Cave Lake to Zion National Park Utah

 

Cave Lake State Park in Nevada

Our Site                                                               The Lake

We really liked Cave Lake, we were tempted to stay another day but we were anxious to get to Utah,  We drove highway 93 which is also known as the Great Basin Highway, there was very little traffic and few small towns,just mile after mile of  sage brush and juniper covered hills.

It was so hot we stopped early yesterday at Baker Dam BLM Rec site, we were the only ones  at first, later a couple of  RVs came in, the heat was horrendous, we hung our shade cloth off the awning, which helped a lot. It was too hot to do anything, even cook so we had crackers and cheese for supper. There were a lot of coyotes howling through the night but we didn’t see any.

Today we drove to Zion National Park, we bought a  National Park Pass, which gets us into all the National Parks in the US for a year. We decided to camp right in the park, because there are shade trees. The heat is a real problem with dogs, we can’t leave them when it is hot out. If we had electric hookups we could leave them for a while with the AC on but we  seldom have hookups.

The park is a mad house, all three campgrounds are full, we had a time getting a site in fact we got a site, got all set up and had to move. The ranger had made a mistake and told us to go to a site that  already reserved. she wasn’t nice about it either. I think that she is the first ranger we have met that was rude, most of them are friendly and very accommodating.

We did manage a short walk with the dogs today and the plan is to leave early tomorrow and do two short hikes and  then if it’s cool enough go again in the afternoon.We  are staying here  at least until Sunday, then we are off to Bryce Canyon.

This is Snow Canyon outside of Zion                  Just outside the Zion NP

Our Site                                                          This Deer had the biggest ears

Views form the Campground

Just looked at the weather forecast and it is supposed to be cooler tomorrow and there is a 30% chance of a shower.. keeping my fingers crossed.

Jean

Island City Oregon to Cave Lake State Park Nevada

 

Last time I posted we were in Island City, Skip had checked the tire pressures before we left Lewiston that morning. One of our back inside tires was quite low, the ranger phoned around to see if we could get someone to look at it. The only  place open who was capable of looking at it was Wal- Mart in Clarkston. Turned out they couldn’t  take it off so they filled it for us  so we could get to  Les Schwab in La Grande Oregon. We set our GPS and off we went, the route the GPS chose was highway  129.  It was unbelievable, a series of switchbacks that went down a mountain side for miles and then up the other side. From the passenger seat of a class A motorhome it was breathtaking. We found out later it was called Rattle Snake Drive. There is a video on You Tube that says there are 300 turns in 9 miles. I never counted nor did I take any pictures, cause I was not letting go  of the edge of my seat for anything. We spotted a Wal –Mart in Island City and parked there for the night.

Just after Rattle Snake Drive.

The next  day we went to Les Schwab and found out there was a bulge in the sidewall of the tire, and it could have blown any time. We ended up buying two new tires.

We spent Monday night in Farewell Bend State Park just outside of Ontario Oregon, we had tried for a spot in a forestry site , but it wasn’t very good for the dogs, a gravel parking lot with no shade. The state park was nice, just like all of Oregons’ ParksWe got a pull through site and just sat and relaxed.

Yesterday we drove through Twin Falls Idaho.

A golf course on an island on the Snake River in Twin Falls, and a whole city block had these dolls tied to trees.

We stopped for the night at Salmon Falls Res. Rec Site. Seven miles up a paved road from Rogerson Idaho, there was a sign indicating the turn to the campground which we missed and we drove across the narrow reservoir.

We eventually got turned around and found the campsite, it was really nice. nobody around our site, it was lovely and warm, and the price was right at $5.00, we thought we might stay a few days.

Our Site                                                     Our View

 

Every thing was wonderful, quiet, lots of room for the dogs… then the flies came, not a few but swarms, we couldn’t  sit outside, when we went inside they covered all the screens. Every time we let the dogs in or out they would come in. We decided to move on this morning and now we are at Cave Lake State Park not far from Ely Nevada.

I haven’t had a chance to take any pictures yet , but it is very quiet and very private, each site is bordered by Juniper trees.

Tomorrow we will be in Utah, where we hope to spend a couple of weeks.

I forgot to say how warm it has been the last week, in Lewiston it was 98F for two days, since then it has been in the 80s everyday, We did have about 10 minutes of rain one day.

Jean

N’Kolah to Kelowna to Rock Creek.

 

Saturday Sept. 17   We left Chilliwack and drove to N’Kolah  Campsite a free Government Recreation Park, along the Nicola River, Like almost every area of BC it was extremely dry and there was a campfire ban in effect. There were about a dozen other RVs there spread out over three levels. .

We had no close neighbors which is good when you are travelling with three dogs.

 

We had intended to travel to Kelowna on Sunday but we discovered when we came from our walk that we had two flat tires on the tracker, one tire would hold air when Skip inflated it, but the other had too big a hole, so he had to put the spare on.

We went into Merrit but there was no repair  shop open until Monday so we had to stay another night. Merritt is the site of the Merritt Mountain Music Festival. thousands of country music fans converge there every July to camp, party and watch the stars perform. some of the stars have their pictures painted on the side of the buildings and their handprints on a plaque.

N’Kolah was a dry dusty campground, the Nicola river was very low. We found little cactus growing among the pine needles.

Monday morning we went into Merritt to see if Kal Tire could fix our tires, they took us in right away, one tire had a piece of metal in it the other had a drill bit about four inches long..what are the chances of that. They didn’t charge us for the repair, told us to stop in Kelowna and get  the tires torqued,  We thought that was pretty nice of them.

We were off to Kelowna  and Bear Creek Provincial Park, where they almost had a disastrous fire labor day weekend, there were 300 campers in the park when a fire broke out on the hill behind and came right to the fence line,They had to evacuate the whole park at night the rvs went to Wal-Mart and the tenters went to a community center, We could see the burned trees behind the parking lot, and some trails were closed because they were falling burned trees.

 

Okanogan Lake was beautiful and Kelowna is such a pretty city, we’re told it has a population of over 200,000, and it’s now the second largest city in BC. We remember it when it was a small town .

Okanogan Lake

  Our campsite

 

On Monday we went to Sharon and Randy’s home for dinner. They own a wonderful butcher shop in the Mission District.

We had a wonderful  steak dinner and a nice visit with them and their daughter Brittney.

Tuesday morning we were off to Rock Creek, where we stayed at Kettle  River Provincial Park, it was a nice park, very different from the parks on Vancouver Island, it is very arid country.

The Kettle River was down a path by our site

Don’t know what they are looking at

The ranger told us that the campground was closing in two days, and some of the other  campgrounds we were heading to were already closed. We particularly wanted to go to Christina Lake, apparently it had closed Sept 18th.

So because plans are made to be changed we decided to head south, we are in Idaho at Hells Gate State Park. and it’s really really hot. This post is too long so I will  tell you about that tomorrow.

 

Jean

I finally figured out why I couldn't post last night. My Picassa photo storage was full. I deleted one picture from this blog and ordered more storage. We are in Island City Oregon, because this is where our GPS sent us.

Jean

Just to let you know

We are in Lewiston Idaho heading for Clarkston Wa, I can't get the post I wrote to publish I'll try again later.
Jean

NANOOSE BAY TO TAMIHI CREEK

 

I never sleep very well the night before a trip, and this trip was no exception. I laid in bed a couple hours,hoping I had remembered to pack everything we needed for our long trip.I had no sooner finally dozed off when Jake woke me, he rarely has to go out at night, by the time I got back to bed it was almost four am. I finally got up just before five. We were mostly loaded, so we had coffee and toast  took the last few things to the motorhome and were on our way at eight. We got gas  and headed  to the Duke Point Ferry Terminal, to catch the 10:15 ferry to Tswassen.

 

The ferry takes two hours, then it was another two hours to the Tanihi Creek Campground, It was our first time there and it wasn’t quite what we were expecting, but it was fine for an overnight stop.

There wasn’t anybody on the river but the course was layed out for competitive kayaking.

 

Tomorrow we are heading to the Nicola River between Merrit and Spences Bridge, it would be nice if we had sun, but I think the forcast is for rain.

Jean

We Leave Tomorrow

My replacement visa card card came today, boy what a pain having a card compromised, I was on the phone about two hours today, mostly on hold. I still have a call to make tonight to Shaw, I tried to contact them this afternoon to cancel the internet, and was on hold listening to their stupid recordings for over an hour, kind of ironic one blurb was about how they were looking for customer service reps, and about every minute or so the one about my call being important to them came on. I got to the point where I was talking back, so I finally hung up, I will try again tonight.


I think everything is done, the motorhome is loaded, everything is checked off the lists, I am glad that once we are on the ferry tomorrow; we don’t have any schedules or plans, or places we have to be.

We won’t have internet until we cross the border,so we will have to find free wifi to post and read emails. I don’t mind hanging out in McDonalds’ parking lot.

Sophie is not happy that Louie has taken her sun spot. Little brothers can be a pain sometimes,




Jean

Four More Sleeps..We hope.

Our plan is to leave home on Thursday Sept 15, we plan to take our time going to the Okanogan, we have several places we want to stop and check out.

Yesterday I got a phone call from Visa that my credit card had been  compromised. Nothing was charged to the account, but somebody tried to buy a computer at the Apple Store and pay for a trip though Nomad Travel, both attempts were made on line. Of course my card has been cancelled and they are sending me an new one. I don’t want to leave before it comes. .They said five to seven business days,  five is Wed the 14th.

We are getting ready, we have been gradually getting the motorhome loaded, this year we have a better idea of the clothes we need, both cold and warm weather. We have some food loaded,and Skip has all the stuff that goes in the bins put away.

The  hard thing  is the garden, the weather has been so warm, I am still watering and things are still growing, It was hard  to do but I emptied the pots and put them in the green house so they wouldn’t crack if it freezes. I guess I will leave the rest if we don’t have a heavy snowfall.



Skip and I are getting pretty excited but I think Jake is pretty laid back about the whole thing.



Jean