For one of our longer vacations this year, we decided on a road trip, camping in Washington and Oregon. Pre-COVID, we used to do a trip down to Hood River almost every year. Since COVID we have not been at all, so this was the year! I have an absolute ton of photos to process from this trip, so I’ll probably release the posts with photos from my phone, and then follow up with posts later when I get through the photos from my good camera. We’ll see how that works out.
With the long weekend in August, we were able to get a full 10 days in. We decided to break the trip up into three sections - Leavenworth, a German-style village in northern Washington State, Hood River and Mount Rainier. It’s like a “best of” of all of our road trips over the years.
Vancouver Canadians Baseball
We chilly started our trip on Friday at lunch time, with a baseball game. The Vancouver Canadians are the A ball affiliate of the Toronto Blue Jays, and are a lot of fun to go watch. Justine’s company had tickets to the game and so we went out there for the afternoon. It was a fun game - I almost catch a foul ball - and we stayed until the 6th inning. It would have been nice to stay for the whole game, but we needed to hit the road!
Leavenworth Washington
The first leg of our trip should have been about 4 hours into northeastern Washington State, and the town of Leavenworth. We had packed up the truck up earlier in the day, so we were pretty much ready to go and hit the road on time at about 4:00. Sadly our plan didn’t quite work out, as the traffic was worse than expected. It took a full hour to get to the border - a good 20 minutes more than it should have!
The border itself was very quick - 5 minutes max - and soon we were on our way! We made a stop at Costco for gas, wine, and some other provisions. That was pretty quick, but we needed to make a second stop in Bellingham at REI for a pass that will give us entry Into the various parks and trails we plan to hit over the next week or so. After we got all of that out of way, we were on the road again.
We headed south in the I5 into Everett, then headed east on Highway 2. We hit an odd traffic slowdown in one of the small towns along the way that added an extra 20-30 minutes to our travels. We stopped at a Subway for a late dinner, before continuing on our journey.
We made it safely, if a little later than we had planned.
It was dark by the time we got to the cabin that we had booked for our first two nights. But we got checked in and settled in. The place was small, but perfect for what we needed. We got unpacked and had a glass of wine on the porch. The bugs eventually chased us inside, but by that time it was closing in on 11:00, so it was time to head to bed anyway.
The inside of our little cabin was perfect for the two of us. It had a good layout, and everything that we need.
The design of the cottage was also nice.
The washroom had a good, practical layout.
The bedroom was nice but the bed was way too soft.
The cabin looked really nice in the dark.
We have driven through Leavenworth a number of times on our road trips in he past. It’s this odd town where they decided every building in the town mush be built in the style of a Bavarian village from Germany. It’s odd, but somehow interesting. We’ve never been able to stop for long, so this time we thought we’d try and stay for a day or two. Sadly, hotels in the town were running $400-500 a night, which we did not want to pay. I found these small cabins near Lake Wanatchee, about 20 minutes norths of town for half that. It turned out to be perfect!
Our cabin in the daylight. We had discovered it had a really nice covered side deck as well!
Our set-up with the truck was pretty great.
Mountain Biking, Lake Wenatchee and a Night in Leavenworth Town
The map of our epic ride, with our blue dot at the top as we were about to head back down.
We were up at a pretty decent time on Saturday morning. Our plan was to go mountain biking on a trail I found close to Leavenworth.
As we were getting organized, I discovered that we had a nest of 3 baby flycatchers just off our deck. Mom was busy feeding them, and they were very chirpy! Sadly, no pics of those until I go through the photos on my big camera.
We got packed up and headed south to the trail. It had looked interesting as we were planning the trip, and ended up being a really great ride.
The first part was tough - 7.5 km riding uphill on a combination of forest service roads and single track mountain bike trails. The first part on the road was not too bad - it was steep in parts, but generally pretty reasonable. It got harder as we entered the single track, but there were enough amazing views to make it worthwhile.
At the point on the map to the right where you can see the picnic table icon is, the trail split. I started off on the wrong (left) path, and had to come back down to make our way up to the right for some more climbing.
It was pretty tough, but eventually me made it to the top! I’ll be honest, I don’t know if we’ve ever climbed that much! From there, it was all fast, flown berms all the way back down to the truck. I was just starting to get the hang of the berms, timing the turns and getting into the flow. It was a pretty nice ride.
I stole this pic from the Internet, but it’s a pretty fair look at what most of the trail looked like.
The map of our ride at Leavenworth.
Wenatchee Lake State Park
We packed back up and headed back to the cottage where we quickly packed a lunch and rode down the road to the Wenatchee Lake State Park. The lake is quite large and they have a nice beach in the day use area. The place was packed! There was a ranger at the entrance turning cars around, so it was good that we rode over rather than driving. The lake, as it turns out, is pretty ideal for kids and there were lots of them.
The view of Lake Wenatchee
We found a good spot near a huge log where we could park the bikes close to us. We laid out towels and headed for the water. The lake was nice - a mix of sand and rocks, so it was good we brought our water shoes. The water was cool, but not as cold as we had feared. We were expecting glacial, but this was warmed than the ocean. So we had a swim, then came out and lay in the sun and had some lunch. It was a very pleasant way to spend the afternoon.
The beach was super-busy, but it was time for a swim.
Eventually we head back to the cabin to have a shower and get changed and drove into Leavenworth.
Leavenworth
Leavenworth was also crazy busy, but Justine snagged us an ideal parking spot close to the action! We wandered around town for a bit, checking out the town. All the buildings in the town are required to built in the Bavarian style, which is what gives the town it’s charm. As the place was jammed, there was a good energy about the place. Many of the building have amazing flower displays set-up outside the buildings. There are a lot of different buildings, all worth a look as we explored.
It was hot! Well over 30C, and so before long it was time to stop for a beer at one of the local breweries. They had an interesting assortment.
There was a little art market in town, so we had a stroll through there and checked out the various artists. There was some interesting stuff, but nothing amazing. Soon it was time for dinner and we headed to one of the places that was recommended to us.
Justine wanted traditional German food, and as you might expect in a German-themed town, we were able to find some. It was pretty good - certainly not as good as the real deal, but it made for an enjoyable meal. We stuck around long enough to listen to the live music. They had a pair of guitarists that were quite good.
Eventually we headed out. There was a store close to the restaurant that had some interesting things, so we stopped there and browsed for a while. Justine found a beautiful hoodie, and I grabbed a guidebook for some inspiration for a fall road trip.
Our next stop was a second brewery, which ended up being quite disappointing. When we had done some of our research in advance, Icicle Brewing looked the most interesting. They had a great selection, the building was beautiful, but they were not doing flights! Ridiculous - so we couldn’t try more than one type, which was average at best. I had planned on grabbing more of theirs for the road, but instead we bought nothing. Missed opportunity for them.
Our parking was close to expiring and the sun was heading down, so it was time to head for home. The drive to and from Leavenworth is spectacular. The highway weaves along the river for most of it, with huge mountains surrounding all of it. It’s one of the main reasons we usually come back this way from our trips south.
The view, from just outside Leavenworth.
We headed to bed and the next day it was time to pack up, get organized and head to Hood River!