THE BUCKET-LIST CANADA & NORTHWESTERN UNITED STATES NATURE ROAD TRIP: 4 WEEKS, 8 NATIONAL PARKS, 5500KMS TRAVELLED - ARTWORK AVAILABLE!
A Canada and US roadtrip was always on our bucket-list of travel experiences to do in our lifetime…. It wasn’t until our friends Ryan and Becca asked us to be a part of their wedding in Niagra Falls that we decided to make it a reality. We spent over 12 months planning the trip, working it in with the wedding events to begin our 5 week adventure. Of course, being a photographer, I used this opportunity to capture some unreal landscape photography along the way to form part of a travel photography portfolio of work which is available as prints! Enjoy our full travel blog, plus the artwork created from each beautiful country! Please feel free to enquire below for print orders and what image you love.
Our 4 week adventure spanned from 12 May 2023 - 14 June 2023 consisted of… 2 countries & 8 spectacular Canadian and American National Parks.
Canada: States Ontario, British Columbia & Alberta
The United States of America: New York State, Montana, Idaho, Wyoming & Washington
8 National Parks across these countries: Banff, Glacier, Yellowstone, Grand Tetons, Waterton Lakes, Mt Rainier, Olympic and North Cascades National Park
Our 4 week journey was split into 3 parts as per below, hiring 2 cars (through Turo) and a van through Canadream, travelling 5500kms with the goal to see and explore as much nature and National Parks as we could.
Part one: Canada/Northwestern US car trip 9 days - Toronto (Ontario), Niagra Falls (Ontario), over the border to Rochester (New York State) for the PGA golf championships, returning to Toronto to fly out
Part Two: Canada/Northern US Van trip 13 days:
Canada: Calgary (Alberta), Banff (Alberta), Lake Louise (Alberta), Cranbrook (British Columbia)
Northwestern US: West Glacier Lake McDonald area (Montana), Butte (Montana), West Yellowstone National Park (Montana), Lonesomehurst Campground (Montana), Flagg Ranch Campground (Wyoming), South/East Yellowstone National Park (Wyoming), Grand Tetons Jenny Lake (Wyoming), Bridge Bay Campground in Yellowstone (Wyoming), Three Forks (Montana), East Glacier St Mary’s Campground (Montana), East Glacier National Park (Montana), Many Glacier (Montana)
Canada: Waterton Lakes National Park (Alberta), flying back out of Calgary (round trip)
Part Three: Canada/Northern US car trip 11 days:
Canada: Vancouver (British Columbia), Squamish (British Columbia), Whistler (British Columbia)
Northwestern US Washington State Area: Bellingham, Olympic National Park, Mt Rainier, Seattle, North Cascades National Park, Mt Baker and flying back out of Vancouver (British Columbia)
Corey and I would love to share this experience with you all below, places to see, hikes, food adventures, please comment below if you have any questions or if you’re interested in purchasing any artwork or prints from the trip.
PART ONE
Canada/Northwestern US car trip 9 days - Toronto (Ontario), Niagra Falls (Ontario), over the border to Rochester (New York State) for the PGA golf championships, returning to Toronto to fly out
TORONTO
To begin our journey we flew from Brisbane to Vancouver, Vancouver to Toronto for Corey to be a part of the bucks party in Toronto. We stayed central in the city in the Garden District area in an airbnb, walking distance to Downtown. During our time there we explored the city on foot doing 30,000 steps one day, we loved:
Toronto Music Garden
St. Lawrence Market
King Street for a night out exploring and finding a great beer place. We loved Mascot Brewery @mascotbrewery
Third wave for great coffee @thirdwavetoronto
NIAGRA FALLS
We hired a car through Turo in Toronto and drove to Niagra for the wedding week. We started the week with a wine tour in the Niagra Region, tasting the famous ‘Ice-Wine’ with the wedding group. The week involved lots of fun attractions, including the boat experience into the falls, behind the falls experience, and the illumination tower experience. Becca & Ryan’s wedding was a beautiful day and being MC for this beautiful couple was the most special role. They both looked incredible and we all shared an incredibly memorable night with them. After a big night at the wedding, we drove back to Toronto to fly out to Calgary for our next leg of the trip.
ROCHESTER - PGA GOLF CHAMPTIONSHIPS ⛳️ 🏌️♂️
PGA Championship at Rochester Oak Hill Country Club, USA
Being the golf lovers that we are, Corey and I couldn't resist driving the 90 minutes from the wedding in Niagra Falls, Canada over the border to Rochester, New York State to experience our first PGA Pro. What an experience! We even gave a few yells from the front row for our Australian Cameron Smith 🙌
PART two
Canada/Northern US Van trip 13 days:
Canada: Calgary (Alberta), Banff (Alberta), Lake Louise (Alberta), Cranbrook (British Columbia)
Northwestern US: West Glacier Lake McDonald area (Montana), Butte (Montana), West Yellowstone National Park (Montana), Lonesomehurst Campground (Montana), Flagg Ranch Campground (Wyoming), South/East Yellowstone National Park (Wyoming), Grand Tetons Jenny Lake (Wyoming), Bridge Bay Campground in Yellowstone (Wyoming), Three Forks (Montana), East Glacier St Mary’s Campground (Montana), East Glacier National Park (Montana), Many Glacier (Montana)
Canada: Waterton Lakes National Park (Alberta), flying back out of Calgary (round trip)
TIP: Before beginning the journey into the US, invest in a “America The Beautiful” pass for entering the parks, depending if you’re an international visitor (like us - we purchased the annual pass), or a resident, there are passes to save you money entering the parks and quicker at the gates!
CALGARY
We teamed up with our friends Jesse and Jason (from Brisbane) to enjoy the next leg of the trip together. After flying from Toronto to Calgary and checking into our Calgary airbnb, we didn’t wait to get out into Calgary’s Kensington District to explore for dinner. Having daylight until 10pm made exploring so much fun and the days long and eventful. Our most rated experiences in Calgary:
Dinner at Hayden Block Smoke & Whisky @haydenblockyyc for some delish #bbq
Exploring Kensington Rd and crossing the Peace Bridge and night walks along Bow River
☕️ Coffee at Good Trade Co @goodtradeco
🍳 The most delicious breakfast toasties at PB & J YYC @pbandjyyc the PB Smashed Burger is a must!
BANFF
The 12 days of #VanLife through Canada and the US started in Banff National Park with our friends Jesse & Jason.
We picked up our van from Canadream in Calgary, purchasing a family discovery pass for the Canadian National Parks from them (recommended) and did a typical Walmart shop for supplies. We then drove from Calgary to Canmour with a stop at @thegrizzlypaw for dinner and continued onto Banff to set up camp at Campground Tunnel Mountain (Please ensure you have booked ahead on the Canada reservation site HERE).
The views along this drive were incredible, let alone the rest of Banff! Corey and I were in awe 😍 Our 2 day adventure involved the following:
🇨🇦 Exploring the town of #Banff walking along Bow River
🥾 Up early to get to Lake Louise for before 7am. We suggest you get there for 7am or earlier to ensure you get a park easily. We then hiked up the mountain on the Agnes Lake trail and Tea House exploring a little further up the mountain for some rock stacking and meditation. The views here were unreal! The lake was frozen, it started to rain and the atmosphere was surreal! The boys kept climbing up to Big Behive with insane views of Lake Louise and the Mountains.
🏨 We had a little explore of the gorgeous building Fairmont Chateau on our way back
💧 Post hike recovery at the Hot springs pools at @canadianhotsprings
CRANBROOK
We went separate ways from our friends, and began our trip south towards the USA bornder. To break up the trip we travelled from Banff to Cranbrook (3 hours) to have lunch and play a round of golf at the beautiful Cranbrook Golf Course and decided to stay at KOA Cranbrook. It was a beautiful spot just outside of town with great amenities. With Canadream, we received a discount on KOA campgrounds.
GLACIER NATIONAL PARK: WEST
West entrance due to the ‘Going to the Sun Road’ being closed
Our next stop was the West entrance of Glacier National Park, only 3 hours from Cranbrook. Visiting Glacier National Park has been something we've been dreaming of for a long time! Due to the winter period and snow on the road the famous ‘Going the Sun Road’ wasn't open all the way through.
So we did Glacier in two stages, the West, Lake McDonald and Agra Campground and then the East side, staying at the gorgeous St Mary Campground.
When we arrived into West National Park our eyes lit up 👀 ⛰️😍 the view from Lake McDonald with the mountains behind was a dream come true! We drove the Going the Sun Road as far as we could to Avalanche Point, exploring all the views along the way! The Agra Campground was a lovely spot close to the lake, however no power or waste, so having a van with generator, water and supplies was great.
That night we sat and watched the sun set, at 10pm haha, over a couple of beers as we watched Lake McDonald’s colours come to life! The images speak for themselves, this was mesmerising! Lake McDonald is quiet well known for its beautiful clear water, partly due to it’s extremely low temperatures that prevent the growth of plankton, and its stunning coloured rocks.
TRAVEL: DRIVE We then travelled in the van from Lake McDonald to West Yellowstone (6.5hrs). A big driving day, broken up with a stop in at the town Butte - historical town of mining and stopped at Butte Brewing & Pizza Company and had a pizza, beet and played on their foosball table.
YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK:
West Entrance
Yellowstone became a National Park on March 1, 1872, protecting more than 2 million acres of of mountain wilderness, amazing geysers and vibrant landscapes.
It was fascinating to be exploring the glorious supervolcano. One of the world’s largest active volcanoes lies beneath Yellowstone. The first major eruption of the Yellowstone volcano occurred 2.1 million years ago and covered more than 5,790 square miles with ash.
We loved exploring each entrance, not only were there spectacular sights, we also got to see many animals.... we saw a grizzly Mum and her three cubs, deer, antelope, moose, marmots, bison, a black bear!
After travelling the 6.5 route from Glacier, we made our way towards the west entrance, staying one night at Lonesomehurst Campground before entering the park the following day. Entering from the west entrance we made a day exploring the below. Give yourself a good 2-4 hours to do this due to traffic and lots of wonderful stops!
📍 West Entrance: Fountain Flat Drive, Paint Pot, Midway Geyser Basin, Biscuit Basin, Old Faithful, Upper Geyser Basin, Craig Pass 8262ft, West Thumb area
That afternoon we made our way to the Flagg Ranch Campground (near the Southern Entrance of the park), so we could be closer to Grand Tetons for our next adventure day. Read below this to see our Grand Tetons adventure day, returning back into the South of Yellowstone to stay in the park at Bridge Bay.
South, East & North (driven after the Grant Tetons)
In order to see the rest of Yellowstone National Park while making the most of our kms and fuel, we went south to Grand Tetons (more detail below) and that afternoon made our way back up to the South entrance into the park to stay at Bridge Bay Campground. This allowed us to camp the night and get up early to see the East and North loops of the park. We visited:
📍 East and North Entrance: Mud Volcano, Upper Falls, Backtail Plateau Drive, Mammoth Hot Springs
We then travelled North out of the park heading towards Three Forks (2 hrs). After exploring that morning, we stopped for BBQ lunch outside of Yellowstone at Emigrant called 'Follow Yer Nose BBQ' for a authentic American BBQ experience. We then continued on to Three Forks KOA to camp the night.
GRAND TETONS NATIONAL PARK
Our day exploring at Grand Teton National Park was a highlight of the trip! We drove from Flagg Ranch Campround in Yellowstone to Grand Teton for a hiking explore day 🥾
We drove down into the parks' North Entrance stopping at Jackson Lake Overlook and Willow Flats Overlook, both some of the most spectacular views of the mountains reflecting in the water! We then crossed the Jenny Lake Dam down to Jenny Lake Visitor Centre.
Jenny Lake was glorious 😍 with its beautiful blue water and views on the Tetons. We hiked the from the visitor information centre, around the lake and up to Inspiration point 7200ft/2194m.
With All Trails downloaded, we continued on up to Cascade Canyon Trail with spectacular views, walking through a beautiful gorge seeing waterfalls, snow and we saw a moose.
On our return, we took the shuttle boat that runs across Jenny Lake back to the visitor centre. The hike was 13.2km and we did it over 4.5 hours with breaks for lunch, it is a must do!
A spectacular moment, seeing a Grizzly bear and her 3 cubs coming back from Grand Tetons to Yellowstone at the flats near Jackson Lake.
That afternoon we drove back to Yellowstone National Park staying at Bridge Bay Campground.
GLACIER NATIONAL PARK: East
East entrances due to the ‘Going to the Sun Road’ being closed
After staying at Three Forks KOA (going from Grand Tetons, through Yellowstone East, staying the night then continuing on the journey to Three Forks), we travelled the 4.5 hours to the East entrance of Glacier National Park. On our travels we met a lovely lady doing a similar route to us, she suggested we MUST travel the highway 49 route to see some of the best views, she was not wrong! See our highlights of the trip below. This part of the trip was a dream and some of our most memorable moments 😍 ✨️
❤️ Corey Played golf at Glacier Park golf course, surrounded by some beautiful views of the mountains. The golf course opened in 1934
❤️ Driving Highway 49 into the park, the most beautiful drive through the mountains, visiting Two Medicine Lake then back on the Highway 89. Two Medicine campground was closed due to snow and too early in the season, it was a very eerie feeling being there with no one around!
❤️ Camping at Saint Mary Campground with beautiful views out to the nature and an afternoon walk down to the river
❤️ We decided to stay 2 nights at that campground as we loved it so much! Explored the Going the Sun Trail as far as we could by car, then by foot.
❤️ On the road we visited lookouts along Saint Mary Lake, Baring Falls and Jackson Glacier Overlook. Did the St Mary & Virginia Falls Trail - Hiked from St Mary's carpark with views to die for of Virginia Falls. 6.3km took us 2 hours with stops at the waterfalls to dip our feet.
❤️ With Going the Sun Road being closed at Jackson Glacier Overlook we went past the road closure up until we couldn't go any further at Siyeh Bend due to snow and a grizzly being relocated. 4km walk along the road ⛰️
🐻 We saw a grizzly bear across from the lake on our way back to the campground, a spectacular moment!
On the morning we were leaving East Glacier, we went to the visitor information centre and asked if there was any other hikes worth doing in the north of the park before we continued our journey. The rangers suggested Ptarmigan Pass at Many Glacier area, however said no one had reached the top due to snow fall and the track being closed on the wall. He said we could possibly get to the lake and that in itself was a beautiful view. Thank gosh we did, because this hike was spectacular!
The hike was a little scary as no one had done it yet that day due to no footprints and the untouched snow, so we had our bear spray, our walking poles and music playing to be safe. We made it up to the Ptarmigan Lake which was breathtaking, but you couldn’t go any further up to the tunnel due to the snow. This hike later in the year would be the best experience! 14km trail done over 4.5 hours with a stop at the top. Lots of snow areas and fields too. Spectacular views!
This was BY FAR one of our favourite parts of our whole trip!
WATERTON LAKES NATIONAL PARK
As we were coming to the end of ‘part 2’ of our trip, we had a couple more days before we had to drop the van back to Canadream in Calgary and wanted to spend it away from the city areas. After doing some googling, we found a little area on the border of US and Canada called Waterton Lakes that had a beautiful golf course. So after our morning hike at Many Glacier, we set off to Waterson Lakes (1 hour drive) to check it out. Driving into this beautiful town was one of the most incredible views! The prairies of Alberta meet the peaks of the Rocky Mountains in Waterton Lakes National Park. We called into the golf course and booked a round for the next day and spent the afternoon exploring the town.
Of all the areas we had camped over the trip, this was the highlight at Waterton Lakes Campground. We had front row views of the water and mountains, waking up to this. We booked our camp spot right at the waters edge, unreal! We were joined by hundreds of prairie dogs, they are the cutest (and on the golf course)! We walked down to for dinner at the local diner Zum's Eatery & Mercantile, great chicken!
On day two, we had a golf day at Waterton Lakes Golf Course with some of the most spectacular views of the mountains! Due to being injured in a car crash earlier in the year, I unfortunately couldn’t play on the trip but made a great caddie. A storm rolled it, which made for an interesting but beautiful end to the golf round haha. To finish off the afternoon and warm up, we stopped in at the landmark 1920's Prince of Whales Hotel. What a sight to see! Walking into the hotel, the floor to roof windows took your breath away. We had a couple of beers and played card games with a view you could only dream of. That night we made friends with a few of the locals at the campground, had dinner by the lake with a fire and listened to music, it was bliss.
This saw the end of our van trip, travelling from Waterton Lakes back to Calgary (3 hours) to drop the van back to Canadream before our lunch time checkin for our flight. Next stop….Vancouver!
PART three
Canada/Northern US car trip 11 days:
Canada: Vancouver (British Columbia), Squamish (British Columbia), Whistler (British Columbia)
Northwestern US Washington State Area: Bellingham, Olympic National Park, Mt Rainier, Seattle, North Cascades National Park, Mt Baker and flying back out of Vancouver (British Columbia)
VANCOUVER
To start off part three of our trip, we stayed in Vancouver for 2 nights in an airbnb in downtown Vancouver. This area was walking distance to everything, however in the heart of the homeless area (didn’t affect our stay as they were mostly quiet and didn’t approach you). We did all the tourist spots in the city and found some great coffee and craft beer places, see some of our hightlights below:
☕ Coffee at Revolver (325 Cambie St, Vancouve)
🌳 Walking from Downtown Vancouver over to Stanley Park exploring the area - VanDusen Botanical Garden, Queen Elizabeth Park.
🍝 Dinner at The Old Spagetti House Factory in Gastown
🌁 Explored Lynn Canyon Park, suspension Bridge and then lunch at 5 guys burgers amazingggg!
⛰️ Drove up Cypress Mountain to Bowen Lookout near the ski fields (not active due to summer)
🍸 We were lucky enough to be able to have a special dinner night out with friends from the wedding who lived in Vancouver! They suggested the renowned, 1 Star Michelin restaurant AnnaLena, a beautiful fine dining experience in Vancouver. Voted #9 of Canada’s best restaurants and Restaurant of the Year, Chef of the Year, Best Contemporary - Vancouver Magazine, it definitely lived up to its name! It was an incredible experience, from seeing the chef’s sketched up menu, to the final piece, the atmosphere, the service, the drinks, but the food was just divine. An investment of course, but an experience well worth it!
On our second day we had our Turo car dropped off to us so we can explore the other parts of Vancouver we couldn’t do on foot before starting our 10 day journey around the coast.
SQUAMISH & WHISTLER
To start our drive, we headed north from Vancouver to Squamish (1 hr). Being the summer, there wasn’t any snow but it was still great to experience the Sea to Sky Highway & Gondola. At the top, we enjoyed a beer at the restaurant with views to die for. Being summer, there were a number of hikes, mostly easy quick ones which was nice for some exercise while travelling. We did the Wonderland Lake Loop 2.3km, a nice easy and accessable hike. We then continued onto Whistler to stay overnight (50 mins).
We stayed just the one night in Whistler to explore the township in summer. We would LOVE to come back in winter as the ski runs and fields look to die for. When we were there, the slopes had been turned into BMX biking trails, so for adventure families, this is a must! It was interesting to read about the 2010 Winter Olympic and Paralympic games. The township was bustling even in summer which was great to see. The next morning we were up early as we had to backtrack to Vancouver before heading south towards Olympic National Park.
BELLINGHAM
To break up the trip, we travelled South from Whister to Bellingham (3hrs), staying at an airbnb hotel. There is some beautiful coastline around in this area, so we went exploring outside of the town driving along Chuckanut Drive to the small town of Chuckanut as we found a highly rated oyster farm on google maps, Taylor Shellfish Farm. We hit the jackpot, this was an oyster farm that suppliers to the restaurants and we got to experience it right at the water. We tried 4 varieties of oysters with a nice crisp beer and a great view!
We did some exploring around this area too which was lots of fun! We went for dinner and drinks at the local food trucks and brewery area, Goods Brewing, and had one of the best burritos we’ve ever had there. The Bellinham township is very small and a nice stop over on your way to Olympic National Park.
The next day we started our route south to Olympic National Park. To break up the drive we travelled via Swinomish Golf Links for a round of 9 holes before reaching Coupeville to take the ferry across to Port Townsend. TIP, check the schedule of the ferry before you go and book online, we ended up having to wait 2.5 hours to get on due to the ferry being full as we thought it would be ok to just turn up lol It was a long day!
OLYMPIC NATIONAL PARK (STAYING AT PORT ENGELES)
After crossing the long awaited Coupeville to Port Townsend ferry, we mad our way to Port Angeles, where we would stay in our airbnb for 2 nights allowing us to easily explore Olympic National Park. Due to having a car this time around we stayed in airbnbs close to the parks for easy access. Being a rainy late afternoon when we arrived, we did some town exploring and then went for a drive out to Twin Beach (35 mins outside of town) as Corey had been doing a lot of research about oysters and best places to find them fresh and it was supposed to be here. We never found any oysters haha but we did see 2 sea lions by the water!
Unfortunately one of the areas we wanted to visit, Hurricane Ridge, had a fire at their visitor centre and it burnt down, so they closed that area of the park which was so sad to see. We instead went to the beautiful Lake Crescent, where we sat on the pontoon and enjoyed our lunch while looking out over the glacier water. We Finished the afternoon with a trip to Marymere Falls, Sol Duc Hot Springs Resort. The resort offers three mineral hot spring soaking pools and one Freshwater Pool. The spring water comes from rain and melting snow, which seeps through cracks in the sedimentary rocks where it mingles with gasses coming from cooling volcanic rocks. The mineralized spring waters then rise to the surface along a larger crack or fissure. It was beautiful sitting in the warmth of the pools, looking out at nature and then doing a cold plunge into the fresh pool!
On our third day we started our 6.5 hour tourist drive to Mt Rainier, Ashford. Instead of driving direct to Ashford we went along the coastline so we could enjoy Rialto Beach, 'the ‘whole in the wall’ rock formation on the beach, Ruby Beach and making our way back to Ashford. As we approached Mt Rainier, which we were very excited to see this giant, the weather was horrible and cloud coverage blocked all views of the mountain haha. Bring on tomorrow!
MT RAINIER NATIONAL PARK (STAYING AT ASHFORD)
We arrived late to the Mt Rainier area after travelling from Port Angeles to Ashford (6.5 hours) taking advantage of exploring along the way. Unfortunately, due to bad weather we couldn’t see any of Mt Rainier so we checked into our airbnb (a little tiny home at the back of the Rainier Base Camp) and we relaxed for the night.
The weather wasn’t great our second day at the mountain which was unfortunate, however we thought we’d make the most of going up to the mountain anyway to see the information centre and we explored some of the areas around the carpark. We went to the Nisqually entrance and had a look at Myrtle Falls (very little visibility) and played with some snow and made a snowman. It was actually crazy how much you couldn’t see in front of you! We walked on the snow and saw Marmots walking around everywhere. After checking the weather, it was supposed to be sunny the next day when we left, so we prepared for an early morining rise to climb the mountain. Being positioned at the Basecamp Bar & Grill was very handy (the owners also owned our tiny home, so we stayed on the premises), we went to the hire area and got ourselves some snow cleats to go onto my hiking books. Being a full snow trail and with an injured arm, I wanted to be safe, so these accompanied by our poles meant I was much more stable for our walk. I was still in my wrist splint from my car accident and recovering from surgery, so just wanted the extra protection when walking.
We took advantage of the relaxing atmosphere and cuddled up at our tiny home with a couple of beers, nice dinner and the heater. The weather looked good for the following day, so we planned for an early wakeup.
Day 3 morning we rose to a fair bit of cloud coverage, but the forescast said sun, so we trusted this and headed up the mountain for 7am. As we made our way up, it was like the heavens opened, we passed through the clouds and the sun was shining beautifully and the view of the mountain was a sight I’ll never forget! We started our hiking from the Nisqually Entrance at the Paradise Inn area and visitor centre.
We prepped our walking gear, poles, rain jackets, food and sunscreen and we were on our way! We use AllTrails paid subscription to download our trails and track them on our Garmin watches, this was very handy to stay on track seeing as you couldn’t see any trails, just snow. This was very helpful when embarking up to Panarama Point. Once we were on the trail, we just kept going as there was so many beautiful views to see. We made it nearly to Camp Muir area and were so proud of how far we hiked, particularly with me not being able to use my arm. It was one of the most beautiful look outs I’ve ever seen. Corey and I sat at the rocks and had our lunch and breathed in the fresh air and were just present in that moment.
Mt Rainier is a glorious mountain at 14,410 feet, it is the tallest volcano in the Cascade Mountain Range and the most glaciated peak in the continental United States. This is a must hike! If you go later in the year, it will be much easier to climb, beautiful greenery at the lower areas and waterfalls. We then embarked onto Seattle, nearly 2 hours of driving for our next adventure in the city.
SEATTLE
After finishing our hike, we spent the afternoon driving to Seattle (2 hours away). We settled into our airbnb in the 10th Avenue East, Seattle area and went walking to find dinner out in Capita Hill. It was a bustling and vibrant area. We had lots planned for day 2, so we had an early night ready for our city exploring. Things we recommend in Seattle:
🖼️ Museum of Pop Culture MoPop - This was insane! One of the best Museums we both have ever been to. We spent 3 hours in here as they featured a few incredible exhibitions - ‘A Visiual History of Hip-Hop’ incredible photographs and footage of the ages, Nirvana, Science Fiction, ‘Indie Game Revoluion’, ‘Fantasy W'orld’ (great as we are Lord of the Rings fans), ‘Scared to Death’ horror films, a guitar gallery and Sound Lab.
🍲 Explore Pike Market
🦀 Seafood Dinner at the Crab Pot
⚾ Baseball game a T-Mobile
NORTH CASCADES NATIONAL PARK (STAYING AT SEDRO WOOLEY)
The next morning we travelled North 2.5 hours from Seattle to North Cascades National Park. We started at the visitor centre to get a map (we collected them at every National Park) and did the small walk there, the ‘Trail of the Cedars’. We then travelled to the glorious blue Diablo Lake. The turquoise colour of the lake is a result of the suspended fine rock particles refracting the sunlight. The rock particles, called glacier flour, enter the lake when rocks from the mountains erode by the ice and flows into the water through glacial streams. EPIC! A must see on the route is the Ross Lake Overlook, unreal!
We spent the day at the park and continued onto our airbnb accommodation at Sedro Wooley (1hr). We wanted to be positioned close to Vancouver to fly out but not in the city. We wanted to make the most of our last day travelling to the airport by calling past Mt Baker.
MT BAKER ON THE WAY TO AIRPORT
The last day of your holidays is always a sad one! We got up early from our accomodation at Sedro Wooley and did the 1.5 hour drive to Mt Baker. Due to there being still a lot of snow around in June the park was closed. We explored as far up the mountain as we could near the ski field which was pretty cool, there was no one to be seen and incredible amounts of snow. Us Aussies loved it! We made our way to Vancouver airport, meeting with our Turo owner dropping the car outside the airport area and he dropped us (legend!).
That ends our incredible 4 week journey across Canada and the Northwestern United States. Please drop me an email if you have any questions if you’re planning this trip! Enjoy :D We’ll be back with another for the South West USA soon!
