Day 1: Like they always say the early bird gets the worm but in our case the early bird gets up at 3 AM to avoid the LA traffic. If you're from anywhere in California I'm sure you'll understand that. But yes two of my friends and I took off super early just so we could make it to San Francisco before the afternoon. If you don't follow me on Instagram (@carlybelle_) then I'm sure you're wondering where the heck are we're going. Mind you San Francisco was just one stop on our what ended up to be 14 day road trip. Our trip itinerary looked something like this stop in San Francisco to break up the drive a little bit on our way to Portland and eventually Washington state. Of course we explored the areas we stopped in.
Now when we got to the Bay Area it was cold and rainy which isn't that surprising. However, we had plans to make our way out to the Coast. Feeling a little discouraged we decided to send it anyways hoping the weather would improve on our way. Well our wish was granted and by the time we reached Point Reyes lighthouse it was a sunny beautiful day with next to nothing winds. If you've been to Point Reyes like I have, then you know how windy it can typically get, I'm talking ears ringing when you get back in the car windy. Anyways, we had a wonderful day shooting around the coast before we ended our night by grabbing some Sol Food. If you're ever in the San Rafael area I will always always recommend stopping at Sol Food, its probably my favorite restaurant in California. I’ll link it here to make it easier!
Day 2: Another early morning as we make our way slowly up to Portland. We stopped in Shasta along the way to get some of that good healing energy. If you didn’t know Mount Shasta is the root chakra of the world so whenever you're in the area typically people feel a lot more grounded and you tend to manifest things a lot faster. So if you're ever there be mindful of your thoughts. We all definitely noticed to feel some type of way for the few hours we were there. I then took my friends to my favorite crystal shop Soul Connections and got some fun souvenirs. Peep our shirts below.
We stopped at a waterfall which used to be my favorite but I think another one took its place on this trip. More on that later. Also for the safety and preservation of some of my favorite locations, I will not be naming them. I do not wish to overcrowd them unless I know it will be treated the same way I treat these special spots. Feel free to message me if you're ever curious about one.
I truly believe we lucked out with the weather again because it wasn’t freezing yet we had just enough sun to keep us without jackets. Once we refueled ourselves and the car we were on our way again. Originally, we wanted to make it to Portland but instead settled for Albany. Also for the majority of this trip I used an app called Hotel Tonight to book our last minute hotels. Use my code CHAINES46 for $25 off your next stay. Not sponsored I just appreciate the low rates and wanted to save you all some money.
Day 3: We got to semi sleep in and move a little slower. I think everyone needs some days to really soak up the environment they're in. When I look back at this day we actually crammed a lot into it. We went a waterfall in the morning probably my favorite one now! We even caught a little rainbow action. I have to say being up North really make you appreciate all the different shades of green, from the deep green trees to the more vibrant moss, its just beautiful.
After taking lots of pictures we decided to hike 3.5 miles to this amazing blue pool! Yes it’s actually that color but mind you the water is about 38°F. We debated how it looked like blue gatorade or food coloring. After admiring this gem we hiked back for our next mission. Here’s some images Ceejay (@ceejay.t) took of me there.
Lastly, we were on a mission of finding some natural hot springs. We had one in mind but a ranger told us it would be washed out so we asked around an went to the next closest one. The sun was setting so we didn’t have much time but we found the parking lot and sort of guessed/followed the trail for some time. We almost gave up, but Emma and I heard voices right before we found the pools. There were a few hippies (some nude mind you) but honestly I loved talking to them. One told us the history of the hot springs which I thought to be rather interesting. Supposedly the natives tribes-5 in total- fought over the land. Rather than kill each other they made fires and agreed whosever fire went out last would get the land. This went on for 39 days and on the 40th one of the biggest rainstorms hit, drowning the 5 fires, and thus creating the 5 pools. So each one of the 5 tribes got part of the land. Mother Nature has a way of working things out.
