Going west - Never seen a blue so blue - pt7.

One thing I must say is that I have never seen so many pine trees in my life. We are in Oregon for sure!
Another thing I must say: we saw snow! And it's JULY!!!
Around 15 degrees outside and we were going up and up and up. Climbing up to the rim of Crater Lake!

Picture-picture-picture!!!!

It is one of the most breathtaking places I've ever been to! we stopped at a lookout point and there was a LOT of snow. That little splash there is right at the edge of the cliff, that is so deep that you'd think people would stay off as far as they could, but no, the story of the day was that a couple stood right there, where the picture is most beautiful and guess what? -the snow broke off the edge and they are no more.

Enough of the sad stories, let's see more pictures!

At a certain point the sun came out...and what was already amazing turned into something beyond imagination! Never seen a blue so blue, and green so green - there where the water was less deep.

The colour is given by the lake's depth - all colours of the spectrum are absorbed apart from blue that is reflected back to the surface. In the more shallow parts of the lake we can also see green, following the same principle! (see? you can learn so much by going on trips! even physics and brainy stuff!)

The lake was made when a volcano exploded and collapsed onto itself  That eruption was 42 times more powerful than the 1980 eruption of Mt. St. Helen. Well, after many years of lava the bottom was sealed off and that allowed the snow to gather and eventually form a lake. (it's almost 2000 feet deep). The water is one of the purest on earth and because it has no rivers running in there were no kinds of fish until someone thought it would be cool to bring some in. Now they've stopped it and so that's all the facts I can remember!

We set off south and at a certain point I heard: over those mountains is California, and I thought: the promised land.

We went to see an old friend of ours in Ashland. We knew her when we lived in Sacramento and we had not seen each other since then, 13 years (or so).

Ashland is a pretty little town, will find a pretty pic to post, will do soon! It's a pretty cultural town, they have the shakespeare fest there. So there were about 4 diff theaters around one square! Have seen something like that only in Italy, and instead of the theaters there were churches. There you have the diff in cultures!

People in this town looked really happy, relaxed and at home. I think that's how one should always feel, don't you? There were antique shops, a hat shop, a record shop...and ice cream! Everything one should wish for.

We slept in Oregon for the last time. Tomorrow we are reaching our land. And we miss it!

Going west - Towards our future - pt6.

From my journal:
-Going west:
It's a trip back to when people fought for their land, fought for survival, against the landscape and against their enemies. They were trying to protect their future - their people. 


This is where I saw that the trip had to be divided into two separate entities, the first was a journey to the beginning, the second was towards the future. Not only because it was kindda what the Europeans did back all those years ago (to build their future, and ours, for that matter), but also because I was going back home, and home was in my future.


We left for the last day to visit the geysers. We had only seen Old Faithful and there are many many more to be seen, plus the wonderful multicolored pools. It had to be a memorable last day in Yellowstone! Except that when we woke up we saw this wall of rain. 

Pretty dramatic skies when the clouds broke up a little.


We of course set off to see Old Faithful again, and we got soaking wet! 


That day Old Faithful wasn't so faithful and kept us waiting for a good 10 mins, which in that weather seemed like a life time! 


Problem with the pools is that you can only see them in their full glory when it's sunny, something to do with water absorption of red wavelengths due to the water purity and the pool's depth. Other colours can also be perceived caused by the bacteria that lives in the water, but for this time we decided to set off and leave them for next time we come to the park!


On our way out of the park we actually passed through Montana! With 1600 miles on the meter.


We stopped by Idaho Falls again and from then on we saw potatoes! (let's see if I find a good photo from this part of our trip...difficult to photograph potatoes, that I can tell you.)


No actually, my pics are all of food...nevermind. It was two boring days of reflections and of thinking about Yellowstone and about the future. Stayed at a hotel that I ain't gonna talk about, and on my journal the only things I write are trivia about the place...not too sure I wanna re-write them here...

Oregon, finally! A place with mountains and valleys! And our road runs along a river called Gold! I'm golden!


Posting a pic with all my pride! 


We saw some abandoned  mines and railway. I couldn't help but wonder how it was back in the old days, when I saw a group of houses that looked like those in horror movies, and stopped thinking about it.




We stopped at Burns, a weird little town, with friendly people! Had watermelon in a little park and saw a dear in an abandoned house. Very freaky...this whole thing is just surreal. Anyhow, moving on.


Our next stop is somewhere amazing, unique in its kind! tomorrow will be a cool and exciting day! I need that!

A thousand miles to Yellowstone - the day we understood - pt 5.

Waking up in Yellowstone is something magical!
Waking up and having an elk right in front of your window is something beyond imagination!!!

We were there for two nights and 3 days, each day completely different to each other. It was like living in different dimensions, or something.

That day we started by walking up all around the lower terraces! They are called like that because the hot water from the spring brings calcium carbonate to the surface, and over the years it has settled creating little pools along the hillside.

This place is actually located outside the caldera, but its energy has been attributed to the same magmatic system that fuels other Yellowstone geothermal areas. (taken word by word from Wikipedia, I thought I couldn't have said it in a better way)



We then set off to visit the Canyon! Or as they call it "The Grand Canyon of Yellowstone".

Our first stop was the Upper falls. The power of that water is beyond imagination, there you feel how strong nature really is.

I don't know if you can see but at the top right corner of my picture there are little ants standing by the waterfall, those are people! With places like these you cannot really imagine the dimensions unless there is a person standing somewhere near it.

The river actually bends right before the fall, you cannot see it in the picture, but I was amazed as to how water always finds the easiest way through. I read the rock where the river bends is less hard than the one straight ahead.

Then we went to my favorite place of the trip - "The Lower Falls", and the best place to see it from is "Artist's Point". Needless to say I made a painting of it. AMAZING!

Yellowstone gets its name from this place, from the yellow stone you see there. Wonderful!

The colours in here are splendid, but once again I got this feeling of almost flatness, of not being able to tell the depth of this canyon. Some people say the same thing about Grand Canyon in Arizona. Guess we were not made with "canyon depth calculator".



We had a picnic and went over to Lamar Valley. (Remember, when doing anything outdoorsy in Yellowstone, bring your mosquito repellent with you! Pretty dumb suggestion but we managed to forget it every time!)

In Lamar Valley we went looking for bears!!! We saw lots of spots in the distance that looked like bears, we took pictures of spots in the distance with our very good zooms, but nothing that said definitely a bear. Lots of bison, lots of trees, rocks, grass...fields....and then lots of cars, what are they doing all crammed in there (and for Yellowstone crammed isn't a word one uses a lot). And when we went to investigate, there they were!!! Three black bears!!! (in the pic you only see two, my bad) One was actually a cinnamon coloured black bearess! Had no idea they could be different colours! but the nice old ranger told me all about that!




Today we hit 1500 miles, half way. And tomorrow we are heading west, but that is a different story.

A thousand miles to Yellowstone - First day of exploring - pt 4.

"We still see snow!" that was my first written exclamation on my notebook (I had to write something down, it was a long trip, you know)!

Thinking I should attach one of our first pictures of the place right away, so that you see the beauty of the place without any delay. (there is, though, a possibility you won't even read what I am gonna say...but it is a risk I'm gonna take).

This pic to the left is Mamoth Hot Springs, the mountain in the foreground is a series of balconies made by vulcanic activity, later on will post a closeup pic, but not just at the mo.








Oh, thinking about it, I have not said anything about the competition we had...so, in short will describe it to y'all:
We thought that by making us compete with each other we would take our minds off the fighting as a result of  "car oppression/tightness" and the fact that we are ALWAYS together. (we are a bunch of individualistic folk). sooooooooooooo, we decided there would be four categories, so that each one of us could win one if we chose to.
The categories were:
-the most diva
-the most tanned
-the happiest
-the funniest
Each one being a quality that could improve our quality of life...if you choose you can borrow this idea, I am all for a better world. (please do, it works, really)


Back to my storytelling: our first day we chose to visit the Old  Faithful, the most impressive geyser in the park, it is a grand opening event! we went around it and the pools of boiling water are amazing with their bright colours (made a drawing of it, but will post a pic first)

I've decided to leave the pic of the geyser for you to look up on the net, or go there yourself...it ain't half as good as the real thing...I have made a video though, when I find it I might post it.







The sulfur smell is very strong, so beware! And be also aware of the bisons, the first time you see one it will be like "OMG!" but it will soon become commonplace, so enjoy the first moment with it! We actually had one on the side of the road, almost hit it, our car would have suffered a big blow, it is such a good car poor dear!

By late afternoon we came back to Mamoth, and went for a walk, around the lower terraces, and as the sun began to set this wonderful gold colour on the water surface would appear! Hope my pic will convey the feeling I had looking at it...it is magic!

(leaving you with it...tomorrow will also be an amazing day).