CANADA/USA 2014

Last driving day! Fist stop at Astoria (mouth of Columbia River). Climbed the Astoria column (264 steps) for a great view.

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Crossed the border into Washington & to Ilwaco for Lewis & Clark Interpretive Centre (explorers finding passage across America from East to west- became the Oregon trail).
Drove to Olympia (capital of Washington) to see majestic Capitol Building.

Onto Seattle for our last night in USA! Last stroll through the city tonight included Sculpture Park.

Shuttle tomorrow morning to Vancouver to fly home.

Continued up the coast of more national forrests & spectacular cliffs and beaches until we reached Seaside for the night.

Drove inland via Willow Creek (home of Big Foot), Weaverville, Redding, Dunsmuir (home of the best water on earth), to overnight stop at Klamath Falls over the state border in Oregon. Saw lots of different landscapes again- forested mountains with river valleys, treeless plateaus of agricultural crops, lakes & dams.

Sunday 7th Sep.
Crater Lake today- spectacular! It's a dormant volcano that erupted& left a crater which fills with water from rain & snow only. The colour is amazing & plenty of evidence of volcanic history in surrounding landscape.

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Walked down to the edge of the lake via the steep Cleetwood Cove Trail (20 min down, 30 min up 3km return). Pretty tough climb!
Callum joined others jumping off the rocks for a cool swim.

Drove back toward the coast to Reedsport for the night, again driving through a variety of landscapes.

Thurs 4th Sep.
San Francisco to Bodega Bay California.
One last walk around San Fran this morning before meeting Callum at the airport (flew in from Las Vegas) & picking up a hire car to start driving up the west coast.
Drove through Point Reyes National Seashore. Very windy roads through woody hills, farmland and coastal fishing villages. Stopped in Bodega Bay. Quaint fishing village overlooking fairly large bay.


Coastline views

Fri 5th Sep.
Continued our drive north along more rugged coastline, coastal towns such as Fort Ross, Gualala (for smoked BBQ meat lunch-yum!)', Mendocino, Fort Bragg.
Travelled the 'Avenue of the Giants' through wonderful Humboldt Redwoods State Park from Leggett.

Drove through the Chandelier Tree in Leggett- a giant redwood tree that you can drive through.

Stopped in Arcata for the night.

Went up to the Coit Tower on Telegraph Hill. Good view over the city.

Coit Tower

Better view of Lombard St

Boat cruise in the bay, went under both Golden Gate Bridge & Bay Bridge & around Alcatraz. Didn't get to tour the island as all sold out.

Alcatraz

Bay Bridge

Ice cream sundaes at Ghiardelli's chocolate factory.
Cioppino for dinner ( San Fran signature dish of combination seafood soup/stew).