Another six states down...

The road trip down from Alaska to Oklahoma was carefully planned to pick up a couple of states. The trip netted me six more states on my quest.

State 17 - Washington

We were staying at a camping ground that enabled us easy access to Seattle via the public transport network. I ran from the camping ground for a couple of miles on road.

State 18 - Oregon

Combination road and beach run. It was nice to get out for a little beach running again even if it only reminded me how hard it is to run on the beach.

State 19 - Idaho

We had pushed the mileage a little the previous day to make an easier day for us the next day when we wanted to go to Craters of the Moon National monument. I got my run in before we got going.

State 20 - Wyoming

While I would have loved to have actually run an interesting trail in one of the great National Parks we visited I had to settle with a run from the camp ground again.

State 21 - South Dakota

Finally some trail running! We arrived in a thunderstorm, the following morning I got to run in the sunshine albeit on wet trails.

State 22 - Kansas

When I booked the camp ground I hadn't realised there were not many trails near where we were camping so it ended up being a road run. I did see a deer, although I was to slow to take a photograph.

22 States down, 28 to go!

1. Florida
2. Texas
3. Oklahoma
4. Colorado
5. Nebraska
6. Missouri 
7. Arkasas
8. Alaska
9. Hawaii
10. Illinois
11. Indiana
12. Michigan
13. California
14. Arizona
15. Utah
16. Nevada 
17. Washington 
18. Oregon
19. Idaho
20. Wyoming 
21. South Dakota
22. Kanas

I see more orange on this map now :D

Slowly getting there

Day twenty five Cheney State park, KS to Oklahoma City - 195 miles

Our final day for the RV trip. We finished with an easy day mileage wise, crossing into our final state. Amanda called me the night before to inform me that all of our stuff would be arriving on the Wednesday, the sooner I could get there the better. 
We rolled out of camp a little after 7am and after a slight navigation error whilst trying to get fuel everything went smoothly. 

We made it to Oklahoma!

We made to home at 11am and unpacked Baby Grootso  as to put him into storage. The rest of our day was filled with counting boxes and continuing to make our house a home. At the moment there are lots of boxes, everywhere.  
The trip down has been a fun one with lots of interesting things to see on the way. It has been fascinating to see how the US and Canada changed as we drove along. It has gotten warmer as we headed south with lots more people. Obviously if you drive almost 6,000 miles you would expect a few close calls on the road, the only incident we experienced was a pair of suicidal deer in Nebraska, we didn't hit them. All other road users seemed to be really great when we were on the road. 
We are looking forward to a little time off the road for now, however I'm excited to do more exploring in Baby Groot soon.

Trip Stats 

Total miles 5927
Bear count 
13 black 
0 brown

Day twenty four North Platte NE to Cheney State park, KS - 377 miles

Today was a driving day again, we had an relaxed start and the driving was relatively easy. We crossed into Kansas which is our 9th US state on this trip. Both states today were pretty flat, we had a little interstate travel and then mostly quiet single carriageway roads. Our destination was Cheney State Park, though I think I should have booked the other side of the lake which at least has a “mountain” bike trail. Oh well next time.

Our last day of driving is tomorrow. We will be home soon Amanda!

Trip Stats

Total miles 5732

Bear count

13 black

0 brown

Day twenty three North Platte NE - 0 miles

Today was a rest day. We spent the day swimming, waterskiing, building a raft and generally relaxing. 

Thank you to Jeff and Pam for hosting us. It was nice to spend some time out of Baby Groot.

Trip Stats

Total miles 5,355

Bear count

13 black

0 brown

Day twenty two Whispering pines RV park, SD to North Platte NE - 368 miles

Another big miles day for us to get us to North Platte so we could stay with Amanda's sister and husband but more on that later.

The day started off with a stop at Mount Rushmore. When getting our first glimpse of the National monument my first thoughts were, wow it's smaller than I expected. Thanks to having Grandma and Grandpa Dennis with us we only had to pay $5 for parking.

A short walk from Baby Groot took us into the monument and as you walk along the avenue of flags you start to realise how vast Mount Rushmore is.

pretty darn cool

All that blasted rock.... would that be allowed now?

Due to the storm the presidential walk wasn't open however this gave Fiona the chance to complete another Jr Ranger badge. If you have a child and visit any National parks/monument, definitely check these out. It's a great way to learn about what you are visiting.

Another Jr Ranger

We left Mount Rushmore and enjoyed a pleasant cruise through the Black Mountains and out onto the Grasslands as we headed towards North Platte, NE.

We stopped for lunch at a place called Alliance, NE the home of Carhenge, it's a pretty unique place and kept thinking about the Eddie Izzard sketch about Stonehenge whilst I was there, at least they would be easier to move.

Under the cars

The henge!

We hit the road again for the remaining ~200miles to Jeff and Pam’s, we arrived around 6pm and we wasted no time getting in for a swim and out water skiing.

First time in the water in a life jacket

Getting fitted up

Ready to go and she got up first time. 

Trip Stats

Total miles 5,355

Bear count

13 black

0 brown

Day twenty one Fishing View RV Park, WY to Whispering pines RV park, SD - 466 miles

Today was our biggest mileage day by a long way though thanks to interstate travel the time travelling didn’t seem to bad. We set of really early for our standards at 06:45.  The first part of the trip took us out of Yellowstone park and was as scenic as ever. Following the exit from the park we drove down an amazing valley. 

Part of the valley we drove down. 

After a breakfast stop in Cody, WY we hit the road again and the remaining miles flew by.
We had undulating terrain until we crossed some big hills. 

Up up up we go!

Along the road we kept passing signs telling us about the formations we were driving past. Pretty darn cool don't you think? 

Another formation sign

Then we hit the interstate for some easy cruising. 
The final part of our trip was slowed a little due to a thunderstorm.

Hmmm thunder, hail and lightening 

Oh and we almost cracked 5,000 miles on this trip.

Trip Stats 

Total miles   4,987
Bear count 
13 black 
0 brown 

Day twenty Fireside RV park, Buffalo springs to Fishing Bridge RV park - 137 miles

Today’s adventure took us into Yellowstone National Park. This is America's oldest National Park and if today was anything to go by, the busiest. 
We got rolling just before 8am and after a couple of photo stops of Grand Teton on the way. 

Final views of Grand Teton

We arrived at our first stop for the day the Old Faithful area. I was planning on visiting some other parts of the park but by the time we had got Fiona underway with her junior ranger program and gone for a walk we didn’t manage to hit up much else in the park. Though that just gives us an excuse to come back to see more. 

Old Faithful

Old Faithful was worth the wait though, I personally enjoyed seeing the other smaller geysers on the walk we did along with the hot pools. 

more colours

Even more cool colours!

The other thing that we did today was cross the continental divide 5 times. I did manage to get this photo of Baby Groot about to cross the divide for the fifth time.

Baby Groot could use a little more power at this height. 

Trip Stats 

Total miles  4521
Bear count 
13 black 
0 brown

Day nineteen Idaho Falls to Fireside RV park, Buffalo springs - 166 miles

Today we crossed out of Idaho and into Wyoming. We were heading to Grand Teton National Park. After a false start heading towards the park on a road that RV’s are not allowed on we made it into the park. 
(Pic)
We enjoyed a fantastic hike around Jenny lake with a boat ride at the end.  Grandma and Granddad Dennis saw a black bear and we all saw another bear further along the trail.
(Pic)
The park was impressive and we also saw some Pronghorn, Deer and I think a fox.  All in all a great day in the park. 

Trip Stats 

Total miles   4384
Bear count 
13 black 
0 brown

Day eighteen Mountain Home to Idaho Falls - 227 miles

The days are starting to blur a little, especially when we started driving on US20 again today. Then we started up into some foothills and the scenery changed considerably.

You can see the road we drove in the distance. 

Our big stop for the day was Craters of the moon National monument. Again we found ourselves saying Wow what an incredible place.

Our first sight of the lava.

Witches broom

More lava

hiking up a cinder cone

Lava bomb

Tree molds

Tree mold

The weather was once again amazing, we have really been lucking out on this trip. Our day finished up a campsite in Idaho Falls (Snake River RV Park and campground), this site has a pool so we took advantage, it also has all you can eat pancakes in the morning. 

Trip Stats 

Total miles  4218 
Bear count 
11 black
0 brown

Day seventeen Bend to Mountain Home - 365 miles

Today was a lot of driving and not much else. It was also the warmest day so far. 

Yep it's a little warm here. 

We had breakfast out, at a great diner in Bend called Sargent's Cafe. Following breakfast it was off to Fred Meyer for a little shopping and to refuel baby Groot. 
We then hit the road at around 10am and drove mostly on highway 20 which was flatish and straight for around 120 miles.

First stop, no photo from lunch time it was too warm :D

Then more undulating and twisty for the next 120miles. Soon after that we crossed over into Idaho. Interstate 84 was smooth and fast, I didn’t know the speed limit was 80mph on the Interstate, I’m not comfortable driving that fast in Baby Groot but 75mph is great. 
We also crossed over onto Mountain Time so are now only one time zone away from Amanda :D 

Trip Stats 

Total miles 3991  

Bear count 
11 black, 
0 brown 

Day sixteen Stewart state park campground to Bend - 190miles

Today was a volcano day, we started off at gorge near where we camped. It is thought that it was created by a lava tube collapsing. 

Collapsed Lava tube

The gorge

Next on our trip was Crater Lake NP. WOW! On a bluebird day the views were simply amazing.

Wizard Island

Panoramic shot

more pretty flowers

Following Crater Lake we headed to an old lava river cave, which is a mile long lava tube. It was 42F in the tube or cold compared to the 90F outside. we had a blast!

ready to hit the dark

yep that is bright!

touching the roof

cracks 

almost done

really close now

home stretch

and we are out of here

Trip Stats 

Total miles 3626 
Bear count 11 black, 0 brown

Day fifteen Gold Beach to Stewart State Park campground - 182miles

Today we took a shorter day distance wise so that we could spend more time looking at big trees. The day started off cooler with thunder out to sea, as we drove along the coast the mist came in.

Misty last view of the Pacific

Sea arch

After a couple of short walks we headed further south and back into California. We went to the Jedediah Smith redwoods state park. We parked at the day use area and took a hike along the Smith river, over a bridge before taking a walk around Stout grove. It didn't disappoint and was at times like the Endor moon.

Grrrrr! 

Bridge across the river

More big trees

Grrrrrrr

Next we continued our trip towards Crater lake NP. As we drove alongside the Smith river on the Redwood highway (US199) the temperature rose to around 90°F. The Smith river is very pretty, with more time we would have stopped to swim.
The state park we are staying at has electric and water for $24, the sites are big and so far quiet. Hopefully we will see some stars tonight too.

Trip stats

Total miles 3436
Bear count
11 black
0 brown

Day fourteen Gold Beach to Gold Beach - 178 miles

Today was see the redwoods day, in California. We did an out an back trip from where we stayed the previous night. The Redwoods didn’t disappoint, what is amazing and sad is how the extent of their reach has been reduced over the years. 

Yup tall trees

very tall trees

The selfie game is strong.

interesting roots

Walking through the fallen tree

Baby Groot and the Redwoods

More fallen trees

Trip Stats 

Total miles 3254  
Bear count 11 black, 0 brown