Ellie's Great Adventure: Northwest to Pacific.

Oct 9, 2021

Introduction

This trip continues with part 2 of Ellie’s Great Adventure.

Part 1: The North Road
Part 2: Northwest to Pacific
Part 3: Highway 1 and 101 to San Francisco
Part 4: Exploring the Southwest
Part 5: Homeward Bound

In this leg of the journey, we visit Yellowstone, Grand Teton and more before driving out to the Pacific Coast in Seaside, Oregon.

The Journey

In Part 1 of Ellie’s Great Adventure, we ended camping at the base of Devil’s Tower in Wyoming. From there, it was a seven-hour drive to Bozeman Montana where we stopped for the night to position for a trip into Yellowstone the next day.

Paradise Valley

We took Highway 89 at sunrise, following the Yellowstone River through Paradise Valley into the park. This was one of the most beautiful drives I’ve experienced anywhere in the country. Ellie enjoyed the drive and loved stopping to wallow in the Yellowstone river.

Yellowstone National Park, WY

Inside the park, we got to see vents and geysers, lakes and bison. Sadly, with all the potentially dangerous geothermal activity in the park, Ellie didn’t get to wallow in any of the hot springs.

+ 7

Despite it being late in the season, Yellowstone was booked solid as were most hotels in nearby towns. So we only spent a few hours in the park before moving on.

Grand Tetons National Park, WY

Leaving Yellowstone, we continued down Highway 191 into Jackson Hole, passing through Grand Teton along the way. This was also a stunning drive, and I’d love to stay in Jackson sometime in the future.

Clark Hill Rest Area

The drive through the mountains from Jackson to Idaho Falls is also breathtaking and perhaps a little nerve racking. With sunset approaching, and a ways to drive, we didn’t stop for too many pictures.

I took 33 and 31 through Swan Valley. After passing through Swan Valley, the terrain changes entirely, giving way to foothills and eventually a great plain. The picture below was taken at the Clark Hill Rest Area, overlooking the Snake River, about 30 minutes east of Idaho Falls and perhaps 15 minutes before sunset.

Idaho Falls

I made it to Idaho Falls just after sunset. We stayed at a very nice Best Western right next to the falls. This was a pretty cool town and I could easily imagine spending a few days there.

+ 6

Craters of the Moon, Idaho

Driving west from Idaho Falls on Highway 20 was strangely one of my favorite drives. It’s an open plane with mountains in the distance, and about two hours until you get to Craters of the Moon National Park.

Once in the park, there is a circular drive that takes you through the park to see different landscapes, flowering fields, barren lava flows, and black hills.

After Craters of the Moon, we drove on to camp at Grande Hot Springs in Grande Ronde Valley of northeast Oregon. For a stretch of the drive, we had 3-foot tumbleweeds blowing across the road. That night it would be very windy, though we were mostly protected in the valley.

Roosevelt Park, WA

After leaving La Grande, we took Highway 14 along the north, Washington, side of the Columbia River Gorge. This is definitely a top 5 drive lifetime.

After a long journey, lying under a tree in Roosevelt park, sniffing the smells off the river, Ellie seemed more at peace than I’d ever seen her before.

Maryhill Stonehenge Memorial, WA

Further west on Highway 14, we found a full size replica of Stonehenge. The henge was erected as the nation’s first WW1 memorial. It’s creator, Sam Hill, erroneously believe the original Stonehenge was a place of human sacrifice, and so he sought to draw a parallel to the sacrifices made in war and its enduring folly.

This stonehenge overlooks a bluff on the Columbia river, with great views west and east toward the John Day Dam.

Sunset Highway

After passing through Portland, I took Highway 26, the Sunset Highway, most of the way to Pacific Coast town of Seaside Oregon. Along the way, the landscape changes from rugged mountains to lush rainforest. These pictures were taken at a rest area called St. Helen’s view point, which was really quite far away.

Seaside, OR

We made it to Seaside right after a bomb cyclone had dropped several inches of rain on San Francisco. The winds had already reached us, and the storm was not far behind, but this didn’t stop Ellie and I from running out to the ocean. Watch her take her first dip in the Pacific below.

We made it!