24 Wednesday Feb 2021
Posted in camping site, Winter 2021
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I learned long ago that life doesn’t stop happening while traveling. Things break, dogs need to go to vets, and… tires need to be fixed. It is all part of the adventure. I try to laugh and go with the flow.
21 Sunday Feb 2021
Posted in camping site, Winter 2021
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Back in the fall of 2020 I hatched a plan to head south the first of February in 2021. The plan was to get away from the Pacific Northwest cold and wet weather. I would drive south on I-5 to Bakersfield and then head eastward towards Death Valley and explore. Then covid hit California hard. Driving through California didn’t seem responsible with the ICUs full and I didn’t want to drive down the east side of the sierras pulling a trailer with the potential of icy roads. Surprisingly, California started recovering from covid in February. I made the decision to go south.
I started driving from Seattle and it took me five days to get to what I thought of as the beginning of the trip – Red Rock Canyon, California. This included an extra day waiting on the north side of the Siskiyous for the road conditions to improve. When I read the Oregon DOT site at 1:00 pm; it was 30 degrees at the pass, snowing hard, bumper to bumper traffic with a 60 minute delay. It was not a hard decision to check into the Valley of the Rogue Campground to wait the weather out. The next day was much better.
It was a long slog south, but I made it to Red Rock Canyon.
10 Saturday Oct 2020
Posted in 2020 fall, camping site
In addition to my interest in geology, I love human history. I remember as a kid going on family camping trips looking out the car window following the hillside scars of old roads twisting with the topography of the land. I always wanted to walk those abandoned roads and look for treasures from the past. In 6th grade I decided I wanted to be an archeologist when I grew up. But then I changed my mind when I thought I would have to memorize dates and I wasn’t good at memorization. The strange logic of a child. In western Montana there is lots of history to explore.
06 Tuesday Oct 2020
Posted in 2020 fall, camping site
After seeing a bit of Glacier NP it was time to move on. I was heading east then south. Driving south on Hwy 89/287 from East Glacier to my new home located at the Willow Creek Reservoir by Augusta, I was driving through wildfire smoke. Everywhere I looked I just saw smokey haze. I could only see a vague outline of the Rocky Mountains to the west. I set up my campsite at the reservoir and hoped for more. The next morning the skies were clear and I absorbed an expansive view. I was reminded why I go camping. The scenery was gorgeous.
04 Sunday Oct 2020
Posted in 2020 fall, camping site
Visit Glacier National Park? I had no plans to visit Glacier with the thought of lots of people and it being a not dog friendly place. But I realized I was close and it was the end of the season. So I called the Park to find out how crowded it might be and was told: ”It is better than it was this summer.” The man on the phone sounded tired. Not the most positive comment, but not negative. So I decided to go drive the Going To The Sun Road.
30 Wednesday Sep 2020
Posted in 2020 fall, camping site
To see and touch the Belt rocks made me happy.
27 Sunday Sep 2020
Posted in 2020 fall, camping site
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I’m off on a fall camping trip after too much thinking, analyzing, and twisting in circles about the pros and cons of going on a fall trip with covid19, wild fire smoke, leaving late in the year with shorter days and colder nights, and an old dog. My final approach was: “Just go,” if it doesn’t work out I can just drive home.
16 Wednesday Oct 2019
Posted in Uncategorized
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When I asked people for a recommendation of what to do around John Day, the first recommendation almost everyone made was that I should go to Strawberry Lake.
Strawberry Lake
15 Tuesday Oct 2019
Posted in Uncategorized
I headed south, wandering around looking for fall color, fossils, and views.
Larches
06 Sunday Oct 2019
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I’m staying at John Day for the month of October volunteering at Kam Wah Chung. While there I’m exploring the area.
The tourist brochure for Grant County listed the top 20 tourist sights and included the Humongous Fungus with a note to see the chamber of commerce or forest service for more information. My interest was perked. The Humongous Fungus was in the top 20 sites to visit in Grant County! I located the chamber of commerce office and went in to get the information on this interesting site. The gentleman there had heard of it but couldn’t find any information on it. He couldn’t remember if he had ever visited it. He suggested I visit the forest service office, so off I went. At the forest service office the lady looked around a bit and then found the information for me. Then she pointed on the map (that she gave me) where I should go to see the Humongous Fungus. When I pointed out to her that the area wasn’t where the map located the Humongous Fungus, her reply was: “it is all the same.” I was getting more intrigued about the Humongous Fungus. It didn’t appear to be a hot tourist spot.
Armillaria ostoyae, the humongous fungus. Photo from Scientific America.
searching for the middle of nowhere 