Pagosa Springs, CO - Sep 11 to ??

We end the travelling mode of our summer adventures with a return to Mary's son's house in Pagosa Springs, CO.  We plan to stay here for the next month or so until things cool down in Phoenix.

Ridgway State Park, Ridgway, CO - Sep 07 to 10

We make our return to Ridgway State Park to just settle down and relax a few days.

This is a park where we have stayed before and is one of our favorites.

Dinosaur National Monument, UT & CO - Sep 05 & 06

We continue on just a little further south and east, staying at the Green River campground at the Dinosaur National Monument.

Didn't really know what to expect here but it turned out to be a really interesting place.  Also a really peaceful campground on the banks of the Green River.

Flaming Gorge National Recreation Area, UT - Sep 02 to 04

We make our way down to the Flaming Gorge National Recreation Area and a campground in Dutch John, Utah.  This stop is also a mail and a laundry stop.

Fremont Lake NF Campground, Pinedale, WY - Sep 01

Just a one night stop but it turned out to be a beautiful National Forest campground right on the shore of a nice peaceful lake.

Grand Teton National Park - Aug 24 to 31

We spent 9 wonderful days in Grand Teton National Park.

We started out at Gros Ventre campground (pronounced Grow-Vant) and were pretty much inundated by smoke from the forest fires.  We were on the verge of abandoning the park entirely when we stumbled upon Signal Mountain campground which although it was much closer to the fire was nice and clear most of the time.  The last five nights were even in the only full hookup site so we could live like kings.

The final seven days were full of hiking and kayaking.  Loved it!

Boise to Grand Tetons National Park - Aug 22 & 23

We make our way across Idaho stopping at Buffalo Meadows RV park at the Fort Hall Casino.

Then into Gros Ventre Campground in Grand Teton National Park where we plan to stay for about a week.

Lakeview, OR to Boise, ID - Aug 17 to 21

We begin our trek east out of Oregon.

Our First scheduled stop is a campground in Burns, OR.
But we have a very interesting experience just as we are pulling into town when our trailer tire pressure monitor alarms.  Turns out that one of our trailer tires is in the process of self destructing but has not actually lost pressure yet.  This is about one mile from our planned fuel stop and just at the end of about 100 miles of really Outback Oregon with no services and no cell phone service.
Result - Four new tires at Les Schwab Tires but no actual breakdown, towing, etc.  We feel very fortunate.

But later that evening the tire pressure alarm goes off again and one of the brand new tires is losing pressure.  The next morning, Les Schwab comes to the campground to fill it up and we head back to the shop.  Turns out it is a leaking valve stem and about 20 minutes later we are back on the road.  I am now a firm believer in tire pressure monitors for trailers.

The goal at this point is to spend four nights in the Boise, ID area to do some laundry and pay a visit to Costco & Trader Joe's.  Whoo Hoo!

We also make a one day run to McCall, ID where we visit with Carl & Mary Nielsen and have a wonderful lunch at the Anchor Restaurant overlooking Lake Payette.  It was a whole lot of driving but what a great day.

Lakeview, OR - Aug 14 to 17

We continue on down through Oregon to the area where Mary's granddaughter Summer Spitzbergen lives on a cattle ranch near Bly, Oregon.  We start out at an RV park at Lakeview, OR.

John Day Fossil Beds, OR - Aug 10 to 13

After a really nice week in La Grande we make our way a little further to the southwest to an area known as John Day - home to the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument.

We get an RV campsite at the Clyde Holliday State Park and State Recreation Site at Mt Vernon, OR.

La Grande, OR - Aug 03 to 09

We dip a little further south and east and settle in for a full week at the La Grande Rendezvous RV Resort in La Grande, OR near the Eagle Cap Wilderness.

Pendleton, OR - Jul 31 to Aug 2

We made our way down along the Majestic Columbia River to Pendleton, OR to spend a few days with our friends Rich and Peggy Rouse from McMinnville, OR.

Not really into casinos but sometimes they do have really nice RV Parks and the Wildhorse Resort turns out to be a good example.

Tri-Cities, WA - Jul 23 to Jul 30

We make a return to Richland, WA.  This place really feels like home to us - which it was for three years from 2005 to 2008.

We extend our stay by three additional days with a move over to Hood Park on the Snake River.

The Unlimited Hydros are in town but we won't actually go down to see them run.  Too Hot and too much money.

North Cascades to Chelan, WA - Jul 22

This one is just a travel day leaving the North Cascades and making it to the Lakeside RV Park in Chelan.

The weather turned to pretty solid rain as we left and the drive was just slightly nerve racking driving the winding roads with a wet road surface.

But the weather has totally cleared by the time we reached Chelan.  We had a really nice dinner overlooking the Chelan Riverside Park and the Chelan River.

Rasar State Park & North Cascades, WA - Jul 17 to Jul 21

Next stop is Rasar State Park near Concrete, WA.  This will allow us to experience the Mount Baker area and the North Cascades National Park both of which are deep in the tall trees and old growth rain forest.

Anacortes & La Conner, WA - Jul 11 to Jul 16

This segment of our travels begins with a totally new experience for us - we take our RV on board a ferry from Port Townsend, WA over to Whidbey Island on our way to Anacortes, WA.
It was only a bit more expensive to do it this way but saved us a whole bunch of hours of travel time.
It felt really weird rolling our huge rig onto a boat but she fit with room to spare.
And the guy playing his folk guitar all the way across made it extra special.

Sequim & Port Townsend, WA - Jul 05 to 10

We make the transition from Portland up to the Olympic Peninsula and land at the Rainbow's End RV Park in Sequim, WA (pronounced skwim) on the Strait of Juan de Fuca.

And then for the final day we moved over to the Point Hudson Marina RV Park in Port Townsend.
We have decided to leave here via the ferry from Port Townsend.

Our first day of touring was spent in the seaport town of Port Townsend.  It's an interesting little town with lots of unique old buildings and shops.

We got a tip on a restaurant and wound up at Sirens with an upper deck that overlooked the harbor.  Pretty good food, really good beer and a great view!

They has a really nice Scottish Ale but the glass was especially interesting.

The next day we the town of Sequim itself.
The weather forecast called for 80% rain but it turned out to be a beautiful day.

And a good day for Wine Tasting which turns out is really good!

Day three we headed the other direction to the town of Port Angeles primarily to do laundry and wound up with another forecasted rainy day that turned out beautiful instead.

Normally we would have also headed up to Hurricane Ridge in the Olympic National Park but the mountain tops were socked in.

So we stumbled onto Downriggers overlooking the Victoria Ferry landing and had another really delightful lunch.

On Sunday we move over to Hudson Harbor Marina in Port Townsend and manage to grab an RV site pretty much right on the waterfront.

It's a wonderful site for lunch and dinner watching the traffic in and out of Seattle on the Strait of Juan de Fuca.

We watch three cruise ships heading out to sea as we eat dinner.

And take a really nice walk along the shoreline after dinner.

Portland - Fairview, OR - Jul 01 to Jul 05

After a whole lot of searching for a place that could provide us with a spot over the Holiday weekend, we make our way up to an RV Park in the Portland area at Fairview, OR near the Columbia River.

On Saturday we meet Shelly and her kids MacKenzie & Michael for a pretty nice day at the Portland Zoo and pretty much wore ourselves out.

And on the way home take a tour of the Pittock Mansion that overlooks all of Portland.  The house was built in 1909 by Henry Pittock who was the publisher of the Oregonian newspaper.

Sunday we head down to Oregon City, a ways south of Portland.  This is the town that marks the End of the Oregon Trail.

It also is the location of the Willamette Falls of the Willamette River.  The photo here is from one of the tour brochures that described them as being the second largest falls in the country, and we were really looking for to seeing them.

Not to be overly negative but we were quite simply stunned at the current reality.
The falls have been almost totally blocked off and are just barely visible.

And the level of disrepair of all of the adjacent industrial buildings is shocking.
It became pretty clear to us why the Willamette Falls are publicized as little as they are.

I guess there is quite a lot of History to be proud of but the destruction of the natural environment is too bad.

On July 4 we had a nice holiday lunch at another McMenamin's restaurant at Edgefield.
This is a major area concert venue.  We had wanted to visit it for quite some time and spent a while exploring all the building and gardens of this former "poor house" from the depression era.

Definitely not a poor house today!

McMinnville & Silverton, OR - Jun 26 to Jun 30

We depart Forest Grove and begin our Northwest summer wanderings.

First stop is at the Olde Stone Village RV park in
McMinnville and nice evening and dinner with Rich and Peggy Rouse.

Then it's on to the town of Silverton, OR.

We discover that the there is a Frank Lloyd Wright home here: The Gordon House.

It is one of his Usonian designs and is a really interesting tour.

The next day we spent the entire day at the Oregon Garden.
Our Phoenix Botanical Garden membership got us in here for free.

This was one of the primary reasons for heading to Silverton and we totally wore ourselves out walking all over it.

They have an actual lodge as part of the garden with a really nice cafe.

Lots of interesting sculptures









And lots and lots of flowers.

The Oregon climate is just perfect for a gardening and growing just about everything.

The other major attraction near Silverton is Silver Falls State Park, the site of Mary's granddaughter's wedding last October.  We hiked here two years ago but missed a lot of waterfalls.  This year we finished the hike.  Another really full day of hiking in the glorious Oregon woods.

Winter Falls             Middle North Falls

Drake Falls



Double Falls

Lower North Falls




South Falls

Lower South Falls

And Lots and Lots of Big Big Trees !!