Entrance to Yellowstone

West entrance to Yellowstone has the most interesting wolf and grizzly center. If you are coming in to the park from the west, this is a "must see" the rescue animals are here. This includes nuisance bears taken out of residential areas or "accused" of eating livestock, and animals hit by cars or trucks that need rehabilitation. There are also a lot of hawks and owls that are being rehabilatated here. Anyway, don't miss it.

Craters of the Moon

Craters of the Moon National Monument in Idaho is facinating from an archeological standpoint, or just plain ugly from a non interested standpoint. It looks a lot like a dumping ground for all of the world's torn up asphalt. Very strange and interesting volcanic wasteland. It is located just outside of the town of Arco. Arco holds the distinction of being the first town in the world to receive all of it's electricity from a nuclear powerplant. (Still nothing else there)...

Maryhill, Washington

Maryhill Washington is a beautiful area! Unfortunately, there is absolutely nothing here but a few farms, vineyards, windfarms, hydroelectric dams, and the barges and trainyards. The campground was beautiful, with the largest spaces we have ever encountered, but besides fishing, there wasn't anything to keep our interest. The truckstop at the exit was the only source of groceries, and a replica of stonehenge (built by Sam Hill as a monument to fallen soldiers from the area) was the only real point of interest and takes 15 minutes to tour... Between the exhaust brakes on the trucks coming down the steep hill behind the campground and the constant presence of trains, there is no peace and quiet...ever. Onward to more interesting places.

Harrisburg Oregon/ middle of nowhere...

Our friends needed repairs in Junction city Oregon, so we met up with them in Harrisburg Or. The weather was horrible, cold, windy, and rainy. The town of Harrisburg is really three blocks of friendly nothing. There was a resident bald eagle that we saw several times, but overall, we were thrilled to get out of there! So off we went to Maryhill Washington...

Way behind...

Once again, I'm a few weeks behind. Some of it is laziness, some of it is a lack of decent high speed internet connections. ( Mostly just lazy) We are sitting in West Yellowstone while updating this, so there will be a few posts before I catch up. We have seen some beautiful country and some really wet and cold Pacific Northwest weather. We are getting really tired of cold rainy weather. It figures that we came up the west coast during one of the coldest and most rainy springs on record.

The dunes here are the largest and highest in the country, over 500 feet high! Unfortunately, or fortunately, depending on your hobbies, the dunes here are open to off road vehicles. We had them to ourselves for almost a week... and then Memorial Day. I have never seen so many quads in one place at one time ever. Everyone was well behaved, but it becomes too dangerous to walk across the dunes. A dune buggy jumping off a dune cannot turn in midair to avoid a pedestrian. There are separate areas for hiking and walking that are off limits to the off road crowd.

This is a great area to wear out your dogs, (both the canine type and your feet) as the climb up the dunes is very difficult due to the deep soft dry sand and very steep inclines. Nothing like throwing a frisbee off a huge dune and watching the dog disappear! You would be amazed at how long it takes a dog to climb back up a steep soft sand dune. He slept really well that night. When you do make it to the top, the views are incredible! Woahink lake and campground to the east, and the Pacific ocean to the west! The lake is deep, cold, clear, and filled with beautiful trout.

We did have a ball watching one particular sparrow who either fell in love with himself, or was trying to kill his arch rival in our rear view mirror! He repeatedly threw himself at his own image for a week. It was fun to watch.

We left Woahink Lake for Harrisburg to meet friends who were having some RV issues attended to in Junction City, not much there... Next post from Maryhill Washington. (Not much there either)

Big trees, Wilderness...

----------------------- Our Jeep becomes a coffee table during Happy Hour.---------------------------------------- -----------------------------------------------------------

We enjoyed riding our bikes through some of the biggest damn trees we've ever seen!

The dog loves the hollow trees! These trees are so big! I can't imagine going off the road and hitting one of these things...

We've had a lot of rain and cold weather since we arrived in Oregon, 20 degrees below normal for the last week or so... We should have stayed in San Diego. Deep in the redwood forests, no cell phone signal, no air card reception, total dead zone. Completely cut off from civilization... If you climb on top of the RV and stand facing the northeast mountain and don't move, you can get a cellphone signal. It felt a little silly having conversations while standing on top of the motorhome... Especially in pajamas... I'm sure you all understand.

Really violent surf here, large logs in the water and the occasional rogue wave that will be several feet higher than you expect, if your back is turned, you will be swept off of your perch and deposited in very cold and very rough water.

No lack of driftwood on this coast. Huge logs and whole trees are washed up on the beaches everywhere. Just one more reason to stay out of the surf, at any time, you could be hit with a giant tree trunk hidden in a wave! What great sport! Notice the lack of surfers, despite the incredibly rough surf.

We ran across a bunch of harbor seals sunning themselves on the north side of the jetty, while the sea lions fought for space on a dock on the south side of the same jetty in Brookings, Oregon.

San Francisco and new friends.

Our trip to Alcatraz was really educational. We could go on about the history and myths surrounding this famous prison, but if you are interested in that type of thing, you already know Alcatraz. If you're not interested in that type of thing, we don't need to write about it. Suffice it to say, we have more than 50 photos that we didn't post. It is a tour that you have to take on your own to really appreciate. If anyone wants to see or hear more about Alcatraz, just let us know. We're not going far this round, heading for Santa Rosa to sample Guy Fieri's hometown restaurants and some wineries...

We arrived in Novato, just north of San Francisco, and immediately ran into Bob and Shelly. They are fellow members of the Escapees group of full time RV'ers and were parked just a few sites down from us at Betabel RV Resort in San Juan Batista last week. Then, to top it off, our new friends from the other side of our site in San Juan Batista, Allen and Crystle, showed up a day later and parked next to us! We've been having a ball! Vicki and I made a few mistakes while seeing San Francisco. We took the ferry from Larkspur to San Francisco. The ferry ride itself is fantastic and takes you past San Quentin Prison (the current home of Scott Peterson), and you get to see wonderful views of the Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz Island. We then walked the 2 or 3 miles down to pier 39 to see the sea lions and tourist traps. Here is where we made our mistake. We left pier 39 to walk to Chinatown, far across town, guided by the silly little tourist maps we were carrying. The cross streets on the map really didn't climb over Telegraph hill, so we had to zig-zag through town several times before arriving in Chinatown. We had a wonderful Dim Sum lunch, after walking another 3 miles or so... From there, we decided to walk to the famous stretch of Lombard Street... again on the other side of town! While climbing the mountains that San Franciscans call sidewalks, we stopped in the Cable Car Museum and saw the incredible machinery that drives these vehicles. I won't try to describe it, it needs to be seen. A ridiculous climb/descent/walk later, we got to see the silly procession of vehicles descending Lombard Street just to say that they did. This is a residential neighborhood and I'll guarantee that the locals would like to see this street closed down. From there, while still on our backward quest, we found our way to Fisherman's Wharf. Just a few blocks down (in the opposite direction) from pier 39 and still 3 miles or so from the ferry terminal where we needed to catch the boat home. Many calories were burned, and our muscles reminded us of our errors for several days. This is a clean and beautiful city. If you get the chance and have the time and stamina, walk through this city.

Our next stop was Muir Woods, a pristine piece of redwood forest that once again must be seen to be appreciated. True to form, I made the mistake of taking the scenic route through Point Reyes and down Highway 1 along the coast leading to Muir Beach. In this area, scenic basically means cliffside... Anyone who knows Vicki and is familiar with this stretch of road will have an appreciation for this error, as there is a true fear of heights involved and miles of cliffside driving (all on the passenger side heading south) with no guardrails involved. I would post photos of this stretch of road, one of the most beautiful I've seen, but I was not about to pull over onto a cliff and extend Vicki's agony for a picture. You will just have to drive it yourself... Muir Woods National Monument is just amazing. Who would have thought that big trees could bring tears to your eyes...