Pacific Northwest Road Trip - Day 15

Today was pretty much a travel day. We were going down to St. George (UT) since we will be visiting Zion National Park tomorrow, and St. George was the closest city where we were able to get a hotel.

We got up at our usual time and started to get ready. By 10 am the truck was all packed up and we were ready to leave. So we took US Route 191 North until we reached the junction with I-70. We followed I-70 to the junction with US Route 6. We stayed on I-70 and followed it west.

I-70 was so much more interesting to drive than the I-15, as the areas you drive through are more diverse. There are a couple of view points along the freeway that we checked out. Two of them were Black Dragon Canyon and Bottom of the Sea. Black Dragon Canyon is a mini version of the Grand Canyon and therefore very impressive. Bottom of the Sea is, like the name suggests, the former ocean floor and quite an impressive site as well.

The only thing that you have to consider when traveling the I-70 is the fact that you should make sure you have enough gas. We didn't fill the truck up at the junction with US Route 6 and you have only 1 chance to fill up for about 106 miles.

We weren't sure if we were going to make it to Salina, so we got off the freeway and drove to the little town of Emery (UT), it was about 12 miles from the freeway and we got gas there. So we filled the truck up and headed back to the freeway.

We probably could have made it to Salina, but it was better to not take the chance. We got off the freeway in Salina anyway and had lunch at Denny's. We got back onto the freeway and continued to head south-west until we hit I-15. we got onto I-15 and headed south. At the next rest stop I took over the driving.

The further we got south the hotter it got. So far it hadn't been that bad... It has been around 85 all day long. That changed during the last 30 miles, when the temperature went up to 100. Pretty toasty. At 4.30 pm we had finally made it to the hotel in St. George (UT).

Looking forward to Zion tomorrow.

Pacific Northwest Road Trip - Day 14

Today we took a trip into Arches National Park. Since we were staying in Moab (UT) we were only a couple of minutes from the park entrance. We started driving into the park and stopped right at the beginning at a point where you had a great look at the Moab Fault. We then continued driving through the park. And the same thing as in Glacier National Park was happening. You see one absolutely great view and you turn around to find an even more amazing view. We got to see lots of absolutely amazing rock formations. You just have to see these in person as there are no words to adequately describe them.

Our next stop was a point called Courthouse Towers. An absolutely stunning rock formation. As always Harry and I took lots of pix and video. Next up was a stop at the Petrified Sand Dunes. As the name suggests it's a rock formation that looks like sand dunes frozen in stone.

Up next was the Balanced Rock. This formation features a large rock being balanced on a very small surface. It's incredible how it sits there right on top and not falling over. We stopped at a formation called the Garden of Eden.

Next up was our first real arch. This feature is called Windows. I walked up and took quite lots of video. I got also to take same video of the second arch of the Windows arch feature. Since we had the dog we had to take turns going on the path and checking out the three arches. Harry took the video and I took photos. We got to see the North and South Arch and what they call The Turret Arch.. all of them were amazing.

Next up was an overview point from where you have a very good overlook over the 'Salt Valley'.
Then we checked out the "Delicate Arch". I walked up first and checked out the lower and the upper view point. Turns out that it doesn't really matter which view point you choose, you pretty much have the same view and man it's a long walk up to the second higher view point. I saved Harry from doing it. The only way to get a really good look of that arch, would be to take the 3 mile long hike to the arch, which we couldn't do since we had Daisy with us.

Next up was "Fiery Furnace", again this is something that needs to be viewed in person as it's so hard to describe it's beauty. The next stop was an arch called "Skylight Arch". It's another cool looking arch.

Once we were done with that, we drove to "Devils Garden", were the road ends. We took pix and video, but couldn't go up to any of the features since that would have been a longer hike and since dogs are not allowed on trails that wasn't an option. So we didn't see Landscape Arch and a couple of other arches.

All in all it was a great day.. it amazes me how Glacier National Park was so beautiful with it's waterfalls, lakes and green everywhere. And Arches was just as beautiful with it's rock, dirt and brown everywhere.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Poster

Today the WB released a teaser poster for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows parts 1 & 2.

This poster is amazing and gives me chills every time I look at it. What do you think??

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Trailer

OMG.. this came out a few days ago and when I watched it for the first time it brought tears to my eyes.. it looks AWESOME!!! I'm a huge Harry Potter fan. I LOVE the books but I also LOVE the movies and this final movie (well 2 movies) look like they are going to be the best. I so can't wait till November for this to come out.

Pacific Northwest Road Trip - Day 13

Once again this is a travel day. Driving from Ogden, Utah to Moab, Utah. The drive was pretty good. It got warmer as we went south and east. Utah reminded me of California more then any other state. It has the same stores, fast foods and looks the same with the brown hilly lands. As we went further southeast we got to what I see in my mind as Utah. The cool rock formations and the red rocks.. that's Utah to me.

We made it to the hotel and are relaxing for our long day tomorrow of exploring Arches National Park.

Pacific Northwest Road Trip - Day 12

Today was a travel day.. we were going from Butte, Montana to Ogden, Utah. Our next destination is Arches National Park but it would have been too long of a drive, or at least to long of a drive for us. So Ogden is a halfway point. Nothing really happened. The drive was nice. Idaho is a very green and hilly place. It did get hotter as we went south. North Utah wasn't what I expected.. it's also farmland and very green.

One thing that did happen is I broke Harry HD video camera. Not on purpose, it was an accident but I felt horrible so we stopped in Idaho Falls, Idaho at a Best Buy and I purchased him a new cam. It was a costly mistake on my part but I hope the broken cam is still usable.

Pacific Northwest Road Trip - Day 11

Well today we were visiting Yellowstone, but the day started off badly.. actually it stated last night when we got to the hotel and I realized I booked us a hotel that was about 125 miles / 2-1/2 hours away. Now it wouldn't be bad if we didn't have to come back to the hotel later that night. So my mistake added an extra 250 miles to our already 3500+ and an extra 5 hours of driving for the day which takes away time from our visit to the park.

Anyways we get to Yellowstone around 1pm. We enter the west entrance and just a few miles in we see a group of Moose's. One actually crosses the street and walked about 5 feet from me.. it was pretty cool.

When we entered Yellowstone wasn't what I was expecting.. I expected tall trees all over the place and there as nothing but acres of tiny (5 feet) trees all over. I mentioned this to Harry and he said "wasn't there a fire here years ago" and that is why there were no big trees.. they all burned down and what we saw were the re-plants. There were larger trees in other parts of the park and there were also blacken trees that have yet to be re-planted.

A few more miles and we see a few Buffalo's/Bison. We decided to take the south route as this is where the majority of the Geysers and hot springs are. We stop over and over at each group of geysers/hot springs. We took tons of videos and pictures. Because we had the dog we had to go one at a time while the other one watched the dog. I took all the pictures and Harry took all the video, expect the video I took with my still cam for my blog.

We wound up at Old Faithful and missed it by 5 minutes. Since this is something that both Harry and I really wanted to see we waited the 90 minutes for another eruption... and it didn't disappoint. Again because of the Dog I was back in the tree area (where dogs were allowed) and I took pictures and Harry was up where the benches were with the video camera.

We only had a few hours of day light left so we headed toward the north exit and on our way we came across the Mud Volcano section. There were several cool hot springs like Dragon's Mouth and a Mud hot spring.

After that we headed out as the we were losing light but as we were leaving we saw a group of Elks and stopped to get some pictures and video.

Now it was dark and we headed out of the park which was going to take an hour just to get out. A lightening storm started, then rain and then dusty winds. I was driving these small windy roads getting blown around and not being able to see because of the heavy rain and dust. There was one moment where I was stuck between two hills and a gust of dusty wind swirled through and there was a moment where I couldn't see anything.. it was a very scary and slow drove back to the hotel. We got back to the hotel at 1am and there was no time to do any blogging or anything.

Next up Utah!!!

Day 11 - Yellowstone - Mud Hot Springs

There are several of these hot springs that spue mud instead of water.

Day 11 - Yellowstone - Dragon's Mouth

This is a cool cave where the hot spring/geyser is inside the cave.. It looks as if it's a mouth spouting smoke.. ie Dragon's Mouth.

Day 11 - Yellowstone - Old Faithful

Here is Old Faithful erupting. This is the final seconds of the eruption. Harry took video while I did photos but you can take only so many photo's so I switched to taking a little video.

Pacific Northwest Road Trip - Day 10

Today we planned a visit to Glacier National Park. We got up at 8 am and packed up the truck and were ready to leave by 9.30. We took US Route 93 north. Once we reached the junction with Highway 40 we followed it east to US Route 2 and followed it to the west entrance of Glacier National Park. We got a annual pass for all National Parks for 80 bucks. That might sound a lot, but by the time this vacation is over it will have paid for itself.

First we checked out the visitor center and Lake McDonald. We followed the "Going to the Sun Road". We got to see lots of forests, rapids, white water, water falls and lakes. Then the road started climbing. We got to see the aftermath of an avalanche. It was a narrow and windy road, fortunately Harry was driving but he found it fun to drive. He just loves driving mountain roads because it reminds him of home and roads in the Austrian Alps. The higher up you get the more amazing and breath taking the views become. The view right in front of you is absolutely breath taking, you turn around and there is even a more amazing view. Harry and I took tons of pix and video. Shortly before we reached Logan Pass the road narrowed to a 1 lane road since an avalanche had taken out part of the road a couple of years ago. We were in luck and there was no wait on our side. Once we got to Logan Pass we drove by several snow fields. We also saw a mountain goat on one of the snow fields. That was very cool.

Once we passed Logan Pass we went down on the east side. The road on the east side is not impressive as it was on the west side.

Once we reached St. Mary's we jumped onto US Route 89 and followed it south, until we reached the junction with highway 82. We followed highway 82 until we reached the junction with highway 83. we followed it south to State Route 200 until we reached I-15. We were driving through lots and lots of rural area's of Montana. Rolling hills as far as the eye can see. It was pretty amazing. It gave Harry and I a very good idea what the great planes must have felt to the first settlers.

One thing we learned is that if you go on a road trip through rural Montana make sure your car has enough gas and you bring enough food and water with you, as it might be a few hundred miles until you can stock up on these items. As there was nothing... nothing in the rural parts of Montana.

We finally reached the city of Helena. I'm talking about a real city and not some tiny, rural townships. We had Wendy's for very late lunch and then continued on the I-15 south. around 7.30 pm we finally reached our hotel in the city of Butte, Montana.

Glacier National Park - Day 10 - The Weeping Wall

Glacier National Park - Day 10 - Rapids

Glacier National Park - Day 10 - Beautiful Lake

Pacific Northwest Road Trip - Day 9

Wow.. what a horrible night sleep. Went to sleep at around 1am and when I say sleep I mean sit there in the drivers seat tossing and turning. Around 4am it was super light out so we opted to get up and get moving. We had made it to the border of Montana and Idaho. Our plan for today was a few hundred mile drive to Kalispell, MT as this is was the closest hotel we could get to Glacier National Park which is our next destination. The drive was beautiful, but again the terrain was very different as you drive. Hills of farmland and hills of thick trees, but it was all very beautiful.

We got to Kalispell around 9am but we can't check into our hotel until 3pm.. so we had six hours to kill. We were already tired but we continued to drive around the area, we stopped at Red Lion so I could hijack their wifi and we also had some lunch. Around Noon I thought I would call and see if we could get into the hotel room early. The lady on the other end of the phone said "let me check with house keeping, if your room is done then you'll be able to check in". A few minutes later she said we were all good. Both Harry and I were so excited.. as I said we were both drained from the horrible night sleep so we are just going to crash the rest of the day.. try and catch up on our blogs and such.

Tomorrow is going to be another long driving day.. but we should have some more beautiful sights.