August 13th – 16th
To explore Mount Rainier NP, we stayed at Taidnapam Park, part of Tacoma Power, on Riffe Lake. It’s a beautiful campground about 45 minutes from the National Park. Take a look at the images from our stay.
August 8th – 13th
The next section of our trip took us through Revelstoke and then south through the Okanagan Valley and into the US again. We stayed first in South Okanagan Provincial Park, near Kelowna, BC Canada. We had been feasting on fresh cherries on our trip north, but now we were in peach country. The orchards and packing plants were huge, as were the peaches! We’ve never seen peaches so large and sweet! We followed the Okanagan (Okanogan in the US) River through the valley and then picked up the Columbia River again at Darogo State Park, Washington. After Darogo, we stayed a couple of nights at the Sportsman State Park, Yakama, Washington to wash clothes before traveling to Mount Rainier National Park. Enjoy our images.
August 5th – 8th
After Radium, we traveled a couple hours northeast to Lake Louise Campground, in Banff National Park. This is a spectacular part of BC Canada, the Canadian Rockies are so rugged and picturesque! Here we hiked to the Tea House at Lake Agnes above Lake Louise and then on the second day we hiked to Takakkaw Falls along the Yoho River in Yoho National Park, lots of National Parks in the mountains. Lake Louise is a beautiful area but so impacted by tourists that early hiking is a must. Here are our images.
August 2nd – 5th
Part two of our trip found is in a beautiful Canadian RV park, Canyon RV Resort On Sinclair Creek, in Radium Hot Springs, BC Canada. Radium is on the Columbia River as it travels north before turning to the south and into the US. Steve has a beautiful house in Radium, so when we get near, we try to stop by to hike and explore the beautiful area. Enjoy the images.
July 29th – August 2nd
We’re off again, our second summer trip, this time with Bruce and Ann. We are exploring Idaho, British Columbia, Washington, Oregon, and then home. We began our adventure on July 29th, driving from SLO to Sparks, Nevada, where we stayed on Angela and Steve’s cul-de-sac for the night. A very hot drive with lots of traffic! The next morning we took off relatively early for another long day to Farewell Bend State Park, Oregon, on the Snake River. The Oregon trail forked there many years ago, now Interstate 80 makes travel a bit faster. From Farewell Bend, we drove to Blackwell Island RV park in Coeur d Alene, Idaho, where we sat by the river and road our bikes along a beautiful trail on the old rail line. Enjoy the images from our travels.
Our final stay this trip was in Kodachrome Basin State Park, just east of Bryce Canyon National Park. It is a beautiful park with great hikes and incredible colors and formations. This visit we found some new places to explore, Grosvenor Arch and the slot canyons on Willis Creek Road.
On our second visit to Capital Reef we found a new hike, the Rim Overlook Trail. We’re not sure why we hadn’t hiked it before…
We have wanted to see Goblin Valley State Park for some time now, this was the year. We had a beautiful site in the state park and the colors were spectacular. But, the second day brought extremely windy conditions, even more biting gnats, and so after a great hike among the goblins, we took off back to Torrey and another day in Capital Reef.
Capital Reef National Park continues to be one of our favorites. The weather was great except for the pesky gnats! It was cherry season and they were tasty, as were the homemade pies from the Gifford House store in the park. Wonderful hikes in a breathtaking landscape.
Great Basin National Park in on the far eastern border of Nevada, almost into Utah. It is a unique, green, mountainous park left after the climate changed the surrounding landscape into deserts. The mountains still had lots of snow and the streams were filled with snowmelt. The oldest of our bristlecone pines live at the higher elevations. Here are some images of the beautiful area.
Traveling with Ari ll ... 