Yaak River to Puyallup - July 26th to 31st

Ten minutes after leaving Yaak River Campground on the morning of July 26th, I was in Idaho and two hours later in Spokane.  As I had posted on Facebook, the battery in the laptop was no longer holding a charge and my genealogy friend Miriam had offered to let me have a new battery sent to her home in Spokane, which I did. It was due to arrive on the 28th.

The RV Park where I stayed had good wifi (the access point was two sites down from mine) and a library was just a few miles away. I also had an electric hookup at the RV Park. So I got caught up with Facebook and wrote a few blog posts.

On the morning of the 27th I awoke to find a flat tire on Van Dora. The nice lady in the office of the RV Park recommended Les Schwab Tires, which was a few miles down the road. So I called them, they came out and put some air in the tire and I drove to the store. After an hour or so I was told that they could not find the cause of the flat. The tech had another tech check it over and he found nothing. They did replace the valve stem just in case it had gone bad. So that was really not a good feeling. Why had the tire gone flat? Thankfully, there hasn't been any problelm with the tires since then.

The laptop battery arrived, as scheduled. Miriam and I met for supper and spent a wonderful evening together discussing genealogy and other things. Her neighbor took the photo below of us and Van Dora. Thank you so much, Miriam, for an enjoyable evening and for letting me use your address for delivery of the battery (which, by the way, has been working quite well - I get about 3-4 hours of use, depending upon what I'm doing.)

Miriam Robbins and Becky Wiseman. July 28, 2015 in Spokane, Washington.

Heading north on US 395, I left Spokane the morning of the July 29th. It was designated a  scenic highway but I didn't think it all that scenic though it was a nice drive. At Colville I turned south on SR 25 following the Columbia River, which was a very scenic drive (though I didn't take any pictures) and then back on U.S. 2 toward Coulee City.

Steamboat Rock State Park was my stop for the night. It was a hot 92 degrees so I didn't even attempt to take the hike up to the top of Steamboat Rock! I relaxed around the campsite, which had several nice big shade trees, and there was a nice breeze, which made it bearable. It cooled off quite nicely after the sun went down.

The next morning (Thursday, July 30th) I took SR 17/155 south, a nice drive along the river with numerous lakes, making my way toward  U.S. 12 at Yakima. By the time I got to Yakima, the temperature was 98 degrees! I continued west on U.S. 12 toward Mt. Rainier National Park stopping at Dog Lake campground in the Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie Nat'l Forest for the night.

The morning of July 31st, I continued west on U. S. 12 toward Mt. Rainier. Below is the "first view" of the mountain coming in from the east.

I had contacted a distant cousin on the Phend side who lived near Puyallup. When I had come through this area five years ago she and her husband were away on vacation so we didn't meet up then. As it turned out, they were preparing to leave on vacation the next day. So I drove on up to the Sunrise area and I took a short walk along one of the trails on the south side.

After about two hours I decided I'd better find a place to stay for the night. As I was driving down from Sunrise Point I heard my phone beeping. I had a text message from my cousin! Their departure had been delayed until Tuesday and they would be delighted to have me visit. Two and a half hours later, I was at their place near Puyallup.

Published under a Creative Commons License.
Becky Wiseman, "Yaak River to Pallayup - July 26th to 31st," Kinexxions, posted September 5, 2015 (http://kinexxions.blogspot.com/2015/09/yaak-river-to-puyallup.html : accessed [access date])

Where, Oh Where, Have You Been?

Well here I am again. And yes, it has been over a month since my last post when I was booted out of Rising Sun campground on the 21st of July due to a wildfire and spent that night at the visitors center parking lot with some new friends. The night of the 22nd was spent at a rugged campground in a state park south of Kalispell.

The next morning I continued my journey west on U.S. highway 2. That afternoon I passed by several Forest Service campgounds and finally decided to stay at the small Yaak River Campground in the Kootenai National Forest. It lies a few miles west of the small town of Troy, Montana and a few miles east of the Idaho state line. Route 2 goes in a northwesterly direction in that area and the campground is situated between U.S. 2 and the Kootenai River, sort of on the south side, and the Yaak river toward the west.

It turned out to be the perfect place to relax and "recover" from the excitement at Glacier. I would spend 3 nights at Yaak River, much of the time sitting in my camp chair on the banks of the Kootenai River. Just watching the river flow by, soaking up some sunshine or cooling off in the shade. It was soothing to the soul. Peaceful and quiet.

My site at Yaak River Campground.

Just a few miles east of the campground was the major attraction in the area, Kootenai Falls, the largest undammed falls in the state of Montana. Here the Kootenai River loses 300 feet in elevation traveling a few hundred yards down river.

The path to the falls leads through the woods to a metal bridge across the railroad tracks. At the far end of the bridge is a 3-story tall staircase down to the ground. Once on the ground you can go left to a swinging bridge or right to go to the falls. I went right. I never did make it down to the swinging bridge. My excuse was the weather. It was extremely cloudy and looked like it could start raining at any minute. But I had also seen pictures of it and decided I really didn't need to experience it at this time. (Just Google "kootenai falls swinging bridge" and see for yourself!)

Kootenai Falls really consists of three separate falls. You can walk alongside the river and even get rather close to the falls nearest the river bank. And, these photos really don't do it justice!

A panoramic view from below the falls...

...and from the top of the falls.

From here I would go through the panhandle of Idaho into Washington where I would roam up and down, over and around the state. Then into Oregon, doing the same thing... I am currently staying at one of our nation's beautiful National Monuments not far from a small town in Oregon with a nice library, so I hope to have more blog posts done soon.

Published under a Creative Commons License.
Becky Wiseman, "Where, Oh Where, Have You Been?," Kinexxions, posted September 3, 2015 (http://kinexxions.blogspot.com/2015/09/where-oh-where-have-you-been.html : accessed [access date])