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A Life Less Ordinary

Category: Places (page 14 of 23)

Van Life on Van Island – Part II: The Sunny Spell

October 30, 2018 / / 55 Comments

Mark and I have been exploring and living in our camper van Zesty full-time since the end of July 2018. Last week, I wrote a blog (with tons of photos) about arriving in Canada, early September, and our first ten or so days on Vancouver Island. The rain was omnipresent, but we managed to have a wonderful time. When the sky cleared, Mark and I left Campbell River (see my Bears vs. Salmon post for one of our highlights in Canada) to explore a more remote and cooler part of the island – the north – before tracing the East Coast all the way to its southern point.

To read the photo captions, hover your mouse over the images, tap them once, or click to make them larger.

Sayward

Few travelers venture north of Campbell River, where island communities are smaller and hardier. It’s colder and wetter up there, so we tried to take advantage of the few sunny days in the forecast. We stopped at the town of Sayward, anticipating to spend the night there at a free campground. Upon discovering that our resource, iOverlander, was wrong – there is a fee to dry camp in town – we checked out the inviting waterfront and moved on to spend the night elsewhere.

City Park in Sayward
Sayward Harbor
Beautiful view across the Discovery Channel
Logging is big business on the island
The logs are sorted and organized with this tiny boat

The logging industry is huge on Vancouver Island. Continue reading

Van Life on Van Island – Part I: The Rainy Spell

October 24, 2018 / / 49 Comments

Whistler Moments

From the moment we entered Canada, it started raining. Well, not quite. Before the deluge, we managed to fit a trip to Whistler in with our friend Rachel, whom we met in the South Pacific sailing. Her sister generously offered the three of us a night in her time-share there, so we didn’t have to be in a hurry. Talk about a luxury experience for us. The room was more than adequate, comfortable and modern; Whistler itself was a fun resort town to walk through, eat and window shop. The highlight to me, as always, was nature and what it had to offer. That “last” sunny day provided us with beautiful waterfalls, enjoyable hiking trails and good company!

Shannon Falls
Picnic lunch with Rachel on the way to Whistler
Mark and I on the suspension bridge on the Train Wreck Trail
Rachel on the suspension bridge on the Train Wreck Trail
Brandywine Falls – one of my all-time favorites
A train derailed close to this spot. Some of the cars were moved deeper in the forest, where they became art exhibits.
All the cars found here now sport graffiti.
Zombies in the train wreck!
The Winter Olympics took place in Whistler in 2010.
Town center of Whistler
The Olympic rings in town
Viewpoint along the way back to Vancouver

Vancouver in the Rain

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The Quinsam River Salmon Hatchery – Bears vs. Salmon

October 19, 2018 / / 43 Comments

Salmon return to their home waters, upstream, to spawn and die. That’s about all Mark and I knew about these fish and the “salmon run” when autumn approached. Other than their meat being expensive and tasty, especially smoked.

During our stay on Vancouver Island in September, we learned that it was soon to be the height of the Pink Salmon run. There are five different wild Pacific salmon species in this part of the world: Chinook, Sockeye, Coho, Chum, and Pink.

When we hiked along rivers, we peered into the crystal-clear waters, expecting hundreds of fish leap against the stream and up waterfalls. It wasn’t quite like that, but we did see a couple of salmon attempt this amazing feat. They were immediately swept back downstream to rest up and try again. Capturing them on camera was an even more challenging feat.

Nymph Falls
Nymph Falls, where we saw a few salmon jump the rapids

We heard about a fish hatchery in Qualicum Beach and decided to check it out, mid-September. Continue reading

North Cascades National Park, Washington

October 11, 2018 / / 53 Comments

After our whirlwind visit to Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, Mark and I wished to explore Glacier National Park in Montana. My intention was to then continue our trip into Canada: Waterton Lakes NP, Banff and Jasper NPs, and saying a quick “hello” to our friends Sue and Dave in Calgary, before heading west to Vancouver and Vancouver Island.  I write “my intention”, because we never plan much in advance, and this whole itinerary might have been a tad ambitious, as summer was already ending this far north. Why was that a surprise to me?

Upon doing research online about Glacier National Park, we discovered that massive forest fires raged on the western edge of the park. This was the preferred side for us to enter, because it offered spectacular views, contained free camping, the distance was doable, and it made most sense for our route north. But, the western entrance was closed. We decided to skip this park altogether and drove westwards within the United States, choosing North Cascades National Park as our new destination in Washington state.

Liberty Bell Mountain, seen from Washington Pass overlook
View into the valley we just drove through
Approaching the main part of North Cascades National Park
Diablo Lake from above
Diablo Lake viewpoint, along WA-20

The Logistics

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Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, USA

September 26, 2018 / / 46 Comments

Not yet

The draw of Yellowstone – so close now – was strong and yet, hesitation arose, because we knew it would be busy, tourist-wise and sightsee-wise, after an already active period in Grand Teton National Park. There is a spot of “no-man’s land” between the two parks. It’s called John D. Rockefeller Jr. Memorial Parkway and we found a beautiful free campsite there. The reported mosquitoes in the reviews of this place were absent, the surroundings peaceful, and our site even had a picnic table, vault toilet, fire ring and multiple trees to hang a clothesline for laundry. We stayed two nights.

Zesty at his free campsite
Cloud reflection at sunset
“Our” river at dusk
Doing laundry in the icy river
A day to catch up on chores

Why Yellowstone?

Yellowstone National Park was the first national park in the US and is one of the most popular.  If there are two US parks people in Belgium have heard about, it’s this one and the Grand Canyon. I don’t know any visitor who hasn’t raved about the place. Images of geysers, colorful pools, bison, and bears urged me to put this destination on my “list for the future” over a decade ago, when the park didn’t make it on my RV itinerary on the way to Alaska.

In front of one of the beautiful pools

First impressions

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Grand Tetons National Park, Wyoming, USA

September 19, 2018 / / 56 Comments

By the time Mark and I hit the road in Zesty, the end of July, summer had progressed a lot and I felt in a rush to reach our main destinations. Yet, we also needed to wind down, relax and forget about our stress and issues from before making this lifestyle switch. My blogging break helped a little bit, but our days were filled to the brim, either with driving, sightseeing, translation jobs, or catching up with internet chores (research, emails, …) Soon, I realized that I needed to let go of this internal pressure to get everywhere as soon as possible. That attitude allowed for spontaneous events and encounters to happen. If it would get too cold or rainy without reaching our sightseeing “goals” this summer, so be it!

Taggart Lake – photo from Mark’s phone to wish our twin nieces a happy 5th birthday

Upon arrival in the Grand Tetons area, Wyoming, Mark and I were in search of a free campsite, something that had been easy to come by the first weeks of our adventure. While driving in and over deep grooves and potholes on the dirt road, needing to back down a steep, bumpy hill and turning around a couple of times bottoming out, Zesty got pretty beaten up the first day. We swore to never do this again, as we settled in a dusty, shady spot for two nights. The last one in miles that was unoccupied.

On the way to the Tetons
Almost at the Tetons
First sunset (over the smoky Tetons) from our first campsite

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The Best Laid Plans – Start of Our RV Adventure

September 11, 2018 / / 61 Comments

Well, my blogging break has finished. It was a nice change to abandon mine and other people’s websites for the last month, and focus on internet-unrelated pursuits, the things I’d like to call “real life”. ????

Great Sand Dunes National Park, Colorado

It took weeks to wind down, if I ever got there. Mark and I still had and have business-related obligations, being without internet at our fingertips felt weirdly unfamiliar and, whenever I planned a day off from sightseeing to relax for a day, a translation project would pop up. When it comes to making some money or making no money at all, that choice is a relatively easy one. Unless, of course, there was no internet to even see the assignment.

While I screamed off the roofs before that I would use our limited data towards planning our itinerary and camper-related chores, I had no idea that big parts of Colorado and Wyoming don’t have T-Mobile cell coverage. No worries here about running out of our monthly 5Gb data allowance. We managed to check emails at McDonalds, visitor centers and libraries.

Bright flags to cross the road more safely
Pagosa Springs is popular for tubing and hot springs
Hot spring in town
The hot water felt good on this rainy summer day

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Two-week RV Trip, Part 3 – Boondocking/Free Camping

June 28, 2018 / / 45 Comments

To most of you, it probably doesn’t come as a surprise that Mark and I are frugal people. It’s not that we don’t have any money, or that we don’t make any money; we choose to only spend what is needed to live comfortably and eat healthy. This allows us to work jobs we enjoy (generally speaking), where the wages are inferior to our flexibility and satisfaction. The less money you spend, the less you have to make, and therefore work. ????

Our past house-sitting lifestyle guaranteed we never paid for rent or utilities. Our biggest expenses this year involved our camper van Zesty. Setting him up to live off the grid (we still have to work more towards that) and travel full-time will provide savings in the future. We prefer boondocking (“dry” camping for free, usually without facilities and preferably in nature) to RV parks and official campgrounds. I compare it to anchoring on our sailboat, as opposed to staying in marinas, which we rarely did, for similar reasons. We prefer privacy, natural surroundings, and spending no money on camping (or mooring). In the year we have owned Zesty, we have paid twice for a “bare bones” campground without hook-ups, but with toilets, trash receptacles and a dump station. Once in Zion National Park last October, and once on this two-week RV trip.

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Two-week RV Trip, Part 2 – Indian Pueblos and Culture

June 21, 2018 / / 57 Comments

After less than one week on the road in Zesty, Mark and I returned to Santa Fe, New Mexico, in case an urgent health matter had us drive back to the East Coast in our van. Juan, the “window guy” at Extreme Twist, added an extra layer of silicone to the inside of our windshield, in the hopes it would finally be fixed. We couldn’t water test it until later. Mark’s health scare proved less urgent than we thought, but it kept weighing on us the rest of our time in the van. Today, I’m happy to report that it was false alarm.

Instead of retracing our steps yet again, back to Arizona, Zesty took us north, to Chaco Canyon. The idea was to spend the afternoon in Chaco Culture National Historical Park and see some of the most spectacular ruins of the Chaco Indians. But, by the time we reached the area after a 4-hour drive, and conquered the 14-mile long washboard gravel road to get to the park (which took another 2 hours instead of ½ hour because we are heavy and extremely careful), it was too late and hot in the day to stick to plan. We decided to camp for the night at the only (pay) campground in the park and split the excursion over two days.

Bonito Pueblo

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Two-week RV Trip, Part 1 – Rocks and Petrified Wood

June 13, 2018 / / 69 Comments

After Mark and I finished our two-month house sit in Santa Fe, the end of May, we had no other assignments lined up. Partly because the 2.5-week gap before our train journey east was tight to find a “perfect” house sit; partly because we wanted to give full-time RV living a chance. We planned to make a loop from Santa Fe west into Arizona, north to the Four Corners region, east through Southern Colorado, and then back south into New Mexico. Memorial Day weekend would offer us a little break away from the computer, and since our business partner was on holiday for ten days early June, Mark’s job would be more relaxed then as well.  During those once-a-year periods, he only deals with customers over email, and postpones phone calls until “vacation time” is over.

The southern part of Petrified Forest National Park

Our trip was off to a rocky start, since our windshield was still leaking. We’d come back earlier, after two weeks, and deal with it then. First stop: El Malpais National Monument, where we’d briefly stopped for a free night of camping after picking Zesty up in Arkansas, almost a year ago.

El Malpais National Monument

Already on day one, our bikes came in handy. We explored the eastern part of the park at our own pace, and photographed rocky outcrops, peddled through Indian Reservations, and discovered a natural arch.

Zesty and the bikes in the Joe Skeen campground of El Malpais
The black patches are lava rock
Sandstone Bluffs
La Ventana natural arch

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