Category Archives: camping site

Camping at the middle of nowhere

14 Friday Oct 2016

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My mind today kept returning to the message written on my mirror: “Objects in mirror are closer than they appear.”  I twisted the phrase in my mind:  “Drive times are longer than they appear on maps.”   I had estimated about 3 hours of driving today and I was so very wrong.  The day began with my assumption that the east section of the Green River Cutoff Road by The Wedge would be similar to the west section.  What a bad assumption.  The road got narrow and windy, not like the west section gravel freeway.  It was so unlike what I expected that I pulled out my GPS to make sure we were on the correct road and hadn’t made a wrong turn.  Onward, we slowly went.  Up and down and twisting through canyons on a single lane road at times, not encountering another sole.  I was so focused on driving, that below is the only photo I took along the way. 

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The rocks looked like chocolate cake with cream cheese icing.

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The Wedge – Again

12 Wednesday Oct 2016

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The trip to the Wedge had involved many miles of driving for me, an air flight for my friend that joined me in Salt Lake City, and then more miles driving.  Then there was the chores of grocery shopping, buying items forgotten, and filling the trailer water tank in Huntington.  When we reached the Wedge the land cried out for us to slow down.  It held on to us.  We found our campsite and settled in for two nights.

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View from The Wedge

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Scofield

11 Tuesday Oct 2016

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After picking up my friend at the Salt Lake City airport we headed south.  The Scofield Campground was a functional stop for the night.  We ate dinner, slept, drank coffee and left.

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The campground

Facts:

  • The Scofield campground is located north of Price, Utah and west of Highway 6 about 15 miles.
  • The campground wasn’t appealing to me, but it was functional.
  • I didn’t see any showers.
  • We were the only ones at the campground.

Curlew

10 Monday Oct 2016

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Loving my trip to Utah in 2014, I decided to head back to see more of the incredible sights. In plotting my path to Utah I identified a campground at the Curlew National Grasslands by Snowville, Utah that seemed like a good location to spend a night.  It turned out the stop was better than good, it was wonderful.  The summer’s campground host and I (plus three dogs) were the only ones there that night enjoying the open view and wildlife.  Big open sky in a quite area.  The simple campground is a green oasis on Stone Reservoir surrounded by 360 degrees of long views which put a smile on the face of this western Washington city girl.

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View from the campground

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Carl Washburne Campground

24 Sunday Jan 2016

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Those that have read my blog posts on camping sites know that I do not frequent established campgrounds.  But life is full of unanticipated twists and turns.  I found myself wanting a simple January vacation this year.  A vacation where I didn’t have to make a lot of decisions like where to camp, where to find food, and what to do each day.   So I decided to volunteer where I would have limited decisions to make.  For the month of January I was a docent at the Heceta Head lighthouse.  In exchange for volunteering as a docent I received free camping in the Carl Washburne campground with all hookups.  The first time I have “camped” with complete hookups.  Kind of glamping not camping.

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Carl Washburne campground

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Searching for a close-to-home middle of nowhere

11 Sunday Oct 2015

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I started thinking that I would like to have a go-to place that was simple to get to and that I could escape to many times and continue to enjoy. A place that didn’t require a lot of mental energy to plan an escape. So I started staring at my maps. Lots of staring, looking at google earth, and surfing; searching for any information on areas that looked promising. I learned that many of the Washington State fish access sites allow camping and I came across the idea of going to the Potholes south of Moses Lake. Long Lake and Sage Lake east of the Columbia National Wildlife Refuge (CNWR) seemed to be an ideal place to check out.

I left Seattle and headed out, finding a wonderful spot to camp at Long Lake.

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View from my camp site.  Notice the Columbia River flood basalt.

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Gravel pit camping

25 Sunday May 2014

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It is never a goal to camp in a gravel pit, but sometimes you have to do what you have to do. My family must have camped in gravel pits when I was a kid, because it seems quite natural to me to use a gravel pit as a home for the night. But not everyone was raised like I was. On Labor Day weekend I was heading home with my friend Jan. We were focusing on getting home, no longer in the vacationing mode.   We were in Fields, Oregon about 6 PM and were starting to think about where we would spend the night. I thought the BLM Page Spring campground an hour north may be full since it was a holiday weekend. I asked at Fields if they could recommend a place we could pull over for the night. Sure, there was a gravel pit a couple of miles north. A couple planned to go target shooting there that night, but we were not to worry, they were a nice couple. Sounded great to me.

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View of the gravel pit from the “camp” site.

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Loneliest Road

24 Saturday May 2014

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Driving Nevada Highway 50 westward, I experienced the basin and range geology first hand.  The broad valley basins and then up over a mountain range.  A slow motion up-then-down that held a peaceful predictable rhythm.  The green valleys and then the forested ranges tipped with snow made me lust to stop and explore, but that would have to be another trip.  I needed to get home.

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Entering Highway 50

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The Gap

23 Friday May 2014

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Heading home I thought I might need a place to spend a night northward of St George, Utah. Reading blogs I found someone had spent a night at the Parowan Gap petroglyphs. I tucked away that fact for possible use later. It was now later and Jan and I were heading to The Gap.IMAG1168 We arrived at an interesting site to visit but one of marginal camping appeal. We did our best to be away from the county road and away from a dirt road hoping that neither would have much traffic that night.   We sat enjoying some wine, alternating looking at the interesting mountain of rock and looking the other way at green grass meadows outlined by trees. The area begged to be explored, it had a charming sweet feel. But exploring would have to be done by others. We were on a mission to get home and back to work.   Continue reading →

Better Than a Gravel Pit

22 Thursday May 2014

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Traveling west of Page, Arizona on Hwy 89 we were looking for a place to call home for a few nights.  We stopped at the BLM Paria Contact Station to ask about places to camp.  The friendly lady gave us two recommendations:  The gravel pit up behind the Contact Station and a place a bit west.  The gravel pit looked OK but we decided to check out the other location.  We were glad we did; we scored, having a really nice spot to spend a few days.

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View from the camp site

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