Heyburn Riverside RV Park - Heyburn ID

We leave Boise and head to Wyoming! Our first stop on the way there is Heyburn Idaho, about 170 miles east of Boise.

We've a city park to stay at called Heyburn Riverside RV Park. When we get there, we are pleasantly surprised by how nice the park is. It is only slightly off the main drag, but it's grounds run into the school grounds next door.

For any of you looking for a great campground when you're passing through southern Idaho (as long as you don't mind the cemetery across the street), this is it, full hook-ups for $25 a night. Can't remember for sure but seems like the wifi here was pretty good too.

The park itself is next to the Snake River, and it has a river walk.

For my sons: Along that river walk are trees native to other countries, and there we found the mythical tree of your father's story so many years ago, although in its pre-pickle form...

We stay in Heyburn a couple of days, long enough to pick-up prescriptions (I checked, and there are no Walgreens in Wyoming), check-out some of the homes along the Snake River (they look like they have some pretty impressive views), and find the taco bus (aka, Taqueria El Patron).

Chile verde plate

Carne asada, carnita, and chicken tacos 

Dig in!

Bosie ID

It's Friday, and we land at Country Corners RV Park in Caldwell on the outskirts of the Boise area. It's a campground that looks like many others we've visited. We decide to venture outside this county park and head to Boise proper and take a walk along the Bosie River Greenbelt.

The Boise River Greenbelt is a series of pathways/trails that run for miles along the Boise River. We start at the Willow Lane Athletic Complex and make it past the Whitewater park before turning back.

Question: What water sport would you just not expect to see in Idaho?
Answer: Surfing... (at least our answer) but there it was, right in front of us at the Whitewater park on the Boise River.

The next day, we spend exploring the Boise wine country. Did you know Boise had a wine country? I didn't. The first place we visit is the Huston Vineyards on Chicken Dinner Rd in Caldwell.

There, I make Tom buy me the Chicken Dinner white wine just for the name.

Then we head over to Fujishin Family Cellers. We get to sample quite a few interesting wines and the tasting is free!

The final day in Caldwell is spent at the Deer Flat National Wildlife Refuge. Unfortunately for us, there wasn't much wildlife about while we were there. We did manage a distant view of an osprey nest. 

 We move on to the Bosie KOA the next day to move closer to the RV repair shop in Boise. At this point in time, 3 out of the 4 hydraulic leveling jacks on the Beast are no longer working. So we have our fingers crossed that Wilson's RV Repair will have us fixed and on our way in a day or two. But this was not to be...turns out our fears were true, it will take 7-14 days for the parts to arrive. So how will we bide our time waiting for the parts?
Wellllll, it seems that Tom has been wanting to go to Star Valley in Western Wyoming, where there is a nice RV resort, with both golf and pickleball!

EASTWARD HO!

Fish House Inn - Dayville OR

The Fish House Inn & RV Park is a very small RV park and inn in Dayville, halfway between Bend and Boise. It was only an overnight stopover for us, but bears a post because it turned out to be such a quaint, beautiful spot.

Dayville is a small town of about 150 people. Contrary to what you might think, there isn't a river or stream that flows by the Fish House Inn, nor do they have a restaurant that serves fish. It is named for the owner's astrological sign, Pisces. The RV park only has about 6 or 7 RV sites, but the sites are spacious, and the grounds remind me of an English garden (not sure why because there weren't many flowers). (As a reminder to myself: Fish House has the best wifi of anywhere we've stayed.)

It only took us about 10 minutes to stroll the entire length of the town. 

Seems like they don't take to kindly to folks misbehavin' in Dayville. These two just might get run outta town.

That night was dinner and pie at the Dayville Cafe, so good.

Sorry no pictures of the pie, but Tom had the German Chocolate and I had the blueberry peach. 

After dinner, Tom started a conversation with a very nice couple, Jim and Steff Smith, who had just set up across from us. They invited us over for wine, so we spent the evening in very enjoyable company. Jim and Steff are from Boulder and had just started full-timing about the same time as us. Seems we covered a lot of the same places, and just missed each other by a few days! Jim volunteers on the Amgen Tour of California, so you know he and Tom had a lot to talk about!

Crown Villa RV Resort - Bend OR

Well, here we are in Bend, Oregon. Initially, our thinking was we could have the RV leveling jacks repaired here, but those hopes were dashed...as the repair shops might be able to squeeze us in by mid-July. However to make up for it, we run into tire trouble with the Subaru, so being in a decent sized town is a good thing.

Although this area is a somewhat dry region of the state, there's lots of state parks and forests, and camping seems to be popular in the area. Because of this, camp sites are difficult to come by. We are fortunate to find an RV park with space available. It turns out to be a lovely resort with paved roads, lots of shady trees, and long RV sites made of concrete and brick pavers.  Each site has a separate parking space for the car and a wrought iron patio table and chairs (no picnic tables here!). For Tank, there's lots of separation from the other sites (and their dogs), lots of grassy space, and a large fenced dog run.

RV resort green belt

It's a great place to lounge outside, drink in hand, in the shade of the tree. We spend our time here relaxing, finding pickleball for Tom and shopping to replenish our wine supply for Wendy...all this after getting new car tires of course!

Our BBQ pork and pineapple pizza experience

YUM!

Crater Lake OR - aka Goldilocks...and the Three Spots

Once upon a time, there was an furry little character... let's call him, umm, "Goldilocks." Yeah, that's a good original sounding name; besides, it suits him, I think... don't you?

Well, Goldilocks went for a drive in the forest of Oregon when he and his two companions came upon a magnificent lake called Crater Lake. "But where will we stay?" wondered Goldilocks.

The trio kept wandering until they came upon a campground and went inside. This being early June, there were lots of places to stay, so they tried one.

Goldilocks liked this one very much and wanted to go outside and play, but one of the companions was not happy. "This spot is too crookedy with dark and foreboding tree limbs and has too many mosquitos!" she exclaimed.

So they went on to another spot.

Goldilocks liked this spot also and again was ready to go out and play, but... "This spot is too unlevel," said the other companion.

So on they went.

Goldilocks sees another spot that looks just heavenly, and, besides, his need to go out and pee on the nearest tree was almost too much to 'BEAR' (see what I did there??).

So onward they go until the come upon the third spot. Goldilocks growls at his companions, "This spot IS JUST RIGHT!"

So there they stayed... that is until two days later when "F" loop opened up, and they snagged a spot with electricity. And THAT SPOT WAS JUST RIGHTER!

THE END

So if the story hasn't put you too sleep yet, here is more of the adventure.

We arrived at Crater Lake early afternoon on Thursday, June 7th. Mazama campground and village is just inside the southern entrance at about 6000'. Because it was still early in the year, the park hadn't started taking online reservations, and everything was first come first serve. We knew this was the case and hoped for the best. It turned out to be almost an "embarrassment of riches;" we had our pick of spots and ended up almost having a whole loop to ourselves. Once we finally got situated (see story above), we headed to the visitors center and then up to the rim of the lake, which is about seven miles north and 1000-2000 feet higher in elevation. What a sight! We wanted to take advantage of the sunny day (without fog on the lake) and spent a couple of hours there.

On Friday, our plan was to drive the west rim of the lake. Although both the northern and southern entrances were open, the road around the lake was only plowed around the west side and a little ways around the south side. Quite a bit of the area still had a considerable amount of snow, so not many trails were accessible. But light blue skies, puffy white clouds and a deep blue lake were quite a sight.

We were also able to go a few miles along the southern end of the lake where the road was open as far as the Sun Notch Trail. This trail still had patches of snow, but lead us up to views of the southern rim and the "Phantom Ship."

We had been watching weather reports for the last several days, and new a front was coming in, which promised rain and possible snow at the higher elevations, so Saturday was going to be wet! We'd been hoping that "F" loop, which has electrical sites, would open. Returning from our day trip on Friday, hallelujah, F loop was open! We found the perfect site, just in time to beat out the wet weather (and with satellite reception for game 4 of the Warriors/Cavs playoffs)!

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Roughing it at Crater Lake

Saturday, we did indeed wake-up to snow!

So we head back up to the lake to see it with a snowy backdrop...

Then looking down away from the crater...

...and to find Tank a place to play in the snow.

Playtime is over.

Collier Memorial State Park OR

We move just up the road from Waterwheel RV park to Collier Memorial State park. It's nicely treed with Aspen, Lodgepole and Ponderosa Pine. The campground has full hookups, so we have almost all the amenities of home, but in a beautiful country setting. Not exactly the pioneer lifestyle, but it will have to do :~).

The campground sits at the fork of the Williamson river and one of its tributaries, Spring Creek. The Spring Creek headwaters are only about 2 miles upstream at an artesian spring. I don't believe I've ever seen any waters more clear than these!

We head out for a walk along a local trail that parallels the Williamson river and then follows Spring Creek upstream.

On Tuesday we kayaked Spring Creek.

We paddled upstream to the headwaters and saw the fresh artesian water bubbling up from below the streambed. I have never had a chance to see something like that before.

At the Headwaters

We had a great time out on the water, but as the punchline of the "I just flew in from..." joke goes... and boy are our arms tired!

On Wednesday, Wendy took a recuperation day while Tom and Tank finally took Wendy up on her suggestion to "TAKE A HIKE!" We headed upstream, this time on the Williamson river, where Tank got to go for a refreshing swim, or two or three...

We also found ample evidence of the existence of some busy beavers nearby, although we didn't spot the beavers themselves.

Tomorrow we head to Crater Lake.

Waterwheel RV Park - Chiloquin OR

Heading north from Klamath Falls, we arrive at Waterwheel RV Park in Chiloquin OR.

It's in south central Oregon off hwy 97 just northeast of Upper Klamath Lake and RIGHT on the Williamson river.

We plan on staying here for three days before continuing towards Crater Lake. Waterwheel is a nicely maintained park, very popular with fly fisherman and boaters who are just feet from the water. We sat outside, watched fish jumping out of the water, osprey diving into the river to catch fish, and what we think were a couple of muskrat patrolling the river's edge.