Wrapping Up

Following our last post, we spent a half day in the Grand Teton National Park, and the other half in Yellowstone. At Grand Teton, we tried to see moose by choosing a trail called "Moose Ponds." We saw several tracks and droppings there, but no moose. This trail, as well as one we tried earlier, ended up being flooded for a large portion. Ashley's socks and shoes got soaked from walking through these, but Katie was lucky and had waterproof hiking shoes. At Yellowstone, we checked out Lake Country and did a short hike.

 The trail we first tried, but didn't complete because it was flooded.

The mountains at Grand Teton

We then began our drive home, driving through Bighorn National Forest on the way. Strangely enough, we found our moose on this drive! We saw two moose grazing on the side of the road, which finished off our list of different types of animals seen on the trip. The next day, we stopped by Devil's Tower, stopped to see a friend in Rapid City, and made quick stops at Carhenge and Chimney Rock. This was a very long day, but it allowed us to make it all the way home the following day.

Our moose sighting!

Devil's Tower

Carhenge

Chimney Rock

Our total trip lasted 27 days, and we drove 7538 miles and visited 9 national parks and countless national forests! We were a bit too early at some of the national parks (Crater Lake, Glacier, Yellowstone, Grand Teton), and they were still clearing out the snow or had flooding trails. We may have been a bit too late for our visit at the Grand Canyon, as it was really hot there. We went the perfect time for Zion, Yosemite, and the Redwood Forest though. If you want to see the waterfalls at the best, go to Yosemite in late spring. The chains weren't up to go all the way to the top of Half Dome yet, but the waterfalls were amazing. Also, if you go that early, make sure you bring rain jackets, because there is sure to be a VERY heavy mist!

Thanks to all our fans, it's been fun!

Yellowstone

Thanks for all the great comments. We will try to add more detail, but not bore you :)

Today we explored Yellowstone. It is split up into 5 countries: geyser, hot springs, canyon, Roosevelt, and lake. Unfortunately, it rained all day, so we had to do a condensed version with short hikes. We were able to see three of the countries. We started at Mammoth Hot Springs in the northern part of the park. Sadly, a lot of the hot springs were dry, but there were still some very cool ones. We wanted to touch them...but realized it would be a bad idea!

One view of some hot springs

Check out the crazy step-like formations the springs made

A pretty hot spring, don't you want to jump in?

Next, we headed to canyon country. We were planning on skipping this part of the park because of our short stay there. However, the park ranger really pushed it because the waterfalls are amazing this time of year. We did the Uncle Tom's hike which is 328 metal stairs down into the canyon. It ended with great views of the Lower Falls and the canyon.

The Lower Falls

 View of the canyon from our hike

 Part of the trail we took

Finally, we drove to geyser country and saw Old Faithful erupt. We also took a quick look around the rest of the basin and saw numerous other geysers starting to burst.

Old Faithful

Along the way, we were fortunate enough to see a lot of wildlife. This included herds of bison and elk. The weirdest sight? A bison strolling along the street as if out for a walk.

Some bison that were grazing close to the road

CANADA!!

Yesterday, we finished up our Glacier tour with a couple more waterfall hikes and a look at the Sunrift Gorge. We also stopped by the Many Glacier entrance and saw lots of mountain goats and bighorn sheep.

Sunrift Gorge

St. Mary waterfalls

View of St. Mary lake and the mountains

Even with all of this excitement, we finished around 4pm and were only 15 miles from the border. So we decided to head to Canada for dinner. This was not quite as easy as we hoped. Apparently, it is strange for two young American women to want to go into Canada only for dinner. When we stopped at the Canada border, we told our story, expecting him to let us through. Instead, he asked us to get out of the car and go upstairs to talk to another officer. After more questions from a very grumpy Canadian official, he did a background check on us! We must look like drug dealers... Finally, we were let into the country, and Katie got a stamp commemorating her first trip out of the U.S.

CANADA sign

On the way out, we figured we would have no trouble. We are U.S. citizens after all. However, once again we were wrong. This time the US border guard asked us to hang on for a second after hearing our story, left his booth, then returned to tell us to park the car and follow him. We were ushered into a glass room with a screen wall between us and the border patrol, asked to empty our pockets and then bombarded with questions. This officer was a little friendlier though and after 10 minutes we were freed.

Today, we decided to detour on our way to Yellowstone to see a ghost town. Our first choice was Copperopolis, however, we discovered that nothing was left of this town but a water tower showing where it once stood. Disappointed, we decided to continue onto another, Castle Town. Once again, this was a disappointment because it was on private property, so we were not able to leave the road to get a good look at the old, crumbling buildings.

Part of Castle Town

Trying to get back to real civilization was quite the chore as well. Our GPS decided it was a good idea to take us through a national forest. The road was terrible and we almost got stuck in the mud. We did discover that the best place to see wildlife is in a national forest, on a road that no one drives. We saw a young Grizzly bear along with numerous elk and deer.

The Grizzly that ran across the road in front of us

To follow up our shout-out to Jake, we want to thank all of our wonderful fans. You guys are truly great!!! However, some comments would be nice so that we know this is actually being read (we spend a lot of time writing and uploading pictures). :)

More BEAR encounters

Today, we saw two more bears, and this time they were both very large. We found them at the end of one of our hikes at Glacier National Park, a safe distance away from us (up on some cliffs across the lake from us). We did two hikes at the park today, with a total of about 8 miles hiked. Unfortunately, the whole road through the park is not cleared off yet, so we could only drive 16 miles in and then had to turn around. We also got rained on throughout the day, and are getting very sick of the constant precipitation. After we left the park, we went to a place with mineral rocks to look for some mountain goats since they travel there every spring to lick the rocks for salt content. We found just one mom and baby goat there, and they were really far away, but we at least saw our first mountain goats!

Here is a shout out to our biggest fan, Jake Miller. Thanks for being such a great blog follower :) We added these pictures just for you.

McDonald Creek in Glacier National Park (1st hike)

Avalanche Gorge in Glacier National Park (2nd hike)

A deer we came within 10 feet of on our hike

A little bit of everything

Since our last post, we have been in four different states (Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana). We first went to Crater Lake National Park, which was formed when a mountain caved in following a volcanic eruption. We planned to spend a day there hiking, but all of the trails were closed and only some of the roads were open due to several feet of snow. The area gets 500 inches of snowfall each year, and it takes park workers 4 months to clear the snow from all of the roads. Unable to hike, we drove to the parts of the rim we could make it to, and took a few pictures before continuing on our way.

 A pretty view of Crater Lake and Wizard Island

 Us in front of Crater Lake

We then spent a little over a day with some of Katie's relatives in Oregon. There were no big activities these days, we just enjoyed ourselves and relaxed a bit. After that, we continued on to Seattle, while making some minor stops along the way. We went to an Iris farm, and saw their 10 acre field of Iris, as well as their two large display gardens. We also stopped to see the world's largest egg, and a giant coffee pot building. We tried to stop at the Portland Rose Festival, but it seemed to be like a fair rather than a rose display, and we didn't want to pay for admission to buy food or anything else in there.

 The WORLD'S LARGEST EGG!!

The giant coffee pot

Iris gardens

When we got to Seattle, we went downtown to check out the fish market, but it was closing up right as we got there, so we didn't get to see too much. We also visited the pier and Ye Olde Curiosity Shop while there. We stayed with yet another Raikes alumnus (our 5th for the trip!) while visiting the area.

 Katie at the fish market

After that, we continued on to Idaho, and drove on some scenic routes near Coeur d'Alene. We saw a nest of bald eagles, and a lot of cool scenery there. We are now in Montana, our third state of the day!

 A view of the Coeur d'Alene lake

Redwood/Wildlife Park

Today we did a short coastal hike in the northern area of Redwood National Park. It was gorgeous with the rocky beach and pelicans diving for food.

View of the coast

Lighthouse off the coast of CA

Then, we headed north into Oregon. We stopped for some seafood along the coast and discovered there that Oregon has no sales tax. Another wierd fact, there are only full service gas stations. Next, we continued inland to a wildlife park. This park was AMAZING! We held baby lions and pet deer, donkeys, goats, rams and skunks.

Ashley with the skunk

Us with the baby lions

More baby lions!

Feeding a deer

San Fran/Redwoods

We have done and seen a variety of things since our last post. First, we finished up our stay at Yosemite by hiking to Mirror Lake, Yosemite Falls, and Bridalveil Falls. When the trail map states "possible heavy spray" from the water falls, what they really mean is expect a cold shower!

Mirror Lake

Bridalveil fall (with heavy spray)

We then drove to San Jose that afternoon, where we stayed with two Raikes alums. We got a tour of Japantown, bought some sweet Japanese souvenirs (snacks), and ate at a Thai restaurant for dinner.

After that, we spent a day sightseeing in San Francisco. We started at Fisherman's Wharf and Pier 39, and discovered that the sea lions have returned to the pier this year. We then went to Chinatown, bought some souvenirs, and Bing Cherries for the low price of 79 cents a pound! Next, we ate lunch at an In-n-out burger, checked out the Palace of Fine Arts, and drove over the Golden Gate bridge. After our quick SF tour, we started up the coast on the Pacific Coast highway.  It had amazing views, but the winding road and fog made it hard to see, so we had to change roads before dark. On our way back inland, we drove through "wine country" and saw tons of vineyards, all advertising tasting rooms ;) However, they were closed for the night.

Chinatown!

An old trolley in San Fran

Today, we continued driving towards the Redwood Forest. Along the way we found a HUGE redwood tree and drove through it! Also, we made a quick pit-stop at a beach. Ashley got her feet wet there and has now officially been in the Pacific Ocean. (We have proof!) We got to the Redwood Forest in the afternoon, and did about three miles worth of hiking. We felt as though we had been transported into an Amazon rain forest, except the trees were evergreens. Everywhere you looked was green between the ferns, trees and GIANT clover. On our way to the northern part of the park, we found a monstrous statue of Paul Bunyan and his sidekick Babe the Blue Ox. Of course we took pictures.

Ashley's first time in the Pacific Ocean

The giant Paul Bunyan and Babe statues

Big Tree in Redwood National Park

Check out all the ferns and green plants (on a hike in Redwood NP)