North Cascades National Park was like a rainforest. There were thousands of giant trees everywhere, reaching for the clouds. The ground was covered with moss and beautiful ferns. The trees were covered with strange lichens and giant weird mushrooms. It felt rather spooky. Huge steep mountains with glaciers towered over the forest.

We went on several hikes through the spooky forest. One day, Little Kid walked five miles! One hike led to an amazing waterfall tumbling down the mountain.

Our campground was along beautiful Diablo Lake. It was a pretty spot, and I guess bears liked it too, because there was one eating right by the campground. Ma was out walking Barney when suddenly she saw the bear right in front of her! After that, we brought the bear spray on every hike.

One day, when we came back from hiking, we noticed that the campground was very empty. Then a ranger told us that we had to leave because the campground was closing for the season that day, despite the signs that said it was closing the next day. Ma went out to talk with the ranger, and the ranger said we could stay the night in the closed campground.

We spent a few days at a campground near Coulee Dam, the largest dam in the U.S. With the amount of concrete that Coulee Dam was built with, you could make a sidewalk that wrapped twice around the equator. Coulee Dam also makes enough energy to power 2.3 million houses, and it brings a lot of water to farms for irrigation.

Of course, we did the dam tour. We got to see the pumps that pump water from lake to farms. Because of that water, the area has a lot of farms. Did you know that forty percent of U.S. mint comes from that area? We also got to go on top of the dam. We were up so high!

That night we went to a laser show projected onto the dam. It was about the history of the dam.

The campground was on the lake above the dam, Lake Roosevelt, so we spent a lot of time chilling on the sand beach. Little Kid and I swam.

We spent about a week along the Green River in Wyoming. We spent almost all of our time hanging around our campsite. The campground was along a curve in the river. On the other side of the river, there were steep bluffs topped with bushy prairie where cows roamed. Almost every night we had a fire with dry cow patties because they burned well.

One day we drove about an hour down a bumpy gravel road to a beautiful lake. The lake was surrounded by huge mountains. We spent most of the day there, swimming and playing in the sand.

Because our route to Washington went through Yellowstone, we stopped there for a few hours – 15 months after we had been there last. We saw Old Faithful erupt, and because we were downwind of it, we felt and tasted it too.

Our time in Rocky Mountain National Park was amazing. Because it was the elk mating season, we heard the males bugling every night. It was an extremely strange sound. It sounded like a mix of a flute, a sick donkey, and a shofar, and it was very high pitched. The elk herd spent at least three days behind the campground, and we saw them almost every day. Pa and I also saw something very cool: a moose! It was standing about 30 feet away from us, eating. It didn’t seem to care at all that we were there.

One day, we drove higher up, to just over 12,000 feet. We did two short hikes in the treeless alpine tundra. The only plant life was tiny ground hugging plants. There were high peaks in every direction. We saw three big horn sheep, and a bunch of big furry marmots.

We also did some very fun hikes at Rocky Mountain National Park. My favorite was one that went past a waterfall. There were a lot of people at the waterfall, but we hiked past there, and then there were almost no people. We saw a tiny adorable weasel. It was so, so, so, so, cute!!!! We had our lunch in a meadow of very tall grass along the Colorado River. We saw an otter in the water!

After we left our beautiful campsite on the Poudre River, we went to a campground on the West Fork of the Laramie River. Even though we were camped at a higher elevation than before, (9000ft) it still looked like we were low, because there were tons of peaks towering over us. Little Kid “fished” and poured water while I froze my feet in the river. Ma and Pa were happy to read their books and relax.

One day we went on a hike through the mountains. Little Kid was great – he hiked almost three miles uphill! While we were having our picnic lunch, I turned around and said “um, do you know there is a deer right behind us?” Sure enough, there was a beautiful deer standing there watching us. The deer was the only animal we saw, but Barney was going insane about all the animals he smelled.

The deer was cool, but the next day we saw something even cooler – a moose! It was about fifty yards downstream from the campsite, standing in the middle of the water. It was a young moose and a moment later the mother came out too. Unfortunately, Ma was out walking Barney, so she didn’t see it. (Ma never sees moose)

After we left there, we went to another beautiful high elevation campground. It was right on Denver Creek. Lots of wading, dam building, and mud pie making. Ma also spent her birthday there. It was a very chill birthday, with lots of napping, reading and a few surprises.