28 Friday Oct 2016
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It was a long day driving from Tooele, Utah to the Farewell Bend campground in Oregon. Four states in one day. I pulled into the campground about a half hour before sunset. The pictures below are a view of the winter camping area. An area with more mature trees was closed for the season.
Not much else to write. It was a good functional spot to spend the night. I was back on the road early the next morning driving home.
The winter campground
27 Thursday Oct 2016
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Driving towards home I reached Tooele, Utah at 2:00 in the afternoon – too early to stop for the day. It was a pleasant warm 75 degree. When talking to my mother earlier that day, she advised me to stay as long as I could in Utah. Stay, she strongly advised. Seattle had been having terrible weather that would result in a rainfall record for October. I stopped driving home and found a county campground at Tooele that I turned into following my mother’s advice. This would be my last day of the fall season for me, after that it would be winter when I get home.
And it was warm. At 9:00 pm I still had the trailer door open. At 8:00 am when I left the next morning it was 69 degrees.
23 Sunday Oct 2016
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After a three nights stay at the Valley of the Gods I had the itch to move on. With the potential of rain in the forecast I moved to the Wind Whistle BLM campground instead of boondocking on dirt roads that could turn into a gumbo mess.
View from my Wind Whistle camp site
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.
The campground
Facts:
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.
Carl Washburne campground
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.
Entering Highway 50
19 Monday May 2014
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I needed to drive into St. George to pick up a friend that was joining me. To simplify the logistics, I reserved a camp site at the Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park campground. The campground was as one expects, paved loop roads and camping neighbors. After too many days with sponge baths the highlight for me was a hot shower.
The camp site
04 Sunday May 2014
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Off I drove to Utah with my goal of camping at The Wedge that night. To get there I traveled south through the Salt Lake valley on Highway 15. It took me a couple of hours driving to get through the urban setting of a many-lane freeway, lots of traffic, and general unpleasantness. But I knew the results would be worth it and it was. I had read a lot about The Wedge. What I had read was that the canyon located anywhere other than Utah would probably be a national park, but in Utah with so many incredible sights it was just simply BLM land. I turned east off Highway 10 onto the Green River Cutoff at Castle Dale.
Really? There is a big canyon ahead?
25 Wednesday Sep 2013
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My trip plans were turned upside down with an early winter cold front coming through eastern Oregon. Low clouds and three days of rain in the valleys and snow at the top of the Steens. I saw a pickup truck with globs of mud everywhere, a warning to not travel on dirt (now muddy) roads. My planned backroad travels had to be canceled. Unsure of what to do; with choices of staying at the Page Spring Campground or traveling north, south, east or west; I went to eat breakfast at the Frenchglen Hotel. Not surprisingly the restaurant was full of people just like me, mulling over what to do. Swapping stories about where we had been, one couple sang the praise of the Owyhee River and the Lake Owyhee State Park campground. With paved roads the entire way, that was where I chose to go next and I was glad I did.
![OVERALL_VIEW_UPSTREAM_OF_DAM_AND_OWYHEE_RIVER._VIEW_TO_EAST._-_Owyhee_Dam,_Across_Owyhee_River,_Nyssa,_Malheur_County,_OR_HAER_ORE,23-NYS.V,1[1]](https://searchingfor.files.wordpress.com/2016/05/overall_view_upstream_of_dam_and_owyhee_river-_view_to_east-_-_owyhee_dam_across_owyhee_river_nyssa_malheur_county_or_haer_ore23-nys-v11.jpg?w=529)
Owyhee dam Photo credit. Wikimedia Commons Clayton Fraser
23 Monday Sep 2013
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campground, Diamond Crater, Oregon, Page Springs Campground, Riddle Brothers Ranch, Round Barn, steens
I was excited to see the Steens, a fault-block mountain of the basin and range geology, not like the volcanoes of the Cascade Mountains by my home. I had driven from the Hart Mountain Antelope Reserve and when I reached the valley rim above Frenchglen the Steens looked like a huge gentle giant of a hill that just kept going skyward. There was no clue that the backside abruptly drops to the Alvord valley.
I was headed to the BLM Page Springs campground; a campground that my boondocking brother had recommended. It must be nice if he recommended it. It was centrally located for exploring the vast area with a nice amount of space between each campsites. I found the campground a happy place with a comfy camp site that I settled into for a three night stay.
searching for the middle of nowhere 