OP here. Wife and I and our two golden retrievers are on 5,000 mile round trip from the Twin Cities in Minnesota to the Pacific Northwest. Left a week ago and spent three nights in Duluth, MN where we witnessed the surging waters at Gooseberry Falls and walked along Canal Park. It was drizzling the next day, so we drove to Bayfield, WI where the skies were just cloudy and caught the ferry to Madeline Island.
After Duluth we set out on U.S. Hwy 2 heading west. The road goes all the way to just north of Seattle. Yes, there are a bunch of small towns along the way, a good part of it is two lane, and we counted 91 white roadside crosses between Duluth and the Montana/Idaho border (there weren't any in Idaho or Washington), but there wasn't much traffic and the scenery was wonderful.
We hit Glacier National Park and discovered that the Going-to-the-Sun road was closed about 3 miles from the top due to weather. We entered the east entrance and drove until the road closed, then decided to drive around to the west side and go up that side as far as we could. To do that we drove Montana Hwy 49 which had numerous tight switchback turns and no guard rails which made for some white knuckle driving, but the Pacifica handled it all with ease. Driving up the Going-to-the-Sun road from the west was not as scenic as the east approach, and construction crews had removed the asphalt from a seven mile section that resulted in lots of ruts and potholes to dodge. Again, the Pacifica handled it all quite well, but it sure got dirty!
The next day we arrived in Cour d'alene, ID around noon and spent the afternoon walking the dogs along the park trail that snugs the lake. We then drove the Tubb Hill and walked part of the Main Loop trail and the fire road. Wonderful views of the lake.
We said "Goodbye" to Hwy 2 in Monroe, WA, not far from out destination of Lynnwood, WA. The hotel there isn't far from the Washington State Ferry terminal at Edmond. We took the ferry this morning to Kingston, WA and drove the Olympic National Park. You simply can't visit the park without driving up to Hurricane Ridge. We drove through clouds and three tunnels along another winding road, but it was a much tamer than Montana Hwy 49. The views from the top were spectacular!
We have two more nights here in Lynnwood, just north of Seattle. From there we will head south along the Pacific coast to the mouth of the Columbia River on the border between WA and OR; and then we will start our trip home.
We have thoroughly enjoyed our '21 Pacifica on this trip. I find I can easily drive 600 miles and not be exhausted as I have in other vehicles. Love the way it handled the moutain roads in the Rockies and the Cascades. Our average gas mileage in our AWD from Duluth to our current location is 25.2 mpg which includes driving through the mountains and doing various park tours. (Edit: we ended up with 28.8 mpg at the end of the trip).
I grew up the son of a naval officer, so there were times when we were stationed overseas. That was ok, but in my experience there's nothing quite like driving the good 'ol USA to meet some wonderful people and view some spectacular scenery. The Pacifica helped make this a truly memorable trip. It burns up highway miles with ease.
Here is pic taken part way on our hike up Tubb Hill overlooking Lake Cour d'alene in Idaho:
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And this shot was taken from Hurricane Ridge in Olympic National Park. That's the Pacific ocean way off in the distance. We had taken the ferry from Edmond to Kingston to cross over to the peninsula:
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The following was taken on "The World's Longest Beach" in Long Beach, WA (not CA). I also posted this in the "Chrysler Pacifica Minivan Pictures and Videos" subforum and called it "A Pacifica By the Pacific."
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