We keep a running list of places that we want to go together, and this trip was an opportunity to get to some of those places. We intended for the trip to be relaxing, an adventure, and to be an opportunity to check out some towns we were considering as potential final destinations. Don't worry, we're not planning on heading out just yet, nor are we sure of where we'll go or if we'll even leave.
The first two days of our vacation were almost entirely driving. Luckily we'd taken a wise risk at the state fair and bought two lower back support devices for the car. We've tried this before and found that we'd mostly thrown our money away. That was not the case this time! We were almost entirely pain free. I had forgotten how incredibly beautiful Eastern Oregon is. I think it's often thought of as flat and endless, which indeed it is in some places, but we were constantly impressed by then landscape ahead of us.
We made a brief stop at John Day Fossil Beds. It was brief largely because we drove right by it the first time. A heads up for those of you hoping to visit the fossil beds: They are not in John Day. You must turn left as you enter an enormous canyon. We assumed the beds were in John Day, being the John Day fossil beds, and we both missed the sign because while the canyon is beautiful, it takes some concentrated driving efforts to navigate. It's not hard, just the sort of place where you don't want to mess up. We turned back and found the fossil beds. I must say I think we were both disappointed. Not because it was unimpressive, more because we had the wrong impression. It was odd that the fossils were behind glass. We thought it might be more interactive. I also thought that the fossils would be pretty. You know, leaves, pretty little fish bones? No, these were big tortoise shells and enormouse jaws of things long gone. At least it satisfied our curiosity.
We had planned to stay in an Oregon state park that night, but we were feeling adventurous and energetic. It made sense to reduce our driving the second day by driving the first day while we still had energy. That choice also gave us more time in Jasper and the Grand Tetons. It also meant we had to find a new place to camp. Easy right? Um... A few hours from the Oregon border I started researching places to stay just outside of Boise. Mountain Home became our destination. There was an RV park that would take us. Now don't turn up your noses; there's no reason not to stay at an RV park if you're just heading through. Actually, they can be kind of plush with bathrooms and clean showers to boot. We pulled into Mountain Home at about midnight. The kind woman who had answered the phone when I called said we could just pull in next to the pump house and pay in the morning. Excellent! We drove through a charming area of Mountain Home, into a slightly less charming area, and then into an area where shops featured bars over the windows. Hmm. A few blocks later we found RV park, which was actually a trailer park, and a highly sketchy trailer park at that. It's just weird to pull into a neighborhood and set up camp, especially when you feel like you should have your thickest shoes on to prevent being stabbed by used needles. Now, it may not have been that bad, but since neither of us were willing to get out of the car, we figured we shouldn't go to sleep with only a thin layer of nylon separating us from whoever was passing by. Luckily, we had passed a sign for a KOA on our way into town. We turned back, hoping desparately to find refuge in the KOA. Now let me tell you, I am now a huge fan of KOAs. Not only was it clean, they had a night check-in system, coded bathrooms, granite countertops (seriously), mold free showers, and a flat place to pitch our tent. Joe was not as big a fan; in fact he was down right disturbed to be camping with a "K". He wasn't a fan of the park-like feel of the camping area that made it anything but private. He also thought it was weird that there were homes around the actual camp ground. However, when I explained that it really was camping with a "K" and that if what you needed was a safe and clean place to stay in the middle of the night, kamping was just right. I grabbed a KOA map and felt secure in the fact that wherever we went, we'd never be too far from kamping.
We took off the next morning and made our way to Grand Teton National Park. The drive was fairly uneventful, but you should see the speed limits in Idaho! It was also prettier than I remembered it being, though the scenery didn't make my heart sing. Also, google maps let us down. Luckily our own ingenuity pulled us through.
We set up camp and went for a walk around a lake near our campground. It was gorgeous. The sun was setting, the lake was calm, and the mountains were as beautiful as ever. We headed back to camp, had dinner, and conked out. The next day we drove south through the park, stopped at every turn out, took tons of pictures, and ended up at the Jackson Hole tram that goes up the mountain. Beautiful. We spent the rest of the day checking out Jackson and headed to Yellowstone that evening.
Our first order of business in Yellowstone was setting up camp. After only two nights of tent sleeping, I was sporting bruises on my pelvis, despite our luxury version thermarests. No backpacking light stuff for us; we like to be comfortable. However, I wasn't. While Joe checked us in to our second site (the first one was too far away from bathrooms and people for me--I'm not a big fan of bears) I cruised to the Yellowstone general store and bought another set of camping pads. No, I'm not ashamed to admit it. We were both much happier, more comfortable, and less purple. That night we had an amazing dinner of bison, asparagus, garlic mashed potatoes, decadent desserts, amazing appetizers, and good cocktails at the Yellowstone Lake Inn. The sun was setting over the lake, and it was just spectacular.
Both mornings in Yellowstone we got up, drove to the showers (a good distance away) and I got to walk back to Joe making me breakfast. Those walks were pleasant and there's nothing like rounding the corner into your campsite as your husband dishes up eggs. I am spoiled rotten.
I should add here that our first few mornings of camping were frustrating. When you have to unload and load your car every time you eat, change, anything, things get slow and tedious. We had to do this because of bears. In Oregon you just leave your crap out wherever, not so much in Yellowstone. It was also taking us ages to get out of camp and it took us until our last day camping to think, "well duh, let's get some cereal and pour milk over it. We don't have to have a hot breakfast every morning." Yeah, we're smart. I did enjoy those breakfasts though.
Yellowstone was great. We did the majority of the loop that day and saw paint pots, springs, geysers, and all geological features Yellowstone has to offer. We're lucky to have a friend who is a former Yellowstone Ranger and he'd given us a list of must see places. We took almost every turn out and walked and walked and walked. That afternoon we explored Lower Geyser Basin, where Old Faithful is. We had already seen it erupt, and headed up to Observation Point. We were lucky to get there just as it erupted, so we got to see it from a distance and up close. While we were perusing the basin a heard of Buffalo was working out some group conflicts. For the most part, people were keeping their distance. We watched a bit and continued on. When we were headed back on the other side of the loop, we were cautious because the buffalo were right on the other side of the small river. As we strolled along, one of them popped out from behind a tree about 75 yards from us and started a quick stroll along the path toward us. We wasted no time in turning on our heels and walking briskly back where we had come from. It was hard to do because we'd covered some serious mileage that day and were hoping to make it back the short way, but then, we were also hoping to make it back. As we turned we recruited a woman who was gazing across the river to follow us out of harms way. She came along and called to her husband who was a few yards back. He was feeling super human and suggested they stay, so they did. We did not. We talked to each other about how stupid people can be on our way back to the turn back to the parking lot. As we came back along the other side of the river, we looked across to the other pathway to see our friends of limited intelligence on the path between two buffalo. I assume they made it out okay because there wasn't anything in the news. But come on people, use your heads! There's a reason there are signs in all the bathrooms talking about folks getting gored. Is that really how you want to spend your vacation?
The next day we drove out through Lamar valley and saw wolves, prong horns, and more buffalo. But the best was still to come. We drove out the Northeast Entrance and over Bear Tooth Pass. This is one of those you must do it before you die sorts of places. You drive up the mountains on switch backs to just over 10,000 feet and then do the same thing back down to Red Lodge Montana. The views are indescribable and impossible to capture on camera, though I tried. I went through 2 rounds of batteries. Each turn was more beautiful than the last. Near the top you enter Montana. We wanted to get a photo there, so I set the camera on automatic on top of the car and ran to join Joe. We did this three times. Now, when you look at the picture you might wonder why we parked so far away. I did too after 3 sprints near 10,o00 feet. I'd say more about the pass and feel like I should because we both agree it was the best part of the trip, but it was all just feeling and seeing. You must must go.
Red Lodge was fabulous. It was tiny, cute, fun, and had pizza. We set up our camp at a charming RV park and headed into town to indulge in pizza. Indulge we did. I think we both ate an enormous amount. We slept well that night, got up and had cold cereal and headed into town for our morning coffee and tea.
That day we covered the ground in Montana. So, a bit about Montana. Much of my family is from Montana and I've always found that it just feels like home. I don't know why. I never lived there. We also have friends from Montana and pretty much anyone you meet from Montana proclaims it as God's country. Joe had never been, but he needed to check it out to see if it could be on our short list of places to live. That day we made a quick trip to Billings and found it to be a most uninspiring place. The water front is wasted on industry and the landscape is no where near as appealing as other locations in Montana. Granted, it is better than what lies east of Billings. We then checked out Bozeman. We found Bozeman to be charming, but it seemed a bit snooty...okay not a bit, just outright snooty. While we were in Bozeman we had the great opportunity to visit a college friend of mine and her family. Last time I saw Rachel, she was single and headed off to start her PhD. Now she's nearly done, is married, and has a wonderful son. It was so nice to reunite, even just briefly. We left there and headed to Helena to see my Aunt Beck and Uncle Herb.
I love visiting my Aunt Beck and Herb because they are just so relaxed and relaxing. They live in an historic neighborhood with neighbors who all talk to each other. Their front porch has room for chairs and looks out into the neighborhood (the front porch is a lost art and I think it has huge ramifications for community connectivity--but that's another story). It's the perfect place to sit and be after a morning hike up Mt. Helena, which is about 3 blocks from their house, or to drink tea on a cool evening at dusk. They also have a tiny little house at the back of their property with, get this, a bed. We fell into bed that night and slept like only campers can sleep. The next morning we toured the town. We walked downtown, reserved a loaf of fresh baked bread from the bakery, checked out the shops in Last Chance Gulch, and walked around Carroll College's campus. I can't remember the exact order of everything, because it was so relaxing that I didn't have to keep a schedule in mind. While we were there we did hike up Mt. Helena, saw our dear friend Brian, and had lunch at the Windbag, a place that was a brothel up until the 70s. We spent a lot of time just chatting too. We were both sad to leave Helena and it definitely made the short list.
On our way back to Washington, we drove through Missoula. We fully expected to love Missoula, but it was definitely a college town and we'd like to be able to get away from work a bit more than college towns really allow. As we left we realized that we didn't like any of the towns people said we would like, and did like Helena, which everyone told us we would find boring. Well, mystery solved. We're boring people who just want a few good restaurants, a cozy neighborhood, a lot of sun, at least some snow, outdoor opportunities, and a bakery to frequent. Shows, shops and all that are not necessities for us. We like to go to bed at 10. We're boring, but very happy being boring.
We intended to stay in Spokane, but found it to be completely unacceptable. Before we visited it topped our short list. We drove and drove and drove trying to find a place we could live. It just wasn't there. At that point we were tired of traveling and ready to go home, but we still wanted to see Walla Walla. We decided to make the trek all the way home, but to spend a few hours in Walla Walla. We headed south through the Palouse. I'd seen photos of the Palouse and it's beautiful, but driving through gave me an incredibly eerie feeling. The hills are so big and so regular that I could absolutely picture being forever lost. The houses lie in the valleys between the hills. If I lived and farmed there, I would never leave without a GPS (which I have never thought of as a necessity nor owned) even though I have a fairly amazing sense of direction. It made me wonder how people lived there before GPS.
Walla Walla was charming little town and probably deserves more of our attention later on. It seemed very far from anywhere though. Perhaps that was because we reached it through the Palouse. We had a great dinner there at a Mexican restaurant, checked out Whitman's campus, and headed home. I remarked that if I could still be guaranteed to get Joe out of the deal, I would go to Whitman if I had the opportunity to do it again.
It was a long drive home, but we made it. We unloaded the car at 3am went to bed at 4am and woke up without any unpacking to do!
The trip really was wonderful. We learned things about ourselves, each other, how we like to camp, and where we might like to live. Perhaps the most surprising result of the trip is my new desire for a travel trailer of some sort. I don't want anything big, but if we're going to be camping with bears, I'd just as soon have something hard sided to keep from having to do lots of loading and unloading. Besides then you can just pick up and leave anytime you want. The tent served us well though, and we came back rested and happy.
