From Seattle to Yellowstone and points inbetween

Day 14

Another State Capitol today, we’re off to Salem for the tour there.

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An imposing building in the centre of town it’s not the prettiest capitol I’ve ever seen but the tour is great and the view over Salem is great.

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Within the Capitol itself there are 4 images depicting the history of Oregon…. These are incredibly detailed and I spend far too long studying them!

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From Salem we head off to Silver Falls State Park, this is a park of waterfalls, they’re everywhere so we pick the 3 or 4 that sound the best on the maps and head there.

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Again I think that this would be more spectacular in late spring…. There are a number of falls that are completely dry and many others are a shadow of what they’ll be when in full flow.
It’s a lovely day though, and we walk for miles amongst the trees and the wildlife, stopping at a shallow pool to watch the trout swimming through whilst chatting to a young couple visiting the area on their honeymoon.

Our next stop is Mount Hood Railroad, it’s not far down the road, but unfortunately it only runs on certain days of the week and today is not one of them.
We take the details of tomorrow’s trip but are undecided as it will take the majority of the day.

A fascinating stop next, the Bonneville Dam is interesting for reasons other than the Dam part…. There’s an abundance of fish in this river, and fish and dams don’t normally mix.

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Bonneville has a trick up its sleeve however. This amazing device is a fish ladder….. essentially it’s a series of switchbacks that allows the fish to swim past the dam as if it wasn’t there…. From inside the building glass windows allow viewing of the fish on their journey.

Unfortunately the dam’s visitor center closes at 4pm today so we decide to take a leisurely trip through the Columbia River Gorge stopping initially at Multnomah Falls. This is the unofficial centre of the falls area and we take a walk up to the famous bridge that crosses the main falls area

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This is a truly amazing area, I could spend days walking through the countryside enjoying the sounds of the water and the breeze rustling through the grasses

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Eventually, after one final spectacular waterfall we sit in the car by the side of the railroad tracks waiting for Mum to wave at another train…. As we do, we chat about tomorrow and decide that we want to experience the train ride on the Mount Hood Railroad, this means we need to stay locally tonight so we head to The Dalles and find a hotel.

Day 15

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Having decided yesterday that we’re going to do the railroad trip, it’s back to Hood River this morning to buy the tickets… we opt for First Class in the upper observation car and settle in for the ride.

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The scenery is amazing and it’s nice to be just a tourist for a while rather than worrying about driving. That said, the trip itself is something of a let-down, the sound on board the train fails early into the trip, so we don’t have the commentary for most of the day, meaning that we lost out on lots of information.

The trip stops midway for 90 minutes or so to allow a lunchbreak and leg stretch…. There’s a small but interesting museum here as well as a general store serving fresh made paninis.

On the journey back I take a walk through the consist and eventually discover that this railroad allows us to stand outside at the front of the train.
I get there just in time for the train to do an emergency stop as we round a bend and discover a man walking in the middle of the line.
He doesn’t even look around when the driver sounds the whistle and we have to sit behind him for nearly 10 minutes before he finally looks around, shrugs and moves to the side.

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Speaking to the train driver when we get back to the station, it turns out the man on railway line is a local drug abuser and well known to the railroad and the police.

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After alighting from the train, we decide to head to Mount Hood itself and take a look at the visitors centre at the top…. My Mum actually remembers the explosion, she was working for the UK civil service North American section at the time and the eruption messed with the communications apparently.

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Just before we leave, we spend a quiet moment at the memorial for those who lost their lives in the 1980 eruption. A trail from here takes us back to the car.

Before I left the UAE, I ordered a host of spare parts for my Corvette from various places in the US, shipping them to a friend from a Corvette forum who lives in Puyallup WA.
Tonight is the night that I plan to collect them, it’s 9pm before we roll in to his street but luckily he’s retired and doesn’t have an issue with us arriving that late.

From Puyallup we drive to a hotel in Tumwater where we bed down for the night, our penultimate in the US for this trip.

Day 16

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Olympia State House is our first port of call this morning…. The Washington campus is quiet at this time of day, the smell of new mown grass is heavy in the year and it’s a lovely morning to just stroll around.
There’s no tour today, so we just walk through the building sticking our heads into any room that we can!

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There’s a great display of how the offices looked in the 1940’s when the building was first developed.

From the State House it’s a short drive into Olympic National Park, this is a huge expanse of openness with few roads running through it, so it’s a long journey around the outside edge of the park to get to the locations that we want to see.

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On our way through the park we stop at various visitors centres and short walks. One of them, a ranger led tour, takes us through a forest where all the trees are dying, killed by a moss-like fungus that slowly covers every branch.

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Whilst we were planning for this trip Mum was determined to stick her feet in the Pacific Ocean….. today was the perfect opportunity and we walked down to the shoreline.
Having got there however it was too cold and misty to do more than pose for a chilly photo, so we moved on to Cape Flattery

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Cape Flattery is the most Northwesterly part of the lower 48 and though the sun was shining there was definitely a nip in the air… having walked for 20 minutes or so to reach the viewing platform, the chill was actually quite welcome!

Leaving the Cape, we decided to head back into Seattle itself, I needed to do some shopping prior to our midday flight out.
The fastest way back to Seattle is via the ferry, a quick check of the Internet on my phone gives me the flight times, Sat Nav knows the way to the ferry terminal and if I can just shave 5 minutes off the estimated time of arrival we’ll make the earlier ferry and save 90 minutes.

Unfortunately the Washington State Police aren’t as keen on me catching the ferry!!
Cresting the brow of a hill I spy several police cars and bikes in a layby at the bottom.
Though I stand on the brakes, I know the game’s up…. We’ve had a great run across nearly 6k miles and in fact this is the first time in the 25k miles or so that I’ve covered over the years that I’ve ever been stopped.

As I pull in I remember the differences between the US and the UK, I stay in the vehicle, make sure my hands are where he can see them and make no sudden moves. Even so, his hand never strays far from his weapon and his colleagues are alert too.

His body language relaxes completely when he hears my accent though and he’s actually a decent guy.

I’m told that if I was a US citizen I’d have been arrested for the speed I was going, however as I’m a tourist I’m written a ticket for a large financial penalty and that’s it. (It’s now 6.40pm on Friday)
I ask the Trooper how I pay it…. He says go to the courthouse on Monday.
I can’t do this as I fly out of the US in 24hrs I say, can I pay at a local police station…. Nope.

In the end, we discover that the only thing I can do is go to a bank on Saturday morning, get them to cut a cashier’s cheque for $300 and mail it to the court through DHL.

We eventually make the 9pm ferry, arriving back into Seattle at gone 10pm.
Rather tired, we head for the first hotel that’s somewhere near where we want to be tomorrow.

Day 17

Last night’s hotel turns out to be a complete flea pit, Mum tells me that she spent the night sleeping in a chair as she discovered bedbugs within a minute or two of getting into bed.

I make a formal complaint and am promised that my card will be refunded.

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Our first stop today is the famous troll statue.
This statue is part of an art project to bring something to the poor communities of Seattle, if you’re trying to find it, be careful…. This isn’t the nicest part of town and there are 2 streets with the same name (we went to the wrong one first!)

After stopping for a pic and to read the plaque, we head off to the shops of University Village.
I always buy my computer equipment in the US as it’s much cheaper than anywhere else, so a shiny new Vaio Z series gets added to the pile of luggage.
In addition, I was determined to buy a new watch whilst I was here, since I was 15 I’ve been promising myself a Tag Heuer, 20 years later I’ve finally got one. This means a huge amount to me and the lump in my throat as I walk out of the jewelers almost renders me speechless.

Our final stop on the way to the airport was supposed to be the Klondike Gold Rush State Park.
Alas, it’s closed permanently, so we browse around the firefighters memorial nearby… again, if visiting, be aware that this isn’t the nicest part of the city.

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Though we’ve been hanging the time out as best we can, the inescapable fact is that our holiday is coming to an end and it’s time for us to head back to the airport, return the rental car and get on the first of our two flights home….. just as we came here via LAX for reasons of cost and availability, we’re flying back via Chicago. First Class on American Airlines all the way should ease the stresses though.

Wow!! Awesome, awesome photos!

Mark

Unfortunately I don't think the map facility is going to work for this trip as there's too many waypoints.

But here's the basic details.

Total Miles 5260
Fuel Cost $1038
Fuel Used 259.6 Gallons
Fuel Cost Ave $4 per gallon exactly

Ave Economy 20.3mpg (US) or 25.3mpg (UK)

We had a great trip and we're both looking forward to another new area next time...... not sure where that will be yet though!

Thanks for the wonderful report and photos, I have really enjoyed riding along on your adventure through them.

Will be watching out for your next great adventure !

Dave.

Thanks Dave, I think the next one will be 2014, I'm considering doing a storm-chasing tour next year, but not sure that'll be too suitable to blog!

Glad you all enjoy the reports, I enjoy writing them and love reading them back years later, it's a neat way of reliving the trips.