Portland, ME to Portland, OR!

After Olympic, we drove down the coast to Portland. Along the way we stopped in Astoria, Oregon where The Goonies was filmed!! Portland was great and had a ton of cyclists. Mark's cousin, Joe, took us out for a beer and an amazing burger! Thanks again for letting us stay at your place! From Portland, we dropped rory off with a friend and drove to crater lake national park.

This was the house where the goonies was filmed

Someone lives in the house, but they still allow you to walk up to it

Cannon Beach! Ya know where they hold up the dabloom!

We heard strange sounds in Astoria and they turned out to be sealions hangin out on a dock!



They were sooooo loud!

Crazy donuts! Yeah, that's bacon

Joe's awesome dog, sadie

Cookin up somesing tasty in a walmart parking lot

Crater lake national park was beautiful! It's one of the cleanest bodies of water on the planet! And the island in the lake is called Wizard Island! Keewwl. Oh and there's a hemlock log, named The Old Man, that has been floating upright in the lake for over 100 years!

Who wants to move to Seattle? Hmm?

Well we can't drive west anymore because we made it to seattle!! Hilary was the best host for 4 days. We went to the salmon locks, pike place market, had an epic driftwood fire on the beach, made a pizza feast and an Indian feast. We also got to reconnect with lou, who just moved to Seattle. From Seattle we drove to Olympic national park with lou, Lisa, and rory. We camped on the beach and saw sealions swimming!!

Preparing samosas with Hilary!

Yummmers

One of marks super great pizzas

We got rained on one night and had to dry out everything. We made the mistake of sleeping without our tent in the rainforest and had to pitch it at 4am while avoiding banana slugs! They're big and yellow and kinda grody.

Shakey shakey

Tastey blackberries picked near our campsite!

Real good sunset

Real good

We made it to Endor

After 2 long days of driving we made it to north cascades national park and it was awwwwesome! The mountains were ha-uge and there were glaciers! (the most, actually, in the lower 48) On the 24 mile dirt road drive to the trailhead, we saw a mom bear and a little muffin baby bear.
Along the hike to our campsite we saw: alpine meadows, pikas, tons of ferns, and a thunderstorm one peak away! It was beautiful.

All the trees were covered with moss and there were ferns everywhere! It felt very prehistoric!

Rory with part of a glacier!

I da ho where we are

Stayed with rory and Liam last night in Pocatello! Rory made an amazing breakfast with omelets, bacon, and some Idaho pots! Nummmers

Rory's coming with us for a week! After we packed him into the falcon, we headed to Craters of the Moon national monument.

Volcanic rock covered the area and left mini volcano-looking structures everywhere and caves

Rory makin a pass at the volcano

You could climb down into any of the caves! They were cold and lined with ice in some parts! Neeaat

lauren + possiblility of seeing bears in the backcountry = huge scardy cat

So we spent two days and two nights in Yellowstone NP. The first day was kinda stressful because we were hungry and tired and also because of the park's size and reputation. We drove forever before we go to a visitor center and figured ou what campsites weren't closed for the season.
We spent the first night primitive camping. Nice campfire. Nice stars. Nice dinner of ramen and vegetables from aunt anne's garden.
The next day we felt a lot better (and caffeinated) and were ready to experience the park: epic waterfalls, smelly sulfur pots, geysers (including old faithful, which is not very exciting except for how consistent its eruptions are), hot springs, fumaroles and even a mud pot! FYI Yellowstone is situated on one of the worlds largest active volcanoes.
The second day we went to the backcountry office for a back country camping permit...it's free and way more rewarding any ways. Here's why...we saw a FREAKIN ADULT BALD EAGLE!!!!

These beautiful hot springs were all over!



Old faithful spewing

It smelled like rotten eggies!



Mudpots!

The grand Tetons. We past through the park after leaving yellowstone

Close encounters!

After the badlands we stopped at Wind Cave national park and then made our way up and down a super windy road to mt. Rushmore! We got there late in the day, so the setting sun's shadows cast really pretty shadows. The next morning we drove through Deadwood and mark took a shot of whisky at 11am :) Next was Devil's Tower in eastern Wyoming. So amazing! We hiked around the base and saw a bunch of climbers attempting the tower! The leaves are changing and everywhere is beautiful!

Kewwwl

Double tower

Badasslands National Park

From Wisconsin we stopped in northfield, Minnesota to visit mark's cousin, steve. We checked out the town and saw the recently flooded Mississippi river! Cooked some rice for the road and headed out to Sioux falls, south Dakota. (I like that city name...Sioux falls) Another day of driving and we finally made it to badlands national park!! We were overwhelmed by the place!

Helloooooo



Prairie dogs! They were every where!





Turn up the V and you can kinda hear the coyotes!



Coyote voices numba two

Nice horns!

Do you see the moon?

Mark on a table!