Northwestern Montana

Lady Blue is getting a lot of practice with traveling in the rain.  Even so, following Route 2 east into Montana is a pretty drive.


Our first stop is at Middle Thompson Lake and Logan State Park.  This is a small campground with great boat launch access for fishermen.

This picture is just to show easy access. Almost every view in this part of Montana is going to show you mountains.


The campers love the fishing.  One of the hosts here  was also telling us how he had picked up an elk here during the bow and arrow season.  He also enjoys hunting further east in Montana for antelope.

Massachusetts readers will appreciate the abundance of what we call beach roses.  They are just coming into bloom here and these are quite fragrant.

It is a very short drive from Logan State Park to another large lake named McGregor Lake.  We just happened to find this private campground associated with The Lodge at Mcgregor Lake--right across the street.  We really enjoyed the hosts and the owner of this campground that was only 2 years old.  Had a great dinner at the lodge looking out at the lake and talking with the bartender--son of the owner, Jeremy.  Beer fans will appreciate that the beer on tap was Hat Trick IPA from a local brewery called Tamarack Brewery in Lakeside, Montana .  Very nice!
http://www.tamarackbrewing.com/who-needs-one.php

All of us in the campground got excited about this visitor.  Not sure what he was after, but he stayed for a little while. This picture was taken by one of  the hosts.

That was one of two breweries located on Flathead Lake. We were told that it is the largest lake west of the Mississippi.  It certainly seems that big. You can find it on the map south of Kalispell, Montana which is about 30 miles or so south of Glacier National Park.  Finding a campground here is a bit of a challenge.  There are a number of private, state, and national forest campgrounds around, but most of them have a very few number of sites. We lucked out with this nice spot at Finley Point State Park on the southeast side of the lake.

When you are fulltime rving, life happens on the road.  We know that a number of our friends will ask about "What do you do----for mail, laundry, bills, etc.  The big one is "What do you do about doctors?" 
Well, it's almost the same as being in a stick house, except that you are not anywhere near your regular doctors.  However, there are things like the Yelp application that rates or at least lists doctors and dentists.

Well-l-l--l.  Old Bruce had this problem that started to pop up with an aching jaw and a swollen cheek.  I know---you can see it coming-----yep--an immediate need for a dentist.  A quick search of Yelp gave us a number of choices in Kalispell.  And one review was from a traveler who was quite happy with a Dr. Pittaway. 
We called and stopped by, and he was able to see me right away. 
Wonderful people, and though we wound up staying for a few days longer than planned, the problem was resolved quickly.  One less tooth, but quite comfortable.

This has happened to us over the years, and we have been quite happy with recommendations from fellow campers, online reviews like Yelp, and such. The point is that there is good medical care---and other service providers--all across the country.  Our experience has found them to be quite good, professional, and the staff ,very friendly and helpful.

So, the dentist was yesterday. This is our view today from our campsite as we wait for the days of rain to finally be over. This campground is in Kalispell on the Flathead River.  The river is three branches from the Glacier area that join together and then flow south. Today, we are watching the river get very close to the top of the bank. The owner assured us that the river is only at 13 feet.  Still 2 feet to go before overflowing.  The mountains in the background are part of the Rocky Mountain chain.  Parts of Glacier got multiple feet of snow yesterday, so we know that the Going-To-The-Sun Road will not be open.  Also, we know that parts of Route 2 were snow covered with some rock slides here and there.  But, hopefully tomorrow will begin a great, sunny spell.

Olympic NP to Grand Coulee Dam

There is a lot to like in the state of Washington! We enjoyed a very scenic and quiet ride around the north end of the Olympic Peninsula.

Following Route 101 took us right along the shore of Lake Crescent.  This view is from  Lake Crescent Lodge.  The lake is popular with divers.  One of those lakes you can see through the clear water. It reaches a depth in some spots of 600 feet.

In Port Angeles , right along the Strait of Juan de Fuca, we head up into the Olympic National Park at Hurricane Ridge.

Lady Blue is liking the view of the Olympic Mountains.










After a very pleasant stop at the Visitors Center, Jan and I head for Heart O' The Hills Campground.

Note that the fee is $12 per night. And , once again , our America the Beautiful pass makes that $6 per night.  Also allows free admission into the park.








As expected, it is a dry camping site.  This time, we had to look a bit for a level site--and we found one.


A perfect spot for a campfire! With our limited storage, we rely on sales of firewood at the campgrounds where we are staying. 

A quick stop at Evergreen Coho, one of our Escapee campgrounds, a little laundry( actually a lot),and a mail pickup; and then off to a great little town at the junction of the Strait of Juan de Fuca and Puget Sound .  Port Townsend is a small , but active tourist town.  It is an arts center and also an active traffic town for the ferries to Canada and points north and east(avoiding the long ride south around Tacoma and Seattle.

Jan is always happy to find a store selling olive oils and vinegars.  We have found them in places like Cocoa Village in Florida, Belfast in Maine, and Ventura, California.

This store is operated by two young women. They had just opened the store in December---a great idea for an arts, tourist town.

Jan's favorites are Raspberry Balsamic vinegar and Lime Fused olive oil.  The store was called Lively Olive. They have the beginnings of a website(not much yet)and do ship.

Another nice stop in Port Townsend was Fins Coastal Cuisine.  A beautiful day to lunch out on the porch with a view of the harbor.

This was their version of New England Clam Chowder. Small clams in the shell, white wine, garlic, and leeks.   Wonderful!

Our other choice was a fish taco which also included a bit of salad.

Of course the view was great all by itself.

Jan and I often will order from the appetizer menu.
We will often ask if orders can be split.  Most of the time, they gladly spit the order with two plates and silverware.  Occasionally, there will be a small extra charge for splitting.  No---we don't split the wine.

This is the link for the restaurant http://www.finscoastal.com/

We had parked at the Visitor's Center on the way into Port Townsend. From there it was easy to take a shuttle bus into town.  Small RVs could find parking in town. A very nice attendant in the center(originally from Massachusetts) gave us a great recommendation for Fort Worden State Park.  We drove out and decided to stay a night.  Great views of the Strait with lots of ships to watch. 

A huge park, used as a military training base during the World Wars, it is now a great tourist park, as well as a college campus, and campground.

This is Point Wilson Lighthouse which is on the Fort Worden Park property.

From Port Townsend area, Jan and I decided to drive south and around the hook of the Hood Canal.

A very pretty drive, and ---you guessed it--some great little food attractions along the way.  Evidently the Hood Canal is one of the best spots for oyster farms.  And the best recommendation is for Hama Hama Oyster Farm.

Besides a regular fish store selling all kinds of crabs, fresh fish, and oysters, they have an outside barbecue patio--cooking and serving barbecued fresh oysters.  The oyster beds are right past the patio.

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The posts you saw above are actually large containers full of oyster shells.

A great setup with a large grill, a menu for food and drink, and plenty of tables to perch for a little lunch.

We tried a dozen grilled oysters.

One half were topped with chipotle and bourbon sauce.  The others were garlic and butter.  Great!!

Our oysters were small, but inside the store was this gigantic shell that might give you an idea of the oyster size of some.


We decided to bring some of the fare inside the store home for dinner.  The owner had just come out with a batch of freshly smoked maple salmon.

We also tried a few of their crab cakes.

Our plans are always subject to change.  We were originally going to take a ferry across Puget Sound to pick up Route 2 east.  Then we decided to look at the Hood Canal--which was a great decision. After an easy drive through Tacoma and around the Sound, we were going up to Route 2 east.  But, we did not see a lot of camping choices in that section of Route 2, so we opted for Route 90 east which also bypassed a lot of traffic around Seattle.  That brought us to this Kachess Lake in Wenatchee National Forest.  The above is the view from our campsite. 

This campground is often filled during the summer and on weekends.  We were lucky to find a site with no problem on Saturday, and then moved to this perfect site on Sunday morning when the park emptied.  They had a problem with a water pump and the park had been closed until the past week.

We don't have a huge number of campfires, but , once more, this was a perfect spot for a few campfires.  We even had a wonderful camp host who nicely brought the wood to our site!

It seems a very short ride on Route 90 out of Kachess Lake and the very green, woods of the Wenatchee National Forest.  Suddenly, we are back in a desert climate--no grass, no trees.  This is east of Ellensburg, Washington, on route 283 heading north to Coulee City.  This was a great viewpoint back to our crossing bridge and the Columbia River.  While this view is very desert like, we quickly come across a number of farms that are super green from the water supplied by the Columbia  River.

After a quiet night at the Coulee City Community Park, Jan and I follow the Columbia River up to the Grand Coulee Dam..This is the second largest dam in the world.  It has three electric generating plants with something like 33 generators, generating 6,809 megawatts. It was built with about 12 million cubic yards of concrete! That's enough concrete to build a sidewalk four feet wide and four inches thick and wrap it twice around the equator(50,000 miles) .  There are also massive pumps, pumping water up to Lake Roosevelt where it is used for irrigation. The dam has a great visitor's center with all kinds of displays and information.

All of which brings us to Riley Creek Corps of Engineer Campground in Laclede, Idaho.  A lot of mileage covered this past week.  As you probably guessed, a lot of our stops were without an internet connection.

Mt. Rainier to Olympic National Park

Some great stops this past week, but not so great on internet and phone connections.



Jan and I said goodbye to Oregon, crossed the Columbia River and headed up Route 97 to Yakima Sportsman State Park in Yakima, Washington.









We had really enjoyed our views of the Columbia River.  The plan is to catch another view or two from the Washington State side of the river.

Barges on the Columbia look a bit small compared to the Mississippi River.

Yakima turned out to be a great stop.  It was Memorial Day weekend and we had no reservations.

But we lucked out with the last site--a host site--in one of the circles.  A well maintained park with miles of hiking trails.  Also, a good place for birds.  This was one of a number of yellow headed blackbirds. Also a number of red winged blackbirds-- all nesting.

There were high hopes for our trip up to Mt. Rainier National Park.

This was Route 12 from Yakima.  It seems almost every road is a scenic byway.

That is,  if you have good weather to see the scenery.

We were lucky to have a few peeks at Mt. Rainier through the showers.

Still a scenic drive----even in the rain.

Washington is the Evergreen State.

We know why--lots of tall evergreens , including some tall Douglas Fir that started life around  1200A.D. and also Sitka Spruce.

Lady Blue is happy in a level spot.  Once again, our senior pass grants us free admission to the Mt. Rainier National Park and half price for the campsite----$6.00

The campground is Ohanapecosh and most weekend visitors are leaving as we arrive.

It is dry camping--no hookups. But we are happy with our three solar panels.

Some beautiful trails in and around the campground.
This one will lead us up to Silver Falls.

Smaller falls along the way show off the many shades of green.

We can tell that the falls are close.  You can hear them from quite a ways away.


It is obvious that a lot of melting snow has added to volume of water.

Nice thing about the Silver Falls trail is that there is a different trail for the way back.


Jan and I are happy that the rain has held off for this day.

From Ohanapecosh, we follow Route 12 to Route 5 south and then west along the Columbia River again to Cape Disappointment State Park and another rendezvous with Lewis and Clark and the Corps of Discovery.

The shores along the Pacific Coast are lined with logs that have come ashore after traveling down streams and rivers in high water.



Just one of the lighthouses along this section of the mouth of the Columbia River and the Pacific Ocean.


This is the North Head lighthouse.

Some of these trees and stumps have been here for many years--occasionally moved along or back out to sea by the storms.

On our way out of the campground, we have to make a stop at the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center.  Part of the property gives a good view of the Cape Disappointment Lighthouse.

The museum is a great wealth of information about the Lewis and Clark trip.  Maps, replicas of clothing, firearms, and journals, as well as other information about their amazing journey.

Taking a recommendation from the locals, we make a detour out of the campground, back to the town of Ilwaco for Jessie's.

Located on one of the fishing piers, it has a good selection of fresh oysters and fish.

Jan and I settle on a pint of fresh shucked oysters for $9.20 and a pound of wonderful fresh wild salmon.

This view outside of Jessie's will tell you right away that this is an active fishing port.

All along this section of Washington coast, you can see not only fishing boats--large and small--, but also a number of seafood packing and shipping businesses.

One of the most popular state parks in Washington is Grayland State park.  Wonderfully maintained, it is usually full on weekends, even in December.  Another state park where the campers come to shellfish or just walk the flat, hard sand beach.

Jan and I get to stay one night anyway.

Also, a beach that is popular to drive on.

As at Cape Disappointment, the beach is littered with many old , washed up logs.  You can spend a whole day just looking at the different patterns in the weathered logs.

Another favorite campground is just up the road.

Kalaloch Campground in Olympic National Park.

Yes, this tree stump is as big as it looks.

Even Lady Blue, above, looks a bit small.

It's not all beach walking and checking on the washed up logs.

Some people came here just to fish.

Oh NO!!

There's nothing holding that tree up, Bruce.  Watch out!

 Can you find Jan????

As I said, you could spend the whole day------.

Kalaloch is part of the Olympic National Park and that means that this wonderful, ocean view site will be $7 per night.

We had to wait for this site until our second day, but it was well worth the wait.

A plus of Kalaloch (pronounced Clay-lock) is that there is this wonderful Kalaloch Lodge Restaurant within walking distance of our site.

The view from our table (inside).  The menu provided a good listing of Washington state wines and home made offerings for lunch.


We opted for Batter Fried Fish and Chips which were wonderful.

You can see that the chef was somewhat creative by the dessert list.

We were tempted by the Lavender Creme Brulee, but settled on the Washington Apple Rosemary Pie.
The rosemary was subtle and only on the crust, but it added a nice flavor to an excellent homemade pie.

By the way, the flourless tort substituted chick peas for the flour for the gluten free customers.

Still great to get back to our seaside home and watch the waves come in.