by Sharon O | Aug 12, 2016 | Uncategorized
We had many good times on our two week vacation.
Took lots of beautiful photographs and shared our experiences on facebook and with each other. We tried to find small ‘mom and pop’ type restaurants and most were very good. Our favorite was run by a Mennonite couple in Buhl Idaho. It was clean and quaint with lots of cars in the front of it, which is always a good sign. The food was very good and I would definitely go back in there if we lived closer.
We saw beautiful landscapes and many old barns as we drove from Oregon to Idaho and even into Montana. The areas were parched and dry most of the time, but also green and full of life depending on where we went, it was amazing to see the difference.
As we headed to Baker before going home we stayed at Farewell Bend state park for two nights, it was a very nice place but very hot outside and there were a lot of flies. We could not enjoy ourselves sitting outside so we dropped the trailer off and went site seeing in the truck, that was air conditioned. The best way to beat the heat is to find air.
That is when we saw the Four Rivers cultural center in Baker.
It was very interesting full of old artifacts and information just like the Big Hole museum in Wyoming.
A statue at the Indian museum. I so enjoyed the beauty of it along with the other one
We headed up the mountain to see Hell’s canyon recreational area.
It was a long road full of curves and switch backs and up to a height of I am not sure, very high and very beautiful once we got up there.
We have a picture of my husband and I sitting near that brick wall facing the valley below and as we were getting our picture taken I said to him, “why am I smiling no one can see me?” we had a great laugh about that one!
This is also the country road we saw the old ‘cow’ walking with a few of his buddies in the middle of the road. He didn’t bother to move either and was not bothered by our car.
After we settled into Oregon again and stayed at a park called Mt View Rv park.
We connected up with my sister and her husband to see some of the Baker area together, she is older than I am and could remember some of the places we used to live in as little girls, many years ago.
We went to a Hotel that one can stay in now, Larry had seen it on Oregon art beat show and he wanted to see it in person. The history of it is interesting as it used to be the a very well known place in Baker county in the 40’s then they made it into a sanitarium for those who ‘could not’ live in the outside world. After that it became a hotel people can stay at now.
It was very pretty but a bit creepy at the same time. (just my opinion)
Our next days adventures would include walking down memory lane in Baker and then back into North Powder where our grandma had a restaurant. Stay with me as we travel down through some years of my childhood.
by Sharon O | Aug 9, 2016 | Uncategorized
After we left Montana area we headed back down the road towards Baker, Oregon.
We had already gone through part of the way on the way towards Idaho, but we didn’t stay long since we knew we were going to return there on our way home.
We found ourselves one night not knowing where to stay for the night, it was a bit unnerving to not find a ‘secure sight’. We drove through a few campsites and none of them felt ‘good to us’. They were small and kind of creepy.
Finally we saw a small forest service sight with park hosts and only three camps sites in the campground, one was filled with college kids doing a freshman adventure course.
We stopped and set up camp not even unhooking the trailer from the car. It was that short of a trip. The guys leveled it and we set up our ‘chairs’ and found some water to play in across the street. As I said before it had been a ongoing 95-102 temperature and we were anticipating a HOT camp night.
In the morning we decided to head down the road to Wagonhammer Rv park in Salmon Idaho. It as by far the best place we stayed at the whole time we were gone.
We unhooked our trailer and set up camp for three nights.
At this site we were able to do some laundry, do more sight seeing adventures while leaving our trailer and tent there, knowing it was protected and watched.
It was a good place to stay in fact we met people there who were staying a month at a time there. It was very nice and peaceful there. Very watched and we highly recommend this Rv park for anyone going that direction. They even had a small store.
On one of our day trips we actually drove pretty high into the mountains and saw these wonderful creatures. I was so excited. We took pictures and stopped our car and watched them until the dad started to stomp his feet and it seemed he was becoming a bit agitated so our best thought was to move on and enjoy them as we drove away.
I think seeing these majestic animals was the highlight of our vacation for me.
They were beautiful, and so graceful on the rocks.
Reminded me of my favorite book called Hinds feet on high places…by Hannah Hurnard.
After our relaxing stay at Wagonhammer we had to move on. We were heading to Baker and back to the North Powder area where my grandma had a restaurant.
by Sharon O | Aug 8, 2016 | Uncategorized
We were so close to the Montana border we felt we had to get there at some point in our trip just so we could say, “‘we did it.”
The landscape was not too much different than Idaho, and we actually would have gone further into the state, but time was an issue, we had to get back to Baker in a few days.
We found a great little meal in a small restaurant in the town of wisdom Montana.
The town itself was a post office, a general store that sold assorted goods.
A gas station which we needed, and a cute little church where we found a geocache, inside the bathroom. That was a strange place I thought, but I guess that is part of the hunt.
(In strange places which includes bathrooms)
Wonder who ever thought of that one?
Not far from this restaurant was the Big hole monument site where there was a big fight between the Indians and the white man. We drove to that site and explored the history within it’s walls and watched the movie provided with great information.
I always love to look at the detail of the blankets made by hand.
In the same time frame as this little trip, we were trying to get a night or two at red fish lake area but that was very full. There are few sites in each campground and they are taken very quickly according to those who we talked to.
So we found a spot down the road to camp and decided the water would be our play day.
We had spent a lot of time driving and site seeing and sometimes one has to just stop and play as we picnicked along the waters edge. Most of our team got into the water because the temperature was in the 90’s. ‘I’ just sat and enjoyed the beauty around us.
Along the country roads we would often find interesting signs.
Of course I would often read them out loud, which is why ‘we had the nickname’ Gabby.
It didn’t make me feel too excited to be camping in bear country or even cougar country but unless you are in a city, that is the way it is most of the time.
Sharing ‘their space’…without their consent.
Tomorrow we will journey onward as we move from Idaho back into Oregon.
by Sharon O | Aug 7, 2016 | Uncategorized
We left Oregon and went into Idaho to see Buhl, where the grandparents were buried, then to do some memorial sight seeing of what my husband and his sister could remember as little kids growing up. Of course along the way you always find other things that peak your interest. I loved this old building where we had a breakfast in a old fashioned, no fancy, no thrill restaurant. It was a sign on the wall.
In case you can’t read it,
“On this site in 1897 nothing happened.” Isn’t that funny?
After we left that area we moved into the Hailey Idaho area.
That is a little town I could actually move to, it was so cute. Very touristy and very expensive but really cute. I of course had to get a picture of the flag at the local post office.
It was such a cute little town with a huge rodeo grounds and a nice store or two and even a great skate park for the kids.
I can’t imagine who designed it with a darling statue in the park.
I had to get a picture of it, so adorable.
The skate park.
From Hailey Idaho we moved towards the Stanley Idaho area.
It was very nice and quaint. You could tell it was a community town probably about 100 people. On a sign by the road it said “children playing, no hunting.”
I found that rather funny.
Our dinner in Stanley outside on their patio.
We dined over a river while watching horses across the field.
Along our way I don’t remember the day or exactly where, I saw this sign.
Yep population 7.
At one point we were on a very high pass on pretty gravel roads and found this little guy plus a few of his friends.
I wanted a picture of a cow. I guess I got one.
This is only part of our vacation and some of it might not be in order.
Amazing landscapes and small towns of America.
Our next journey will bring us to Montana.
by Sharon O | Aug 6, 2016 | Uncategorized
On our way out of Haggerman park there was a wonderful little ‘sculpture’ site we had to take pictures of, they were really amazing.
After taking the time for pictures we moved on down the valley thinking we could find a place to stay. Had a few ‘sites in mind’ but we ended up with no luck.
Upper Idaho had some areas a lot of people liked around the sawtooth mountains and there were no campgrounds were available.
I called this next site ‘our pause’… because Larry had told me we needed to dump our ‘black water’ and I said ‘yes we do if we are off camp ground’ sites. So we dropped half of our team in a hot site so they could hold it, and we moved up toward the town of Stanley to dump our trailer in a forest ranger dump station.
We didn’t like the area we settled in, but it would be ok for a night. After returning from our ‘dump’ trip we came back and our team had found a shady much better site for us to stay in. God had provided and we were thankful.
We ended up in a pretty shady spot, and it was way better than what we thought.
We stayed there two nights, with no hook ups for our trailer but ok.
During that stay we had a few days to play so we saw the sawtooth mountains and had a play day which we all needed. Here you see Bruce on of our guys way high on top of this mountain, and my husband was on the trail taking the picture.
The sawtooth mountains were amazingly beautiful.
We tried to camp near them but the grounds were full so we were happy to just play for the day and enjoy the lake-time spent together.
We had a lunch and some played in the water and we enjoyed the beauty of the landscape around us knowing how blessed we were to have a safe and enjoyable trip. It had been hot but we managed and the trip was only less than half over so on to the next journey.
