The goal with Operation Land Grab seemed simple enough, but how does one decide where they should live, when there is so much left unseen and unknown? It is our biggest dilemma at the moment.

Our first venture through Montana was brief, hardly more than a week and yet we were both surprised and delighted by first impressions. It gives us a gleam of hope that our search will not be in vain, especially after checking out several very promising land parcels.

That said, Jake and I had our sights set on the area much further west, specifically the Pacific Northwest. Its completely foreign territory, other than Seattle, Washington and Portland, Oregon (where we got married). We imagine the beautiful green landscape, specifically those big coniferous pine trees that we love, paired with rolling hills and mountains. I figured the Pacific Northwest must have this in spades, so here we are.

Spokane, Washington was the next hub from which to continue land pursuit. The drive from Missoula was only about 3 hours down a beautiful, mountainous highway that wends back and forth between pine forests and rocky peaks.

We only ventured out a few times within the city-proper. Like every US city, it comes with all of the perks; stores, restaurants, neighborhoods and a bustling metropolis. However these things aren’t high on our list. We prefer nature and a more small-town type of feel.

Jake scouted several properties within a couple of hours of the city that looked promising, specifically in the towns of Republic and Curlew. Town might be a bit of a stretch, more like ghost town. There were a half dozen that we hoped to visit, though with some difficulties of terrain and access, we managed to only find three of them. 50% success! Woohoo.

The landscape in northeast Washington is extremely lovely, very similar to Montana. The major difference is that there are no towns within hours of any direction. I guess this is both good and bad, no towns means no neighbors. But then it also means a very long haul to access the outside world. We envision living in a smaller town, but one that has some type of community. Out here, there’s nothing.

We visited 3 very different properties, all of them lovely in their own way. Each had their own set of flaws. The first has a major interstate road bisecting it, which means its very loud when cars drive by. The second was situated at the top of a series of low mountains, which would be perfect except for the gigantic ravine between us and the property that had no feasible way to cross. The third was probably the most beautiful, but it was also impossible to access without hiking across private land and there was no road up there. We did spot many cows crossing the road, so I guess we would have neighbors after-all!

Its a slow and frustrating process. Jake and I needed a break and opted to go to the next closest place on our map; North Cascades National Park is only 5 hours away. Perhaps we will be inspired by the drive and find other promising areas to check out?

Unfortunately that wasn’t the case. We were shocked to see that the bulk of the drive took us through flat and arid landscape similar to that of Kansas or maybe Nebraska. We were even visited by several dust devils along the way. The terrain only began to shift within an hour of the park. It happened very quickly, transforming from yellow mounds to luscious green forest and steep craggy peaks.

It was very late in the afternoon when we rolled up to the park. Typically we would check out the visitor center to get info on places to explore as well as tips for camping spots. But due to our poor planning, everything was closed and we had a heck of a time figuring out where to stop for the night. The campgrounds were all full, and of course its a weekend, which definitely does not work to our advantage.

This is the one big drawback to exploring National Parks on a whim, especially during summer months. They are almost always packed full with tourists and big RV’s. The only places that are available are those that you have to backpack to get to, and we didn’t bring our camping tent. All we have is a meager sun shelter.

There is a really good phone app that shows free places to camp around the country and so far it has worked well for us. I did a quick scan of the area and determined several promising places for us to go. We started with the easier-to-access sites but they were all full (go figure). Eventually we opted to just pull over on the side of a long forest road, next to a trailhead.

We were completely surrounded by a canopy of thick, mossy trees. The sky grew dark very quickly and so we called it good enough. It was a really long day of driving and now that its very dark, we decided to forego pulling out any cook stuff. Instead, we had a very lack-luster dinner of bagels, yogurt and pop tarts.

That night neither of us slept well. Old Blue was parked on a slant and we were both worried about animal or human visitors in the night. Other than our grumbling tummies, it was a quiet and uneventful.

We slept in our clothes which made it easy to hit the road the following morning. My neck was cramped and my stomach was aching with hunger, but otherwise all was well. It took us nearly an hour to get back into the park and before venturing on our own, we stopped in the visitor center.

North Cascades National Park spans more than 500,000 acres and almost entirely surrounded by protected national forests and wilderness and the largest glacial system in the lower 48. It is bisected by the Skagit River, which flows from east to west and encompasses several lakes and a huge hydroelectric dam.

While this park is truly massive in size, there are very few maintained roads which makes it challenging to visit all of its wonders. This is one of those places you could come back to again and again and experience something different. But make sure to have a high-clearance vehicle and some backpacking equipment! Otherwise, you will have to plan ahead and reserve your campground before it fills up. Too bad we did not take this advice ourselves.

We chose a nearby trail, Diablo Lake Trail, which ends at Ross Dam. It was still early enough that no one was out on the trail and that was even better. It was a beautiful 3 hours of semi-rugged mountain paths through trees. We followed the blue-green glacial waters below and spotted tons of animal sign (mostly bear and elk scat).

The weather was overcast for most of our excursion and it only started to rain when we got back to Blue. I grabbed a bag of cherries and some yogurt and we sat down by the lake to soak in the view while eating a meager lunch. Neither of us were bothered by the rain, and we enjoyed the respite and solitude for awhile.

When crowds of tourists began to pull up, we decided it was time to go. Maybe we will get lucky and find a camp sight just outside of the park. It took a few hours of hunting but we finally stumbled upon another free one that sits flat next to a rushing river. Its a perfect spot, with plenty of space to cook and chill out while enjoying the view! Jake and I are no strangers to hunger, but our bellies were screaming in agony by the afternoon and so we rose to the occasion and cooked a mega-feast of quesadillas for dinner. The road noise was the only real deterrent but eventually that too quieted down.

Even though we only spent two days in North Cascades, we know we will be back. This place has so much to offer, and with better preparation and planning, we can actually enjoy some more of it!

Until then, onward to Bellingham.