Full Circle

6,000 some miles, four months, and many memories later we are back in Palm Springs. Towing through LA wasn’t too much fun but once we got outside of the city the freeway opened up and perfect 80 degree weather greeted us back to the desert. The condo feels huge and it’s strange to have unlimited water and luxury items like a garbage disposal and dishwasher.

At the beginning of the trip Jaime was unsure of how we would do in such a small space for so long but we ended up learning how little it takes to be happy. I guess it doesn’t hurt that we visited some of the most beautiful places in the world and the Tango was a comfy little home on wheels for us.

Driving down Highway 1

We spent two nights in Mendocino and then headed down the very curvy Highway 1 to Sonoma Coast State Park outside of Bodega Bay. I really don’t mind the curves as we take it slow and enjoy the spectacular scenery. The next day was not as much fun as we had to navigate the maze of freeways through Oakland and the Bay Area. The reward was more awesome weather and incredible vistas as we climbed out of Monterrey to Big Sur.

Jaime tries to get Lucy to pose.

A quick one night stop in Big Sur and we continued on to Morro Bay. We stopped for lunch by a beach with hundreds of elephant seals near Hearst Castle in San Simeon.

California Coast

The magnificent beauty of the redwoods cannot compare with cheesy roadside photo ops. I’m hoping Jaime won’t make us stop at that Dinosaur on I-10 before we get back to Palm Springs next week.

We are currently in Mendocino and will continue down the coast for the remainder of the trip. Great weather. Sunny and in the low 60’s. Enjoying the beach with Lucy.

Oregon Coast

We’ve had great weather driving down the coast. A little windy yesterday but today was perfect.  Staying two nights in Brookings and then back to California.  We’re not looking forward to increased sales taxes and park fees.

Orca Whale and San Juan Sightseeing Tour

We considered taking the ferry over to Victoria, B.C. but opted to do a whale watching tour and stop over at Friday Harbor in the San Juan Islands instead. We hopped on the Puget Sound Express boat Olympic. The weather was changing from sunny to cloudy but the views on the water of Mt. Baker and the Olympics were still great.

About an hour into the trip our captain located a pod of transient Orcas. These whales are constantly on the move and where hunting seals.

According to the captain, the males large dorsal fin was six feet tall.

The sound of the breathing whales on the surface was pretty incredible.

I was lucky to get the below shot as the whale came up to the surface to take a look around.

Port Townsend, WA

We stayed two days in Port Townsend, a very quaint Victorian town on the Puget Sound. Our campsite was located in Fort Worden where they filmed “Officer and a Gentlemen” back in the 80’s. “I don’t see any horns on you boy.”

Olympic National Park

Beaches, rainforests, and glacier filled mountains. Olympic National Park is a truly unique place. We’ve been fortunate to enjoy the park with a rare commodity in the Northwest – sun.

Silver Creek Falls SP, Oregon

We had a nice hike around Silver Creek Falls State Park yesterday. I think I’ve camped here with my parents a long time ago. Looks like a great place to stay. Oregon parks are top notch.

Lucy is going to stay with Jaime’s parents as we head up North to Olympic National Park. She is doing well and got good marks on tests at the vets last week.

Scenic Idaho

From Whitefish, Montana we drove down to North Fork, Idaho and spent three days at the Wagonhammer RV Park on the Salmon River.  A very nice spot but we had to meet friends in Boise in a week so we continued on down to the Sawtooth Mountains for a few days on Redfish Lake.

Two Medicine Campground Glacier NP

I think we found our favorite National Park and campground of the trip. Two Medicine is a remote area of Glacier know to the Crow Indians as the “Backbone of the World”. We had a great private site that backed up to a 9,000 foot mountain and high meadow that was wildlife central. We saw a male grizzly bear, two male black bears, and female black bear with three cubs during our ten day stay.

The hiking was incredible. Probably the highlight for me was a 16 mile hike up to the Pitamakan Pass. The views down to two seperate glacier valleys and high mountain lakes were eye popping gorgeous.

Walking Lucy one night we heard a large rustling in the bushes. A massive rack emerged attached to this large bull moose.

Another wildlife close encounter was the below black bear on the road to Many Glacier.