After we got a new truck, we went to Dick’s Drive-in to celebrate, and then Riley and I went to Mount St. Helen’s for a mini-adventure. I had never been (neither had she, obviously) and it planted a bug of wanting to explore more National Parks. She and I went on a mini road trip around the Olympic Peninsula to see the Hoh Rainforest, Hurrican Ridge and Rialto Beach, and we also visited Neah Bay, Cape Flattery, Ruby Beach and Grayland before heading back home.
When it came time to plan a vacation for the fall, Matt and I were still enjoying being local and didn’t want to leave the dog behind so we decided to road trip it down to the Grand Canyon through Montana, Yellowstone, Colorado, and New Mexico. On the way back we went through Death Valley and Yosemite, then home through Oregon. It was a great way to see so much of the western states, as well as so many parks (and wildlife), but we weren’t equipped to camp and many of the trails either didn’t allow dogs or it was too hot to take her for long, so it was a good sample tour of places I now want to go back to. I collected a lot of stamps for my National Parks passport, but didn’t write much but here are some photos.
OLYMPIC NATIONAL PARK
YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK
En route through Wyoming
ROCKY MOUNTAIN NATIONAL PARK
TAOS PUEBLO
CHACO CULTURAL NATIONAL HISTORIC PARK
CANYON DE CHELLY NATIONAL MONUMENT
HUBBLE TRADING POST
PAINTED DESERT / PETRIFIED FOREST NATIONAL PARK
DEATH VALLEY NATIONAL PARK
YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK
And finally home.
4468 miles, 9 National Parks and monuments, 10 states. My favourites were Yellowstone, Hubble Trading Post (how I wish I could afford some Navajo weaving!) and Canyon de Chelly. Matt’s were Chaco Culture NHP and the Petrified Forest. Riley liked the dog parks, jumping on hotel beds and sampling sticks in all locations. And the Xterra held up exceptionally well. In fact, we christened it Wade Davis, after my favourite explorer.