Crater Lake National Park

Crater Lake National Park is a wonderful must-see National Park.  The lake is breathtakingly beautiful, and you can easily see the entire park in one day.  We stayed for three nights at the Crater Lake Resort, which was 25 miles SE of Crater Lake on Highway 62.  The campground was comfortable, and offered  full hook-ups for $30.00 a night.

We went through the National Park twice, but also had time to explore the surrounding area which included checking out nearby Kimball State Park and Collier Memorial State Park which offers full hookup sites on a first come first serve basis.  Collier State Park even offers a logging museum which is quite interesting.

We were there in July, and as you can see it was still pretty chilly and some snow was still on the ground, so plan accordingly.

Getting Ready For Florida

Well, it's that time of year again, and I'm getting excited.  After spending half of the year at home we are once again getting ready to depart for Florida.  We think that the trailer is ready, although there is a pesky leak that hopefully got fixed after caulking the roof a couple of weeks ago.  The car just got new heavy duty break pads on the back along with a new caliper - the old one broke apparently.  New back tires are going on the truck tomorrow.  Outside of that, it's just a matter of loading the trailer up, enjoying the holidays, and then heading out January 7th.

We're going to winter in Salt Spring Recreation Area until March 10th this year.  Then we'll be heading to the keys for two months.  We're booked into John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park for 10 days then Curry Hammock for two weeks.  We had intended to book Long Key for the two weeks after Curry Hammock, but had to change plans when we found out that the road work they had planned will close the park until May.  As an alternative, we booked two weeks into W.P.Franklin North, a US Army Corps of Engineers park.  It will make a nice change, and it will be good to see something different.  It's between Fort Myers and Lake Okeechobee, and our site is right on the water.  Should be interesting.  After that, we'll head down to Bahia Honda for two weeks, then travel up the coast to Jonathon Dickenson State Park near Jupiter, Florida, for two nights.  Our final Florida stop is Anastasia State Park near Saint Augustine.  We're staying there for three nights.  We will probably stay at Hilton Head Island for one night, then enjoy a one week stay at Huntington Beach State Park in the Myrtle Beach area - one of our favorites.

Hopefully I'll be able to access the Internet during this time.  I get service through my Palm Pre phone - it has a WiFi hot spot for up to five devices, and works really well.  However, the service was very shaky in Salt Springs, and often we'd have to drive a few miles in the truck to pick up 3G.

Miracle - Our Traveling Companion

Our Old English Sheepdog Miracle (Mirra for short) is our constant companion, and a great traveling dog.  We got Mirra soon after we lost our male Old  English Sheepdog Buster.  Buster made it to the ripe old age (for an Old English Sheepdog) of 13.  My husband and I were heartbroken over loosing him.  We lost him right before I retired, and we had our first big post-retirement trip scheduled - a winter in Arizona, then stops along the way home in Texas and the Florida Panhandle and Keys.  I couldn't envision making this trip without my Buster, and just had to get another dog to ease my breaking heart.  We searched for a dog that was old enough to travel with us but was still a puppy, and lucky for us we found a breeder in New Hamshire that had a 41/2 month female that she had decided she didn't want to show and would sell.  Anxiously, we went to pick Miracle up.  She greeted us by jumping up on us and licking our faces all over, something we have now gotten used to and call a "mugging".  She jumped into the car with us and I could tell from the trip home that she was going to be a wonderful traveling dog.  She has accompanied us on all of our trips since, and has brought us so much laughter, joy and love.   Here's a cute video of Miracle's first encounter with Sheep that I put on YouTube. 

From Coast to Coast on Vancouver Island

Pacific Rim National Park, Tofino

As the grand finale of our 2010 cross country tour, we decided to make Vancouver Island our last northwestern stop before heading home.  We had just finished visiting Olympic National Park which was nearby the ferry in Port Angeles, so it was a natural extension of our trip.

Our first stay was at Crystal Cover Resort in Tofino which is on the West side of Vancouver Island.  The drive to Tofino was somewhat rough once we got away from Victoria.  The road took lots of really sharp turns and wound its way through mountains.  Finally we reached Pacific Rim National Park, so I knew that we weren't far from our destination.  It was foggy and damp, a theme that remained throughout our entire stay in Tofino.  We pulled into our campground late in the day, checked in and headed to our site.  The site was extremely narrow and hard to get into, but Bob, ever the skilled driver, got it in after much grumbling. The resort was really quite beautiful though, and was right on McKenzie Beach.  Although no campsites were on the beach it was a short walk to the access path.

We had dinner out in the small town of Tofino that night and were treated to a beautiful view of the Pacific Ocean.  The next day we took a whale watch, expecting to see Orca Whales, but found out that you rarely see them.  We did see some Humpback Whales and lots of Sea Lions laying around on rocks.  The next few days were spent exploring Pacific Rim National Park which is outstanding, but after just having been to Olympic National Park probably didn't seem as spectacular as it should have since the two parks are quite similar.  Still, we loved hiking along the Ocean every day.  However, by the time our five days were up in Tofino we were anxious to get going because of the eternal fog and damp cold air, which was really getting to us.  Keywords for Tofino - foggy, damp, cold, expensive.

Whale watch from Tofino

Sea Lions seen on whale watch

Tight fit!

Weirs Beach Campground in Victoria was our next destination.  I had booked us into an oceanfront campsite for five days.   It felt like a long drive from Tofino to Victoria, but we arrived at our campground fairly early and we were pleased with our site, although once again it was a little tight.  However, the clear sunny weather more than made up for any displeasure felt, and we happily settled in.

Of course we went to Buttchart Gardens, a must see in Victoria, and we played golf at nearby course.  Outside of that our five days were spent enjoying the beach and the sunshine, walking, reading books, and just chilling out.

Moonlight Over Weirs Beach

Buttchart Gardens

Although we loved our stay in Vancouver Island, I must caution anyone going that it is VERY expensive.  Everything is taxed so much that it really costs to stay there for any amount of time.  I'm glad that we went, but think that it may be a very long time before we stay in Canada again because of the expense.

Bison Crossing River in Yellowstone

I took this video in 2010 in Yellowstone National Park.  A couple of bison crossed the river, then went across the highway.  Notice Bob quickly running back to the truck as the one big bison comes near.  They will charge you if they get aggravated, so you have to be careful!

Olympic National Park

Bob and me on Hurricane Ridge

During our 2010 trip from New Jersey, the furthest Northwest US point that we traveled to was Olympic National Park. This huge 632,000 acre park was designated Olympic Forest Reserve in 1897 by Grover Cleveland, and was declared a national park by Franklin Roosevelt in 1938.

The diversity of the park is what makes this place so unique and wonderful to visit. You can see rain forests, soak in hot springs, hike along the rocky ocean beaches, or explore Mount Olympus with its glaciers and alpine meadows. And we got to do it all!

We stayed in the RV campground adjacent to the Sol Duc Hot Springs which is run by Aramark. We were very disappointed by the campground, which for $30.00 a night was little more than a parking lot with trailers and RVs shoved up against each other. There was water and electric, but no sewer, and no bathrooms in the campground. You had to walk over to the lodge and shower for a charge (I think it was $1.00) at the Hot Springs. The only nice thing about the campground was that our site backed up the the woods where you could walk along the Sol Duc River. You are within walking distance of the hot springs, and it costs $12.25 to go into the pool and hot springs for the day. We did this one evening, and were disappointed that the mineral water from the hot springs was warm, not hot, and very crowded. I honestly think that the bordering Sol Duc National Park campground is a much better deal if you have your own generator.

Sol Duc River bordering our campground

Deer wandering through the campground

Outside of not liking the campground that much, I will say that the location was really convenient, since it was the closest location to Port Angeles where we were planning on catching the ferry over to Canada on our next stop. It was also pretty central to all of the sights.

The first day we spent hiking through the Hoh Rain Forest, which had fascinating foliage. We even got treated to seeing some large elk on the walk. Olympic National Park has the largest herd of Roosevelt elk in the world.

Hoh Rain Forest

Our next stop was to see Hurricane Ridge on Mount Olympus. The views were spectacular, and we enjoyed a walk in the alpine meadows there where we saw many deer wandering around.

Deer in alpine meadows at Hurricane Ridge

View from Hurricane Ridge

View from Hurricane

Our third day was spent touring the coast, ending up at Cape Flattery, where we hiked to most northwestern point in the contiguous United States. The rugged scenery made the hike well worth the effort.

Northwestern most point of contiguous US

Lots of driftwood!

Bob on coastal walk

During our drives around the park we went through Forks, the setting of the popular Twilight series. The town really capitalized on being somewhat famous, and features Twilight tours and businesses with Twilight woven into their name such as a the “Dazzled by Twilight” store which features everything Twilight.

Looking back on our time spent in Olympic National Park, I rate it as one of the most interesting parks that we have explored so far, and one that I would love to return to. There is just so much to see and do.

Custer State Park

The elusive big horn sheep

One of my very favorite parks in the country is Custer State Park in South Dakota.  Bob and I first explored the park on a three week trip to Yellowstone National Park that we had taken before I retired.   We were camping outside of the park and only visited it for a day.  We loved it so much that we decided it deserved further exploration.  When we went cross country in 2010 we camped there for five nights and really got to enjoy this gem of a park. 

Custer State Park is like a mini-Yellowstone, but without the crowds.  You have close up adventures with the huge bison herd that resides there, the wild donkeys, antelope and even big horn sheep.  The proximity of the park to Mount Rushmore and Crazy Horse monument, the historical town of Deadwood, Wind Cave National Park and Badlands National Park make this a great central spot to stay and explore South Dakota.

We had already visited Yellowstone National Park and Glacier National Park, and although we saw bison, bear and mountain  goats we hadn't seen any big horn sheep.  We stayed in the Blue Bell campground and were very close to the wildlife loop, so every day we went around the loop and were treated to plenty of sightings of bison, antelope and the resident wild donkeys.  The donkeys are extremely tame and beg for apples or other treats that they have become used to.   Often we would be caught up in a bison traffic jam, as they surrounded your car to cross the road.  This was all wonderful, but still no sightings of big horn sheep!

The day before we left the park we were driving into our campground, and guess what we almost drove into - a female big horn sheep that froze long enough for Bob to get a shot of her, and me to get some wonderful video.  Well, that up-close encounter really made the stay for me!

This is such an outstanding park that we will return again if we are out that way.  It is more than worth the $20.00 nightly fee.

One of the many antelope we saw

Feeding the "wild" donkeys

View of Mount Rushmore from the highway

Bison seen during an evening drive on the wildlife loop

Check out my YouTube Video!

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