Tuesday, October 8, 2024
Wallowa Lake is 3.4 miles long and not as wide. I sits in a hollow backed by beautiful mountain peaks. The scene of the lake and peaks is beautiful. The State Park lies at the southernmost end of the lake with those peaks at its back. Ther park is well laid out with acres of open areas beneath the pines with picnic areas integrated in those areas. There is a stream where Kokanee salmon spawn. A marina rounds out the park where a large parking lot is provided for all those spring and summer fishermen. We particularly enjoyed the large open areas as we could walk Buster and not worry about him reacting to other dogs. I’m not sure we’d ever come back to Wallowa Lake again but it was sure worth the side trip to visit the lake and parts Wallowa County Oregon.
Wallowa Lake Looking South Towards The State Park
The unfortunate part about visiting Wallowa Lake is we have to go out the way we came in. But that’s OK as everything looks a little different going the opposite direction on the same road. And it doesn’t seem to take as long to travel the same distance. Weird
Scenery around Wallowa Lake State Park including Kokanee Salmon stream
Old Chief Joseph’s Grave Overlooks Wallowa Lake
We are traveling about 200 miles a day for 3 straight day until we take a 2 day break Our cohorts at the hatchery winter in Benson AZ. They are traveling 450 miles a day towing a 5th wheel. We are both to0 old for that silliness.
Our stop for October 4th is the Country Corners RV Park located just outside of Caldwell, Idaho (66,000 souls) in an area they call Sand Hollow. The park is nice, sites not too close to one another with grass in between sites and lots of grass and trees on the west side reminiscent of a park. The park is far enough off of the interstate to be pretty quiet. There are tomatoes and cucumbers in a box outside which are grown by the lady in charge. She offers them for free. We like this park.
On October 5th we again head east on I-84. We make pretty good time traveling another 200 or so miles to Heyburn Riverside RV Park. When I called to make a reservation the lady said no more reservations taken after October 1. She said the park wouldn’t be full. We arrive only to find the adjacent city park full of families, a fire engine, an amblam, a helocopeter, a USAR squad! Aaaand a bunch of food vendors! Nobody mentioned all this to us! Unbelievably the crowd wasn’t noisy at all and everyone appeared to be enjoying themselves watching demonstrations by all the emergecy folk and eating good food and enjoying to park atmosphere. We even went over and got ourselves a couple of burritos from one on the vendors. They were outstanding. The RV Park is nice but all the parking sites are curbed. I found it hard to stand on the curb and try open compartment doors as it was awkward.
On Sunday October 6 we headed to OOtah, er, Utah, transitioning from I-84 to I-15 south. Traffic wasn’t horrible but way more than we’ve encountered since transitioning through Gresham OR on August 1st. It seems like all the towns and cities have grown into one another especially around Salt Lake City. The traffic is very reminiscent of the greater Los Angeles area. Maybe not that bad as traffic kept moving mostly at freeway speeds. We pass SLC, the State Capital building in site and maybe even the steeple of the beautiful LDS Salt Lake Temple. We get through the maze of lane changes and closures more or less unscathed. We continue on without hardly a break in humanity until we reach Payson, our turn off.
We are camping at Gladstan RV Park, a city owned RV park in the middle of Payson City owned Gladstan Golf Course. The fairways actually surround the park on three sides. It’s fun watching the golfer play the game. We’ll be here for a couple of days, a respite from back to back to back days of travel.
Until next time- Via con Dios
Travel With Jil and Mike 