We went for a few short hikes to small waterfalls, and along little creeks. They were all nicer than most found scattered all over us, rathen than mile after mile of them.
Stopped for lunch at a roadside bus-cafe 'Cafe Romantico' All Vegetarian, All amazing food, I had great focaccia slice, Miranda had a good samosa and Laura had a quiche.
Afterwords we went to the Waianapanapa State Park. Took a loop trail that visited some freshwater cliff-pools and heard stories of a Water-cave that eventually comes out up the side of the cliff a ways a way!! I just had to try this.. . But i could not get Miranda or Laura on board. After I was already treading water in the pool, prepping to swim into the caves myself, another girl (A stranger) was entering and offered to try out the adventure with me. We swam in, me holding a small flashlight above my head.. After about 40 feet of cool cavern with deeper than can touch cool water, We had to climb out of the water a bit, then slip through a hole smaller than 2ft in diameter. This hole dropped us into another freshwater cave (couldn't touch) so we swam 50 feet in there to a steep volcanic lava tube, after managing to rock-climb a bit out of there we appeared out of a cave exit in the cliff wall about 50 feet up and 100 feet from where we started. This was so much fun, I managed to talk Miranda and then Even Laura into attempting it with me a second time, and they both did well and had fun. Supa Cool. Checked out he black beaches and shore-caves a bit.
Final big stop was the seven-sacred pools area- this was an amazing 4 mile hike, Stupendous bamboo trail walk, super high waterfall, river-pools, bridges, all great.
Aloha cottages in Hana rented us a great 2 bedroom full amenities 70's cabin for $100, so that worked sweet.
We looked for dinner, but only found pasta for $23 a plate... Decided on store-bought dinner, veg burgers,chips and hummus, and ice cream cost $29!! Expensive groceries, but cheap considering options. Was a great big 5-star day.
-Joe
A day late, but Laura and Miranda on top of Haleakala. Super windy!
An amusing sign at one of the stops.
Joe in the awesome bamboo forest.
Laura and Miranda in front of the super high waterfall.
The main room/kitchen of the cottage.
[ 1 comment ] ( 3 views )
In the morning, we headed for Yellowstone. Our hope was to head out hwy 212 towards Billings, but it closes in mid-October. When we went into the park, they had a big sign saying it was closed, so we planned for a different route. It still took us through a part of the park we hadn't been to yet.
We stopped at most of the stops this time. We say the Norton Geyser Basin, the Lower Falls, the Mud Volcanoes and a bunch more. It was lots of fun and lots of walking, though tiring. We ended up leaving Yellowstone around 5pm and started working our way towards Billings.
We got to Billings last night and just stayed in a Walmart parking lot. This morning, we were getting up to go have breakfast with Sara (Joe's sister) and her boyfriend. It was fun to be able to sit and chat for a bit.
We are now on the road and headed for home. Our hope is to get at least partway through North Dakota today, find someplace to stay, then be home tomorrow night.
I'll get photos posted once we get home.
-Miranda
[ add comment ]
We did check out Craters of the Moon National Monument. The most recent lava flow there was about 2000 years ago. The rock there was really neat. So many fun formations. We drove around the loop they have there to see the volcanoes and lava flow. There were also some caves. They were a lot rougher than the lava beds, and they were a lot shorter, but still very neat. The two we went into had ice and were quite cold.
We debated on staying in the campground there, but decided against it. We figured it would be better to get closer to Yellowstone. There was a state park before Yellowstone, so our hope was to stay there. I finally looked at the weather for Yellowstone though and it was supposed to be in the teens that night! We decided we would just be driving through, not camping there at all.
We started driving, but right around the time the national forest started, we started climbing a mountain. At that point we realized, it was going to be a cold night. Instead of waiting for the state park, we found a road and drove down it a short ways, then parked. We emptied our sink water and hopped into bed.
Neither of us slept very well. We kept waking up, making sure Curly and Pickles had some blanket on them to help keep them warm. In the morning, the temperature was 16, so I have no idea how cold it got, but it was pretty chilly.
[ 6 comments ] ( 11 views )
Saturday we drove after we let the cats out for a while until we reached the Oregon/California border where Lake Goose State Park is. State parks have showers, so we stayed there for the night. In the morning, we headed out again and basically drove all day again. We stayed at a rest area near Boise last night. Our aim today is the Craters of the Moon National Monument.
-Miranda
[ 2 comments ] ( 22 views )
We woke up the next morning to rain. Joe went down to check out the possibility of surfing, but it looked pretty bad. We decided to just head out. We had to stop in Bandon to pick up some deworming medication for the cats. (Curly had tapeworms.) From there we ended up stopping at Cape Blanco. It was so foggy, we couldn't see a thing. The sites were $20 for hookups, so we decided to stay.
That night we did the pills for the cats. I'll tell you one thing, I'm never giving Lucy another pill. She was freaking out so much that her mouth started foaming. Pickles took the trick of putting it in cheese. All the other cats had to go the hard way.
It poured all night. The next morning we hooked up to the electricity and got the battery fully charged before leaving. We ended up spending the afternoon in a grocery store parking lot to get some work done. There was a decent pizza place in town that had a really good salad bar. We had dinner there before heading out again. Still in the pouring rain. We ended up finding a road in the forest that was gated. We parked near there for the night.
Let's just say we've done a lot of movie watching... Right now we're at a Fred Meyers in Brookings. The rain seems to have stopped but it's super wet and foggy out there. It's supposed to clear up tomorrow. Hopefully that holds true.
-Miranda
[ 1 comment ] ( 4 views )
Back Next
Calendar