Our first destination is the Victorian Village of Ferndale, located in the Redwood Empire of Humboldt County. Ferndale was founded in 1852 and quickly became one of the region’s major agricultural centers. You see many dairy farms on the outskirts of town. In town you see many ornate buildings that are known today as “Butterfat Palaces.” We could not find any campgrounds or RV parks in Ferndale, but did find one 15 miles outside of town in Fortuna, CA. So we stayed there for two nights.
RIVERWALK RV PARK, Fortuna, CA: This is a very nice RV park with about 90 sites that are spacious and level. The interior roads and the site are paved. Grass surrounds the sites and each site has a picnic table. Most sites have tree(s) that shade the area. There is cable TV with lots of channels. Wireless internet is free with easy access but a weak signal. Could not download pictures or work on the blog.
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| Had lunch at Big Blue, then shopped at Bead store |
Then we headed back South and made a stop in Eureka to take a picture of the Carson Mansion. I think every one has a picture of that place. Our next stop was the Loleta Cheese Factory in Loleta. There we tasted many samples of their delicious cheeses.
Our last stop was Ferndale. We spent an hour or so there checking out the shops on Main Street and looking at some of the many beautiful Victorians in this town.
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We had dinner at this Inn our first night in the area Gingerbread Mansion |
On day 3 we head for Oregon.
DAY 3 – 5: JULY 12, 13, 14 ~ OREGON
We continued up the coast into Oregon and did an overnighter at the KOA between Port Orford and Bandon. The KOA was okay. Lots of trees and grass, but was run down and could use some updating. There was free wireless internet, but it was a poor connection. With the TV, only a few channels and all were fuzzy. All you could do was get e-mail. We didn’t do any exploring in this area. In fact we did not even unhook the trailer.
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Please see our RV PARK REVIEW BLOG under Oregon to see a review and more pictures of this RV campground. http://charleston-rv-park-review.blogspot.com/
TILLAMOOK – Day 4 & 5:
Still on the Oregon coastal highway (Hwy 101) we traveled north to Tillamook. We spent two nights in Tillamook. Tillamook has a population of 4,352 and is full of dairy farms. Tillamook’s lush green grasses are nurtured by 72 – 90” of rain a year. Yes, it did rain while we were here. Much of the county’s annual milk production of 25 million gallons is made into natural cheddar cheese.
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PLEASANT VALLY RV PARK, Tillamook, CA:
This park is a former KOA. You can always tell when the office is the typical KOA A-frame building. This park is pleasant looking with lots of grass and trees. There are about 70 sites, but several of the sites have permanent residents and several sites do not have full hookups. There is free wireless internet, but it is a slow and poor connection. Most of the time it is not working.
Please see our RV PARK REVIEW BLOG under Oregon to see a review and more pictures of this RV campground. http://charleston-rv-park-review.blogspot.com/
We arrived to this town early enough to do some exploring, so we visited the Tillamook Cheese Factory and sampled several of their cheeses. We have visited this place several times before and this is the first time that we have been there when the creamery was operating. It was fascinating to watch huge bricks of cheddar being split into several blocks, run down an assembly line and packaged.
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The next day we went to downtown Tillamook and visited the Latimer Quilt and Textile Center. This is a place where young people (and old) can spend time learning crafts such as quilting. knitting, weaving, beading, etc and spend the day working on them.
This location is also the start of the “Quilt Trail”. In 2009 the city celebrated the county’s rural heritage by identifying historic barns in the area and installed large, wood, hand painted quilt blocks on the barns. This project was called “Walk our Blocks”. The Quilt Trail guide describes the history of each barn and dairy farm. Tillamook businesses also participated in this by displaying smaller quilt blocks on their buildings. It was fun driving around the country side looking for these barns and seeing and reading about the historic dairy farms in the area.![]()
We ended the day back in Tillamook down a side road and hiked a quarter of a mile to see Munson Creek Falls.
The day started out misty, wet and cold, but the clouds parted and the sun came out and warmed the day. It was a wonderful day full of great sights in the small dairy town of Tillamook.
Our next destination will be Washington.
DAY 6 – 9: JULY 15 - 18 ~ WASHINGTON
After we left Tillamook, we went inland and into Washington state. After 6 hours and 232 miles we arrived at Gig Harbor RV Park.
GIG HARBOR RV PARK
We’ve stayed at this RV park many times. Every time we visit our friends here in Gig Harbor, we stay here because it is the “only game in town”. The place is okay, but it is crowded mostly with permanent residents. It is in two sections and I think they try to put the over night visitors in the upper part where the sites are not clearly marked and are too close to each other. It is a long walk to the restrooms and showers (you almost have to drive). So always ask for a site in the lower part.
Please see our RV PARK REVIEW BLOG under Washington to see a review and more pictures of this RV campground. http://charleston-rv-park-review.blogspot.com/
GIG HARBOR – Day 6 - 8:
We spent two very nice days visiting with our friends Bonnie and Mike. We enjoyed the Summer Arts Festival in downtown Gig Harbor. This is a craft fair with great homemade crafts and fine arts. The festival site was very near a bead shop that I visit every time I am in Gig Harbor. So of course I spent some of my time and money at this shop.
The Glass Museum overlooks Thea Foss Waterway. As I was looking at the view of the waterway I saw this zodiac with a passenger that looked so comfortable, I had to take a picture and share with you all.
The next day (day 9) we leave Gig Harbor and head East through Eastern Washington.
GRAND COULEE – Day 9:
We left the green grass and the forests of the west coast of Washington and headed inland to the open plains and canyons of east Washington. These canyons are lava flows of about 1000 to 1500 feet thick. We made a stop at Dry Falls State Park to view the falls that are no longer there. Dry Falls was once ten times the size of Niagara Falls and was thought to be the greatest known waterfall that ever existed. Nearly twenty thousand years ago, as glaciers moved south, one ice sheet plugged the Clark Fork of the Columbia River, causing massive flooding and diverted the water into the area now known as Grand Coulee. When the ice sheets that obstructed the Columbia melted, the Columbia River returned to it’s normal course, leaving the Grand Coulee and the falls dry.
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| What the 'falls' look like today |
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| Dry Falls before the Ice Age |
After 5.25 hours and 237 miles, we arrived at Steamboat Rock State Park.
STEAMBOAT ROCK STATE PARKSteamboat Rock is a butte, a basalt formation which rises 800 feet above Banks Lake and dominates the park . The butte was originally an island in the Columbia River bed, but when the Columbia changed it course after the Ice Age, the massive rock remained as a landmark.
This “rock” is the background at the campground in this state park. This was only an overnight stop for us. The campground is nicely laid out with two sections and 5 loops in each section. The sites are paved, level and very spacious.
This “rock” is the background at the campground in this state park. This was only an overnight stop for us. The campground is nicely laid out with two sections and 5 loops in each section. The sites are paved, level and very spacious.
Please see our RV PARK REVIEW BLOG under Washington to see a review and more pictures of this RV campground.
GRAND COULEE DAM
After we settled into our campsite, it was early afternoon and we had plenty of time to visit the Grand Coulee Dam. It was an impressive sight. At the time of our visit the dam was “spilling”. This is a rare event as the Dam operators only spill water when there is too much water coming down the river to run through the generators. The construction of the Grand Coulee Dam was pushed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt and construction started in 1933. It took 9 years to complete the Dam. Grand Coulee Dam is one of the largest concrete structures in the world and the country’s largest hydroelectric project. It generates more power than a million locomotives.
The Dam contains almost 12 million cubic yards of concrete. It towers 550 feet above bedrock (as high as the Washington Monument). There is enough concrete in the dam to build two standard six-foot wide sidewalks around the world at the equator.
That evening at 10pm we returned to the Dam and watched a laser light show reflected on the 'spill'. It was on the history of the Grand Coulee Dam and the area. It was very impressive.
The next day we head into the next state, the Idaho panhandle to visit Coeur d’Alene.
Idaho Facts:
Entered the Union on July 3, 1890.
Idaho has a population of around 1,293,953 and 83,557 square miles.
State Capital: Boise
State Nickname: Gem State, Gem of the Mountains
State Motto: “It is forever”
State Motto (funny): “More than just potatoes”
State Capital: Boise
State Flower: Syringa (1931)
State Bird: Mountain Blue Bird (1931)
State Animal: Appaloosa
State Tree: White Pine (1935)
State Gem: Star Garnet (1967)
State Song: “Here We Have Idaho”
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