I guess you could say we look forward to every trip and we do but travelling with those you love adds something special. This time out we headed south into Idaho to a little lake in the middle of the Nez Pierce Reservation just outside of Lewiston, ID with my Parents.

Neither of us had ever been there so it was a little bit like throwing a dart at a map and I had no idea what to expect. The photos on the Idaho State website made it look inviting and it was a very reasonable 3 hours away. I’m glad we went.

The drive was amazing. It was some of the most beautiful country I’ve ever seen in person. Traveling south from Coeur D’Alene on HWY 95 you eventually get to this magical area called the Palouse that stretches from Southwest Washington into north central Idaho and also into north eastern Oregon. The area takes up thousands of square miles and seemingly stretches on forever with some of the most beautiful rolling hills covered in fields of wheat and legumes. While the mission was getting to our destination and I regret I did not take any pictures this time through the area, I do plan on making it a destination in the near future. There are a number of amazing little towns on the way through to Lewiston to stop at and crawl through in the future!

Finally arriving at the south end of the Palouse and at the top of this crazy hill, we decided to do the touristy thing and stop at a pull out overlooking the city of Lewiston, ID.

The distance down to the city doesn’t look like much from these photos but 6 miles at 7% grade is quite a bit. We slowed it down to about 45 and let the truck work the gearing and brakes while I monitored the wheel and gauges and we did just fine. Now I just had to worry about going up on the way back!

From here the camp ground was about 40 minutes south east from Lewiston. We were almost there! Rolling off of HWY95 and into the town of Winchester was like entering an alternate reality for this city boy. you would miss it if you didn’t slow down. This is a no stoplight town with more churches than stop signs! Winchester has a tiny little general store with two gas pumps and that’s about it. If you need to do anything major count on a 40 minute to an hour drive for shopping so pack it all in if you can.

We were finally there. Great minds think alike and I think Max was as ready for a drink as I was! We only poured one folks, he’s really a bourbon guy.

Idaho does a great job maintaining their camp grounds and the rangers had a good presence. The camp ground was pretty full.

Most of the sites are pretty tight and there is very little to no privacy. We got lucky though as the parental units managed to get the best site in the place where I think I quite possibly got the worst! Needless to say, we spent all our time at their spot.

Regardless, we had a blast hanging out! We stayed for three nights, most of the grounds cleared out the next afternoon and we had a little privacy from then on. We did not, however, have any Windex.

I attempted to get a fire going the first night and could not get it built up enough with the soaking wet wood the rangers were happy to sell us and gave up. The next night Dad built this…

The lake was beautiful but very muddy and some passersby warned us not to swim in it. Likely its just to stagnant to be very clean and there is quite a bit of water fowl everywhere.

At one point we headed into Lewiston to explore the town and have dinner. We found this amazing little shop called River Chicks Antiques & Knicks right on the Snake River. They had an eclectic mix of things from antiques and fun knickknacks to other people’s junk. One spot had a wall of hand drawn classic monster movie characters that was super fun.

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On the wall on the way out this caught my eye and funny bone!

All in all, it was a good time. I’m not sure we would go back again though. The lake is not very usable, the sites are tight and you have to leave the campground to get to the dump station. Idaho is currently in the process of a large price hike for out of state folks and for what they want to charge I think it’s reasonable to want sewer at my site which this camp ground does not provide.

There are some decent tent sites right down on the lake so if you want to rough it a little more than us I highly recomend you check it out.

Winchester Lake State Park, Winchester, ID

208 924 7563

1786 Forrest Rd, Winchester, ID 83555

Winchester Lake State Park

We’ve been looking forward to this one for a long time. This was our first longer trip, 7+ hours towing, and our first time crossing any major mountain pass with our little Bessie behind us. I think I just named our trailer. I’m OK with that. We’ll see what the wife thinks.

The trailer is ~32 feet long overall and weighs in at just over 7,000lbs unloaded. So, needless to say, it weighs quite a bit more after all our assorted “stuff” is loaded up. We tow with a half ton Dodge Ram 1500 so we don’t have a lot of headroom. Weight is always something I have to keep in the back of mind. The truck has airbags front and back, a 3.92 rear end and can pull over 11,000lbs. The payload is quite tight, however. Payload is the weight that the truck can carry, including passengers, cargo and the weight the trailer exerts on the rear end of the truck, called tongue weight. Let’s just say we’re close.

The trip across Washington state was more a test than anything for me. I’ve towed this trailer, the only one I’ve ever pulled, about six times now. Every time I’ve gotten more confident and things seem easier, more relaxed. We’ve never crossed a mountain pass before though so I was more than a little anxious.

The trip went well for the most part with the exception of crazy high sidewinds in Ellensburg and a rogue wind gust right before George that threatened to push us into a guard rail sitting between us and the precipice of a cliff. All in all, a very relaxing trip! Thank goodness we made it through safe and those moments accounted for a very small percentage of the time spent on the road. While you always want to check the weather before trips, the longer the trip is the harder it is to account for everything.

Heading up into the mountains was next. This was what I was worried about more than anything else. We’ve made this drive countless times without the weight behind us but I’ve read horror stories about overheating transmissions and fading breaks. I like to be able to shift gears and stop. I know right?

This Dodge is one hell of a truck. I am in no way affiliated with Ram; I just REALLY love this truck. It is a beast for a half ton. Combined gross vehicle weight is about 15,000lbs and the truck pulled it all up into the mountains like it was nothing! Sure, there are other trucks that can handle 2 or 3 times the weight but this truck is mine and I love it.

I set the adaptive cruise control to about 55 mph so the truck didn’t have to work too hard and I just kicked back and relaxed. The gauges hardly moved past the center tick on all accounts. On the trip down the other side of the mountains the truck automatically shifted the transmission to use the compression from the motor to avoid break use and hardly touched the breaks at all while keeping the transmission temp at a reasonable level. I could not have asked for more.

Well… Maybe less traffic? We moved to the other side of Washington State to get away from this but it’s all our fault. We chose to drive west.

It was stop and go through Fife, WA on a Saturday at 1PM. I should have known better. Adaptive cruise control FTW though. Just sat back and manned the wheel.

After some nasty traffic that went all the way to S 38th we finally hit HWY 16 and our old stomping grounds in Kitsap County. The place has not changed a bit since we left. It felt like I still lived there and I was just heading to the store.

Belfair was just around the corner and, after 7.5 hours in the truck, we were ready!

Belfair State Park is located at the very inside tip of the south end of the Hood Canal, just east of the Olympic National Forrest. Trees, trees and more trees. It’s about an 8 minute drive from Downtown Belfair which is very convenient when you run out of propane, hotdogs or scotch! The last one being the more important of the three when camping, of course.

The campground is beautiful and most sites offer some privacy with full hookups for 30 and 50 amp, water and sewer. Out site was surrounded by some amazing old growth trees towering at least 130 feet in the air and the most amazing maple tree EVER. It’s canopy covered our large pull through site, the one next door and the road. We had some light rain the next day and we hardly knew it due to the tree’s canopy over our heads.

The only caveat is the site was literally right next to the main road and our only buffer was a tall wood fence. We could see the tops of larger vehicles driving by and the noise was less that conducive to a camping experience where you want to be out in nature.

It was a shame because, if not for the road, the site would have been PERFECT! More later on why we chose this site and how to avoid this!

We got settled in, started a fire and unwound from our drive. Family was showing up the next day so we had to get ready for that and I think we both completely passed out on the couch!

The next day all of T’s family showed up for Mother Day’s day. It’s been a while since we’ve seen them after we moved so it was amazing to reconnect.

We hung out around the fire, had some great BBQ and caught up.

The next day we explored a little. We walked through the campground and found that the canal and beach were very close!

Unfortunately, we were not going to be getting any shell fish. The season ends on April 31st and starts up again on August 1st. We’ll be heading this way again in the beginning of September. We may have to take a drive here then.

There were a lot of sites right on the water with some literally just a stone’s throw from the beach! I originally wanted one of these sites but all were reserved. Word to the wise, when making plans, reserve as far ahead of time as possible. If you don’t then you get a site right on the road where you get to augment your smores with crotchrockets and diesel pickups at 50 mph! Some campgrounds allow reservations up to 12 months in advance, some shorter time spans. A good rule of thumb is plan next year while camping this season and get the reservations as soon as allowable.

The tide was all the way out when we took our walk and revealed a gigantic bed of sea biome that I am sure was rife with clams and oysters. There were rangers on hand watching closely to make sure no one was taking shellfish.

We also found a little brook that flowed through the campground and read that salmon actually swim up it during season to spawn! They even have campsites a little further up from the beach that are directly on the brook.

That evening another friend showed for dinner, bringing with him a wonderful bottle of Japanese whisky to enjoy. Not sure what you call Japanese whisky. If you noticed the e in whiskey was omitted and that’s the only way I know to denote Japanese scotch. Only scotch from Scotland is technically scotch. Maybe one day someone will enlighten me.

With the Japanese “scotch” we had ribeye steaks, corn on the cob and some leftovers from Mom’s day, Thank you Sue!

Good drink should always be shared with good friends. I think camping is the same. So far, this trip was amazing! our best yet.

The next morning it was time to break camp and reluctantly head home. It’s always so hard to willingly return to a 5 day work week and the humdrum that is everyday life but we will always have our next trip to look forward to! Next month will be Winchester State Park in Idaho! We can’t wait!

Here are some photos from our UNEVENTFUL and mostly wind free trip home.

The area, campground and amenities at Belfair State Park are great! We would definitely stay here again. Just stay away from the north end of the campground unless you enjoy road noise!

Resources:

Belfair State Park is a public recreation area located on Hood Canal three miles southwest of Belfair in Mason County, Washington. The state park consists of 94 acres of tidal flats, wetlands, and beaches with a 3,720-foot shoreline.

 Wikipedia

Address: 3151 WA-300, Belfair, WA 98528

Phone: (360) 275-0668

February and March were full of firsts for us. We were able to finally pick up our new Outdoors RV 25rds from the dealer after waiting what felt like eons for the factory to build it. I towed for the first time in my life and we had our first meal as RVers! I also got to use the 4-wheel drive low on my truck for the first time as well!

Towing for the first time was a fun and nerve-wracking experience. I left the dealership with the trailer in tow and within about 2 miles I was on i90 doing 60! After putting a little distance between me and the dealer things calmed down (I mean I did) and the rest of the hour long trip from the dealer to the storage lot was cake.

I managed to do a half way decent job of backing the trailer in to its new spot. To my credit there was snow on the ground and the whole lot was SQUISHIE!

Lunch was somehow more satisfying than normal!

Steamboat Rock State Park, Wa 03/20/2021

Due to a job change we had an extra-long weekend and Tammy looked at me and said, “Let’s go do something!” That night we made reservations for the next two nights and fled home like it was on fire!

Steamboat Rock State Park was about 2 hours away, most of the trip is just west on State Route 2 out of Spokane after about 30 miles on i90. That’s if you use your head and don’t follow the follies that is in dash GPS. We decided we needed to try to find some camping chairs for sale on the way out as well which took us in a different direction. Note to self, find the camping chairs BEFORE hooking up the trailer. It was a mini adventure before our adventure.

Due to our side tracking for the chairs our GPS decided to take us on an interesting drive through country I can only describe as something straight out of Themiddleofnowhere, USA. It was beautiful country, surrounded by nothing but rolling hills and farm land that went on for what seemed forever. Our 2-hour drive there turned into about 3.5 hours but that’s OK because we were going to be way too early for check in anyway.

Steamboat Rock State Park sits on a peninsula in the middle of Banks lake, just south of the Grand Coulee Dam. The entire area is in the foot prints of what used to be an ancient run of the Columbia River and a large glacier that carved its path through the area 18,000 years ago during the last ice age, redirecting the Columbia River to where it flows today. When you’re there it is like being in Sedona, Az! There are 800 foot tall buttes or cliffs all around you. It is really quite the sight to see.

The sites were spacious but did not provide a lot of privacy. The fee was 45.00 a night with Washington State Discover Pass and we had no issue finding a site in a moment’s notice this time of the year.

It was a little chilly, temps were in the high 50’s to low 60’s with one day that pushed 70 degrees. The fire helped!

The first morning we woke up, we had about 30 wild turkeys walking through the camp site. They were all puffed up with their glorious array of feathers out for everyone to know who was boss!

That evening we got to break in our new BBQ from Nexgrill which worked perfectly with a high-pressure hookup from one of our two main tanks.

We would definitely stay here again!

Resources

https://parks.state.wa.us/590/Steamboat-Rock

Steamboat Rock State Park is a 3,522-acre Washington state park located near the north end of Banks Lake in the Grand Coulee. The park takes its name from the landscape’s dominating feature, Steamboat Rock, a basalt butte that rises 800 feet above the lake which nearly completely surrounds it. Wikipedia

Address: 51052 WA-155, Electric City, WA 99123