Category: Road Trips

Oregon Road Trip, Smiths Rock, Newberry Volcanic National Monument, Crater Lake and John Day Fossil Beds.

I drove to Bend Oregon and spent a couple of nights in an affordable motel. I planned to visit several places that I always wanted to see and had alternatives in mind in case plans change. That turned out to be a good thing.

I got a 6:00 AM start and made it to Smith Rock State Park a little after 12 noon. This turned out to be the highlight of the trip and you can check out my photos and descriptions here.

After I checked in my room, I drove a few miles south of Bend to check out Lava Butte, a National Forest site showcasing an old cinder cone and lava field.

By the time I got there it was late and the visitor center was closed. I walked a little through the lava field in the lengthening shadows. The place reminded me of a scaled down version of Craters of the Moon in southern Idaho.

So I got up the next morning again at 6:00 AM and made a beeline to Crater Lake National Park. The nice folks at the motel said it was about a two hour drive. It would have been if the north entrance was open. It wasn’t due to fire activity. I had to drive another hour around the park to the south entrance and back track to the park.

So it took me a good three hours to make it to the rim and boy was I in for a disappointment. The higher I got, the worse the smoke got. I could barely see the lake below me. At least they weren’t charging the entrance fee which was also a bummer as I had my America the Beautiful pass and didn’t even get to use it.

The smoke was so thick it hurt to breath and my eyes watered. I’ve had several people tell me that they thought Crater Lake was one of the most beautiful spots they had ever been to. I’ll have to take their word for it. I planned to hike Scott Peak but that was pointless and I later found out they had the trailhead closed anyway due to road construction.

This picture of Wizard Island through the smoke was the best I could do. I stayed about a minute and a half before I decided to try and salvage the rest of the day. I was disgusted by the situation. Damn Oregon wildfires. Additionally the facilities I visited were covered in graffiti and litter was everywhere. Even though you couldn’t really see anything the park was surprisingly busy. Visiting this park has been on my bucket list and sadly I will probably never go back.

So I drove almost three more hours taking the longer and less scenic way near Klamath Falls and went with my plan B, the Newberry Caldera south of Bend. Here I used my America the Beautiful Pass to cover the entrance fee. There wasn’t smoke but the previous nights storm left lingering low clouds and fog. At least I could breath.

My first stop was the Big Obsidian Flow. A nice trail with interpretive signs gave me access to all the lava rocks you could ever ask to see.

There was a lot of obsidian which is basically black glass. It was kind of pretty.

The caldera has two lakes in it.

By now the clouds were starting to lift so I decided to hike to the high point of the caldera rim, Paulina Peak. From where I started to the top and back was about a four mile hike. About half way up the views opened and I could see both lakes as well as the central cinder cone.

I even caught a couple of patches of blue skies near the top. I had the trail to myself on the way up.

When I reached the summit, the weather closed in again. It was time to head back down.

On the way down I could see just how big the cliffs I had recently been on top of were.

On my way out I made one more stop to see a pretty little waterfall. They are winding down this time of year but this one was still pretty nice. I bet it’s real impressive during melt off.

Newberry Volcanic National Monument was a cool place to explore. I’m glad I had a backup plan for Crater Lake but it would have been nice to have clear skies here as well. Still clouds are a lot better than smoke. I finished the day by sitting in a traffic jam that closed the freeway back to Bend for two hours. Probably not my best day on a road trip ever.

I left Bend early the next morning and took the long way home. I headed east on US 26 out of Redmond to see the John Jay Fossil Beds. My first stop was the Painted Hills Unit.

The Painted Hills outside of the hamlet of Mitchell is a colorful series of clay hills that are famous both for their striking appearance and also as the site of huge deposits of fossils. Here they are mostly fossils of plants.

I walked several short trails covering maybe a mile and a half to enjoy the view points and read the interpretive signage.

After about an hour and a half I left and headed towards my next stop.

Another hour to the east is the Sheep Rock unit of John Day Fossil Beds National Monument. Here they have a full visitor center.

After checking out the visitor center on the advice of the host, I drove a couple of miles south and checked out the Blue Basin.

These eroded deposits of blue/green clay contain the fossils of mostly mammals from prehistoric times. The striking color made the place feel otherworldly.

The round trip on this trail was about a mile and a half.

Eastern Oregon is a big place. Including my short hikes it took me over thirteen hours to get home. At least most of the drive was scenic and lonely.

So my three day trip cost me two nights in an affordable motel and about a hundred dollars in gasoline. I got to see a lot of places I never had before which is a good thing. Crater Lake was disappointing. I had planned to make a lengthy stand alone post about the National Park. Hopefully the next National Park I visit won’t be covered in wildfire smoke.

Priest Lake Road Trip, Day Two, Kayaking on the big lake, Kalispell and Bartoo Islands.

After a full day of kayaking and hiking out of the Lion Head unit of Priest Lake State Park I called it an evening and got ready of the next day. I got up at about 5:00 AM, packed up my camp as quietly as possible so as to not disturb my camping neighbors and headed to the opposite side of the lake.

My destination was the Kalispell Bay boat ramp an hour and a half around the lake. On the way I made a quick stop at the public docks in the town of Coolin to snap a couple of photos.

In the distance I could see my goals for todays paddle. Kalispell Island is on the left, tiny Papoose Island in the middle and Bartoo Island on the right. That’s a lot of open water to cross. Lower Priest Lake is over nineteen miles long and over three hundred feet deep.

The Lake is so large, it took me almost an hour and a half to drive from Lion Head on the north end to Kalispell Bay around the bottom of the lake and back up the other side on the southwest shore. This was the view of my islands from the boat ramp. I launched about 7:00 AM and was the only one doing so at that hour. It would get a lot busier later.

I aimed for the far south point of Kalispell Island with the glare of the rising sun in my face. This point is off limits to boat campers and open for day use only, so I landed and took a brief break.

From here I had a nice view across the water to Papoose and Bartoo Islands. Kalispell is the more accessible and poplar of the islands for camping. You can see the water clarity here.

Priest Lake is called North Idaho’s crown jewel for a reason. It is the most remote of the big lakes in the panhandle and a water sports destination for the entire region.

This was the first of my three landing spots for the day. Boat camping on Kalispell and Bartoo Islands is a very popular pastime. If I had a boat and the time in my younger days I would have loved to have brought the family here.

On the way to Bartoo Island I passed by tiny Papoose Island. This little piece of land is closed to all public use. There’s not much on it anyway, it’s just a halfway point in the middle of a lot of open water on the way to Bartoo Island.

Off of Papoose Island there are some dangerous submerged rocks that are marked by a buoy warning boaters of the hazard. It would suck to hit one of these while speeding through an otherwise deep channel.

I paddled around the south end of Bartoo Island exploring the scenery which varied from rocky bluffs to sand beached and even marshland. A lot of the camp sites were full.

I almost expected to see a moose, but the island usually has a lot of folks on it.

Some of the rock formations on Bartoo Island must be two hundred feet above the shore.

This was my second landing place on Bartoo Island with Papoose and Kalispell Islands in the background. This particular campsite was unoccupied. Unlike a lot of lakes in North Idaho, Priest Lake is known for its clean sandy beaches.

Bartoo Island has it’s share of hazardous off shore rocks as well. Luckily my kayak only needs about six inches of water.

So I paddled back across the straight by Papoose Island and aimed for the center of the south shore of Kalispell Island when I came across about the most beautiful cove you could imagine.

There were three camp sites on this cove and I was shocked to find all of them unoccupied but all had reserved signs on them. I had the place to myself. It was the perfect place for one last swim in the lake.

There were amazing headlands on both sides of the cove. From the the west side I had a very nice view of the islands I had recently visited or kayaked around.

The headland on the east side of the cove had tall rock bluffs and a view of these amazing camp sites.

I wondered why these of all the sites on the island were empty. I ran into a volunteer worker for the campground and he explained that entitled folks with money to burn book the three sites all summer in two week blocks using different names to continue the reservation charade so they can come out anytime the weather is nice and it’s convenient. If I wanted to camp that would suck. For me as a day user it was awfully nice to have the place to myself.

So I finally had to head back to the boat ramp by circling the island. It’s bigger than it looks at first. I got to watch this bird do it’s thing hammering at the dead wood for a few minutes.

By the time I got to the boat ramp four hours later the place had turned in to a zoo. All the parking was gone and it seemed like a hundred people were just milling around waiting for their rides to the islands. Early bird gets the worm. On my way back I made one last stop at the bridge over the Priest River not too far from the outlet to the lake to take one last photo. Apparently this river is very popular with rafters and tubers in the summer. During melt off it’s a class five challenge for the real white water enthusiast.

The drive home took me only an hour and a half as I left from the southern end of the lake instead of Lion Head at the north end. On the way home it hit one hundred and three degrees Fahrenheit. That’s about 39 Celsius for my foreign exchange students. Glad I was off the water before noon.

Priest Lake Road Trip, Day One the Thoroughfare, Upper Priest Lake and the Sliding Rocks.

On Tuesday I made the two and a half hour drive to the north end of Priest Lake with my camping gear. I had a reservation at the Lion Head unit of Priest Lake State Park.

The first thing I noticed at Lion Head is that this amazing wreck that I photographed years ago has finally fallen apart to the point that it isn’t all that recognizable anymore. This old wreck is right next to the boat ramp. That’s my old rig in the background with my kayak on top.

On a bright sunny day were the temps were heading into the triple digits, I launched my kayak at 9:00 AM and made my way across aptly named Mosquito Bay towards the entrance of the channel that connects Lower Priest Lake to the upper lake.

Looking back across Mosquito Bay towards the campground I noticed a notch in the mountains east of it. If I had time after my ride my plan was to check out a place about six miles up that valley. On the right side of the photo you can see the end of the replacement breakwater that protects the outlet of the Thoroughfare.

The Thoroughfare is an about two and a half mile long flat water stream that connects the two lakes. The entire course of the waterway is a strict no wake zone which makes kayaking it much more enjoyable than it otherwise would be.

As it is wide and relatively deep, the waterway has a minimal current and the paddling is easy. A lazy river indeed, at least after the snow melts. I read that it can be very challenging in the late spring.

About half way to Upper Priest Lake, a small stream called Caribou Creek flows into the waterway from the east. It is just big enough to push a kayak up about a thousand feet and around several bends. The ice cold water is crystal clear.

Caribou Creek was so cold I could hear my kayak contracting from the temperature difference. My feet got cold in a hurry too. Not a place you would want to go for a swim.

It was fun pushing it as far up this stream as I could in my Free State America brand kayak. This tree across the creek finally told me I shall not pass.

It was a short trip back to the Thoroughfare. I wish I could have traveled up this amazing creek all day, but even if I got around the deadfall across the stream, it was getting awfully shallow in a hurry.

Around one more bend is the lake with the Selkirk Mountains in the background.

As soon as you enter Upper Priest lake there is a camping area complete with bear boxes and picnic tables on the east side of the river. Here is where the rules for the lake are posted. Upper Priest Lake is a no water ski zone. Tubing and wake boarding are prohibited as well.

Upper Priest is a lot smaller than the main or Lower Priest Lake, but it’s still an impressive body of water at about two miles long north to south and an average of half a mile wide. The deepest spot is about 119 feet below the surface.

This interesting rock is well off shore near the south end of the lake.

Rocky bluffs dominate the eastern shoreline.

About two thirds of the way towards the north end of the lake I found this wonderful little beach and had it to myself. By now it was hot so I cooled off in the clear blue water. It almost looked tropical.

It would have been a nice place to camp. There are several beaches mostly on the eastern side of the lake and most of them had someone camping or visiting in a boat. This one was unoccupied.

The Selkirk crest is east of both Lower and Upper Priest Lakes. Many of the granite peaks are over seven thousand feet above sea level making them the highest mountains in the Idaho panhandle.

Four and a half hours after I started, I was back at my campsite and took another swim, this time in Lower Priest. This is the beach behind my campsite.

The kayak trip in itself would have made for a successful trip, but I still had five or six hours of daylight left so I decided to check out the Natural Sliding Rocks east of the campground.

This stream, Lion Creek enters the lake just south of the campground. A forest road follows it up the canyon for five miles before it ends at a trailhead for the sliding rocks.

Large granite outcroppings loom over the trailhead. Here you’re getting into the heart of the American Selkirks. This mountains continue into Canada.

The peaks on the south side of the creek are even bigger.

The rocky single track trail was a little over a mile and a half long each way. It had a bit of a grade and numerous small stream crossings, one of which was at the base of a pretty little waterfall.

About half a mile in I came to this beautiful place with bare slabs of granite and open views down the canyon. It was a nice place to linger but these are not the sliding rocks. These rocks would kill you if you tried to slide down them.

The trail overlooked the creek at many places. Here a deeper pool of emerald green water made for a nice picture.

I love me some giant red cedars and here I did come across a nice grove of old growth. By now the rays of the sun were noticeably hitting the ground at a lower angle indicating time was getting short.

Just before the Natural Sliding Rocks, the trail forces you to cross Lion Creek itself. It was about mid thigh deep and extremely cold.

And finally I reached the sliding rocks. I wasn’t about to try them myself. I was the last person here for the day and an injury would have been a big problem. Beside that, I didn’t feel like hiking the mile and a half back soaked and cold.

I heard there was a sizable waterfall or to be more accurate a cascade just above the sliding rocks so I found it. I pushed a little further looking for the pool at the top in the failing daylight, briefly lost the trail and decided that it was time to turn around. This is a popular place for folks to visit, but the idea of being the last one out in the dimming light and knowing there are serious critters in the Selkirks encouraged me to make good time on the way back.

On the way out I paused to take one more photo of this impressive cleft in the granite canyon wall. Those are probably one hundred foot tall trees on the top.

Just before the trailhead I caught up with a few stragglers with kids in tow so I grabbed one more photo, this time of that pretty little waterfall I saw on the way up. Next came the five mile drive back down the canyon to the campground on the lake.

Due to the heatwave dusk turned into a purple haze as I enjoyed the view from behind my campsite. I’m glad I wasn’t the only one kayaking on this beautiful day on this beautiful lake.

I called it an evening and made plans for the next morning. A four and a half hour paddle followed by a three and a half mile hike and two lake swims made for a full day, oh and let’s not forget the two and a half hour drive to the campground.

North Fork of the Coeur d’Alene River Road Trip, Day Two.

Yesterday I drove over Fourth of July Pass to explore the North Fork of the Coeur d’Alene River. My primary goal was to combine a couple of bike rides on the public roadways that follow the river with maybe a short hike or two and an overnight stay at one of the National Forest Service campgrounds along the way. The first day, I rode the Old River Road from the Bumblebee Cutoff to The Coeur d’Alene River Road “Forest Road 9” and took a side trip to Shadow and Fern Falls. Todays plan was to ride another section of the river road here signed as Forest Road #208, this time from my campground to the end of the pavement and back and maybe check out an old fire lookout tower.

It was still very cool when I started the ride at 7:30 AM, so I had to wear a pull over. Without gloves my hands were numb the first few miles. Just north of Kit Price the roadway passes by some pretty cool overhanging rocks.

The road follows the river upstream towards a place called McGee. For much of the way the river is right next to the road. Early in the morning there was very little vehicle traffic to contend with.

The roadway crosses the river several times. At most of these crossings there were fly fishermen trying their luck. I was on the lookout for moose but didn’t come across any today. Across this bridge You can see a large area of the forest that burned down a few years ago. Stand replacement fires are a natural part of the environment in the Northern Rockies, however they have become much more common due to human caused fires in the past century. This one was human caused.

Sometimes the results of wildfires are the creation of meadows along the river.

Even the largest of trees aren’t immune from becoming ghostly skeletons due to fire. This one was particularly eye catching. Within a couple of more miles, I was no longer in an area that experienced a recent wildfire.

Along the way I rode past numerous back water channels off of the river. Places like this are prime moose habitat and believe me I was looking hard for one to snap a photo of. I see them so often that a friend of mine told me they must be my spirit animal. Not today however.

There are big views in this big country. As on my other ride, traffic was very manageable, however it did build a little towards the end of the ride as it being a Friday, lots of folks were heading out to the woods for the weekend. It might be a little busy for bike riding on summer weekends.

Towards the last few miles of my ride, this prominent feature dominated the landscape. I believe this might be Sion Kop Rock, a well known landmark.

At sixteen miles I called it good. I would liked to have made it to the end of the pavement, but I had a deadline on when I had to be back to the campground and didn’t want to push it. I turned around just short of the trailhead for the Coeur d’Alene River Recreational Trail, a place I visited years ago. It was a nice place to take an early fall hike. This picture is from that visit many years ago.

On the way back I detoured though the other two campgrounds to check them out. Big Hank and Devils Elbow both had sites that back up to the river, but I liked the one I got at Kit Price better. I ended up with a thirty two mile ride by the time I got back to my campsite and it was just an hour before check out time. Another party had the site reserved later that day.

If you can make it on a weekday or on a shoulder season weekend this is a great bicycle ride. Between riding the Old River Road and this one, I was in for sixty miles in two days on a hybrid trail bike. I would not recommend that anyone try to ride the ten miles or so on Forest Road 9 from the end to Old River Road to where traffic thins back out at around the Shoshone Work Camp. It’s just too busy and has higher speed traffic.

So I met my goal of two scenic bike rides and was still feeling energetic so I decided to try and drive to the Little Guard Lookout Tower. Apparently it is possible to reserve this facility for overnight camping The sign said it was a ten mile drive up the ridge on Forest Road 602. The first five miles or so were in excellent shape having been recently graded. Above that even though the Forest Service had just bladed the road, it got a little rough. My biggest concern on the upper four miles was the lack of pull outs to allow oncoming traffic to pass and I didn’t see much any place wide enough to turn my truck around if it got really bad.

At about nine miles in I finally came to a place with lots of room and coincidentally met a Forest Service employee on a side by side, the first vehicle I passed the whole way. He stopped me to let me know one more was heading down hill and I explained that I was planning to stop here and walk the rest of the way. He said that since I had stumbled right to the trailhead for the Shoshone Ridge Trail and that I liked hiking, I should take that much more scenic route instead.

Sometimes with free advice you get what you pay for but the man was right. The trailhead sits at about 5500 above sea level and the views are outstanding.

Most of the trail follows a high ridge with a very gentle incline and lots of open views of the surrounding mountains.

Looking back across the Coeur d’Alene River (the north fork) valley I could see a nearby snow capped mountain. My best guess is that it was Grizzly Mountain in the middle of the Coeur d’Alene National Forest.

Most of the trail was routed just below and to the west of a very pronounced ridge. Above it loomed large rock formations.

I was on the lookout for wildlife but only managed to scare up one whitetail and a momma grouse. I had the trail completely to myself and was surprised at how well it was maintained.

The trail headed towards Bennett Peak, a 6200 foot tall mountain on the ridge. The trail ended up skirting around this prominence as it gradually climbed up the ridge.

This is the view of Bennett Peak after you pass it on the way to Sentinel Peak. There was still snow in places, but none across the trail.

When you finally crest the ridge you can see the mountains towards the east and south. In the distance are the St. Joe and Bitterroot Mountains.

At the top of Sentinel Peak which sits at about 6100 feet, there is an incredible view of the Cabinet Mountains with little Sentinel in the foreground. I could clearly see A Peak and Snowshoe Peak in Montana as well Scotchman Mountain, the highest peak on the Idaho side all still covered in snow.

Here is where I turned back. As soon as I did, I noticed the first sign or marker of any kind on the entire trail. It let me know I had 3.3 miles to go to get back to the trailhead. Overall it was a very scenic trail with about a six hundred foot elevation gain and a very mild grade except for the last couple hundred yards.

I ended up completing a seven and a half mile hike after a thirty two mile bike ride. After some challenging driving back to the pavement, I still had well over an hour on the highways until I was back in what passes for me as my base camp in Coeur d’Alene. Not a bad way to wrap up a two day trip.

North Fork of the Coeur d’Alene River Road Trip Day One.

I drove over Fourth of July Pass to explore the North Fork of the Coeur d’Alene River. My primary goal was to combine a couple of bike rides on the public roadways that follow the river with maybe a short hike or two and an overnight stay at one of the National Forest Service campgrounds along the way. On the way I stopped at the Fernan Ranger Station in Coeur d’Alene right off I-90 to pick up maps. I ended up buying my lifetime America the Beautiful pass as well. Turns out you get fifty percent off on Forest Service campgrounds too. It should more than pay for itself this year.

My first stop was near the intersection of Forest Road 209 (the Bumblebee Cutoff) and Old River Road near Kingston. I parked in a large parking area that is usually full on summer weekends as it’s used by those floating the river, a very popular past time on this stretch of water. This morning the lot was empty.

I biked a fourteen mile stretch of the road, out and back. Old River Road is across the river from Forest Road 9, which is the main route used to access all of the recreational opportunities in the region, therefore it gets much less traffic.

The first part of the road goes through a rural area and the first ten miles are paved, well kind of. There are a lot of pot holes and patch jobs on the road. I pedaled pass a couple of cattle ranches along the way and lots of private RV spots on the river. Most of the riverside property is flood plain and can only be used for recreational lots.

I rode past some pretty cool abandoned builds along the way and enjoyed a surprise appearance from the wild kingdom.

Turns out there’s a herd of elk that live in the area and they put on a show. While I was taking these photos several motorist stopped to admire them as well.

The elk didn’t seem to be too concerned with folks staying in their automobiles, but a man on a bicycle was another story altogether. They seemed much more concerned about me. I guess they’re used to cars and don’t have any idea what’s inside of them.

After a few miles, the scenery changed to more woods and cliffs than fields and cabins. They’re some pretty dramatic rock formations along this stretch.

The almost continuous views of the river are very beautiful with a different perspective around every bend.

Traffic on this road is very light and for the most part low speed. The road on this side of the river is mostly used by locals. I encountered one other cyclist. Lots of folks parked in pull outs along the road to try their luck at fly fishing and I did see a couple of drift boats floating the river.

After ten miles, the road turns in to a gravel road for a four mile stretch. Even though it is one of the best maintained gravel roads I’ve ever ridden a bike on, you still need to watch out for larger rocks. I rode my hybrid with skinnier tires and had no problems.

About half way through the unpaved section I came across this oopsy. As the son of a friend of mine once said, “it’s okay dad, we all make mistakes”. Hopefully they got help and got their car unstuck without dropping it into the river later that day.

Right next to the road there were a couple of the largest Western Red Cedars I’ve ever seen. The first was along the paved section at the entrance to a drive way. This monster was along the wilder unpaved section.

Here’s my bike next to it for perspective. I wonder how these giants managed to avoid getting cut or burned down all these years. They’re easily accessible. Now that they’re this large they are probably too big to be harvested since all of the lumber mills have retooled over the decades to process much smaller logs. I hope they stay here a long time to be appreciated by future generations.

I didn’t know what to expect out of this ride other than knowing it followed the river and it seemed ridable based on the traffic I saw. The whole ride was a pleasant experience.

The final mile of the road before it ends on heavily traveled Forest Road 9 is paved. This section seemed to be a popular spot for the locals to swim and was my place to turn around and enjoy the scenery from a new direction.

On the way back I stopped at the other giant cedar and posed my bike next to it also. It was hard to say which was bigger.

I rode through the farm area again and again saw one of the elk. Twenty eight miles and almost three hours later I was back at my trailhead.

I imagine that on summer weekends even this road across the river from the “busy” one gets enough traffic to make cycling it more of a challenge, but on weekdays and on the shoulder season when it’s too cool to float the river, I would give this ride two thumbs up. It felt like I found another bike trail with the low traffic, awesome scenery and ridable surfaces.

Now it was time to load the bike up and find a campsite. I headed to the Kit Price campground about twelve miles north of Pritchard. It’s the first of three formal campgrounds heading north towards the end of the paved road.

I selected and paid for my site and thanks to the America the Beautiful Pass it was half price. I got one that backed up to the river and this view. Before I set up camp I had just enough time for a side trip.

It had been well over a decade since I visited Shadow and Fern Falls. These waterfalls are a four and a half mile drive up a very challenging forest road gets you to a small parking area. A very short hike and you’re at Fern Falls, the smaller of the two.

Another short hike up a gentle switchback brings you to Shadow Falls with it’s twenty five foot drop. The falls are small but very scenic. The drive not so much. The road was in terrible shape. Recent gully washers created as you would expect, gully’s in the road bed and one of the mudholes was as deep as my running boards. My other rig is a Subaru which I highly recommend, usually. I’m glad I brought the truck this time. I don’t think the Forester would have made it. It doesn’t have the clearance.

A closer view of Shadow Falls. Since I spent the effort to get there, I wanted to enjoy the view for a bit. At least I knew how far I had to travel to get back down to get back to the pavement and I did get to test out the 4 wheel drive on my truck.

Now it was time to set up camp while enjoying the sunset. I spent a little time planning the next days adventure before I called it an evening.

I was a successful day. I did find a worthy bike ride for the future as I’m starting to get redundant with my rides on the local paved bike trails and now that I’ve seen Shadow and Fern Falls again, I think I’m good. I was looking forward to what tomorrow had in store.

Camas Prairie Road Trip, Day Two, Lawyer Creek, Cottonwood and Cold Spring Canyon.

I took a two day trip to explore the Camas Prairie and specifically the old route of the Camas Prairie Railroad. The Camas Prairie is south of Lewiston Idaho. Yesterday I hiked from Rubens to Lapawi Canyon.

The previous evening, I did a reconnaissance in search of a likely place to park so I could hike a section of the rail easement that had some of these tall trestles in vain. Most of the farm roads that crossed the rail line were one lane gravel roads with ditches on either side. However I did locate a number of impressive bridges. That narrowed my search down.

Finally the next morning I found a place. Visible enough from the main highway to check the probability of vandalism to my rig and far enough off the main road to make it look like I might be a farmer checking his fields all without blocking access for others. The only rails I saw on this hike were embedded in one of the few paved local roads in the area.

The hike started with open views of the Camas Prairie farmland while it slowly curved away from US-95. The highway for the most park stays within a mile to the east of the railroad easement making this section much less remote than yesterdays hike down Lapawi Canyon.

After a short walk, I came to my first trestle. Looked like an easy walk but looks can be deceiving.

This turned out to be the old trestle over Old US-95. It had to be one hundred feet high and much longer than it first appeared. There was no metal plating one this bridge and it looked like it had been abandoned much longer than those I crossed yesterday.

A lot of the wood was rotten, some of the ties loose or missing and the structure creaked and moaned under the weight of a full grown man. There’s no way it would support a train ever again. For the first, but not last time I was unnerved by the crossing. I was kind of surprised that it has not been removed as a safety hazard to the road below.

When I got to the other side I got a better view of the true size of the trestle. The good news was I made it across. The bad news was it wasn’t practical to bypass it on the way back so I was going to have to do it again.

Next I followed the rail easement through shallow cuts and small embankments with stunning views of wild flowers and farmland.

Further down the line, I came across a partially removed trestle. I guess it was the end of the line for me on this hike.

Well it turned out this trestle was bypassed years ago when the line was still active. The actual easement followed a newer embankment around the site.

Another cut through the rocks was next. The trail passes through open ponderosa pine forest here on the way to the next goal.

Here is the start of Lawyer Creek Canyon trestle. It doesn’t look like it from here but the bridge is 1500 feet long and almost 300 feet above the canyon.

Although this bridge looked to be in much better shape than the Old US-95 bridge, I opted to only walk out the first hundred feet or so to just before it opened up out of the forest. The bridge is highly visible from the highway and by now I was more worried about having to recross the first bridge.

I did manage to get under the south end of the bridge to admire the construction. The trestle continues in to the distance far outside of the forested area in the photograph.

I turned around and retraced my path to my rig. Crossing back over the Old US-95 trestle was a little scary but uneventful. Now it was time to explore the area.

I drove through Cottonwood and explored some of the back roads west of that town. I came across the St. Gertrude Monastery. This has to be one of the most unique buildings around. The view of the old monastery is partially blocked by over landscaping and ugly newer buildings but still worth a look.

The end of the pavement brought me to Kuetterville and this amazing chapel. Holy Cross Church was an unexpected sight out in the middle of farmland.

On the way back towards the town of Cottonwood, I was treated to this amazing view across the Camas Prairie towards the Seven Devils Mountains in the Hells Canyon Recreation Area. I last visited this area a couple of years ago and it’s about time for a return visit.

The Camas Prairie sits on a relatively high plateau (plus or minus 4000 feet) partially surrounded by the deep valleys of the Snake and Clearwater Rivers which are about 1000 feet above sea level. It feels like it’s own little world up here and kind of like stepping back in time half a century, and that’s in a good way.

I wasn’t done exploring the Camas Railroad so I drove back to Craigmont to try and find another quiet section of the easement to walk. About three miles northwest of town, I found a place to park off the road next to a crossing with the old easement.

Again I walked through small railroad cuts in the landscape bracket by rolling farmland. I figured I had about two more hours to kill before I drove back to Post Falls. I didn’t know what I’d find but hoped that whatever it was that it would be worth the effort.

Around the next corner was just about the prettiest view I could have imagined.

I even flushed out a couple of white tail deer.

Past another bend or two I found myself at the east side of the Cold Creek Canyon trestle. This bridge was much bigger than I expected and in similar condition to the Old US-95 bridge. I decided to cross it anyway.

It was definitely an adventure. I always wanted to check out some of these engineering marvels. After this trip I think I’m good now.

On the far-side I was able to get a better perspective on just how big this bridge really is. The timberwork is amazing. Parts of this old rail line were used in the Charles Bronson movie, Breakhart Pass.

I walked about another mile on the other side and found this old speed limit sign. I came to the only place in my trip that the old railroad easement was blocked a little further so I turned back and again crossed the Cold Creek Canyon trestle.

This time after I made it across, I descended a little way down the canyon to appreciate the timberwork from below.

Now it was time to return home. I made the nearly three hour drive back down Lapawi Canyon, through Lewiston Idaho, up the Lewiston Grade, through the Palouse Prairie and back to Coeur d’Alene. I’ve always been fascinated with abandoned railroads. After this trip I’m thinking maybe some bigger mountain hikes might be in order.

Camas Prairie Road Trip, Day One, Camas Railroad from Ruben to Lapawi Canyon and Winchester State Park.

I took a two day trip to explore the Camas Prairie and specifically the old route of the Camas Prairie Railroad. The Camas Prairie is south of Lewiston Idaho.

I originally planned to start my first hike at one of the two bridges that cross US-95 on the way up Lapawi Canyon but was unable to find a safe place to park off the side of the busy highway so I drove up to the small community of Rubens.

Rubens is a tiny collection of houses and a grain elevator about eight miles north of the highway. One my way in to “town” I came across this amazing piece of art. Sometimes the works of man and nature combine to create true beauty.

I parked off of a gravel road that crosses the old railroad easement near the grain elevator and started walking north.

Immediately I was walking through beautiful Idaho farmland. The Camas Prairie is some of the most productive grain growing land in the country.

Much of the old rail bed was covered in wild flowers. I imagine in the late summer that the growth would be thick enough to make walking the easement a challenge.

About a mile in the railroad bed turns towards the west and goes through a couple of low cuts in the landscape.

After emerging from one of the cuts I was treated to my first view of the side canyon that ends up joining Lapawi Canyon. Piles of old railroad ties were scattered along the route.

Soon, I came to the first of four tunnels I ended up passing through.

This tunnel was in very good shape considering that it has been twenty four years since the line was abandoned. This one also was curved so that you had to go in about halfway before you saw light from the other side.

Soon I came to the second tunnel. Here is where I saw my first Black Bear in several years. I was not able to get even a fleeting photo of he or she before the bear bailed down the slope. This tunnel was much shorter and as you can see nice and straight.

After the second tunnel, I came across the first of nine bridges I ended up walking across. The metal plates were intended to protect the bridge from fire caused by sparks from the trail wheels.

The third tunnel looked a little more worse for the wear. After getting past this obstruction I discovered the rest of the easement had not had the rails removed.

It was a long way down and each bridge seemed to have a different layout of the metal plates. The rails seemed to add strength to the bridges but were also tripping hazards for the unwary.

At some point I got too close to a nest so I was “attacked ” by a very angry grouse. I did almost step on one of the fleeing chicks so I guess I deserved it. A hasty retreat seemed to satisfy the mad fowl.

In places the rail bed was filled with lupines and other wild flowers. They added a lot of color to the walk. One more tunnel was around the corner.

After this curved tunnel, I was no longer following the side canyon. Now I was above Lapawi Canyon and the big views that came with it.

The old rail bed from here on alternated between rock cuts and trestle bridges. The line at one time had the nickname of the “railroad on stilts” because so much of it was elevated.

At the bottom of the canyon I could see the highway I had so recently drove up in my search for an access to the lower section of the easement. I think I got lucky. The views looked much better up here.

Some of the rock cuts turned out to be a challenge to negotiate. I guess after decades of exposure to the elements, it is to be expected that the line would slowly revert to nature.

The views from the bridges were outstanding. I was somewhat surprised at well the bridges had weathered the years of neglect. Later on my trip I would discover that this is not always the case.

Finally I came across this beauty, a bridge with an S curve and much bigger than any of the others. I thought about calling it good but just had to see what was on the other side.

Too bad I forgot to bring a lawn chair. Imagine sitting on this platform and soaking up the sun.

So this is the view from almost the other side. It looked like the easement was going to go through another tunnel next.

The entrance to the next tunnel was right around the corner. This was where I saw my first warning sign of any kind. The portal was almost blocked by rockfall. I figured if someone went to the trouble of warning me that I should heed the warning. I was already well over two hours out so this is where I turned around.

On the way back I enjoyed the view of the first railroad bridge from this post behind me. Again, I was glad I did the upper hike. I understand that the lower you go in the canyon, the better your chance of crossing paths with a rattlesnake.

I enjoyed the views on the way back as much as I did on the way in.

Now it was time to find my camping spot. I had reserved a site at Winchester State Park only a few miles back near the top of the grade up Lapawi Canyon and at the edge of the Camas Prairie.

Winchester State Park is a small state park with a primitive campground on a small manmade lake. There wasn’t much to do there but it was a place to stay. The ride back home was well over two hours and I wanted to explore the area more the next day.

They did have a nice foot bridge accessing the short trail system.

Before I called it an evening, I made a short side trip to check out my goal for the next day, the Lawyer Creek Canyon bridge. There is a pull out with interpretive signage on US-95 with a great view of the trestle, the only metal one on the line above Lapawi Canyon. This is the view from the other side on from a one lane gravel farm road.

My original plan was to hike up Lapawi Canyon from USD-95 the first day and then explore around the Lawyer Creek trestle the next day. I think modifying the hike to start in Rubens and work my way down turned out much better.

Grand Coulee Road Trip, Day Two, Umatilla Rock, Deep Lake, Lenore Caves and a waterfall.


The Grand Coulee is an impressive gorge carved out by ice age floods. It is divided into an upper and lower canyon by dry falls at about the mid point. All of the coulee was dry until the creation of the Grand Coulee Dam. The upper part of the canyon was flooded to create an elaborate irrigation system in the 1930’s. The by product of this is Banks Lake. Day two was in and around the lower canyon which is much drier and is truly a desert.

I got an early start on the day and headed south through the coulee to the Dry Falls Vista roadside to get the lay of the land. Below is Sun Lakes State Park with remnant pothole lakes and interesting rock formations.

In this view you can see Perch Lake and in the middle of the coulee and Umatilla Rock, my next hiking destination just down the road in Sun Lakes State Park.

A long scenic park road brings you to the trailhead for Umatilla Rock right at the south end of that formation. A loop trail starts here.

Umatilla Rock is a maybe two mile basalt wall dividing the floor of the lower Grand Coulee in two. All you would need is a saguaro cactus or two to make you think you’re in Arizona.

The loop takes you by both Perch Lake and Dry Falls Lake.

The trail is beautiful. One of the best I’ve found. It really feels like a desert hike.

The trail winds through basalt rock formations that look like they belong on the moon. I was on the lookout but came across no snakes on the entire hike.

Definitely an interesting geology.

There were a lot of wild flowers along the hike that provided beauty on a smaller and more close up scale.

Here are a couple of photos of them.

It was a nice hike.

The only wildlife I saw was this skinny deer. Oh and the hawk that tried to attack me. If he came back for a third go at me, I think I could have got a great photo.

The loop goes through that notch in the wall. I skipped that part so ended up doing two out and back hikes.

This is that same notch from the other side.

One of the better short hikes I’ve been on in a long time. I imagine it gets awfully hot in the summer.

Another long park road brought me to a bonus surprise. At the end was the access for Deep Lake, the nicest lake in the park. At the small boat ramp after crossing a footbridge and a grove of cottonwoods, a trail follows the shore of a beautiful lake.

This lake seems to be a popular place to kayak. If I get the chance I would love to do so, but it’s almost a three hour haul from my house.

The water was crystal clear and the colors amazing.

It looked like there was a trail on the other side that really climbed above the lake. Maybe a challenge for another day.

My last stop in the Grand Coulee was at the Lake Lenore Caves site. Here is the view across the lake from the trailhead.

The trail up the cliff side featured some elaborate steps.

The “caves” are really just rock overhands carved in to the basalt by ancient flood waters.

Here is the view from inside the largest one I found. The trail continues but it was time to head home.

Instead of wild flowers here, I had to settle for colorful lichens.

So on the return trip I took a new route along State Road 28 through farm country. A side trip brought me to one last surprise.

A waterfall in the middle of nowhere. No one else was here and they had a nice little park on the lake too.

The lake the falls drops into looked amazing with clear cool water. Numerous signs prohibited entering the water that looked so inviting.

An explanation could be found in one of the most sobering memorials I’ve seen. In 1978 I was a seventeen year old boy.

It was a beautiful place. Summer Falls as it is called, is part of the path used to move water from the Grand Coulee Dam to Moses Lake and all of the irrigated farmland around it. I imagine the site originally had a small seasonal water fall before it was incorporated in to the project.

The morning started with sunrise at Steamboat Rock at 5:00 AM. Twelve hours after leaving Summer Falls a drive through more farmland ended when I returned to metro Spokane. The Grand Coulee is an amazing place to explore and a great place for my first of hopefully many post retirement trips.

Grand Coulee Road Trip, Day One, Giant Arch Cave, a return to Northrup Canyon and camping at Steamboat Rock State Park.

The Grand Coulee is an impressive gorge carved out by ice age floods. It is divided into an upper and lower canyon by dry falls at about the mid point. All of the coulee was dry until the creation of the Grand Coulee Dam. The upper part of the canyon was flooded to create an elaborate irrigation system in the 1930’s. The by product of this is Banks Lake. Day one was in and around the upper canyon.

It’s a two hour drive east from my house to Grand Coulee mostly through what looks a lot like midwestern farm land. A lot of this farmland is made possible because of the Grand Coulee Dam and the irrigation system it feeds.

When I arrived to the town of Grand Coulee and the site of the dam of the same name, I drove up the opposite side and continued west for about eight miles until I turned south on Barker Canyon Road. The road is a steep gravel that descends into the Grand Coulee on what turns into a winding dirt road.

At this point you’re across Banks Lake from Steamboat Rock State Park. This area is managed by the State Park and a Discover Pass is required.

Ahead I caught my first glimpse of my destination, Giant Arch Cave. Arches like these are common on the side walls of the Grand Coulee but this is maybe the largest one. You can see it across the lake from Steamboat Rock and I always wanted a closer look.

A dirt double tracked trail leads towards the arch. I drove my truck as far as I dared to shorten the walk. It was a very rough trail and I don’t want to beat up my ride too much. I ended up walking the last mile and a half.

The last few hundred feet to the cave involved scrambling over basalt boulders and was extremely steep. Even though the walk was short, the last part of it was difficult enough to make it quite the workout.

Here’s the view I came for. There’s no real cave at the back of the arch, just an enormous overhang.

On the way back I came across several snakes including these two intertwined on the road. None of them had rattles on the ends of their tails. Numerous signs are posted through out the area warning of the danger of rattlesnakes. Glad I didn’t come across any of them.

So I retraced my trip to the dam and then headed south on State Road 155 towards my next destination. By now the wind had really kicked up and I was glad I left my kayak at home. The drive along this road is one of the most scenic ones in Washington with lots of pull outs at view points. This one is at Northrup Point.

After checking in to my site at the campground at the base of Steamboat Rock I returned to Northrup Canyon across the highway from Northrup Point to do an expanded version of a hike I posted about from last March. First on the list was the Old Wagon Road Trail that I skipped last time. It branches off from the main train just past the parking area.

This trail quickly gains elevation while climbing the south rim of the canyon and the views across to the north rim are impressive.

Although it gains a lot of elevation, the grade is very consistent and not too strenuous. Behind you are views back to Banks Lake. Steamboat Rock is the closer formation. The Giant Arch Cave would be all the way across the lake.

After a mile or so you are high above the canyon floor.

Below you can see the farmstead that is the destination of many hikers.

At the point where you finally get near the top of the canyon, the trail turns south in a draw and kind of just fades out. After awhile it looked more like a game trail so I called it good and headed back down.

Its much drier at the top with pretty much only sage brush and wild flowers covering most of the ground. It would have been nice to have the trail end at a more defined spot like one last scenic overlook.

This place will have to make do as my end point. At least it was all down hill back to the trailhead.

A two hour round trip got me back to the starting point. The views on the way down were just as nice as those on the way up. Now it was time to repeat my hike from last March to the farmstead and then push on further.

If you want to see more photos from this part of the hike, they can be found here on my post from early spring. The three mile round trip to the farmstead is very scenic, easy and family friendly.

The trail continues another mile and a half past the old chicken coop at the farmstead.

This continuation was much steeper than the rest of the trail system. In fact it gains the same elevation three and four times which is frustrating for the hiker. The trail does not seem to even try to follow a contour line.

After a steep climb leading away from the old farm, you get to go down steep grades and then get to climb them again.

At the bottom of a couple of these grades are small wetlands which aren’t that common in what is technically a desert. There is a small lake at the end of the trail down another really steep grade. I was tired of reclimbing all of these descents so I skipped the last few hundred feet.

Up high there were a couple of nice flat sections of trail through open ponderosa pine forest. I called it good and retraced my steps back to the trailhead.

On the way back past the farm and beyond I was entertained by about the thickest population of rock chucks (marmots) that I’ve ever came across.

As the day ended, I returned to the campground at Steamboat Rock and enjoyed the view of the setting sun lighting up the east wall of the Grand Coulee. This time I skipped hiking to the top of the rock. I had enough for one day.

And so ended the first day of the road trip.

Eclipse 2024

I traveled to the great American Midwest in April of 2024 to view my second total eclipse. I had the privileged of observing the great coast to coast eclipse of 2017 in the Sawtooth mountains of Idaho. The experience was profound and I decided that if I ever had the opportunity, that I would endeavor to repeat it. Well just seven years later, I had the chance and I took it. The path of totality (99% totality is pretty much the same as 1%) ran from northwestern Mexico, thru Texas and Arkansas to the lower Midwest and on to New England and the Canadian Maritimes. Based on guestimates on overcrowding, scenic value of the area and just because I have family in the Chicago area, I decided to view the event in southern Indiana.

A few days before the event my party landed at O’Hare Airport outside of Chicago and we had a chance to visit the city.

The city was a pleasant surprise. Despite the incessant stories about the rampant crime, political disfunction and urban decay, we found the downtown to be relatively clean and safe. It was far cleaner and less threatening than Seattle or even the small city near me of Spokane. There were absolutely no homeless encampments in the downtown area including the parks and the few unfortunate drug addicts and beggars we encountered did not threaten us. They pretty much kept to themselves while trying to sell trinkets. In the museum area we observed numerous families with infants and children enjoying the sights and in the financial district workers freely traveled back and forth to lunch and meetings without concern. Pretty much everyone we encountered was polite and helpful. Also the architecture was world class.

The Chicago Board of Trade on LaSalle Street. Next to Wall Street in New York, this is the financial heart of America.

The Willis (Sears) Tower. The tallest building in the world when it was completed in 1973 and is still the tallest building in North America by occupied floor height. Lots of buildings add decorative spires to try and claim the record.

The day before the eclipse, we drove five and a half hours to southern Indiana until we arrived at our base camp at the Patoka 4 Seasons Resort on the lake of the same name. I do not solicit or generally give reviews for private businesses and receive no monetary compensation for such, but that being said this gem of a vacation resort got two thumbs up from me. The people were awesome and the facilities first rate. They even provided gift baskets with eclipse glasses and other goodies.

The first day there we were greeted by this most beautiful rainbow over our cabin. Definitely a good omen for the trip.

The lake is a relatively large manmade reservoir but apparently is a local draw for fishermen and outdoor recreationalist throughout the year.

Just outside the resort is a most awesome state park with a visitor center, marina, campgrounds, historic buildings and miles of trails. Patoka State Park.

Open hardwood forest are the dominant habitat and rock outcroppings atypical of the lower Midwest are found throughout the park. The scenery was more what one would expect of the non-mountainous areas of Kentucky and Tennessee.

Some of these rock formations are very interesting to explore. The loop trail we took was about three and a half miles long.

A welcome surprise after driving though miles of flat farmland.

The biggest was called Totem Rock and had a couple of small caverns carved into it. The trail seemed to take every opportunity to descend and climb in and out of ravines. We probably got better than six hundred feet of total; elevation gain over the entire hike.

So the day of the eclipse we set up next to our cabin in an open field and watched as the moon started to block the sun. The day turned clear with a few scattered clouds after a Midwest thunderstorm the night before.

With just an Android phone camera and a paper pair of eclipse glasses taped over the lenses, I took a few photos that certainly don’t do justice to the once a decade or so event.

When the totality reached us, the day turned into night in an instant. The birds stopped singing and the crickets started chirping. We could hear people miles away screaming with excitement. The stars came out and the plasma of the corona was a beautiful sight around the dark shadow of the moon. Unfortunately the corona was not photogenic with my basic camera.

As soon as the first tiny dot of the sun reappeared, it was like someone lit a blow torch. It became daylight again. During the eclipse the temperature dropped noticeably and two minutes later the rays of the sun warmed everything back up.

An unnatural 360 degree sunset bracketed the horizon during the event. In 2017 in the Sawtooth’s. This effect was even stronger and the mountains around us were back lit by it. A surreal effect indeed.

At the end of the day after the eclipse was over, the real sunset made it’s appearance among the redbud trees in full bloom.

The next morning on our way back to Chicago, we detoured through French Lick Indiana, the home of Larry Bird and came across this amazing gem.

The Baden Springs Hotel and Resort was built in 1902 and restored in the 1990’s. If I ever have a reason to visit southern Indiana again, I’d love to stay here. It was fascinating and open to visitors.

On the way back everyone we met was incredibly nice and helpful. The manager of the fast food place came out to make sure our experience was good. The folks at the convenience stores were awesome and gave us great tips on what to see. Even the flat farmland north of Terre Haute was kind of pretty and extremely clean. Overall I definitely would judge Indiana as part of Free State America and worthy of a return visit. Too bad there won’t be another eclipse there in my life time.