This cave, which is part of the Newberry volcano structure was created through the emptying of an underground lava tube, back when the volcano was active. Due to cuts to the National Parks, this cave wasn’t open to the public, and is only accessible via private tour-operator access. It was very interesting, and unlike other… Continue reading Lava Tube cave tour
Newberry National Volcanic Monument
We read a lot, but I had never heard of the Newberry volcano before. That changed today. We started off at the visitor center and hiked the trail right outside it. We certainly were unaware that the Newberry volcano is the biggest volcano in the USA ( I thought it was Yellowstone). This main be… Continue reading Newberry National Volcanic Monument
Portland OR – big city activities
A long trip is not like a long vacation. At some point, normal tasks of regular life need to be attended to. Here are three that we took care of during our 3-day, 2-night stay in Portland OR. Bernard went to Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) hospital to have his voice prosthesis replaced (pre-scheduled… Continue reading Portland OR – big city activities
Mount Rainier National Park
Mount Rainier NP has multiple entrances, and we entered from the Nisqualy (Glacier) entrance, and headed out to the Paradise area where we lucked out and found a parking spot. We hiked up the Alta Vista trail. In general, most trails have you hiking on a path in between two rows of high trees, and… Continue reading Mount Rainier National Park
Mount Saint Helens National Volcanic Monument
Mount Saint Helens when its underlying volcano erupted back in 1980. The area is now officially a “National Volcanic Monument”. The key take-away is that nature has recovered way faster than the experts had predicted. As they point out, many land features we see are the result of thousands, and even millions of years slowly… Continue reading Mount Saint Helens National Volcanic Monument
Olympic National Park – Hoh Rain Forest
The Challenge with Olympic National Park is that there is a ring road all around the park, with spurs into the park at various locations. The Hoh Rain forest is on the Pacific side, and was 2 hours away from our campground. Furthermore, we were warned that it only has a small parking lot, which… Continue reading Olympic National Park – Hoh Rain Forest
Olympic National Park – Hurricane Ridge
During Day 1 at Olympic National Park, we headed out to do the Hurricane Ridge trail. Despite being a paved trail, it is challenging due to the 600 ft elevation rise over its length of 1.5 miles.
North Cascades National Park
Today, we visited North Cascades National Park. We did a short hike near Diablo dam and lake. We later did the Happy Creek Forest Walk, which leads to an overlook of the Ross dam
Diesel at $4.99 in Washington state!
We arrived in Spokane today, our first stop in Washington State. (state sticker #5 on this trip). Since we get more options to fill-up when we are not pulling the RV, one of our tasks after we check-in to a campground is to go an refill our tank. Spokane is just a few miles from… Continue reading Diesel at $4.99 in Washington state!
Glacier N.P. from the East Entrance on a sunny day
Today was going to be a sunny day for the whole day. The forecasts were correct… even though it was still very cloudy when we left the campground. Today we drove a counterclockwise loop, starting with US-2 eastbound, which follows the edge of the National Park, and traverses a number of National Forests. The route… Continue reading Glacier N.P. from the East Entrance on a sunny day