(This blog is a repost from an old Travel Blog)

For our 2006 vacation, Jeremy and I decided to go on another road trip. This time we headed west rather than east, and we took my 2 nephews, Tyler and Brady, with us. It was a very busy trip with lots of time in the truck! I had everything planned to a “T”, so naturally there was no room for side excursions. It was a lot of fun though!

We started out in Utah…well we started by going to Montana to pick up my nephews then in Utah. The trip was a giant loop through UT, NV…up through CA and the OR coast…on to WA to see my mom, then back across WA, through ID and back to MT. Sound exhausting?! We drove through the Bonneville Salt Flats on the way out of Utah. That was entirely surprising to say the least! I knew they were there, but I didn’t REALLY expect it to look like mars! They weren’t kidding when they said you could see the curvature of the Earth from the Salt Flats! We breezed through Nevada with out stopping anywhere of interest, and took a breather at Lake Tahoe to snap a few photos before we headed to north into California. We stayed at this little B&B outside of Lassen Volcanic National Park, and went into the park the next day. Lassen is like Yellowstone…it has geothermal features and such, but about 1/10 the size and the features. From there, we headed west to the coast and Pacific Coast Highway. We ended the day in Redwoods National Park (on the border of CA & OR) and spent the morning of the next day there as well. Nothing can prepare you for the enormity of a giant Redwood, so I won’t even try! You’ll have to see them for yourself!

So, after the Redwoods, we headed inland to go to Crater Lake National Park. I was a little bummed when we got there. The visitors center had just closed so I couldn’t get my passport stamp, and there was a major rainstorm heading in. I snapped off a few pictures, but didn’t have time for much else. We still had to make it back to the coast by the end of the night, so we just got an eyefull and headed out. The majority of the next day was spent just driving up the coast of OR. We went to a sea lion cave that we saw off the side of the highway, and saw the enormous sand dunes. By the end of the day, we had reached Portland. We took a drive up the Columbia River Gorge to see Multnomah Falls and ended the night in Portland. It was July 4th so we got to watch the fireworks over the Columbia River…pretty schnazy!

The next day was on to Washington; Mount St. Helen’s and Mount Rainier National Park. Mt. St. Helen’s was so amazing! It’s was smoking when we were there so that added some excitement! I was disappointed at Mount Rainier because it was rainy and foggy, so we couldn’t even see the mountain. We said we would go back another time…and we will. We ended the day at my mom’s up in Burlington. After spending a few nights with her, we took the scenic route back to Montana. We drove through Northern Cascades National Park, stopped in Coure d’Alene, ID to walk the boardwalk around Lake Coure d’Alene, and were in Kalispell, MT by dinner time. We spent a few nights with my dad, going up into Glacier National Park to do some fishing and picnicking, then headed back to Butte to see the rest of the family and drop the boys at home. It was a good time, but exhausting! The boys and I had nap time everyday around 3 pm in the truck when Jeremy was driving. Poor Brady was so tired of traveling! He was getting lippy and wouldn’t get into the truck anymore, so it was good that we ended it when we did!