Glacier Peak Wilderness Area

Glacier Peak Wilderness Area.

This photo was taken at Fish Lake in the Cascade mountains. It's located off Steven's Pass (on Hwy 2) NW of Leavenworth, WA. Lake Wenatchee is also nearby and has a very popular State Park which, of course, was full. We found a nice site at Tumwater Campground off Hwy 2 and made it our base camp for the next 3 days. Tumwater is a very large Forest Service campground with 88 sites. The sites are perfect for tents or small RV's. It was uncrowded and the sites are surrounded by shrub walls, which makes them nice and private.

Fish Lake is about the only place that allows fishing in this area of the Cascades.
In most other places the waters are protected.

The White River is located in the Glacier Peak wilderness area.
Twin Lakes is also nearby, but be prepared for a 3 mile hike on a forest service trail!

White River

White River

Finally, Spring is here (Literally and Figuratively)

These tough times have tried to beat us down, but we made it through the long, hard winter. Spring is here, flowers are blooming and wanderlust has once again set in. Stay tuned for the adventures to come...

Palouse Falls

Palouse Falls. An awesome place! Anyone who's interested in the Ice Age Floods should visit! It's the only major waterfall left along the glacial flood path created 15,000 years ago.

It's hard to get the idea of how enormous these falls are from the pictures. They drop 200ft!

In 1968, 1.25 miles upstream, archeologists unearthed the remains of a 10,000 year old man.
Marmes Man was found in a cave with the remains of at least four other people. They are among the oldest human remains found in the western hemisphere. Pretty cool!

In springtime, the snow run-off can make the falls double in volume. Spring and early summer are the best times to visit. But as you can see from our photos, they're pretty impressive in the fall as well. This year we plan to explore more of the Channel Scablands. They stretch from the Grand Coulee Dam all the way down to the Blue Mountains. And that's just in Washington State! PBS has a fascinating episode of NOVA if you're interested in this incredible event. It's called Mystery of the MegaFlood. Check it out online. It's good stuff!!

Tucannon River, Touchet River and Lost Lake

Happy to say we're having a sneak peek of Spring today....47 degrees and sunny! This weather can totally start a "jones" for camping, but for now we'll have to be content to revisit the last one in photos. The Tucannon River in the Blue Mountains of southeastern Washington is a favorite weekend camping trip for us. It's close by, has an abundance of private camping sites and is a great place for trout fishing, hiking and horseback riding.

Unfortunately, a lot of the lower areas were burned in forest fires last summer, but if you drive up far enough, there's still plenty of forest that remains untouched.

Along the Tucannon River there's a wide assortment of wildlife. It's a hunter's paradise in the fall. There's also an historic ranger outpost and a trout hatchery you can check out. Both very cool! And if you run low on supplies, you can drive a few miles up the road to a great little store at the KOA campground. They have just about anything you can think of!

This photo was taken at The Lewis and Clark Trail State Park campground on the Touchet River near Walla Walla Washington. It's a neat little State Park with fishing and hiking as well as some cool historic information about The Lewis and Clark Expedition. Apparently they had a hard winter here and resorted to eating their dogs! Hard for us to imagine, being the doting pet parents of two!

The Lewis and Clark Trail State Park has campgrounds on both sides of Highway 12. The East campground closes in September but the west side is open year round. It's a good place to stop for a bathroom break on your way down to The Blue Mountains for skiing or snowboarding.

Lost Lake is tucked up in the foothills of Mt. Rainier. We love to kayak and fish for trout on this lake. The water lilies are abundant (pretty much surround the entire lake) and gorgeous when they're in bloom! You can hike all the way around the lake in only 40 minutes for some quick exercise before hitting the lawn chairs and cooler to listen to all the sounds of the evening.

Rimrock Lake, The Tieton River and White Pass are nearby and are also very popular places to camp. The Tieton River is listed in The Road Atlas as one of the top places to white water kayak.
We still prefer Lost Lake. It's off the beaten path and never crowded. Our kind of camping! : )

Restored 1983 Komfort Fifth Wheel

We painted the outside of the fifth wheel and Ken mounted a custom rack on top to carry our kayaks. What a great idea!

On our maiden voyage to Lost Lake (near Mt. Rainier) we learned a hard fact of RV life. Some camping spots are very easy to get your RV into, but getting it out is a WHOLE other story!

We installed a custom awning out of a 16ft. wooden dowel, and a pulley we bought on Ebay. We attached a 16x12ft. tarp and presto! Rain and sun protection!

The interior was pretty run down. It wasn't hard to refurbish, though. First off we gave it a top to bottom cleaning. Then we painted the ceiling, installed mini-blinds/curtains and added new throw pillows and rugs to tie it all together. Amazingly, everything mechanical worked when we bought the RV for only $600.00. Still, the hot water heater was very small, so Ken installed a tankless hot water heater and it works great!

We love the fact that we're completely self contained. The propane lasts forever and the battery has never run out, even after 5 days! We haul extra clean water in a 55 gallon drum, so using the bathroom and shower are not even an issue. Happy Campers!

Winter Blahs

Well, if you are anything like us, you are sick and tired of arctic temperatures, ice, snow and flooding. I think it's safe to say that no one in the U.S. has escaped Mother Nature this winter.
Here in Washington State, we have endured all of the above, and in no small amounts.

We hear the wistful call of our humble little RV, sitting lonely and idle out in the back forty, saying "hurry spring, there's camping, hiking and fishing to be done".