What’s the best thing about cars? Road trips. The long hours with the countryside sliding by. Feeling the immensity of the United States. Appreciating just how much agriculture there is. Being awed by huge tracts of empty land. Finding local diners. Seeing things up close. Travel as much as possible on the US and state highways, keeping off the interstate. That’s going in style.

For the first time in many years, we took a long family road trip this summer. While there was a lot of driving (2,300 miles of it), it was a great time. Our overall trip took us from Anacortes, across Washington, Oregon, Idaho, through the corner of Wyoming, down through Utah to Arizona before heading home to California. We saw the Columbia River, Craters of the Moon in Idaho, Fossil Butte in Wyoming, Dinosaur and Arches in Utah, and Monument Valley and the Grand Canyon in Arizona. And everything along the way. The details and some pictures from the trip are below. Where are you going to go on your road trip?

Day 1 Anacortes to Ontario, 536 miles

Leaving early on a Monday, we headed south from Anacortes, taking US 2 to avoid the interstate and visit scenic Leavenworth. Leavenworth is like Solvang but it’s German instead of Danish Swedish. (correction) We had nice sausages for lunch. Onward down to and along the Columbia river. Amazing basalt along the river. As we headed toward Pasco, there were range fires north of us. We finished the long driving day with a nice dinner in Ontario, Oregon. More or less the Oregon trail. No pictures as I just drove.

Day 2 Ontario to Kemmerer, 496 miles

Headed out toward Boise which thankfully doesn’t have a rush hour. Idaho’s 80 miles per hour speed limit took us to US 20, driving through magnificent empty and agricultural lands. We had our first national monument of the trip, Craters of the Moon. Created by a huge volcanic eruption about 2,000 years ago, you get to see what you would see in Hawaii but in Idaho. Here is a picture of some trails in the park.

Lava and paths at Craters of the Moon National Monument

We finished the day in Kemmerer, Wyoming, the home of JC Penney.

Day 3 Kemmerer to Moab, 406 miles

First stop today, Fossil Butte National Monument. I didn’t even now it existed until Mrs. C noted it on the map. Pretty area, few visitors, and a great visitors center. As you drive to the visitors’ center, they lay out history in distance, so you start from the formation of the Earth a mile out and end up at the visitors’ center at today. Along the way they lay out the geographic and biological history of the Earth. Excellent content. We plan to return here someday. This is Fossil Butte:

A panorama of Fossil Butte

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We visited beautiful Anacortes, Washington over Easter break and took a nice day trip to the north end of Whidbey Island, to Deception Pass State Park.

Here is a beautiful view of the Deception Pass Bridge from North Beach. Just to keep you interested.

Deception Pass Bridge from North Beach

Deception Pass was named by George Vancouver in 1792 when he learned that his officer Joseph Whidbey had missed seeing the strait from the east side of Whidbey Island during a sortie several months earlier. The hidden pass “deceived” the explorers, hence its name. The Wikipedia write-up is quite good.

Once enters Deception Pass State Park from the Whidbey Island or south side of the strait. There is a large parking lot next to Strawberry Lake near West Point on the west coast of the island at its north end. West Beach, along Puget Sound, is rocky. This view looks south. The mountains in the distance on the left are the Olympic Range.

West Beach looking south toward the rest of Whidbey Island

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Back in June we drove up to Anacortes, Washington to see my wife’s parents. Our first driving vacation in many years. We went up the Eastern Sierra on US Highway 395 up into Northern California. When I was a kid, we went camping and skiing up on the Easter Sierra and at Mammoth, so it was great to go up that road again.

We got up early, heading out of the city at 7:30am, going north on Interstate 405 to California route 14. On the 14 just north of Mojave, we stopped at Red Rock Canyon State Park. It is a nice desert badlands park. There is nice hike in the wonderfully named Nightmare Gulch, but we just stopped for a snack. With the wet Winter and Spring, the plant were in bloom and covered in interesting bugs. Click on the picture for a larger version.

Red Rock Canyon

The Sierra was beautiful and snow-covered. North of Lone Pine and just south of Independence, we stopped at Manzanar. There is now a Park Service-run facility there with very good exhibits and a good short film describing the internment of the Nisei during WWII. The facility was built in 2002. Here is the iconic memorial at the cemetery.

Manzanar Memorial

We stopped for lunch in Independence, California, population 250. The post office has a fresh coat of paint.

Independence Post Office

Not knowing were to stop for lunch, we stopped for gas first. Right across the street from the gas station was a small restaurant advertising itself as a “Biere et Vin Bistro.” We had to try it. It is the Still Life Cafe, run by a French couple. The food was wonderful. I had sausages, my wife had a brie sandwich. An amazing find in this pretty small town.

Still Life Cafe

Of course we had to stop at Mono Lake. Believe it or not, Tioga Pass which goes to Yosemite from the east, was still closed due to snow, and this was in mid-June.

Mono Lake

Our first night stay was in Minden, Nevada. We continued north on 395 to Susanville where we turned off to visit Lava Beds National Monument.

We went through two lava tubes at the park. Here we are at the entrance to the second one, known as Skull Cave.

Skull Cave Entrance

There is permanent water ice at the bottom of the cave. We all made it down, even my wife who had a badly sprained ankle.

Water Ice in Skull Cave

After spending the night in Klamath Falls, Oregon, we drove north and then cut over to the west through Eugene to the coast at Florence. Just north of Florence, we visited Sea Lion Caves which has nice views of the coast and some nice views of sea lions.

Looking South on the Oregon Coast

Looking Down at the Sea Lions

We spent our third night in Tillamook, Oregon and had a nice visit at the Tillamook Cheese Factory the next morning.

By this time, we could smell the barn. We drove with purpose the final day to Anacortes. (Well, we did stop for a walk but that will wait for a post update.)

Several days after arriving in Anacortes, my wife’s sister and her family joined us. My daughter, my nephew, and I walked around Cranberry Lake in Anacortes and visited an abandoned mine there. I have no clue what they were trying to mine.

Cranberry Lake Mine