Alaska Bound: Oregon & Washington

We spent a weekend making the big move from Half Moon Bay to Eugene, OR. Eugene was a utilitarian stop, planned so that we could get some preventative maintenance on the trailer. We stayed at Armitage Regional Park for the week.

Eugene, home of the University of Oregon, is a very treed town with lots of blooms in mid-April and the weather was just perfect. We tried Voodoo Doughnuts, walked around the Saturday market, and had lunch at Noisette.

Our next weeklong destination was the Columbia River Gorge. On our way, we stopped at Silver Falls State Park so that we could hike the Trail of Ten Falls. In a state known for its waterfalls, this hike is frequently called the best! In ~10 miles you get to see 10 waterfalls and walk behind 4 of them.

In the gorge, we stayed at Memaloose State Park on the eastern end between the small towns of Hood River and The Dalles. It was a detour off our I-5 northbound route but it had good cell service, some open sky for Dishy, and full hookups. This part of the gorge is also sunnier and drier than the western end near Portland.

We finally did a lot of exploring this week. Near our campground, we hiked to McCall Point to see the wildflowers and a glimpse of Mount Hood and Mount Adams out in the distance.

We drove the Historic Columbia River Highway through Waterfall Alley, stopping at overlooks and roadside waterfalls. Below are Bridal Veil Falls and Multnomah Falls, which is Oregon’s most famous.

We hiked the Multnomah – Wahkeena Loop trail.

And drove towards Mount Hood where we found snow on the trail to Tamanawas Falls. The drive was part of the “Fruit Loop” and lined with orchards and berry farms. It was beautiful and we want to return to this area when the fruit is in season.

Our final week before crossing into the Great White North was spent north of Seattle, near Anacortes. We stayed at the Swinomish Casino RV Park where we had awesome bay and mountain views from our site. The best part was meeting our neighbors who are also on their way to Alaska. We compared our travel plans at Garden Path Fermentation one night and hopefully, we’ll see them later this summer!

We walked around Washington Park in Anacortes. The park has great views of the San Juan Islands, another place we’d like to visit one day.

And did a short hike at Deception Pass State Park.

I also checked off the last things on our to-do list this week, like getting Cody’s health certificate that Alaska requires and an oil change for the truck. By Thursday afternoon we were feeling prepared and ready for our Saturday departure. We were filling up all the fossil fuels – diesel, generator gas, and propane when we found a small crack in our trailer frame!

Michael and I had opposite reactions, with him saying “It’s fine” and me saying “We have to cancel the entire trip and stop traveling until we get a new trailer”. We ended up compromising and I was miraculously able to find the most wonderful shop, named Smiley’s of all things, that worked us into their schedule on Friday afternoon. They welded on a big metal bandaid and assured us that we could keep rolling down the road.

On Saturday morning we were able to enter British Columbia as planned and start making our way toward Mile 0 of the Alaska Highway!