Today we will be home! We stopped at Target to do all our last minute American shopping. The Target near Port Huron didn’t have a very big grocery store so I need to remember that for next time.
During the drive home I asked everyone some questions about the trip:
Best food:
Isla: Pizza at Stellebello in Salt Lake City
Caleb: Buffet at Old Faithful Inn Dining Room in Yellowstone
Joel: Taqueria el Compa food truck in Wells, Nevada.
Tracy: Bubba’s Bar-B-Q in Cody Wyoming and Swig in Provo Utah
Best View:
Isla: Grand Prismatic overlook in Yellowstone National Park
Caleb: Grand Prismatic overlook in Yellowstone National Park
Joel: Walking through the Redwoods
Tracy: The light coming through the trees as we hiked the Boy Scout Trail in Redwoods
Favourite Hike:
Isla: The Obsidian Flow in Newberry Volcanic Monument
Caleb: Cascade Canyon Trail in Grand Teton
Joel: Cascade Canyon Trail in Grand Teton
Tracy: The Obsidian Flow in Newberry Volcanic Monument, Fern Canyon in Redwoods, Cascade Canyon
Favourite thing about America:
Isla: All the different landscapes
Caleb: How different some states are from the other
Joel: National Parks Junior Ranger Program
Tracy: Junior Ranger programs at the National Parks
Least favourite thing about the USA:
Isla: Del Taco
Caleb: Del Taco
Joel: Coffee
Tracy: How expensive food is. Seeing random people carrying hand guns.
Most surprising thing about the trip:
Isla: How much is snowed in Yellowstone
Caleb: How much it snowed in Yellowstone
Joel: How much it snowed in Yellowstone
Tracy: The amount of Americans who apologized for their President and said they love Canada.
Favourite drive:
Isla: Hayden Valley, Dunraven Pass and Lamar Valley in Yellowstone because of all the animals we saw
Caleb: Lamar Valley in Yellowstone because of the wildlife
Joel: Highway 101 up the coast of California and Oregon because the mix of the Redwoods and ocean.
Tracy: Howland Hill Road on the Redwoods for the trees.
Favourite Animal we saw:
Isla: Bison knocking over the tree
Caleb: Bison
Joel: The happy horse at the Cody Rodeo
Tracy: The massive bachelor Bison
Favourite Moment of the Trip:
Isla: Seeing the mother moose and baby so close when we hiked the Cascade Canyon Trail. When the bison charged at the horses when we were on the stage coach ride.
Caleb: Biking at Lassen Volcanic National Park
Joel: Watching Isla run into the mist of the Beehive Geyser in Yellowstone
Tracy: Watching Isla as the Beehive geyser was erupting.
Least favourite moment of the trip:
Isla: Leaving home
Caleb: Leaving home
Joel: Coming into Jackson Hole and waiting too long before using my engine brake.
Tracy: When they cancelled our Old West Cookout at Yellowstone because of the snow
Favourite campsite:
Isla: Yellowstone – they had awesome showers and Bison
Caleb: Yellowstone – the biking trails and the nice trucks (there was a lot of money in that campground)
Joel: Skull Hollow State Campground near Smith Rock State Park – it was quiet and open
Tracy: Craters of the Moon Lava Flow Campground – it was cool being surrounded by lava rock and I felt the kids we safe biking around
Least Favourite Campsite:
Isla: Crater Lake Nation Park – I was worried someone was going to come knock on the door and tell us to leave
Caleb: Sue-Meg
Joel: Sue-Meg State Park Campground- the site was unnecessarily tight
Tracy: Ramblin’ Redwoods – the owner changed our campsite I had paid more to reserve, it was across the road from a prison, half of it was seasonal campers. The whole vibe was no good.
Favourite State:
Isla: Wyoming – the rodeo, Yellowstone and Grand Teton
Caleb: Utah – I just love it
Joel: Northern California- the trees and the climate and the hikes
Tracy: Wyoming because of the snow capped mountains (but Utah still has my heart)
Favourite thing to listen to while driving:
Isla: Dave Ramsey
Caleb: Dave Ramsey
Joel: Dave Ramsey Satellite radio and the Matthew Perry book
Tracy: Prime Country Satellite radio
Most interesting person you met:
Isla: When Dad sneezed and a man said “bless you” and then found out we were Canadian and he went on to genuinely apologize for how America is currently treating Canada with the trade war
Caleb: Ranger Bob at Fishing Bridge in Yellowstone who told me about fishing in the area.
Joel: At Crater Lake the worker at the campground who just gave the last campsite to the person ahead of us in line (at a first come, first served campground) when I asked what happens if we park in the parking lot was so mean and kept saying “don’t do it”.
Tracy: Joel’s new parents we met on the rafting ride down the Snake River in Grand Tetons. Pat and Ed were lovely (both own a counselling practice in Des Moines).
Best Smell:
Isla: Ponderosa Pine
Caleb: Steak near Smith Rock
Joel: Fresh air in the Redwood forests
Tracy: The vanilla smell of the Ponderosa Pine while we hiked around the waterfall at McArthur-Burney Falls State Park
Worst Smell:
Isla: Sulphur in Yellowstone
Caleb: Sulphur in Yellowstone
Joel: Ocean in Crescent City
Tracy: Great Salt Lake State Park – rotting shrimp
Most unexpected things:
–the Bison knocking over the tree
-the amount of deep snow in Crater Lake in June (Caleb says he has never seen snow that deep in his life)
-the lack of cell service in the Midwest/west
-the moose walking right in front of us on the Cascade Canyon hike
-when the Bison charged at us on the stage coach ride
-that the sea lion swimming with Joel and the kids didn’t attack them
-we went the whole trip without doing any laundry!
-how much “Grizzly and the Lemmings” Caleb watched and how much he laughed
What was the most super touristy thing we did that was surprisingly awesome:
Isla: Beehive Geyser erupting and Trees of Mystery with Paul Bunyan and Babe
Caleb: Swig
Joel: Jackson Hole – the antler arches and walking around the town. Wall Drug was a fun tourist trap store.
Tracy: Watching wildlife with random people on the sides of the road in Yellowstone. The Bonneville Salt Flats were as pretty as the pictures and totally different than anything else I’ve seen
Was there something we did that didn’t meet your expectations?
Isla: no
Caleb: Mount Rushmore – it was smaller than expected
Joel: Del Taco
Tracy: The visitor centers in the Redwoods – they were all small and didn’t have the impressive videos I was expecting. The Oregon Coast – it could have been that it was too windy to be very happy but O was expecting it to be breathtaking
One thing that would have improved this trip:
Isla: A fan for the hot nights in the trailer
Caleb: Having more space to walk by others inside the trailer
Joel: If I bought Cafe Buaso coffee instead of Dunkin Donuts to make in the mornings
Tracy: Two sets of binoculars for Yellowstone so the kids wouldn’t argue.
What we missed most about home (other than people and the animals):
Isla: Our air conditioning
Caleb: My fan
Joel: Unlimited water
Tracy: The ease of making food. McDonald’s fries (bc they are GF in Canada but not USA). Space.
Where do you want to go on your next vacation?
Isla: Arizona to see cactuses
Caleb: Newfoundland
Joel: Smokey Mountains
Tracy: Canadian West Coast and Northern USA loop
Would you take such a long trip again:
Isla: Yep
Caleb: Yah
Joel: Yes we are just getting warmed up!
Tracy: 24 days felt much shorter than 33 days. I didn’t ever think on this trip “why in the world did I think being away this long was a good idea?!” like I did in 2023. Travelling in June when we had 16 hours of daylight really allowed us to cram a lot into our days. We didn’t get in as many sunrises and sunsets as I wanted to – I think mainly because the sunrises were all around 5am (which I do not like)and the sunsets were never that spectacular because the sun would go down behind the mountains but it would stay light out for another hour. So yes – 3 weeks is a nice length.
If you could go back to one moment and do it again right now:
Isla: Driving through Hayden Valley in Yellowstone
Caleb: Biking in Crater Lake
Joel: Swimming in the ocean and watching the sea lion (before I knew they are currently going crazy and attacking people).
Tracy: Hiking the Boyscout Trail in Redwoods.
Next time we should pack more:
- Paper plates
- Underwear
- Two sets of shower toiletries
- More pens/pencils
- A good Sun hat for Isla
- More spoons (disposable ones? For all the morning yogurt)
