Category: Pacific Northwest
Crater Lake National Park
We visited Crater Lake in late September 2022 as part of Big Trip #4. Crater Lake National Park has been on my wishlist for a loooong time. It’s spectacularly gorgeous, but once you’ve done some hikes and stopped at the overlooks, you kind of get the idea. We’d planned on spending three nights there and…
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Three nights in Bend, OR–Big Trip #4
We visited Bend in late September 2022 as part of Big Trip #4. You can’t drive from Mount Rainier to Crater Lake and not stop in Bend! Everything you’ve read about Bend’s coolness is true. We loved it. Mountains, waterfalls, cute neighborhoods, the Deschutes River running through the city, multiple food truck pods (!), and…
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Two nights in White Salmon, WA–Big Trip #4
We visited White Salmon in late September 2022 as part of Big Trip #4. We chose White Salmon for a one-night stop between Mount Rainier National Park and Bend, OR because it’s across the river from Hood River, OR, a hip and happening town. Just a few days before arriving we discovered that old friends…
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Mount Rainier National Park
We visited Mt Rainier in late September 2022, as part of Big Trip #4. Mount Rainier National Park, the nation’s fifth national park, is centered around Mount Rainier, the tallest volcano (yes, volcano) in the Cascades, and the most glaciated mountain in the continental US. It’s a huge national park, and with five entrances, planning…
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Two nights in Ellensburg, WA–Big Trip #4
We visited Ellensburg in mid-September 2022, as part of Big Trip #4. Looking to break up the seven-hour drive between Sandpoint and Mount Rainier, we stopped for a couple nights in Ellensburg, Washington. It’s a cute college town, home to Central Washington University, and a historic downtown full of interesting architecture. The highlight of the…
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Two nights in Sandpoint, ID (visit #2)–Big Trip #4
We visited Sandpoint in mid-September 2022, as part of Big Trip #4. Read about our first visit in 2020 here. I was just rereading our previous Sandpoint post and was reminded that we’d only ended up in Sandpoint because we couldn’t go to Banff. This time, Sandpoint was on the itinerary all along, and it…
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Central Plains Colorado Idaho Missouri Montana Mountain West Oregon Pacific Northwest Trip Planning Utah Washington WyomingTrip planning: Big Trip #4 – fall in the Northern Rockies, including Canada
This post is part of our pre-trip planning for our big trip in Fall 2022. HERE IS OUR POST-TRIP RETROSPECTIVE! [We’ve updated the plan since this post and our route looks pretty different now!] We are freshly home from our last trip and are itching to get back out there, so we’re thrilled to be…
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Two days in Ketchum, ID–Big Trip #3
We visited Ketchum in August 2020, as part of Big Trip #3. This was a (literal) turning point in our trip: Initially we’d planned to scoot farther west, to see Crater Lake and Lassen Volcanic, visit some friends in Oregon and Reno, and return to Great Basin… and then all those forest fires all over the…
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One night in Stanley, ID–Big Trip #3
We visited Stanley in September 2020, as part of Big Trip #3. Tiny Stanley is an outdoor adventurer’s town. It’s in the middle of nowhere, has a grocery, a couple cool-looking restaurants, and that’s about it… except for the scenic Salmon River and towering Sawtooth Mountains sprinkled with gorgeous alpine lakes. We were there for the…
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Two nights in Idaho Falls, ID–Big Trip #3
We visited Idaho Falls in late September 2020, as part of Big Trip #3. Arriving in Idaho Falls was a bit of a shock after a week in the Tetons. There are no mountains. But it’s a nice enough little city, with walkways with artistic benches following the river through downtown, backdropped by a pretty…
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