The next leg of our “50 States” adventure is now less than 5 months away and planning, as usual, has been intense.
This trip – the Pacific Northwest region.
The itinerary is set, 6 states in all, including 3 new ones –
First stop Washington State – and state number 27 for us.
We have a couple of nights in Seattle to start and then we zig zag heading south, first Olympic NP, then Mt Ranier and Mt St Helens – or what’s left of it – before reaching the Oregon border.
We will then track east along the famous Columbia River – being the last stage of Lewis and Clark’s “Corps of Discovery” expedition in the early 1800’s to explore, in those days, the unknown west – until we reach our next state……….
Idaho !
State 28 – the “Potato State”.
This leg will be in the north of the state through spectacular wilderness, glacial forests and rivers.
We head back into Idaho later in our trip coming into the southern region and taking in Craters of the Moon National Monument and the capital – Boise.
I’m sure we’ll try a few of those famous potatoes to report back on.
Then its further east into Montana. We have seen small parts of the south of Montana on our previous Yellowstone trip but this time we take in some spectacular scenery around Glacier National Park, way up north, and, hopefully, drive the Beartooth Highway – which has been described as “the most beautiful drive in America”.
We missed out on this last time as the road was closed due to snow – so fingers crossed on that one !
Next, south to Wyoming. Another state we have visited on a previous trip however you can’t visit this area of the USA and not take in the magnificence of Yellowstone National Park.
We will also be heading south to the Grand Tetons National Park which was another miss last time due to the snow.
After heading back west through the southern parts of Idaho mentioned above, we head into State 29 – Oregon.
We will retrace part of the famous “Oregon Trail” – but without a horse and wagon – and visit parts of the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument and then onto Crater Lake National Park – the lake is in an extinct volcano and is one of the 10 deepest lakes in the world (at nearly 2,000 feet deep).
Then, another visit to California – a bit hard to miss when you are heading to or from Australia. But a lot of new ground here as we enter from the north and make our way down mainly along the coast to San Francisco and on to LA.
We hope to take in a couple of National Parks as we head south and to cover some ground we have previously missed due to weather such as the famous “Big Sur” coast.
(Oh and when we get to LA the obligatory visit to Disneyland for Adrienne before we head home !)
This of course is just a taste – there is so much more in store !
But that will have to wait for another Blog post – it’s back to work for now……………..