Always Onward Adventures

Backpacking Trip Report Your browser doesn't support embedded videos, but don't worry, you can download it and watch it with your favorite video player! The third (and final) installment of our Yellowstone trip was the backpacking trip. What an amazing trip it was… We went to a pretty remote part of the park which actually crossed out of the national park and into the national forest twice during the trip. We saw some wildlife, some of it got a little two close, and we saw some amazing scenery, flowers, animal sign, and most importantly - we found the remoteness that recharges me. Sara was with her grandparents for this one, so it was just Angela and I.

Welcome to the second post in our yellowstone travels. This post covers all of the touring around we did during the trip - lots of wildlife, thermal features, and exploring. There were a couple of day hikes, but mostly we were just driving around… Our first stop was Mammoth Hot Springs - where we hiked around on the Travertine terrace and Sara got her first introduction to thermal features. I think it took a couple of days to sink in, so her reaction was a bit mutted.

And we are off! This was our first big van trip - and part of a bigger vacation. In all, we traveled 1400 miles over 5 days and saw some really interesting sights - and learned some new tricks for longer van trips & van trips in hot weather. I’m going to write this trip up in 3 blog posts - this one covers the road trip there and the other two will cover the backpacking trip we went on and touring around Yellowstone national park.

We went to Alta lake for the weekend, near lake Chelan - left Saturday morning and made the 3.5 hour drive up there. We had a great time, but it was a crowded little lake - very different from the lakes I have gone to in the past (when the weather wasn’t as nice). The most exciting news though was that Angela came with us! It’s the first time she has made an entire trip (she met us on Saturday night for the last one. This was the first trip with a working water system as well - which was super exciting. I now have 6 gallons of water (2 3-gal tanks) connected to a pump that we can use for dishes, cleaning ourselves, or drinking water.

Another great camping trip - and this time we had some first time campers as guests! We went up to Baker Lake on Friday afternoon and stayed for two nights - with Barun and Roshni joining us just before noon on the second day. But first, let’s check out our beautiful campsite! ‹ › Wanted to get Sara in a couple of those pictures - but she was not having it!

We had soo much fun with kayaking the last trip, I decided we just have to see how much more amazing it can be in good weather. And we had a great trip! Sans a small mishap with the paddle :) So - brief synopsis of the trip. We were planning to go to Joemma beach state park but we didn’t leave early enough and the camp was full. We diverted and headed to Pemrose state park - and got the last campsite! Lesson learned here - start earlier in the morning now that the weather is getting better… The first thing we did once we arrived at camp is to go on a quick hike and have some food.

Our first trip to Larabee state park - which is right on Chuckanut bay near Bellingham. Beautiful location and lots of fun stuff to do. There are railroad tracks that run right through the park, which might be n issue for some people, but Sara and I did great (didn’t wake up at all) and it was fun to watch the trains go back while we were playing around. We went on a fun hike and Sara hiked the most I have ever seen her do - almost 2.5 miles!

Our first Van trip as a family - and our first trip with a working battery… :) This was also our first trip with our new inflatable Kayak, which was super fun. Sara and I left early Saturday and got a campsite, bought some groceries, and went on a hike around the south side of deception pass. The hike had some amazing views and we were able to get some play time on the beach as well. Almost a 3 mile hike and Sara did about half of it on her own.