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20260916 – Whitman Mission and Manhattan Project – Hanford.

We drove from the Big Bend BLM campground to a small town called Heppner, OR. I had not filled my tank when we left I-84 because it was only 150 miles into the tank and I could go another 300. Well we are lucky we had enough because the truck was at 35 miles estimated remaining when we pulled into the fuel station. Eastern Oregon has a lot of emptiness. We did see a flock of turkeys as we headed up through the mountains.

We did a bit of grocery shopping, so this stop killed our budget for the day. Oh well, we were still heading north back into Washington to visit the Whitman Mission NHS. We did manage to get photos of us crossing the borders. The last two were on freeways and right across a bridge so pics were not an option. Kathy cleaned up the images a bit since people have taken to defacing the signs with stickers.

The Whitman mission site was a location where some Christian missionaries set up to convert the local people, teach them farming and modern methods, and ended up being blamed for not being able to save locals from measles. The local tribe murdered Mr Whitman, his wife Clarissa, and 15 others. This incident started the Indian wars in Washington and ultimately opened the region up to the current day. We hiked around the site and found apples in the orchard and a flock of turkeys walking about. Lots of the signage at this site is negatively written and is a bit of a put off. Hopefully some updates will occur soon.

We headed back towards the Pasco area and grabbed a McDonald’s for dinner. We headed towards Hanford NHS to find a place to camp. The local park campground was closed for the season and we tried three other RV parks, which were more trailer parks. There is a lot of harvesting of apples in this area so I presume spots are filled due to that. We ended up at a Walmart/Home Depot for the night. That parking lot was a bit more active than we would have liked and only two other campers were there. It worked out though and we got a bit of sleep before the landscapers started at 6:30. I was able to get a new eyebolt at HD and some chorizo at Walmart.

The Hanford visitors center is the only early one we have visited. 7:30 it opened. However tours are only in Fri – Sun. Funny thing, we like to get stickers and postcards for souvenirs and they don’t sell them and referred us to a local bookstore around the corner…. Which opened at 11AM. So we made breakfast and hung out until 11. The remainder of the day is driving to the Coulee Damn and Lake Roosevelt.

Here are some additional photos from the last two days.
https://www.overlandadventureexcursions.com/photos-albums/nggallery/album/20250916-17-whitman-mission-and-hanford-nhs

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20250915 – John Day Fossil Beds

We got a kick out of a portion of the drive though. We left the plush forests of the coastal rain forests and entered the sparse grasslands and arid forests. We’ve been in green so long that this feels foreign to us now. And while driving the wind turbines are more plentiful than weeds. We can understand the need for alternative forms of energy, but these wind turbines are absolutely atrocious and ugly when driving these back roads. I wish they’d just put up a couple more nuclear plants and get rid of all of this garbage. I think that’s about Adam’s in the background.

Today and the next few days are gonna be 200+ mile days. We have planned to meet up with some friends of ours back in Hamilton, Montana, and the weekend is the best time for them. So today we left Eagle Creek campground and headed to the John Day fossil beds. So the first question I had is who is John Day. There’s a town named after him, several rivers named after him, so he must be pretty important. It turns out he most famous for being attacked by Indian stripped naked and forced to walk 70 miles back to Walla Walla. If you’re interested, here’s some info.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Day_(trapper)

This area of Oregon is actually internationally known. The fossils from 50 million years ago and newer that basically tell us what life was like for early mammals on earth are located here. It’s interesting to see the timetable, with all of the plants and animals 50 million years ago up until about 5 million years ago, when humans first hit the earth. This area is one of the richest fossil beds in the entire planet. The visitor center is phenomenal how it is set up and even has a lab behind a window where you can watch scientists excavate the fossils. We got there slightly before 3 PM and were able to spend over an hour in there viewing and reading the exhibits.

A couple hundred yards down the road one of the old Homesteads is also part of the national park, so we stopped by there to take a look. The site is actually closed to the public, but you are able to tour the grounds. They have orchards back there with tons of apples and pears, and there were signs up that said that we could pick the right fruit from the trees. Having some fresh apples, a snack on will be nice since I’ve been eating too many Oreos lately. I’m going to make a pie in the next couple of days.

We have done so many miles, and I’ve seen so many things on this journey, that we’ve missed a bunch. I would recommend coming to this area and doing some hiking and exploring because there’s so much to see in this area. Maybe at some point we’ll get back here before we can’t move anymore.

We found a nice BLM campground along the John Day river about 20 miles from the National Park. It’s only five dollars a night and it’s incredibly quiet. I can hear coyotes in the distance and fish jumping in the river. I appreciate quiet and free (or almost free) campgrounds, as there are way too many of those these days. This site is quiet and beautiful and clear.

here are some additional photos for the day.
https://www.overlandadventureexcursions.com/photos-albums/nggallery/album/20250915-john-day-fossil-beds-np

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20250914 – Fort Vancouver and Eagle Creek.

We had about 350 miles to cover for the next two days, with Fort Vancouver being closed on the first day. So we wanted to get to the fort in hopes that it would actually have the stamps outside, and then work our way outside of Portland to find a campground between there and John Day fossil beds. The drive into Portland was uneventful, and we stopped along the way to get some very reasonably priced gas at $4.39 a gallon. There was also a Bath and body Works in a shopping center nearby, so I took the dogs for a walk while Kathy got some of her retail therapy completed.

We made it to Fort Vancouver, and it’s actually a pretty open area with a bunch of bike pads and walking pass throughout. We were able to get to the visitor center, and of course it was closed, but I zoomed in and took some pictures of the stamps for evidence that we were there. We’re gonna try to hit up some friends of ours that may be going through that area to stop by and get some stamps and pick up a coin for Kathy’s collection.

We turned the truck south and east and headed out of town because Portland is worse than Seattle when it comes to trying to find a place to camp. Any good open places are already occupied by homeless or permanent van lifers. We drove the scenic route along the Columbia river passed the airport and caught interstate 84. About 20 miles out of town there is a campground called Eagle Creek Campground that was the first available, and since it was late in the evening, it was time to find a place to camp.

Eagle Creek Campground is kind of a unique spot. We found out that this was the first campground that was ever publicly developed in the national forest in the United States. It’s built several hundred feet above the Columbia river Valley and actually set up pretty nicely. There’s a bunch of warnings everywhere that the noise is loud Because the camp was developed before the freeway and the train tracks had been put in. The fact that we have a truck camper with hard sides, the noise was not that big of an issue. We did find that leveling the truck was probably the biggest challenge as we had to stack six of the stackable pads up on the back end just to get it level. It turned out there was a trail right behind the campsite that worked out perfectly for walking the dogs. There was a sign at the bottom of the hill that there was a 20 foot trailer limit coming up, because two of the turns were extremely tight. The Campos, however, had a 30 or 40 foot long 1960s version of an airstream parked, semi permanently in the spot. Overall, they had running water, some drop toilets, and there were only three campers in the campground. We had leftovers for dinner and a great night sleep.

Here are some additional photos of the day.
https://www.overlandadventureexcursions.com/photos-albums/nggallery/album/20250914-ft-vancouver-and-eagle-creek

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20250913 – Olympic NP, Lewis and Clark NHS and Ft. Stevens.

It was a long day of driving. We left the beachside campsite early and drove the 45 minutes to the Quinault Ranger Station to check in and get our NPS passport stamps. We hiked the trail to the Kestner Homestead and saw the orchard that was planted 120 years ago. There were no apples on the ground but we found a HUGE pile of bear scat in the grass that was not steaming but rather fresh. The rainforest is such an interesting place, probably because we are used to the desert flora and fauna. We didn’t see a bear but asked the ranger and he said they have several black bears in the area that eat the fruit off the ground. They will also climb into the trees and shake the fruit free. Kathy found some evergreen huckleberry bushes I the parking lot and picked two quarts of them.

We had several more hours of driving to do to get to our next stop. We were headed to the Lewis and Clark NHS in Oregon and wanted to get there before they closed. Furthermore, we were needing a shower and looked at campgrounds in the area and the KOA was $100+ for the night and the state park reservation showed it was full. I figured we need to get there early to see if we could find a place, as there were places for stealth camping, but we wanted to place with a shower.

We arrived about two in the afternoon and decided to start at the campsite of the state park to see if we can get a spot. Fortunately, they had some cancellations and we were able to grab a spot there. We checked out the spot, and then headed over to the Lewis and Clark national historic site because they closed at four, and we wanted to be able to tour the visitors center. Some of the great things in American history that really impressed me are the pioneers, and more in particular Folks like Lewis and Clark in his party of discovery. We’ve been traveling over 15,000 miles in a very posh truck on roads and into established campsites. These incredibly hearty men and woman had boats, canoes, or walked the entire length from Camp Dubois on the Missouri River to the Pacific Ocean. They not only traveled, but explored, collected samples, and mapped the upper west that was to become the USA. It’s really an incredible thing. Here’s a link to some quick history. https://www.history.com/articles/lewis-clark-timeline-expedition

We were able to tour the museum and displays at Fort Clatsop and even learned about the unique American flag with 15 stars and 15 stripes during the flag retirement ceremony at the end of the day. It’s a pretty incredible historic site.

We headed back to the Campground at Ft Stevens State park. The site was $50 for the night but it included free, hot showers and an electrical hook up. We haven’t been driving the 4 to 6 hours a day and I haven’t been able to get the batteries up to 100% for about a week. It got as low as 25% when we left the campground at the beach. After driving all day today, it still was only at 80%, so this allowed a trickle charge overnight. It’s funny because I put enough solar on the roof to be able to charge it up during the day from 50%, but that requires Arizona style sun. We have not had straight sunlight for any single day for the last two months so we are reliant on the alternator to charge the batteries.

The Fort Stevens campsite is really nice, and really big. There are over 250 sites there they were actually open. And there was some sort of a recumbent bike festival going on, so after dark it was like the Disney electric light parade with these guys driving around with their Christmas lights all over the bikes. Kind of cool. We got a good night sleep, took a hot shower in the morning since the one at night was just lukewarm, and the batteries were all charged up and we are ready to go. We stopped by the beach to see an old shipwreck. Apparently there have been over 2000 wrecks at the mouth of the Columbia river due to all the sandbars. This wreck happened around 1917, and a similar one happened three weeks later almost in the same spot.

We have been running into some scheduling issues with these national parks and historic sites being closed on certain days. Unfortunately, with the route that we’re choosing, we were gonna go see the Fort Vancouver down in Portland, but it’s closed on Sunday and Monday. The next site we’re planning on seeing is the John fossil beds in Central Oregon, and they’re closed on Tuesday and Wednesday. So it’s important that we get down on Monday to be able to see the fossil beds. There’s no chance on seeing the Fort Vancouver visitor center, but we’re gonna stop by the site anyway and see if we might be able to get a stamp.

Here are some additional photos for the day.
https://www.overlandadventureexcursions.com/photos-albums/nggallery/album/20250913-olympic-np-lewis-and-clark

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20250911-12 – Olympic NP, Pacific Ocean

We camped in a nice little campground next to a beach. The ocean is filled with waves crashing on the shore and there is tons of driftwood and logs lining the shore. We relaxed for two nights here and walked along the beach.

I got the Starlink replaced without an issue. For those of you who have not experienced this service, it is seamless and easy to work with. If Elon manages his cars and space ships in the same Jannie, which I believe he dies, it’s no wonder he is so successful.

We spent the day napping, reading, and sitting by the sea watching the waves crashing. I looked up the high tide and we walked down up the edge to see the trees being tossed about by the powerful waves. Through the binoculars we did not see wales, but there were thousands of sea birds, some otters, and a seal bobbing in the waves.

I managed to bake scalloped potatoes for dinner which turned out amazing. Definitely doing those again.

Here are the photos from the beach. Today we are off to Oregon to the Lewis and Clark NHS and more beach camping.
https://www.overlandadventureexcursions.com/photos-albums/nggallery/album/20250911-12-olympic-np-and-pacific-seashore

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20250911 – Seattle Needle and Klondike Gold Rush NP

We had missed the Klondike Gold Rush Museum and Pioneer square due to scheduling closure a few days ago. We purchased tickets for the Space needle for a morning ride, not thinking that there was fog here. But that was our first stop. We were a bit early so we stopped at a cute little French bakery and had some coffee and delicious pastries. The fog didn’t lift but we had tickets that were to refundable, so we headed up to the top.

The elevator ride is like 49 seconds and the operator was funny trying to describe the surroundings before he said “and from here on up it’s fog”. We chuckled. The views were nonexistent, but the tower was pretty cool with its rotating floor. We could see enough of the ground to make out the area and tried to locate Howie, but I had parked where threes blocked our view. Oh well.

We made the best of it. At the bottom they had these pies that they sold that were delicious. Kathy had a ham and cheese and I had a huckleberry and peach. We watched the people around the base and took some cool pictures of the needle.

We returned to Howie, walked the pups again, and then drove the se real miles to the NP site. It was cool that we had visited the site in Skagway and Dyea in Alaska and had traveled to Dawson City prior to visiting this. It really gives us a perspective of these early travelers and what they accomplished. Just the supply list they had to procure for a years travel is astonishing. These gold rushers hauled these supplies up and over the pass and into the Canadian interior by hand mostly. Crazy.

We found an interesting bar called The Underground on the way back to the truck and stopped for a beer. Turns out this is a burlesque show bar in the evenings. The deco was fun and we enjoyed the break with a beverage. Howie and the pups were waiting and we had to get out of Seattle and head to Olympic NP.

I goofed on the way and headed to the ranger station but thinking there were no campgrounds. We got there a bit late and missed our stamps. I fund a campground 45 minutes away and we got a spot at the south beach campsite. It was a long day of travel today, about 11 hours.

Here are some additional photos for the day.
https://www.overlandadventureexcursions.com/photos-albums/nggallery/album/20250911-seattle-needle-and-klondike-gold-rush-nhs

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20250909-10 – Mt Rainier NP and Issequah

We decided to stay two nights at Cougar Rock Campground so we could look around and do a bit of hiking. We drove up to the visitors center, which was supposed to be closed, but it turned out it was not. We enjoyed the place as it was beautiful. There were lots of hiking trails but the lot was full and people were everywhere, on a Wednesday. This place must be miserable in the busy season. The hotel was also interesting and was built similar to the Yellowstone hotel, but smaller.

We hiked around the lot and some trails and then headed down to the lower visitors center and to get fuel. It was funny though since my miles-to-empty reading was 64 at the top and when we made it to the fuel it was up to 85.

We enjoyed a coupe of hikes, one to a beautiful falls, and then hung out at the campground and did some reading. The pups enjoyed the walks in the humongous tree forest.

We headed out early on the 10th to get to Issequah where the new Starlink had been shipped. We found wildlife park (zoo) along the drive and decided to stop for a tour and lunch. They had a really nice tram ride around the wild portion of the park and we saw their buffalo, mountain goats, foxes, elk, deer and caribou. In the other portions of the zoo there were wolves, bobcats, lynxes, mountain lions, eagles, and wolverines (which we could not find). It’s a beautiful setting for a zoo.

One interesting/disturbing piece I found was a free feminine hygiene product dispenser in the men’s restroom. I guess in this area the zoo fences are arbitrary.

We made some grilled ham and cheese sandwiches in the parking lot and then continued on our journey. It was a nice easy drive and the package pick up was easy. I scoped out a spot next to a river park that was said to be ok for overnighting. We took the pups for a long walk around the park and the surrounding area and stumbled upon a neat old shopping area where old homestead buildings had been relocated and turned into shops and restaurants. Very beautiful.

The night was uneventful. Three other travelers stayed in the same location and we were undisturbed. Issaquah is a beautiful and busy city outside of Seattle.

Here are some additional photos for these days.
https://www.overlandadventureexcursions.com/photos-albums/nggallery/album/20250909-10-mt-rainier-np-and-wildlife-park

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20250908 – Seattle

We had planned for a couple of days in Seattle so we drove into the heart of the city. We found street parking and headed off to get the National Park stamp for the Klondike Gold Rush. Unfortunately the visitors center was closed on Monday and Tuesday. We headed towards the Famous Pikes Place to watch the fish throwing. It didn’t take long to find the crown watching the show and we joined. We walked around the market for a bit and then decided to find a place to eat. We ended up at Kells, an Irish pub. We shared a NY strip steak and some crab dip. The dip was spicy, not a traditional Irish recipe we suspected. But overall the meal was good.

We heard about the Gum Wall so we strolled down that way to check it out. You can smell it before you get to the corner. It’s really gross, but is a unique piece of artwork that only a city could create. We proceeded to head back to the truck and browsed the shops along the way. A particular map store caught our eye and we tried to find reasonably sized country stickers for Howie. Unsuccessful today. We also failed our world geography as we could not identify France on the chalk drawing challenge. Oh well.

Our next task was finding a place to camp. Cities suck for this and we could not find anything reasonable so we drive the two hours to Mt Rainier NP thinking we’d find a campground or wild camp along the way. No such luck. We did end up crashing a spot at the Cougar Rick campground that looked empty; but had some hikers stashed away in the trees in a tent. They were cool. I ended up paying for a new spot for tonight. We have to get back to Issequah outside of Seattle tomorrow to pick up a fedex, and head into Seattle again to get the stamp. We will head west toward Olympic NP and I’m hoping I can scout a free camp.

I am finding that this late in the season, lots of national parks and sites are closed or have reduced schedules. We planned Olympic NP next, but have to route to another visitors center that is open. Tomorrow will be a long day of driving due to the rerouting. Gas up here is STUPIDLY priced at ~$5 per gallon.

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20250907 North Cascades NP

We waited until around 1PM to drive the 5 minutes to wait in line for the ferry. All in all, San Juan Isoand is a cute place, but it is a bit expensive for the round trip ferry ride ($96) and for the camping ($40-60/night) with only a few places you can find to camp. It’s a crowded island and after taking to a couple of other travelers, they said this was the Disneyland of the islands. I can see that.

Well the ferry ride was nice. We went up to the passenger deck and watched the islands pass. We hoped to see some orcas but weren’t that lucky. We continued off the route and headed to North Cascades NP. We made it there about 6 PM and there were lots of campsites available so we registered for one online. I took the pups for a walk to the visitors center through a beautiful forest.

The next day we would be headed to Seattle to visit the Seattle location of the Klondike Gold Rush NHS.

here are a few other photos of the day.
https://www.overlandadventureexcursions.com/photos-albums/nggallery/album/20250907-ferry-and-north-cascades-np

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20250905-06 – Whidbey and San Juan Islands

We got going early and headed onto Whidbey Island. The morning drive was beautiful through the rainforest, and fields, and windy roads. We were on our way to see Ebey’s Landing, a national historic site for the first Homestead that was set on the island. We ended up in Coupeville, a cute little seaside town that had the visitor center for the national Park. We toured the museum, which was very well set up and explained the homesteading and growth of the islands.

We had a fairy to catch in the evening to Friday Harbor in the San Juan Islands. We stopped at a park next to the ferry and walk the dogs, and toured the trail system that they have there that describes the seaside habitat. The ferry ride was uneventful and we arrived in Friday Harbor around 9 o’clock. That’s when the fun began. We didn’t have reservations for a campground and there aren’t a lot of open camping spaces here. We tried the county park, it was full with a grouchy troll lady there. We tried another campground that didn’t have anybody there except for a bunch of chairs for a wedding. it looked like, so we just left there. We finally ended up at the fairgrounds and found an empty spot. It turns out the fairgrounds or just about a 10 minute walk from downtown so that worked out perfectly. They have some issues with their booking system, and I reserved a site while here, get the Campos an hour later gave the site to somebody else. So we just told him we’d share the site and they refunded the money.

The San Juan national Park here in the island is actually two places. The northern part is the British camp and the southern part of the American camp. It turns out that there was almost a war between the US and Britain over a farmer killing a British pig. There was some disagreement in how the borderlines that extended past the 49th parallel were to be interpreted. Fortunately, the whole thing was solved peacefully and since they were actually three streets in the area, the international line was set between Vancouver Island and the San Juan Islands, in the US became the owner of the San Juan’s.

After visiting the parks, which incidentally are only about 15 to 20 miles apart, we parked the truck, took the dogs for a walk, and then proceeded into town to look at the interesting buildings and browse some shops. The town was having a 75th anniversary of the harbor and was giving away smoked salmon and salads, but we ended up not finding that place until later. We had some good food at an Asian restaurant. On the walk back it started to rain so we ducked into a bar and had a beverage or two. It’s a cute little town, however, coming here is very expensive. It’s about $100 to get the truck camper round-trip on the ferry, and the campgrounds are upwards of $50 a night. Fortunately you don’t spend much on gas here because it’s only a 20 mile island. It’s a good thing because diesel is almost 6 dollars a gallon here.

Here are the rest of the photos for the past few days.
https://www.overlandadventureexcursions.com/photos-albums/nggallery/album/20250905-06-whidbey-and-san-juan-island