Day 31: Columbia River Gorge and Monsters University (Oregon, Idaho)

As promised, a fairly uneventful day. We continued our drive from Northern Oregon Eastward along the Columbia River Gorge, a very scenic river/shore area that continues for quite a while. We would have stayed longer if we'd had the time. Some pictures below.

This was an earlier part of the area that we missed but gives
you a better impression of how nice the area is.

As we continued deeper into Oregon, the landscape was not at all what you'd associate with Oregon. In Eastern Oregon, it's full of dry rolling hills, small canyons, and agriculture - not forests.

After driving for most of the day, we re-entered Idaho, this time the Southwestern part of the state. We tried to find a good place to spend the night and settled on a town called Caldwell. 

Sharon researches our route.

After setting up at our campsite, we discovered there was a nearby drive-in movie theater. Sharon even found some Vietnamese food in the town next door.

The drive-in was packed, and Monsters University was playing - it was great, go see it.

Tomorrow our drive continues and the goal is to reach another of my personal must-see destinations - the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah.

Random Fact of the Day: Although drive-in movie theaters aren't as common as they used to be, you'd be surprised at how many are still around. To find one near you, you can go to http://www.drive-ins.com/ or http://www.driveinmovie.com.

Day 30: Hoh Rain Forest and Ruby Beach (Washington, Oregon)

We got up, packed up, and headed into the interior of Olympic National Park. The park has many record setting trees, and we passed one of them, a Sitka tree:

We arrived at the Hoh Rainforest, a signature sight in Olympic National Park. This is the northern-most rain forest in the world and receives 147 inches of rain per year.

The heavy rain means everything is covered in moss. Everything:

We took a short hike through this area, and these were some of the sights: 

It’s a unique forest – it smelled and felt extremely fresh and clean. The trees are dense and seem to hang over you. Just as you would picture a rainforest, actually.

Next we followed the main park road which eventually paralleled the Washington coast for several miles. There are many places to stop and visit the beach, and we decided to do so at Ruby beach, which features many rock pillars and islands. Here’s the one that will be particularly memorable to me:

I thought I’d climb around on it a bit and see if I could reach the top. Well, just a foot or two shy of the top my handhold crumbled and, sure enough, I was free-falling to the rocky base. Mid-fall I remember thinking “uh-oh, this is bad!” I don’t know for sure but I think I fell about 15 feet. I landed on my feet first, then rolled onto my knees, then rolled down some additional rocks over my side, and eventually found myself in a prone position near the sand.

This doesn't capture it very well, but basically
I fell down the length of this.

Soaking in salt water...

In retrospect it was pretty miraculous that I didn’t break any bones, although Sharon exhausted the first aid kit to patch up my hands and knees! Still pretty stiff all over as I write this, but feeling much better than yesterday. 

I did also manage to tear a hole in my favorite jeans. Note to fashion industry: this is the only acceptable explanation for “distressed”-style jeans.

We drove on, and here I should add that today a little a panic set in as we realized how (relatively) little time was left for us to conclude our trip and get back home. As a result, we’re going to need to skip a few sights that were on our original trip plan. I’ll have more thoughts on the overall trip once we get back home, but I can already tell you that we way underestimated the amount of time it would take to travel this far and see as much as we wanted to along the way. 

Our “going home” plan now is to skip Mount St. Helens, Mt. Rainier, Crater Lake, and Northern California on this trip. Instead, we’ll cut Southeast from here toward Boise, Salt Lake City, and then Denver. We hope to explore northern Utah and Colorado some before high-tailing it back home from there.

So, we ended up along the Columbia River Gorge in northern Oregon at a state park overlooking the river. 

Tomorrow will probably be a big driving day, so don’t get too excited.

Random Fact of the Day: In Oregon (and New Jersey) you can't fuel your own gas - all stations are full service.

Day 29: Seattle and the Olympic Peninsula (Washington)

We woke up early and walked around Seattle some more, starting with the fish market. A lot of interesting stores and places in this area.

We both had breakfast, our own way:

Giant cookies!

Chinese chicken dumplings

We took a closer look at the first Starbucks store ever:

We walked toward the space needle, but didn’t go up:

All in all Seattle was an interesting place, and a nice break for us. Sharon wishes she had a market like Seattle’s down our street back home.

Our next destination was the Olympic peninsula, specifically Olympic National Park. Rather than drive South, West, and back North again to reach it, we decided to take one of Washington state’s many car ferries.

The boat was very nice – on the passenger deck you could barely hear the engines and there was a restaurant, great views, and comfortable seating.

The ferry took us from downtown Seattle to Bainbridge Island. From here we drove over a series of bridges to reach the Olympic National Park Visitor Center. The park has an interesting shape – the interior of the peninsula is part of the park, as is the Pacific coast, but there’s a ring between that isn’t.

Map of Olympic National Park.

Driving we saw views like this.

We really started getting the feel of Northwest at this point – we entered an overcast, foggy, and cool environment with rain hanging in the air. All the stories and stereotypes of the region seemed to be confirmed here. 

We drove about 2/3s around the park until we reached a campground near the beach. Here we got our first preview of what Olympic National Park is famous for – tall, dense trees with hanging moss and very green colors. The campground was nestled right inside the forest.

After setting up, we packed some snacks and gear and biked down two miles of the road until we finally reached a major milestone for our trip – the Pacific Ocean. No longer would we be heading West hereon after.

Our first view of the Pacific Ocean.

With giant trees in the forests all around us, the drift wood that washes ashore is enormous.

We walked down the beach to the ”islands” you see below. Along the way:

Eventually the beach gave way to rocks and driftwood and we were climbing our way forward:

We walked over to the island on the right along a narrow sand bank.

Here, colorful starfishes abounded:

We found a spot back on the beach to eat a snack:

I hope you like pictures of beaches at sunset, because here’s a bunch:

Sharon caught her first fish of the trip:

And I couldn’t leave without swimming in the Pacific:

This being pretty far North...

...yes, it was cold.

Time head back:

Back at the campsite we set up a fire and let it burn until we basically fell asleep. Tomorrow’s Preview: I plunge off of a steep vertical rock face...!

Random Fact of the Day:

Normal seaweed:

Northwest U.S.A. seaweed:

This creep stuff was everywhere!