Category: Places to go

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Ouray!

We drove the short distance from Olathe to Ridgway, Colorado, and slipped into  our very nice pull-thru site in Ridgway State Park.   The campsite had a great patio and even had a metal roof structure over that.  This park had no sewer hookups and just a few central water faucets to fill your tanks, but it did have 30 amp power in case we needed to run the A/C, which it turns out wasn’t required here.

The next morning we drove the car over to Ouray, a small town with a special waterfall that I had read about.   On the way out we passed by quite a few deer grazing by the roadway.  We got to the waterfall set up a narrow dirt road.  Once there you couldn’t tell what the trees were hiding, so I purchased tickets in the gift shop to go check it out.  I think they were $3 each.   While doing that I found out it is a city park.

The short hike was amazing.  The metal catwalks were as described in whatever site I had read about them.   There was one very short area where a big piece of rock hangs over the cantilevered walkway;  needless to say, I had to duck.  As you walk closer to the falls, you can just see a glimpse of the falls,  but the noise from them was unmistakable and very loud.  The kind that requires shouting for someone next to you to hear you.

This is something you must experience if you are within driving distance of Ouray.  It’s a short jaunt around the whole place, but well worth the experience.  I had not seen anything quite like this before.  Stepping down into this narrow loud canyon was pretty awesome.

 

OurayWaterFall  This is a link to a short video of the falls from down in the canyon itself.

After seeing everything we wanted to, we headed back to the car to visit the historical town of Ouray.   It had a big, wide main street with a good slope in all directions.  We walked the town looking for trinkets to remind us of this pretty, small place.   I found a very nice pint glass and christened it that evening back at the campsite.    Also picked up a small magnet for the fridge.

Just as we got to the top of the hill, the furthest from the car, it started to pour!  And of course our rain coats were in said car.  Dusty wasn’t happy at all.  He really dislikes going out in the rain, and here we had no choice.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We headed back to the campground and got behind this camper with the most bikes hanging off the back I have ever seen.  Made me wonder if all the riders fit into that camper.

When we got back to Ridgway SP, we explored all the areas of the campground.  We were camped in the Dakota Terraces campground just above a very large lake (reservoir) with a huge boat launch area to our north.  There was also a camping loop probably 500 feet higher than our loop, but it was mainly for smaller RV’s, although there was one squeezed into a site up there that was probably our size.

I just loved the Jetsonsesq looking camper that was just down the road from us.  I had never seen anything like it.  I never saw anyone around it.  I kept looking as I wanted to ask them about it.  The tail lights were to die for. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next we drove down to another part of the campground called Pa-Co-Chu-Puk Campground that was below the huge earthen dam holding back the reservoir.    To me, there is just something about camping right below a huge earthen dam over my head that would probably prevent me from sleeping at night.  Apparently I didn’t think to take a picture down there, so here is a Google Sat View showing the campground near the bottom right and the dam just above it.

June 23rd

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Grand Junction and on to Montrose Colorado, Black Canyon of the Gunnison

We left Green River the next morning after the park attempted to flood the RV.  I liked it there, but the fire hose situation was maddening.   We drove east on I-70 all the way past Grand Junction to the small town of Paradise, Colorado, for fuel.  I found a place that was $5.39 a gallon, about 25 cents lower than anything nearby.   It took a long time to fuel up here too as the clerk could only put in $299.99, nothing higher; so I had to go back in for them to restart the pump two more times to fill up.

After we filled up, we headed to Olathe, Colorado, where we stayed at a very nice park called Uncompahgre River RV Park.   It was in a residential area and lots of shade trees.  Once I saw the huge trees lining the long wide driveway, I new I had probably made the right choice to stay for 5 nights so we could explore the area.

The next morning we headed out early to check out the Black Canyon of the Gunnison before it got too crowded.  It was a good choice, even early in the morning there were only a few parking spots left at many of the overlooks.  The canyon had very steep black cliffs, so it was named appropriately.  We were in the south section of the park and there were trails out to some overlooks that were farther away from the road, but the terrain made me think there weren’t many real hiking trails, unless they were only for big horn sheep.

We were out of the park before noon and there was quite a long line at the entrance kiosk to the park by then.  We were very happy we got an unusually early start.   We were also happy to use our National Park Senior pass again.  That was $10 well spent on our first trip back in 2017 at Montezuma’s Castle.    Unfortunately I did not keep track after we saved about $300 that first year on national park admissions.  But again,  best $10 ever spent.

That night we wanted Mexican food and there were 3 places within around    10 miles, 2 very close and one out in the middle of nowhere.   Turns out the one way out there was the best rated, but it closed at 2 pm every day.  One afternoon on the way back from somewhere, we found the spot it was supposed to be, a small clearing at the corner of a couple small roads.  We saw a couple picnic tables under the trees back off the road, but no restaurant that I could see.  Turns out it’s a food truck, and apparently they drive it home around 2 pm.

I ended up getting takeout from Carniceria El Bajio on Main Street.  Talk about a hole-in-the-wall place.  It’s nothing to look at when you walk in, and you might want to walk out once inside.  Not the cleanest place I have ever been in, but the tacos were some of the best I have ever had.

The next day we headed into Montrose about 10 miles south of Olathe and we wandered around the old section of town.  It was the Juneteenth holiday and lots (most) of the shops were closed for the holiday.  It seemed odd as a lot of them were small places that tourists would probably love to check out.  Even the small brewery on the main street was closed.  Seems the folks in Colorado take their brand new National Holidays very seriously! The town had some awesome large bronze statues along its wide boulevard.   Here are some pics.

Later we picked up some lunch and drove over to the Montrose Water Sports Park and what a wonderful place it was.   The city modified the river’s path to include some rapids for surfers to ride and some square stones to make it easier to get into and out of the water.  Lots of small kayaks and even tubes were traversing the waterway.  We wandered around there for an hour or so just watching and admiring the park that they had built and so many folks there enjoying it.

IMG_8277_1655671021000 IMG_8275_1655670859000

We were heading toward Ridgeway State Park next and from there would check out the towns of Ouray and Telluride.   After that we would traverse the infamous Million Dollar Highway.

June 17th thru 22nd.

 

 

 

 

 

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Exploring the Columbia River Gorge

Thursday morning I was able to make a couple reservations for this coming weekend and next week, which includes July 4th on Wednesday.   First for Saturday and Sunday nights we scored a spot at Fort Stevens State Park west of Astoria right on the Pacific Ocean and the Columbia River.   With that reservation in hand, I was able to get the place I originally wanted to stay, just south of Astoria for Monday thru Friday, the week of July 4th.

With that housekeeping done, we headed out to explore the gorge.   First we headed down the hill and then east on the Washington side of the river, soon we spotted the Bonneville Dam.   We drove to the entrance for the visitor center and were stopped at the gate so the guard could check out what was inside the car and trunk, presumably looking for a bomb or some other terrorist things most retired folks from California drive around with.

He let us pass as we had nothing of interest.    Unfortunately when we arrived we were not close time wise to their twice a day dam tours, so we decided to go look at the fish ladders.   I had never seen one of those before so I figured it would be interesting.   We walked thru a lot of chain link gates to get into that space, and it was fascinating to see the insides of the large concrete spillways.   I assumed it would just be steps from the top to the bottom, but it was much more than that, all sorts of chicanes and other concrete shapes to make the water turn back on itself like a small whirlpool.   Those must have caused a harrowing ride for the fish going both ways.

We also went downstairs in the fish viewing building to look thru the big glass windows into the ladders to watch the fish swim against the very strong current in the ladder.   They must be some very determined fish to get thru that contraption to get to the other side.

 

Afterward we drove back over the BOTG and into the small town of Cascade Locks.   We found a park along the river, and as it was probably close to 2pm, we located a picnic table and ate our packed lunch under a large Douglas Fir overlooking the river.   There was a small gem and minerals show going on in the park and all the vendors were showing lots of pretty cool looking sliced up and polished rocks.

Once we looked over all their wares, we got back in the car and headed east on the freeway toward The Dalles (Dalles rhymes with gals or pals)   We started noticing as we moved further east from Cascade Locks it grew noticeably more arid very quickly.   We got off the freeway in Hood River and found the Hood River Yacht Club and a cute little beach where lots of wind surfers were flying back and forth across the river at a very good clip.  Did I mention it is extremely windy along this river?   At least it was the three days we stayed around here, luckily not up at our campground which was about 500′ above the river.  Those very tall trees would make it truly uncomfortable to camp under them if the wind was blowing there like it was down in the bottom of the gorge.

We left the river to get on Old Highway 30 toward The Dalles.  It snakes its way up the foothills along the river,  lots of 20 MPH blind curves.   It would be a great ride on the motorcycle, but a veritable nightmare in our bus.   We arrived in The Dalles and it was just another town along the river to me.  I didn’t see anything of note while driving thru it.   There is another bridge across the river here, and for some reason this one is free.   On the way toward the bridge, Kathy wanted to snap a picture, so I pulled over and she got out.   She practically blew over the guardrail as some wind gusts I guessed of about 80 MPH tried to take her to Oz.    Did I mention it’s windy near the river?

 

Just up river from the bridge was another that was built in the 60’s called the John Day Dam.  You can see it in the pics.

We arrived on the other side of the river a few minutes later — this was a much wider bridge than the BOTG –and headed west toward our base camp.   Along the way we stopped at a rest area and overlook where again it was extremely windy on a small promontory on the river.    We could see more wind surfers further west on the river and got back on the highway to go find them.

We found a lot of them quite a few miles south of the Hood River Bridge at a national fish hatchery.   Those folks really move across the water being pulled along by kites or small parachutes.   I bet that is an incredible workout.   No need to hit the gym after doing that for an hour.

As we drove down that small side road along the river, we made our way into the fish hatchery just as it closed.    We headed back toward our camp to cook some dinner and kick back for the evening.

 

The next morning we got a late start and headed back toward the hatchery during its open hours.    When we got there, we saw at least triple the amount of wind surfers on the water than the prior late afternoon.    The fish hatchery was open so we went in and parked.   To my chagrin, there were no fish in the tanks.   They explained they were all let out in May.

 

 

 

While we were leaving the hatchery, we noticed that today you could see Mt. Hood very clearly in the distance.  As I got ready to snap a shot of the mountain, it got even better as a cloud on the east side of it moved a bit further away to allow its volcanic shape to really shine.

 

So we headed over the Hood River Bridge and worked our way back west toward Cascade Locks for lunch at a small restaurant on the water we had noticed the day before which was also the landing for a paddle wheeler that plied the river.

We had some really good fish and chips.  They even had a gluten free choice.   Kathy said it was the first time she had had fish and chips in at least 5 years!    They had a Dechutes Porter on the menu.   It was like being in heaven.  We thought about taking a one-hour tour on the paddle wheeler, but they don’t permit pets so we didn’t give them our money.    I’m not sure how they stay in business as the boat was not very full when it arrived back, nor were there many people waiting for the tour getting ready to leave.   But it was a true paddle wheeler.   You could tell when they tried to dock the thing,  a prop right in front of the rudder would have made that much easier.

We left Cascade Locks to drive down to the Oregon side of the Bonneville Dam.    Again we had to let the guard check for bombs and such.  Again we didn’t have any for them.    But this time as we drove in, we passed a lock and I noticed there was a barge in there that I had seen heading downriver while we were having lunch; so I made a U-turn and drove back over to the lock parking lot.

 

 

To my surprise, you can walk right up to the ships at this lock and touch them.    Last year, at the Eisenhower lock, you were behind a tall chain-link fence.   So this was pretty cool.    We got there just a few minutes before they were to lower the water to bring the barges and tugboat down about 60′ to the level of the river below the dam.    As the tug left the lock, it was amazing to see it steer those very large barges sticking so far out in front of it.   After another smaller craft,  maybe a 40-foot boat, motored into the lock to head upstream, we left and drove over toward the dam.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We were amazed as on this side of the Bonneville you drove your car right on the dam to get to the visitor center.    You were also allowed to go inside the power house without a tour, and there was a great picture vantage point of the Washington side’s dam spillway.   They were letting out a lot of water.   It made quite a sound.   Turn up the volume to watch and listen to the short video.

And the windows in the fish viewing area were quite a bit less murky so the fish were easier to see.  Check out the video below.

We headed back toward the campground and spotted another hatchery and drove over to see if they had any fish.   They did,  looked like millions of minnows in the tanks spread out over many acres.   Turns out this hatchery was the original one set up back around the turn of last century.

After walking around it for maybe a half an hour, we headed back to get the coach ready to move out to the mouth of the river west of Astoria, Oregon tomorrow.

 

 

 

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The Evergreen Museum!

We drove right past the Evergreen Air and Space Museum on our way to the campground we were staying at while I attempted to get the tow bar  serviced.   I had read many years before that the Spruce Goose was moved to Evergreen,  although I thought that was a town in Oregon.    As we were driving past it, the light bulb lit and I realized that it was a museum, not a town.   I started thinking I would finally get to see the Spruce Goose!   We checked in at the Olde Village RV, and I asked them about the Goose.  They acknowledged it was there and said if we went, they had discount coupons to get in.

I had originally planned on being there for at least five days, but I wasn’t sure I would be able to get into the Airstream rally; so I only booked the campsite for two days (Sunday & Monday nights)  and asked for an option to extend if I was able to get into that rally and leave my tow bar for service.  I was planning on going to Salem, but I read they were having some kind of toxic contamination in their water system, so I stayed about 30 miles out of town.  Yikes!

As I got the tow bar serviced early Monday morning, I went back and asked to extend my stay just till Wednesday morning.   That would allow us to walk over to the museum on Tuesday.  It was a really short walk over on a fairly new sidewalk hundreds of feet away from the highway between the campground and museum.

We went into the closest building, which turned out to be the aerospace section that also included planes and helicopters built after the Korean War.   The other large building housed all planes from the Korean War and older.   There were two other buildings, one was a theater and the other a water park.  That’s the one with a Boeing 747 on its roof.  We heard that all the big water slides had you start from inside that roof mounted plane.   That sounded pretty cool to me, but I wasn’t planning on going to the water park.

We entered the museum, paid and received our wristbands.   The first thing you see was a V-1 and V-2 rockets.   There was a Titan II missile, lots of older rockets, including a Redstone and others, and very cool displays with engines and capsules and even a LEM replica including the lunar rover and astronauts.

But hidden behind all them was a display of  50’s and 60’s era helicopters.   Some of the weirdest ones I had ever seen, even ones where you stand on a small platform with no bubble around you.  My favorite was a single seater from the Marines.   The saying “letting it all hang out” must have been invented for that thing.   One even had motors at the ends of the rotor blades.

 

 

 

We headed back toward the front and found an SR-71 with the engine exposed and sort of almost below it;  but the biggest surprise for me was the SR-71 Drone that it could carry on its back.   I had never even heard of that, let alone seen one.    One of the docents near the SR-71 took an interest in Kathy, and she followed us around till we left, explaining all about those Jets.   She was a pilot and knew quite a bit about all of them.  That was pretty cool,  like a personal guided tour for about an hour.

She pointed out the planes that were just a shell for display, which I think she called “Pickles on a Stick”.   Odd name,  but I probably won’t be able to think of a plane again without that image coming to mind.  She also told us about the history behind the museum being built.  The owner had 2 sons, one a race car driver and one a pilot.  The race car driver had an accident where the son that was a pilot died, along with a good friend of his.  The museum is a learning center and museum in honor of his son.  What an amazing tribute!

After we had seen everything in that first (eastern) building, we headed for the short walk to the Aviation building with the older planes.   The first thing you see when you walk into that building is a wing of the Spruce Goose.   It’s basically the ceiling over your head.   Geez is that plane big.  I mean it’s huge!  We couldn’t get it all in one picture.

To enter, you walk thru an engine nacelle from a large jet as a kind of tunnel entrance.    You cannot miss the Goose as it’s the whole center of the building.  They brought it up here in pieces when the building was almost built.  They left the sides open to get the Goose in, then rebuilt it inside of the building.  It’s amazing to see!!!  There are lots of planes surrounding it.

We decided to take a tour starting in a few minutes, so we stopped for lunch in the little cafe in the building.  Then we were off,  starting with the types of engines on display and over to the Da Vinci flying machine replica.  Now that was pretty cool itself.   Then over to the early part of aviation with the Wright brothers and Curtiss planes.    There were so many cool Korean and WW11 planes to see.  There is even a MASH era helicopter hanging from the ceiling with the baskets for the wounded mounted on each side.   We toured around  the back of the Goose where all the Korean jets were and over to the Spitfires and Messerschmidt 109’s.

Then we went for the main attraction,  and climbed the stairs to go inside the Goose.  It’s really large inside.  They said it was intended to carry 750 troops into battle landing on the water.    Not sure how they would get to shore from it though.   I guess I should have asked that.

After going inside, they mentioned that for $29 more we could have our pictures taken in the cockpit which was behind thick glass panels and up a circular staircase.    Kathy eventually talked me into it and I’m glad she did.  What an interesting cabin that was.   Very large,  about the size of a 747 second floor.   What astonished me even more was a doorway I looked into that turned out to be the inside of one of the wings.  It was a very long walkway/hallway that was at least 7′ tall where I was.  It looked to get a bit shorter as you got to the end of the wing, but not that much shorter.

Then we got to climb into the pilot and copilot seats, which was a first for any museum I’ve ever been to.   I’ve been to a lot over the years, including most of the Smithsonian museums in D.C.

Getting into the pilot seat was very interesting for a guy my size.  There was almost no room for someone over 5’10” tall and skinny.   Also it was high off the ground, tickling my acrophobia.

Once I got in there, I started wondering how the heck I would get out.   Kathy had jumped into the copilot seat even before I started toward the front.  That side had lots of room, and most of the controls were on the pilot’s side.   It wasn’t hard getting out like I thought it would be, but swiveling in the chair for the picture was not happening.   I could not move my legs more than an inch or two due to all the “things” in the way.

I asked the docent if I could start the engines, and he said to “go for it”   Just amazing!    There are a zillion gauges and switches up there.   Check out that one panel.  There were too many to count.

We had our pics taken, and we headed back down the smallest spiral staircase I had ever seen,  although it was close to one in a small lighthouse we visited last year that wanted to take my head off.   I think it was one near Bar Harbor.  Guess I will need to go back and re-read that one.

I left the best part of the museum to the last.  They encouraged you to touch everything in the museum.    There were several exhibits that you could go inside.  That is something I never experienced in any other museum before!

We headed back to the coach,  but it did seem like a much longer walk back than it did in the morning.  🙂

We headed down the road to explore the Columbia River Gorge the next morning.

 

 

 

 

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Zion National Park.. Amazing Zion!

After seeing Zion for the first time, I think “it” should be called “the Grand Canyon.”  Much more spectacular than the real Grand Canyon, and that’s pretty spectacular.    Zion was utterly the most beautiful place I have ever seen. (so far)

We started out early (for us) so we might find a parking spot near the visitor center.   Glad we did,  as we got one of the last spots!   Otherwise you need to take a shuttle bus from a town just west of the park, and dogs aren’t allowed on that, which is basically a show stopper for us.   The only trail in Zion that allows dogs is the Pa’rus trail which is paved and meanders along the Virgin River for 1.7 miles, so our pups’ little legs received a 3.4 mile workout.  It’s mostly flat but it was warm and there wasn’t much shade.   But the views were out of this world.  This is a place to come and hike around a few days!

The drive into the park from the east side and down to the visitor center is awe inspiring.   The views from the roadway are incredible,  truly breathtaking…  And there is a mile-long tunnel carved out of a mountain that is 11′ tall on the sides and 13′ in the middle.   I was very happy to NOT be driving the motor home this day as it’s over 12’7″ tall.   They allow you to drive them thru, but you have to pay $15 for the privilege as they stop traffic from coming the other way so you can gingerly drive down the middle of the tunnel.   My antennas stick up about a foot higher than everything else, probably 14′ off the ground, and would have been making a godawful racket if we went thru there.   That tunnel was very long and had turns in it.  Adding to its uniqueness was it was completely dark in there.   Prior to you going thru it, a ranger slows you and checks to make sure you aren’t wearing sunglasses.   There are a few small portals to the outside that give you a short but sweet view of the canyon below as you pass by.   A lot of very large motor homes and buses went by as we were waiting in line to go back thru that tunnel when we were leaving.