Sep 2007

Starting Mileage: 110422, Newport WA
Ending Mileage: 110581, Middle Thompson Lake, MT
Weather: Sunny, 72 F

Penny (another daughter) was in Newport, WA, so we went through Spokane after passing miles of grain fields. Since I lived in the Spokane area for a number of years it was all familiar to me. We camped, with Penny, in Albeni Cove over the Pend Oreille (pronounced Pond Oray) river. It was nice. We had a nice rest.

We drove north to Sandpoint on Hwy 2 and stopped to use the laptop and have lunch. Drove on Hwy 2 East through Idaho and into Montana. We saw lots of space and some animals, incl. a flock of wild turkeys. We camped overnight 40 or so miles from Kalispel at middle Thompson lake in Logan state park.

Starting Mileage: 110581, Middle Thompson Lake, MT
Ending Mileage: 110728, 8 mi. N of Browning, MT
Weather: Sunny & Clear in AM, overcast & light rain in PM, very windy night

We left Logan SP and drove about 45 miles further to Kalispel. Thinking again that we were in a big town (again, about six thousand people), I tried to upload the blog again. I was able to get onto the internet and check email, but uploading photo's just didn't work. Later, when I tried to buy a new cell phone at Wal-mart I learned they don't carry AT&T phones because there is no AT&T service there (nor Sprint), only Verizon. We didn't get cell phone service again until we were almost in Helena (the following day). The city park we stopped at to try the internet was called Woodland Park and was very nice with a lot of geese and ducks in ponds with walking paths, bridges, swimming pools and playfields.

We drove on to Glacier National Park and mom was able to get her Golden Age Passport again. This allows her (and people she is with) to go to National Parks and such without the entry fee (or sometimes at a reduced rate).

After we entered Glacier NP, we saw a lot of burned area on the north side of McDonald Lake. The lake itself was still beautiful of course, and there are many lovely and interesting sights to see on the way into the park.

After stopping for pictures (of course), we proceeded on the "Going to the Sun" road. We also began to see spectacular mountain peaks and vistas. This is the only time I have really regretted having a Class C motorhome - the bed over the cab of the truck really blocked the views a lot. However, the RV is only 21 feet long, so I was able to take it across Glacier NP (the "Going to the Sun" road is limited to vehicles 21' or shorter). Still we had a couple of close calls, so I am quite sure you would not want any larger vehicle for this trip. At one point I heve scraped my side mirrors against a rock cliff wall a bit!

The U.S. Government allocated a lot of funding to repair this road, so shortly into the trip we had to stop for quite a while and wait for a pilot car (along with a long line of cars). The road was only open in one direction for a couple of miles at least. We found out later that they will be closing the road for the winter on September 16th this year to allow more time for road work. We seemed to have just slipped by!

As we drove upwards, the sky clouded over quite a bit and the mountains were too dark to really show off their stuff. This can be better for photography sometimes, but I haven't bothered to really learn the manual settings on my camera (the Auto setting works fine in most conditions), so my pictures may not be that spectacular. Again, we took a LOT more photographs than this but have tried to select a few representative shots.

Near the summit, we finally saw some mountain goats. They were quite far away (up on a cliff of course), but show up clearly enough with the 12x zoom.

With all the stops to try the internet updating (in Kalispel) and picture taking (everywhere), by the time we got to the summit at Logan Pass, the visitors center was closed. My cousin had suggested we try to get to Jewel Lake, but it was getting too late to even try to get to the overlook (maybe next trip?).

Just as we went to leave the parking lot at the summit, Mom noticed a flock of people gathered near the edge. She thought they might be looking at something special, so we stopped. Lo and behold there were two big horned sheep only about 30 feet (10 meters) off the road. We stayed for several minutes more taking pictures and video.

We did get to see Jackson Glacier a bit on the eastern side as we continued on, but the clouds started coming in as well as the darkness, so we don't have as many pictures from this side of the trip.

Once, we had to stop quickly as everyone in front of us had stopped. A coyote was by the side of the road and ran across about 40 feet in front of us. I whipped up the camera, but only got a blurry shot just as he disappeared off to the side.

After leaving the park at Saint Marys, we drove south through more burned forests. It was getting dark and we were both very tired, so we decided to stay in an RV park about five miles west of Browning. The café looked rustic and nice, but we didn't go there to eat, just sleep. Can't say I'd recommend the place, but we had a place to sleep anyway.

ps - we barely made it out of Glacier by dark, I stop a lot for pictures

pps - we saw mountain goats, big horn sheep and a coyote in Glacier!

Starting Mileage: 110188, Pateros WA
Ending Mileage: 110422, Newport WA
Weather: Sunny, 65 F at 8:30 AM, warming during day

We left Alta Lake SP and continued NE to Bridgeport. We stopped at the overlook for "Chief Joseph Dam", which I had never heard of, but turns out to be the second largest electricity producing dam in the USA (second only to Grand Coulee Dam)! The dam itself is "L" shaped (to take better advantage of the river flow) and about a mile long across the Columbia river and generates 2.6 million kilowatts - enough to power the city of Seattle. This is the largest dam constructed and operated by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

The dam was named to honor Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce Tribe's Wallowa Band. After fighting to protect his tribe's land for many years, Chief Joseph surrendered on October 5, 1877 with this now famous oration:

"Tell General Howard I know his heart. What he told be before, I have in my heart. I am tired of fighting. Our chiefs are killed. Looking Glass is dead. Too-Hul-Hul-Soot is dead. The old men are all dead. It is the young men who now say 'yes' or 'no'. He who led the young men in battle is dead. My little daughter has run away upon the prairie and I do not know where to find her. Perhaps I shall find her, too, among the dead. It is cold and we have no fire, no blankets. The children are crying for food and we have none to give. My children - some of them - have run away to the hills and have no blankets, no food. No one knows where they are, perhaps freezing to death. I want to have time to look for my people and see how many of them I can find. Hear me, my chiefs; my heart is sick and sad; from where the sun now stands Joseph will fight no more forever."

When you remember that it was the U S Government (or RR, or both) policy to rid the plains of the bison to force the native tribes onto reservations, this has an especially sad ring. I suspect we will learn of many such stories during our travels.

Later, after turning South again on Hwy 17, we saw a lot of unusual geologic formations. Often there were large rocks (house size sometimes) just sitting in the middle of a plain. Once we saw some white mounds that looked a little like pyrmids - but not nearly as large and more erroded. Geologists think the large rocks were caught in Glaciers and carried 'downstream' as the glaciers melted and receded. We learned that the general area is called the Channeled Scablands of Eastern Washington.

Finally, after Hwy 17 rejoined Hwy 2 (where we thought we were turning onto yesterday), we came to a place called "Dry Falls". Geologists think this was created by a huge lake that was created during the ice ages when the glaciers blocked the Clark Fork river in Idaho and Montana. Eventually the lake broke through the ice shelf and flooded the whole Grand Coulee/Columbia river basins, creating a short lived waterfalls ten times larger than Niagara Falls. This process may have repeated itself several times in ancient prehistory.

Today, the Bureau of Reclaimation has built an earthen "Dry Falls Dam" just east of the SP and it's Banks Lake, which is used for irrigation for much of eastern Washington. We drove up the south side of Banks Lake and enjoyed many scenic vista's of the basalt cliffs and lake - a canyon formed in this mannor is called a 'coulee', the largest of which was Grand Coulee of course.

At the far north end of Banks Lake is Grand Coulee Dam. This blocks the Columbia River, to form Lake Roosevelt which extends 150 miles all the way to Canada. When the dam was first built, many people didn't believe anyone could ever use as much electricity as it would generate. However, in the 1960's, electricity had become so important that they even rebuilt part of the dam so they could add a third generating plant! Today, Grand Coulee generates 6.8 Megawatts of power. It is operated by the Bureau of Reclamation and is 550 feet high and 5,223 feet across. Almost 12 million cubic yards of concrete were used to build Grand Coulee Dam. By way of comparision, Hoover Dam in Nevada used 3.2 million cubic yards of concrete and generates 2 megawatts of electricity, but it is taller at 726 feet (& narrower at 1,233 feet wide).

After leaving Grand Coulee Dam, we also visited the Colville Tribal Museum which is only a couple of miles from the dam. This is a relatively new museum (1987) and small compared to some others we visited, but has a nice collection of stories about some of the members of the Colville Tribe as well as exhibits of bead work, moccasins and other artifacts. There are twelve feathers on the Colville Tribal Flag representing the twelve bands that make up the Colville Confederated Tribes. The gift shop had many lovely examples of bead work and books for purchase, but the prices were too high for my taste.

We then drove eastwards towards Spokane. The terrain changed to rolling farmlands with many wheat fields being cut & baled by farmers.

Of course, once we got back to civilization, I remembered why I wanted to leave it!

Once we got close enough to civilization to get a cell phone signal, we got a call from my sister Penny. She was interviewing for a job in the far northeastern corner of WA and wanted us to meet her there. So instead of staying near Spokane at a Coast to Coast campground with High Speed internet connections (as planned), we drove on to Newport to meet up with Penny. She had reserved a campsight for us at a beautiful lake behind the Albeni Falls Dam, but there was no Sprint phone signal there - so I was unable to update the blog. (We stopped in Sandpoint, ID the following day (9/5/07) where I did have a signal, but the slow dial up service speed. So while I was able to upload some photo's, most will have to wait.) I am feeling a need to get moving...

Since we ended up so far north, we will go through Glacier National Park (NP) afterall, then head back to Helena & I90.

Mom & I have decided to alternate blog days to make it easier for our users (so you won't have to read two entries for each day). If you have any idea's or suggestions to imrpove the blog, please let us know (by posting comments!!!)

Starting Mileage: 109890, Shelton WA
Ending Mileage: 110040 Skykomish, WA

We decided not to try to leave on September 1st as originally planned once we heard my nephew, William, was on his way back from working on a fishing boat in Alaska. He arrived with his friend Ryan Saturday afternoon with a whole ice chest full of Salmon for friends and family. Wow!

I took advantage of the extra time to try to finish up a few more projects on the RV, then tried to pack up stuff from the office at the last minute. I think even if I'd taken a week, I wouldn't have had time to pack up this stuff because some of my record keeping had fallen very behind, so decided just to throw it all in boxes and sort it out on the trip (Ugh). So finally about 3 PM Sunday, Sept. 2 we left home.

Anyway, by the time we left so late Sunday afternoon, we were both a little stressed so didn't do much in the way of sightseeing - we just took off. I think we both felt we needed to get some miles behind us. We drove north on Hwy 3 from Shelton to Hwy 302. This runs along "North Bay Road", across the Purdy Spit and into Hwy 16 to Gig Harbor. Much of the drive is very beautiful, there are a lot of tree's and waterfront (Puget Sound) on this road. Then we drove across the brand new (Opened July 15, 2007) Tacoma Narrows Bridge ($3.00 toll) to I5. We took I5 from Tacoma to Everett (which took us through downtown Seattle), then turned East on Hwy 2.

Hwy 2 is part of the Cascade Loop Trail, one of the most scenic drives anywhere (it's not just me saying this). The first part of the trip (that we did on Sunday) follows the Skykomish River and is mostly farmland and ranches. The Evergreen State Fair was in full swing in Monroe as we drove past. We also drove through Sulton, Index and Goldbar but didn't take time to stop in these picturesque towns (will have to run spell checker later).

Although there were many beautiful vista's along this route, it was strange also because this area is home to us, so it didn't seem as much like we were on the 'big trip', but just another day around town. We didn't stop to take pictures until just before we camped, so will have to add pictures of Shelton, Tacoma and Seattle at the tail end of the trip. Mom wanted to stay in Money Creek campground, near the town of Skykomish. However, all sites were full (it was still Labor Day weekend of course), but as we looked for a place to turn around - I saw the sunset over a railroad track corridor - couldn't resist this shot:

It's interesting taking a trip with the idea to keep a travel blog, at least we started thinking about where we SHOULD have taken pictures! Here are a couple we took at the campground we stayed at (Skykomish City Park), I actually took these Monday morning, but since it's our Sunday night campground, thought I'd post them here:

Starting Mileage: 110040, Skykomish WA
Ending Mileage: 110188, Pateros WS
Weather: Light Overcast, 58 F

Wow! What a difference a day makes (and a good nights sleep).

We woke up in Skykomish City Park to a beautiful setting by the river and nestled in the foothills to Stevens Pass. After a refreshing breakfast (Mom picked wild blackberries for our cereal) and walk to the river, we headed east on Hwy 2. We both took lots of pictures, especially near the summit. I decided to post separate blog entries for the moment because Mom & I both seem to have such a different perspective on things. This may change as the trip wears on, but for now it was interesting to see how differently we approach things - yet we both enjoyed the travel very much today.

For example, today she seemed to take a lot of pictures of wild flowers whereas I was taking more pictures of mountains and scenery.

Anyway, shortly after we left the campground we came to Deception Falls - very beautiful, but the best part is just off the highway (we didn't quite walk up that far, so can only share pictures of the lower falls, sorry - this is going to take us a while to get the hang of things). I also tried taking some video of the falls, so will have to try to figure out how to edit and post that.

Steven's pass summit isn't very high (4,061 feet above sea level) but get's enough snow that chains are required in winter. There is a nice ski area at the summit. It's a bit of an uphill grade, but not for very far.

About 20 miles or so from the summit is the town of Leavenworth. This used to be a lumber town, but was suffering after the mill shut down, so decided to remake themselves as a bavarian village sometime during the 1960's.

This was very successful and they are quite the tourist attraction now. However, this isn't just a tourist trap (to me anyway) as the town is quite lovely and the shops have lots of really cool stuff in them. (No confessions as to amounts, but I did spend a little more than I planned). Mom and I both chose some bavarian cream pastries for lunch.

Highway 2 follows the Wenachee River down the eastern side from Stevens Pass.

Ten miles past Leavenworth is the town of Cashmere. The town was settled by people who liked the regions weather for their orchards. Eventually they adopted Turkish Delights to include flavors from their orchards and Cashmere is the birthplace and home of the Applets & Cotlets plant (which gives tours and has a nice gift shop).

However, we didn't make it into downtown Cashmere & the Applets & Cotlets factory. We stopped at the Pioneer Village & County Museum and spent so much time there we almost didn't leave. I also took so many pictures I had to go back to the RV for more batteries for the camera! All but one of the buildings are original pioneer buildings from various places in WA that have been moved and placed into a 'village' setting. All are furnished with period items (sometimes from the original buildings) and several buildings are open (all were open, but some had wire doors and you could just look through). It is interesting how much smaller and more utilitarian the buildings are than the hollywood westerns imply.

The difference between Western WA (Puget Sound area) and Eastern WA are striking. The weather over here (in Eastern WA now) is much hotter and dryer (this time of year). The hills are brown and there are far fewer trees. While interesting, I prefer the cooler climate and green trees of western WA (good thing I live there I suppose!)

After spending most of the day at Leavenworth and the Pioneer Village, we headed east on to Wenatchee (apple growing region) and stopped at the "Confluence State Park". This is close to the confluence of the Wenatchee & Columbia Rivers.

Then we headed on thinking we'd catch Hwy 2 on eastwards towards Grand Coulee Dam. However, we took an unexpected route on the west side of the Columbia River, so headed north instead of west. (Mom says there are no navigation mistakes on this trip, just alternate plans…)

Near Pateros, we found a very nice place to camp at Alta Lake State Park. There were hookups at some sites, but Mom wanted to stay as close to the lake as possible, where the sites didn't have hookups.

So if you're counting, we've been on the road for two nights so far, both dry camping without internet service or hookups. Hmm, too bad we told everyone to check the blog to keep track of us!