Hello all! I took a break from blogging after my father and then mother passed away. It kind of knocked the wind out of my sails for blogging. But I’m back to finish out this trip diary. Let’s say the remaining posts about this trip are not very recent. If you’re still up to read, I’m still up to finish this journey.
We left Wendover and crossed into Utah. My recollection of this part of the state from previous trips was that there were enormous salt flats, which sometimes had a layer of water on top. But we were looking at extreme heat and drought conditions, so the beautiful photos with turquoise water on top of white salt flats were just not there.
We ate lunch in Salt Lake City and stopped by Wasatch Brewery to pick up a few craft brew packs. I’ve always found Polygamy Porter to be a hilarious name for a beer. 😀 So I grabbed some of that. Finding a place to park the trailer was a bit difficult at this brewery. It was very crowded. We were off in time to make it to Vernal, Utah by late afternoon.
Our campground in Vernal was the Vernal Dinosaurland Holiday KOA. We had a little fenced yard nearby for Cee Cee to walk, a patio and grill. After a little grocery run, we ate barbecue chicken that first night, on the grill, and relaxed. We spent the evening looking at shooting stars with our telescope. The sky just seems so much more vast, and there’s far less light pollution out there.
The second day – our only full day in Vernal – the kids took advantage of the pool and relaxed, while I focused on laundry. Chris used the WiFi to do work. In the late afternoon, we drove up the road from our campsite to visit Red Fleet State Park. It’s a shame because we got there so close to the park’s closing time that we didn’t see the dinosaur footprints, but the scenery was still breathtaking. I would highly recommend carving out time to visit this park if you’re in the area. Of course, Dinosaur is a fun park to visit as well, however, we had been there during our last cross country trip with the kids so they wanted to bypass it this time.
Leaving Nevada City, we headed towards Route 80 and the Tahoe area. The uphill grade of the highway in the Tahoe region led to more than a little nail-biting, as we were towing a substantial-sized trailer. Ultimately, we made it through fine. I suspect we pissed off a fair few drivers along this part of the interstate, as we tried to mess with gears and speed to handle the incline.
Dropping down into Nevada meant we left behind the mountains, and were in for long day of desert with rugged mesas and hills. All of us had our audiobooks downloaded and running into headphones, which was a good thing because reception was often spotty (Verizon). Stopping at a rest area was not particularly restful with temperatures in the 100s (F) and worries over our dog’s paws getting burned on the hot ground.
After the break we hit the road again and – for the first time on the entire trip – we had a moment when we weren’t sure we’d make it to a gas station before we ran out. I had lost track of time in the middle of a great podcast, as well as my car game of following dirt roads out as far as I could see and trying to find the homes or towns at the ends of them, and imagining what life would be like there. By this point, I had been lulled into a pattern of there being ready a gas stations. Being that it was the middle of a desert area with no cell reception by this point, we were more than a little nervous. Luckily, we found a station within ten miles of where we noticed we were almost out of gas and made it there on fumes!
Around a half hour before lunch, we found we had cell reception and tried – yet again – to come to a consensus on placing a take-out order in the right amount of time to pick it up just as we rolled into town. We all agreed on Odeh’s Mediterranean Restaurant in Elko. It was easy to order, and the food was incredibly satisfying after a long, boring day. We pulled into a local park (I believe near the Chamber of Commerce) and ate under a pavilion. After so much desert, it was soothing to feel grass under our feet (I’m sure Cee Cee appreciated it too!)
We reached the border of Nevada and Utah, and our campground for the night, which was behind a strip of casinos on the Nevada side. It was a KOA in Wendover. It wasn’t much to speak of, but we were only there to sleep and move on, so it served our purposes just fine.
Prior to mapping out our trip, we had hopes of visiting San Francisco and Yosemite, but – holy long distances Batman – both of those were much farther from our first California campsite than you’d think. Timewise, if we wanted to get home by the end of six weeks, we needed to head east by this point in the journey. We charted out different possibilities, prioritizing highly rated campsites near points of interest. They also needed to be en route to one of the major West-East interstates. That is how we hit on Nevada City, CA. In all honesty, I had never heard of Nevada City. (My apologies to residents of that fine town, or uh, city?) However, there was a state park that got a lot of high ratings nearby. The town itself was picturesque. And there was a highly rated campground. Plus, Route 80 was not to far from this town.
If you know me, you’ll know I hate not being able to get directly from point a to point b, and unfortunately, in order to connect to the route that would take us southeast to Nevada City, CA, we had to go north into Oregon again.
Right after we left our campsite in the Redwoods we found this gem of a “graffitied” road sign.
As we moved Northeast towards Oregon again, the wet, redwood-laden coastline quickly changed into sun-baked, high mountains and plains dotted with scrubby evergreen trees and bushes. It was hot and dry, and our understanding was that it had been that way for a while. It was obvious how fire-prone this area was, just passing through.
If you are from out of state and haven’t driven into CA in the recent past, you need to know that the odds are high you’ll face a traffic slowdown upon entry, while waiting to get your vehicle inspected for invasive pests and contraband produce. In fact in the first crossing a few days back, this official dude pulled us over and spent ten minutes on his back checking the undercarriage of our entire truck and trailer. He excitedly produced a spider pod in a test tube for us, which he said he wasn’t sure was anything, and gave us a handout about invasives and we were on our way. This second go-round coming back into CA, however, we got waved through more quickly. (Must have been close to lunch break.)
It was a long drive to Nevada City from the border. The hot, dry conditions continued throughout the whole of the day. A large swath of Mount Shasta was on fire as we passed it on our left as we moved southeast. (We had a lot of time to look because traffic was at a standstill due to construction.)
About thirty minutes out from Chico, I said to the family “Hey, I think this is a college town coming up. There’s probably great takeout food. Why don’t you all decide on a place, and order in advance by phone? It will be ready by the time we get to town.” Thirty minutes later, and no consensus on food (i.e. four hangry people does not a productive conversation make). We wound up buying fast food, which nobody wanted. The best laid plans and all that. When people ask me how we got along so well, I remember moments like this.
The road to Chico took us through miles and miles of citrus and plum (for prunes) trees. Limes, lemons, and mandarins on mostly level ground as far as the eye could see. There were also quite a bit of other types of farms.
Farms and flatlands turned into mountains, and eventually we arrived at Inn Town Campground (highly recommend) after dark. We had time to pull in and catch a tv show before bed, so we missed how absolutely charming and interesting the town of Nevada City was that night. We were really pleased to find a lot of safety protocols in place at this campground for Covid, which we appreciated. The staff was really helpful and friendly. It was beautifully landscaped underneath the shade of many extremely tall evergreen trees, with immaculate facilities.
In the morning we trekked out route 49, along craggy cliffs – again pocked with scrubby trees and evidence of forest fires – towards Yuba River State Park. There was a really cool original Western Union building in a historic gold-rush-era “town” just before we descended to the parking lot for the park. Parking was super cheap and after a short hike, we staked out a small bit of rocky ground on the river’s edge. It was VERY crowded. But there was enough space to spread out and not bump into anyone.
We enjoyed ourselves so much here. The river itself was the perfect temperature, and was almost a teal color. There were tons of rocks that you could jump into the water from and land in deep holes carved by river eddies. We swam upstream and found a low-grade waterfall that you could slide down (because of the slippery, algae-covered rocks). Swimming against the current coming off this waterfall was an unexpectedly fun work-out.
After hours of swimming, we were starving, and wound up eating in down-town Nevada City. Sadly the town was closing up as we were walking the streets, but we hit up a couple of fantastic, artsy, touristy shops before heading back to our home at Inn Town.
The road to our forest campsite took us through acres and acres of old-growth redwoods, which – if you haven’t been up close – are heart-stoppingly impressive. I decided to spring for the deluxe patio at Redwood Meadows because this was the point in our trip where we turned back inland and I wanted to celebrate how far we had come. It was wayyy more than I even expected. We had a great vantage point to view the area and were close to all the facilities.
The next day, we decided to go to a roadside attraction called Trees of Mystery. It was supposedly only ten minutes away from us. Well, if you are from the area, you’ll know what we did not know: there is no such thing as ten minutes away to the south of Crescent City (the nearest town), due to massive road work. They are completely ripping apart highway 101 and rebuilding it. Workers shut the highway down four hours a day for uninterrupted work time, and rest of the day they stop traffic in twenty minute intervals to allow one lane to pass. There’s no way around this road, because it’s tribal land to the east, and nothing else to the west but ocean. So, we decided on suffering through what amounted to a one-hour delay to get to the attraction, shutting the engine off, and staring at the Redwoods all around us until our lane got to move. We even had time to pick flowers and raspberries on the side of the road.
We arrived at Trees of Mystery to find a massive Paul Bunyan statue, complete with his pet ox. We got our tickets and walked down the path. Unlike the pared down natural aesthetic of trails in most of the parks we’d already visited, this trail was something along the lines of if Disneyworld carved a path and put up signage and rides along the way. Nonetheless, it was still magnificent to see so many different gargantuan species of trees. The semi-circle of trees that formed “the Cathedral” were interesting and photogenic. After that, there was a suspended path through the canopy, where you can get up close and personal with the tops of the redwoods (and where I suffered through my fear of heights to enjoy the walk with my family.) Everyone (but me) loved it. Afterwards, we stopped for an obligatory photo in front of “The Brotherhood Tree” before taking a gondola to the top of the mountain and look out across the forest towards the ocean.
On the way back we saw a “Candelabra Tree” which had multiple trees growing out of a fallen Redwood. There were a few more fallen trees as well. The last part of the walk were a number of carvings depicting the “life” of Paul Bunyan starting with really freaky baby images and moving on from there.
We stayed until nearly four and then headed home, only to find out that we couldn’t pass through Route 101 until 7. It was entirely shut down for hours. Matthew declared that he had to get an In N Out burger before we left California, so we decided to head south to get some in Eureka. It was over an hour away, but what else did we have to do? So, we hit the road and traveled through some beautiful valleys full of streams and grazing elk, along with periodic small towns.
On the way back, we took our last visit to a Pacific Coast beach. This one was full of black, volcanic sand and was absolutely stunning. As was the case with every beach we stopped at over the last few days, there were very few other tourists to contend with, and the temperatures were cool and windy. When we all had our fill, we went home and had a quiet night amid the Redwoods.
The morning we left for the Oregon coast, Chris had some meetings scheduled mid-morning. So, about an hour from Port Angeles, we found a parking lot with five bars of cell service for him and did some shopping and ate lunch. Matthew had wanted some baskets to store things in his bunk and we found them in a Ross store. Plus, everyone needed to use restrooms that wouldn’t require a sewer dump site visit.
When business (of all types) was done, we set off on our drive. This was one of the prettiest drives we took, skirting Pacific Northwest rainforest for hours with the lovely Hood Canal at our left. By the way, Washington, thanks for the hilarious names, like Dismal Nitch and Cape Disappointment. In the evening, the Pacific Ocean was at our right, stretching away to the misty horizon from our breathtaking cliffside route. Astoria was the first major town in Oregon to greet us. I only had time to snap pictures from the car as we were running a bit late to get to our campsite, so I’m sorry for the quality. If you’re fans of the movie “The Goonies” you’ll recognize this town, since a lot of the shots in the movie were filmed there.
When we got to our campsite that evening, we were excited to spend time around the fire with my cousin and his wife, who drove down from Washington to be at our campsite and hang out with us. We had only gotten a night to see them on the Fourth of July so this was an extra treat.
The next day, we filled a prescription in a nearby town. You have to love the convenience of having national pharmacy chains with computer systems that hold your recurring prescriptions that you can fill anywhere. Pumping gas in Newport, we turned around and there was a sign indicating that the road behind us was the same Route 20 that passes close to where we live in Massachusetts!
Then we started to pick our way down the coastline south of our homebase of Waldport. We started by purchasing an Oregon Coast parking pass that covers national and state-run parking lots for the entire time we’d be there. Then we hiked down Devil’s Churn and the kids got their first feel of the Pacific ever. Yep. They’ve never touched the Pacific Ocean.
We spent the day exploring small towns like Yachats and stopping at beaches to hike or just take time to rest. It’s amazing how different one beach can be from another. Close to sunset, we found ourselves at a wide sandy beach that we had almost entirely to ourselves.
Our second day in Waldport was more coastal exploration for us. We met up with my cousin and his wife, who helped show Matthew how to fly a really cool kite, and then afterwards, we sought out tidal pools to explore for sea-life. Our dog, Cee Cee, was a bit confused by all the water that she couldn’t drink, but enthused by getting wet. On the way back, we stopped to do the touristy gift shopping and ice cream eating in Yachats. We instantly loved that quirky and quaint little town. That evening, after dinner, Matthew and I took a walk across the Waldport bridge and spent time watching all the seals that lazed their day away on the sandbar beneath.
Our last day, we didn’t have a long drive, so we took our time driving down the coast. We grabbed coffee in Yachats at a micro-batch coffee roaster, Green Salmon Coffee, which took a good forty-five minutes due to the line. However, we were at our leisure and it was a cute little coffee house, so it was fine by us. As the drive progressed, we left the craggy cliffs of the central and northern coast and shifted into dune topography. ATV and ORV rental businesses abounded. I’d like to point out that dunes are one of those things that seem like fun when you’re standing at the bottom of them and they are extremely photogenic. However, after climbing to the top you really have to consider if you want to go down the other side – and necessitate another climb – or just stay there and enjoy the scenery while your kids run down and up like it’s no problem. (Spoiler alert: I chose staying put.) By the end of the drive to California, the dunes disappeared and the scenery turned rocky again.
While leaving my Aunt and Uncle’s house, my cousin’s husband noticed a drip under the truck. Since I had already intended to get an oil change, I decided to get the truck looked at as soon as I could. I had already struck out at Walmart for a quick oil change the day before. Since I had more going on than just a standard service, I got a recommendation for a great mechanic in Port Angeles and he had availability that afternoon, so I set up an appointment.
Being only a couple hours from our campsite at Crescent Beach, we arrived there as early as was possible to check in. The place was breathtaking. Stretching across the vista in front of our camper was an extensive private beachfront on the Strait of Juan de Fuca. We could very clearly see Vancouver Island, and – in fact – we were so close that we picked up Canadian cell service. Behind the site were the Olympic Mountains, which were visible from the beach when the cloud cover lifted.
After the family got settled into our campsite, and Matthew and I took a walk on the beach, I took off to grab groceries. One of the people at the campsite told me there was a little store up the street called Joyce General Store that had basics and I was fine with that. Little did I know it was the most quaint general store I would see on our trip. It was like stepping back in time. I picked up a couple of “special” treats for Chris there – because I love him so.
After dropping off the groceries, I took the truck up to Port Angeles to be looked at. It turns out there was just a lot of air conditioning condensation dripping, but the mechanic found the sway bar was broken and fixed it. Plus we got an oil change. The view from the town wasn’t too shabby either. All in all, it was a great afternoon. Unfortunately, when I got back I discovered Izzy had gotten my form of the cold and was feeling miserable. While I made a soup dinner for her and the familiy, the boys played beach volleyball on the campground’s court. I took a walk on the beach as the food cookded. That evening, we sat around the campfire to get warm. (Did I mention it was considerably colder here than anywhere we’d been so far?)
The next day, we forewent driving up the mountains of Olympic National Park. Izzy was stuffed up and I didn’t want her ears to hurt with the altitude change. Besides, we’d been to mountains already and would see more later in the trip. So, we headed in the direction of the Olympic National Forest’s lower trails into the rainforest. In order to get to these trails we had to go through Forks – where Bella meets Edward in the infamous Twilight series of books. We stopped, ate some really yummy Italian food, and let Chris do some work in the car outside of the library in Forks. Verizon cell phone reception was not great in the area, so he needed the steady WiFi. Izzy sat in the car and rested, while Matthew and I went into some shops and then the hardware store. I had to get a dish drying rack that fit a small trailer, extra large ziploc bags to hold the sewer line when we stow it since the first one fell apart, and 3M hooks to help keep towels off the floor. By this point, I was growing a bit obsessed with using Command hooks to solve trailer life mess-related issues.
More than one shop in Forks featured movie and book merch, plus there is also a museum dedicated to Twilight (which had a line out the door). Interestingly, the movie wasn’t even filmed in Forks. While movie/book tourists are a new economy, the mainstay of the area is – apparenty, according to the sign below – logging.
After lunch in Forks we drove to the Hoh Rain Forest in Olympic National Park. Although there were loads of warnings that we would encounter delays due to road work coming into the park, we must have hit the flaggers at all the right times. Windows rolled down and listening to 90s hip hop on Spotify, we soaked in the cool air and smells of the forest.
When we reached the visitor’s center, we found packed parking lots. However, turnover for spots was high in the late afternoon, and we found one right near the trailheads easily. As a family, we took the Spruce Nature Trail, which had a variety of sights: old growth and new growth trees, Hoh River views, and bridges over streams. We did not run into the bad-tempered elk that we were warned against at the trailhead, but we did find a banana slug, which was a little gross. It was a shame that we arrived after a long dry spell because a lot of undergrowth and mosses were brown and wilted. That didn’t diminish how verdant the whole forest was, with moss hanging from branches, green plants carpeting the ground, and leaves sprouting from every level of the canopy. At the end of the trail, I took Izzy to rest in the truck while Chris and Matthew hiked the Hall of Mosses Trail.
To visit family, we stayed west of Seattle at Kitsap Memorial State Park. It was a waterfront park with a beach and views of the Olympics. It was also close enough to our prior campsite that we had plenty of time to visit nearby family. That was one of the things I was most looking forward to. However, by this point, my cold had taken hold of my sinuses in a big way. That meant I was constantly concerned with how I could protect everyone I was visiting, by distancing and staying outside, even though all I wanted to do was hug them and sit close. I didn’t want anyone to get sick and feel as lousy as I did. Or suffer the stigma of having a cold during Covid-times – during which everyone treats you like a pariah when you have a cough.
After feeling like I’d prepared everyone for my illness and taken every precaution, we hopped in the car and made our way over to my uncle and aunt’s house in Keyport, WA. My uncle used to run a marina and still has a dock close to the entrance of Liberty Bay (close to Puget Sound). Having been there last when I was around ten, I remembered how much I loved running out the dock and looking at all the tube worms and crabs. The cool thing was watching my own kids enjoy the same sights as I had when I was their age. Matthew, in particular, was glued to that dock the whole time. He even got to do a little fishing thanks to my cousins and their spouses.
One of the truly amazing things that evening was that four of my beautiful cousins, plus a few of their kids, took time to stop by and say hi. That, combined with getting to spend time with my maternal uncle and aunt, just tickled my heart. (My uncle had seven kids if you’re trying to keep track of how many of us there are.) We were able to hang out, talk and eat for hours. None of them had met my kids or husband before, or vice versa. One of them took one look at my daughter and noted how much she resembled my mom’s side of the family. My children got to sing songs with my Aunt, who was a gifted singer in the past. It was a blessing I won’t soon forget.
When I woke the next day, I didn’t feel any better, but we had plans to meet up again with a cousin who we’d seen the day before and who lives on Bainbridge Island and works in the city. He took us on a very personal and fun tour of Seattle. Here we are on the ferry and arriving during the foggy hours of the morning.
Our first stop was Market Theater gum wall. Honestly, I’m 50-50 on whether it was disgusting or cool. Glad to see Mexico brought its A game, though.
Next up was a visit to Pike’s Place, where a bit of one of my favorite movies, “Singles,” was filmed. We found beautiful fresh fruit and fish for sale and a really fantastic comic store.
After that, we dropped by the first Starbucks (but didn’t feel like standing in line). I had read once that they changed the logo because *looks around and whispers* boobs. So of course I had to take ten million pictures of the original logo and buy two cups (from the less crowded Starbucks up the block) that featured it as well.
My cousin spent a great deal of time orchestrating an optical illusion picture from in front of the Art Museum, so kudos for doing that! Our last stop on the tour was to the Pioneer Square, which was a big locale for the 90s Seattle rock scene. Given that my cousin played in bands there, and also listened to many, he has many fond memories here.
We had afternoon plans, so it was time to go all too soon. The sun was out by this point, so we got some great pics as we left the city (only got one photo where Raineer is kind of visible above the fire-haze). In the ferry parking lot, we noticed someone had hilariously decked out their car in National Lampoon Vacation style, so we had to snap pics. After all, we were on our own cross-country journey.
My nose and throat hurt so bad by this point, I knew I couldn’t do anything else until I took care of my cold. While Chris and the kids met up with my closest-in-age cousin and one of his kids to go paddleboarding on Wildcat Lake, I went to a local clinic. I got (yet another) Covid test, along with flu and strep tests, and also got negative diagnoses on all of them. The verdict was a bad sinus infection; I was given prednisone for a week to reduce swelling.
After the doctor, I made one last trip to my Aunt and Uncle’s house to see them and pick up Chris and the kids from their day out. It was great to get one last visit with my cousin who spent the day with my family, and I was so happy to learn that another cousin of mine – who hosted us on the Fourth – had come out to see us again with her husband. After spending some more time with them and my Uncle and Aunt, we headed back to the campsite.
That evening, I spiked a fever of 100 and felt like my head was going to pop with pressure. Plus – and likely because of feeling cruddy – I had a huge fight with my teen daughter, who had wandered off and got her clothes full of mud while I lay dying in bed. *snort* Of course, this all happened when Chris was out running an errand.
On that note, a lot of people ask us how we as a family don’t kill each other being in close quarters for so long. I have to say that we have a lot of tiny, bickering, grumpy moments. We’re definitely not the Waltons. But generally speaking, these kids are kind of used to car travel, since their mom spent a lot of time getting them to nap by driving all over New England. Also, we are a make-the-best-of-it sort of family. A lot of joking and sarcasm is involved in our typical conversations. It didn’t hurt that I made sure each person had a separate device to be able to watch shows, do work, or listen to audiobooks, along with enough mobile data to make it worthwhile. God bless technology.
Finding a camping site for the Fourth of July was extremely difficult. I was thrilled that one opened at a park that was en route to our next campsite in Kitsap. This one was located at a beautiful park along the Green River called Kanaskat-Palmer State Park. It was even better because it was close to a couple of my cousins who live East of Seattle.
We saw our first wildfire on our way to this park, on the eastern side of Mount Raineer. Given the aircraft circling, I assume it was in an area that they wanted to prevent from reaching homes or businesses. We never actually saw this iconic mountain in its entirety – from a distance or as a backdrop for Seattle – because of the haze in the air during our days there.
After having not seen one of my cousins and his wife for decades (he lived near us in Maryland when I was a kid), I was so excited to finally have them with me in person and catch up. It was so wonderful to talk adult to adult, with a whole new set of life stories to tell. We followed them to his sister’s – one of my other cousins – house to celebrate the holiday. I got to meet my cousin’s husband and son and enjoy good food and company for the evening. She was so generous – setting up a whole food spread for us travel-weary and starving folks. What a terrific night we had!
We already thought from the – you know – name of the place, that it might be hot near Hells Canyon. And it was. The high on the only full day we were there was 105. However, we were told that in the days up until we arrived, the temperatures hit 120. We were lucky. Heh heh.
In truth, we stayed in Clarkston, Washington, across from Lewiston, Idaho. (Everything’s named after these guys out here.) This was one of the places we decided to let Chris have time to work. There was a nice, air conditioned, and empty work room at our campsite. Although our trailer is air conditioned, it can’t quite get the RV cooler than 85 degrees in excessive heat with no tree cover. Lucky for the kids, they were already over their mild versions of Chris’ cold so they were up for any activity I felt we could safely do (in Covid-era). The choice was fairly easy. At the docks a few yards from our site, there was a jet boat company who did tours of Hells Canyon with lunch included.
The company we chose for our adventure was called Snakedancer. I wish I remember our guide and his co-worker’s name because they were fantastic. We traveled up the Snake River, which started with denser homes along a wide green-brown river and low-slung cliffs that very quickly gave way to outcroppings of a handful of water-side homes only reachable by boat or – in rare instances – from dirt roads that disappeared over much higher cliffs. The latter houses were mostly off-grid with water tanks above them, generators kept in buildings that looked like outhouses, and with mail arriving via a boat once a week on Wednesdays.
The river was crowded with July 3rd revelers taking journeys upstream to stop on their own stretch of any number of beaches that were exposed along the river due to the low water levels. They set up little day camps and were swimming, boating, and floating on the waters edge as we zoomed by. Leaving commentary around this aside, I’m going to just note that greater than half of the homes and boats we saw in the more remote areas had Trump signs flying on them.
There were plenty of wild animals to see along the river, like bald eagles, mountain rams and elk. We also saw an abandoned mining operation. At the confluence with the Salmon River, the source of the brown in the water was revealed. It was pouring out of the Salmon, also known as the River of No Return, because any supply boats that traveled this river could never make the return trip on the rapids without suffering too much damage. Our guide said that somewhere up the Salmon there might have been a mudslide. Past this point, the Snake River was a pretty deep green-blue color.
Around lunchtime we hit the US National Forest’s Cache Creek Ranch in Oregon, just past the border with Washington. Idaho was still on the opposite shore. Any boats travelling past this point are required to pull over to the dock and get their Hells Canyon permits checked. We stopped long enough to eat a delicious lunch that the tour company provided and had a lovely conversation with some fellow travelers from Northern California. Then we got into the boats and continued up-river until we reached Dug Bar, at which point we turned around. This area had a pretty heart-breaking indigenous people’s history: https://www.nps.gov/nepe/learn/historyculture/dug-bar-history.htm.
On the way back, we were able to see more wildlife at the water’s edge. At one point, we pulled off to the side of the river and went swimming. Matthew and Izzy were the first to ask if they could dive off the back of the boat, since the drop-off to deep water was pretty steep and it was relatively safe. After we loaded back onto the boat, we also encountered some multi-day raft tourists and kayakers. It was interesting to see how all of the boats, including ours, were careful to avoid creating wakes anywhere near non-motor boats and swimmers. Only once did we see a boat exhibiting poor water safety where smaller craft were concerned. Otherwise, despite it being a fairly crowded day, everyone co-existed well on the river. Finally, our guide pulled us up alongside some rocks with petroglyphs dating back thousands of years, situated near a ranch run by the Nature Conservancy. By this point, both kids were wiped and one was napping on my lap. (And if you have a teen you’ll know how absolutely precious this moment was to me.)
We got back in the afternoon and caught up with Chris on our days. Then we took a little drive to show him some of the scenery we enjoyed along the river, while eating carry-out dinner.
The last night in Glacier, Chris got a bit of a sneezy head cold, so we all scheduled Covid tests in Couer d’Alene to be on the safe side. It didn’t present like Covid, and we were vaccinated, wore masks everywhere and washed our hands, so it would have been a long shot that was what he had. However, we wanted to be good citizens. Since this town was only a short drive from Glacier, we had plenty of time to wait out the results and eat some carry out lunch. When we got negatives across the board, we were unsurprised but thrilled.
We arrived at our campsite and were told that the septic tank was not functioning – that we’d have to find somewhere else to dump our sewage. This was a minor inconvenience for a two day stay, since we could easily use their restrooms; however, it meant using bathrooms with unmasked people in a state that by-and-large is unvaccinated. This was something we wanted to avoid by taking our own bathroom with us. All that said, we did like the campsite. It was quite lovely and offered free firewood.
That evening, we explored downtown Coeur d’Alene. I cannot express how absolutely lovely this town is…the houses, the businesses, the scenery. We got some yummy ice cream and local craft brews, before heading back to our site, where we had a nice night around the campfire.
The next morning, we drove around town again, and explored the beach. One thing of note – and it might just be the days we were there – was that nearly three-quarters of the people walking around looked like airbrushed pictures. And were wearing far more expensive clothes than I expected to see in a small city in Idaho. It was like being on Rodeo Drive…if I’d ever been on Rodeo Drive. Being two weeks into a camping trip and looking like it, this may have been more notable than had we just flown in and hung out there. Either way, both kids wound up asking for haircuts that day (for some reason) and so we took them to do that (masks on). Then, I stopped into a home store to pick up some items that we discovered we needed to make trailer living work better: a basket to contain the mess of shoes by the door; a couple pillows to make beds comfier; and a small rug for the bathroom floor which tends to get pretty wet during showers.
In the evening, both kids seemed to have mild versions of Chris’ cold, so we kept our distance from others and took a drive up a scenic road near our campsite. It turned out to be lined with multi-million-dollar mansions hanging off the mountainside. We caught a breathtaking sunset over the mountains and across the lake before turning in for the night.
Setting the Heather Alight 
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