Bully Creek to Colliers State Park

OK, so you remember the grungy bathroom/shower from yesterday?

When I awoke around 5 AM and went to the bathroom, there was a guy sleeping on the peeling-paint bench right by the shower. I know what you're thinking: "Aw, poor homeless man is so desperate that he's sleeping in the foul bathroom." No, this was a normal, clean-cut 20-something in a bathing suit and T-shirt. He woke up when I walked in, and I asked him "Was it too cold in your tent?"

"No," he said, "I couldn't find my campsite!" He got up stretched, and walked off, saying "Boy, that's a bad night when you go camping, and can't find your campsite."

The sun was just coming up, and I got the pancakes going by the time Lena got out of the tent.





Today was strength-training day, which included barbell squats using Lena's 300-pound duffel while the tent dried out.
Then we packed up and headed off.

We had thought we'd had great luck in finding a campground soon after dinner even though none showed on the map. But it turned out it was bad luck, because if we hadn't seen the Bully Creek Reservoir site, we would have stopped here, at this dreary, depressing private campground.

So, I know what you're thinking now: "Al. That doesn't make sense. Why would it be bad luck to stay at a nice campground, and good luck to stay at a dreary depressing campground?"

Well, here's the answer: "Because at the dreary campground, there was big lightning strike, right across the road, and we could have had a front-row seat!" We stopped here for ice, and the campground owner showed us the tree that had been struck by lightning the night before.


The strike came right down the side of the tree, exploding off the bark and sending it flying hundreds of feet away. Yeah, win some, lose some.

So anyway, we continued on, as today we would cross most of Oregon. The central part of this state is surprisingly scenic, with dramatic canyons and desert lakes. I saw some great thunderstorms, but we didn't have that much rain on the car.

For lunch, we stopped at a small rest area in the desert and had tuna sandwiches.



We encountered more interesting cloud formations like this one. It is completely unretouched.

These next photos will give you a feeling for the view around Lake Abert in Central Oregon. Be sure to click on them to get the full impact.









We were trying hard to find a coffee shop with wifi, but weren't having much luck. Two of the actual responses to "Do you have wifi?" we got were "Wi What?" and "Who?" so we knew we weren't likely to find anything.

At one place that had a big WIFI! sign on the outside, the proprietor told me that it wasn't hooked up. But right by the restaurant there was an information sign that showed info about "The Perpetual Geyser" in Lakeview, so we kept our eyes open.

It was shown on the map, but when we got to Lakeview, there were no signs for the geyser. We found it anyway, this lone geyser in Oregon, just on the side of the road, with a fence around it to keep people from burning themselves. It was actually better than Old Faithful, because it went off every 90 seconds or so.


We had planned to drive to one of the campgrounds at Crater Lake, but stopped instead at Collier State Park. That was lucky, as it turned out, because the campgrounds at Crater were closed (too much snow).
This was the best-maintained campground I've ever seen. For example, the fire ring had apparently been vacuumed out before we came. Ironically, there were signs posted saying "Due to lack of funds, we have cut back on maintenance."

It was raining lightly, but with loud thunder, while we prepared some dinner-sized breakfast burritos.



Afterwards I showed off my ability to enjoy chocolate chip cookies with beer.

That photo also shows something I've gotten tired of on the trip: breathing in smoke.

We retired as the rain got heavy, and slept with great confidence in the waterproof properties of our tent. It was also a little sad because this would be the last night of camping on the trip. But just a little.

Stay tuned for Crater Lake.

East Table to Bully Creek

It wasn't as cold here in the Targhee National Forest, and we made a nice cooking fire with the free firewood (collecting is OK here).


The snake river is some sort of highway for the birds; here are some pelicans passing through.

I used warm water for washing my hair (mixed cold with boiling water). This worked great until Lena forgot to mix in the cold water at rinse time -- Ow!

The views on our drive through Idaho were similar to some of the Windows wallpapers. Click on this image, and you'll notice that some of these clouds had a funnel-type shape. This was due to rain falling out of the cloud. It resulted in very isolated showers.

We stopped in Arco, Idaho for another buffalo burger. According to some, Buffalo is more healthy for you. I didn't notice any difference in taste.

Lena insisted on playing on the local submarine.
This is what happens when you leave the camera in movie mode instead of photo mode.

Video

------

Next was a quick detour to Craters of the Moon National Monument. This would have been boring, but as you can see, the whole place is set to 1/6 of normal gravity, making it hard to walk.

This is one place where overweight tourists have an advantage.

The clouds are better here in Idaho than at home, and many have recognizable shapes (this photo is unretouched).

We drove all the way through Idaho before we started looking for camping. Vale, Oregon is where we stopped for dinner at a Mexican restaurant that could have been in Tijuana.


We had no idea where we'd camp, and there were no campgrounds on the map, but soon after dinner, we happened on a sign for Bully Creek Reservoir state park that had camping, and once again, got the very last campsite.


This place was very well maintained and neat, except for the bathrooms. These, in contrast, were straight out of a third world country with peeling paint and slimy floor surfaces. They also smelled of rotting fish, because the fish cleaning station adjoined the bathroom.

Here's a picture of the shower. This picture will be relevant for the next post, so keep it in mind.

After we got camp set up, I went for a short bike ride.

After a nice sunset, we went to bed. Since it was Saturday, and this was a party-type campground, there was lots of drinking and celebrating going on. Our earplugs blocked all that out, and we slept well.

Stay tuned to find out who slept in the bathroom and why.

Yellowstone to East Table

Sometimes, even in Yellowstone, Campground Hosts get divorced.

On our way south, out of Yellowstone, we stopped at its biggest attraction, Old Faithful. To me, it was pretty crowded, but of course this is the low season. Here's a shot of the huge main parking lot by Old Faithful.
This must be a zoo in the summer.

Old Faithful wasn't that faithful for us: about 30 minutes late for its scheduled eruption.

We got a raincheck for a free second viewing, but it was time to push on. BTW, we saw a smaller geyser in Oregon that I liked a lot better. See later posts for more info.

The lodge at Old Faithful was quite nice. Many of the lodges and concessions have apparently been outsourced to a company call Xanterra. We saw this here and at Crater Lake (see later posts). The lodges look great, but there's something overly commercialized about them. More "Trump-Tower" than "National Park."

Plenty of great views on the way out, and along the Grand Tetons. BTW, the fire damage from Yellowstone's 1988 fire (which burned 38% of the park) is still very much apparent. Many of the trees are less than 10 feet tall, and they are towered over by the dead ones, and surrounded by fallen trunks. You can see that in the first two photos here.




Here are the grand tetons.

Since it was a Friday night, we were worried about finding a campsite, so after a good lunch in Jackson, WY, we stopped early in the afternoon at the East Table campground in the Targhee National Forest. It was on the Snake river, and very close to Idaho. It was totally deserted when we got there.

The river was high, and large tree trunks would occasional flow down, making loud wood-splitting noises when they hit things. We also saw rafters and plenty of pelicans and geese.

The clouds looked menacing, so I prepared the tent for storms that never came.


These packets contain pheromones designed to discourage beetles that destroy the trees.

Great dinner, slept well, blah blah blah.

Stay tuned for thunderstorms and people sleeping in filthy bathrooms.