Day 144 to 149 into the Twilight Zone!

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Leaving Yosemite by what seemed like the back end of the park, we headed north on the Highway 395 we are now in America’s big country with sweeping plains to the right and the Sierra Nevada mountains in the far distance to our left. We travelled 150 miles to overnight at Lake Tahoe a beautiful lake that straddles the California and Nevada state lines. Because of Nevada’s gambling laws there are quite of few large towns that have grown here. We picked the quiet town of Tahoe City on the California side with a motel by the edge of the lake.



After another long drive we arrived at Klamath Falls, just to overnight. In Oregon you are not allowed to fill your own petrol. The girl on pump, enquired where we were from, when we said we were from the UK, said ‘Why on earth would you come to Klamath Falls?’ she had a point there was little to do in a town miles from anywhere.But we were here to visit Crater Lake, which at an elevation of 6178 ft. amazingly had a road closed to snow even in sunny June. Having travelled a lot, you can be unimpressed by some lakes, but arriving at an overlook on the edge of the extinct volcanic crater we were met with mirror like still waters reflecting the surrounding caldera. We took the fabulous scenic drive along half of the caldera, stopping for views, and watching some incredibly stupid people posing on the edge of the crater.



We have probably given ourselves a lot to do as we aim to drive back towards the coast and head north skirting the Oregon and Washington state coastline. A three to four-hour drive in the UK would seem like a long distance to travel, but here is like a drop in the ocean. But the roads are long and straight with little obstacles and are easy to drive.



Reaching the Oregon coast, we stopped at Florence a nice town and ate at a restaurant overlooking the inlet. They had a great band playing and even bought a CD of theirs to play in the car.



Keeping the Pacific Ocean to our left, we passed some lovely coastline rocky outcrops, with the cold waves creating a mist. We stopped at Cape Perpetua where we took a closer look at one of the many beautiful lighthouses. Popping into the visitor’s centre, the lady on hearing we were ‘popping in’ took great pride in saying we must stay longer and take this trail to see the blow holes and the pools by the rocks. It didn’t take too long to see but slowed us down and made a great break from the long drives we seem to be taking, in this part of the country. The sun was going down and being the weekend we passed many busy bays, (one called Seaside) with holiday makers.



We had done something we have rarely done- we hadn’t pre-booked our accommodation. Our two main websites we use, Booking.com and Expedia hadn’t given us any results for our next stop, Astoria. We thought being a large town we shouldn’t have any trouble. We were looking forward to stopping here, several movies have been set here, Short Circuit, Kindergarten Cop and the Goonies amongst others. Roaming around Astoria, we should have taken notice of the websites, every motel and even the larger, more expensive hotels were all fully booked. As it was getting late we had little choice but to head inland an hour’s drive to the city of Longview.



It was American breakfast time! Trip advisor listed a highly rated pancake house down the road from the motel. I ordered the house special buttermilk pancakes, when they arrived with accompanying eggs & bacon I couldn’t believe it. The 4 pancakes were the size of a dinner plate, with the maple syrup it was the equivalent of eating a full size Victoria sponge, it was a struggle. I looked enviously at Alison’s tea plate sized pancakes. Bloated we headed into the car. We would have liked to have gone back to Astoria to take a closer look at the town, but we wanted to get as far north as possible, aiming towards Olympic National Park at the top of north east USA. Going back to Astoria would have added a couple of hours drive. When getting back on the coastal drive, we now enter Washington state, we were disappointed, although being close to the ocean, it was mainly trees we saw. After many miles-and many trees, we arrived at Hoh in the Olympic Park. I thought we’d had enough of trees, but up in this part of the US it is a rainforest, and Washington State has plenty of rain. We wandered a couple of trails one the ‘Hall of Mosses’ has an earie feel about it with these tall trees having mosses spun from every branch.



We found a motel in Forks. Now Forks is famous as the setting of the Twilight Saga novels and it does have a backwoods feel about the place. The overnight motel was very nice and making a prompt start we drove a few miles to take a last look at this Pacific coastline. It was well worth the trip, we visited Mora on the mouth of the Quillayute River. The scene that met us was atmospheric, two mist enshrouded islets surrounded by many washed up trees. These trees having a very weak root system, then wash down the river and out to sea. (There are warnings posted about these trees floating in the water). There is also a Indian settlement on the edge of the river.



We headed back on the route 101 for more views of Olympic Park. We were bracing ourselves for a lot more trees, (this whole region is thriving lumber area with timber carrying trucks thundering to and fro), but the Hurricane Ridge road took us high above for wonderful panoramas of the Olympic Park Mountains.



Plumbing into the satnav our next destination on the outskirts of Seattle, the route took us across the Puget Sound and on the freeway that cut through central Seattle. We had great views of the Seattle skyline and the magnificent Mount Rainier, an extinct volcano.



Boeing the plane manufacture has produced aircraft in Seattle since 1916 and their Museum of Flight is based near the early factory buildings. The largest privately owned Aircraft museum in the world, it is a really well laid out and modern museum, and has many famous planes and space vehicles displayed. Air Force One, a 707 based plane used to fly Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson and others, the spy-plane Lockheed SR71, one of the fastest and highest flying planes ever built. There are also excellent displays devoted to WW1 and WW2 aircraft, and the history of Boeing in their original building. You can even watch the newest Boeing designs fly off from the cafeteria.



It’s been a lot, and I mean a lot of driving and still more to come. The next day and half of driving will take us through Montana to our next destination - Yellowstone Park in a very, very small tent!

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Photos

Mora
Large washed up trees litter this beach

Pancakes
Amazing dinner plate sized pancakes

Bridgeport
looking towards Sierra Nevada Mountains

Into Astoria
Crossing one of the two bridges that enter Astoria

Comments

[Brian stay at home Russell]

Heading home?...Sorry we have moved.
Hello Wander's I thought I'd just write and let you know since you have left we have moved - The UK used to be in Europe but now we've moved to just outside Europe. We haven't got a new postcode yet but all the lines of communication seem to be open as usual. Don't forget to head for your new home when you return! The neighbours didn't want us to go but I think will stay in touch. You might well be in the best place for now as the news is a little volitile and silly here at the moment.

[alikim]

Coming Home?
Let me know where I'm coming nearer the time its all so confusing. Is the Jungle café affected? if not see if you can reserve a table in early August.