National Parks visited: Five Crater Lake NP in Oregon Redwood NP in California North Cascade NP in Washington Mount Rainier NP in Washington Olympic NP in Washington
12-Day Northwest U.S. Road Trip
In September, we made a spectacular road trip exploring the Pacific Northwest of the US, best known for its beautiful coastline, green mountains, and rainy weather. Yes, it does rain up here…J. We started our road trip in Portland, OR and ended the trip in Olympia, WA. In 12 days. We explored the North Pacific coastline. We traveled the historic Columbia River Gorge highway. We drove along the twisting and turning of the old Hwy 101, oohing and aahing among us while admiring the tallest trees on earth in the Redwood National Park. We drove thru the smoke-filled highway to Crater Lake, the clearest, bluest lake in the world. Along the way, we visited five National Parks and checking out the Portland, The City of Rose; Seattle and its famous Pike Place Market; San Juan, a quaint little island on the North Pacific coast.
It was a thrilling road trip!
Our road trip started in Portland, OR. After a quick visit to the city and the Rose garden, we drove the Historic Columbia River Highway meanders the Columbia River Gorge. It was a smoky drive along the way due to the big fire in the area, you may have heard due to some teenager playing with fireworks. We had to cut short our plan of visiting the Bonneville Dam & Locks on our last stop, but we got to see the beautiful Multnomah Falls along with thousands of other tourists. The place was jammed with tourists, we could not find a parking space and had to squeeze and park our car along the fence on the highway. We were afraid that we were the only one on the road due to the fire, but in contrary, people perhaps have the same thought as we were. One just can’t control the weather but surely can control the attitude and the excitement of seeing this Oregon’s jewel…What a scenic drive!
We couldn’t go on to the Dam, so we decided to drive west to Cannon Beach, west of Portland on the Oregon coast to see the Haystack Rock, one of Oregon’s most recognizable landmarks. It rises 200+ feet above sea level, and they said at low tide, you can walk right up to it.
From Portland, we traveled south to Roseburg as a rest stop for our next-day exploration of Crater Lake National Park. Indeed it was the bluest blue color lake anywhere on earth. As a matter of fact, they use this lake as a standard to measure the level of water purity for the rest of lakes in the world. We saw a few cars in the park that looks like they’ve been traveling thru fire with their cars covered with white color ashes.
It was a relaxing day to see the lake, gorgeous drive. We had hoped the smoke is clear so we can see it. We were lucky. By the time we got to the lake, one of the "Seven Wonders of Oregon,” the smoke was clear. It was amazing blue. This is the deepest lake in the United States. Mount Mazama was violently erupted then triggering the collapse of a towering volcano thus the lake was created fed by rain and snow.
From Roseburg, we drove south to Crescent City, hoped for a calm sea for the night. They say Crescent City's offshore geography makes it unusually susceptible to Tsunamis. As recently as in 2011, the city's harbor suffered extensive damage due to tsunamis generated by the earthquake in Japan. We stayed by the harbor…L
The next morning using Crescent City as our hub, we explored The Redwood National Park in Northern California, home of tallest trees on earth. We then drove to the Redwood National Park Visitor Center for a visit along Hwy 101 with a gorgeous view of giant redwood trees. We walked a couple short trails among these giants for a couple hours before heading back to Crescent City.
We had bought some lunch earlier in the day and had a picnic at the state park on the old 101 highway. We stopped by the Elks Meadow for viewing a herd of elks. They seem to be domesticated. They have no fear of mingling with people running around taking pictures, cars slowly passed by.
In the afternoon, we went to see the ornate Carson Mansion in Eureka. Here you can see picture-perfect Victorian architecture, former home of a lumber baron in this area.
After a wonderful visit to the Redwood area, we swung north to Salem, OR. It’s a driving day with a spectacular view of the Northwest coastline, in the rain of course. Mountains shrouded with a cloud in the misty rain made it such a serene feeling.
In the evening, we paid a visit to the capital of Oregon. Nice buildings, with rows of cherry trees on both sides of the mall.
The next day, from Salem, we drove to Mt. St Helen where it violently erupted in 1980. We watched the awesome movie about the event and in the end, when the curtain was raised, there she is Mt. St Helen with her top blew off. It was quite an awesome experience. We witnessed the rebirth of Mt. St. Helen with young pine tree forest re-grows in the distance, wildflowers on the ground growing around the old tree stumps that were blasted off by the force of the volcano. We spent the night in Seattle checking out the little Vietnamese section called Little Saigon. It’s small and not quite as progressive as in some other Vietnamese town that we’ve been to.
The next day, we spent our relaxing day by wandering around Seattle where big companies such as Boeing, Microsoft, Amazon, Starbuck, Costco …etc supply this city with employment opportunities. We did what a typical tourist does, went to see the Space Needle, the icon of Seattle; The Pike Place Market, Seattle's original farmers market that was jammed pack with tourists. Now a day, you can sample all kinds of foreign foods at this market, watching fish-sellers throwing big salmon around just to get your attention, a busker playing music on the street while you pick the most beautiful looking bouquet of flowers for your girlfriend. We had lunch at one of the Greek restaurants at The Pike Place Market with a great view of the waterfront.
In the afternoon we took the ferry to Bainbridge. It’s only a 20-min. ferry-ride, but it offers quite a slower pace than Seattle, besides it was a nice, cool, breezy ferry ride. Of course, when you talk about Seattle, perhaps the first thing that comes to your mind is its famous Starbuck coffee. Starbuck made its humble start back in the seventies. Today, at every street corner there is either Starbuck or some other coffee shops peddling coffee. It seems like everyone tries to have a small piece of that pie, so we took a little adventurous approach by checking out a coffee outlet called Cowgirl Espresso. The coffee is served by a skimpily dressed barrister in a drive-in booth. My guess is that for every business in order to have a leg up (figuratively)…heheh, you have to be inventive. Well, the coffee was actually very good though.
The following day, we went to Boeing manufacturing plant to have a glimpse of how Boeing planes are assembled. Sort of, since no camera, purse, cell phone, backpack are allowed during the tour.
We had lunch in Everett then drove up to the North Cascades National Park with mountains, glaciers, and lakes. Along the way, we saw blueberry farms, corn fields…etc. quite a nice relaxing drive.
We rested the night in Mt. Vernon since it’s close to Anacortes, where we will pick up a ferry to San Juan Island on the next day. Once on the island, we took a two-hour bus tour around the island with a lunch stop in Roche Harbor. It’s a peaceful island in September. I’ve heard that it’s quite a busy place in the summer months. We headed back to Seattle afterward.
The next day, we made a short trip from Seattle to Mt. Rainier. There were a few National Guard soldiers manning the closed highway due to fire in the area so we had to make a few detours. We finally made it to Paradise Visitor Center in a perfect weather surprisingly. It was quite a spectacular view of this glacier covered, active volcano Mt. Rainier. We saw people with back-pack packed with glacier hiking equipment, perhaps, they just returned from the hiking. I can picture that on a clear sunny day like today, it would be an awesome exercise.
After a day in Mt. Rainier National Park, we drove a short distance to Olympia, capital of Washington, to spend the night. We had a chance to visit a Thien Vien (Zen Monastery) belong to our friend’s brother. It’s quite a peaceful place with Gazebos spread-out throughout the property and a coy pond in the middle of a wooded area, surrounding the pond with bonsai trees. You hardly hear any traffic noise from the main road even though the main road is not that far away. It’s a nice tranquil little place.
The next day we visited the capital building in Olympia, then headed on to the Olympic National Park on Washington's Olympic Peninsula. From the dramatic peaks of the Olympic Mountains to the old-growth forests we were in awe. It was quite a long drive to Port Angeles. Had lunch there then drove up to Hurricane Ridge Visitor Center. The center offers an awesome view of the mountain range. There are a few little towns around the peninsula on Hwy101. So if you ever wonder if you can find snacks, or things to eat, no worry, there are plenty. One can easily spend a couple days here at the park, fishing, hiking etc.
What a wonderful 2,500 miles road trip, sharing the roads with others that came to this beautiful Northwest area with the same excitement. We met a group of people from Ohio, helping us take our group picture. We met a tall friendly German girl, traveling solo; she’s from the Bavaria region. We noticed a big van at Mt. Rainier Parking lot, with a hand-written sign on the car window…”2007 road trip out West - Here we go” with Pennsylvania’s license plate. We met a family on the ferry to San Juan Island; they are from Orlando, Florida, chit-chatting with us, wondering if their house is still standing or if any of the trees landed in their backyard due to hurricane Irma. The ranger at the entrance station to Olympic National Park said she saw quite a few Texans coming up this way.
You see, that’s what the road trip is all about, sharing the road with nice, total strangers that have the same common purpose.
As Mark Twain once said: “Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all of one’s lifetime.”