We Say Farewell to Oregon

August 4 - Farewell Bend State Recreation area

I guess you could say we're following the Oregon Trail in reverse, as this is where the pioneers said "farewell" to the Snake River. The entrance to the park is marked by two antique covered wagons, which make great backdrops for photos.

Farewell Bend campsite

We arrived around lunch time and set up quickly. The temperature was already climbing and we wanted to start cooling off the inside of the trailer.

The trees in the park aren't looking so healthy, in fact, several are marked for removal, so shade is at a premium.

We were here only one week later in 2011 and remembered things as being much greener. Harsh weather over the winter, and current drought, have taken their toll on the trees and other landscaping in the area, but with ready access to water from the river I've no doubt it will bounce back soon.

Another "small world" experience. . . our camp host is from Fredricksburg, TX, just up the road from where we live. He and his wife own a restaurant there. They're in the process of selling it to their chef, while they look for a new place to settle, or a new challenge. So far it seems they like camp hosting.

Our last visit was in 2011. In that post I commented on all the night hawks. We didn't notice any night hawks this time, but we didn't notice many bugs either, so they've probably moved to another area.

In addition to the Oregon Trail history here, there's fishing, birds and other wildlife to watch. A road from the campground leads down to the river, but the campground is on higher ground which actually affords a better view of the landscape and the river itself.

August 5
Thick smoke covered the sky this morning. The news said 3 mile visibility in nearby Boise, and it's certainly no better here. We broke camp by 9 AM and headed for civilization looking for a part for a repair. After several dead ends and chasing our tails all over Boise (well, it felt that way) we finally ended up at Nelson's RVs repair shop,  where they were nice enough to look up the part in a local auto parts store. If we ever need service in the Boise area we will definately go to Nelson's!

In spite of the detours we made it to Three Island Crossing State Park by 1 PM.
Our site  is really wide and wide open at the back with a long-distance view of the river. The smoke drove us indoors for most of the day, so we just enjoyed the views through the windows.

After a quick lunch we toured the nearby Oregon Trail History and Education Center. 

The displays in the center are informative and very kid-friendly. The center makes for a nice family activity on hot afternoons.


For a short time Three Island Crossing was the most important and difficult river crossing in Idaho. Later, other routes were developed and preferred as less dangerous. 


The ferry system, which provided the town here with the name Glenns Ferry, operated for many years and an example of the ferry used can be seen near the education center, down by the river bank. 

We chatted with the woman at the reception counter and discovered her son and daughter in law live in San Marcos. We run into Texans everywhere we go!

Outside, the smoke is getting worse. It seems much of northern Idaho is on fire.

August 6 - Sunday

Heyburn RV Riverside Park is also right on the Snake River.

Steve thought something seemed vaguely familiar about this place.

When I was walking the dogs I came. upon a nice little covered bridge with benches, and an antique farm implement next to it. At about the same time we both came to the conclusion we'd been here before!

I guess we've been in too many campgrounds and RV parks to remember them all. And in our own defense, a lot has happened since we were last here, in 2012.

In that blog post we also described smoke in the air, so that hasn't changed, but the landscaping has.

The trees are much larger, the grass greener, and the riverwalk now has an arboretum along one area and has been heavily planted with wildflowers.

The sites are still spacious, and we're on the end closest to the dog walk area, with a nice lawn for the pups to lay on, so life is good. . . even if it is a bit dim from the smoke!



Now we're heading on to Park City, Utah. . . . . .     Time for a nap!

There are a few more photos in the album.

Tailgate Training Camp 2017

From Goose Lake it's about three hours north to LaPine State Park. LaPine is a good staging ground before departing for the woods. We stayed two nights in the north loop, where the spaces are slightly larger than in the other two loops.  Access to the trail along the river is easy, and there's a large fenced dog park not too far away, so it's easy to take the pups for an outing. The dogs are constantly on high alert in this park, as the chipmunks are numerous, and they love to taunt the dogs. One ran directly at Watch, and then froze for a moment before he ran up a tree. Watch and Shiner spent the next hour staring at him on his very safe branch high above them. We caught up on internet work, picked up a few groceries, then moved over to North Davis Creek Campground.

North Davis Creek Campground is one of our favorite out of the way places. We've been trying out each of the sites along the creek on the north side, this time we stayed in site #10.   The campground turned out not to be so "out of the way" this time, as almost every site was occupied by the weekend.

We chatted with many of the other campers as we walked the dogs and the most popular topic of conversation was, "I've never seen so many mosquitoes here!" They were bad, which really was no surprise considering the wet spring. It gave us a good chance to try out our new screen room - Coleman "instant" screen room. It's not exactly instant! but much easier than any other we've used, and we really enjoyed the bug free lounging (so did the dogs!)

They also very much enjoyed the higher water level in the lake, as it's a great place to swim and fetch logs. They never get enough of that activity, but since the water is very cold we have to make sure they don't spend too long swimming.

North Davis Creek flows into the northwest arm of  Wikiup Reservoir, which provides a great opportunity for small boats and fishing, when there's enough water in it. After the wet spring this year the levels were way up and we saw several boats where none could go for the past several years.

A reservation system is coming soon to North Davis Creek, which is managed  by the Hoodoo recreation company. The link is to the Hoodoo site where there's more information. The map on their site is inaccurate, but does show which sites will be available for reservation. Most of the  sites on the outside of the loop either back up to a creek or have a view of the lake, the map doesn't reflect that.

The North Davis Creek album is here.

We spent four relaxing days here, then hopped back to LaPine State Park to do the final prep before we headed for the Ochocos. This time we were situated in a nice pull-through in the south loop. The spaces are a bit tighter in this loop, but the pull-through made setting up easy.

We caught up on last minute shopping and other chores (like scrubbing all the bugs off the front of the trailer!!), met some friends from California for dinner, then headed out to Ochoco Forest Camp for the annual gathering we call Tailgate Training Camp. (It's either the 14th or 15th, it's hard to keep track.)

The Team

We do manage to keep ourselves entertained while at camp. In addition to managing the 9 dogs (and one cat) in residence there are several things to do in the area.

Dave and John had a successful day fishing up at Walton Lake, several folks went hiking on the Steins Pillar Trail, and a few of us sewed on projects we'd brought along.

Some of us also took a short day trip over to the Visitor Center in the Sheep Rock unit of the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument. It's only about an hour and a half drive and is worth a trip over if you've never been there before. The monument is situated in a rather isolated part of the state and many people don't even know it exists, but it's fascinating, and so different from most of the Oregon scenery you wouldn't know you are in the same state!

We all love to cook almost as much as we love to eat, so we had plenty of great food. Trading recipes and sharing in the meal prep is part of the fun.

We had beautiful weather, and the little creek had plenty of water for the puppies to splash in, and lots of good conversation.

You can't beat a campfire and colorful sunset to finish off the day, and a perfect camp experience.

Follow the link to the Tailgate Training Camp album

At the end of camp we departed for a one night stop at the Crook County RV Park in Prineville to regroup. We made a quick stop at  The Quilt Shack, picked up a few groceries, and then had dinner at El Ranchero. Their food never disappoints and the service is always quick. The location is really convenient as the fairgrounds next door and the park across the road provide plenty of opportunity for the dogs to romp.

The RV park is in the process of adding laundry facilities. It's still under construction but the facility so far is a nice looking building that should hold several machines. We look forward to that the next time we pass this way.

Yeah! We made it to Nevada

Whewww! It's hot here! Should be no surprise, but when you've been up in the forested mountains it does come as a shock.

At the entrance to the interpretive center

We had originally planned to space out the distance over two different stops, on our way to Minden, but with the heat we decided to condense it to just one. 'Might as well spend the day in an air-conditioned truck! We did make time to stop along the way at the California Trail Interpretive Center, near Elko.

The temperature prevented us from exploring the trails around the center, but we did enjoy the inside. Life size dioramas and other historic displays, short videos, very knowledgeable docents, and a variety of beautiful artwork make this a stop worth devoting some time too.

Back side of the statue

Much of the information is presented in a hands-on format so it's great for kids too.  If you're really pressed for time a pull-off with several information kiosks is located just before the center, off to the side of the highway. 

The artwork, dioramas and murals depict the local tribal life as well as the pioneers. 

Our last night on the road, for awhile anyway, is the New Frontier RV Park, in Winnemucca, NV.  This was a rather unusual RV park in that at least half of the area was filled with brand new, very nice workforce housing units. It appeared some of the occupants are miners or other similar jobs, but many appeared to be otherwise employed. There's huge growth in the area in all kinds of services, so apparently the standard housing hasn't kept up with demand. The park is quite new, and very nice, with large spaces. 'Mostly graveled sites, with a little grass here and there, and a small fenced dog run, so the pups weren't thrilled. It had been a long day in the truck, but we made-do. We had dinner at the nearby Wingers and called it a day. 

Saturday, June 24 - We made it!  We pulled in to the Finch Estate in the early afternoon, and promptly settled in. Now it's time to start getting ready for the big Happy Birthday American party!!

Nevada welcomed us with one of her famous beautiful sunsets!

Custer's Last Stand

June 13-15
This is another of those locals on our bucket list. After touring several other Indian Wars battle sites on our way to the area we were pretty well acquainted with the history of the time.

A visit to the Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument is a solemn experience in many respects.

Custer National Cemetary

Immediately adjacent to the parking area is the Custer National Cemetery, so we look a little time to walk the rows and read a few of the headstones. Originally established in 1879 to protect the graves of soldiers who died in the Little Bighorn battle it was later enlarged and includes burials from veterans and spouses, as well as children, from almost every military action up until the closing in 1978, Only plots already reserved are still available. A small booklet is available for a self guided walking tour. It has some fascinating details about the history of the cemetery as well as many of the individuals interred there.

Only a short distance from the cemetery is the Little Bighorn visitors center. An informative film, nice displays, and a fantastic presentation by a ranger (from Texas!) who has been studying this historic event since he was 18. 'Guess he knows a little about it!

After the ranger's presentation we took a bus tour with the Absaalooka tribal tours (Absaalooka is the true name of the tribe that came to be known as the Crow). Narrated by a member of the tribe, we learned more about the event as well as a little of their culture, and the inter-tribal politics that had an impact on the battle. Specific facts about the battle were discussed as we viewed the actual locations. The guide explained how the terrain impacted the actions of the soldiers and the Indians.

A portion of the Little Bighorn Battlefield

For those unaware of the timeline of events - here's the brief history. (A much more detailed version is available here.) We all know pioneers headed west for free or cheap land. When they came into contact with the Indians (it's ok to call them Indians, they use that term too) there were often conflicts. Sometimes they got along, sometimes not. Usually at issue was the conflict over land to farm (pioneers) and land to hunt (Indians).

A treaty was signed giving most of the Dakota Territory to the Indians, including some land not assigned to a specific tribe, but open for all to hunt. The Black Hills were included in the treaty area. Forts were established along the main travel routes so the military could protect the settlers as well as keeping the settlers from bothering the Indians.

Shortly after the Civil War, when many men were returning home, with no jobs, a financial recession hit the nation hard. At about the same time gold was discovered in the Black Hills. There was no stopping the pioneers from flooding into the areas that were supposed to be off limits to them. President Grant tried various ways of managing the situation, but several Chiefs (Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull, primarily) wouldn't go along with his plan and insisted on staying off reservation, in the open area. This was when the military was sent in to "round then all up and get them to the reservation".

Tribal politics were having their own effect on the situation. The Sioux (Lakota) and Cheyenne were trying to push the Crow out of the area. The Crow, thinking that if they could get rid of the Sioux they'd be in good shape, were happy to scout for the Army. It didn't turn out so well for anyone. The Indians knew this was their last stand, and whether Custer knew it was his "last stand" as he went into battle or not, it was a major turning point for the Native American cultures in the area.

Monument on the mass grave on Last Stand Hill

After careful scouting, planning and discussions, Custer divided his troops into three groups, hoping to surround the tepees set up in the valley near the river. Gathered for hunting and a seasonal celebration, the village setting was full of families.  Though the attack was a surprise, the Indians resoundingly defeated the Army. The battle, over two hot June days in 1876, resulted in the deaths of over 260 soldiers and attached personnel. It's hard to say how many Indians were killed, including women and children, but the number is probably under 50.

A mass grave holds many of the remains, and there are markers throughout the park, indicating where it is known that someone fell - white for soldiers, red for Native Americans. A few have names, but most do not.

There is also a peace memorial, dedicated to the Native Americans who were involved in, and perished in, this battle. The memorial has panels around the curved walls with names and etched portraits. It's beautiful, and definately worth the short walk up the hill from the visitor center. There's more information about the Indian Memorial and what happened to those who died in the battle here.

After two days of touring the sites and digesting all the historic information we decided on a lunch out, at the trading post near the entrance to the park. Good souvenir shopping, and the best "Indian Taco" I've ever had. HUGE fry bread heaped with goodies.

7th Ranch RV Park was home for the duration of our visit to the Little Bighorn. There aren't a lot of housing choices in the area, but we were very pleased with our choice. 7th Ranch is named for the 7th Cavalry, Custer's command.

7th Ranch is situated inside a working ranch of several hundred acres. They have a few head of cattle, and some great scenery! Guests are free to take dogs off-leash anywhere outside the immediate fenced campground area, so there's plenty of room to roam and good grass and sagebrush to check out.

The spaces are comfortably large, and some have shade trees. There are also a few tent spaces, and a playground for the little ones. The laundry facilities are pretty small, but seem to be adequate for the needs of visitors. It seems most guests stay only one night so the area really empties out during the day. The owners and camp hosts are all friendly and helpful, and we really enjoyed our stay!

The evening view from our site - a Charlie Russell sky

On the map, the closest town is Garryowen - which turns out to be a one acre, privately owned town (the ownership is too long to discuss, and irrelevant). The name is  unusual so I just had to look it up. 'Turns out, the tune Garryowen is, and has been for many years, the official tune of the 7th Cavalry.  Here's the full history,  along with the music. It seems like a good name for this tiny town near this infamous location so closely connected to the 7th Cavalry.

This little "town" houses a private museum of Native American artifacts. They also have an extensive gift shop with a range of goods from typical souvenirs to high end art work and traditional Indian jewelry as well as art works of rawhide, feathers and beads.

The album is here, and there's more information on each of the individual photos.

North to Montana, and the Indian Wars

Sunday, June 11,

'Time to say goodbye to Devils Tower and wander our way further north.

We hadn't been on the road very long when we dropped down over a little rise to see this view...

 brrrrrrrrrrrrrr, us Texans aren't really ready for that!
Home for the night,  Deer Park, just outside Buffalo, WY.

The park turned out to be perfect for our one night stop. A nice little laundry room, a level site right on their central green area, and a trail along with a huge mowed meadow that worked for our evening ball toss with the dogs.

They really offer a variety of activities and housing choices. They have a few cabins, and there's a small playground for little ones, along with horseshoe pits.

We toured the town of Buffalo in the afternoon and what a nice little town it is.

They've really played up their western heritage. Everything is very clean and it's clear they are proud of their history. A few things really caught our attention.

One such item was this statue of Nate Champion in front of the museum.

This cowboy had the kind of grit it took to ranch in the old west, but big money and big ranching got the best of him in the end.

This article in American Cowboy describing his ordeal is worth a read . . .  The Story of Nate Champion. The situation described in the article was apparently pretty common at the time as we found the Nate Champion story referenced in several museums as an example of the situation that existed for small cattle ranchers at the time.

As usual, we're going to miss a big local event - the annual Longmire Days celebration. Anyone who's read Craig Johnson's series about Sheriff Longmire, or watched the series (now on Netflix) will get the picture. The little town in the stories is modeled after Buffalo. Their annual celebration brings the cast of the show and fans together for a week of activities. It sounds like fun! . . but we'll be in Nevada by then! If anyone's interested, here's the Chamber of Commerce's page with the key info.

In the morning we loaded up the wagon and headed for the freeway heading north toward Sheridan to find the on-ramp was being patrolled by a wild turkey! What a rare sight! We've gotten used to all the rolling green grassland dotted with cattle and antelope, but this is the first turkey sentry we've seen, and right in town!

Monday, June 12
On our way north to Sheridan, WY, we stopped first at a monument recalling the Fetterman Fight.

To put this in perspective historically, a full ten years before the infamous Battle at Little Big Horn the settlers and U.S. Army were engaging in armed battle with local tribes across the northern plains.

The Fetterman Fight was one such battle. In December of 1866, Sioux, Cheyenne and Arapaho warriors engaged a force commanded by Capt. William J. Fetterman. The soldiers had been sent out to rescue a wagon train.

Using a decoy plan, something the Indians weren't noted for doing before, they lured the soldiers into an ambush. All 81 men in Fetterman's command were killed within 30 minutes. Only The Battle of the Little Big horn stands as a worse defeat for the U.S. Army, and victory for the Plains Indians.  The monument noting the details of the battle overlooks beautiful rolling grass covered hills. It's hard to envision the shooting, yelling smoke and chaos that must have taken place.

Unfortunately The Fetterman Fight was not the only incident of its kind. A treaty had been signed that allotted certain lands to the Indians and left a corridor open for settlers to travel, as well as for hunting. The idea at the time was that the military would be responsible for keeping the settlers out of the agreed upon Indian lands, then GOLD was discovered in the Black Hills of South Dakota, a large piece of the land deeded to the tribes, and that turned the agreement upside down.

In 1866 Fort Phil Kearny was established at the forks of Big and Little Piney Creeks. One of three forts along the trail, the mission of the post was three-fold - protect travelers along the Bozeman trail, prevent inter-tribal warfare among the Native Americans, and to draw the Indian forces away from the development of the railroad line that was under construction in southern Wyoming.

Site of Fort Phil Kearney

By 1868 the Union Pacific Railroad had reached a point to the west where travelers could bypass the trail forts and all the risk, and in the Treaty of 1868 the U.S. government agreed to close the forts. Fort Phil Kearny was burned shortly thereafter. It was in terrible shape by then anyway, having been built from green logs and green lumber. After drying for only a year the wood had shrunk so badly the walls all had huge cracks, and many structures were deemed unsafe for occupancy.

Shiner and a wagon box

The current buildings and structures on the site of the original fort are reconstructions, and do help to give visitors a feel for the place. Frequent sighting devices around the perimeter of the site make it easy to identify specific landmarks and the sites of specific events.

A short gravel road from the site of the fort leads visitors to the Wagon Box fight. Here, soldiers took refuge in a corral made of wagon boxes - Shiner lends scale - not a very large shelter as you can see, and though this was high ground, they had no shelter other than the boxes.

The Connor Battlefield State Historic Site, only a short distance north, is another memorial to the events of those days.

This was the site of the Battle of Tongue River, between the Army and the Arapaho.
This was the single most important military engagement of the Powder River Expedition of 1865 because this particular battle caused the Arapaho to ally with the Sioux and the Cheyenne. The alliance thereby creating the large force that overcame the Army in the Fetterman Fight, a year later.

The Conner Battlefield site is located along the tongue river, and has been developed into a very nice park and campground. One of those hidden jewels we really enjoy.

Conner Battlefield monument

The Tongue River curves around the park, which is beautifully maintained. Lots of trees, a few graveled pull-through sites and some tent sites and picnic spaces. $11 a night for a pull-through right on the river. No hook-ups. The park does have restrooms and water is available.

This area is dripping in history - one could do a tour here focusing on military history, another on the Native American aspect, and another focusing on the pioneer perspective.

To view them all at once is of course more realistic, but hard to process as there is so much information to digest. . . so many brave and hardworking individuals. No good guys and bad guys, just everyone trying to do what they thought was best at the time.

Aug 1-3, Monday Great Falls, Montana

Aug 1-3, Monday
We arrive at Dick's RV, in Great Falls, in the early afternoon. It seemed like a good plan to lay claim to the laundry room before too many overnighters pulled in. I got things going and then soon struck up a conversation with another patron. She and her husband were just back from Alaska, it seems the rough roads pounded their little Casita to pieces, so they had repair work to do. We chatted while the machines worked, then I trundled back to the trailer, the laundry all finished for a week or so.  Dick's is OK for an overnight or two. The spaces are larger than average for an RV park, and all have grass and a picnic table.  The Sun River(a tributary of the Missouri) is right across the road, and there's a bike trail along part of it, allowing for some dog walking freedom. The train tracks nearby aren't in use except for storage, so there was very minimal traffic noise.

We took advantage of Great Falls "big city" resources and did chores like an oil change for the truck, groceries, and buying a new mattress!! Our old RV airbed (older than this trailer!) had decided it was going to leak no matter how many times we fixed it, so we had to work on a more permanent solution. Purchasing something that has to be shipped, when you have no permanent address, is always an interesting challenge. In this case the UPS Store in Rapid City, SD, was the solution. Now, we just hope that we, and the mattress, all show up in Rapid City, as scheduled.

I made a stop at Big Sky Quilts to pick up a Montana "license plate" for my collection, and also bought their row-by-row kit. There is a real story that goes with both.

Have you ever heard of Green Lights for Vets? It's a national program to establish visible, national support for veterans by burning at least one green light in or on a house, and for that reason the little house in the kit pattern has a green window.

 The license plate "MAJ STASH" refers not only to the fact that most quilters have major "stashes" (collected fabric) but one of the owners of the shop is a major! I didn't catch what branch of the military, but Malmstrom Air Force base is located here.

We also made a long-anticipated visit to the C.M. Russell Museum.

Oh-my-goodness. We've never before seen such a marvelous collection of western art all in one place. Paintings, sculptures, drawings, and casual whittled objects make up the collections. Coincidently, their current rotating display is the artists of the Going to the Sun Road, in Glacier, and their relationship to Charlie Russell, who had a cabin at the south end of St. Mary Lake, not too far from where we were camped on the west side of Glacier NP. (No photos are allowed in the museum and galleries, so you'll have to go to their website to see the offerings.) The profiles of each of the artists and the examples of their work were wonderful and really enriched the enjoyment of their individual works.    

The museum also houses a fantastic number of Native American artifacts. Many are displayed in glass cases, others in a multitude of drawers (their tops sealed with plexiglass) that visitors are invited to pull out and investigate. The beadwork, garments, stone weapons, ceremonial items, basketry, and more, were just amazing. Needless to say, by the time we'd finished our brains were numb. There was just too much to absorb, but it was a wonderful experience and we very much enjoyed it.

We had just enough umph left for a quick tour of Charlie and his wife Nancy's home, which is on the same property. It's furnished with period authentic items, though most didn't belong to the Russells. His log studio was under construction, being refurbished, so if we ever get up this way again we'll have to check it out.

From there we went to lunch at Bert and Ernies, a locally famous pub.

It's there we discovered Poutine, a Canadian dish that will melt in your mouth. Crispy fries with cheese curds, all topped with a flavorful brown gravy. 'May sound a little strange to some, but it was really good, and I can imagine really hits the spot on a cold Montana day.

Bert and Ernie's has a comfortable and interesting atmosphere. The restaurant has been there for something like 60 years, but no one knows how the name came to be - I though that was odd!

The ceiling of the restaurant, which is in the historic downtown area, is covered in the old tin panels. The tops of all the divider walls are covered with their collected bottles, and there are some very interesting ones. I'm afraid they put our collection to shame.


Great Falls is full of history and so we absorbed as much as we could.

The Lewis and Clark Interpretive center is very well done. Having spent so many years in Oregon we're very familiar with that end of the story, and this interpretive center filled in the beginning bits.    The city apparently did one of those charity drives that involves decorating a large animal. . . a buffalo in this case. We saw several interesting ones around town but this one is the only one I could capture for a photo.

The center is built overlooking the river, and one can see a portion of the "great falls" that inspired the town's name.

After "touring" for the day we were ready to settle in for the evening and get packed up for an early start in the morning.

Montana is going the way of many other northwest states and really developing a microbrew industry. We had to pick up a sampling of course, to work on while we packed!

Junipers Reservoir RV Resort, Lakeview, OR

Saturday, July 25

Our first stop yesterday, when we arrived in Lakeview, was Les Schwab, for a new set of four trailer tires. If you wonder why, see the previous post.

While waiting for the tires to be installed Shiner and I took a walk, across the street, to the immaculate little white house with a perfect lawn and park benches. 'Turns out it's the MC Ranch Western Heritage Center. See the photo section of their Facebook page for a lot of the photos from the displays. It's a delightful little park and a wonderful collection depicting the history of the famous MC Ranch, so it's worth checking out.  If you'd like a bit of music to go along with the history, here's Ian Tyson's song about selling the MC horses.

Once the tires were installed we headed for the barn, so to speak.

We don't generally stay places with "resort" in the title, but The Junipers Reservoir RV Resort is a delightful exception.


The Junipers is about 10 miles west of Lakeview, then about 2 miles back into a working ranch on a well maintained gravel road.

The sites are large, and arranged in a single row around a large grassy area. All the sites are pull-through, and the park is surrounded by the ranch's native sage and juniper vegetation.

There's  a covered group area for large events, or just for relaxing if it's not reserved for an event, and fishing in their small lake - no license required!

The facilities include a really nice laundry room, which includes amenities like a television, Adirondack chairs, a book selection and a display case with artifacts from the area, the first time I've ever seen that in a campground laundry facility!


You can purchase bait worms and ice near the laundry room.

It's a beautiful, peaceful and very quiet setting, and though they are set up for the trailer and motorhome crowd, they also have tent spaces.

The campers are all so friendly it's hard to make your way around the loop without stopping to visit with several of them, so it your puppy wants a fast walk, you'll have to head out into the sagebrush! When you do, be sure to watch for the birds, there are several varieties, and other wildlife too.

Amenities include free wi-fi, and as opposed to many parks, this system actually works!

This is truly a gem of a park, and we'll be stopping here again. 

Kanab, Utah

6/18 Monday – Stopped at the RV Corral in Kanab, UT. After four wonderful days at the Grand Canyon, north rim, we’re off in search of more cool weather. The flatlands are burning up right now… literally, in the case of Colorado.

The RV Corral is the newest of the three parks in town.

Home Sweet Home

It’s quite nice, very spacious and clean laundry room, quite a few trees in the parking area, though the spots are rather small…… think boat slips in a marina and you have the picture. The bright yellow-green locust tree we are parked under makes a lovely contrast to the red cliffs right behind us, so at least we have a bit of scenery.

Laundry room and pool area

Honey’s market in Kanab had everything we needed to stock up, including quilt batting! Yeah, onward with my projects!

If you shop at Honey's market save your receipt.  A $25 or $50 purchase is good for a discount at Honey's fuel stop just around the corner. 

Steve found a car was big enough to handle the Enterprise (had to recover from that last day’s tour in the Grand Canyon.) After all the chores were done we went outa Mexican dinner at the highly recommended Escobar’s.  . . good . . not great. Heavy on the garlic and light on the chili. But it was a night out!

Now we’re off to Cedar Breaks, 10,000 fit up. That should be cool enough!

Good-bye to Oregon

Thursday morning we left Bully Creek early (for us!) and headed for Idaho. We made a quick stop at Camping World in Boise to pick up a vent cover to replace the one a branch scraped off back at  Crescent Creek, and found some great RV oriented  Christmas cards too! What a productive morning!

Idaho has a multitude of small and not-so-small wildfires burning, so the broad horizon is hazy, and though the sky is clear, there's not much of the usual bright blue.

The overnight stop for Thursday was Heyburn Riverside RV Park (I-84, Exit 211 then south 2 miles). The park is fairly new and right on the Snake River. It's so new in fact that if you are using a mapping program don't trust it's location advice. We followed posted signs which led us to the correct location. Our assumption is that Delorme program we use identified the planning office at city center as the location, so gave us incorrect directions.

The park has generously spaced sites that are all  full-service. The sites are graveled, with lots of grass in between, and there is ready access to a really nice trail along the river. (The park is closed Dec. 1- March 1)

Following the trail south just a short way leads to a quaint little park with a covered bridge over a little creek where it enters the river. Landscaped with benches and antique farm implements it makes an attractive place to sit and ponder the wide river at sunset.

Friday, we left Idaho about 9:30 and were crossing into Utah about an hour later. By noon we were cugging down hwy. 89, cutting north of Salt Lake City. The hills around the sides of the highway are splashed with swaths of trees clothed in autumn cherry-red and brilliant yellow, set off nicely by the soft gold of dry grasses. It's clear and sunny, but unfortunately the same smoky haze we've seen all week fills the sky here too. Smoke blown in from Idaho in addition to a few local fires is apparently to blame.  We're staying at Jordanelle State Park, near Park City, UT, while we visit family for a couple of days.

Crescent Junction RV Park

'Seems strange to have all the lights on. For the past three weeks we've been boondocking. With the exception of two nights at La Pine State Park we've relied totally of the solar/battery system for power and it's done very nicely. We've had computer time, TV if we wanted it, and I've been sewing whenever I wanted. We do have to be economical with the electricity use though, so after being careful for so long it's a real luxury to have the heater and the electric coffee pot all running at the same time.

We stopped for two nights at the Crescent Junction RV Park, a tough 20 mile commute from our last stop. From North Davis Lake Campground we drove south on the Cascade Lakes Highway, then northwest on Hwy. 58. We wanted to get the rig and the wardrobe civilized before we move to Eugene for the first Duck game of the year.

Crescent Junction RV park is on the west side of Hwy. 58, across from Manley's Tavern. The park has a nice 3-machine laundry room, in the same building with the showers. It's the cutest little laundry room I've ever seen.... well, maybe cute is the wrong word.  It's paneled with knotty pine, and has an old-time cabin-in-the-woods feel to it. The main thing is, all the machines work! The park is open to the woods at the back, so it's convenient to take Shiner for a run - she requires lots of space so open forest is a good place to let her romp.

The RV park is right behind the Odell Sportsman Center - a genuine, old time "general mercantile". The store has a few touristy clothing items, food, shovels, fishing gear, old fashioned hard candy, general groceries, ice cream treats, puzzles, and more (but no dirty books as far as I could see). The place instantly sent me thinking of a song we hear frequently on the radio at home, Kevin Fowler's Beer, Bait, and Ammo..... We bought greeting cards and milk, and of course, beer!

The camp host, Eric Johnson (aka "Stickman")  carves wood spirits and walking sticks. They sell them in the Sportsman Center, but Eric had a few displayed in his camp site, so I went shopping and I fell in love with this smiling fellow, so he's been adopted into the family.

Eric does all the carving by hand, and the sticks are red alder, a sturdy, fine grained wood. He also does wood spirit carvings suitable for wall hanging. Unfortunately our RV has very little wall space or I would have adopted one of them too. As a wood carver myself I can really appreciate the detailing in his carving style and the personality he gives each individual piece. (Eric takes orders, and can be reached at P.O. Box 1032 Crescent Lake, OR, 97733; 541-512-6010)

Fully restored to semi-civilized status (that's about as close as we ever get) we'll be heading for Eugene, and Armitage Park, in the morning.