October 8th with rainy Haystack Rock at Cannon Beach.  This is the first night of our "Snow bird" trip to the warmer winter states.  After a fairly dry summer for Oregon and the NW in general we now have our first string of fairly gray days and wet weather.  The current plan is to take the 101 south to Los Angeles then turn left towards Arizona.

The last blog ended as we were headed across the center of Oregon turning north towards Lewiston Idaho through Washington on Highway 12 last June.  Lewiston is your typical rural American charming town with several rivers running through it.

If you follow Highway 12 east through the Clearwater River valley towards Montana you are in for a treat.  The river is truly clear and beautiful.  Towards the end is the nice but dated Lolo hot springs and camping area.  You can dry camp for free at the casino near Lewiston.  We also found free dry camping at several spots along the Snake River north of Lewiston with porta potty and garbage support.

Central Idaho is for RV campers who want to get away from it all.  If you take a close look at a map there aren't even roads through much of the area.  There are places named "River of no return".  We would set up a base camp and venture out into the wilderness with our all wheel drive dingy, Honda CRV.  At times we were on dirt roads driving more than 40 miles without seeing another vehicle.  One of the problems with this high adventure was that there was no cell phone service or any other way to ask for help should something fail.

We were able to take a jet boat on the wild section of the Snake river in Hell's canyon for 40 miles.  This was well worth the price.  The vendor was Killgore Adventures.  We also went to the McCall area which was an upscale resort area in the middle of many wilderness adventures.  This was a bit of a climb for the land yacht.  From there we discovered several wilderness road trips.  One of our favorites was to the remote town of Yellow Pine and beyond.  Yellow Pine is around 30 miles from the nearest paved road with many friendly people and few businesses surrounded by many wild rivers.  It would be the ideal area to get away from it all.

From there we headed back towards our home base in Portland, Oregon via Interstate 84.  There were several hills that over heated the Land Yacht during the summer heat.  In La Grande.  The local RV park was limited and expensive.

We were able to stay at several places near Portland for the next few weeks.  In general there are very few places in Portland to allow short or long term RV access.  The few available have many limitations because they can and due to ridiculous laws.  We stayed at Beacon Rock State park which had a 10 day limit and the Skamania County fairgrounds in the heart of the Columbia River gorge.  This is only about 40 miles out of Portland complete with charming towns, scenic views, and summer festivals.  Our favorite was the Gorgegrass Festival featuring Bluegrass music.  There were smaller jam sessions throughout the campground making for some great music fun.

Until next time when we head back on the road to Canada in August.