Wild Adventures Part 2: Cruisin' America

Welcome to part two of our #wildadventures. In this portion of the blog, we will be sharing our stories and challenges #roadtripping through #America. We are very excited to share the memories we have created, on this surreal trip. Enjoy your read!

We crossed the American border from Vancouver, into Washington at the Peace Arch crossing on September 18th, 2018. We arrived to a 20 minute wait time, but it moved rather quickly. We had heard horror stories about Canadians crossing the American border for extensive amounts of time, and in all honestly we were sweating thinking about what our experience would be like. Within 10 minutes we had reached the window, it was our turn. We presented our passports and answered the questions honestly. The patrol officer thought for a moment after each of our answers and just when we thought perhaps he would search the vehicle, he simply says "OK, enjoy your trip". Phew, the crossing could NOT have gone any better. Just like that we were continuing the second part of road trip! How exciting!

Once we crossed the border, Jesse and I switched drivers, and I took over for a shift. To no surprise, within a couple hours of being in America, I found us a little military base to explore. Oh My! This could have been so much worse than it was but we were lucky to have a really nice attendant. So anyways what happened, was that the road which I thought was still the highway, turned into a private road leading in to a military base. There were no signs or anything, just all of a sudden we were pulling up to a window with an attendant asking for our military badge. He was so understanding when I explained that we simply took a wrong turn. However, we had to give our passports, while we turned around, and he warned us not to go too far in, or else he would have to call the guards! Once we passed him on our way out he gave us back our ID and warned us again of the upcoming spike strips which police use. If you back up your tires are instantly sliced. It was such an intense situation, but we luckily got off easy, with a funny story to share. For our next adventure in Washington, we decided to drive one of America's many scenic drives, "The Cascade Loop", and visit Cascades National Park. The views were outstanding. We stopped at several pull offs, and scenic lookouts to

take everything in. One of our favorite stops was Diablo Lake. This photo to the left is one of Diablo Lake, encased by pine trees, with the most amazing mountain views. The mountain peaks were coated in snow, and the lake waters were so blue. We continued our drive through carved out rock tunnels, through canyons, with forests and mountains surrounding us in every direction. It truly was a fantastic drive, and completely worth every minute. We made a couple more stops before moving on. We hiked the Gorge Creek Falls trail, this waterfall plunges 242 feet into a a super narrow canyon just off the side of the highway. The hiking trail is short and sweet, perfect to stretch out your legs, and a great opportunity for stunning views. A massive bridge crosses over the waterfall, and is followed by a rock tunnel, shown just below. The tunnel's had no lights, and just on the other side of the guard rail is a cliff edge.

Our final stop was a short walk up to Sherman Pass Scenic Byway, which offered an amazing viewpoint, overlooking the Cascade mountains. The views were amazing, and the walk up took us through a pine forest, full of crunchy leaves. It was a perfect fall walk. The fall colors were at their peak as we drove through the Cascades National Park. We could not have gone at a better time. For several reasons, it wasn't busy, we just missed the snow, and we were greeted by the most beautiful fall colors. The "Cascades Loop" (highway 20), leads straight to Idaho. The roads turn from windy, mountainous roads, to straight, desert, cattle ranch terrain. We stopped in Idaho for dinner, and spent the night in a Walmart Parking lot ;) On our drive through Idaho to Walmart we passed 2 deer, and had to stop the truck for turkeys crossing the road. We had a good experience sleeping at Walmart, and decided from here to drive through the top part of Idaho and get to Montana. Montana was a major bucket list item for us to check off. So, on that note, for those of you interested in hearing about our experience in Montana, be sure to read our next blog!