Oregon Eclipse Road Trip Three Part Series - Chapter One

This past August my best friends and I road tripped from Missouri to Oregon to attend our first Transformational Festival.

Click the picture to catch a glimpse of everything the festival had to offer. >

It was a life changing experience we all will never forge!. Here is a quick summary of Part One~

It all started in Jan/Feb of 2017 when we saw the festival early bird ticket prices. On a whim we decided to buy them with no knowledge about who would be performing there. As the year went on and the lineups were released we became more and more ecstatic about our leap of faith ticket purchase. Officially all the brainstorming and planning began. For months we looked at different car rental options. Finally we chose a vehicle a month before the trip. We rented a truck with the idea that it would probably carry all of our gear the best. Splitting the cost 4 ways for 3 weeks costs us about $200 a person. To make the drive a bit easier(way more fun) we stopped at national parks and conservation areas along the way. Our first stop was in Denver, CO to stay with our FAM for a night. We also picked up our crew member who had been hiking all over Colorado the week before. Our next stop was The Grand Tetons. The Tetons are about 8 hours from Denver so it was another long day of driving. Driving up on the Teton mountain range is quite amazing. We stopped to stretch our legs and enjoy the view before finding camp.
Instead of entering the National Park we found our site for the night within the National Elk Refuge area just outside of the park. We followed Gros Ventre River through fields and winding hills to reach Lower Slide Lake. This is where you'll find Atherton Creek Campground.

We enjoyed eating some wild blue berries the camp host pointed out when we first arrived. After a delicious dinner we walked down to the lakeside and set up our chairs in a perfect place to soak up the beauty of the area and relax.

The next morning we headed west for Craters of the Moon National Monument and Preserve The drive was a little over 4 hours from The Tetons making it feel like nothing compared to our last two drives. We set up camp in one of the parks self pay campgrounds. This park is all about geology and its very easy to see. After setting up camp we went out for some day hikes.

After a full day of hiking we called it quits and headed back to camp to make dinner. We played board games after eating and went bed. Before going to bed we star gazed. We were able to see so many stars including a clear view of the Milky Way. The park has been granted an International Dark Sky Park status. Our next morning we continued west to Morley Nelson Snake River Birds of Prey National Conservation Area. The name is such a mouth full and quickly became a joke for the rest of the trip. We arrived at the top of the canyon looking down into the conservation area.
As you'll see in the video we got some good drone footage flying over the canyon. We hopped back in the truck and drove down into the canyon following old dirt roads along side the Snake River. At the end of one of the dirt roads was a clearing with a fire ring. It sat right up against the rivers edge. We decided this would work for camp. As we set up we realized how uncomfortably hot it was. Thank goodness for the river!

That night we cooked and ate dinner while the sun set. We went to bed with millions of stars out and the sound of the river washing up on the sandy river bank. PERFECT.
Coming up next in Chapter two: We get into Oregon and spend the next 7 days at the Festival!