Month: May 2025

2025 Spring Road Trip – Olympic National Park

Wednesday, May 28, 22025

Yesterday afternoon we drove up to Port Angeles, WA, in the far northern area of Washington.  We have had wonderful weather since coming out west and our time in Olympic National Park was no different.  Really nice.  Olympic NP is actually three separate areas of Washington, all in the northern part of the state.  We visited the Hurricane Ridge portion of the park on Wednesday morning May 22.  We first visited the visitors center (of course).  We got our maps and stamps before heading up the Ridge. The drive up the mountain was beautiful.  It was short-sleeved weather at the bottom but at the top of Hurricane Ridge it was cold and quite windy.  There was still snow on the ground and we were asked to walk only on asphalt or snow but, not to walk in the meadows where the snow had melted.  That would cause damage to the fragile plants trying to peek their heads out for the summer.  Beautiful scenery.  Beautiful mountain view.  Unfortunately, there were no hikes open unless you had the recommended snowshoes, which of course we did not.  We wandered around on top for a while walking in the snow and then headed back down.

From Hurricane Ridge we headed to Rialto Beach (also part of Olympic NP) on the recommendation of a volunteer at the visitor center.  It is a pebble and rock beach, with a coastal forest and lots of driftwood.  Rialto Beach is known for its sea stacks, rock formations and pounding waves.  No swimming though. The rocks make for some difficult walking.

The next day, May 23, we visited the third section of Olympic, the Hoh Rain Forest.  Nice for us, it was not raining in the rainforest the day we visited but there was a lot of moisture.  The yearly average rainfall in the Hoh is 140 inches.  This results in lush green canopy of various trees.  Ferns and mosses are everywhere.  It is just an enchanting place.  We were told that the Hoh Rain Forest is one of the finest remaining examples of temperate rainforest in the USA and is one of Olympic’s most popular destinations.  It was definitely our favorite part of the park.  We were able to hike two wonderful trails, enjoy all the lush greenery and the peaceful setting and see some large elk along the way.  Great park.  Would highly recommend.  After our morning in the park, we turned BB to the south and drove through some additional beautiful areas of Washington.

2025 Spring Road Trip – Mount Rainier National Park

Tuesday, May 27, 2025

On Wednesday, May 21st we left the Fred Meyer parking lot at 6:20am looking forward to exploring Mount Rainier National Park.  The drive out of town into the mountains was beautiful.  There were many mountain streams and beautiful trees. The roads became steeper and curvier as we drove.  We drove through White Pass at 4,500 feet.  Very pretty.  The day before, Google said that the shortest way into Mount Rainier was closed.  However, when we checked this morning it said that the shortest way was open.  How great was that!  We thought this was going to save us an hour’s drive.  But – it didn’t.

After turning around and driving back out and around for another hour, we finally reached the Visitor’s Center.  We of course got our National Park Passport stamped and talked to the ranger about some hikes.  We began with a short hike near the visitor’s center to get our first view of the mountain.  It was clouded in, but we could see a little of it.  Then we hiked the Carter Falls trail.  This was a more challenging hour and forty-five-minute hike.  The falls were worth the hike.  Great payoff.

There were many more hikes available, but it was time for us to be moving on and we headed to Olympic National Park in Port Angeles, Washington (far north).  We stopped at Gig Harbor in route to have our Wednesday night Bible Study.  Since we were in Washington our normal 7:00pm Bible study was at 5:00pm.  This is a real adjustment for us especially when it doesn’t get dark until 9:00pm.  After the Bible study, we proceeded to Port Angeles.

2025 Spring Road Trip – MT to ID to WA

Monday, May 26, 2025

We were pretty exhausted when we arrived in Big Timber Sunday night.  It was not yet dark, but it was after 8:30pm, so about a twelve-hour day.  On Monday, May 19th we awoke from a great night’s sleep, to a beautiful sunny day even though it required our furnace to warm up BB.  It wasn’t until we opened the blinds and drove a few blocks to the Big Timber Bakery that we realized just how beautiful the day really was.  It had snowed on the mountain tops overnight and it was a post card morning.  Stunning.

Someone online had recommended the Big Timber Bakery, and we are so glad we decided to follow their suggestion.  It was a locally owned bakery, the kind where the men in in town gather every morning to solve the problems of the world.  We had their classic breakfast and left with a few pastries as well. Everything was cooked just the way we liked it.  Highly recommend.  Everyone we met in Big Timber was so nice.  Our drive through downtown gave us a great impression of the town – so clean and nice murals on many of the walls.  It was obvious there had been a lot of effort put into the downtown area.

We departed Big Timber wishing we could spend more time there.  It might be someplace where we could spend some summers.  However, we had other targets for this trip.  It’s a road trip, not a settle down trip so on we went.  We continued to drive I-90 across the wide open western states.  From Big Timber, Montana to our first “new” state, Idaho  We enjoyed this drive but we only stopped to feed BB some gas and rest areas to get our steps, and a stop in St Regis, MT for huckleberry milk shakes.  Best we have ever had.  We spent the night in the Post Falls Cabela’s parking lot – with permission, of course. Thanks, Cabela’s.

On May 20th we left Cabela’s, first stopping at Camping World in Spokane to refill our propane tank (we are having some mornings down in the upper 30’s) and empty our black and gray tanks. Unfortunately, CW did not have a fresh water fill.  We drove on to Yakima, Washington (2nd new state) and stopped at the rest area outside of town, to fill our fresh tank.  We thank the state of Washington for having nice, clean, facilities at their rest areas for RVers to use.  In Yakima we stopped at Fred Myers. We first learned of Fred Myers on our first Alaska trip.  Great store that we wish would come to the SE.  We resupplied because our next stop was Mount Ranier and other more remote locations for a few days.  After the shopping we settled down in Fred Myers parking lot for the night.  Yes, it’s permitted there.  We love that we can just stop anywhere in our nimble BB.

2025 Spring Road Trip – An Unplanned Side Trip

Sunday, May 25, 2025

Sunday, May 18 was an important and somewhat sad day.  Sunday morning Max and Anne buttoned up BB to move on from Custer.  Sadly, Randy and Debra would not be traveling with us.  They would begin their trek back across the country with various fun stops along the way to return to SC.  We have had such a fun trip and feel so very, very blessed to have had this time with them. Thank you, God!!!  We pray traveling mercies on them and for the two of us as we travel further west alone.  Thank you to all of you who have continued to pray for Randy.  We cherish your prayers. 

As we left Custer and Randy and Debra behind, we had very few fixed plans.  We knew generally the direction and some of the places we wanted to visit.  We did not have reservations or fixed stops. We drove from South Dakota into Wyoming and noticed a “brown sign” (park service sign) mentioning Devils Tower.  A few miles further was the turn and since we had not had time to stop at Devils Tower when we were returning from Alaska, we decided this should be the day. We remembered hearing some news about some storms in the area but no details.  Wow!  There was a lot of damage.  The ranger said they had an EF-3 tornado and straight-line winds up to 150mph last year.  There were over 300 mature trees damaged.  But Devils Tower still stands! And we enjoyed our quick hike around the bottom.

We are glad we made the detour, but it added about an hour driving time and two hours at the Tower and fifty miles to our travel day. We traveled on from Devils Tower determined to make our intended destination in Big Timber, Montana.  Unfortunately, it rained – hard!  But we made it to the Exxon Station in Big Timber just before dark and the sweet lady there told us to “just park out front and spend the night here.”  So we did.