08 Friday Mar 2024
Posted in Uncategorized
I headed off on my spring trip – heading south along I-5, not anywhere close to the middle of nowhere. But sometimes you have to do what you have to do. Along the way I managed to see some wonderful grist mills. Where things were powered by water and used belts and pullies to transfer the power through the mill. Ah, mechanically engineering by the common man before technology.
27 Monday Nov 2023
Posted in camping site, Winter 2023
Some trips are good, others are better and exceed expectations. This trip falls into the latter category. Plans for this trip started forming with the thought that now that I have a van, it is easier to get away and I should just do it. I should try winter camping. Logic told me to stay close to the salt water where it is warmer and go when it is sunny. Hum. The day after Thanksgiving started a sunny streak of weather and Fidalgo Island (City of Anacortes, Washington area) had some ophiolite rocks I’d read about. Off I went.
21 Thursday Sep 2023
Posted in camping site, Fall 2023
Yes! After a year of not going on a trip, I left the Pacific NW and traveled eastward. I first started by slowly going through Washington and Oregon, then I was off to explore Idaho. I was in no hurry. My first stop for the night was Long Lake a tad bit south of Mosses Lake.
12 Tuesday Sep 2023
Posted in camping site, Fall 2023
It has been almost a year since I’ve last gone camping. I decided to get a camper van and then I mistakenly sold my trailer too early, so there was no spring trip. This trip was short, just long enough to try everything, read manuals and email Field Van with somewhat dumb questions – like: “where is the light switch for the back lights”?
I headed eastward from Seattle to the Joe Watt Canyon Rd. in Lt Murray State Wildlife area.
30 Saturday Oct 2021
Posted in Uncategorized
After seeing the north side of the peninsula, I headed southwest to Kalalock. This is a campground I remember as a kid going to a number of times in the winter. Yup – in the winter. My mom would hear that a storm was coming and off we would go to camp at the Kalalock campground in our Siesta trailer. We would then walk the beach looking for glass fishing floats caught in the logs. And we found a few not broken.
24 Sunday Oct 2021
Posted in Uncategorized
This trip would be different. There would be no searching for the middle of nowhere. I left Seattle a month later then my usual time for a fall trip and snow had already fallen on Snoqualmie Pass making travel eastward seem cold. So I headed west to the Olympic Peninsula.
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.
29 Saturday Jun 2019
Posted in Uncategorized
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Last fall when I stopped into the Wise River Ranger Station to ask about road conditions, the ranger started the answer to my question by indicating it was too bad that I wasn’t there earlier to see the wildflowers at Vipond Park. Her statement perked my interested, making me want to come back. This is the trip going back to see the wildflowers at Vipond Park and adding the Gravelly Range to the trip. The plans were hatched in fall. It would be a quick trip; renting forest service cabins seemed to fit the plan for a quick get away instead of taking my trailer. But I needed to rent the cabins when they came available – six months before the arrival date. In December I gambled when I picked the rental days, hoping the days would match the wildflower bloom.
Last week the weather forecast included a day with 3-5 inches of snow on the Gravelly Range. Hum. I am off – wildflowers or not.
11 Sunday Oct 2015
Posted in camping site
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.
View from my camp site. Notice the Columbia River flood basalt.
28 Tuesday May 2013
Posted in camping site
I wanted to see the Palouse Falls in central Washington and the area around it. I was born and raised in western Washington and somehow I had never visited this area in eastern Washington. Planning my visit, I came across a reference to “camping” at the Little Goose Dam Road boat ramp parking lot. Not finding any other choices except for the Palouse Fall campground, I drove to the parking lot. What I found exceeded all expectations. I had a spot next to the Snake River with a gorgeous view. I sat by a campfire that night visiting with the unofficial parking lot host. A truly enjoyable site for the night. I would return.
![Palouse_Falls_in_Eastern_Washington[1].jpg](https://searchingfor.blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/palouse_falls_in_eastern_washington1.jpg)
Palouse Falls Photo credit: PJ Blalock
searching for the middle of nowhere 