Worldwide Wanderers

Mt. Rainier one more hike and on to Olympic - July 12, 2024   For our last day in Mt. Rainier, we hiked Carter Falls trail. Trail of Shadows trail was connected to our campground; we planned to hike it but never made. For the last day, Carter Falls sounded more exciting. Here we also got to hike beside both the clear Paradise River and the cloudy (glacial flour) Nisqually River.    We stopped by Longmire for some quick wi-fi, trying to find which Walmart along the route to Olympic's Staircase, had an air pump in stock and visited the restroom. Then we headed out and toward Olympic.  Our first stop was Walmart in Tumwater; the Walmart app said that they had them in stock. I asked someone (btw Walmart employees in Texas don't help you, but in WA and CA, they will); he scanned the barcode for where it was supposed to be on the shelf, tried to help, and then noted that the 1 available could be returned/broken (the app does not say how many are in stock). Instead of more ...

Washington state National Parks - Planning, First Day - July 10, 2024 Stays We did not start planning this trip early enough to book the National Park camping. I booked the first campsite in Mt. Rainier's Cougar Rock Campground on February 20, 2024 and was only able to get the first night (Site E 26), of our two planned nights, reserved with the second night with no availability. I signed up for the Recreation.gov Alerts to be emailed an alert if there was a cancellation for our second night. This did work, and after forwarding the alerts to another email address that went to my Fitbit, I grabbed one fast enough, where 200-300+ others also received the alert, to get E 18). Before getting this, we did book an expensive site outside of the park as a backup. It was booked on hipcamp.com, and we knew it would cost the $8 hipcamp fee to cancel if we were able to get into the park campground.  Next, I was only able to get Staircase Campground in Olympic National Park; Hoh Rainforest and ...

Old Faithful and Upper Geyser Basin - July 20, 2022 This is Travis and my second visit to Yellowstone; it is new for the kids. I love Yellowstone for its diversity; you can see geysers, mudpots, hot spring pools, fumaroles (though I cannot tell you want that is), mineral terraces, the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone with Upper and Lower Yellowstone Falls, bears, elk, bison, marmots, and I'm sure much more.  On our first morning, we explored Upper Geyser Basin. From Madison Campground, Old Faithful was only about 16 miles south. The steam off the geysers in the crisp early morning air was magical.   The Old Faithful viewing seats. We were there before the Visitor Center was open, so we could not see the first eruption prediction. The two squirrels and raven are waiting patiently too. The piece that I forgot is that the geysers still steamed, without water, when not erupting. Old Faithful steaming here and below with the kids.  We missed the first eruption, seemed to have ...