Jutta On The Road – Day 9

JWise Photo of the Day, Travels

Disclaimer: This blog entry wasn’t written until 17 years after the trip. It should be noted that it was a huge mistake to have not written it way back when. Sometimes, after writing so much about other days, it happens that at the time directly after the trip (or even during), I convince myself that the details are not that important. Years later, these details are that important, and pulling them out of foggy memories is difficult. The photos help and often leave clues, and then Caroline’s memories are usually far clearer than mine. With that said, here goes.

We wake up in a place that’s new to all of us. Nobody here on this adventure has any experience of what to do once the day begins in Concrete, Washington, about 40 miles south of the Canadian border. Well, I have a general idea, that’s to continue our drive eastward.

Adding a new national park to the list of these American treasures we’ve been so fortunate to visit, here we are at the North Cascades National Park today.

While everyone’s heard of the Grand Canyon, Yellowstone, and Yosemite, I don’t know of anyone who’s told us that we just had to visit the North Cascades. Might this be one of the United State’s best-kept secrets, or is it like Alaska and too difficult to get out here?

We’re at Gorge Lake, fed by the Skagit River; just out of sight are some high-tension powerlines; who built powerlines through a national park?

On one hand, it’s a shame that back during these days of moving quickly through these environments, we’d race through, take in an overview, and move on. With Jutta traveling with us, it wasn’t any better or worse as our methods of taking inventory had us thinking we’d scope the amazing places we want to return to, and then at a future point, we’d do just that. That hasn’t always worked out, such as with the North Cascades.

Looking through these memories, I’m struck by how beautiful this place is and wonder if Caroline and I shouldn’t consider putting a trip to Seattle on the itinerary, renting a car, and combining a return visit with another trip to nearby Olympic National Park too so we might get to do some hiking in these areas and feel like we’ve seen something more than what can be gleaned from a pullout on the road.

Off on a tangent, I went, where were these peaks and streams? If I do plan for a return, say in 2023, where should I look for trails for us to hike?

Maybe a little too much elevation gain would be required to hike to the top of the treeline, but I could think of worse ways to spend a day.

I believe this is Mt. Terror, strangely named, I think, but then again, I’m never going to try to ascend its peak.

We left the park and drove east as my crazy ambition was to have us visit Glacier National Park tomorrow; this is just nuts. And though we might be rushing through the landscape, we still have time to stop for a woman making waffle cones for homemade ice cream in the quaint town of Winthrop.

Time for old farm buildings bordering on decay? Always.

While we may not have taken enough time to truly linger in the flora of eastern Washington, I’ll certainly try to capture enough of the sights so we can remember that we were at one time in places that might have failed to lock into our mind’s eye quite the way Yellowstone or the Oregon Coast has.

Tiger Historical Center and Museum required a stop at the request of my mother-in-law. You see, the Engelhardt’s have what you might call spirit animals associated with them or animals they grew up loving. For Caroline, that would be the snail; for her sister Stephanie, it is the mighty mouse; and for Stephanie’s husband Klaus, it is the tiger.

This is the Columbia River, and at the time of this writing, in 2022, I can’t remember in what year back in the early 2000s Caroline and I first traveled the Columbia between Oregon and Washington, but looking at this image here I’m left thinking how different this northeast part of the river looks when compared to it entering into the Pacific Ocean at the Columbia Bar.

Caroline Wise with Jutta Engelhardt and John Wise at the Idaho State Sign

Taking these selfies at state lines was not always easy as the state signs themselves were not put up in consideration of sun orientation and time of day when you might be asking people with sensitive blue eyes to look, so I’ve taken plenty of squinty-eyed photos of these two women.

Then there’s the camera operator error and not recognizing that we were all too blurry to be able to use the selfie. If you are wondering what happened to Idaho and our driving across it, there were photos but nothing worth sharing.

Do not listen to sentimental music when exploring old memories; as I try to write about our moment here at the banks of the Kootenay River, the music in my ears renders a solemnity on the verge of sadness about the man I was as I applied a fierce intensity of moving us through such beautiful places instead of taking the appropriate amount of time to let it all sink in. Now that I’m older, I can better see the world through my mother-in-law’s eyes, and back then, on this trip, she was already 70 while here at the cusp of my turning 60; I’m enjoying our newer go-slow approach. I suppose this was the price to be paid when hanging out with your children still ripping through the world with a take-no-prisoners approach to life.

An American Bald Eagle flew just feet in front of our car while driving a back road and perched in a nearby tree in Montana

Just in front of our car, as we passed the Yaak River, an American Bald Eagle swept across the road and perched in a nearby tree. I stopped as quickly as possible, certain I was frightening away the eagle. Caroline jumped from the car with the camera in hand, and to our surprise, the eagle sat patiently posing while Caroline clicked away. Wow

The Tobacco River near Eureka, Montana, at sunset was near our cheap motel. While the lodging might have been a bit on the shoddy side, the views never are.

Jutta On The Road – Day 8

JWise Photo of the Day, Travels

Disclaimer: This blog entry wasn’t written until 17 years after the trip. It should be noted that this was a huge mistake to have not written it way back when. Sometimes, after writing so much about other days, it happens that at the time directly after the trip (or even during), I convince myself that the details are not that important. Years later, these details are that important, and pulling them out of foggy memories is difficult. The photos help and often leave clues, and then Caroline’s memories are usually far clearer than mine. With that said, here goes.

I might just have to concede defeat: it’s now been two years since I struggled through the day prior to this one, as any semblance of story is so far away from anything I remember. I could write a generic story about the love of nature and how my mother-in-law Jutta responded to these deeply immersive journeys into America but there would be no real personal details that harken back to these days.

This is the tragedy of not following up in a timely manner with something that, at the time just wasn’t imperative. I feel like I had been a spider, and I spun out a single thread, and then days later, on the verge of starvation, I’m wondering, how’d I go wrong? The answer is simple: always do all you can to capture not just your meals but your memories, too.

Back in 2005, I did write something, maybe 100 words if I’m lucky. Part of that original text was that we’d stayed in Forks, Washington, overnight, and from the itinerary I still have, I can share that we paid $46 for a night at the Town Motel. I also included that we stayed this far north so we could visit the Hoh Rainforest first thing today before heading over to Olympic National Park; actually, the Hoh Rainforest is part of Olympic National Park.

While I also wrote of the rabbit and some elk hoove prints, I didn’t mention that we’d seen elk crossing a river; photos are below.

Over the years of capturing so much imagery of the United States shared with Caroline, Jutta, and others, I’ve tried to advocate that others should be blogging, too. By now, I cannot believe it’s not a national directive with studies showing how meaningful, rich details from our past can bring us back to the experience as though they happened yesterday. Back when Caroline and I ventured out driving from Arizona to Maine and down to Louisiana before heading home, we took great notes, and while we took a minimal number of photos due to the expense of memory cards during those nascent days of digital photography, I was able to craft a narrative compelling enough that I know more about that adventure than I ever will about this one that occurred five years later.

Now, fortunately, Caroline and I have been on the Hoh Rainforest trail before, along with the Quinault Rainforest part of the park out here on the Olympic Peninsula, so we have some strong memories about a lot of what’s being seen here, but those tiny details that bring back the laughter of a mother-in-law, wife, kids nearby, or the sound of the forest itself, those things regarding these specific days have drifted on.

There’s no way to bring any of it back. Even Caroline is unable to add further detail. In any case, the mighty banana slug will always be mighty in our eyes.

Sure, these scenes are gorgeous; that’s why we thought to bring Jutta up this way, though a 16-day road trip was going to be grueling.

There are moments on our journeys when we encounter situations when not only would it be impossible to see anything similar in Germany, but even if Caroline and I had seen something remotely the same on a previous excursion, we’d still be here in astonishment right now. We see lizards, coyotes, ants, and too many pigeons in Phoenix, while Jutta might see pigeons in Frankfurt. Nature enchants all of us, and I’m sure it did this day, too, but did Caroline or her mom utter something noteworthy? I wish I remembered.

Caroline’s cooling her feet in Lake Crescent; I only know this because the next photo has us heading into the mountains to visit the main area of Olympic National Park.

Mt. Rainier is in the distance, meaning this is an incredibly clear day as that mountain is about 120 miles away as the crow flies.

Up on Hurricane Ridge.

Thanks again to the old itinerary I’ve been reminded that we are at Port Townsend taking the ferry over to Fort Casey on Whidbey Island. Once over there the plan was to go north to Fidalgo Island and catch another road east up to North Cascades National Park, a place Caroline nor I have ever been to.

We are staying in the Eagles Nest Motel in Concrete, Washington; the name wasn’t lost on my mother-in-law. Back then, it cost us $55 in cash to stay, but my search of the place shows it shut down around 2014.

Now, this is one of the seriously strong memories I’ve held on to; Caroline and her mom are about to try Rocky Mountain Oysters (bull testicles), and while Jutta thought they were just okay, Caroline grimaced a bit as she chewed into the soft piece. After a few bites, she also declared that eating testicles is no big deal. As for me, I was not up for a food challenge and instead played chicken; plus, I’ve never liked organ meats. And that’s all I’ve got.

Jutta On The Road – Day 7

JWise Photo of the Day, Travels

Disclaimer: This blog entry wasn’t written until 15 years after the trip. It should be noted that this was a huge mistake to have not written it way back when. Sometimes, after writing so much about other days, it happens that at the time directly after the trip (or even during), I convince myself that the details are not that important. Years later, these details are that important, and pulling them out of foggy memories is difficult. The photos help and often leave clues, and then Caroline’s memories are usually far clearer than mine. With that said, here goes.

Thinking about the dearth of photos I posted back then due to bandwidth limitations, I’d nearly forgotten just how difficult it was handling the images we were shooting back in the day. First off, we had a brand new Canon Digital Rebel XT sporting 8 megapixels of resolution. Whatever we shot, we had to wait until we got home to work with the images, even if we’d had a notebook: dealing with the images would have been too slow. Once home, they were transferred to a spinning hard disk using Windows XP and Photoshop CS2. Adjusting images was slow and cumbersome compared to these days when I can assemble panoramas made of 10 photos in under a minute, and I can use presets to get a quick idea of what color corrections will look like. Exporting a couple dozen images also takes less than a minute.

But here we are in 2021 and the biggest conundrum I face is not using too many images as I’m the one who’s attempting to write something to each image. The photo above is from Cape Lookout and was taken as we left the state park with the same name. We were out here to have another night in a yurt.

Tillamook means cheese and ice cream here in Oregon, and that means COWS!

We did some backtracking here by driving through Pacific City past the Cape Kiwanda Haystack rock. Last night, we took the drive out past Tillamook Bay, and so today, we are mixing things up by approaching from the southeast back towards Tillamook.

Ice cream stop in Tillamook.

We’re not making a lot of stops as we have quite a few miles to cover today, like most days we were traveling with Jutta. This is Crab Rock, just north of Garibaldi.

The views of things I couldn’t imagine my mother-in-law ever having seen with her own eyes is what drove me to plan these trips and then where to stop. Sometimes, the inspiration for stopping came from the backseat as Jutta would exclaim how beautiful something was. Coastal woods and an overwater cabin reflecting in a large, quiet pond were just one such sight.

Looking back down the coast as we’re about to leave Oregon.

With the addition of the state of Washington to Jutta’s list of places she’s visited, bragging rights to having traveled the entirety of the Pacific coast of the United States is now in the bag for her.

Off in the distance is our next stop on this major road trip.

This is Mount St. Helens seen from the Johnston Ridge Observatory in Washington. On a previous visit, Caroline and I visited the Windy Ridge Viewpoint, which, in my opinion, is the most interesting location to visit in this park. Johnston Ridge offers a great view of the blast zone from the perspective of being in it, while Windy Ridge offers an overview of looking into the direction the blast traveled and getting a great view into Spirit Lake. Windy Ridge also offers a closer view of the Crater at the cost of a more isolated backcountry drive.

World’s Largest Egg in Winlock, Washington. Admit it, you’d have stopped, too.

Mt. Rainier in the distance.

There was no way we were going to let Jutta be this far north on the coast of the western United States and not have her walk barefoot in the sand and surf. Sometimes, I thought she was a bit reluctant but the enthusiasm of her daughter pulled her along.

Speaking of her daughter Caroline.

Staying the night in Forks, Washington, at the Town Motel, so we are well-positioned in the morning to visit the rainforest and Olympic National Park.