Kalispell and Spokane

26th of May

We drove through beautiful landscape on the way to Kalispell. In this picture you can see Flathead lake, which is a popular location during summer.

After we arrived in there, we went out to find something for dinner.
What we met was a delicious all-you-can-eat Asia buffet. They offered different kinds of sushi, fried chicken, pork and shrimp and a lot of other things.

27th of May

We drove to Glacier National Park and took this picture of us sitting in front of Lake McDonald.

The road was closed due to snow, so we hiked up the mountain through the forest, along a river.

This tree has a hole inside so you can climb up on the inside.

There was a lake at the end of the trail after about 1 hour of hiking.

The landscape is simply beautiful. Even though it was pretty cold, the water looked so nice that we wanted to go swimming...

The air temperature was about 41°F (5°C) and the water temperature was about 37°F (3°C). You might be able to imagine how all the people were looking at us, just in our swim shorts.

Roy was the only one who really made it into the water. It was too cold Daniel and me. I tried it but never got further than to my knees. The water was freezing cold.

















28th of May

So what to do if the water is that cold?
The correct answer is: go on a rafting trip !
The power of the water is amazing and you get totally wet.
We moved out for geocaching this evening and found a lot of them. And we had Asian dinner again, because it was so good the last time^^

 29th of May

We stopped on the road while traveling westbound and hiked a short trail with an amazing view.
We found some geocaches this day and slowly got closer to Roy's last american city: Spokane.
In the evening we vistited the Riverfront Park in downtown and saw some marmots (Murmeltiere) before we met up with our hosts.

30th of May

Our hosts told us about a nice park just a few miles away, so we drove to the Riverside State Park together with them.

Our hosts tried geocaching a long time ago, so it was time to show them some new geocaches.

After the park we visted a city called Coeur d'Alene and the farmer's market there. We had cupcakes and milkshakes before we moved to a Greek restaurant for dinner.
Back at home we took a picture of all of us. That's the three of us, together with our hosts Roy and Carolina, their children Levi, Gabriella and Abigail and their puppy.

31st of May

We brought Roy to the airport and made our way to fullfil our mission. We found a key in a geocache in San Diego which fits to a box hidden in Richland, about 1000 miles (1600km) away from San Diego.
So we digged out this box, since we had the only key which opened it. We were the first to open it for the last 2 years :)

We drove on to Yakima, a city which is close to the Mt. St. Helens and Mt. Rainier. If you ever plan on going to Yakima... simply let it be, it is an ugly city... this car was one of only a few things which are nice here but all in all we are happy that we leave this city tomorrow.






coming up: Mt. Rainier National Park, Portland and Seattle

Another day in Boise and the Yellowstone National Park

22nd of May

It was definitely time to sleep in this day... we got up somewhat around noon, had breakfast and went to a hands-on discovery center our hosts recommended to us.
Here you can see Roy on a self-liftup chair / swing (I think there is another real name...)
Everything in this science center was interactive, it is exciting to try all that physics stuff on your own.
We went to the nearby park afterwards, found 2 geocaches and went back to our hosts.

We decided to do a bycicle tour before having dinner, so Roy and Daniel choose the tandem and we visited the Greenbelt of Boise.
After introducing our hosts to geocaching we had a mouth-watering dinner in Downtown Boise.

In the evening we took one final picture because we wanted to leave the morning after. In the photograph you can see:
Roy with Daisy, Daniel with Ben, Michael with Butters, Stephanie with Olive and Jason with Cinder :)
Thank you for hosting us, it was a great time in Boise !

23rd of May

We made our way passing Twin Falls and Idaho Falls towards Yellowstone... well, at least to the KOA campground nearby.
We wanted to camp with our tent but when we heard it will be 30°F (-1°C) and snow... we diceded to rent this heated cabin you see in the picture. It was definitely worth it !

24th of May

Our first day in the Yellowstone National Park. All those geysers, hot springs, steam coming out of the earth, but no possibility to take a bath in this nice warm (sometimes even hot) water.

We drove around in the park. There are two loops, each of it is about 100 miles (160km) long. In this picture you can see the "Grand Canyon" of Yellowstone.

All 3 of us in front of the canyon.

Michael & Daniel next to the lower Yellowstone Falls.

We saw a chipmunk close to one of the paths.

Amazing landscape! There was a fire in 1988 which destroyed about 40% of the park. As you can see where it was all over the area.

One of those geyser basins.
Steam in the air, the smell of sulphur everywhere.

The paths lead directly through the geyser basin. You can walk over sizzling water basins and all that steam, like Daniel does in this picture.

Of course there are some more waterfalls in the park.

Sometimes it looks unreal... the landscape was formed by the hot springs and geysers, the big fire worked out the rest.

Michael standing on a path in the steam of the saphir hot spring.

Smelly steam everywhere...

Daniel and Roy living on the edge (the signs says living on the edge because there are some spiders living on the edge of this almost 200°F (90°C) hot spring.)

Old Faithful - the best known geyser in the park.
The eruption happens every 90 minutes and goes about 100feet (30m) up in the air.

Sometimes bisons were blocking the road. But mostly it's been people in their cars, taking pictures of the bisons, blocking the road...

25th of May

We woke up and saw there was snow on our cabin and on our car.
The last night was our coldest so far, just 26°F (-5°C).
We were so happy that we had our cabin and not just our tent.

Yellowstone day 2 - here you can see some rock formations formed by the hot springs' water. Looks like stairs where water is coming down step by step.

We drove the upper loop this day. There are not so many geysers but a beautiful and breathtaking landscape.

We needed some warm water after that cold day, so we went to the pool and spa, offered by our campground.
Between our spa sessions we had a snowball fight outside, very funny and not as cold as we expected it to be.

Just one more night in our cabin before we go on to Kalispell, our start point for Glacier National Park exploration, which is just 200 miles (320km) from the Canadian border.



26th of May 

After getting up at about 10 we had breakfast and started our way to Kalispell and the Glacier National Park. After 350 Miles (500 km) and 7 hours driving we arrived at our destination.

In this picture you can see what we saw for some time on our way to Kalispell, the mountains covered with snow.

coming up: The Glacier Nationalpark & Spokane

Granite Bay, Yosemite, Boise and all the nice stuff in-between

14th of May - evening

We arrived in Granite Bay, where Susan lives with her family. Daniel got to know Susan some time ago when they met in Switzerland.
We stayed in the yurt you can see in the picture.
The house, the yard and the yurt are in a very nice area with everything around us just green.
We were a little bit tired after that day because we visited Alcatraz and drove to Granite Bay, so we fell asleep pretty fast.

15th of May

We moved out to a boat ride at the nearby lake. Swimming in the clear freshwater was so pleasant and there was no salt we had to rinse off.










Swimming costs a lot of energy but that was no problem because we had a delicious, nutritious dinner that evening. We showed our pictures and talked for a while before we went to bed.

16th of May

We had to say goodbye since Yosemite National Park was waiting for us. We took one last picture with the whole family.
Thank you for hosting, Susan, Mike, Allison & Jess and for the great food and everything else!

We drove to the Yosemite National Park where we stayed the next three nights. You can see our campground in this picture.
After looking around and having a barbecue we roasted some marshmallows over the fire before we went sleeping in our tent.

17th of May


It was hiking time, so we tried the Vernal Falls / Nevada Falls hike, about 6 hours round trip.

The mist trail... you will get wet, you might get soaked :)
Vernal Falls in the background.

In front of Vernal Falls

The view down from Vernal Falls.

Emerald pools

On top of Nevada Falls, after about 1600 feet (~500meter) elevation gaining. Daniel felt a little bit sick so he stayed at the Vernal Falls

A very curious squirrel at the Vernal Falls.

Sunset at halfdome.
We stayed another night in our tent after having dinner in Yosemite Village.

18th of May

You have to be aware of bears in the park. They can open cars to get to the food inside and you have to store everything inside a bearproof container.

We liked the trail the day ago and decided to choose anothe rone, a longer one with more height difference, the Upper Yosemite Falls trail.
This picture was taken BEFORE the hiking.

The view from somewhere halfway at the trail.

Upper Yosemite Fall from a distance... we had to go up there.

On our way to the top.

Almost there...

Anybody afraid of heights? It is just a 2000 feet (600meter) dropoff...

Finally, after 4 hours, on top of the falls, more than 2600 feet in height gaining (800 meter)

The way back... beautiful landscape

This picture was taken AFTER the hike... notice the difference ?

We had dinner and took a shower before we went to our tent and slept, it was an exhausting day...

19th of May

Roy tried swiming in the nearby river... the water had a temperature of about 50°F (10°C) so it was a short swimming.
We left Yosemite, heading towards Lee Vining and the Mono Lake.

A lake somewhere at the road, the water was not warmer than the one in the river...

Picture time

We drove to Mono Lake, a big lake near Lee Vining (Nevada).
The lake has 3 times more salt than the Pacific Ocean. It doesn't even taste salty, it is too much salt to taste it.












You will float in that lake, just like in the Dead Sea. We forgot our newspaper but you can float on the water surface and read newspapers :)
We arrived in Reno in the evening, had a great dinner in a steakhouse, found a geocache and went to our hotel where we stayed for just one night.

20th of May

Driving Day !

500 miles (800km), 8 hours, from Reno (Nevada) to Boise (Idaho)

8 hours consisting of sand, some small bushes and trees but mostly pretty much nothing but desert.

We arrived in Boise in the evening and checked in at our hosts house.

21st of May

We visited a cave, the Kuna Cave.
The cave is about 50 feet (15 meter) deep and .25 miles to the south and .25 miles to the north (each ~400m)
It was very dusty down there but it was so cool to have a self guided cave tour where you can do whatever you want.
We bought something for barbecue and some other things before we drove back to our hosts house.

We had a nice barbecue together with our hosts and some neighbours.
That is how the evening ended and this is how this blog post ends...











coming up: another day in Boise, Yellowstone & Glacier National Park