Thursday, August 02, 2007
Deception Pass to Crater Lake
On Tuesday we took the ferry (which was 45 minutes late) to Anacortes and then drove 15 miles to Deception Pass State Park. It was another great park where we could have spent more time. There’s a lake (Cranberry Lake) that has a beach, but we didn’t go there. There also is plenty of beach along the coast. There’s basically a small inlet between Whidbey Island and the mainland (the whole layout of the earth in this area is really interesting) and there’s a great bridge that goes over it. Deception Pass is on both sides of the bridge and therefore has lots of coast line.
We walked to the coast and the girls spent a couple hours there while I went out and got gas and groceries.
Our campsite was great and we had a great evening.
Wednesday we changed our plans slightly and instead of heading directly south we went east a little to I-5 and then headed south. It was clear that this was going to be the quickest route and Patty had really wanted to see Seattle. So instead of it saving us time, it cost us some time as tourists in Seattle. We arrived at the space needle around 10:30 and spent about 15 minutes trying to find a parking space for our 45’ rig. After succeeding at that I walked to the nearest bank to get a bunch of quarters to feed the meters we were parked in front of. We went up the space needle (pretty neat, but didn’t do much for the kids), then took the monorail to downtown and walked to Pike Place market where we had lunch. We then walked back, took the monorail back, and piled back in and started our real drive for the day.
We ended up at an RV park in Salem, OR. We got there around 6:30. We made dinner while the kids rode bikes/scooters around the park. Kate has managed to catch a cold, so she’s dragging a little. I’m sure it’s just a matter of time until we all get it…
Today we left Salem and headed south again. We took a (planned) detour I’ve always wanted to take – to Crater Lake. It’s a gorgeous drive up Hwy 138 out of Roseburg. It meanders along the Umpqua river which is really beautiful and looks like it would be a blast to raft someday. Then it finally climbs with a vengeance until we reached the rim, which at least according to my GPS was at 7900 feet. The suburban did a great pulling the trailer with little effort even up at altitude. It was certainly much easier than it would have been with the old trailer.
I’d never seen Crater Lake and I found it absolutely stunning. It’s gorgeous – incredibly blue and the area around it is prettier than I expected. We drove to the campground and got a nice site.
Tomorrow we plan to checkout Crater Lake in more detail and then Saturday we’re going to try to make it all the way home. If we do it will be our longest mileage day with the girls and trailer ever (by a long shot). We’ll see how it goes.
We walked to the coast and the girls spent a couple hours there while I went out and got gas and groceries.
Our campsite was great and we had a great evening.
Wednesday we changed our plans slightly and instead of heading directly south we went east a little to I-5 and then headed south. It was clear that this was going to be the quickest route and Patty had really wanted to see Seattle. So instead of it saving us time, it cost us some time as tourists in Seattle. We arrived at the space needle around 10:30 and spent about 15 minutes trying to find a parking space for our 45’ rig. After succeeding at that I walked to the nearest bank to get a bunch of quarters to feed the meters we were parked in front of. We went up the space needle (pretty neat, but didn’t do much for the kids), then took the monorail to downtown and walked to Pike Place market where we had lunch. We then walked back, took the monorail back, and piled back in and started our real drive for the day.
We ended up at an RV park in Salem, OR. We got there around 6:30. We made dinner while the kids rode bikes/scooters around the park. Kate has managed to catch a cold, so she’s dragging a little. I’m sure it’s just a matter of time until we all get it…
Today we left Salem and headed south again. We took a (planned) detour I’ve always wanted to take – to Crater Lake. It’s a gorgeous drive up Hwy 138 out of Roseburg. It meanders along the Umpqua river which is really beautiful and looks like it would be a blast to raft someday. Then it finally climbs with a vengeance until we reached the rim, which at least according to my GPS was at 7900 feet. The suburban did a great pulling the trailer with little effort even up at altitude. It was certainly much easier than it would have been with the old trailer.
I’d never seen Crater Lake and I found it absolutely stunning. It’s gorgeous – incredibly blue and the area around it is prettier than I expected. We drove to the campground and got a nice site.
Tomorrow we plan to checkout Crater Lake in more detail and then Saturday we’re going to try to make it all the way home. If we do it will be our longest mileage day with the girls and trailer ever (by a long shot). We’ll see how it goes.
# posted by Craig @ 11:30 PM 
