my tent for the night, I was surprised and disappointed at the same time. The "National Historical Park" wasn't your typical NP with camp sites and such. In fact, Lewis & Clark National Historical Park consists of several smaller State Parks and Historic Sites in OR and WA, and the navigation had taken me to one of these named Fort Clatsop.

Despite the lack of camping at Fort Clatsop, I ventured in to see what was what. For a mere $3 I received the standard NP brochure (plus an extra one for my bud Bradley), and a very well laid out history lesson about Lewis and Clark's exploratory Corps of Discovery. After the education, I walked down to the reconstructed Fort Clatsop where a park ranger, dressed in early 19th century garb, was telling a group of much much older Americans about Thomas Jefferson's Louisiana Purchase and America's Manifest Destiny. How befitting?! I chuckled and walked the nearby trails, snapping a few photos.







These are the canoes that the Corps of Discovery used to explore all the waterways on their journey, including the Columbia River...



If I got my facts straight, these "posts" are actually tree stumps that were used to "corral" the larger timbers from logging...



I saw signs for a trail that ran from the fort all the way to the ocean, and I really had to talk myself out of taking it. It was about 6.5 miles one way, and given the time of day, ~4pm, I knew I'd never make it back before dark. Since I was no longer able to camp in the park, I decided to head back into Astoria and check out this odd looking column, aptly named, Astoria Column. I also knew the house from the Goonies was somewhere in town, so my new plan of attack was to see some more sights, then head south to Seaside and hit up another hotel/motel for the night.

Oh Mountain...

I woke up early Thursday morning, and decided to take advantage of the exercise facilities. Even though I was on vacation, I felt the need to keep up with the cardio, so I jumped on some kind of elliptical machine for a good 20 minutes. Then I hopped on a bizarre stationary bike and pounded out the "Around the World" setting in another 20 minutes. Somehow 10 miles on this bike took me over every continent in the world, save Antarctica. That poor continent is always left out in the cold.

After the workout and subsequent shower, I headed back down the lounge to grab some fuel. Yakima so far had not impressed me (even though I hadn't left the hotel the night before), until I met a man at breakfast who changed my mind. A Korean Navy vet named Cory, who thought it was amazing that I could eat breakfast and operate my touch screen cell phone, brightened my day. We chatted while I scarfed down my french toast and bacon, with eggs and home fries on the side (well, mostly he chatted), and we parted ways as I headed back to the room to pack up. Irony struck though, as we reached the end of our conversation, he told me he was from Oregon!

After checkout, I punched in Astoria, WA on the Incredible and set off for another fun-filled day of driving...and surprises.

I took U.S. 12 west out of town, and then turned off into the mountains and headed up White Pass, still not knowing what was in store for me.

I saw more columnar basalt on this trip than I thought existed...



Drove through some road construction, next to a beautiful bright blue runoff creek...



Rocks!



Through Wenatchee National Forest and past Rimrock Lake...



I saw some high peaks, which sparked my curiosity...

Goat Rocks....Goat Peak



And then I came around a bend and saw a sign that nearly made me swerve off the road: "Mt. Rainier Viewpoint ahead". No way!!!



Majestic...



Beautious...



I hung out and took in this sight for at least a half hour. Others came and went, and I just sat and absorbed the view.

Yes, I was actually there. The volcano was not super-imposed behind me...



I finally bid my new friend goodbye, and headed back down the road. She kept peaking her summit out of the trees, and my final view came from in the little town of Packwood. This spot looked more like Dante's Peak than Wallace, ID...



Some kind of town festival was gearing up for the weekend, but as enticing as it looked, I knew the coast was calling, so I continued on. Oregon was close, really close. I saw a sign for Mt. St. Helens Viewpoint, but I knew in a matter of days I'd have a much close view, so I pressed on.

Highway Run Pt. II

Washington state finally showed up on the horizon, and with it, bright sunny skies with huge white fluff clouds. I hit up a drive-thru in Spokane to keep my wheels rolling, and the next two hours turned into one of those long flat highway drives. I'm not sure what I was expecting, but this was surely a pleasant surprise.







I was slowed twice on this section of road for accidents. My only thought was that there were other drivers experiencing the same sleepiness I was feeling as I passed Moses Lake and Potholes State Park. Hopefully everyone was ok, and my spirits were lifted when the upper Columbia River gorge appeared in front of me.



I noticed signs for a turn-off overlook ahead, so I slowed my roll and pulled to the side. What's the first thing I see as I jump out of the car?



As I walked down the brown dirt path to the overlook, this little guy ran out in front of me (probably running from the snakes), so I stole his picture.



I finally reached the end of the path...



Absolutely breathtaking. At least 50 windmills lined the ridge on the other side of gorge, but I think they misplaced them, because the wind was so strong at the overlook that I could barely keep the camera straight.



On my walk back to the Corolla I searched for rattlers for a few minutes, to no avail. I hit the road, and by this time, knew that reaching the coast was a long shot, so I decided to see what was coming up, and possibly grab a room for the night. Yakima was about 45 minutes away. Sounded good to me.

Windmills





Yakima was close, and I needed to see where I was going, so the next rest area was on the immediate agenda. What I was totally unprepared for was the sight coming out of the hills into the valley. Staring me down was Mt. Adams, a massive volcano, and to call me giddy would have been an understatement. Signs for the rest area appeared, and almost directly after was a sign I'd never seen before. "Mt. Adams *with and arrow pointing due south* and Mt. Rainier *with an arrow pointing southwest*." What?! Could I really see two volcanoes at the same time? Why yes I could. I quickly veered into the rest area, and broke out the bigger camera.

Mt. Adams


The sun's brightness certainly made taking quality photos difficult for this amateur photographer.

Mt. Rainier



I stood in awe for a few minutes, then hit up my trusty Incredible for Yakima lodging. Holiday Inn Suites on Main St? Why not.

The girl that checked me in was super nice, and turned out to be the bright spot of Yakima. I found my room and hoped to have a view of one of these famed mountains. No go. I DID have free internet though! I had been unable to connect to Jamie or Josh's network because neither of them knew the password, and needless to say, I had tons of blogging to do. I uploaded some photos and banged out some words (Big Skyrise and Tastes Lake Water), then hit up the lounge for some dinner and beverage(s). I sat alone, and scoffed at the CMAs. What happened to music? Oh yeah, Capitalism. I finished up dinner and my lone Stella Artois (you know it's bad if I'm drinking Stella), and headed up for a good night's rest.

Still not a lot of friendliness going on in Yakima...

Highway Run Pt. I

For a few days I'd been checking the weather forecast for Glacier National Park. My original plans were taking me there from noon Wednesday to Thursday, but a winter storm was rolling in Wednesday morning, so I decided to skip the park all together.

As much as it's good to have an itinerary in place, I've never been one to follow Clark Griswold's time adhesion vacation model. So instead of putting myself in a situation not conducive to top-notch photographs, and most likely, not ideal for pitching and sleeping in the Quartz 22, I changed my course for the Oregon coast. I knew this was one of the areas on my visual wish-list, so I dialed in the new coordinates and was on my way.




13 hours away. With a 7am departure, I thought I could make it all the way to the coast, even though I had no idea where I'd be sleeping that night. That turned out to be an overly optimistic outlook.

I jumped on I-90 at Manhatten, MT., after stopping for some breakfast drinks to complement some banana bread Mandy bagged up for me. The first part of the drive was familiar, since I'd just headed towards Butte two days earlier. I knew I had to minimize my stops if I planned on reaching the OR coast, so I decided to use my Canon Elf point and shoot to capture images along the drive.

I-90...



The cloud covered rainy skies continued for a good portion of the morning...



A wide open green valley just south of Whitehall...



A rainbow?! Is the rain finally ending?



Nope...



Rolling into Butte...









After passing the Butte area, Missoula was next up on the radar. Montana is such a massive state (4th in area), and the best way to realize how big, is behind the wheel of a Toyota Corolla.

A few more shots between Missoula and Idaho...









A break in the rain at Dry Creek Rd?





Idaho...and more rain...



My first stop came in Wallace, ID, to fill up the tank. A quaint little town, historic in nature because of it's silver mining past, and more recently, the backdrop for Dante's Peak. What an appropriate stop for this leg of the trip.

I've only driven through Idaho twice, but each time I've passed two large lakes, and lots of beautiful scenery. This time the lake was Couer d'Alene, named for town a few miles from the border of Washington.