Sunday, July 26, 2020

#69 Coveys Great Adventure - June 2020 – Utah & Idaho


June 2020 – Utah & Idaho

The ladies, and Beckham strolling
It was great to finally see Liesa. It was a big relief for both of us to see that she really was fine. I think we were more worried about her than we realized, given all that has been going on in the country, and in Salt Lake, specifically. We exchanged several visits with her and Cory during our two-week stay.

Jordanelle State Park is located about half way between Park City and Heber City. Park City is like Newport Beach with mountains. Heber City is already big enough for a Walmart and growing like a weed.  All kinds of new construction is taking place near town and around the lake, and light industry is moving in, too.



Jordanelle is a large park in a beautiful setting right on Jordanelle lake. A marina, a large day use area with extensive picnic facilities, and the campground all face the lake. The campground is immaculate and the sites are spacious, but half of them are pitched so much that they are impossible for us to get even close to level. We never did get completely level in our site, but that was our only complaint. The dogs had acres of grass to explore, and they did their best to sniff all of it.

We met Gary and Sharon Sams when we camp hosted together at Nahalem a couple of years ago and quickly became friends. Business exigencies and “life” took them off the road last year and they returned to Park City. We met them for breakfast at one of their favorite local places, the Five5eeds. The food was great and the company was better. We are looking forward to seeing them when we return in November.  

We really enjoyed our time at Jordanelle, but we were ready for a vacation. In 2017 we had plans to explore eastern Idaho and western Montana but Liesa’s accident cancelled that. We had 45 days before we needed to be in Oregon to host at Thompson’s Mills State Heritage Site, so we decided to head north.

American Falls dam on the Snake River
You may have not seen the news that recreational vehicle sales have skyrocketed. Dealer inventories have been wiped out and the industry is expected to exceed 50% YOY growth. 2019 also broke all sales records. People, especially those with young families, are looking for safe holidays and camping certainly looks safer than climbing on planes to go to theme parks. Ok, but where are they all going to stay? No new state parks or national parks have been created in decades. What RV park construction there has been has focused on the extreme upper end, $100+ per night “RV resort” market. I think state and national park campgrounds that were operating sold out within hours of reservation windows opening up. That’s not an exaggeration. The Covid related campground closures have made things even worse.

We always prefer state park or national forest campgrounds. At our size, though, we can’t count on a “first come, first serve” campsite being available when we show up. Since RV sales started to climb three years ago, we always make reservations, but generally had no trouble getting a spot, usually in a state park. Not any more. Private RV parks are all we can get and many of them are sold out at least a couple of months in advance. Some of the best are sold out all year! Oh, yes, the cost of private parks is roughly 30% more, and the sites and locations are nothing like as nice.

Queen of the links
That said, we planned a route and stitched together reservations at commercial RV parks to visit some areas we have wanted to see for years. We've decided to try to limit our daily driving to about 200 miles, so the first stop was Willow Bay Resort Campground and Marina in American Falls, Idaho. Willow Bay is a county park, by no means a "resort". It has a lot more acreage than commercial parks to walk the dogs. Grass was abundant and it was located on the Snake River just above the dam at American Falls that created a large reservoir. While not right on top of each other, the sites were too close for comfort. We also had inconsiderate neighbors that really made it unpleasant. On the flip side, though, we discovered that the town had a 9-hole munie golf course that was beautifully maintained and inexpensive to play. So, we did. For our first rounds in two years we didn’t play too badly, if you make enough allowance for age, lack of practice, skill, etc.

Did I mention the wind
blows a lot?
I discovered Salmon, Idaho, on a motorcycle ride over 10 years ago, so that was our next stop. We had just arrived in Salmon three years ago when the hospital called at 3:30 AM to tell us that Liesa had been injured. We pulled out a few hours later without seeing anything of the town and have been looking forward to going back ever since. We couldn’t find a site in Salmon, so we stayed in Elk Bend, at the eponymous RV park, about 25 miles south of Salmon.

It's a great life if you don't weaken
The park was nice, but quite small with limited dog walking. It was spotless, though, and the onsite owners were knowledgeable and attentive, always a good combination. The area around the park didn't offer  much to do, including the “recommended” Dusty Mule bar and grill across the highway. Ugh. The setting, though, like the whole Salmon River valley, was lovely.

Salmon was fun. We discovered the Odd Fellows Bakery on our first visit to town and drove 50 miles round trip two more days for outstanding sandwiches on their signature sourdough bread and rolls. Really, the best bread I can remember eating. 

Kayeanne has become quite interested in Lewis and Clark, so I think we are going to be visiting related sites whenever we encounter them. Salmon has an interesting museum focused on Sacajawea. The grounds include an extensive trail that meanders through fields and along the river. We both enjoyed the visit. 

We tried to go river rafting but the outfitter couldn’t find a guide on short notice. We wanted to play the local golf course but we picked the day of the annual Ladies Club Championship, and the next day it rained. We did manage to put a few hundred miles on the car exploring about every side road we could find. We enjoyed Salmon, but I think we’ve done the town and the area.

Wines we enjoyed lately included:
             Snoqualmie Whistle Stop Red, Columbia Valley WA 2016
             Cardwell Hill Pinot Gris, Willamette Valley 2017

Books were mixed: I liked Saturn Run by John Sanford and Ctein, good SF based on real science. On the other hand, John Meacham’s Destiny and Power
finally bored me silly and I dropped it.

More Soon,

Bob










1 comment: