With absolutely beautiful weather today, highs in the low 70s, sun shining, blue sky, we walked into Ashland and through the business district into Lithia Park, a 93 acre park near the edge of the city.
There is this cool, hand-sculpted totem pole in town.
This small park exists right in the middle of the city. Restaurants and bars have outdoor seating, so you can sit right above the creek.
Here is the entrance to Lithia Park:
This little deer was just feet away from us on one of the trails...
Our last leg of the trip was spent in hotel rooms, relaxing, getting extra sleep and of course, driving, driving, driving. From Yellowstone, we drove across Idaho, into Washington and spent the night in Spokane. We then drove south and spent the night in Vancouver, Washington, just on the border of Oregon. After that, we made our way to the southern Oregon area of Medford and Ashland. There are no pictures from those days, we drove pretty steadily and didn't stop much for photo ops. Here in the Ashland area, the views from the highway look a little like this:
The area is surrounded by mountains. There are lush green mountains on one side of the highway, (behind the trees in the last picture) and ones with less trees and more farmland, that look like those pictured in the top photo. We will post some more pictures of the area soon, especially once we get out on a hike. For now, we are wetting our toes, exploring, job searching and settling in for a little. So, I'm happy to report that the trip was a success! I would do it again in a minute. If you're ever planning one, we're proof it's doable on a tight budget, but if you're inclined to spend a little extra, you could easily take double or triple the time we took to fully experience all the sights out there. Officially, we drove through 17 states, (New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, South Dakota, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, Washington and Oregon), had one oil change and countless stops for gas, and we had an amazing time doing it.
After Old Faithful, we were on our way to more "paint pots" (mudpots), the breathtaking Yellowstone Lake, the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone and the Mammoth Hot Springs. The first half of the day was rainy and overcast, but from Old Faithful on, we had spectacular weather which made for truly inspiring views.
"Mud Volcano" footage:
I think the pictures speak for themselves. What an experience!
Yellowstone is hard to describe. It is unbelievable. There are sights that seem impossible and the beauty that surrounds you is literally jaw dropping. Most of the time, we were laughing out of astonishment and uttering "wow" when our brains could start working long enough to speak. Yes, it is that incredible.
We started our tour at the West Entrance to the park, which took us to our first geysers. The park is very easily accessible for tourists; Yellowstone is paved with a highway running throughout and boardwalks built to walk out, sometimes over a mile, to see what nature has to offer. The reason everything is up on boardwalks is because underneath much of the ground runs boiling hot water. Yellowstone is atop a large amount of volcanic action, with tremendous eruptions occurring 2 million, then 1.3 million and again 640,000 years ago. We both went into Yellowstone with no expectations and were completely blown away.
Here is some of the evidence:
The steam rises up from the hot springs, pools, mudpots and geysers...
The colored water is water-saturated sediment, which looks like mud. The colors vary; we saw reds, pinks, greys and browns.
Check out the video of the mudpot above bubbling away:
We spotted some Mule Deer on the side of the road. We also saw some Bison and lots of Ravens. No bears!
Some of the pools are an intense blue color, more vibrant even than the picture could relate, because of all the steam covering it.
The geyser above was spewing water and steam at a constant rate.
Check it out in action!
Above is the ground surrounding the area of a hot spring.
Some of these pools go incredibly deep...
The park is also home to several large waterfalls and cascades, like the one below:
