On Friday we hit the road again, starting with the Lolo Pass. It was a nice, but not an extraordinary one. At lunch time, we enjoyed a healthy pick-nick with real ‘french bread’ at the top of the pass. We drove the entire day along the scenic byway 12 through the Clearwater national forest and along the Lochson River. Because of the heat and probably also due to the heavy lunch, we needed a short break at the Fish Creek, which was beautiful, especially the high amount of butterflies near the river. We ended the day at a free campsite at the Dworshak dam. We had a brief chat with our neighbor David and his grandson Dawson, who stayed at the campsite especially for fishing after Chinook Salmon. He was a really nice guy and offered us 3 salmons for diner. So we had a last evening meal together with fish, water which didn’t wanted to change in wine, and ratatouille by lack of bread 😊. On Saturday, after a few miles driving, it started raining and we decided to stop in Lewiston at the ‘jack in the box’ to warm up and call the family Vander Elst, who were having their annual family reunion and so we could virtually also participate. After eating a hamburger, we said goodbye to our friend Thor who headed direction Twisp to meet some relatives and we headed direction Yakima. As it was with entering Idaho, we entered Washington as well in the pouring rain…. It hardly stopped raining, but when it was time to search for a campspot, the sun appeared again. We’ve put up our tent in the Yakima Sportman State Park. The first impression of Washington was that it’s a fertile state with lots of wheat fields, vineyards and fruit orchards. Of course we stopped to buy fresh cherries and raw honey.
On Father’s day, we continued on the scenic byway 12 along the White Pass. The name isn’t stolen, the longer we drove the colder and wetter it became and the rain turned into snow on the mountain tops. It was a cold but brilliant drive. In Randall we took NF25 with the aim to go to Mount St Helens, but unfortunately the road was closed due to the snow. We’ve found out that the road can be closed until early July due to the winter weather conditions. We had to return, but it was not a punishment because the road went through a rain forest (first experience). In the pouring rain we had to set up our tent in the Lewis and Clark State Park in the middle of the rain forest but at night we were lucky to meet with a Canadian couple, Todd and Linda, who offered to dry our gloves in their camper. We spent the evening together with them at the campfire.
Today we woke up with a tiny sunshine and we drove to the Rainier Mountain National Park. An amazing park with a magnificent scenery on the mountains and the glacier of the Rainier Mountain. If you like hiking, you definitely need to visit this park! And since we liked it that much, we decided to stop early today and have an overnight in the park.
