There and back again – The End.

Everything that has a beginning has an end. And so has our trip ended with 3,000 miles of road adventures, etched into our collective memories. Before getting into the narration of our last leg, let me digress a tad bit to bring in my perspective of the trip. At the outset, I was pretty convinced that the only way one can explore the New World (aka the US) is by road. I stand to hold that view at the close of the trip as well. We managed to cover a fair bit of ground in the last 10 days, soaking in as much of the grandeur of nature as there was to offer. The stunning and endless vistas of mountains, valleys, forests, rivers, lakes and waterfalls needs to be experienced.  Words can only say so much.  We also did pit stops at a couple of cities, getting a flavor of the culture and the people there.  The stops provided a much needed break from an otherwise continuous journey on the road. All said and done, we are now home, with a sense of purposeful accomplishment.

As H mentioned in the last post, the plan was to stopover at Mt. Shastha on the way back home.   In the end, we did not go all the way up the mountain for various reasons (primarily because both of us were beginning to feel a little weary and exhausted). We however managed to stop by and take a few snaps of the mountain, on our way back. I leave you with that image below as the final one from this trip. Hopefully, we can continue to tell our tale when we undertake more trips in the future.  Until then, Adios!

Crater Lake and Klamath Lake

We're nearing the end of the epic road trip! Today we drove from Portland up to Crater Lake National Park, and from there on to Klamath Falls. 

By the time we reached Crater Lake, I was mumbling to myself that it was just another lake and maybe we should just head on to Klamath Falls and stretch for a bit instead of rushing to see *another* lake in the mountains. As we drove in and looked at the pamphlets, I wondered why they bothered to write about how blue the lake looked.

Until we reached the lake. This trip has been one of revelations for me, especially about how nature works. Crater Lake has been formed in a caldera - a crater left after a volcanic eruption that just took off the peak of a mountain. More interesting trivia: Crater Lake is the deepest lake in the US. The lake lies at quite an elevation - there was still snow (albeit hard, icy and very dirty) along the slopes, although it was a very hot day - and is the deepest, loveliest shade of blue that I have ever seen (in the context of lakes). Take a look at this!

S and I also discussed what a dialogue between us and the lake might have been:

Us: "Oh, hi. Words fail me. I cannot find adequate adjectives to describe you. I think I'll just stand afar and stare."

Lake: *Cold silence. Not worth responding.*

We headed over to the cafe for lunch....to see the place practically flooded with Indians (I mean Indians and not native Americans). Wherever you go, other Indians will be there before, along with and after you. Strength of our population, and all that.

We finally left Crater Lake a couple of hours later, heading towards Klamath Falls. Turns out there's a much larger lake, Klamath Lake, in the vicinity.

Our road trip is almost at an end. We head towards Mount Shasta - our final stop - and then home tomorrow!

Quaint Portland

An important lesson we learnt on this trip was to pick public transport when sightseeing in busy/small cities. I suppose it's something we've always done, but it was a conscious decision as well, this time. Especially in smaller cities, it's always a lot more fun to get a feel of the city by walking around the streets, looking for the little, obscure, interesting things, than just doing all the touristy things by car.

There certainly is a lot to see that way, in Portland. It looks and feels a lot like San Francisco, only the downtown area is smaller, and to my somewhat inexperienced eye, it isn't as clean. It also seems to have an even younger population, and a large number of hipsters.

We started our day with a trip to the International Rose Test Garden. It reminded me a great deal of the rose garden in Ooty. Roses of so many hues, sizes and kinds! We bought some lovely rose-scented souvenirs and clicked a great many pictures...

We then ate at a food cart - another thing Portland is famous for - and walked around the streets. Portland is full of shops and restaurants and bistros with strange signs. The city appears to revel in its strangeness, as also the queerness of many of its inhabitants.

A very curious but effective ride in Portland is a commuter cable car (or aerial tram) ride from the South Waterfront, up to the OHSU, or Oregon Health Sciences University's hospital. This was originally intended to reduce the commute for people working there, but morphed into a popular tourist attraction, since it affords great views of the city. There's also a great view right at the top, on the balcony of the OHSU hospital.

Last but not least, we did something very touristy - we visited a famous doughnut shop called Voodoo Doughnuts in Portland, and picked up a couple of doughnuts. Yummy! Portland was a nice city and a nice break from being on the road all the time! But we had to hit the road again the very next day, for the last leg of our journey.

Hello, Oregon!

We had another huge drive from Boise to Portland. While nearing Portland, we realised S had already driven about 2,100 miles on this trip! Another amusing thing was that Boise is very close to the boundary between Idaho and Oregon, but crossing over into Oregon, we returned to the Pacific time zone. It was a good thing I hadn't bothered to change the time on my watch. We seem to have reached the last leg rather soon.

There were some farms in Oregon which had curiously rolled sheets of grass up in spiral shapes, possibly to form hay. 

There were places with gusty winds, trying to push the car (a little). No surprise, then, that we saw windmills at several places.

As we were driving along westward towards Portland, at some point, we noticed that a river began to wind along the landscape, right next to the freeway. In the light, it appeared like millions of sparkling diamonds on a blue shimmering silk. 

There were also places where the river flowed through gorges. And a small park near a dam, where we could wet our feet.

There were more views near a forest, including some of a snow-capped mountain (Mount Hood) almost like a ghost mountain in the background. There were also train tracks very close to the edge of the hills, right next to the river. We later found that this was the Columbia River, at places called Mt. Hood River. This is the largest river in the Pacific Northwest region. In fact, it felt like we were back on US-1, driving next to the Pacific Ocean, at places.   

At the end of this scenic drive, we reached Portland. Portland is, among other things, famous for food carts, or food sold out of trucks. We located a famous Indian food cart, Bombay Chaat House with quite a history, and had a nice snack there, packing a meal for dinner.

We also got stuck in a lot of traffic, before finally reaching our hotel room. Our Portland exploration will commence tomorrow!  

Goodbye to Yellowstone

All good things must come to an end. Like our stay in Yellowstone. To be honest though, after a point we found ourselves comparing each new view and each new natural manifestation. That lake is bigger; this view is not as good as the other; no, this is just a squirrel, I want to see a coyote now; and so on. Quite judgmental of nature, as S put it, and unnecessarily so. In fact it reminded us of the time that, having driven along the interstate highway US-1 along the Pacific coast for miles and miles, enjoying the views of the mountains by the sea (and in my case, hoping not to fly away in the rogue winds), we found our minds wandering and our eyes seemingly telling our minds, 'Yes yes, we've seen this over and over again. Move along now. What's new?'

But I digress. The point is, it was time to leave Yellowstone. We'd seen and heard of native American settlements in and around the Yellowstone area, and thought of looking for some souvenirs. We ended up roaming around West Yellowstone, picking up a few things here and there, before leaving. 

The road back was the same as the way onwards, up to Idaho Falls in Boise. There onwards, the way diverged, towards Boise. 

The route to Boise passed through the Craters of the Moon National Preserve. The name sounds a lot fancier than the place looks! What it actually is, is a preserve of basalt and lava. I took a picture, thinking to myself that it looked just like black mud.

 

We then drove through almost deserted roads, in weather that made us feel more like we were in Hyderabad, than like where we were. When we finally reached Boise later in the evening, the temperature was nearly 40 degrees Celsius. 

We initially did plan to do some sightseeing in Boise, especially in the downtown area. It was just too hot though, and we instead decided to indulge ourselves by eating some Indian food - it had been a week since we'd eaten rice! Besides, one of the things Idaho is most famous for is potatoes. We ate some potatoes in our dinner, and had hash browns at breakfast the next day as well. 

Incidentally, it's been a week since I had tea. :) I am missing my masala chai fix, but managing reasonably well despite that - or so I would think.

Wildlife in Yellowstone

Yosemite and Yellowstone generally vie for the status of the best (perhaps they mean most popular or most magnificent or beautiful) national park in the US. I hate to admit it, but I've now changed sides to support Yellowstone on this.

Apart from its huge size (spanning three states) and the variety of nature that one sees here, there is also the number of species of wildlife that one can spot here. Whilst we did hear a bear in Yosemite - where sightings are still very common - we didn't get to see any real wildlife there. And so we didn't really expect to spot any wildlife in Yellowstone, either. 

And we were pleasantly surprised to be contradicted.

First, there was the friendly bison. Bison seem to be all over the place, and generally quite comfortable with humans around, although the park authorities keep trying to impress on people that they have gored people in the park.

Then there was the marmot. Easy to miss.

We also saw a ground squirrel - looks like the Indian 'Ramar anil' but quite smaller. 

The ravens at YNP were so big, I thought they might have been a third my size.

I also managed to capture on camera two poor little ducklings weathering the rapids in Yellowstone River. 

Saving the best for last, we saw a couple of stags/mule deer, from up close. We got some good pictures too!

We also saw a pronghorn, but we drove by too fast and there was no space to stop and get a closer look or take a photo. :( I also didn't get to see any wolves, coyotes or bears. Better luck next time I hope!

Yellowstone Lake and Yellowstone River

Yellowstone National Park was named after the Yellowstone Lake. The lake is situated at an altitude of about 7,730 feet, and covers an area of about 136 square miles. For context, the city of San Francisco covers an area of about 232 square miles.

We started out near the West Thumb of the lake, as it is called. This is how big it looks!

This is just a portion of the West Thumb! We then drove miles and miles around the lake, and stopped at a few places to take pictures. Photographs cannot really do this lake justice.

The Yellowstone River is a tributary of the Missouri river. The river feeds and drains Yellowstone Lake. Practically, we found the river beginning to flow at one place where the lake ceased to be. The river flows gently at places, and at others, forms rapids.

There's also a small-ish waterfall near what is known as the Artist's Point.

There are so many wonders in Yellowstone. I'm already planning to come back!

The Old Faithful and Other Geysers in Yellowstone

From our days in school, we've read about the Old Faithful geyser at Yellowstone National Park, a natural geyser that spews water and steam (and H2S) at regular intervals giving it its name. I also distinctly remember seeing so many cartoons (especially Loony Toons) where the Old Faithful made a cameo - usually to erupt, causing an unsuspecting Wile. E. Coyote or Sylvester the Cat to get pushed dozens of feet into the air. The Old Faithful, along with the other numerous geysers dotting this seismically active landscape, remains one of Yellowstone's most famous attractions. It's also interesting trivia that half the world's geothermal activity occurs in Yellowstone.

Before we reached the Old Faithful though, we did stop by and admire a number of other geysers that made bizarrely attractive formations, and had names to match. First stop was at the Fountain Paintpot geysers.

We also caught the Clepsydra geyser just as it erupted...And Old Faithful. A photo won't serve, we must have a video!

Another marvel of nature was the Dragon's Mouth at YNP.