By Shelby
Monday, we worked from our seaside Airbnb. We moved the dining room table to in front of the window, so we could see the ocean while we worked. Luckily the fog that had been hanging around since we arrived cleared up a little, so we could actually see the water and beach. By 9 AM, the beach was very busy. Lots of people were setting up umbrellas and kids were playing in the sand. We thought that was pretty crazy. It wasn’t even 60 degrees out and people were going in the icy water.
For lunch, we both made use of the oven. I made lemon garlic shrimp with peas and rice. Spencer made nachos. They both were really good. We can do a lot with our microwave and gas stove but some things really require an oven. It was nice to have a full kitchen, even if it was just for a few days. We also had breakfast cereal for the first time in a while. We could do cereal on the road but even a small milk jug takes up a lot of room in our fridge.
After work, we went for a walk along the beach. It was pretty cold, but the hot sun made it tolerable. We walked in the water, but its iciness made our feet numb so we gave up on that pretty fast. We couldn’t believe people were actually swimming in the water. It was also rocky and kind of gross in some parts.
When we got back, we ate leftovers for dinner while watching the movie Castaway. Watching the ocean through the window made me want to watch it. It was nice and relaxing watching the movie in bed. This was our first time not sleeping in the car since North Dakota over a month ago. The sunset view from our balcony was pretty nice, but the fog moved back in quickly. After dark, we saw people making fires along the beach. It was cool seeing just the light of several fires in the thick fog.
Tuesday, we packed up the car and drove south down Highway 101, a scenic byway along the Oregon coast. Spencer did a little work offline while I drove. Unfortunately, the fog was still very thick and it was difficult to get a good view of the water. Our first stop along the highway was Thor’s Well. The water crashed against the rocks violently. They sounded like thunder. Water was sprayed up into the air when there was a particularly large wave.
For lunch, we stopped at a small restaurant called the Drift Inn Hotel and Restaurant. I wanted seafood, so I got a plate of steamer clams and a raw oyster shooter. The oyster shooter was served in a shot glass with cocktail sauce. I thought it was very good. I would definitely get it again. Spencer got seafood lasagna. He said it was okay but not his favorite.
After lunch, we continued driving south. We stopped at a few overlooks before arriving in Florence, a small town on the coast. We parked at a beach to work for the rest of the day. Again, we saw lots of people going out to the water even though it was pretty cold out. We wanted to stay on the coast for as long as possible because it was about 30 degrees hotter further inland.
Later that evening, we drove a couple hours inland to Eugene to stay at the Planet Fitness there. We worked from there the next morning. At lunch time, we drove to a small state park south of Eugene to work that afternoon. It was very hot with temperatures in the 90s. After dinner, we drove on to Beaver Marsh rest area. The drive back through the Cascade Mountains was great. Lots of pine trees and alpine terrain. There was a beautiful sunset behind us as we went. We were heading toward Crater Lake National Park, our next stop. It was very loud at the rest area that night. There was a whole line of semi trucks that kept their engines running all night.
Wednesday morning, we continued on to Crater Lake. The park was definitely a lot less busy than the other national parks we’ve been to so far. There were no lines we had to wait in and parking was easy. The park was basically a rim road circling around the lake. The lake was a collapsed volcano that erupted almost 8000 years ago. Rain and melted snow filled the crater with water over the years.
We drove clockwise around the lake, stopping at various overlooks. The water was a beautiful dark blue and very reflective. To get a view of the whole lake, we hiked up Mt. Scott, the highest place in the park. It was a 4.5-mile hike up to a fire tower at the peak. Even though it was still pretty early in the morning, it was hot out. The wind at the top of the mountain made the heat tolerable and the view was very nice.
After we finished with the hike, we continued along the rim road and stopped at a few more overlooks, where we saw a small island in the lake and a waterfall. We walked a mile-long trail through a wildflower garden that was very pretty. Our final stop was at the visitors center where we refilled our water bottles and viewed the lake again.
When we left the park, we headed north to the city of Bend. We showered at the Planet Fitness there before going grocery shopping. Our next meal is going to be bean burrito bowls. They are easy to make and don’t require a ton of prep. We also made a quick stop at the last remaining Blockbuster. We then drove up to a butte in the middle of the city with 360-degree views. We ate a pint of strawberry ice cream we got at the grocery store. It was still very hot out.
When we finished the ice cream, we drove about 2 hours east to a rest area in the middle of the desert. We couldn’t believe how deserty Oregon was. The sunset was amazing. We stopped at a small rest area to get a picture before moving on. The rest area we slept at was very nice. It seemed pretty new and it was very quiet.
Friday morning, we got back on the road to continue east toward Nampa, Idaho. There was a Planet Fitness we planned on showering at. We stopped in the small town of Burns to get gas and unfortunately took a wrong turn and got on the wrong highway. But it only added 20 minutes to the trip, so it was ok. The next 3 hours were going right through the desert. Gas stations were over 100 miles apart and we rarely saw cars. The landscape was very unique with mesas and hills covered with small desert bushes and brown grass. We drove by some small canyons carved out by creeks. There were a couple small cloud puffs, but clear skies besides those. It was in the 90s by 10 am.
Southern Idaho looked very similar to eastern Oregon. There were endless desert plains with barren brown mountains in the distance. It was completely different from northern Idaho, where the region is forested and mountainous. As we got closer to Nampa, farmland became more frequent. There were golden fields of wheat, vibrant green corn stalks, and of course, fields of potatoes. Our first stop in Idaho was Planet Fitness to shower. After that, we drove south to Hagerman Fossil Beds National Monument.
Hagerman Fossil Beds National Monument is where fossils of Hagerman horses were found. Hagerman horses are the earliest known single-toed horse species. Unfortunately, the fossil beds are too fragile for visitors, so the only place to see the actual fossils is the visitors center. We quickly read up on the area’s history before moving on. Museums are nice, particularly if they are free, but we prefer to spend our limited time in each area out in the natural environment.
After seeing the fossils, we continued on to the Thousand Springs Scenic Byway. Here, we stopped at an overlook of the Snake River, an important water source in the area. We also stopped at an overlook of the original Oregon Trail. Part of the road actually is part of the original route. That was pretty cool to see. The temperature was in the 100s, so we didn’t spend too much time outside. We were very glad for the car’s AC.
We drove on to Twin Falls, where we were going to spend the night. We decided to make dinner at Shoshone Falls, a waterfall located in a city park. The falls poured down into a large canyon, which reminded me of a very small Grand Canyon. This was still part of the Snake River where we had been a few hours ago. The falls were part of a large hydroelectric plant.
Our bean burrito bowls didn’t turn out quite as good as I’d hoped. It probably wasn’t a good idea to get canned beans in sauce. They were pretty watery and we didn’t have the energy to make rice to help soak up the sauce. But they were edible and they helped us use up some leftover salsa and lettuce. After dinner, Spencer went for a short walk to another viewpoint of the falls to see the sunset while I relaxed in the car. After that, we washed the dishes in the park’s bathroom.
We decided to sleep at a WinCo Foods, a 24 hour grocery store that night. Planet Fitness wasn’t open all night, so we didn’t want to stay there. We also tried checking out a gravel trail at the top of the canyon to potentially sleep at, but the road had large potholes and was too rough for the Prius. WinCo Foods was pretty busy all night and we were woken up at 4 in the morning by a street sweeper cleaning the parking lot. It seemed like it was driving circles around us. While peeking out the window, I saw a sheriff’s car pull into the parking lot. That made me a little nervous that we would get knocked on, but they left without bothering us and we fell back asleep.
In the morning, we showered at Planet Fitness and then drove back to the top of the canyon to the rough road. The whole area on top of the ridge had ATV trails all over. It was a cool landscape with small hills and brown bushes that looked barely alive. There were lots of grasshoppers here that started jumping on the car. If you got too close to them they would jump around like crazy and sometimes be blown into you by the wind. Spencer walked down the dirt roads after parking and got great pictures of the canyon.
Our next stop was Craters of the Moon National Monument. To get there, we had to drive an hour and a half through the desert. It was more long straight roads in what felt like the middle of nowhere. We started to wonder what we would do if the car broke down and we didn’t have cell service. All the farmland here was watered with giant rolling sprinklers. We really hadn’t realized how much of Idaho was desert!
We knew we were getting close to Craters of the Moon when the landscape started to change. There were large piles of black rocks that looked like mud all over. It was very weird and unique looking. Once we got to the monument, we stopped at the visitors center to fill up our water bottles and get a cave permit. This woud allow us to enter the caves. It was nice that our parks pass works at national monuments as well as national parks, so it was free for us to go in.
In the park, we did a few short hikes. It was very hot, we avoided doing any longer hikes and rushed back to the air conditioned car after each walk. We walked through Devil’s Orchard, climbed up Inferno Cone, looked into Spatter Cones, and enjoyed looking at the unique landscape from the scenic road through the park.
Our longest hike in the park was about 1.5 miles total to the caves. The caves in this area are actually lava tubes. Lava tubes are formed when the exterior lava flowing from a volcanic vent cools and hardens, but the interior lava remains molten and continues moving through the hardened crust, leaving a hollow cave. Dewdrop Cave was the first cave we went in. It was a pretty tiny cave but still cool to check out. The temperature inside the cave felt about 30 degrees cooler than outside. It was a nice break from the heat.
Indian Cave was the second cave we went in. This was much bigger than Dewdrop Cave. We could actually walk through it and exit from the other side. There were large holes in the ceiling that let light through, so we didn’t need to use a flashlight.
The caves were the last features in the park that we explored. We returned to the visitors center to refill our water bottles before driving on to Idaho Falls, where we will be working from next week. Idaho Falls is about 2 hours from the Grand Tetons and Yellowstone National Park, which we are excited to explore next week. Unfortunately, I am coming down with a cold. Hopefully, it will clear up fast.
Our plan for Sunday is to finish up working on the website, do laundry, and relax. We did a lot of long easy drives the past few days which gave us time to get ahead on going through pictures and writing the blog post. We might actually get some time to relax on Sunday this week. Lastly, we’re planning on cooking something with Idaho potatoes next week but we’re not sure yet what to make. Comment below if you have any suggestions.
Fun Facts from Week 14:
- Crater lake is the deepest lake in the US, 1949 feet deep at its deepest point. Its depth is what causes it to have its beautiful dark blue color.
- Evel Knievel attempted to use a rocket powered motorcycle to jump over the Snake River Canyon in Twin Falls, Idaho. Unfortunately, his parachute malfunctioned and he floated down to the bottom of the canyon.
- The last volcanic eruption at Craters of the Moon occurred 2,000 years ago.
2 responses to “Week 14”
I didn’t realize there was so much desert so far north in the US!
Did u rent a movie at blockbuster?! Lol