Photos from California
To the West!
For two weeks, this Honda CRV was my home, shared with two good friends (one four-legged). It was a bit cramped at times but living out of it was just a means to an end. In fact, I shouldn’t even call it our home. It brought us to our home, a new one each night we were on the road.
It was February 19th, the first day of our adventure. We took off late after getting packed, trying to escape the bitter cold of North Dakota as soon as we could. We woke up Wednesday morning in Glendive, MT ready to hit the road again so we made our coffee, cooked some food, and took off west across Montana. The day went by quick and the weather was chasing us.
We got into the gallatin range as night fell and searched around for a place to camp but ended up pulling into Big Sky. As we looked through some maps we came across a short hike leading to a waterfall. Since the night was still young, we thought it would be the perfect time to stretch our legs. By the time we hit the trail, the clouds began to part just as the moon was coming out over the peaks. Luckily, the trail was well worn so snow wouldn’t be an issue but still we left our four legged friend behind in the comfort of a warm vehicle. It was nice to let our eyes adjust and walk by moonlight. The hike started out nice, quiet, but as the moon reached further and further into the sky, the world lit up around us.
I don’t usually like driving at night when there’s a sight to see, but the full moon was out and the scenery was lit up so I kept on. Road conditions weren’t ideal but there were things to see, so I didn’t mind driving slow and taking in the moonlit view. As we made our way down south from Big Sky, we skirted the western edge of Yellowstone National Park. As we entered the park, as if on queue, a small group of bull elk surrounded the road, casting massive silhouettes of their antlers. This is the thing I most regret not photographing but they were awfully close and didn’t seem to appreciate our company.
As we approached the Idaho border, so too did we approach the end of the public land, and as great as the driving was going, the long hours on the road were setting in. So, we were keeping our eye out for a place to call home for what remained of the night. With no better alternatives among the deep snow covered roads, we ended up in a snowmobile parking lot. It wasn’t ideal but all I needed was a bit of shut eye before we hit the road again. Four hours later the sun was up and soon after our coffee was made; we were ready to see Idaho.
It was a gorgeous sunrise. The roads quickly cleared as we made our way out of the mountains and into the snake river valley, and we were back to highway speeds. Once we had cell service again we plotted our course across Idaho. We decided US Route 20 would take us through more scenery so we stuck to it and made some miles. As we made our way through the state, I grew quite fond of it. It seemed like the perfect hub between my home state and the west, rural flatland in the valley with adventurous mountains looming all around it.
How many deer do you count?
When we found our way to the snake river we stopped off to take in the view while we cooked up some breakfast and made some more coffee (it was a big part of this trip). From there our next stop was Craters of the Moon National Monument, which had been on my “to see” list for awhile. The snow-pack covering it all left a lot to the imagination, but it was still a sight to see. Not far past we spotted a herd of Elk and a sun bathed hillside filled with deer. It was all just enough to make the long drive go by a bit quicker.
We had just a few more scenic mountains to go through as we followed the Oregon Trail into it’s name sake; Oregon. It was getting late as we started into Oregon, but the moon was out again soon enough. Our mission for the night was to make it to some BLM land with a hot spring that I had found out was along our route. Our hopes weren’t terribly high so we were pleasantly surprised when we arrived.
It was magnificent; exactly what we needed. It was freezing out but that didn’t matter. The hot springs ranged from hot to too hot, and they melted away all the cold North Dakota had instilled in us.
Unfortunately, we still had miles to make so we had to leave this heavenly spot behind before we were ready. We were nearly to our midpoint. The seed that sprouted into our two week road trip, snowboarding at Mt. Bachelor. As we approached Bend, we were amazed by the lack of snow and the open forest we were driving through. Little did we know how drastic of change the landscape was about to undertake.
The hot springs had replenished us and we were ready to hit the slopes hard and hard it was. With three days of non-stop snow and wind, we spent three days on a mountain we never saw. By the final day we saw more than four feet of snow fall in the three days we snowboarded.
It was perfect for snowboarding and our party had a great time but the traffic-ridden white-out drive through constant fresh snow wasn’t so fun. Still, it’s hard to complain when a lot of snow is exactly what we all wanted.
After leaving Bend behind, the white out conditions hardly let up as we drove south to more appropriate weather. South because our original route farther west was blocked by an avalanche. Slowly the snow turned to rain and it was nice to see the road again, although it would still be a few days until we saw the sun.
To be continued in another post, one filled with pictures of Coastal Redwoods…
Until then you can check out more photos from this trip in my gallery