pat walsh
Junior Ranger
I set up a shutter fly site. http://pptravel2011.shutterfly.com/
2011 Northwest trip in our Camp-Inn Tear Drop Trailer: "Suite Retreat".
Left Eagan MN June 17th via I90 west to Midland, South Dakota Belvidere East KOA. Just an overnight stop but to our surprise on a farm behind the KOA was a real camel. The site was clean good facilities and lots of space to walk the dog. It was cool but dry.
June 18th On to Pasco, WA where we stayed in the high desert in a KOA that was like being in NY City among the big guys, but it was clean and good facilities.
June 19th On to Cape Disappointment in Washington. We had a lovely camp site #78. In a circle that had Yurts as well as RV sites. The space was nice and we had a great view of a moss covered trail. Not far from the beach which was a wonderful warm spot. The temps were in the 60’s and we had a bit of rain – nothing to bother about.
We set up our Northern Breeze and were happy to have it in the cool evenings. We really should have taken more pictures here but. . . saw a bobcat, a nutria, eagles and other raptors.
It was great to spend some quiet time here – it was not very busy and we did a trip to Astoria (lovely) and a trip to Osterville stopping at the beaches along the way.
June 23 we headed north up 101 to Pacific Beach. We were in the park on the beach with some kite flyers – fun watching them. We did get some sun here but the evening was very cool.
June 24 we headed further north to Bogachiel State Park.
June 25 we backtracked a bit and went up to the Hoh Rain Forest. We had a site right on the river – beautiful, cool, and good space. Saw the Roosevelt Elk here. Great place surprising no bugs but huge slugs.
June 27 up early - we headed further North stops at Lake Pleasant, Sekiu (this reminded us of New Foundland), Neah Bay, and onto Cape Flattery. Then took 112 back to Clallum Bay, Pysht, and on to Salt Creek County Park. We really liked this area but again it was pretty chilly. We went on side trips to Lake Crescent and Hurricane Ridge (awesome and a bit white knuckle driving with fog). The fog got so thick that we had to turn back about a mile short of the top – but we lived to tell the story. A family we met on later said they were on the top when the fog got so heavy and they thought we made the right choice to turn back. Visited Port Angeles in the evening – very busy but interesting to see.
June 29 we headed to Port Townsend stopping at Sequim on the way. In Port Townsend we stayed at Fort Worden State Park (again among the big boys) we looked like a dwarf among the red woods. It was cold and I was coming down with an infection so we spent most of our time touring the fort in the car and viewing ships and Rhinoceros Auklets and Pigeon Guillemots.
June 30 it was time to head toward home. There were so many places we would have liked to stay longer but to see and experience what we did.
We dropped down on 101 and took the Washington side of the Columbia Gorge 14 we found a small private campground overlooking the George just west of White Salmon. It was a beautiful spot but shortly after setup it became clear that I need to get to an emergency room so we packed up and headed east to a hospital in White Salmon arriving just as dark was settling- a bit scary on those roads. The hospital staff were great, professional, knowledgeable, kind and helpful and my insurance was accepted. About 12M we were out of the hospital with antibiotics. We tried Garmin to help us navigate but every turn they suggested looked like we were going over the cliff. So we used our own intuition and shortly were on a well-lit bridge going to Hood Mountain. The first motel we found was a Best West we checked in and went to bed. In the morning we opened the drapes and found we were right on the Gorge with a patio door in our room and a nice sitting area outside. We stayed 3 days for me to recuperate.
We then headed home (84 to 90 to 94 and 494) using motels as that was the wisest for me.
Can’t wait to go again.
