This
starts our 4th week out and about.
It’s
another travel marathon today. About 440
miles all told. There was a purpose in
that poor planning, and as it turns out, it was probably a good decision to get
across the Washington mountains without a stop.
We
left Riverside and stopped at a Walmart for groceries and then over to a car
wash to rinse off the dirty RV. By 9:00
am we were headed south on US-97.
The
amount of smoke in the air comes and goes with the miles. Here, you can just barely make out the
distant ridge line.
After
a little open country driving, we went into national forest land. It was here that there were some fires. Once we got beyond them it cleared some.
And
then just as quick, the landscape changes to a moonscape.
We went past hundreds of acres of that stuff that had burned.
That’s
the thing about the bit of Washington we drove through, the land changes from
almost desert like to forest and back again several times.
At
this point we cross the Columbia River into Oregon.
The
road follows the river all the way to Portland.
There are lots of fishermen in boats and we noticed lots of what were
likely gill nets. I’m thinking the
salmon are running here now. We saw a
couple fish jump and they looked like they could have been salmon.
From
Portland, we drove south an hour down country roads to Silver Falls State
Park. I saw this place pop up on my
computer windows screen one day and thought it might be worth a look. There’s a 7 mile trail here that passes 10
different waterfalls.
We
pulled into our site and set up camp for two nights.
The
campground is nestled among the tall pines.
Very scenic and from our first impression, very well maintained. Spacious sites, paved level pad to park on, water and electric. Michigan State Parks could take notes here.
So
after the all-day drive today, tomorrow is an all day hike…not to mention an
800 foot elevation change.
Maybe
it will all be down hill.
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