Hi friends.
It’s been a long, long time. If you keep up with us and have been wondering where we’ve been, I apologize for the silence on my end. Life has been crazy, busy, exciting, and exhausting all at the same time. The last few months saw us through the state of Utah, lower Idaho, Oregon, and where we currently are – Washington.
Utah
Travis and I were both excited about getting out to Utah. There are so many National Parks that are in the southern part of the state. We explored Zion National Park, Bryce Canyon National Park, Capital Reef National Park, Canyonlands National Park, and finally, Arches National Park. At Bryce Canyon, Travis went for a hike while I took Pepper Jack with me throughout each of the overlooks. Each of these parks had a uniqueness about them. It’s amazing to me that they all aren’t that far from each other with such diversifying features. We can’t wait to come back out to some of these parks in the future and do some hiking, camping, and more exploring.
It’s unfortunate that we couldn’t take Pepper Jack with us many places besides the overlooks in the National Parks. Luckily in a lot of state parks, he can roam wherever we are. This is one of the things that led us to Goblin Valley State Park. It’s a beautiful area that you can explore and he loved it. It also helped that we were able to disperse camp close by.
After southern Utah, we made our way up to Provo and Salt Lake City. Then, we headed over to the Bonneville Salt Flats. The Bonneville salt flats were really stunning. It’s a bit out of the way, but if you get a chance – highly recommend!
Idaho
We made our way through Idaho with one main purpose in mind. We wanted to visit Travis’s older brother, sister-in-law, and our niece and nephew. They recently moved to Boise, and we were really excited to go visit with them and see their new house. Of course we stopped by a vineyard along the way. We spent a week visiting and hanging out. Additionally we went over to the World Center for Birds of Prey, which was really beautiful. I’d love to go back and spend more time in Idaho exploring.
Oregon
I’ve been wanting to go to Oregon for years. Travis went there on a work trip a few years ago. He had talked highly about Bend and other parts of the state. Bend was our first stop. We spent a few days exploring the town, reading & laying in the hammock at the park, and window shopping at all of the little boutiques. It was also super nice getting to disperse camp only 10 minutes or so away from the town.
Of course, we had to stop by Crater Lake National Park, which was absolutely gorgeous. It was completely covered in snow (which surprised me for being mid-may), but it makes sense with the elevation. The sights were beautiful. Last time Travis went to Crater Lake, it was also covered in snow. We’d love to come back here at some point during the summer so we could do some hiking around the rim.
We also stopped in Medford for a few days. We went to a Farmer’s market (and had amazing fresh empanadas), a dog park, and drove around the town.
After our brief visit to California, we drove up the Oregon coast. We stopped in places like Brookings, Coos Bay, Tillamook, Cannon Beach, and Astoria. All of these places were beautiful, but Cannon Beach is definitely somewhere I want to go back to for a longer vacation. The town is so cute with so many shops and the beach itself is dog friendly (a huge plus). It was just a super nice area and I fell in love with it.
Finally, we made our way to Portland for Memorial Day weekend. It was such a cool city. Of course it was pretty rainy while we were there, but we loved exploring. We went to Powell’s book store, hiked Multnomah Falls, met up with a friend, and drove and walked around the city in general. There was also plenty of time just for relaxing.
At this point in our van life journey, I was honestly in desperate need of a hotel stay and for doing nothing. All I wanted to do was read my book, watch movies, and relax. Sometimes, it’s hard to constantly make decisions and always be on the go and it was definitely catching up with me. Having the weekend to be in the hotel and just reset was so necessary and was exactly what I needed.
California
In a previous post, I mentioned how we decided to head to Nevada instead of going up to Redwoods National Park due to the weather and wanting to ensure we got to get to Utah before it got too hot over there. This was finally our chance to go check out the park. We drove down the coast until we reached the Redwoods and did quite a bit of exploring there. This national park might be one of my favorites, though I’m a sucker for forests in general. It was absolutely beautiful and incredible to see not only how tall these trees were, but just how many there were.
Washington
Currently, we are in Washington state. We did a little bit of exploring around Mount Rainier (also completely covered in snow, so we couldn’t do too much), and drove around the Olympic Peninsula. The pacific northwest is so beautiful, and incredibly green and lush. Once we made our way to Port Angeles, Forks, and Kalaloch Beach, we really got a sense of why. IT WAS SO RAINY. Which is of course what we expected, but damn it’s one thing to know it and one thing to experience it. After about 3 days of being in the rain constantly, we were ready to get back into some sunshine. The one thing about being in the van that gets tough is the elements kinda stick with you. So we were wet from the rain and had no escape from feeling wet, even when we changed our clothes and dried off.
Now, we are back in Tacoma and going to be spending the next few days in Seattle before heading back east. Our plan is to get back to New England by July 10th, so we have a lot of driving ahead of us.
Let’s Discuss! Comment Below:
- What’s your favorite movie that takes place or was filmed in the Pacific Northwest? (we recently watched The Goonies and loved it!)
- What state of the ones we visited do you most want to visit?
- Choose one and explain why: Desert, Beach, Mountains, or Forest?
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