Kit and Carol on the Road

Tuesday, 9/28 we were on our way to Lewiston and Hell's Gate State Park. Out of the canyons and up the steep grade of White Bird Hill and onto the grasslands of the plateau--field burning country like the Willamette Valley. We saw a sign for Winchester Lake State Park and decided to check it out. This park was everything that Ponderosa could have been. Loved it--so found a spot and checked in (We were a bit worried it would be TOO hot in Lewiston). I found a nice mountain bike trail (sans hills) around part of the lake--and Kit checked out the town of Winchester. We had breakfast there the next morning at the local "Chatterbox Cafe". Should I mention we had already crossed into the Pacific Time Zone. Wednesday we climbed the Lewiston grade and crossed back into Washington. I love rural small towns--we found 2 quilt shops in one day--in Colfax and Odessa. Kit is good about stopping so I can buy my half yard souvenir. We ended up that night at our destination of Sun Lake State Park--as beautiful as we remember with great biking but awfully expensive ($28) for a public park. Thursday we found one more quilt shop in the town of Ephrata. Then out of the "desert", through fruit country along the Columbia, through Wenatchee and up into the mountains. Intended to stop in Leavenworth but the RV parking is way out of town and not very "friendly" so we kept on. We were on our way to Lake Wenatchee State Park but did not make it. Stopped for lunch in a forest service campground which was so great we decided to stay. We found a spot along a creek, and far enough from the highway to be relatively quiet. The campground was clean and tidy--and almost deserted--and a deal at $8.50. What a perfect place to spend the last night of our holiday. Friday (10/1) we returned home on an afternoon ferry.

On Monday we were on 4 different scenic byways--a continuation of the Salmon River byway, the Ponderosa byway, the Wildlife Canyon byway, and the Payette River byway--canyons and rivers, rivers and canyons--and road construction. Luckily we were in no hurry as there was a lot of waiting for pilot cars. All this scenery and no photos--on the road in a rig, you don't always have ops for photo stops. The photo here was taken at our end of the day campground (no sites near the lake) at Ponderosa State Park. I was NOT impressed with this state park nor the town of McCall. We did have an "interesting" bike ride here though--and I thought the bike trail would be flat.....

Idaho has many designated "scenic byways" and on our trip home we traveled many of them--avoiding civilization and internet hookups in favor of canyons and mountain passes. We started out on the "Peaks to Craters" scenic byway. (which goes past the highest peak in Idaho) As there was no dump station in Craters, our first stop was in the tiny town of Mackay where there is a city rest area with dump station. I snapped this photo of the "Technology Park" across the way. We were on our way to Challis, Idaho, a mining town where our friends Ken and Louise once lived. At Challis, we stopped at a lovely state park interpretive center--and continued onto the "Salmon River" scenic byway. If I could control where photos went in this blog--I'd throw in a photo of the Salmon River here but I know if I do it will pop to the top and ruin the sequence. Suffice it to say, it is a lovely scenic river which winds around the state. We were told by the staff at the state park to take a detour off the main highway to visit some ghost towns, which were only 8 miles off the highway up Yankee Creek on a part paved, part gravel road. It turned out to be worth the side trip to see the remnants of the town of Bonanza, and a dredge which they used to get gold from the creek in the 50's. (Which explains the piles of rocks you see along the creek in this area). Then a bit farther on there was the ghost town of Custer--a little more civilized with a museum which was closed but lots of interpretive signs and artifacts. (Photos are in a separate entry) On our way back to the highway we stopped to check out a National Forest campground right on the creek--no one else around. There were fee envelopes but no prices anywhere so we decided it was free this late in the season. No one else there--little traffic --an idyllic spot.

While I was hanging around the visitor center the ladies were talking about a letter received from a previous visitor (this past summer) who wanted her money back because Craters of the Moon NM is NOT at all like the real moon which we all now know is more gray and powdery. She was also unhappy that half of the 6 pull outs on the driving loop were closed. You can't please all of the people.

The one for-sure destination of our trip was Craters of the Moon National Monument in southern Idaho. We arrived midday on Friday and went to look for a spot in the campground. Like in many nationals the campground was not designed for RV's but we finally found a reasonably level spot that worked for us and settled in. Alas, when I put the slide out, there was a clunk, and when I tried to retract it--no luck. Our slide out was broken. We can't drive the rig with it out. Our nice manual explained how to manually retract the slide--it didn't work. Did I mention that Craters of the Moon is clear and gone in the middle of nowhere and there is no cell phone reception.

We are just home from our trip to Idaho for the sun cure. During our 10 days away we did not once have internet access nor cell phone access from the campgrounds where we stayed. So ... here's what we did: