A road trip to remember

This is my story of my family's first road trip in US we planned in just 2 days, covering 4 National Parks and 5 states where we will be travelling a total distance of 2200 miles in 8 days.

Our trip to India we had planned all summer was cancelled at the very last moment, due to some visa issues. All our bags were packed and the mood in the house was gloomy to put it mildly. My father was planning to go extreme on the road trip. His idea of the road trip was to travel the breadth of America from West to East, starting from Seattle in Washington to Boston in Massachusetts. To put it into perspective that would mean a distance of 3,045 miles one way and then back. That would be just 6 days one way drive even if we drove like 500 miles per day with my younger brother who is just 4 years old. Thankfully some sense got into him, and we decided to abandon the plan.

So, what actually ended up happening was a more planned trip, where we covered 250 miles per day and enjoyed the rest of the day sightseeing and relaxing. This is the story of that trip. Hope you will all enjoy it.

So, first thing in the morning on august 22, 2023 at around 7:30am we hit I-90 Highway bound for Spokane, WA. The weather quality was not good in Spokane, due to the multiple wildfires burning across Washington. It is a hazy day and the sun looks orange, which reminds me of the flag of Bangladesh.

At 8:34 am we are going along the Yakima River. It is 1-mile until Wenatchee and still 3 hr 15 mins until Spokane. The fauna along our route has changed, we are seeing mostly shrubs in the Yakima valley and lots of trucks passing by us. The familiar windmills greet us on journey.

At 9:16am we are crossing the Columbia River, the largest river in Washington state, which runs through Canada, entering Washington and divides Washington and Oregon at one point. We have been on the road for close to 3 hours now at 10:40 am and decide to take a pit stop at a Sprague Lake rest area. My younger brother is not a big fan of the rest area toilets, due to the noise from hand dryers. I guess his ears are just sensitive. 

After crossing the giant golden fields, beaming with ripe hay we enter Spokane and visited the Riverfront. park

Spokane like Seattle also has the problem of homeless people. This is a panoramic view of the park from the side, which does not have the homeless and a huge Nordstrom mall.

We couldn't stay for the long at this place due to the smoke from the wildfires. So, after getting groceries and filling up gas from Costco, we left for Wallace Inn, Idaho. This was our first pit stop and we had just crossed into Idaho. Idaho is famous for potatoes and the number plates let you know explicitly the folks here are proud of that. As for the Wallace town, it has long been famous as the "Silver Capital of the World" with over 1.2 billion ounces of silver having been mined since 1884. The hotel is also registered in The National Register of Historic place.

Next day 22nd August we left the hotel at 7:29am and headed towards Glacier National Park in Montana. Even though we started earlier, and distance was only 3 hours, we were confused as our clocks pushed us back an hour, as we entered into Mountain Time Zone. The time zone boundaries are not aligned with the state boundaries, so even within the state, time Zones change. So, you can see from the below map, part of Idaho is in PST and part of Idaho is in Mountain Time Zone

Enough of the Geography lesson, let's move ahead with our journey. We are now travelling along the Clark Fork River towards Kalispell, MT. My father is driving at 74Mph, thinking if we just drive fast enough, we can make up for the lost time. It never works that way. I am enjoying the view from my window, majestic mountains, some bighorn sheep, horses and cows. It is a wide-open place with hills, as I continue to be annoyed with my brother who keeps kicking me. 

After filling gas at Costco, Kalispell, and crossing the Flathead Forest we reach our first destination at the Glacier National Park which is Agpar Visitor Center. I stamp my old passport and we head over to Lake McDonald our second pit stop for the day. The view is truly mystical and the water so clear. 

We try to get the boat tour , but it is full. Next stop the Loop but wait the road from Lake McDonald to Loop to the Sun Road is under construction. I mean I like really under construction; it is like you are driving through some remote village with potholes and mud and to make things interesting, it just rained a day ago. So, by the time we reach loop, our car is already covered in mud. The views from here on to the Going to the Sun Road are just breathtaking. On one side a deep valley and other side steep mountains and pots of Glaciers spewed along the road. You have to come here to understand the engineering feat that was accomplished.

Tired from our journey through the potholes of Glacier National Park, we head back to our accommodation for the night, which is actually a ranch, owned by Tony, a war veteran who fought in the Afghanistan war and now runs this place along with his wife and daughters. He is gracious enough to introduce us to his two horses Hustler and Memphis. 

Thanking them for their hospitality we head over to Bozeman, MT. It is a 300-mile ride, and my mom takes over the wheels. It is first time she will be driving on the highway, and we are all very nervous.

We visit the Museum of rockies and have just 1 hour before the museum closes. We saw the artworks of Leonardo Da Vinci and giant exhibit of the T rex and other fossils. Another interesting experience was the Living History Farm, it had the ambience of houses in Montana between 1890-1910. 

It is the 24th of August and at 8:40 am we left our hotel in Bozeman towards North entrance of the Yellowstone National Park, which is Gardiner in Wyoming. We reached Gardiner at 11:40am and entered through the Historic Roosevelt Arch.

We saw some Pronghorns grazing in the meadows. Our first stop after the check post was the Mammoth Hot spring. It was huge with wooden walkpaths over the hot spring, and I got to admit the hot spring smelled like rotten eggs. After that we decided to go to Old Faithful geysers when we reached there it was interesting but not quite my expectation it was just mostly buildings. After we saw the Old Faithful eruption for 2 minutes, we decided to call it a day and headed toward our Lodge in Grant Village. We got a room in the Cayote lodge. It was 10 ft by 10 ft with 2 Queen beds and a large cabinet, after that there was hardly any space to walk once, we put in our luggage. there was almost no space to walk. Then we went to bed. The next day comes around and we have breakfast and we go straight to the road to see some bison's that were grazing in the Medows 

                               

Then we hit the road towards Grant Teton National Park. After a few hours we pulled into grand Teton national park and went into the visitor center building. The park was established by Senator Kendrick bill and signed by President Calvin Coolidge on February 26th, 1929, creating a 96,000-acre park that included the Teton range and six glacial at the base of the peaks Anway moving on. Once we got in the visitor center there were some tiles on the floor that were illuminated by lights it was so cool but my brother kept standing on the illuminated lights tiles and I was afraid that they would get dirty. Then my parents signed me up thinking that I would get my junior rangers badge here because I was not able to get my badge in Yellowstone national park. Turned out to complete the last activity it would take 2 hours because the last activity in my book was hiking and that would take approximately 2 hours and we did not have that much time so we had to leave. On our way to our car we saw this American airlines A320 with its landing gears down flying crazy low it was so low that I could see its tail logo it was spectacular to watch it fly so low. 

      We bid adieu to Wyoming and entered Idaho at 3pm. We started our journey along the Snake River. After topping up our gas we went to LaQuinta Inn's and Suites by Wydham. Next day after having the breakfast at the hotel, we went to see the Idaho falls Dam which is built on the Snake River.

Our next leg of travel from Idaho falls to Boise was 280 miles. We reached Boise by 3pm and headed straight to Zoo Boise. We didn't realize but there a Gowen thunder airshow happening in Boise. Zoo was not very much interesting, but we enjoyed the airshow. We checked into Holiday inn Express and ordered Dominoes for dinner. We didn't really plan out properly our trip into Boise, as the next day we were supposed to visit the State Capitol, but reaching there we realized it was closed for Sunday. Had we done the State Capitol in the afternoon yesterday, it would have worked out better.

Our next stop was Walla Walla in our own state Washington. This was around 250 miles. We left Idaho state and entered Oregon state at Ontoria at 10:30am. We went straight to Walla Walla Vintners. Our parents tried out a flight and we walked around the vineyards. It was time to head into our abode for the night which was LaQuinta Hotel in Walla. It was nice hotel and had excellent breakfast. 

The next day it was time to visit the Walla Walla downtown. We found a nice local creamery Pine Cone Creamery, where we had a Banana Split.

On the way out from Walla Walla we went to Whitman mission, which I had just studied this year in my Social Studies. I finally got to complete my junior ranger program and took the oath with the ranger, who was very kind.

Our last stop in our journey was Yakima which was 131 miles away. We headed straight to Freehand Cellars . It is a nice little winery perched on top of a hill and you get a real nice view of the entire valley. We had reached there my lunch time. We enjoyed this winery much more than our stay in any of the Walla Walla wineries.

Around 3pm after being done, we started on our journey back home, which was another 140 miles or 3 hours away. By 6pm we were back home, with memories we built for the lifetime. all in all this road trip was a very memorable time for me and my family. 

                                                             The End