Tuesday, August 18 with the fires burning in so many places and the smoke just about everywhere (or so it seemed), we decided to do what any good Iron Butt rider would do and that is to plan our ride and ride our plan. Anytime you keep changing up the plan, things go haywire! We wanted to experience US 93 south into Idaho and the Sawtooth National Recreational Area. So, off down US 93 we went. It is a beautiful road. We wish the smoke wasn’t present because the views would have been that much more spectacular! Passing through Salmon, ID (birthplace of Sacagawea) we were pretty close to the Lemhi Pass National Historical Landmark where Lewis and Clark traversed the Bitterroot Mountains on their way back to St Louis. It is too bad the road is dirt to get to the pass but possibly next year we’ll conquer that. By the time we got to Challis, ID we cut off onto ID 75 to skirt the Sawtooth Mountains. This is a beautiful road that follows the North Fork of the Salmon River. And we thought following the Salmon River was pretty…! This whole area is a must see. We bailed out in a National Forest campground at the Upper O’Brien Campground within the Sawtooth NRA. We had a spot overlooking the river and a series of rapids (although they were small) and it was lovely! We got our chairs out and spent the rest of the afternoon watching the inflatable rafts float folks down past our camp. In a little while, out of the corner of our eyes we spotted about 20 baby ducks in a pool of calm water just upstream. Well, what a show they put on! One by one, off they went down the rapids with their little heads bowed downstream, they rode the waves with reckless abandon. And then they gathered at another pool just down from us and regrouped for the mad dash again in the rapids, then out of sight. It was a wonderful show that neither of us have ever seen anything close to. What a day!
Wednesday, August 19 started out pretty cold with the temperature at the campsite a chilly 45. We did our usual thing and were on the road by 8:30. We continued on ID 75 to ID 21 another great road that follows a river as temps fell to 40. These are all great motorcycle roads and just think the experience of them is only about two days from Las Vegas straight up US 93! Our plan was to get into Oregon a bit with plans to see the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument on Thursday. We had a great drive in the morning as we wound our way along ID 21 to Lowman. Of all the places we’ve seen, Stanley, ID has got to have one of the best views going! In the river valley, at the junction of 75 and 21, the Sawtooth Mountains dominate the view and it is just wonderful! It reminded us of the Grand Tetons but the valley here not nearly as expansive. We must say that the central parts of Idaho are definitely on our list for further exploration! By the time we got to Banks, we were pretty much out of the mountains and headed towards Oregon. We crossed at Ontario, OR and that’s when things got smoky again. All the way up US 26 we could see fire damage in the grasslands on both sides of the road. I was starting to worry that our intended state park, Unity, would be closed. When we reached Unity, OR, we saw where the firefighters had their camp set up (with about 50 tents or so). This was looking bad. When we reached the cut-off to the state park, they had the road blocked off and closed. What to do? Keep going! We drove a few more miles and stumbled on a really nice National Forest campground named Wetmore. We were the only people there when we arrived and for some reason, the smoke wasn’t very noticeable. This was our home for the night! Later, a rider on a Honda ST1300 came in and we had a good chat before he set up camp and joined us for the evening.
It was a MUCH warmer night and morning Thursday, August 20. We hit the road early knowing we had a fair amount of traveling to do. Our first stop was at the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument just west of John Day, OR. This was another park you really have to want to go to. It is out in the middle of nowhere but the roads there and off to our next stop were tremendous! On the way we saw plenty of firefighters and their equipment. Fires were burning all around. We heard that a pretty big one broke out just south of John Day and we hoped they wouldn’t close US 26. They didn’t, but they did close US 395 south of John Day. The national monument is really three different areas: the Sheep Rock Unit; the Painted Hills Unit and; the Clarno Unit. Each of them have their own uniqueness. We spent most of our time at the Sheep Rock Unit. The area is absolutely FULL of fossils dating from about 45 million years ago. Therefore, almost all of the fossils are of mammals. The park film was very informative and the fossil displays first rate. Even though we had to wait an hour for them to open, we certainly would recommend a visit if you find yourself in the area. We left there and headed up OR 21. What a great ride! Little did we know though, when we turned off onto OR 207, it got WAY better! This is definitely a premier motorcycle road! The speed limit was 55 but with the road newly paved, the turns sharpened just right and, the view through the turns excellent, it was easy (and fun!) the push the envelope. Too bad we were pulling a trailer… Nonetheless, we carved up the road pretty good anyway! It’s a good 100 miles from John Day NM to the end of the ‘turns’ around Hermiston. Try it! Just keep an eye out for rocks on the road. We got to our second stop just outside Walla Walla, WA at the Whitman Mission National Historical Site. Built as a mission to bring Christianity to the Cayuse Indians, the mission only lasted 11 years even though it was right on the Oregon Trail. On our way there, we got a taste of travel along the Columbia River. We can hardly wait till tomorrow to travel WA 14 along the river all the way to Fort Vancouver. Last year, the ride along the Columbia on the Oregon side was pretty spectacular but this year, we’ll be doing the Washington State side (not an expressway).
Friday, August 21 started out good as we tried to find Hanford Reach National Monument with little initial success. Seems the government has the national monument on the top secret list like the nuclear processing facility by the same name. We had success after getting some help at the Hanford Reach Interruptive center in Pasco, WA. The national monument is administered by the McNary NWR not far from the confluence of the Snake and Columbia Rivers. There we got a lot of information about the monument and the numerous national wildlife refuges (NWR) that abound in the general vicinity. After our stop there, we headed south on I-82 and picked up WA 14, headed for Vancouver, WA. The drive was really spectacular! It is MUCH better to ride the Washington side of the Columbia River Gorge than the Oregon side. But was it WINDY! I bet I could have gotten 50+ mpg…if only we were going the other way! It really wears you out fighting a head wind with gusts from side to side. We managed to pull off 250 miles before we decided to bail at Beacon Rock State Park. This rock juts out into the river and was noted (and named) by Lewis and Clark in 1805. We had a really nice campsite at Beacon Rock, although it was quite expensive ($30). We settled in and even found a nice crop of blackberries growing in the campground for our oats in the morning!
Saturday, August 22 was a pretty warm morning and by the time we hit the road again, headed west towards Fort Vancouver, we could see (and feel) that the winds had changed and we were enjoying a little tail wind push but suffering poor visibility due to the ‘new’ smoke in the valley. It was too bad too because this portion of the gorge is really pretty. Nonetheless, we pressed on to Fort Vancouver. Located in Vancouver, WA, the fort was a major trading post built by the Hudson Bay Company in 1825. We stopped at the visitor center for a great film about the evolution of the fort. From then (1825) till just after WWII, the fort had a fascinating history that included fur trading (also the end of the Oregon Trail), then airplane manufacture (out of spruce, that is), ship building (for WWII) and is now a beautiful park/historic district. If you like history, definitely look up the history on Fort Vancouver. It is a really nice area, right on the Columbia River. We left the fort and headed northwest to visit a couple of Lewis and Clark sites we did not see last year. Once out to Astoria, OR, we crossed the Columbia and were in Washington going for Cape Disappointment and the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center. This was another really well done museum about the Corps of Discovery. Like the one in Great Falls, it covers the entire trip of the expedition. From there we visited Fort Columbia and Station Camp, the first camp of the Lewis and Clark expedition before they crossed the Columbia and set up Fort Clatsop for wintering quarters in 1804-05. The only place left we did not see in the area was Dismal Nitch, close to the Astoria Bridge (the world’s longest continuous truss bridge). We’re saving that for next year’s Lewis and Clark odyssey. A quick run up US 101 and we were in Olympia for the night.
We’re thinking that we will pull the plug on our trip sometime in the next two weeks but we aren’t sure. Basically, waiting till the temps in Las Vegas get down a bit is one objective balanced by the other, which is we want to see more! Stay tuned, we’re pretty sure more is to come! Greg & Cynthia.