Tag Archives: National Parks

Seeking Serene Scenery enroute to Seattle

The road-trip reached a successful completion and Catherine and I are settling in to our new Seattle home, prepping for further northwestern adventures and the looming ski season!

We took lots of great photos, the best of which I’ll reproduce here. Though I’ve cut it down a lot there are far too many for a single post. I’ll keep it sparse worded and photo heavy, just for you, but I’ll also throw in some notes on our trip.

Here we go!

Grand Teton National Park

Yellowstone National Park

Glacier National Park

We drove straight to Chicago the first day to make sure we had more time for National Parks. I could do a whole section on the Badlands as well, but we spent less time there than anywhere else.

Our first look into the Badlands

Catherine and I upon entering Badlands NP.

Just a few days later, we woke up in Montana, which I’ve come to learn is the fly fishing capital of the world.

Catherine made a short video of the trip, found here:

Boston to Seattle from Catherine Roach on Vimeo.

Thanks for our friends, Darren for putting us up, Cathy & Phil for their hospitality, and our families for their support!

2013 Roadtrip: Grand Teton NP

We made it to Wyoming and the Tetons by Tuesday afternoon (Day 4), and I was definitely not prepared for the gorgeous views.

The Tetons, which seem to pierce the sky, have no foothills blocking them.

The first ‘view’ at Oxbow Bend.

Heading into Jackson, we stopped to catch the sunset. After experiencing the town a bit, the next day we went for a long hike along Jenny and it’s neighboring lakes.

One of my favorite views was Cascade Canyon, which we hiked up into a bit in the afternoon.

We doubled back near Bear Paw lake, to cross over to the western side of Jenny lake.

Mt. Moran interested me almost more than the Grand, due to its sheer mass and many glaciers.

The Tetons proper.

We saw lots of wildlife, much more than you expect to see on an outing in the East.

Sadly, we had to continue onward, all to soon. We’ll be back though. The allure of the Tetons makes me want to stand on the top of them.

2013 Roadtrip: Yellowstone NP

I wish we could’ve done more in Yellowstone, but due to a bit of bad luck we had even more limited time. There was too much to see in a day. My NP book recommends a week just to see everything, not even get into the backcountry.

We’re in Yellowstone! …Almost. Due to a car fire, they closed the entrance for 2 hours, just as we arrived.

At least the scenery was nice.

Our first real excitement at Yellowstone, Old Faithful. We arrived minutes before it went off.

The Yellowstone lodge was picturesque.

We explored around the various geysers for a bit, but I’ve been asking to see some bison, so we left in search of the wildlife.

Despite seeing, and missing a prime photo-op near Old Faithful, we caught a lone bison while we were approaching the Canyon.

I don’t know why I was so intrigued by bison, but you must admit they look pretty cool. Aggressive though, so we kept our distance.

Yellowstone Canyon blew me away.

And then a rainbow appeared.

Still looking for bison, we followed a tip from Catherine’s friends Cathy & Phil.

Next up, drive to Mammoth Hot Springs

Forest fires are evident all over over, a natural part of regeneration.

The northern part of the park changed to open grassland.

Mammoth Hot Springs has a space-like quality, though it was somewhat dry.

Finally we headed north, leaving through the Yellowstone arch, and stopping to enjoy some local pizza.

2013 Roadtrip: Glacier NP

Last major stop: Glacier. Unlike any place we’d been to yet, we arrived Friday the 13th and spent the first day sightseeing.

Glacier felt big, and begging you to explore the glacial basins and tall peaks.

We drove up Going-To-The-Sun road, and tried to take it easy with our laden-down Subaru.

The alpine meadows at the top of the pass were incredible.

Descending was just as cool, hugging the base of Garden Wall’s knife-edge peaks.

The next day we hiked around Avalanche Lake. We were hoping to do a longer hike but worried about the remaining drive, as we wanted to be in Spokane, WA that night.

Luckily it did not disappoint.

That was our last National Park, and last big travel day. With no mishaps, we wrapped our the trip.