The Pacific North-West Coast Trip

[Our03z4]

Today we stopped for a quick visit at Theodore Roosevelt National Park in the Badlands. They don't allow dogs on trails but we still were able to do the 20 mile scenic road. Tomorrow morning is a stop at a sapphire mine in Montana then off to Portland.

[Our03z4]

Dealt with a decent amount of rain and wind today (as to be expected) but was still a good day. Multnomah Falls we're incredible, thanks for the recommendation 2000cs! Hit up a few beaches that some mineral collectors recommend, this is one of the reasons for the trip. We found a decent amount of agates, carnelian, jasper and a few other things that I need to confirm the ID of.

I will add that I feel quite bad for the city of Portland, they have a lot of work cut out for them to get that city back in shape.

[DubaiRich]

Did you have time to climb to the top of the Falls? Spectacular view of the Columbia River from the top.

[floridaorange]

Año Nuevo State Park

Once you have walked the beautiful trail to where the elephant seal lookout is, there is an island with a deserted early 1900’s mansion that sea lions & birds have made their home, it can be seen with the binoculars they have there. Very unusual and interesting.

[Bruuuce]

Pacific city is always a great place to stay. good brewery as well.

You can also go from Portland a bit north and make the start of the Oregon coast crossing the Astoria bridge. Basically you go like you are goin to Long Beach WA. A bit up the 5 then left to the coast. Well worth the drive over the mouth of the Columbia.

The 1 in CA can take longer than you think to drive it. Plan ahead, it can be a slow drive if there are many slow moving vehicles.

have fun

[GarySL]

Stop and enjoy the elk in Humboldt County

[Our03z4]

Originally Posted by Bruuuce

Pacific city is always a great place to stay. good brewery as well.

You can also go from Portland a bit north and make the start of the Oregon coast crossing the Astoria bridge. Basically you go like you are goin to Long Beach WA. A bit up the 5 then left to the coast. Well worth the drive over the mouth of the Columbia.

The 1 in CA can take longer than you think to drive it. Plan ahead, it can be a slow drive if there are many slow moving vehicles.

have fun

Wish I could have gone to Astoria, my favorite childhood movie The Goonies was shot there.

The 1 had very light traffic, borderline none actually. We did get stuck driving part of it in heavy rain and at night. There was even a suv that rolled over, luckily not towards the ocean. That was a freaky night and we actually bailed away from the 1 until the drive the next day.

[Our03z4]

Originally Posted by DubaiRich

Did you have time to climb to the top of the Falls? Spectacular view of the Columbia River from the top.

I wish! It was raining while we were there and had the pups. Still was a fantastic place to visit and greatly enjoyed the views from the bottom and the bridge.

[Our03z4]

The rest of the trip went great! So many beautiful lighthouses along the coast, I think I enjoyed these more than the ones on the East Coast.

Did the Avenue of Giants, only saw 3 cars on the whole drive along it.

We did make it to see the Golden Gate Bridge, but the President made that stop a little tricky.

Also got to stop at the Bonneville Salt Flats Raceway and the Great Salt Lake.

My personal favorite was getting to stop at Lovelock Cave, extremely interesting place if you know the history. Didn't even know our trip was going to be taking us past until I checked where it was. The drive to it was very rough, 10 miles each way of washboard gravel, the faster you drive the better. We were the only visitors, odd place.

Another favorite was getting to stop at the old U.S. Carson City Mint, now the Navada State Museum. They still have the original 1870s press #1 and you can even buy pure silver commemorative coins stamped on it. As a coin collector this was a pleasure to see.

Mount Rushmore was a nice visit as well. Hardly a soul there. Very nice drives around there.

Final stop was at The Badlands NP. Pretty cool place.

All in all this was the time of year to go. Most places we were the only visitors, most roads had few cars if any. Rain was a slight issue in Oregon but that's to be expected. We didn't let that stop us from our rock and mineral hunting, came home with some very nice pieces. South Dakota we really got lucky with our finds, including rare limb casts, tons of petrified wood, agates, rose quartz, jasper among other finds as well.

Thanks for all the advice and help, it was an enjoyable 7k miles!

[ezaircon4jc]

Originally Posted by Our03z4

The rest of the trip went great! So many beautiful lighthouses along the coast, I think I enjoyed these more than the ones on the East Coast.

Did the Avenue of Giants, only saw 3 cars on the whole drive along it.

We did make it to see the Golden Gate Bridge, but the President made that stop a little tricky.

Also got to stop at the Bonneville Salt Flats Raceway and the Great Salt Lake.

My personal favorite was getting to stop at Lovelock Cave, extremely interesting place if you know the history. Didn't even know our trip was going to be taking us past until I checked where it was. The drive to it was very rough, 10 miles each way of washboard gravel, the faster you drive the better. We were the only visitors, odd place.

Another favorite was getting to stop at the old U.S. Carson City Mint, now the Navada State Museum. They still have the original 1870s press #1 and you can even buy pure silver commemorative coins stamped on it. As a coin collector this was a pleasure to see.

Mount Rushmore was a nice visit as well. Hardly a soul there. Very nice drives around there.

Final stop was at The Badlands NP. Pretty cool place.

All in all this was the time of year to go. Most places we were the only visitors, most roads had few cars if any. Rain was a slight issue in Oregon but that's to be expected. We didn't let that stop us from our rock and mineral hunting, came home with some very nice pieces. South Dakota we really got lucky with our finds, including rare limb casts, tons of petrified wood, agates, rose quartz, jasper among other finds as well.

Thanks for all the advice and help, it was an enjoyable 7k miles!

On our 1st trip to Mt Rushmore I was very unimpressed when I saw the monument from the road. Then we actually went to the mountain... What an impressive sight! We spent a couple of days there. Did you go to Crazy Horse? The Indians are building the sculpture using donations only. They refuse to take gummint money as they know there will strings attached. Good on them! Unfortunately, I'll be long dead before they finish.

https://crazyhorsememorial.org/visit/live-webcams

[jmg]

Be sure to pass through the Avenue Of The Giants north of SF. We were there a few years ago, and we loved it: