How much does your youth shape the places you like to visit when you grow up? I feel like I grew up in the woods of Montana, but I also spent the summers in the San Juan Islands.
They are entirely different areas but very similar types of places. I spent so much of my youth traipsing through the woods and playing on various beaches that I feel very schizophrenic because they both feel like home. So what does it have to do with anything?
Well, I’m going to talk about my favorite places to go, wander in the woods, beaches, and just the great outdoors. Let’s call it my top 5 places you should go and get lost in, whether it is a National Park, National Forest, or just your backyard.
Recently there has been a tremendous change in my life, and it has got me thinking about my childhood. This story will start in Montana and my grandparents’ cabin. It wasn’t my house, but I felt like it was my home. As a kid, we moved a lot, and the only consistent place was my grandparents’ cabin. I had been going to the cabin since I was born; literally, some of my first photos of me were in that cabin. The memories I have of this place are some of my fondest memories as a child.
Now at 51, I have to say I have not been there as much as I used to or should have. Well, my grandmother, at 93, has sold the cabin and moving into town. I’m not going to lie, but it flooded me with emotion when I first got the news. I felt them all, well, all except anger. At 93, my grandma is now a breast cancer survivor, and I’m not sure if you have ever been to Montana in the winter, but let me tell you, it’s cold. I know what you are thinking. I’ve been in the cold. No, you haven’t, not unless the temperature you’ve been in has a negative in front of it. Well, last winter was harsh, and it was too much.
On the other side of my schizophrenic feelings was spending my summers on Orcas Island in Washington. Wandering along the beaches and tide pools in the San Juan Islands shaped another part of my life. Water, more specifically saltwater, is far from the mountains of Montana you can get.
So much so that my desire to surf was great living in Montana. I watched every movie, read every magazine, and eventually started surfing in the cold waters of Washington. That is no small feat if you know anything about the Washington coastline. The nearest waves to myself were 2-3 hours away, which my friend and I did once a week for a couple of years. Now we have a small taste of who I am, let’s get to the list. I have a tiny taste of the world, but these places should be a must-go.
Number 5 is not an actual number 5 because so few people will ever get here. This spot is for Belt Park, Montana. I would have put this higher, but with its location and this being such a personal place, we will start the list off here in my childhood backyard. Driving south of Great Falls on Highway 87, you will begin this 45-mile journey. You will eventually turn right on Highway 89.
The drive gets quite pretty as it winds its way along Belt Creek. The road starts to drift away from the creek and starts heading up, and from there, you will see big open farms at the base of the Little Belt Mountain range. You know you’re getting close as you drop into a canyon that will spit you out in Monarch Valley. It’s here where my grandparent had their cabin, and it is here where I grew up. As a child, this was as close to seven as you could get—mountains on both sides of the road with a creek running in the background.
As a child, my main rule was to be home for meals. I am leaving anything out, climbing mountains, looking for fossils, fishing, hunting, ice skating, tubing, and fire pits. Ah yes, the holidays were unforgettable up here. It helped that I was related to almost half the people that lived up here. My grandfather had 13 brothers and 2 sisters and seldom left the area. My grandpa Charlie was born and died in the Monarch area.
Hey, we are here to talk about Belt Park so let’s hop off nostalgia lane and get back on point. You need to keep driving up the road for about 3 miles and look for a Belt Park Road dirt road. As you turn up the road, it will not look like much as you start up the hill; it will open up and look like you are driving on top of the earth. That view keeps getting grander and grander. Now what to see will depend on what time of the day and what time of the year.
Note to the brave that this place gets cold in the winter, and I mean cold that you won’t have a concept of it unless you have been in it. Be very careful here in the winter. The road can also get really bad. Only go in the winter if you know what you are doing. Now, if you happen to be here in late spring-early summer, the wildflowers will be blooming.
Plus, you will see all go these birdhouses on the fence post. These are for bluebirds. They are the craziest birds, for the ones you can barely see. They are very skittish, so you will see this flash of the most vibrant blue you have ever seen. As you keep driving up, there is a spot that seems like you are on the world’s top (you’re not). The view here is one of my favorite views from anywhere.
Sunrise or sunsets are amazing from here. Plus the bonus of cows walking around, this is open range country. This is the best time to see critters when discussing sunrise and sunset. While deer will be what you see the most, elk, coyotes, and a bear will also be a possibility. Those are much tougher to see. There is lots of hiking in and around Monarch and Belt Park.
If fishing is more your speed, there are tons of fishing. I mean lots of fishing. The one caveat is that most of the great fishing is on private land. There is one hotel in the area, but Great Falls is the closest city and only an hour’s drive. I’m pretty sure I could write a book about Monarch. It is where some of my best memories as a child were formed. If you really want to feel like getting away from the hustle of life, this is the place to go.
Number 4, where should we go next? We will go to another place in my childhood, which is also amazing. Now off to Seattle and the San Juan Islands. I think number two will be the San Juan Islands. It’s not a national park, but several state parks are in and around the islands. After my parents split, my sister and I moved to the San Juan Islands with our dad, specifically Orcas Island. The San Juan Islands are islands in the northwest corner of Washington, right on the Canadian border.
There are a couple of ways to get here. One is taking a seaplane out of Lake Washington or Lake Union and flying to the islands. The most common way is to drive to Anacortes and take a ferry. To get to Anacortes, you will head north on I-5 towards Burlington, get off and head west on Highway 20 towards Anacortes. Follow the signs as your wind your way through the town of Anacortes to the ferry landing on the edge of town. Since this place has become so popular, you must make ferry reservations. It gets jam-packed, especially on the weekend and in the summer. The ferry will stop at Lopez, Shaw, Orcas, and finally, San Juan.
So why the whole county of San Juan is so beautiful? There is so much to see and do. The biggest downfall is the need for a boat to really enjoy the Islands. My dad had a sailboat as a kid, and we went camping all around Orcas. We would go check out the main three, Jones Island, Stuart Island, and Sucia, which happens to be a Marine State Park.
As a kid, I absolutely loved Sucia. Between the hiking, wildlife, and tide pools, this place was a kids’ dream, and really that’s what makes this place so great. Very close to the big city, but so far from anything. Plus, the wildlife you can see is second to none. You will see deer, lots of deer, birds, seals, and whales, yes whales. There is a pod of Orcas that live around the San Juan Islands. The tide pools are where you will see the most wildlife, starfish, sea urchins, sea anemones, crabs, mollusks, and little fish. I say turn over any rock and low tide, and you will see crabs aplenty as a kid. That was one of my favorite things to do. Turn over rocks at low tide.
This is not a day place. You need to spend the night or two, or three, or you get the point. The San Juan’s are a weekend getaway. It’s not just for families either. My wife Jodie and I have made the weekend getaway here also. So, where to go and stay depends on how far off the grid you want. Lopez is for the person who wants to get away, not much to do about shopping, eating out, and stuff. Orcas is the largest island, there are a couple of towns, and I use that term loosely.
Eastsound is the biggest town on the island, but most little communities have a restaurant or two. The main resort is Rosario. It can be expensive, but it has all of the amenities plus, if you have a boat, there are docks also. Orcas Island has Mount Constitution, which is the highest spot on the islands, and the views from up here are amazing. The base is Moran State Park, which has lots of camping and a lake to swim in at the mountain. Lots of fond memories here.
Now, if you are the only kind of looking to get away, I would suggest going to San Juan Island. It is not as big as Orcas, but Friday Harbor is the island’s biggest town. What does this mean? It means more places to stay and eat. My wife and I recently spent a weekend here and had a blast. We stayed at the Lakedale Resort, and wow, this place was amazing; we also drove all over the island. We went to Roche Harbor, Lime Kiln Point State Park, where they say you can see Orcas from the beach (well, rocks, no beach to speak of). The park is cool nonetheless. The Islands are such a fun weekend getaway. The long ferry ride, the twisting narrow roads, and the beautiful scenery. Makes it a good number 4 on my list.
Number 3 is a single spot in Washington and our second time in Washington on this list. I believe, without a doubt, this is the most beautiful camping spot in all of Washington. The Salt Creek Recreation Area and Tongue Point Marine Life Sanctuary. This place has views, sandy beaches, tide pools, surfing, and wildlife. I have spent so much time here, and it’s a little scary. The first time I went surfing was here. I have also drugged my family here camping several times.
The campsite is divided into two camping types: tent and RV. I have to admit that I don’t know all of the information about RV camping, but you do not want to RV camp here. Where the RVs go is not very exciting, this place is all about the tents.
The easiest way to get here is to take the Ferry leaving Edmonds to Kingston. From there, you will head west on Highway 104 and stay on the 104 until you get to 101. From there, you will head northwest towards Port Angeles. Just outside of Port Angeles, you will continue west on Highway 112. Keep driving until you get almost to Joyce Washington and take a left Camp Hayden Road, follow that to the campsite (I believe you can get reservations, especially on the weekend). Drive through the campsite and follow the road to the tent camping area.
This is critical when you finally get to the campsites and take the first few on the righthand side of the road. These are the best spots, and I mean the best. The water is below you, and you can listen to the waves at night. You are close to the stairs that will get you down there at low tide, and the view of the sunset is amazing.
When you go trekking around the park, on the north side are these crazy cliffs that have been worn away from wind and surf, and what’s left behind is this crazy maze of tide pools. If you like critters, at low tide, this place is paradise. The west side of the park is the polar opposite of the park’s north side. Westside is sandy beaches and surf.
There is a sea stack in the middle of all of this. I have gone out on the sea stack at low tide and paddle all around it surfing. Now, as a surf spot, let’s be clear this is not a great spot. It is a crazy fast close-out type wave but also a swell magnet. So when other places are flat, this place is always breaking. So you end up surfing here a lot just because. I will say one year, the sand moved around and created this fantastic little wave, but it was short-lived. Now, what are you waiting for? Get your gear and go camping!
Number 2 is a hiking trail. It’s called the skyline trail and is at the base of Mount Rainer. So most of the places on this list are weekend trips. This is not. You could easily make it a weekend trip, but this hiking trail is not so long that it would take you all weekend to trek. The trail itself is 5.3 miles and has a pretty good elevation climb. It is not the most challenging trial but is also not for the faint of heart. You will need to head south on I-5 or north, depending on where you are heading from.
However you do it, Hwy 706 is your result towards Longmire. This will take you into the Mt Rainier National Park towards Paradise. Word of warning get there early, I mean early. When I made this hike, I was on the trailhead at 5:00 in the morning. This is a final warning that you should not take lightly. My son and I were leaving Longmire around the 11:00 noon time frame, and the line into the park stretched for about a mile, a mile and a half.
We had the whole park to ourselves for most of the hike. It wasn’t until the end that we started running into many people. It became so many people we couldn’t get to our cars fast enough. Now do not let that sway your vote to go here. Most of the people only stay on the paved trails around Paradise. Up on top, you don’t run into a lot of people.
Now let’s talk about the trail. It is, for the most part, a great trail. The beginning and the end are where the steep parts are. The middle part is flat; if you are lucky, you will lose the trail in the snow and end up off course. Now I’m not sure who that happened to; ok, it was me. That was some of the best parts of this trail. It made it feel like a real adventure. When you get to the top, another trail will take you to Camp Muir.
I have not done this yet, but I heard most of it is walking through snow. As you walk along the trail, you will see one of the coolest bathrooms ever. It’s part building, part mountain. Plus, there is a great lookout there. As you look south, you will see St Helens, Mt Adams, and on a really clear day, you can see Mt. Hood.
The best time to make this hike is mid-summer. That way, you can see all of the flowers. The flowers do not bloom for very long, so plan accordingly. Too early, and all you are doing is hiking in the snow. Too late, and you have missed the bloom. I went in early August and just hit the bloom. Good thing, too, that was the year that British Columbia was on fire. The following week, you couldn’t see anything, and the air was very poor. So go early in the morning to avoid crowds, and go in mid-summer so you can see the flowers. Mount Rainier has so many trails that any of them would be a fantastic adventure.
My number one spot is, well, honestly, any of these places could be number one, and the order I have put them in really isn’t what is important. What is important is that you are outside enjoying what mother nature has to offer. With all of the news and mindless distraction that is life, you need to unplug and get away. I have put Yellowstone National Park in the number one spot.
Is that cliche? Maybe. But Yellowstone is a crazy wonderful nature disaster. Yes, I just called Yellowstone a disaster. Think about it, you have all of these natural phenomena sitting on top of a supervolcano, and if it decided to go off, it would be a world killer. So why go? Well, that is the reason to go. There are not very many places to go in the world and see all of these geothermal features, along with a thriving ecosystem that you cannot see anywhere else.
I first went to Yellowstone as a kid. My grandparents took my sister and me when we lived in the Bozeman area, which made it kind of a short drive. As a kid, I couldn’t get over the size of the fish you could see on a bridge by Yellowstone lake. The amount of wildlife you can see as you drive through the park is crazy. As I have gotten older, I have taken my own kids, and my granddaughter took the park. This park has a profound and rich history and is very much a part of being an American. It was the first time we took steps to protect lands for all people to come and visit and enjoy.
It is a trendy spot, so you will have to deal with crowds. Plus, the summer is very short in Montana, Wyoming, and Idaho. You can visit in the winter, but that comes with its own difficulties, like being cold. I’m not talking about cold; I’m talking about the kind of cold that can kill you without a second thought. Only people from these kinds of colds know what I’m talking about, and you know the -30 below zero kinds of cold. With all of that, think of Yellowstone as the Disneyland of nature.
My favorite way to get into the Yellowstone is through the Gardiner Montana. The easiest way to get there is to hold east out of Bozeman towards Livingston on I-90 and head south on Hwy 89. You can head south out of Bozeman towards West Yellowstone, but that is probably the most popular way, but it is a further drive. Plus, Gardiner is way cooler than West Yellowstone between you and me. West Yellowstone is just a typical tourist town, and Gardiner is just a small town in Montana and has a couple of restaurants and a great ice cream shop.
The two biggest bonuses are the Roosevelt Arch which is the classic way to get into the park, and if you like seeing a big game, this is the best place to see Elk. Driving into the park, you go through this really cool canyon. Plus, you will run into your first geothermal attraction in Mammoth Springs. There are some food and shopping here. If you have no supplies, this is one of the few places to get some. Old Faithful and Canyon Village has some food, but the park is massive and is a long drive between stops with any facilities.
Leaving Mammoth Springs, you have a couple of options you can head straight down towards Old Faithful, or you can take a more roundabout way to get to Old Faithful. Be warned, the roundabout way takes you over a mountain pass, which is long. But the advantage is this is your best option to see Bison. You can see Bison throughout the park, but this is the best way to see big herds of Bison. Outside of that, it all depends on how much time you have.
Are you making a day trip, or are you going to camp? I have not gone camping yet or stayed in the various hotel in the park, which I really want to do. There is too much to see in one day, but in one day, if you start in Gardiner and leave out of West Yellowstone, you can see most of the heavy hitters. Let’s take a moment and talk about Old Faithful. If you have seen it good, that means you have no reason to go back. It is kind of out of the way, plus it will also eat up so much of your day.
If you haven’t, see it but be warned that the number of people you will encounter will surprise you. Plus, when you are ready to leave, the traffic will be some of the worst traffic of your life. So take this with a grain of salt. If you have seen it, don’t go back. You will be very disappointed, not because of the geyser, but just for the sheer effort, it takes to deal with people.
So there you go. This is my list of some of my favorite places to go and see the great outdoors. The order really isn’t that important, but all of these places are just fantastic, and if you plan it out, you can get these places to yourself. As always, get out there and enjoy and keep shooting. If you have any questions about any of these places, let me know, and I will get you an answer.