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 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.
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 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.
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
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 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.
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.
Karlee & Jesse
