Sunset at the bottem of Bruce's street!


So we've made it to the west coast, just in time for a spectacular sunset. We left Spokane Washington early yesterday morning and had another scenic drive through some open range and then along the banks of the colombia river and into the cascade mountain ranges. It was an open arid desert like landscape on one side of the range turning into dense pines on the othen side down to the ocean. We skirted around Seattle and just a little north of it took a car ferry to Clinton on Whitby Island where we had to wait for another ferry to take us to Port Townsend. Dill and Pat had their first good cup of tea and some fish and chips and I went looking for sea lions that all the signes warned us not to touch. On the Ferry ride over we saw a pod of porpoise (is that the right word?) and though it was bit cool and rainy for the trip, the sun came out just as we pulled into the port.

Port Townsend is really spectacular and Bruce has a fantastic spot just short walk down to the ocean. Had I know about this place before I think Bruce would be sick of me as a house guest!


As it is we are discussing getting sqatter rights.


We off now to explore olympic national park and perhaps find some seafood for dinner.


There's a bit of eye rolling going on right now so I might be dropping the ladies of at winery while I go explore the olymic pennisula. We'll see!


Waiting for the ferry at Keystone on Whitby Island


Petrified wood, the colombia and rattlesnakes entering the cascade mountains.

Some random pictures

Petrified tree

Mammoth hot springs


Turkey!



Chinese well hot spring




More bison


and more...

Leaving Yellowstone

After a good breakfast - or my idea of one. Campfire cooked bacon, eggs toast and cowboy coffee we set out for a 500 mile drive to Spokane Washington. With most of our wildlife list checked off we felt realatively happy about moving on. We were a little dissapointed that we had not seen a bear but felt sure this would be rectified once we got to Bella Coola.

10 miles north of our campsite on the outskirts of the park we managed to check off the bear!!!

This was as close as Dilly would let us get, there was a small river between us and the bear but we had heard to many statistic over the last few days to venture and further away from the car.

Yay! We can continue on now.

Dad-Is this a mule deer or elk?

How bout this?

Yesterday we also saw a bald eagles nest with a bald eagle in it (this got the americans very excited)
and lots of little gophers-not the smartest animals we've encountered.
Really there is so much wildlife here it's getting a little silly. Dilly Is even napping and told us only to wake her up for something really exciting-like a wolf or bear.



We've had some really nice drives through the park, the landscape changes from dense pine forests with craggy outcroppings and waterfalls to strange plains that look like moon-scapes with smoking springs and geysers and noxious smells. Sometimes you can see the animals wandering amids the steam. Sometimes they fall through the thin crust of the land around the springs into the boiling water a ranger told us.

Here's a picture of blue star hot spring that has the remains of buffalo bones in it.

Dill also wants me to mention the Park lodges (If she thinks were upgrading from the campsite she going to be disappointed) They are very nice, huge log buildings the fireplaces as big as small houses. Pat is very pleased with the washrooms as well.

Dill and Pat whent in for a cup of tea in the lounge but as I've gone a little native I though I just better stay outside with real outdoors people. I heard Pat saying we should do some laundry as she's wore the same jeans 3 times in eight days which Dill said was disgusting-I'm afraid for them to find out I'm still wearning the same pants I've had on since we left guelph!

Pat and I have a long walk around the geysers in the vicinity of old faithful and snuck in with a tour group to get some explanations on the volcanic activity going on below the landscape of yellowstone.

Buffalo jam

Well we were going to camp in yellowstone but Pat and Delia were sneaky and managed to get a cabin even though I told them none were available. So we didnt' rough it as much as I wanted to but we have had a bit of success as Pat didn't put any make-up on today and neither of them put on purfume. Give me 1 more week and I'll have Pat peeing behind a tree!

So after getting settled in our cabin we headed south in the park to see old faithfull. It should have been a twenty minute drive but we got stuck behind a herd of bison who I guess decided the highway would be an easy route to some pasture. We followed behind them at about 10km/hr for 2 hours.

Old faithful was true to its name and whent of just a couple minutes before it was expected to. They say it errupst about every 70 minutes + or - 10 minutes.

The area was covered with hot springs and geysers. It turnes out there are many geyers in the park that errupt highter or more frequently but none are as predictable as old faithful.

Beryle Hot spring


North east yellowstone


Yesterday afternoon ( after the drive from hell) we had a leisurely drive through yellowstones north and west sides on route to our campsite which is in the town of yellowstone just outside the park.







We saw lots of bison, elk, deer and something that looks like a fox...







We did a tool around the mammoth hotsprings as well before heading on. Delia was a little repulsed by the gurgling, spewing sulfurous springs- I think she was expecting hot springs we could swim in!

Beartooth pass from red lodge montana

We had a bit of a lazy day yesterday-it called for thunderstorms so we didn't want to attemp the beartooth pass with bad weather but it turned out to be really nice despite the forcast so we just lazed around our campsite, had a swim and took some photos of the area around red lodge montana where we were for two nights.

Today we set out early for yellowstone park via the notorious beartooth pass. It was pretty nerve racking looking down on glacier lakes and snow topped mountains while driving around hairpin turns. It was only about 70 miles long but the trip took about 2.5 hours as the weather was pretty bad. When we got higher up at about 11000 feet the snow banks were about 6" high and we were right in the clouds so the view was pretty limited.

Sorry about the soccer Ral :(

Big Horn Pass

Wyoming

First view of the rockies from the big horn national park in wyoming


Devils's tower wyoming




Mt. Rushmore south dakota in the black hills

Black Hills

Bronze Statues of a buffalo hunt at Tatanka-Great Plains

Black hills South Dakota

Example of Sioux teepee in the black hills

Wed June 24

Poor Pat was dreading camping but It really couldn't have been worse! There was severe thunderstom warnings for our county but we played it down for Pat. Unfortunatly it was pretty bad-torrential rains, gale winds rain in the tents and only 6 degrees -We have a cabin for tonight but it's back to camping after that.( we haven't told her)

After a not so good sleep we decided to make an early start. We visited Tatanka- a beautiful spot outside of deadwood that had informaiton on the history of the Sioux and their relationship with the Buffalo. The Site is situated on a hilltop with a fantastic view overlooking the great plains. The main attraction was the huge bronze lifesize sculputers of a buffalo hunt up to a buffalo jump.

Following Tatanka we took a scenic drive through the Spearfish canyon national park to see some waterfalls, limestone cliffs and ponderosa pines.

Just to completely pack our day we then took a jaunt down to Mt rushmore still in the black hills to see the monument and had a lovely walk around the area and saw some mountain goats on the hillside.

Fortified with tea now I feel capable of updateing our blog. In the last 2 days we've covered 6 states and 2350 km so everyone was a little hysterical but nothing that a good cup of Yorskshire tea and some Napoleon brandy couldn't fix.

The first day we mostly wanted to just get past Chicago but we did persevere and managed to get all the way to Des Moines in Madison county Iowa ( we didn't see and covered bridges or Clint baby).

Yesterday we had a fantastic drive through the great plains of Nebraska and South Dakota (about 9 hours). Some of this things we learned and saw yesterday.

1.What Wall Drug was (it was advertized for 300 miles and after gazing at grasslands for hours trust me the roadside adverts became a highlight)
2.Laura Ingles was a real person (oh god how awful)
3.The black mountains aren't black
4.We met a welsh/swedish/apache guy who I bought bison jerky off of. Good Stuff!
5. There is actually a place on earth wear you can drive for 400 miles and not see a mcdonalds-South Dakota! All I wanted was a coffee and we drove forever looking for one.

Oh and pat wants me to say she say she was a chipmunk just now-we actually saw bison and deer yesterday too but the chipmunk seems to have her excited more!

There is a salt lick for deer outside the cabin but I haven't seen yet-Dill and Pat do bang around alot so it might not happen either.

On our drive yesterday we did see some of the badlands and ended the drive in the black hills south dakota in the infamous town of Deadwood. We have a lovely cabin right now on a pine covered hill about 1 mile outside of town.

Delia has done a fantastic job of navigating and Pat, being our purser has done a good job of keeping us on track with the budget so far but I'm starting to wonder if she is the best candidate as she keeps skirting conversations regarding camping. We're moving out of our little log cabin tomorrow into a campsite but She keeps saying " but I love this little cabin " I'ts booked tomorrow by someone else but she's refusing to leave.

Today we're off to explore the town and perhaps some surrounding area as noone wants to get back in the car today.

The pursurser is givin us a $20 limit to gamble with. :)

PRE TRIP



The great adventure starts this Sunday!!! The ETD is 5am local time.



Follow the trials and tribulations of Delia, Patricia and Rebecca as they make their way west with a small budget but big hopes.

Stay posted for pictures, updates and demands for money!