Seattle

Road Trip redux

Days (14)
Miles (3729)
States (WA, ID, MT, WY, CO, UT, OR)

Seattle WA
- St. Regis MT
- West Yellowstone MT (2)
- Rock Springs WY
- Estes Park CO (3)
- Dillon CO (2)
- Buena Vista CO
- Moab UT
- Twin Falls ID
- Kennewick WA
Seattle WA

Camped (8 nights)
Hotels (5 nights)
Raft Trips
-- Brown's Canyon on the Arkansas River
Mountain Bike
-- Breckenridge
Hike
-- Emerald Lake above Estes Park
Minigolf (numerous)
Showers (every night)
Dairy Queen (frequently)
Lattes (almost every day)
Most miles in a day (545)
-- Moab to Twin Falls
Serious car problems (none!)
Thunderstorms (never enough)
-- Yellowstone Lake on evening of July 4th
-- Between Pinedale and Rock Springs, in distance
-- Estes Park
-- During raft trip
Hottest point (100+)
-- Grand Junction or Salt Lake City?
Wildlife
-- bison, pronghorn, deer, wolves
-- elk, raptors, moose, jackrabbits
-- road kill, bugs, tourist pets
Mosquitos (few)
-- most on first night
Maximum speed (81 mph)

Dead Horse Point

I persuaded D & M to get out of their sleeping bags so we could get out to the Canyon while the light was still relatively low, the temperature not too hot, and the tourists not too thick. It was a bit overcast, but spectacular as ever. Kept waiting for Thelma and Louise to cruise past...

But this is not the trip nor the season to linger here, and so we went back to town, packed up the tent and bought ice, and headed for Seattle.

Moab

Beautiful early evening drive along the Colorado above Moab, followed by a late dinner at ZAKs in town and another RV Park. Nice showers and a covered parking space for the tent! Glad the adjacent space wasn't taken. Noisy - highway traffic and late night french tourists.

Sawatch Range

We turned off the TV, decided against the bike ride down from Vail Pass (maybe next trip?), and made reservations for Brown's Canyon that afternoon. The raft trip down the Arkansas was great. The river was pretty warm, but the rain was cold and we shivered a bit. Typical - our family complains about the heat all the time, and then the one time we want it hot, it isn't.

We camped at the Buena Vista KOA - which was actually one of our nicest camp spots of the trip - great views of Mount Princeton across the valley. Then up and over Independence Pass and a couple hours walking through Aspen, a round of minigolf at Glenwood Springs (we decided against the giant hot springs pool), and off for the western desert.

Breckenridge

We left Jellystone and drove down to Boulder (our farthest point from Seattle and probably the place on the trip most similar to Wallingford politically), where we stopped at REI for me to find a better camping pillow. I dragged M&D up past Rollinsville to the East Portal of the Moffett Tunnel, then we drove through Central City (ice cream and t-shirts have given way to a gambling Disneyland over the past 20 years). Crossed under the continental divide on I-70 (was this our 8th or 10th crossing of the divide so far this trip?) and found a Comfort Suites at the bottom of the hill in Dillon (Jellystone had exhausted my patience with RV Park camping, but showers sounded good and D had gone many days without cable).

We tried out some restaurants in Frisco and spent a good part of a day at Breckenridge. M went into town while D and rented bikes and rode down the mountain. We all did the alpine slides and the minigolf.

Jellystone Park

We had headed to Rocky Mountain Park on the Friday evening after the 4th, without reservations. So somewhere between Walden and Granby, M pulled out the AAA book and the cell phone and started calling. Most places were full, but one campground outside of Estes Park had a space. Hey, hey, hey!

Estes Park

We spent two days in Estes Park, mixing it up a bit. Minigolf, pizza, bumper boats, and yes, we even went hiking up above Bear Lake. We hung out a couple of times at Kind Coffee, where D and M played cards while I drank coffee and uploaded photos.

The coffee place is located at the lower edge of town, about where the police had closed off the road on that wet night back in late July, 1976, when the Big Thompson canyon washed out. When I hitched up the canyon late that afternoon, the dark clouds had been impressive, but the rain hadn't started yet. I spent hours that evening walking through hard rain and constant lightning back and forth from town to the park entrance, trying to find a dry place to hide. I still have a copy of the next day's Rocky Mountain News.

Trail Ridge Road

We headed over Trail Ridge Road late Friday afternoon and then dropped into Estes Park, which looked as it always does - crowded.

D complained about getting out of the car, but once he did, jogged up the stairs to 12,000 feet.

Wyoming

Rock Springs is conveniently located on America's main drag. The Bay Bridge is 1000 miles to the west; the George Washington Bridge is 2000 miles to the east. We drove in the direction of Yankee Stadium for 150 miles or so before turning south and heading for Colorado. Cattle, antelope, and snow fences.

Pinedale

Originally, I had hoped to stay in Pinedale, but it turned out that the evening drive south to Rock Springs was even better.

I was playing Sawmill Creek's Willow on my iPod as we drove into town - "she settled on a small place somewhere down near Pinedale, in the Wind River Mountains, she lived wild and free" - a song I first heard while on a rig site in South Dakota in 1982 and which I chased down in Boulder a few months later.

The sun was setting off to the northwest. A bright northeastern sky sillouhetted the whole Wind River range, from north of Gannett Peak all the way south to where they taper out near South Pass. Fremont Peak was prominent. I went to the top during my month-long sojourn in the Winds during the summer of 1981. I told D I wanted to go back and show him the place someday.

A big electrical storm filled the sky to the southwest and there was lightning all the way to Rock Springs. Active oil rigs on the Pinedale Anticline were lit up against the darkening western hills. An occasional jack rabbit dashed across our bright beams. It was completely dark by the time we dropped down the hill into Rock Springs and onto Interstate 80.

Some rides are better than others. This was one of the best. An "E" Ticket with an emotional punch.

Tetons

We wrote off the notion of finding any camping in the Tetons but enjoyed the drive through and had dinner in Jackson, before leaving for the real Wyoming.

Old Faithful

We just missed Old Faithful Wednesday evening (though the sunset was great) but came back through the next day on our way south out of the park.

Yellowstone

We spent July 4th doing the Yellowstone tourist circuit, not getting back to the campsite until the parade was over (the West Yellowstone fireworks had been cancelled due to the fire risk). We substituted lightning and rainbows over Yellowstone Lake and a beautiful sunset from Old Faithful, figuring we'll get our share of fireworks in Vancouver in a few weeks.

Montana

On the road again. Left Seattle concerned about hot weather, a crowded July 4th weekend, and the need to keep a teenager's desire for daily showers satisfied. As it was, temperatures remained pleasant and we got to a commercial campground in St. Regis at a reasonable hour (a bit too close to the highway). We left I-90 in Missoula, despite some half-serious joking about driving all the way to Boston (and back, in two weeks?). We skipped the Big Hole battlefield (my interest in western history isn't shared quite so enthusiastically by the others in our covered wagon), but that left time for ice cream stops and allowed us to still lay claim to a small patch of grass in a commercial RV Park in West Yellowstone by the second evening.

Seaside

Saturday morning, I checked out of my Fort Walton Beach hotel at daybreak, figuring if I wanted to see Seaside and still make it back to New Orleans to catch my 3PM flight, I better move fast. I had never heard of Destin until a few years ago, although apparently everyone else had. Fishing charters filled up the channel and skyscrapers filled up the beaches. But what I really wanted to see were the much touted new-urbanist villages farther east. Which were downright cute - once the ad revenue starts coming in on my blogs, I suspect I may have to buy a place down here. It helps that the weather has been very pleasant - not as hot and much less muggy than earlier in the week.

Seaside was a very pleasant place to wade in the Gulf, wander around the town (more pictures, more commentary), and start to wonder if I had actually left enough time to drive the 300 miles back to New Orleans before my plane left. I made it - returned the car and arrived at the airport exactly one hour before the flight. 900 miles, more than 500 pictures, probably 40 road ends and beach accesses, and about 48 hours. $58 car rental (plus two tanks of gas). Not bad.