Still going West...Boardman, Oregon (8/9-8/15)

We had a leisurely morning in Yakima as this was one of our shorter drives to Boardman, Oregon, only 127 miles, but we crossed over the Columbia River to end up in Oregon.  The desolate landscape of this area was not what I expected.  It was hot, dry, and not very hospitable looking.  

However, as we exited the highway into Boardman Marina and RV Park , the campground was a little oasis for locals to enjoy a nice park, boat ramp and beach area on the Columbia River.  As we rolled Ruth up to her camping site for the week, we were greeted by two large trees on either side that had not been trimmed up for our 13'+ height.  We carefully tucked her underneath the branches and Mike promptly got some loppers from the maintenance guy to do some tree trimming on the roof.  While this park is older and clearly not set up for big rigs like ours, once those branches were trimmed up, we were thrilled to have huge shade trees to protect us from the 100 + degree temperatures forecasted for our stay.

Ruth's shady spot

Hazy sunset on our first night.

Upon our arrival, Mike noticed that I had not fully disengaged the emergency brake on the Jeep on our trip from Yakima.  Not a good situation.  We have a checklist for all our departure day activities and I thought I had followed it like every other time.  The Jeep did not appear, upon visual inspection, to have any ill effects from this oversight.  But I made an appointment for a Les Schwab brake inspection for the next day, 30 minutes away in Hermiston.  We were both sick to our stomachs about any damage that would need to be repaired. 

There was a really nice bike path throughout the park along the river which we rode around in the early hours before the heat got too bad.  Unfortunately, my bike trip ended with a flat front tire from a bunch of little burrs I had picked up somewhere.  Our Les Schwab appointment would also put us right near a Walmart, so we could pick up a patch kit/tube for my tire.  

Our visit to Les Schwab revealed no damage to the brakes or the Jeep itself from my mental lapse.  I was sweating bullets wondering how much that little incident was going to cost.  It appears that maybe I just didn't fully disengage the emergency brake so it looked engaged but did not drag the brake pads or the Jeep. Whew!  Always use the checklist and double check the checklist. 

We stopped for dinner at Hale's Tavern (circa 1906) in Hermiston.  It had good reviews but our experience was just OK.  The little town seemed to have been hit pretty hard economically.  It is the home of Hermiston watermelons though and we experienced some very delicious melon while in the area.

We had a couple of lazy days at this stop.  Even though it was 102 to 105 degrees for a couple of the days, Ruth's A/C was able to keep the inside relatively cool with the help of the surrounding trees.  It was nice to have some down time catching up on blog posts, getting some guitar time in and doing some small maintenance items.

Mike fixed my flat tire, we took a longer bike ride and I got another flat about halfway back.  Wherever I was picking up the burrs, it was doing serious damage.  He patched 7 pinholes total, then had a flat on his bike.  

With bike riding being hazardous to our tires, we decided to drive to Echo, Oregon and explore a couple of local wineries.  We enjoyed tasting some very good wines at Sno Road Vineyards and Echo Winery.  We also enjoyed a killer patty melt at H&P Cafe in the little town of 750 people.  We only saw about 5 people, but I am sure the others were there somewhere. 

This would not be a stop I would include again as it was a little too remote and hot, but am glad to have experienced it once. 

Looking forward to our next stop to visit Crater Lake National Park. 

Connecting with Friends (Coeur d'Alene, ID (7/30-8/4) and Yakima, WA (8/4-8/9))

The next two stops on our route were planned to connect with friends.  Some who planned an overlap with us on their own travel plans and some live somewhat nearby and were kind enough to come meet us.

Our objective in Coeur d'Alene was to be close enough to town so we could meet up with our friends who were staying downtown.  I selected a Kootenai County Fairgrounds RV Park adjacent to the country fairgrounds. It was a wide open area with pretty nice spots.  Very utilitarian but had good power to support our air conditioners. We needed them to work hard as it was going to be very hot during our stay.

Roomy spot, sadly, no trees for shade.

 

We arrived in Coeur d'Alene without incident and
were treated with another beautiful, if not, uninhabited drive from West Glacier. 

We met up with our friends for a cocktail and dinner at the very lovely Coeur d'Alene Resort right on the lake.  It was quite busy and seemed to be the host hotel for a celebrity golf tournament as we saw a few ex-NFL players in the lounge and the lobby.  We enjoyed a lovely dinner in the restaurant overlooking the lake.  It was a nice introduction to the area.

We started out in the morning at the lovely Kootenai County Farmers' Market with planned 11AM tour of an alpaca farm. There was a variety of produce, meats and goodies to choose from.  We left with a 3 berry pie.  Although the temperature was to hit 100 degrees that afternoon, nothing could stop me from my tour at the Seven Stars Ranch alpaca farm. 

The family that runs the farm gave a guided tour of their history and the animals.  We were put into service to wrangle the alpaca herd into their grazing field.  We did so gracefully and without incident.  Due to the hot weather, we were also encouraged to hose down the alpaca's underbelly to cool them down.  Some of us had fun doing that.   The ranch was also home to some miniature donkeys, wild turkeys and goats.  After all that life on the farm, we were hungry and lucked into a "hole in the wall" Mexican restaurant that was truly authentic and delicious.  Time for nap, oh and some pie. 

We had an adventurous day of ziplining, another day on a boat exploring the gorgeous lake Coeur d'Alene and a 30 mile e-bike ride on the Trail of the Coeur d'Alenes.  There was some haze and smoke around the area due to the wildfires, but the daily high temperature had moderated and we very much enjoyed our visit with friends and our time exploring Coeur d'Alene.

Our route to Yakima Sportsman RV Park proved to be our most bumpy, Ruth-shaking roads so far on our trip. We took a route that was not interstate and it turned out to be more "rustic" than we'd hoped.  Our teeth were still chattering when we arrived.  

Our plan was to arrive, set-up and then the next day head to our friend's cabin in Ronald, WA for a visit.  These same friends would then bring their camper and spend the weekend in Yakima with us. 

The plan soon hit roadblock when we pulled up to check-in to our reserved spot.  The park ranger informed us that there was a squatter there who had not vacated the spot we'd reserved and the Ranger was working on kicking her out, should only be a couple of hour delay.  Did we want to go to another spot?  No, we have friends coming and would like the spot we reserved.  After many conversations throughout the very hot afternoon it was clear the vagrant was not moving.  We finally set up in a nearby vacant spot for the night, knowing we would have to move.

We took off the next morning, leaving the problem in the hands of the Ranger.  Shortly after our departure for our friend's cabin, she texted that the squatter had moved.  We took a lovely before dinner walk through the woods right from their cabin to a nearby lake.  As we stood on the beach, loud airplane engines roared from above and two large forest service "Super Scoopers" hovered and touched down on the lake to scoop up water to drop on a raging Washington wildfire several miles away.  It was an unbelievable site to see.  

Unfortunately the RV rodeo we had to do back at the park cut our day with our friends a little short.  That evening, another Ranger was driving around informed Mike that we may want to secure our bikes with more than a locking cable, as they had had some thefts recently.  The park itself was nice, but our experience there was not a positive one. 

We found a really good group of pickleballers one morning and played for 3 hours before our friends arrived in the afternoon.  The weather had turned hot again during the days, but we cooled off at a couple wineries in the area and had a lot of laughs catching up around the firepit. We are looking forward to seeing these friends again soon as they are camping with us again at our Bend, OR stop.

Tasting at Treveri Cellars Sparkling Wines

These were trellises of hops that were growing everywhere
in Yakima. I'd never seen this before. 

Tasting at VanArnam Vineyards.

Onward to Boardman, Oregon where we shall encounter our hottest temperatures yet of 105 to 108 degrees. 🔥

Glacier National Park, Montana ( 7/23-7/30)

 A short day of driving brought us to the northern most point in our trip, West Glacier Village RV Park and Cabins. Albeit short, our picture window sized windshield provided sweeping views of Flathead Lake for miles as we drove.  

We arrived at the the cute little area of West Glacier Village.  It is a tourist area just outside the park entrance that has the campground and cabins, a gift shop, small market,  pub and cafe, ice cream shop and a rafting business all operated by the same hospitality company. Our first concern is, would we make it under this bridge...

Cute little truck in front of the Huckleberry shop.

Ruth is 13'2", we just made it. 

We settled into the campground which remained pretty full throughout our stay.  There were zero mature trees on the property as it is only 3 years old.  The forecast of 90 degree days and no rain during our visit was a little daunting.  There was a convenient bike path from the campground to the Village so we pedaled down for a cold beverage and to check out the area.  

Armed with our Going to the Sun Road pass (required between 6am and 5pm), the Gypsy Guide app, picnic lunch, backpacks and walking sticks we entered the park at around 6am with only a few cars in front of us and a loose hiking plan.  The stunning beauty and engineering marvel of the Going to the Sun Road can't really be described, it must be experienced.  None of my photos will do it real justice. The road had just been cleared of its final snow as recently as 3 weeks before our arrival and would close again at first snow which could be sometime in September.  The Gypsy Guide gave us quite a bit of history about the geology and the road construction which as interesting to hear as we drove. 

As we made our way to the top of the road at Logan's Pass, we had been thwarted at a couple of our planned hiking trailheads due to lack of parking.  We stopped at a few lesser traveled pull outs on the road.  It was disappointing, but we figured we would be able to get a spot at Logan's Pass since we had arrived at the park early. Boy, were we wrong.  Mike circled the parking lot at least half a dozen times before we gave up and moved on. 

We ended up finding a parking spot near the Virginia Falls trailhead which we grabbed up.  We had a lovely hike to a beautiful waterfall and caught a brief glimpse of a moose on our hike back.  This was also our first bear sighting, no pictures as they were pretty far away, but we could see them well with our binoculars.  We continued on to the end of the Going to the Sun Road.

We called an audible on our plans for the day and continued out of the St. Mary's park exit and drove to the Many Glacier entrance.  The road was under construction and slow going on dusty gravel for about 11 miles.  When we arrived at the Many Glacier Lodge area it was also very busy and we were informed by  ranger that parking may not be available.  

We continued on and Mike found a spot without too much waiting.  By then we were starving so we ate our lunch on the porch of the Swiftcurrent Motor Inn then proceeded to hike to Red Rocks Falls. We were told by fellow hikers that there were bears in the area, again , we saw none, but were treated with another moose sighting, those never get old.   We had a good first day in the park, but returning on the Going to the Sun Road in early evening proved to be long, slow and frustrating due to frightening drivers who rode their brakes on every curve, there were a lot of curves.

There was a terrific bike/hike trail from the West Village to the Apgar Village and Lake McDonald area which we rode a couple of times.  If you don't stop for ice cream at Eddie's for ice cream, you are missing out. We also enjoyed a whiskey tasting stop at Glacier Distillery and a cocktail and tapas stop at Josephine's next door.  A fun morning of pickleball at a lovely park in Whitefish rounded out our time not spent in the park. 

The Mule Kick was aptly named. 

Sometimes the smoke made for pretty skies.

We took a different tact for our second day Glacier National Park.  A 9:30am departure strategy suggested that the pre-dawn, no pass holder,  park entrants would be getting back to their cars and free up some of the parking we were shut out of on our first day.  We also had a boat ride on St. Mary's lake at 2:00pm so wanted to get a hike or two in beforehand. This strategy did not work for our first planned hike at Avalanche Lake, however, we scored a WIN when Mike, with the assistance of a random woman standing in the parking lot, got a spot at Logan's Pass.  We also had another closer encounter with a small brown grizzly bear who was wandering along the road, causing a major animal jam of cars.  We got good pics though...from the safety of the car.

It was getting pretty warm, but we ventured up to Hidden Lake overpass. The elevation brought us some cooler breeze and waterfalls provided some light mist as we arrived at Hidden Lake.  We had just enough time for our trip back down and the drive to St. Mary's Lake for our boat ride. 

The day was hot and not too breezy which made for an enjoyable boat ride on the Little Chief, built in 1928.  The captain also narrated the tour and shared many interesting facts about its geology, animal life and landscape.  The water was the most beautiful shade of blue. 

Our late afternoon drive back proved fortuitous as we finally snagged a parking spot for the Trail of the Cedars walk that we had hoped to do earlier that day.  It was a nicely paved, decked, shaded trail with a lovely waterfall at the end.  A nice ending to our stay at Glacier.   

Ruth's spot at Glacier