October 5, 2023 Lake Chelan, Washington

 High of 79 and sunny. We took a boat tour on Lake Chelan today. The lake is 50 miles long and at it's narrowest it is 1.3 miles wide. It is similar to a fiord. The canyon walls are so steep and rugged, the only way to get to the western end is by hiking, a boat or a sea plane. I have wanted to come here ever since I saw it on the map over 10 years ago.

A map of Lake Chelan. The bottom map is of the depth of the lake. It is the third deepest lake in the USA, at around 1500 feet. The lake surface it at 1,100 feet above sea level, so around 400 feet of water is below sea level. We rode on the Lady Express.

View out the back of the boat. View looking ahead of the boat. 

The rugged, steep, glacier carved canyon walls are awesome.

Views of Lake Chelan.

More views. 

Lucerne is one of the stops on the way to the end of the lake.  You can see the results of one of the many wild fires they have had over the years. One fire, called the toilet paper fire was caused by a hiker burning their toilet paper. Lake Chelan.

Near the west end of the lake. At the end of the lake you can see these three peaks Boston, Booker and Buckner peaks. The many glaciers in their cirque are the lake's source. 

Marina  at Stehekin. Welcome to Stehekin, the village at the west end of the lake. 

We took the Red Bus tour- which was really in a blue bus. We stopped at Rainbow Falls, which plunge 312 feet down. View from the bottom and from the higher lookout of the upper part of the falls. 

We also stopped at the famous Stehekin Pastry Company where  people got lunch or snacks. John got a giant ice cream cone. View behind the Stehekin pastry company.

The old one room school house, pumpkins at the farmers market, Lake Chelan welcomes you, Lake Chelan Apples--most of the many orchards in the area are apple orchards, a vineyard on the side of the hill, poison ivy on the river trail, a van whose license plate is NO TENT, and a large vineyard along the lake. The beach at the Lakeshore RV park, where we are parked. 

Lake Chelan from the campground beach. Our backyard at the campground.

There is a huge boat race and show this weekend. These are some of the gigantic hydro plane boats. They are on the trailers they came in on in the back of  a semi.  Fall colors on the lake.

The latest masterpiece. It is made from dark green dyed pine needles, polyester thread and glass beads. The center is a Mexican painted tile. It is 8 x 1 3/4 inches.

October 4, 2023 Chelan, Washington

 High of 77 and sunny.

We have been driving on the Columbia Plateau with columnar basalt cliffs and wide valleys. Dr Pierce's General Tonic.

We headed almost straight down it seemed like for 6 miles from the Columbia Plateau to the Columbia River. The river is bordered on each side with fruit orchards. These are apples. 

The Columbia River. We had a night reserved at a Harvest Host Winery, Chelan Ridge Winery. But we could not make the turn into the designated RV parking. We could have stayed here in the middle of the parking lot since they are closed today, but we left. 

Vineyards and grapes at the Chelan Ridge Winery. John got us a space at the Lakeshore RV park on the shore of Lake Chelan for two nights. Most everything is full in this area. 

We had dinner at the Stormy Mountain Brewing company. John with his double IPA.

September 30- October 3 , 2023 Lochsa River, Idaho to Clarkston to Moses Lake, Washington

 50's and raining all day.

We went for a hike in the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness toward Stanley Hot Springs. The springs are 5 miles each way, we just wanted go for a hike, so only went about 1 1/2 miles up the trail. The valley we started in is very narrow and deep. The canyon walls are very, very steep. We hiked up hill for 1 1/2 miles. John with fall neck high fall colored ferns hiking in the rain.

John still hiking up. We got to a vista point with fall colors. Not much to see the clouds were down pretty low. 

We also hiked on the birding trail in the rain. 

Strawberry flower, evening primrose, trail head sign and the Lochsa river from the bridge to the campground. 

Clear Water River, Idaho. We are now parked at the Hell's Canyon Resort in Clarkston, Washington on the Snake River near the mouth of Hell's Canyon.  

We are still following Lewis and Clark. Snake Dancer Tours take jet boat tours into Hell's canyon. I would love to go, but looks like they only go on weekends this time of year. We drove through Kooskia, gateway to Idaho's Wilderness, and Lowell that used to have a population of 24, but it is now 23. The Hell's Canyon Resort-Steelhead fishing capital of the world. Welcome to Washington and we topped off  in Idaho with $4.70 fuel- cheaper than Washington. 

Part of the marina at Hell's Canyon Resort. I finished this basket. It is made from green dyed pine needles, polyester thread, glass beads and the center is a piece of glass I fused. 8 1/2  x 3 inches. 

Leaving Clarkston, Washington along the Snake River in the rain. I wanted to see Palouse Falls. So we turned off onto the road, and it said no trailers, no turn around. So we took the car off and I was helping John turn around and got him too close to the sign. Oops. He got it off the sign and he ended up staying with the bus on the narrow road and I took the car to the falls. 

Palouse Falls are gorgeous. 

Palouse River Canyon downstream from the falls. Interesting terrain in this part of Washington. 

The Palouse Hills are a very fertile agricultural area. We saw grains, onions-even onions on the side of the road that had fallen off the trucks, potatoes, yellow fields. Pretty area. We are missing the 90's Flannel Fest this weekend at the fair grounds, On a building with a rainbow across it was a pot of gold at one end, The Home ec building had a treadle sewing machine by the sign, and the youth group was selling tater dogs! As we pulled into Moses Lake there was a semi on fire. A little excitement.

We are parked at the Grant County Fair grounds in Moses Lake, WA. Very pretty camping area. 

These two baskets are made from the same dark green needles. What a difference the color of the thread makes. Dinner on a nice fall evening in the 70's.

Sunset on some of the buildings at the fair grounds. Sunset on the fair grounds.