Tag Archives: Washington

Vacation

GAR: Day Nine – Spokane WA to East Glacier MT (375mi)

Today’s trek took us from our stop in Spokane to Glacier, driving across the upper part of Idaho, and into Montana. The upper part of Idaho wasn’t nearly as impressive as I thought it would be — not exactly as bland as Napoleon Dynamite portrayed Idaho, but more bland than I expected. And then we crossed into Montana.

Wow.

I can honestly say that I’ve never seen such amazing natural beauty as we saw in Montana today. This place is special, and boy does the landscape speak to me. We drove alongside Flathead Lake, stopping here and there for lunch and gas, and it just never got any less beautiful. We traversed the state highways, making our way toward Glacier, and the farther we drove, the more the mountains came into view. They were… are… beautiful, still with snowtops.

We arrived at the lodge, which was built in the early 1900s, and it had a quaint charm about it. No elevators, bellhops, folks opening doors for you, no TV, barely any connectivity through my Sprint card…. it’s well off the beaten path. As someone here said, they don’t believe in upgrades.

And about that snow… The Going-to-the-Sun road didn’t open on the 12th. Seems that there was a snowstorm that dumped six inches of snow at the lodge location just a few days ago. That’s about 4000′ lower than the pass through the mountains. Right now, they’re expecting the road to open no earlier than July. Now that’s some snow.

We made arrangements tonight to ride one of the Red Bus tours tomorrow. That should be a blast!

Vacation

GAR: Day Eight – Salem OR to Spokane WA (409mi)

After such a late night last night, we slept in a bit this morning. Today was a big day. Today we crossed 3000 miles on the journey, and we stopped pushing north, and began pushing east.

Our travel today was pretty uneventful, again watching the landscape slowly change from the big forests of the western inland part of Oregon to the unexpectedly scruffy prairie of eastern Washington, and then change again to the green colors that I expected from eastern Washington as we approached Spokane.

The highlight for today was visiting Multnomah Falls just outside Portland. This is a huge waterfall, filling the air with spray from its cold water. You can even hike to the top… we elected to only go as far as the bridge 60 feet or so up, which was plenty wet enough for us! The falls were really beautiful, and I coulda spent hours standing there watching the sun move across the spray. An hour with the falls was all we had time for though, so eastward we plunged.

Around lunchtime, we stopped in Cascade Locks at the Charburger Restaurant. I like going to “flavor of the area” joints, and this was definitely a good one. The whole place was decked out in western iron goods — brands, spurs, etc. — with plenty of room for tons of folks to eat. We were there a little after the lunch rush, so we got right in. I had a big ol’ half-pound BBQ-bacon-cheeseburger, with some onion rings and fries. This was just about the best hamburger I’d had in a long, long time. I dolled it up with some mayo, mustard, lettuce, pickle relish, pickles, and tomatoes for the what tasted like the perfect burger. If you’re on I-84 and looking for lunch, stop at the Charburger!

We continued driving northeast through eastern Washington’s farming areas, and stopped for some fresh cherries and strawberries. Man, there’s nothing like fruit straight from the field!

Washington’s greeted us with open arms, and tomorrow’s drive brings a short pass through Idaho before landing at Glacier National Park for three nights, followed by four nights at Yellowstone National Park. I have no idea what the connectivity will be like from either of those places, so things may be quiet on the Deauxmayne for the next week or so….