Follow Me to: Whales Tail Charters

Location: Depoe Bay, OR
Sites to See: Whales, Sea Lions, Harbor Seals, and Sea Birds

I have been away from my blog for awhile but don’t worry I’m back! I have several travel and book review posts coming too! To kick things off I’m going to start with my recent trip back to Depoe Bay! If you have been following my blog from the beginning then you will remember that I stopped here for a very short 24 hours during my road trip last summer. I liked it so much that I just had to go back!

The number one thing that I regretted not being able to do was go whale watching. In Depoe Bay, lovingly dubbed the whale watching capital of the world, you can see whales from pretty much any shoreline, but I wanted an up close experience on a small boat which lead me to Whales Tail Charters. Their tours are done from a zodiac boat and only hold up to 6 passengers. I did some reading and found out that the early morning tours are usually best as the wind is usually not as high as it can be in the afternoon which can make the ocean a bit rough. Since I was booking this adventure in advance I went with the 10:00 am time and one and half hour tour.

Being from Colorado I’m not used to Ocean conditions and forecasts, and when I woke up the morning of the tour the ocean looked a bit rough to me. A storm was getting ready to hit Oregon for the next few days so it was also cloudy, windy, and cool out. -One of the locals told me that they wont take you out if they don’t think you will see any whales so that was awesome to hear before we headed out that morning- We went down to the Boat at 9:30 am and were able to get right on the boat and head out early! I wont lie, I was a little nervous that being in a little boat and the water being a little rough that I was going to get sea sick, but it wasn’t bad at all!

We were able to see a few whales even though the conditions weren’t perfect for whale watching.We weren’t able to get in super close to any because of the water conditions but it was still way closer than if I was standing on the side of a cliff looking out at the water.  Over all I had a great time!  I of course wanted some of those super up close amazing photographs, but that just means I will have to go again.

I highly recommend Whales Tail Charters if you want to go whale watching on the Oregon Coast! Everyone that I worked with, by email, phone, and on the boat was fantastic and made the experience that much more enjoyable. Here are a few of the photos I got while out on the boat, I hope you enjoy!

 

“The whales do not sing because they have the answers, they sing because they have a song.”
~Gregory Colbert

Follow Me to: The Colorado Ice Castle

To kick of 2018 myself and a few friends decided to take a drive up I-70 to Dillon, CO to an Ice Castle. While we found no kights, white walkers, or Ice Dragons on our adventure we did feel as if we had stumbled upon Elsa’s frozen fortress, stepped through the closet into Narnia, or had found ourselves North of the Wall. While we were there it was hard not to get lost in the magic of all the places your mind could take you.

This particular Ice Castle was built by Ice Castles, LLC based out of Utah. Based on information from their website and the news, these are hand crafted masterpieces that are constructed over time using about 10,000 icicles per day to create, they have 10′ thick walls and can weigh around 25,000,000 pounds! All of these fun facts aside, it is just beautiful in general.

Upon your entry you will receive a map of the different rooms in the Castle. I’m not going to lie tho, I glanced at the map, tucked it into my pocket and just wandered through the castle. I climbed into crevices that opened up into rooms like an igloo, stood in line with all the other grown kids to take my turn on the slide, and marveled at the artistic quality of the icicles throughout each room. We were there during the day time so we unfortunately did not get to see the light show, but it was still worth the drive into the mountains for this fun afternoon adventure.

This is something I would for sure recommend you do for fun. It’s fun for the kids and the kids at heart!

To order tickets to the Ice Castle and for more information go to http://icecastles.com/dillon/

“The ice pressed close around them, and he could feel the cold seeping into his bones, the weight of the Wall above his head. It felt like walking down the gullet of an ice dragon.”

~ Jon Snow, A Storm Of Swords, George R. R. Martin

Follow me to: Lewis and Clark Caverns State Park

Location: Whitehall, MT
Site to See: Lewis and Clark Caverns 

Short Review: Who doesn’t enjoy crawling through caves?

Long Review: I love experiencing new and fun things so when I saw that the Lewis and Clark Caverns State Park was along the route for my road trip I knew I would have to make a stop.  It is described as one of the most decorated limestone caverns in the Northwest. It has stalactites, stalagmites, columns, and helitites. If you don’t remember what those all are from your elementary school class don’t worry! They will explain everything to you on the tour. The standard cave tour costs $12 per person, is approximately 2 miles long, and takes 2 hours to complete.

The most difficult part of the tour is the hike at the very beginning, and isn’t really difficult. This is the opinion of a Colorado native that is use to higher elevations though. The tour guide said it was about a 300 ft elevation gain and approximately one mile up to the cave entrance. You have 30 minutes to get to the top or the tour leaves without you. The rest is almost all literally downhill from there. The cave does have a lot of stairs in it and does require bending down and a lot of ducking. *Fun fact: all the steps were hand carved back in the day!* The cave is also lighted in most areas so it is easy and safe for everyone to travel through. This also provides a good look at all the cave has to offer.

The thing I was most worried about encountering along the way was bats. I mean the tour is through their home so it wasn’t exactly a crazy fear. I just kept picturing one of the children in the group accidentally screaming and in turn startling them causing a replay of the scene from the Goonies when the bats fly out in the cave and everyone starts screaming as the bats attack. Luckily for me though, I only ever heard them and didn’t see them, they must be used to all the people. Important: If you have been on a cave tour elsewhere and are going through with the same equipment, shoes, etc. let your guide know!  You can wipe down and help prevent the spread of fungal disease that causes White Nose Syndrome in the bats.  This fungal disease can be deadly for bats but does not affect us. 

What I love most about tours like these is that you get to learn a little as you go.  The tour guides are very knowledgeable and really make the tour enjoyable. Our tour guide for our journey into the cave was Mac, and he did an amazing job. Some of the fun things you will learn along the way are who actually discovered the caverns, the old tour route, how the old tours were done, fun history of the caves, and even how they actually clean the caves to keep them healthy! Another cool thing the park offers is candlelight tours in December. I think that would be such a fun way to explore the caves!

“The cave you fear to enter holds the treasure you seek.”
~Joseph Campbell

 

Follow me to: Forks, Washington

Location: Forks, WA
Sites to See: Hoh Rain Forest, Ruby Beach, Cape Flattery 
Place to Stay: Manitou Lodge Bed & Breakfast

Short Review:  Plan for several days to enjoy everything that this area has to offer.  I did not have enough time and will be planning a trip back!

Long Review:  First off let me tell you all that unfortunately I didn’t see any sexy men that sparkled, or crazy werewolf guys cliff jumping. The book nerd in me was so excited to see the area that the Twilight book series that I enjoyed back in the day was based on. What I didn’t expect was for me to enjoy it so much!

Let me start off with the Manitou Lodge Bed & Breakfast.  This is located in a very quiet and peaceful stretch of land a few miles outside of Forks. I landed on this particular Bed & Breakfast after googling and finding that it was the #3 rated (according to TripAdvisor) in the area and had vacancies for the night I would be in the area. Upon arriving you are taken down a very small and winding road that takes you back to the property.  When they say secluded they mean it, and I loved the peace and quiet that it offered. After going into the lodge and calling for assistance to check in. *Side note: The people running the Lodge were very helpful and so kind.  We hit traffic issues and called to say that we would be arriving late, and he said he would come check us in as soon as we were able to arrive* We ended up in the Outback.  This is a small 8′ x 12′ camping cabin on the property. It does not have a bathroom or shower in it.  You get a double bed, microwave, refrigerator, a Keurig, a space heater if needed, and a sink with running water.  While it doesn’t sound like much it was the cutest little place.  They also provide breakfast for you and leave it in the refrigerator.  The breakfast we had was waffles, toast, yogurt, cereal, milk and orange juice. To get to a restroom you just follow a very short path around the building to the Main Lodge. In the morning they provided coffee and had fresh fruit for all the guests also.

As someone who doesn’t spend a lot of time in their room when they travel this was the perfect place for me!  I was able to go hiking and come back late in the night and not feel like I was disturbing anyone as I parked behind my little cabin and climbed in bed!

Lets go back to the hiking comment. I ended up driving from the Lodge to Neah Bay to hike the Cape Flattery Trail to be there for sunset.  The trail is very easy and well maintained.  I still ran through it to get to the different viewing decks to get that ‘golden hour’ light. It was worth the 1.5 hour twisty, windy coastal road drive to get there for sunset. The next morning I hiked the Hall of Mosses Trail in the Hoh Rain Forest in the Olympic National Park. There is a fee for the Park, it last for 7 days and was $25.  Hopefully you will be in the area long enough to use that pass at many locations! The Hall of Mosses Trail is a very easy 0.8 mile hike. It is beautiful and makes you feel like you are in a fairytale. I’m not going to lie, I was waiting to happen upon a small Fairy village in the fallen moss covered trunks because it was seriously like a scene out of a movie. I hit some bad luck somewhere between the Hoh Rain Forest and Ruby Beach, I got a screw in my tire. I was only able to quickly view Ruby Beach and longingly stare at the waves as they crashed into the shore as I had to head to town to get a tire patched. Due to the time constraint on the road trip plans that I had I was unable to turn around and go back after having my tire repaired. In the end, I have decided that I NEED to go back to this area some time soon to experience it all again!

Sehnsucht
(n) A wistful longing and yearning in the heart for travels that have been and travels to come.