Great Northern Highway (US-2) and the Coastal road (US-101) in a 'B'

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Len and Jo

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Tom ? I might of (can?t seem to find it) put this in the ?Destinations? section by error.  Please just delete it if you see it there.  Sorry/Thanks 

Section #1 was ?The Great Northern Highway? that is US-2 from Maine to Washington State.  We picked it up in Michigan?s U.P. and took it west.  The #2 section was the Washington, Oregon coastal area along US-101.  The final #3 section was expressway home w a stops at Reno and the Flaming Gorge.

The total trip was 32 days long, covered about 7,700 miles and required about 120 hours of driving.

The Great Northern Highway section was covered at the rate of 150 miles per day and ended at the Hoh Rain Forest.

The coastal section was covered at the rate of 100 miles per day and went from Ruby Beach to the Jedediah Smith Redwood SP.

The return route was a ?cover the distance? x-way trip.

The following small notes after this one will contain photographs taken on the trip.  Note that our trip style involves many stops that have minimal or no hookups and several of the camping sights probably could not take large A?s, C?s or fifth wheels.  In cool weather we did like to have a 15 amp hookup but other than that no hookups (a dump station every 3-4 days was needed) were really needed.  No, we did not have dish and indeed during the 32 day trip only bought one newspaper.
 
The old ore loading dock at Marquette Michigan just below Vielings Restaurant.

Joanne checking over the Malmberg natural prairie owned by the Nature Conservancy.

The Kegs in Grand Forks, North Dakota.  A fun place to get lunch.  The burgers and drinks were good but the onion rings were the best I have ever had!
 

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Rugby, N.D. the geographical center of North America.

US-2 touches several points along the Lewis and Clark Trail.  Fort Union was built in 1835 on the banks of the Missouri River where the explorers in 1804 recommended as a good spot for a trading post.  It was inspiring to stand on that river bank 203 years after the explorers did.

The Bowdoin National Wildlife Refuge (about 80 miles west of the very large Ft. Peck earthen dam) was a teaming with wildlife when we were there.
 

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We camped on Glacier National Parks east side, at the Sprague Creek CG along the closed Going to The Sun Hwy.  There were very few people in the campground but lots of ?camp deer?.  Joanne tries to make a deer understand that we and not he paid for the camp site.

One of the many beautiful views along the Many Glacier Rd.

Glacier NP has many beautiful lodges within its boundary.  Here are photo?s of the exterior of the Swiftcurrent Lodge (off of Many Glacier Rd) and a photo of the lobby of the MacDonald Lodge.
 

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lobby of the MacDonald Lodge.

Joanne riding one of our bikes by the shore of Lake MacDonald.

A wonderful day for an outside supper at West Glacier.

The Kootenai Falls had very impressive water flow the 1st of June.

 

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Len and Jo said:
Rugby, N.D. the geographical center of North America.

It was really kind of convenient when the Geographical Center of North America moved so it could still be fairly close the the highway when the rerouted the highway several years ago.  ;D  Somewhere we may still have photos of both locations.
 
Another eating spot we ?had? to stop at was the 1906 railroad car Frank?s Diner in Spokane.  The food was good and restoration work done on the car was very impressive.  Locally it is a very popular place.

Grand Coullee Dam at night as seen from the Spring Canyon CG 2.5 miles away.

We spent about 2 hours in the Ohme Gardens in the city of Wenatchee, Washington.  They were started in 1929 and are wonderfully maintained.
 

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We spent a quite two nights at the Wanatchee National Forest Nason Creek CG.  Attached are two photo?s of the campgrounds.

After a worthwhile climb to the Marrymere Falls near Lake Crescent we had an impressive lunch at the Lake Crescent Lodge.  Their chef is very good.  You can walk in for lunches but need reservations for dinner.  The attached are photo?s of the falls and the lodges main building.
 

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The US-2, Great Northern Highway, section of our trip ended at the Olympic National Park Hoh Rain Forest Campground.  The area is also known as the ?hall of mosses?.  The attached 3 photo?s are of that area.  Note the elk relaxing at our campsite
 

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Len and Jo,

Glad you had such a nice trip.  Great photos.  Looks like you had some really nice campsites.  Going early in the year also is nice because everything is so new and green.  Thanks for sharing.

ArdraF
 
ArdraF,

Yes, it was a good time to go.  Things were green.  We also try to avoid making reservations at campgrounds and this time of year (before schools are out) the camgrounds we stayed in were mostly 10% full.  Near the end in Oregon and Calif. they started getting up to maybe 25% full.  Also the traffic levels were still low on the roads.

Have good travels,

Len & Jo
 
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