23 August 2014
Next installment time! And today I find myself in Kalispell, Montana. I can’t believe it’s been almost a week since my last post. Seems like a while back. Lot of things happened in the past week, and I have met and continued to get to know new people from all over. I love the anonymity that this trip has given me too. It has been nice.
So I woke up from Coos Bay Oregon with a planned drive up the coast of Oregon and then across to the East. Weather proved interesting for the day, as it was constantly overcasted. I had the top down on the car a lot but occasional rain made me put it up. The Oregon coast is as beautiful and as quaint as I had always heard. The scenic road up the coast lends itself to many some little towns but gorgeous views. As I was driving through a region of sand dunes, and a park for it, I figured why not stop and go for a buggy ride on some of the great sand dunes there. What an AWESOME time that was. This was a 4 seater buggy, and we were all over those dunes! Things just seemed to work out, and instead of the hour long wait I was told I would be waiting for, the drivers grabbed me and through me with another group and off we went. If you have never taken a buggy that fast across sand dunes, you are missing out. Yeah I had sand all over but whatever, it was an awesome 30 minutes. After that I hit the road again, and up the coast I went with the goal of getting to Cannon Beach, OR by sunset! That I did, and I shot some beautiful shots that night as well. I also made sure I put the camera down, and just took it all in as well. For those who don’t know Cannon Beach is the popular beach you see with a huge rock on it! Now a lot of the Oregon coast is like that but this was pretty cool just for the fact that it is popular. It ended up being less crowded then I imagined so it was a peaceful evening. After that I tried to find a hotel nearby, but the closest was up the road about 30-40 min, so off I went to Seaside, OR for the night.
The next morning I woke up with the intent of seeing Multnomah Falls, and Mount Hood, and then pressing across Oregon as far as I could to Boise. Like everything else on this trip it hasn’t gone as planned so oh well. I got to Multnomah Falls, and WOW was that as scenic as the pictures show. At first I only planned for about 30 minutes there taking in the sights and going up to the bridge, until I found out you could hike all the way to the top. So after 1.5 miles and 800 feet, I reached the top. Awesome view but couldn’t see OVER the falls like I thought. As some of you have seen the picture though, I will do whatever it takes to get the right shot, so attached my camera to the end of my tripod and held it as far as I could. Got a decent shot, but Ill see more when I get the time to look through the images a bit more. I ten hiked around up top in the many little falls that lead to the big one and had a blast looking around. Then the hike down and more pictures, made this later then I was expecting. Oh well, off to Mount Hood I went. I had been told you could get to the base camp for Mount Hood so I put it into my GPS. It led me astray and I couldn’t find a decent view of the mountain, so I pulled over and asked a couple who seemed to about to goto dinner. They recommended the view on the other side of the mountain at the Timberline lodge. Name sound familiar? This is where the Shining with Jack Nicholson was filmed. So off I went to the other side of the mountain. What a beautiful resort and apparently a National monument too. Shot some beautiful shots there, and since it was approaching sunset, I decided to just eat there and make my way down to a hotel somewhere. Curiosity got me tho, and I asked the front desk how much a room would go for. That night…. Apparently about the same as a hotel on the road, that would have taken me over an hour to get to and find, so I decided ehh why not, I’ll stay in this creepy National monument of a hotel. Got to my room, and bunk beds it was! Not bad, but I did hit my head a few times. At least I had my own room and no little kids screaming Red-Rum were going around the hotel. After dinner though I took the opportunity since I had what would be my darkest sky so far to try my hand at some Milky Way photography! Nailed it, and coming out of the mountain too! I’ll post those later as well. After that off to bed for the long drive to Boise.
The next day I woke up and off to Boise I went. This drive took me a good portion of the day so not much exciting, and not many pictures. Just got another state in Idaho. On the drive I did get a call from work though, telling me I need to sign something electronically ASAP. This was the first time work had called me since I started this journey. Unfortunate, but brought me back a little out of the dream world, ha. I planned to make a stop at the nearest base the next day to take care of that.
Woke up in Boise bright and early for an ambitious day today. Ran south to a base to take care of the work first, and then another few hour drive to Twin Falls, ID. What a cool city. This came on a friends suggestions and Im so thankful she recommended it. I saw 2 sets of waterfalls here and the only legal bridge in the US to BASE jump off of. Trust me I wanted to go. The 2nd time I drove across the bridge I saw a guy with a rig on, but before I had time to park and get the camera, he was off. Jealous!! From here I drove to Crater of the Moon National Park in the middle of state. So this is a volcanic area in the middle of nowhere. Very cool to find yourself in a volcanic field in the middle of Idaho. No Lava for many of years, but all the remnants of flows and such. Even got to go caving a little here in one of the flow areas. Very cool, and met some great Europeans that were just touring around as well. Time was tight so I pressed on to Idaho Falls. This cute city has some amazing waterfalls in the heart of the city! Combination of Rock and manmade structure made this very unique, and the fact that it had been raining there a lot on the past few hours, made the flow pretty great over the falls, and god for some pictures. But I needed to get to Jackson, WY by the night so off I went again and after the mountain passes and some narrow roads, I made it to Jackson, WY at the base of the grand Teton National Park.
So the Tetons have been the sight I wanted to see the most of this entire trip! I have always wanted to see these mountains since I marveled at it in pictures in middle school. They just looked so powerful to me. This morning I woke to rain and clouds with a ceiling of only a few hundred feet. Not a good way to see majestic mountains. On the suggestion of a local info center I decided to go north to Yellowstone instead, since most of that was ground based. It was already a little later in the morning, but off I went anyway. As I passed through the Tetons sure enough visibility was bad and I could only see the bases of the great mountains so I pressed through the park as the rain continued to come down. As I was driving, I saw a hitchhiker that looked pretty young to me… ehh why not, it’s raining! A lot of people have expressed their feelings on this, but I picked him up. It was an 18 yr old kid, that just seemed like he was trying to find himself. Not sure if he ran away or not, as he was pretty good at keeping that and making up a story so I let it go. For the next 2 hours I drove north with him, and we stopped at a few sights, took them in and kept driving. Energetic kid that after a while was just bouncy! Haha So I told him him in a few miles was the end of the road. I dropped him off near a restaurant, and I gave him some snacks and water I had and bid him adieu. People are inherently good, and this was a kid. Do I encourage everyone to pick up a hitchhiker on the side of the road, no, but most of the time you can trust your gut, and my gut was right on this one thankfully. In the end it wasn’t really a big deal to me and I helped a guy out get just a little further down the road to his goal of Canada…. Without a passport by the way. I educated him that he would need one, and he thought he could just pick it up somewhere. Unfortunately not bud, so you may wantta revise your plan before you get there. With that said I toured around Yellowstone the rest of the day and saw some amazingly beautiful sites as the rains cleared up temporarily and the sun came out. From huge canyons, to powerfall waterfalls, to sights that would take your breadth away, and numerous animals, although not nearly as many as I expected. One place I saw a line a MILE long of cars, and was wondering what people were looking at. Turns out just 2 bears in a field and almost 100 yards to the closest person. It was a circus of people for these 2 bears. I decided not to contribute and just drive by and catch a glimpse. Off to the rest of the sites. Since I was in Yellostone I gotta see Old Faithful right? The eruption is every 90 minutes approximately, and when I found Old F the next eruption was around 908pm. So I grabbed some soup at the resort and waited till eruption time after sunset. Glad I know how to use my camera, and I got some decent shots. I got in my car as the rain started coming down and put my hotel in the GPS. 90 miles away! Uh oh! Little further then I thought! Long drive in the rain through both parks and finally got home close to midnight.
The next morning up for another try at the Tetons. Still raining and overcasted but a little higher ceiling. I decided this may be the closest city I am in for a while, so I needed to get my oil changed. Wouldn’t you know it, of course the battery died at the shop. Go figure right? I had suspected the battery had issues the previous 2 days, but I was trying to ignore it. When they couldn’t start it, I accepted it, because I kinda saw it coming, not just a shop trying to take advantage of a traveler. Another big expense, but oh well, very necessary. After some lunch in town I went off to the range as the rain slowed. Steadily improved. I was also told I would need to go see Inspiration Point on Jenny Lake. So off I went. I got to the information center on the lake and asked about the weather. The lady was looking at the radar and completely judging me that I didn’t know what I was looking at. That’s fine, I let it go. Im sure she gets plenty who don’t, but when I was saying it looks to be clear for the next few hours, she was a little condescending, and then when I brought up the aviation forecast for the area and gave her more information her tone kept going at the same pace. I thanked her for her time, as I left she was probably scratching her head on why I knew more about weather then she did. Oh well. I’ve never had a problem people judging me. Its human nature I do believe but I have learned not to judge anyone, even hitchhikers, because everyone has a story. On the way to inspiration point there were some beautiful waterfalls which I got to take some more pictures at. I swear these waterfalls were more an inspiration then the point itself. Absolutely amazing power and grace at the same time. Something about waterfalls and water that it does what it wants that is amazing to me. With a climb up to the point and back down, and not a drop of rain fell. Hmmm go figure. After that I started sightseeing around the park more. I went up a road to Summit Point which had a beautiful view of the valley and the clouds appeared to be lifting now slowly. So I came down from this point and as I was driving I saw a Black Bear cross the road in front of me and go off into the woods. He was maybe 30 feet in front of me. That was my close encounter. The bear didn’t even look at me though and just kept walking along like nothing. Amazing to see a wild animal like that so close. Another half a mile down the hil, and all the dear must be eating dinner because I saw plenty. Driving back to the scenic views I bumped into a family that were watching a bunch of elk through a hunting scope. Talked to them for a while, and then I chased my view and the picture s I wanted, including my 2nd time today I went off trail to get a good view, and I’m sure I got some great shots with the lake and some of the Tetons behind it. Found myself closer to the hotel this evening, so went out to dinner and a local pizza joint. At a community table I met this great couple that had just come from Glacier National Park and they told me where I should stay and gave me some recommendations. So that is how I ended up here in Kalispell, Montana.
Today I woke up and decided instead of taking the quicker drive up here, Id go through the parks again and see a few more sites. The rain was off and on, but the parks didn’t disappoint. Stopped by some hot springs I had skipped and some more geysers I also got to the north end of the park, and the leasted visited of Yellowstone it seemed. What a mistake. This is such a beautiful part of the park. Im glad I took this drive and the National forest that leads into Montana north of Yellowstone. Beautifully drive and some feature you don’t see in the rest of the park unless you come in from the north. Now I am here in my hotel and it is late.
Thoughts:
Don’t judge people. I know I may not have looked the role of a weatherman, but until you know someone’s story and their experience, then there is no point. I put it into practice by picking up a hitchhiker. Did I judge him in that he looked safe? Sure I guess you could say that, but there is a difference in your safety, and just talking about someone’s knowledge.
Wow, I have met so many great people on this trip. People come into your life for a reason, a season, or a lifetime. Some people I have gotten to know on this trip have been amazing in that they, like I, have just a sense of adventure and discovery, no matter the country. I met a Russian speaking family in the Tetons, which I immediately recognized the language on. I have also reconnected with old friends, like someone who I grew up with in elementary school! Lifelong friends like that. I am glad they are back into my life and have introduced me to someone else in their family that I know will be in my life for a long time as well. These kinda connections are what life is all about. Make these connections and enjoy them. That being said, unfortunately you need to get rid of the negative too, so if there is that, just cut the tie and move on, and keep things simple.
Be flexible. Other than the routing of this trip, things have not gone exactly as planned. Oh well! Develop the skills and knowledge that you can go with the flow and wherever life happens to take you. This trip has been more about the journey than the destination, and that has what has made this trip so much fun. The second I go speeding off to another destination, I take a moment and think what would I miss. I’ll look it up, and instead of rushing off, Ill make a few stops on the way, with the hope that Ill get to where I wantta go by the end of the night. That has been so much fun, and I have met new people and seen things I wouldn’t have if I hadn’t done that.
That’s it for the night. I have about another week before I need to be at home, so we will see where this week takes me. I’m already looking at a change in plans near just so I can really get a look at Michigan, but we will see how the week shapes up. Off to explore Glacier National Park in a few hours so good night and have a great week! As always, thank you for reading and supporting me in this awesome adventure! Maybe someone has gotten a little inspiration from it all to do the same someday.