Trip Stories on Moments in the Miles

The West Coast Roadtrip

Mon, 22 Aug 2022 00:00:00 +0000

We had always talked about doing a grand west coast road trip. This was it. Forty-nine days, San Diego to Denver, the long way around.

We had spent the season working as camp hosts at Laguna Campground, up on Mount Laguna outside Descanso, and this was how we were getting home to Colorado.

Honestly, I don’t think it ever felt like a vacation. At this point this is just how life is for us. We live on the ever-changing. We have a general idea and we stay willing to go with the flow when it changes. If we like a place we stay longer and see more of it. If it is not hitting the mark, we move on. There is so much out there that this trip could easily have run for months and still not covered it.

Sequoia and Kings Canyon

Sequoia does something to you. There is a powerful energy that comes off something in nature big enough to make you feel small. We found a swimming hole on the way into the park, which is a good way to start anything.

Kings Canyon came next. You can understand why so few people go, and it is worth the drive anyway. The South Fork of the Kings River would justify it on its own. We spent the day jumping off the rock into it and took a beautiful hike the following morning.

Yosemite

Everything there is grand. All of it makes you feel little, in the best possible way.

We woke up early one morning and were handed a sunrise. There was a wildfire burning in a neighboring state and the smoke gave the whole sky an ominous glow. We loved it.

We took some of the most beautiful hikes of the whole trip through the valley, and saw our first Yosemite black bear out on a trail. Our last day was the O’Shaughnessy Dam, and then we drove into San Francisco.

San Francisco

San Francisco is not like other cities. There was so much of it that we did one of the hop-on hop-off bus tours, which sounds like a tourist trap and turned out to be smart. Ride the whole thing, take it in, then decide where you actually want to go back and spend real time.

Mostly we just walked. Up, so that we could walk back down.

Maritime National Historic Park, then Pier 39, then the cable cars, then a sandwich at Molinari, an authentic Italian deli. Then Chinatown.

Fior d’Italia we found online. The reviews were extraordinary and it claims to be the oldest Italian restaurant in America. It was one of the best Italian meals we have ever had and it lived in our memories for years afterward. Our waiter told us the head chef is a gentleman in his eighties who comes in every single day just to make the sauces, and you can taste it. There was flavor in every bite. They also brought lunch out with a personal bowl of parmesan each, like they knew the way to our hearts.

We walked it off down Lombard Street, went to the botanical gardens, and that was a perfect first visit. Then we loaded the van and drove across the Golden Gate into Sausalito.

The redwoods

Clam Beach, California

Clam Beach was two days and a good change from city life. We had a photo shoot with some shells. The next morning we walked the same beach and were the only two people on it.

Then up to the Trinidad area for a morning hike on the Lady Bird Johnson Grove trail, through towering giants. Then Fern Canyon, which I think is in one of the Jurassic Park movies. It is a hike up a stream with fern-covered walls standing over both sides of you. It was pretty.

Prairie Creek Redwoods for a different set of views, sitting up at the top watching the clouds roll in off the ocean. Then Trees of Mystery, because we had to. Then Jedediah Smith Redwoods to finish it.

Crater Lake and the Oregon coast

We stopped at all the viewpoints on the drive at Crater Lake, then made the trek down to the water like everybody does. We spent the day lounging and swimming and made the long walk back up for sunset.

Cannon Beach after that, because you have to walk the beach from The Goonies. This is our time. Down here.

Seaside, Oregon

We stopped at Seaside Brewery for a beer and some game planning, and then in Seaside we found a swing set on the beach. Yes please. We built a fire and watched the sunset take over. What a day.

The next morning it was the shipwreck on the beach at Warrenton, then up to Astoria and up the Astoria Column to the 360 viewpoint at the top. Jesse loved it. I thought I was going to die, so I clung to the doorway and looked outside real quick while he walked the whole way around. Then down to the Columbia River Maritime Museum to see the ships, and of course one more Goonies stop before leaving town, because we had to see the house.

Long Beach, Washington

Long Beach was next, which calls itself the world’s longest beach. We took a stroll, checked out town, found a big frying pan.

Olympic and Seattle

Olympic National Park. This trip just kept delivering.

The Hoh is so cool and so mossy. Hall of Mosses, the Spruce trail and the Hoh River trail are all a must. And then we came out in Forks, in the land of werewolves and vampires.

We loaded the van onto our first car ferry and rode it through Rich Passage into Seattle.

Beecher's, Seattle

Pike Place Market first, obviously. We walked around looking at the vendors and watched the guys yelling and throwing the day’s catch, which is the most touristy thing in the city and genuinely entertaining. Then straight across the street to Beecher’s handmade cheese, which was hands down amazing. I don’t joke when it comes to food. You can tell by the looks on both of our faces.

Happy and full, we went to the gum wall to leave our own sticky mark on the city. There are certain touristy things you just have to do. We finished the day at Elysian Brewery, one of our favorites, and planned out the next one.

That next day was the Seattle Center, and up the Space Needle. Jesse loved every minute of it. Not my idea of a good time, though it is pretty. He made it out onto The Loupe, the rotating bar at the top with the glass floor, which is my actual nightmare. I did not look down. The manhattan helped.

Rainier, Spokane, Coeur d’Alene

Mount Rainier

After city life we usually want a refresher in nature, so Mount Rainier came next. The Skyline Trail was epic, so pretty. There are also the prettiest bathroom views we have ever seen up there, which is not a joke. Another one of those unforgettable hikes. We would do it again.

Then Spokane, and the riverfront walk to start the morning. I am a sucker for a good old diner and Frank’s is one of them. It was perfect. The food was quick and easy and you sit at the counter in an old train car.

Coeur d'Alene, Idaho

Coeur d’Alene was a stop for exactly one reason, and the reason was Jesse playing golf.

Glacier

Then Montana. Perfection.

We drove the Going to the Sun Road and explored all around Babb before heading back to camp and getting ready for the Grinnell Glacier hike. Five days there, full of fall color and chilly mornings and beautiful scenery. The Grinnell hike itself is written down elsewhere, because it is the piece of this trip that changed the most for us.

What is not written down is what happened on the way out.

I always talk about how the universe brings things and people into your life at exactly the right time. My years on St. John taught me that the universe takes care of you.

We were coming down that trail talking about my little island and the people on it, and I was telling Jesse about some friends of mine who spend their summers in Montana and live and work on St. John in the winter, and how long it had been since I had seen them.

Less than ten minutes later I looked up, and there on a trail in the middle of Glacier National Park were those two faces from St. John.

Mind blown. Thank you, universe, for the reminder of how amazing this all is.

We shot the shit for a few minutes, swapped new numbers and made a plan to grab a beer at the bar in town.

Glacier National Park

There are three things in life I am afraid of: heights, snakes and bears. Bears are always somewhere in the back of my head when I am hiking. We are always prepared and we have been lucky so far. Driving back to camp after the Grinnell hike, we found our first grizzly in the wild. What made it so special was that it was a momma with two cubs, one brown and one black.

This trip gave us so much, and Montana filled a longing I had carried for years. Those five days were ideal.

Home

We might as well stop in Yellowstone, so we did, and watched Old Faithful go. We took in the Tetons on the way to Jackson Hole, so at least we can say we have been.

Rolling back into our home state we had to hit Strawberry Hot Springs, which is one of the best we have. We have been there several times and in every season. Winter and fall are the best of them.

Coming down out of the mountains we saw some of the best aspen color we have ever seen. We stopped in Frisco. And then it was city life again.

Not every day out there is a highlight. Plenty of those forty-nine were just moving days, nothing too exciting, because sometimes you need a chill day to recharge. Sometimes we just find a nice BLM spot and stay in the nature.

That is the trip too.

Trace this trip on the map

Karlee & Jesse

Yellowstone and the Tetons

Wed, 26 May 2021 00:00:00 +0000

We had the inflatable kayaks on this trip, and they changed how the whole thing felt.

Grand Teton National Park

Paddle all day, camp, do it again. There was one stretch where we had to haul out, carry the boats a few minutes overland and put back in on the other side. How fun is that.

Grand Teton National Park

Being on the water gives you an angle on a place you cannot get from a road or a trail. This was our best Tetons and Yellowstone visit and the kayaks are most of the reason why.

Yellowstone National Park

We went to the far side of Yellowstone this time and found bison everywhere, a whole herd of them with babies running around.

The bison

One of our most memorable mornings in the van happened on a park road.

I was driving. We came up over a little hill where the road curved to the right, and we both saw it at the same time. A bison, running, on a line for the road.

Everything slowed down. Like the Matrix.

I felt like he and I made eye contact, and we both decided the other one was not a threat, and he stopped dead in his tracks.

It was the craziest thing.

The fox

Jesse

This one is mine. Karlee was in the van and missed the whole thing.

Sunset at Jenny Lake, the whole Teton range lit up behind the water, and I was out there by myself. Then a fox walked up. Not past me. Up to me. And he stopped.

He looked at me. I looked at him. Neither of us moved. I honestly don’t know how long it went on, but it was long enough that I stopped thinking “wild animal, be careful” and started thinking “okay, so what are we doing here?”

Then he answered that. There was a hat lying on the ground, and he grabbed it and started flinging it around in his teeth, and every toss landed a little closer to me. Then he dropped it and looked right at me. If you have ever had a dog, you know exactly what that look means.

So I walked over, picked up the hat, and threw it.

And he went and got it!

We played fetch. A fox and a guy on the shore of Jenny Lake, at sunset, playing fetch. A few rounds, until he was done and I was done, and then we just sat down near each other and watched the mountains and the water.

That doesn’t happen. Wild animals leave, and they should. But for a few minutes neither of us was afraid and neither of us wanted anything. I will never forget it.

Camp

We filled our bottles straight out of the river through the MSR MiniWorks, and we found one of the prettiest river campsites we have ever had, out on BLM land. I would have stayed extra days there just for the campsite.

We drove home to Denver through the parks instead of the highways. We always will.

Yellowstone and the Tetons, season by season, in our mountain west guide

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Karlee & Jesse

New England, Corner to Corner

Fri, 06 Sep 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Acadia was a planned trip. I wanted to show Jesse more of the east coast, and it had been a long time since I had seen it myself.

Two weeks. The Finger Lakes to the far corner of Maine and back.

Newport, then Salem

We walked the Cliff Walk in Newport with the mansions on one side and the water on the other, then drove up to Salem. We stopped at Proctor’s Ledge on the way in, where the hangings happened, before going into town.

Salem in the fall has an energy to it. We got in as much of it as we could and finished the night at Notch Brewery. I want to go back at Halloween and see the town really come alive and embrace its past.

Portland

A friend of mine lives in Portland, so Portland got a couple of days.

Breweries. Fresh lobster and crab. A speakeasy after dark. We found the quirkiest bar in town while we were killing time waiting on a brunch reservation, which is how the best bars always get found. We walked the promenade out to the lighthouse, finished at Oxbow Brewing, and ended up on a roof.

Camden

We met my friend in Camden and spent the afternoon out on his boat.

I found my love of sailing on St. John, and most of the time he was my captain. He was going to teach me to sail properly and get me my license the year I decided to leave the island for the last time. Some plans do not get finished. But you can spend one afternoon on the water with the person who started it and feel the whole thing come back.

The Beehive

Acadia is my favorite national park on the east coast. It is beautiful.

Jesse led us up the Beehive.

In his defense, neither of us knew how exposed it was going to be. I have a deathly fear of heights and it seems to get worse the older I get. We looked at the trail a little, agreed that if it got to a point where I did not like it we would turn around, and started up.

I admit that I do not like to fail. So I kept going.

The Beehive, Acadia

I could have turned around. Honestly. There were a few times where I had to stop, close my eyes, shove my face into a crack in the rock and breathe through it. And then we were past the point of turning around, and it was finish the hike or admit defeat.

After a few stops and some fearful tears, we made it to the summit.

Jesse and I still talk about that hike. Yes, it scared the shit out of me. It also pushed me out of my comfort zone and I am better for it. I have done a lot of things over these years that push my personal limits, and that hike is a constant reminder of what I am capable of if I just try.

Sunrise, every morning

We saw the sunrise every morning we were at Acadia.

Acadia, from the bed

We would get up there an hour early, which costs you nothing when your bed comes with you. We lay there a little longer watching the windows, waiting for the color to start. Then I got up and made coffee while we layered up, and we went out into the cold.

Sunrise is always worth it. The potential of a whole day waking up in front of you.

Then down into Bar Harbor for fresh blueberry pancakes, which is the correct way to come off a mountain.

Home the long way

Stowe, Vermont

We stopped in Stowe on the way back to the Finger Lakes. Heady Topper from The Alchemist is one of my favorite IPAs and I wanted to put one in Jesse’s hand.

Then Burlington at sunset with the sailboats out in the bay. Local Ben and Jerry’s, obviously. Magic Hat before we left town.

And then the Adirondacks, for the first time in the van.

New England, season by season, in our east coast guide

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Karlee & Jesse

The First Trip, Before the Build Was Done

Mon, 09 Jul 2018 00:00:00 +0000

The van had a floor and a ceiling. That was the whole build.

No bed frame. No galley. No water. None of the things that would eventually make it a house. We threw a futon mattress down on the floor and called it a bedroom.

Then we drove it to Yellowstone for twelve days.

We were not being impatient. We had been drawing this thing on paper for months and talking about it over dinner, and now it was sitting in the driveway with its floor in, and we wanted to know what it actually felt like out there. Not in theory. On a road, at night, a long way from Golden.

Neither of us had ever seen Yellowstone, and neither had the van.

The first night

We did not get far. Somewhere well short of the park we pulled off onto BLM land and stopped.

I have never been able to explain that night to anybody. We were lying on a mattress on the floor of an unfinished van with the walls still bare, and it already felt like ours. That was the night it stopped being a project. Eight years later we are still sleeping in it.

In the morning we rolled into Dubois and found the Cowboy Cafe, and we have never gotten over it. Any time the road puts us anywhere near Dubois we pull in. Eight years of driving this country and that is still true.

Twelve days

We did the geyser loop at Old Faithful and stood around with everybody else waiting on the next one to go. We hit the big things. We took the small hikes outside the park that nobody writes down. We set alarms for five in the morning and drove around looking for bears, which is what you do when everything is still new and you cannot quite believe you get to be there.

Dinner came off a Jetboil, because the Jetboil was the kitchen.

Grand Teton National Park, July 2018

The first photograph of this trip is not the van and it is not the build. It is the Teton range.

What twelve days told us

Nothing broke.

That is the whole report. Twelve days of driving it and sleeping in it and eating out of it, and we came home without one single thing on the list to change. Long enough to know. Short enough that we had not committed to anything yet.

The part we did not see coming was how much we liked having our house with us. Not the freedom of it exactly. The having of it.

We finished the build that fall and moved in about two weeks later, in October.

Yellowstone and the Tetons, season by season, in our mountain west guide

Trace this trip on the map

Karlee & Jesse