August 11, 2022
Hello again! We had a great couple of weeks in Idaho recently. You might remember, in my last post, I was heading out to St. Paul, Minnesota to help furnish our new sober living home, and we were moving from northeast Oregon to Clarkston, Washington. Clarkston is on the Snake River, and across the river is Lewiston, Idaho. I flew in and out of the airport in Lewiston. So Steve and Gerry hung out a week while I was in Minnesota. As it turns out, it wasn’t a great place to be. If I hadn’t been traveling, it’s one of those places we would leave and find somewhere else to go. While it is on the Snake River, it was not a very pretty section of the river. In fact it was pretty ugly. And it was 100+ degrees every day. No hiking, and even if there were trails near by, it was way too hot to even think about hiking. So poor Steve and Gerry were pretty much stuck in the RV air conditioning all day while I was gone…. on the other hand, I had perfect weather in St. Paul, a very successful trip and a great visit with Guy and Katelyn. I tried to not sound too happy each day when I called Steve, but I think my enthusiasm was evident anyhow!
We left Clarkston the day after I returned and moved to Riggins, Idaho. We had not been there before. It’s on the Salmon River, and tons of whitewater rafting there. Some are day trips, some are multi-day trips. We’re not into rafting, but it was interesting to see all the rafts on the water. We found a very nice campground a few miles out of town and it was a welcome relief to be in the trees, along a nice little stream, much cooler temps. We did a couple of hikes, explored the Salmon River canyon (very beautiful) and guess what? We found a great local orchard! We never tire of these great fresh food finds. And what a find it was – berries, peaches, plumbs, plus lots of veggies they grew too. We stocked up (again!).
Then it was on to McCall, Idaho. This was a new destination for us also. We liked it. It’s a nice little town on a big, beautiful lake. In some ways it reminded us of a small Lake Tahoe. We tried to rent a boat during our stay, but there was no availability. We found a couple of nice hikes in the area, and we really enjoyed the campground. It was a “luxury” campground with lots of nice amenities and we enjoyed just being there. McCall and Riggins are both on the “go back to someday” list.
We left McCall for a 3 day drive to our new location, Lake City, Colorado. It’s deep in the San Juan mountains in southwest Colorado. We’ve been here in Lake City for a couple of days now. I’ll give you a full report on it soon!
Also, I wanted to share some pictures, plus a video from a really cool thing – back when we were in Wallowa, Oregon, we went to their annual Nez Perce celebration. It was literally next to our RV park, we walked to it. They have this even each year, it is a celebration of the various Nez Perce tribes in Washington and Oregon – it focuses on traditional dances, and is a 3 day dance competition. They dress in their ceremonial dance regalia and it is really something to experience. We are so glad we happened upon this event. We went on the opening evening, for the opening ceremony. It was very moving to experience – the drums, the singing, the costumes, the dancing. The pictures do not begin to show (as usual!) but, hopefully you’ll get a little taste of what it was like.
Lots of pictures here for you – enjoy!
Nez Perce Celebration: https://photos.app.goo.gl/8uqBxDSbsfkwSZw67
Exploring Idaho: https://photos.app.goo.gl/NYJTirYaGgaTdFwz9