PNW and Canada adventure // part I: USA

My parents, my brother and I went on a four week road trip through the Pacific North West and Canada in August. It was an awesome experience and I took hundreds of pictures. I wanna share some of our adventures with you so I've decided to share our trip in three parts:
Part I: the USA (from Seattle to Yellowstone NP to Glaciar NP)
Part II: Canada (from Calgary to Vancouver)
Part III: Knitting edition (duuuh, this is a craft blog and there are just so many awesome yarn shops and wip photos to share!)

We chose to fly with Icelandair because they offered two free checked baggages. Since we went camping, we had to bring all our gear (tents, sleeping bags, pots, dishes, etc.) and needed the extra luggage. Also, who wouldn't want to have a layover in Reykjavik and get to see the beautiful landscape from an airplane?
Turns out it's a rather cheap airline (no meals even on long distance flights; drinks were only served twice, very little cabin space, etc.) but we got there alright and the weather in Iceland was beautiful so we had an awesome view.

We arrived in Seattle but only stayed there for a night. Driving through Washington state is beautiful - all the mountains, trees, lakes, ... sigh. Our first campground was at a beautiful lake and there weren't many campers. Germany is a pretty crowded country so having lots of space around us feels heavenly. Our first destination was the Yellowstone National Park so we made our way through Washington, Idaho and Montana rather quickly.

Yellowstone was... well, big.

The landscapes are incredible. I've traveled a lot and I've been to many countries and national parks but everything in Yellowstone is mind blowing. Geysirs, hot springs, huge trees, big meadows, high mountains, thousands of animals, etc. It was a lot to take in. Thankfully we had planned six full days in the park which was just about the right amount of time to see & explore everything without being bored.

We had booked the campgrounds several months in advance. We stayed three nights at the Fishing Bridge Campground and another two nights at the Canyon Village Campground. We loved the Fishing Bridge Campground - we had the best campsite with a view over Lake Yellowstone. We were very lucky to have a great neighbour who camped there all summer and knew a lot about Yellowstone because he had worked there several years. Having an experienced guide with insider tips was really helpful because there is SO much to do and see in Yellowstone that it can be rather overwhelming.

For all of you who are wondering how you can camp in a tent at an elevation of almost 8000 feet (about 2.400m)... well, it was cold during the night (not freezing but rather close...) but we were prepared and brought warm clothes and sleeping bags, hot water bottles, etc. Campfires were also very helpful to keep us warm.

I was very lucky and found an organic supermarket in Missoula, MT that sold vegan marshmallows. I'm 'just' a vegetarian but I don't eat gelatine so it's been over a decade since I ate a marshmallow. Gelatine-free marshmallows are almost impossible to find in Germany so I was so happy to find them in the US!
Sitting by the campfire, making s'mores and knitting was one of my highlights of the trip.

Yellowstone is a great place to watch animals. During the couple of days we were there, we saw thousands of bisons, a bear, many deers and elks, squirrels, eagles, and so many more.

(Although bisons look fluffy their fur is very scratchy and wouldn't be a lot of fun to spin/knit with - I thought about it, too!)

What we found especially surprising is that these animals are used to humans; we frequently saw bisons walking on the streets and they weren't bothered by all the cars, trucks and trailers going by. Actually bisons on the road are the #1 reason for traffic jams in Yellowstone so the rangers would follow the bisons and honk at them until they left the street. At first I found it rather cruel to honk at animals but when you're trying to get from point A to point B and you're stuck in traffic because the bisons keep walking in front of your car that's no fun.

There was a ranger program at the campgrounds every evening where we went a couple of times. It was really interesting to learn about wild fires in Yellowstone (in 1988 over 1/3 of the park burned down) because still today you see lots of dead trees everywhere. But as you can see in the picture above, the forests are regrowing. When I think of Wyoming, heat and wildfires are usually not the first thing that comes to my mind.

At our second campground, I met Lois Linn, owner of Serendip Designs Jewel. She's an incredibly nice and interesting person and a talented artist. She gave me this cute ring - I saw it at the General Store where she had a booth and fell in love. I wanted to buy it but she insisted that I'd keep it for free. I've been wearing the ring pretty much every day since and I'm even thinking about buying another one. She has a wide selection of pearls in her etsy shop and these rings are custom made. She made the ring I bought in the Yellowstone NP; now I don't only have a wearable souvenir of our trip to the Yellowstone, but also a handmade one!

After we left the Yellowstone, we headed up north to the Glaciar National Park. Unfortunately, it was pouring rain and we didn't get to see much because the entire park was drowning (or so it felt) and visibility was around 0. We drove through the park but only stopped for one short hike to a waterfall. It was beautiful but also very wet. The second we left the park the sky was clearing up and the sun came out. Hopefully I'll have a chance to go back there one day and enjoy the park and the hikes on a beautiful and dry day.