Over the Mountains

Mountains are beautiful. Mountains are inspiring. Mountains are also intimidating when you need to get to the other side of the range and you have your house in tow behind you, but you just need to get over it. We won’t be able to give you all the details of our travels over the mountains in the spring of 2022, so we’ll just summit up.

It was with some sadness we left the Pacific Coast of C.O.W. behind us. With anticipation we turned right and headed toward the sunrise with the Cascades, Bitterroots, Rockies and Bighorns waiting ahead of us. Our Silverado 2500HD 6.6L gasser gets us up big slopes just fine. Without the engine braking of a diesel the descents get to be a bit of an art form.

The last four campgrounds along the coast were Thousand Trail and the next four in Washington would also be Thousand Trail. First up was Tall Chief, a beautiful RV resort just east of Seattle, not far from Snoqualmie Falls. Its location allowed us to visit relatives in the Seattle area and it also offered beautiful views of the Cascades just to the east. A freak storm late one evening dumped slushy hail that took the awnings off a few campers and crushed a few canopies in the campground but fortunately we retracted our awnings in time.

Next up, and we do mean up, was Leavenworth. There was snow in Stevens Pass, in the middle of May, but the roads were just wet. The next day our son and his partner drove up to join us and it did snow on them. Leavenworth RV Campground is just north of the town of Plain and about half an hour from the fascinating town of Leavenworth with its enchanting Bavarian theme. The scenery was incredible and we enjoyed our stay here so much. We also left here with a piece of German heritage in the form of a tiny cuckoo clock for our RV.

Coming down the east side of the Cascades we emerged into the Columbia River Gorge and headed a bit south to Crescent Bar RV Resort on the east side of the river. Though we had traveled less than a hundred miles the terrain was vastly different, and yet spectacular. It was different, too, from when last we had seen the Columbia at Astoria, OR. We were at Crescent Bar just 2 nights before heading off to the northeastern corner of Washington.

About 40 miles north of Spokane is Little Diamond. We got out onto the little lake with our tandem kayak. It was a lovely, woodsy campground where we instantly fell in love with the area.

Our next reservation was a bit challenging, mostly because it was now Memorial Day Weekend. We also wanted to stay in Idaho for the experience and to put it on our map, but that part of Idaho is quite narrow. We found a place at Farragut State Park on Lake Pend Oreille. The park was rich in beautiful scenery and in history. In World War II this was the site of a large naval training base that provided basic training for 293,381 sailors. We only stayed two nights because it was expensive. Non-residents pay double for the camping fee and for the park entry fee. The snub to out-of-state guests was something we hadn’t experienced before in our travels and we won’t be staying there again as nice as it was.

Next up was a one-night Harvest Hosts stay at a ranch near Missoula, Montana. We were one of about 6 campers parked in a field behind the current homesite and near the old abandoned homesite from the 1800s. We learned a lot from the host about agriculture and local history. We also enjoyed hiking on the ranch and visiting with the other guests.

Our schedule wasn’t allowing us to see as many sites in Montana as we would have liked but we had vacationed there several times before and would be back in the future. Glacier National Park is a favorite of ours but it went into the category of “next time.”

We had relegated Yellowstone National Park to the same category but when we checked in for our two-night stay at Osens Campground in Livingston the host pointed out that it was an easy one-hour drive to Yellowstone. So for our one full day in the area we decided to take a day trip to Yellowstone. Though we couldn’t of course see as much as we had before when we stayed in the park, we were able to take in many of the park’s unique gems including Old Faithful.

We were glad we had the opportunity to visit Yellowstone when we did. Just 12 days later a catastrophic flood wiped out the road we had taken down to Gardiner and into the north entrance of the park.

The next two-night stop was at Grandview Campground in Hardin, Montana. From here we were able to explore nearby Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument. It was another case where history is best learned with two feet on the ground. Driving and walking the hills of Little Bighorn we gained a much deeper understanding not only of the events that occurred there in 1876 but also of the conflict that preceded and followed.

The Bighorn Mountains were our next destination. Weather was a concern as we headed to Middle Fork Campground in Bighorn National Forest west of Buffalo, Wyoming. Storms with heavy rain were in the forecast. Though the rain didn’t materialize that first night the creek through the campground was running strong and kept rising even without the rain. Our one exit crossed the creek and, as much as we loved the setting, we needed to bail.

That meant we needed to find another place to stay that night. Fortunately, we were able to find a place right next to a National Park site, Devils Tower in Northeastern Wyoming. We stayed in the KOA that is immediately on the east side of the edifice. And it was a short enough drive that we arrived with time to explore the park. One of the unique features of the campground is that they show the movie “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” every night. The movie was filmed at the campground.

We had hoped to stay in Custer State Park in South Dakota for our next stay but weren’t able to make reservations, though we had been trying for some time. However, we found Heartland RV Park just to the east of the park which was a very nice place to stay for four nights and the location allowed us to explore the Black Hills, Custer State Park and Mount Rushmore. We also made a run up to Box Elder to vote and to check on our home address.

As a service for those who are reading this we want to share a lesson we learned in the Black Hills. Don’t yodel while driving through the narrow tunnels along the Iron Mountain Road. It’s not good for the side mirrors. In the picture of the bus note the sign in the windshield that says “Student Driver.” He did better than I.

The terrain before us was now flattening out. One more place of significant topographical variation awaited us though. We spent one night at Sleepy Hollow Campground in Wall, South Dakota. From there we visited Badlands National Park, Minuteman Missile National Historic Site and even got in some of the touristiness of Wall.

Now it was the 11^th of June. We were over the mountains of the West and it was downhill from there. Soon we would be back in Minnesota and things were looking up.