Update for Aug 23rd, 24th, 25th, 26th and 27th

We pulled out of the Prince George Walmart parking lot about 9 AM. A lot of the day was just driving along. Different vegetation than the last few days. Mountains are lower, more trees closer together and fuller. Not as much changing colors, although there is some of that. The drive takes you over ridges and into another valley. Valley after valley, some with rivers running thru them some just rolling pasture. Some cattle, horses, haying and small crops and of course lots of logging trucks. The first 100 miles or so South of Prince George was the heaviest traffic we’ve seen the whole trip. In addition to the logging trucks, there were other semis, RV’s, lots of pickups and cars with a few motorcycles. Not as many motorcycles as when we were going up to Alaska. It was a two lane road, but fortunately most of the hills, and there were a lot of them, had passing lanes. Still a lot of people tried to pass between passing lanes and there were usually vehicles coming from the other direction. Dale didn’t get much sightseeing done has he had to watch the traffic pretty close.

At Quesnel there were several logging operations. There was a tall observation tower that Dale climbed to see the sights, but too many steps for my knee and hip. It was a town of 10,000 people and it had 5 sawmills, 2 pulp mills, a plywood plant, a planer mill and a MDF plant. One of the sawmills (the biggest) used 90 truckloads of logs per day, so I wondered how many total truck loads the town used in a day. Surprisingly the town smelled so good, all that cut wood. I guess the wind was blowing the pulp wood smell the other direction. We asked about tours at the visitor center, but they said there were none.

This area also had a lot of lakes, so there were lots of small resorts and campgrounds on beautiful lakes. This is big fishing area for rainbow trout in particular. Around noon it started raining off and on for the rest of day, so a couple of walks we were going to take we didn’t stop for. Late in the afternoon the terrain changed considerably. It turned dry, ironically since it was raining off and on, and the trees were primarily by the rivers and creeks with a few smaller ones scatter towards the upper part of the mountains. I think they were still mountains, but much smaller, maybe large hills. Dry grass and sage brush was the other land cover with lots of rocks showing. In the valleys they irrigate and grow lots of hay and alfalfa.

No wildlife today at all except for the usual squirrels and birds. Did get a picture of the biggest cross country skies and we didn’t miss the biggest gold panning pan the day before, as we saw it today.

We camped at Cache Creek, BC, on Hwy 97/1, and it was our last night in Canada. We will be back in good old USA Friday.


Aug 24th

Got up this AM, went to dump and the dumpsite was full, at least that is what it looked like. Said, Oh well, and continued on our way after informing the campground office. Up one ridge and down into another valley again today. We got into Vernon, BC about noon and ate lunch at a Wendy’s. Then continued down 97 which was a mistake! Talk about traffic. Bumper to bumper much of the way down the lake area of Hwy 97. Beautiful scenery of the lake and surrounding area but lots of traffic and one town blended into another with lots of stop lights. We did not realize British Columbia would have this type of congestion in this part of the providence. Lake Okanagan is a long, long lake and most of the way Hwy 97 is only two lane. We had hoped to be in time to see the light show on Grand Coulee dam but it got too late and we were tired and camped before we got there.

The pleasant surprise after lunch was the valley. In spite of the traffic it was a pretty drive with lots and lots of fruit orchards, fruit stands and vineyards. Very lush looking valley when it is irrigated. My pictures won’t do it justice. Of course we were afraid our fruit would be confiscated at the border so didn’t stop to buy any of those enticing cherries. They did check our refrigerator at the border, but I forgot to ask the agent if we could have brought some thru. After we crossed back into USA we still saw many apple orchards. Am thinking that tomorrow will bring more of the same. It reached 80 degrees Fri. The first time we have seen that for awhile. Dale saw one deer.

We camped at the Omak, WA. Stampede campgrounds. They have a really big rodeo facility there. Nice and quiet with full hookups.

Aug 25th.

We got up early this morning to get to a tire store because Dale didn’t like the looks of one of the valve stems on the back inside tire. We were there by 8 AM and on the road by 8:50 AM. They changed the valve stem on the back left inside tire and filled all the tires with more air. Free! When we had new tires put on they only put in what they recommended and this guy thought with the weight of this vehicle that more air pressure was needed. Dale thought it drove better and I thought there was less bouncing and it rode better.

We made a stop at Chief Joseph Dam. This dam produces the second largest amount of hydro electricity in the US after the Grand Coulee dam. Also in this area were lots of wheat fields. There is a whole lot of harvesting going on in this region. We stopped at Grand Coulee dam overlook and ate lunch. Just down the road was the visitor center and we enjoyed watching a couple of films and all the informational displays. We spent the rest of the afternoon on back roads working our way East and catching more counties (9 new ones) while on our way to Sandpoint, Idaho. Got in around 8:00 PM and parked in a Wal-Mart parking lot for the night.


Aug 26th
We are camped tonight in Agar Campground in Idaho. A small campground (7 sites) on a small river. We left Sandpoint, ID this morning about 8:20 AM and spent the day traveling across upper Idaho, into Montana and South back into Idaho, picking up counties. We’ll make a big circle in ID and then back to MT. We had lunch in Kalispell, MT then headed south to Missoula and back into Idaho. The area around Sandpoint was nice and green with lots of water and trees, but the closer to Kalispell we got the dryer it got. There is a nice big lake that we followed South of Kalispell, but the mountains around it are dry. Especially dry down around Missoula. There was a dull haze over Kalispell and the rest of the way down to Missoula and all around our route due to some forest fires burning in the Bitterroot National Forest. They are mostly south of us. We are actually in the Clearwater National Forest tonight, but north of where the fires are. No wind, but we are in a canyon (as much of our road was along a river this afternoon) so the smoke seems to settle and doesn’t move. Dale talked to someone today who said they are just letting them burn themselves out.
Dale saw a couple of deer again but I missed them.

Aug 27th

We left camp about 9:15 AM Mountain Time. This morning we saw an American Clipper motor home sitting in someone’s yard. That makes for 3 we’ve seen this trip. I wondered if we should have stopped at one place and asked if they had any parts for sale, especially the back bumper!

More great scenery as we cruised around picking up counties. We had lots of driving up and down mountain roads and thru valleys again today. We had this one narrow winding (and I mean winding!) road that went up and up (6.5 miles and mostly 25 -35 curves one after another) and at the top were fields and fields of wheat and some other crop we think was lentils, a bean? All along the road today were lots wheat fields. We also saw many winding creeks and rivers. Made for pretty pictures.

We drove into Boise about 7 PM and headed straight for the capital to take pictures for Dale before the sun set. After fighting a stiff wind all day it was very pleasant and quiet in Boise. After supper and gas up we drove south out of Boise down I-84 to Mountain Home, Idaho and camped at the Wal-Mart again.

Aug 28th

We left our Wal-mart campsite in Mountain Home and spent another day covering counties. The direction we were headed had some roads closed due to fires but not the ones we wanted. It was pretty smoky during the day, some places more so than others. At one point we saw firefighters working clearing a strip to stop the fire at or to save some houses, but no sign of flames. Across the road from there was a encampment for the firemen. There were lots of tents, vehicles and boxes of stuff .

One of our stops that day was the Craters of the Moon National Monument. It is an area where much volcanic activity happened many years millions of years ago, but some of it just 2,000 years ago. It is just an eerie place to be. We were there many years ago and somehow it seemed different to me this time. The loop road you drive on is newer and we saw the place where I remembered climbing up one of the cinder hills.

We stayed that night at the KOA in Dillon MT.

Aug 29th

We had another day picking up counties. Our route today took us into Wyoming on a very small loop, then back into Idaho and down into UT where we are staying tonight at Logan at the Wal Mart. We drove so late the last couple of nights that it is almost dark before we park. One area we drove past was a long beautiful reservoir that had the prettiest blue water. The water level was really low, probably more than 100 feet below where it was at one time. We saw more combining of wheat and some potato fields as well as lots of irrigated hay fields. We also saw a couple of small groups of antelope.

Dale also spotted a very large nest at the top of an electrical pole. We stopped, looked and saw two little white heads peeking over the edge. Suddenly the mother bird flew away and Dale thinks it was a large hawk. It had a lot of white on the head and the underside. Someone had built a platform for the nest.

Aug 30, 31 & Sept 1st
The trip is pretty much over. Thurs. we head East from Logan UT. up a canyon to the Bear Lake recreational area then over to WY where we’ll hit I-80. From there it is straight home. Plan to be at Cozad Fri. night and on home to Juniata on Sat. Sept. 1st.
We’ll post all the interesting facts about the trip later.