2020 July MT, ID, WA

   4^th of July 2020 weekend, post COVID-19 we are still in the Yellowstone Grand Tetons area spending some time fishing and relaxing, small day trips into town of West Yellowstone or to Bozeman Mt and Yellowstone National Park to review some of the places we saw that we enjoyed, I’m having a good time.

Scheduled to meet my brother here this evening and anticipate a few days seeing Yellowstone and Grand Tetons, along with him is sister Barbara, mother Camille. We anticipate having a great time, we're going to stay together at the National Forest campground where we have based ourselves and it will be good to see family again.

Wow, 3 days we spent together and no pics! Chatting constantly, catching up, dinners together around the campsite, all in all a very good relaxing time together.

Bob, Tanya and I would go fishing each day, Mom and Barbara would go sightseeing in the Yellowstone Park or sometimes just in the shops of West Yellowstone.

Bob would always out fish me of course – he has truly engaged fly fishing and it’s his number one passion.  Me I dabble at it and enjoy being on the water, same as I feel about kayaking.  As always, I truly enjoy time on the water with my brother.  Tanya would sit on the bank with her feet in the water or sit in the RV working or reading.  She did enjoy the quiet time and relaxing atmosphere.

After a few days together Bob, Mom, Barbara head out to see the Grand Tetons and onward to Wisconsin to see family.  It was not in the cards that we all meet in Wisconsin, so it was awesome that we had a few days together along the way.

So, after 3 weeks in Tetons and Yellowstone Tanya and I departed to drop Tanya off at the airport to go back to MD for some daughter time, me I go on for other fishing opportunities in Montana.

Boulder Creek, MT not good fishing but a great campsite along the river. Puttered around during the day fixing this and that and realizing that traveling alone is not the same as when you have someone to share things with. It’s going to be a long 10 days apart!

Tonight, I’m on the Madison River and did not realize that another weekend is here. Boy, got to watch that for campsites are booked for weekends. Fortunately, I scored so booked through the weekend at a National Park campsite.  There are people floating the river in all kinds of crafts, watching them is the only other thing to do for there is no TV reception, no cell service.  Just fish, read, cook and eat. Hmmm sounds relaxing, doesn’t it?

Nothing much about tourism to write about. Tanya had a great time with daughter, I had a great time fishing several of Montana’s famous and not so famous rivers. Madison, Jefferson, Big Hole, Boulder rivers. Found that Montana has a great interactive map by Trout Unlimited to find access points at most rivers. Some of these access points also allowed camping right on the river! My fishing improved somewhat although I will never be as good as my brother.

I had dinner with Mother Brother and Sister when they stopped off on their way back from Wisconsin. They enjoyed the family time and Uncle Jerry’s birthday and are glad to be going home again.

It seems Covid19 has taken a turn for the worse and Montana has pushed additional restrictions. It is really hopeful to see more people wearing masks as they go about their business. This type of traveling you do not interact with people very much unless you seek it out. It is easy to maintain privacy in your own home (RV), just as others in a stick and bricks house you feel the need for social interaction at times. Keeping distance between you is easy enough and of course masks! So, we continue our travels for we seldom use formal campgrounds and dispersed camping is so easy to find in the western states. As a matter of fact, we have not used a formal campground yet! This is the type of traveling we prefer, dispersed camping on public lands in beautiful remote areas, enjoying nature and each other as we travel. Tanya is committed to full timing now and we continue on our way.

Tanya returned from DC, and we head off to travel once again. Arriving in Idaho and on the way to Craters of the Moon National Monument we find an out of the way camping spot alongside a small creek. We have a light dinner and Tanya shows me an app that Maria shared with her for music. We played our old favorites and danced outside of the RV. Oh so fun to feel free and easy to enjoy time with each other in such a beautiful place.

A moose come close by our RV! Wow, this is the first Moose I have seen up close with full antlers. He was not in any hurry to move on, simply hanging around for a while – seems he enjoyed the music and dancing we were playing! I thought about why a moose would be here? This is arid desert; one small stream cannot give him what he needs? I don’t know an awful lot about moose, they are famous in Maine and are pictured in swampy areas feeding on water-based plants. Hmm something to check

Arco, ID the first town in the world to be powered by atomic energy.  Having breakfast at Pickles Place, home of the atomic burger!

This makes the third time I have been to Craters of the Moon National Monument and the absolutely best visit. It truly appears that having no time constraints I approach life totally differently.  As I mentioned I am now Semi-Retired and when arriving at a scenic area I no longer look for the highlights to capture as quickly as possible what is the top thing of interest to see. That was before when running in the rat race. Now I look at all the available sights regardless of how much time it would take and set out to find the whole experience.  I had no idea this is how I have been approaching things. This attitude has changed my experience and expectations allot.

 We took the time to walk several trails and the interactive signs allowed us to learn so much more of this unique landscape. The way that volcanoes normally function and how this location was totally different.  You must try this different approach and you will be happy you did.

One of the spatter holes had snow inside it! With this high heat and low humidity, I was very surprised. 

Unique formation of lava flows

Tonight, we parked in a Walmart parking lot for the first time in several weeks, so different than dispersed camping. Fortunately, it was quiet, and we rested very well.

Shoshone Falls, last time I visited was in the fall and waterfalls were very minimal.  Now in midsummer its quite breathtaking. Notice the rainbow on the left side!

Balancing Rock, wow quite impressive, looking through binoculars and see several cracks and the base looks like its thin slabs. Don’t understand how it does not fall!

Along the route we stopped at a little park for lunch, a display for sheep ranching and how it developed. This is the shepherded home on the range.

This Princess Rialta celebrated 100,000 miles today!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! What an outstanding 23 year old machine that takes us to so many great adventures. Happy Birthday Princess! (Tanya named the Rialta Princess for she is always needing TLC from me 😊)

One of the things about full timing is that you follow the weather to enjoy more adventures. We were monitoring the weather each day and observed that the next week will have very hot temperatures, scanning ahead we decided to push on to the coast of Washington to beat the heat. Pushing a lot of miles for 2 days gets us to Tacoma, WA. Stopping along the way to visit my sister Pattie in Yakima, WA just as I have done each time I traveled west. She has had a lot of changes in her life, and I was really happy to see her so happy. Since I saw her last, she has lost one husband to illness and is now engaged to another. Living among people that give her a purpose and feeling helpful. So happy for her. We met at a restaurant and Covid has resurged so no indoor eating, so we set out the lawn chairs in the parking lot, eat, chat and catch up with each other.

A very short backtrack to Toppenish, WA to tour the city of murals. Most were about the history of the town. Quite impressive, we enjoyed RT66 for the same reason of a lot of things to see along the way.

Nearly everywhere we go now Covid has created increased precautions. Masks are required anytime in public, cannot enter any store without masks. Of course, we had always carried alcohol in a spray bottle also as additional precautions. Tanya surprised me one time by handing the spray bottle after pumping gas, I did not think of that one!

Over the mountain and arrive at Tacoma, WA we decided to bypass Seattle even for a drive through, seems a lot of disturbance here as well as Portland so why risk problems. Boy I love the opportunities RV travel provides to go where you want to when you want to.

We plan on spending time around Olympic National Forest before heading toward Portland, OR area where my brother lives. I have ordered some parts for the RV and will be able to use his repair shop to install.

Camped in Tacoma, WA and caught up on laundry before heading into the wilderness.  Knowing there will not be cell service and the apps I use for finding camping and interesting things to see I must copy gps coordinates into the dash gps for dispersed camping in the National Forest.  Now were ready to go! Plan on 3 days which will allow the heat wave to pass by while we stay on the pacific coast where its cooler.

Olympic National Park

Whew a 17-mile steady rise from sea level to 5200 feet. 5-7% grades the whole way. Princess Rialta handled it so fine!

This is definitely worth the drive, views of the inner mountains of this park are amazing, signs explaining the glacier actions, erosion and views on short hiking trails of the Straights of Juan De Fuca.

Pullovers on the drive back down the hill are possible now, on the way up I felt I did not want to lose the momentum and so stops on the way back down are in order. Not as great views as from the top but definitely nice.

We met another class B driver in Walmart camping area, she is a ranger at Grand Canyon on hiatus. We chatted over several things camping related, shared apps to help with travels, pretty cool lady, she is definitely into hiking!

We followed the road around the park stopping and camping in the rain forest 2 nights. Definitely a very different habitat than anywhere else we camped. I expected as a rain forest it would be hot and muggy, not so the cool air from the Pacific Ocean kept the rain forest very cool. Moss grows over much of the trees, extremely tall trees!

Time to follow the coast to the point when the time to cut inland and visit Mom. We are finding it harder to find free camping along the coast. Understandable for it is popular and perhaps the homeless gravitate this way too. We have been diligent and only one night so far, we have paid $10 to park at a boat launch.

Next blog will be visits with family in Oregon.