Naples, ID

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We spent 3 nights here at the Blue Lake RV Park in Naples, ID.  It was a very pleasant lake setting.

Sandpoint, ID

Between Memorial Day and Labor Day it seems that everywhere we go we see various types of festivals being advertised.  While we don’t attempt to schedule around these events, sometimes our trip coincides with a local festival.  Last fall we encountered the Avocado and Margarita Festival in Morro Bay, CA.  Here we found that the town of Sandpoint, ID, had scheduled a beer festival to occur while we were parked in Naples, about 23 miles away.  We went down and found Sandpoint to be a very pleasant town on the northern shore of Lake Pend Oreille, Idaho’s largest lake.  We enjoyed some of the local beer, some music and the beautiful views of the lake.

Next stop:  Kalispell, MT

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Umatilla, OR

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From Portland we followed the Columbia River east to the town of Umatilla, OR.  Our near term objective is to get to Glacier National Park in Montana and this moved us 200 miles in that direction.  If you haven’t been into the eastern part of Oregon and Washington, it is completely different than the green, wet and mountainous western portion.  This part reminds me very much of California’s central valley, very dry with some gently rolling hills and lots of agriculture.

Umatilla, OR

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Back to Portland–June 2018

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When we were here back in early May, we knew we needed to nail down an RV spot in which to ride out the July 4th holiday period.  This is traditionally a very busy time for RV parks so you need to book early.  In addition, we needed to make arrangements to get to an event in Las Vegas scheduled for June 28 – July 1.  This event was the Iwashita-Akiyama family reunion.  This is a family group related to Valerie’s maternal grandmother.  Their first event was 3 years ago and they arranged to repeat it at the 3 year mark.  A good number of the group traveled from Hawaii for the event.

Iwashita-Akiyama family reunion

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Eatonville, WA–Mt. Rainier National Park

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Eatonville is a bit southeast of Seattle in the vicinity of Mt. Rainier National Park which was the major purpose for our visit.  We parked at Rainbow RV Resort which is located on picturesque Lake Tanwax.  On a clear day, which we were fortunate to experience, you can see the peak of Mt. Rainier from the RV park.

Mt. Rainier

At 14,410 feet, Mt. Rainier is the tallest volcano in the Cascade Mountain Range and the most glaciated peak in the continental United States with 26 named glaciers.  We entered the park at the Nisqually entrance which is in the southwest corner of the park.  Near the Longmire area we stopped for a hike that took us up to a spot with a nice view of Mt. Rainier.  We continued on the main road stopping to check out waterfalls and other viewpoints.  We went as far as the Paradise area which is the most popular spot in the park.  It takes you to about 5,400 feet in elevation.  The National Park Service says that “Paradise is the snowiest place on Earth where snowfall is measured regularly.”  It has an average of 671 inches of snowfall per year with 1,122 inches recorded during the winter of 1971/72.  Mt. Rainier NP is a little off the beaten path but well worth a more extensive visit.

Next stop:  Portland, OR