Friday 8/18
Finding our schedules were free from mid August til November prompted us to take our Bucket List drive through Alaska. The Solar Eclipse is coming in three days so we head for the eastern Oregon Zone of Totality around John Day OR and the Malheur National Forest. At Red Bluff we turn east towards Hwy 395 North. Our first night is by a meadow with Battle Creek running through it just before the town of Mineral. Filled with wildflowers, a fat happy herd of cows is partaking of the feast it offers.
Saturday 8/19
Lots of smoke in the air today. We're told its from Oregon fires. Lots of cars and campers on the roads but no difficulty in going north.
South of Althuras, CA, we head east on County Rd 64 out of Likely. A short drive takes us to Mill Creek Falls CG. It's a short .4 hike to the lovely Mill Creek Falls. Later we make the 2-3 mile loop around Clear Lake. We are the only ones there which makes it extra special. I take a brief float in the clear waters, snap a few pics and use one later to make a painting of Clear Lake. R1
Sunday 8/20
Destination: Malheur National Forest. Southeast of John Day Oregon, the 70 mile Zone of Totality gives us lots of camping choices as free camping is allowed in all National Forests. Good thing because all the campgrounds are full. We find a lovely meadow with a small creek (a crick?)and drive down an obvious cow path. I'm soaking in the crick in no time. During our '0-Beer:30' (thank you Suzi Long for this great expression!), our peace is disturbed by a loud braying. Closer it comes and before is a black bull...and he's pissed! Stomping the ground and bellowing and coming closer and closer. We hold our ground, making soothing sounds and he goes around us. All becomes clear when 20 Minutes later he's back with a cow and calf that straggled behind when the rest of the heard had moved back downstream.
Monday 8/21 - Solar Eclipse Day
At 10:00 am, we're at the ready with our welding mask lenses in hand. 30 minutes or so into it, the light dims, then darkens to night and the temperature drops +10 degrees in a minute! The total eclipse lasts but two minutes. It is a short period but we were able to see the sun flares around the moon.
From Malheur National Forest we head north to Ukiah, Pendleton and the Columbia River where it turns from south to west and becomes the Columbia Gorge. At this point traffic is bumper to bumper for miles ahead. Along the River we pull into a small Rec area with a tent sign. We snag the best of the five sites overlooking the beach and swimming area. As dusk arrives the place is filled like a parking lot with other campers pulling out of the backup traffic all the way five miles up to the Washington border and the turn east for Walla Walla.
Tuesday 8/22 🇺🇸
We awaken to a red sun rising (great title for a painting!).
If it's Tuesday, it must be Washington because we traverse the whole state south to north in less than 200 miles. No traffic this morning. Transversing the state of Washington today is only 250 some odd miles. We take time to visit the well done Visitors Center at Dry Falls just south of the Grand Coulee Dam. Thousands of years ago, an ice Dam at the northern end of Missoula Lake in Montana broke. The catastrophic flood waters racing over 60 mph, spread down through Washington carving out the Columbia Gorge, creating the Grand Coulee River and the Wenatchee Valley. Over 40 subsequent floods happened over the next milleniums. All this was not figured out until the 1920 when geologist J Hahn Bretz proved how this was the only explanation for the resulting landscapes! The Dry Falls, during the floods, was over 33 miles wide and the largest waterfall known in our world! Here we posed for a pic together with part of the Falls spread out behind us.
After wandering thru the countryside west of Oroville (Loomis) we stop for the night at a lovely campground on the southern tip of a large lake - Osoyoos Lake- that extends with 2/3 of it up into BC Canada. 🇨🇦 I floated at 8:30 pm with a water level view that could have been Lake Como Italy. Gorgeous lake, large waterside homes, and a motorboat that goes regularly from here to Canada- a mere 2miles.
Wednesday 8/23 🇨🇦
Crossing the border into British Columbia is a breeze - a few questions and we’re on our way. We are in BCs spectacular Okanagon Valley. Vineyards and wineries everywhere but more of the land is in apples, cherries, peaches and berries. The Okanagon River/Lake and other lakes run along our east side. I could easily live here or at the least come to stay and paint for several months. At the end of the Okanagon valley is Kelowna, ia major town with high rise apartment and office buildings, lots of parks and every store we know of in US plus all the Canadian ones. With a population of 115,000, the town is just the right size and way livrable.
We continue North on Route 97, then bear west to Kamloops, pop 90,000, much more timber and industrial. It lies on the junction of 97 from the east, the Coquihalla Highway from Hope to the south,, the start of the Yellowhead Highway (our route) headed NE towards Jasper. Eighty miles along our route we run into Wells Gray Provincial Park, known for its many waterfalls. The geology is well explained at Helmcken Falls. Pyramid Mountain was a great volcano encased in an ice cap, whose explosions resulted in the conical - pyramid- mountain we see today. The lava flow took a route which today is the lakes and rivers of the Upper Thompson river valley. Extensive erosion of the lava has resulted in small and large drop offs; thus, waterfalls.
The park abounds with bird wildlife including osprey, black bears, coyotes, and more. We watch salmon trying to leap up Baileys Chute only to exhaust themselves as it is too long and high to go upward. Worn out they return to a horseshoe in the river where they gather to mate and die.
We awake to a brief but intense thunderstorm. We dub it our car wash. Heading east now then north on Rt 5 to Valemont. The MILEPOST Alaska book we bought has proven invaluable already as we stop in Valemont at the Swiss Bakery. Authentic Swiss pastries for our lunch and we off to Tête Jaune Caché- pronounced hereabouts as T John Cash. It translates as Yellowhead Storage Cache for furs, Yellowhead referring to a blond trapper who stored his furs here.
We deviate from the Central Route that turns west to Prince George then north to Dawson Creek . Instead the magnificent Rocky Mountains on our right pull the steering wheel eastward to Jasper, then up and around north and west to Dawson Creek. Excellent call as the mountains make our hearts sing! 🎶
This route takes us thru Alberta (Mountain Time Zone). We camp at a ‘User Maintained Camp- a sign says it is campers responsibility to keep the camps clean and pack it out. If this doesn't happen they will simply close down the camp. The concept of placing the responsibility personally on the individual is refreshing, tho I fear it would fail fast with our Americans. Tant pis pour nous!
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