Seattle Bound: Day 6 & 7

Panorama View of Twin Falls, ID

 A different kind of Train Table!

Ummm, do these cows belong here?

Sunset over Oregon

Starting the 4 mile "Ape Cache" hike...

Acting like monkeys after finding the "Ape"!

Rivers and Waterfalls along the trail.

Hiking down the Annette Lake Trail in Washington.

Bridge over the river on the Asahel Curtis Nature Trail.

We drove through Salt Lake City, UT which was having blistering 100 degree temps and into Idaho, a new State for both Mike and I. We stopped for lunch in Twin Falls, which was an unexpectedly beautiful area. Loved it! We continued on into Oregon and continued our climb into the mountains. We ate dinner at this really cool restaurant where a train constantly ran through the entire place and right past where you were eating at your table! This, of course, was a big hit with the kids (including Mike).  :)

We spent the night in Kennewick, WA, visited the local REI store and picked up our daily Parks Pass. Our only real goal for the day was to make the hike to find the only remaining "Ape" cache in North America: GC1169 Mission 9: Tunnel of Light. This is a 4 mile round-trip hike, with some very steep sections and one of our most important goals for the trip. It was POURING rain when we arrived and there were other cachers coming back from the hike or starting their trek every couple of minutes. With the elevation and the weather, I wasn't feeling that great again so I opted (reluctantly) to stay back while the girls and Mike took on the challenge. 

The girls did a great job, never complaining or falling once. They were really disappointed to find out though when they got there that someone just before us had stolen the top off the cache. What a shame...at least everything had been recently bagged and another cacher had put a big bag around the cache to try to keep the water out since now it was completely open to the elements. Word has it that a new cover is in the works or has already been put in place. 

I couldn't just stay in the car so I decided to hike the Asahel Curtis Nature Trail, which started right next to the Annette Lake trail but was only 3/4 of a mile around. It was such a beautiful area and just how I pictured hiking the Cascade Mountains would be. It was an adventuresome day and by evening, we had finally made it to Seattle! Yes!