Little Big Trip ...

The Little Big Trip

July 26, 2011
Well ... we're on the road again.  Actually we were in the air first.  This is an impromptu trip that we put together in about a week after purchasing a truck in Buckley Washington - that's right ... Buckley, in the state of Washington.  We have 9 days to get to Washington, get the truck and get on the road and get back to Duanesburg - oh boy!  And, of course, we're going to hit some National Parks and other sights along the way!!!!!

I will miss these two cuties very much!!!!!

Jess and the boys took us to the airport:

AJ

JT

Our flights to Washington were uneventful!!!

Between the 3 hour time difference and the dramamine, I felt like I was in a fog for a couple of days.  The people we purchased the truck from were sooooo nice.  They picked us up at the airport and even had dinner for us.  The truck was even nicer than we had hoped.  They took excellent care of it - exactly what Tom was looking for.

The back of the truck has a really neat feature - its set up for camping.  It has carpeted storage units built around the wheel wells and then two carpeted-padded sections that fill in the center.  When its all together, it makes a bed.  Sooooo .... off to Walmart to pick up the necessary items for our cross-country camping trip ...

 

Then off to the first campsite - we made a reservation for the first night since we weren't sure how much time we would have to look for a site, and what time we would get to it.  It was a state site that cost $30 - that is the most we spent - and it wasn't that great.  We found so many beautiful places to camp that were either in the national parks or recreation areas ...

First thing in the morning - off to the Olympic Penninsula to see Olympic National Park - what an awesome place - from mountain peaks to the ocean shore - beauty abounded!!!

Olympic

Waves boom along wilderness beaches and mix with snow-fed rivers.  Ancient trees shelter wildlife.  Rugged peaks embrace glaciers and subalpine meadows.  Coast, forests and mountains combine to create this spectacular wilderness park.  The Olympic Peninsula is home to eight American Indian tribes.

(It also boasts the town from the "Twilight" series)

 

Hurricane Ridge

5,242 feet

The Olympic Mountains - 60 named glaciers!

Mt. Olympus was in the clouds still.

Sub-Alpine flowers were everywhere - they were beautiful.  Tom kept singing:

"The hills are alive with the sound of muuuussiiccc."

Lupines

 

Black-tailed deer and babies were about.

There were glaciers on the distant peaks and snow still covered some of the trails

At the sumit, a 3 foot tree may be only 100 years old.