Cross Country Drive

The drive from Mount Rainier to Rocky Mountain National Park took us 3.5 days. Its times like these where the Beast’s top speed of only 50 MPH can be slightly frustrating.

After leaving Mount Rainier within only 50 miles or so the landscape changed significantly to a more desert like Cowboy and Western terrain. It climbed to be an inland plateau at around 2000m. The temperatures were pretty hot with the thermometer hitting 30C in the early afternoon.  Sarah was quite disturbed to see a Rattlesnake Warning sign at one rest area we stopped at.

We did take the time to visit Shoshone falls just outside Twin Falls, Idaho. This waterfall is 50ft higher than Niagara Falls and they are 1000ft wide. Pretty Impressive. In Twin Falls we also stopped off at the visitor centre where we watched a couple of lunatics BASE jumping of the bridge. Idaho is the only state in the USA where BASE jumping is legal. Also in Twin Falls is the Malad Gorge which made a quick stop for us.

As we drove towards the Park we kept on getting higher and higher and the landscape started to change. The highland plains gave way to forested hills with trees with autumn leaves and then conifers. We ended up at 2750m. High.

We ended up arriving at Rocky Mountain National Park pretty late in a rainstorm so it was getting seriously dark and just had time to check in at a campsite before full darkness arrived.