SO....after we left the Grand Canyon in Arizona, we headed to the Hoover Dam. It was really a neat place and we toured the power plant and took a lot of photos of the dam from inside and outside. Our timing was a little off though because it was Saturday and there were a lot of other people there as well. One of the most interesting things was the new bridge they are building over the river to keep a lot of the traffive off of the dam. It is really big and it taking several years to complete.
Once you drive or walk across the dam you are in Nevada as the river is a boundary between Arizona and Nevada...on to the Las Vegas we drove. It was much like we expected with signs, people, cars, and buildings everywhere. We both agreed that we probably won't be visiting there again. We did get to see some of a water fountain show though in front of the Bellocio (?spelling on that one), which was super cool.After Vegas it was back to nature with a drive to Death Valley...now this was a cool place. We drove in just as the sun was setting and there were no trees around, just desert. It was beautiful (even though I was car sick from reading all the silly billboards in Vegas)!!! We found a campground and set up camp for the night. Camping there was much different there than in Arizona. It was pretty hot and windy all night...the wind did keep us cool though. We definitely slept on top of the sleeping bags though instead of inside them as we had on previous nights. We drove down to Badwater Basin which is the place with the lowest elevation in the US I think. It is below sea level and there is salt everywhere in the water. The place got it's name because when pioneers tried to cross the desert there and found water...they were excited to have something for their mules to drink. Then termed the place "badwater" when the mules refused it because of all the salt. You can see some of the salt deposits in one of the photos. The drive out of Death Valley was windy and curvy, but still scenic. We even saw some old ruins of houses and a place where they used to mine the salt. There were several places where wagon trains were set up that mules used to pull.
On to Sequoia National Park from there. The landscape there and vegetation on the drive into the park was one of my favorites I think. We drove along side a crystal clear lake and there was green grass and big trees everywhere. We went straight to the campground when we arrived to set up camp for the night. Camping was much cooler there and we were definitely back into our sleeping bags. It was a nice campground called Buckeye Flat (you should check it out if you ever go there) and we camped beside two ladies from Washington. They offered us apple crisp for dessert...it was yummy!! They also had a nice fire, so we sat around for a while and talked. The next morning we took a few short walks around the Park. Guess what we saw? Sequoia Trees!! I bet you didn't guess that...and two bears. There was a momma bear and a cub in a grassy area on the way up a road to Morrca Rock (I think that is how you spell it) and then they were sleeping by a tree on the way back. Very cute I must say...from a distance of course.
After Sequoia, we drove through part of Kings Canyon National Park, but there wasn't much more to see there since we had already seen the trees.We headed on to Yosmite National Park, where we planned to spend a few days. It is supposedly known for all the climbing routes and waterfalls coming down the mountains. It was definitely beautiful driving into the park and seeing all the waterfalls…only problem was that all the campgrounds were full when we arrived. A little piece of advise…reserve your campsites for camping there in advance….so you don’t get frustrated like we did. Fortunately we found a climber’s campground that was super cheap and didn’t require reservations! We decided it was great and set up camp for two nights there. It was great to be in the same place for more than just a night and we were even able to use the showers FOR FREE at another campground. We walked around the park and biked some too….it worked out well because Lady was allowed on most of the biking trails. Make sure to look at those pictures on the shutterfly website…they are some awesome shots of the mountain’s reflections in Mirror Lake. It was fun taking pictures there as the scenery was breathtaking.
On to San Francisco we drove and over several huge suspension bridges….the largest being the Golden Gate of course. We didn’t hang around there too long though because of all the traffic and people…it was a Sunday afternoon so everyone was out and about.
Route 1 on the California coast is beautiful, curvy, windy, narrow, and slow!! We did make it up most of it along the coast though. The view was of the rugged coastline to the left with waves crashing against the rocky shore and green pastures with cattle and horses on the right. That afternoon it was really windy and you could feel the whole truck shaking as we drove so it was a little difficult finding a campsite because all of the sites along the beaches…they were just too windy. We ended up driving inland a little and camped at this State Park up on top of a mountain…..it was nice and quiet there…and there wasn’t any wind!
After another day of driving the coastline, we made it to Redwood National Park just in time to find a nice campsite and watch the sunset…we even saw some Elk on the way in. It was a great campsite and we had our first fire of the trip…on purpose of course. We sat around for a while before heading to our tent for sleep. The next day was my birthday, May 2, so Steven climbed in the back of the truck with all our gear to find my birthday present. I was very excited!! It was a down vest that I love and have worn a lot already. I don’t think I took it off for two days straight after I got on my birthday. It was a nice relaxing morning and we walked around to see some of the Redwood trees and checked out the visitor’s center there. There was this one piece of a tree that was in the visitor’s center that looked like it had elk horns growing out of it…it was actually where an elk was rubbing his horns and got stuck. So you can see his skull from one side…I only mention that because there is a photo in our collection and I think it is one of Steven’s favorite photos from the whole trip…just kidding…but he did think it was cool which is why he had me take a picture of it. So, another birthday gift for me was a nice hot breakfast that we ate in Crescent City right before we headed into Oregon.
The coastline of Oregon wasn’t nearly as windy and curvy, but just as beautiful. We even saw a few lighthouses there and agree that the next time we make the trip, we would just drive inland in California and see the coastline of Oregon instead. After we drove through Portland, which looks like a cool city by the way, we drove by an aviator museum. We stopped and visited for about 4-5 hours admiring all the planes and exhibits. They have the original “Spruce Goose” which is a wooden float plane…the largest one ever built. E-mail Steven and he can tell you all about it if you would like to know more details. We ended up finding another neat campground in OR and we were the only campers there, so that was nice for a night. Then we continued the drive along the Oregon/Washington state line until we crossed over the river (can’t remember the name of it) and made it into Washington. We drove all the way into Wenatchee that day and found one campsite left at a campground in Wenatchee because the apple blossom festival was occurring.
While in Wenatchee, we stayed with some friends, Rick and Vicki Young (just checking to see if you are reading this Rick so you know I mentioned you specifically) for a few days to get some final things completed before heading up to Stehekin on the boat. We did find a truck to buy..I still haven’t taken any photos of it..but they are forth coming, went grocery shopping and set up accounts the boat company and grocery store. It also took a little time to repack all our belongings into the “new” old truck to be sent up on the barge the following Saturday.
So, on Wednesday May 7th, we got on the Lady of Lake II boat heading to Stehekin with a few bags and some groceries….we arrived around lunchtime and our time road trip was over as our new time in Stehekin began.
Hope you enjoy all the pictures. Click the link below to see all 400 pictures from the “road trip.”
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