Chasing waterfalls.. and several parks
Yosemite has so much to do that we took a whole day to explore it and could have spent at least one more day there. From our campsite, we drove into the valley and started at the visitors center info desk. The volunteer suggested a shorter hike that took us through a meadow with views of upper and lower Yosemite Falls. The farthest point on the loop was the lower falls and we scrambled up the rocks to get closer. I think this is one of the most beautiful hikes that we've done this trip. After we got back to the parking lot, we drove to Glacier Point where we saw amazing views of Yosemite Valley. Bridalveil Falls was closed for construction at the trailhead, but we saw it and several others from a distance. On our way to the point, we stopped at the "tunnel" lookout that had a view straight down the valley. We had planned to explore the northern parts of the park outside the valley, but it was getting late in the day so we called it a day.
In the morning, we drove past Lassen Volcanic and Redwoods (already done) and continued north to Crater Lake in Oregon. This was another of my top parks for views, but a lot of the park was closed for the winter still. We drove along the west rim of the lake and stopped a few times at lookout points. The east rim road was closed so we couldn't make a loop around the lake, and the hiking trail down to the lake was closed as well. It was getting late again already so we found a nice campsite in the national forest just outside the park. One of the reviews of the campsite mentioned hot springs a few minutes away. That was a detour for the morning. On some more public land to the west, there was a short hike to the hot springs. We weren't sure what to expect but there were a handful of locals in their swimsuits in the natural hot tubs.
After the hot springs, we drove further north to Olympic National Park in Washington. We were having a slower day so it was already late in the day when we got near the park. In the morning, we got right to it. Highway 101 loops through the park with several shoots off to different destinations. One reason Olympic is cool is that is has such variety inside it: huge mountains, coastal beaches, and even rainforest! Our first stop was Hurricane Ridge for a taste of the mountains. We had hoped to hike the Hurricane Hill trail but all of the parking was full; it was a busy park. Then we drove back down out of the mountains and had lunch along Crecent Lake. After lunch we kept driving to Rialto Beach and hiked to the Hole in the Wall, a stone arch on the beach. The sand was coarse and gray; it reminded us of the stamp sands back in the UP. The next stop was Hoh Rainforest. The parking lot was very busy again, but we found a spot and hiked the Hall of the Mosses trail. There are over 100 species of moss in the park; I don't think I saw them all. It was getting late again but we stopped at Ruby Beach and Fourth Beach on our way out of the park.
We wanted to be able to get up and visit Mt Rainier first thing in the morning, so we drove through the night a few hours before stopping for the night. The last half hour of the trip was through a very curvey mountain highway in the dark. We passed a bunch of tricked out cars on a pullout that looked like they could have been street racing; that's different, we don't have that back home. A bit further up the road, there are several cars stopped with their four-ways on. We slow down and a lady runs up and asks if we have cell signal, and if we do, to call 911. A car had crashed through the guardrail and gone over the cliff! The driver walked away without a scratch. After the police and paramedics arrived, we were cleared to go and drove the last 15 minutes to a DNR horse campsite just outside the park.
Mt Rainier was another cool park. We stopped and hiked through the snow to Narada Falls; the mist felt nice. Then we drove in to Paridise which seemed like it would be a very popular skiing destination in the winter, considering there were people skiing when we were there! We hiked up the snowy slope about a mile before turning around. I was surprised how tired I was; I blame the elevation. On the way down, we ran through the snow, blowing past people carefully walking (while giving them plenty of space of course). That was a lot of fun, and we made good time on the way back down. We forgot about sunscreen though and got fried from the sun and the sunlight reflecting off of the snow. After the hike, we had a picnic at a turnoff on our way out of the park.
After our time at Mt Rainier, we stopped in Seattle for dinner with Teal's aunt on our way to North Cascades National Park. Once again, we drove through the night a few hours to camp near the park, but there wasn't as much excitement this time, thankfully.
Highway 20 is the main route through North Cascades, and we followed that to the visitors center to start the day. There are plenty of trails, but several that we had planned on hiking were still covered in snow for the winter, and another had a completely full parking lot. Diablo Pass Overlook was another popular spot, but we snagged a parking spot and took in the views. Each curve in the road brought another great view of the park.
Glacier National Park was the next on our list, but they have a reservation ticket system for the main road through the park that is sold out for almost the entire summer. Each morning they release 1/4 of the tickets for two days in advance. This morning, we tried to get tickets for the 23rd, but the website locked up and the 145 vehicle tickets were gone in less than 4 minutes. We've changed our plan to go down to Yellowstone first and go back up to Glacier if we can get a ticket, or to go back west inbetween Badlands and Teddy Roosevelt National Parks. We're a few hours from Yellowstone today so that's next.