After
five nights in the pretty Coeur d’Alene, ID area, we headed 200 miles down the
road to Ellensburg, WA – why in the world would you go there you might ask and
it’s a valid question. As I’ve mentioned
before, we like to park the coach in the middle of the places we want to visit
and then make day trips – so Ellensburg it was.
The
Trip
I
love these shorter drives and for the next several weeks this will be the
norm. I’ve never really seen western WA,
but after our trip to Grand Coulee Dam and this one, I can say for sure that
they grow a lot of wheat – fourth largest in the country for wheat production.
We
saw fields of standing wheat, those being harvested, fields of stubble, and
fields prepared for next year’s crop. It’s hazy due to the 53 square miles fire
burning near Lake Chelan (one of the places I wanted to visit but likely won’t
get to). As we topped hills it was
common to see amber waves of grain as far as we could see (wheat field pics in previous post) and giant piles of these large bales were stacked everywhere -
The
Route
We
traveled I-90 and found it to be a good road the entire way.
The
Campground
We
stayed at the Ellenburg KOA and it was a pretty typical one – gravel roads and
sites, a little grass but plenty of trees.
They have updated to have some longer pull-thru sites with 50 amp power but they are not long enough for a big rig to use without unhooking the car. The trees prevented use of our satellite dish
but they had plenty of cable channels – unfortunately the picture was
fuzzy at best an unwatchable part of the time. Our site had better than average
WiFi.
The
campground is very convenient to I-90 (but we did get some road noise) and it’s
not far to the downtown area. If you are
a fisherman, it is located on the banks of the very swift moving Yakima
River.
It must be a good stopover point as it got pretty full each night.
It must be a good stopover point as it got pretty full each night.
Photos can be enlarged by clicking on them.
Have
a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.
Larry
8/13/15
event date
You are moving right along seeing so nice countryside
ReplyDeleteI like your idea of parking and going on day trips. Makes it a whole lot easier that moving the coach. That's some stack of hay.
ReplyDeleteSam
Hi, Larry, Good to see you are in the Pacific northwest! Sorry about the air quality but not much we can do about it. Last evening the winds shifted and brought the smoke from the north_ we could barely see the valley floor. Hopefully it will be gone in the next couple days. Have fun in WA_ I'm sure you will.
ReplyDeleteLarry, Good Route! It took you south away from the worst fires in the state. We've been reading the adventures of Laurie's cousin in north central Washington state and it is a crazed place to be right now. Driving through fires and taking dirt roads to get to somewhere with a phone signal and power. Stay safe and have fun! Take Care, Big Daddy Dave
ReplyDeleteThe most important question is; Are they any good diners serving chicken fried steak with a bucket of gravy near by?
ReplyDeleteParking the rig in a central location makes a lot of sense.
ReplyDeleteI got an e-mail from Cathy today. It looks like lunch is cancelled due to an unexpected trip. I can meet up with you & Bev at the Beaverton Farmer's Market on Saturday morning. I will probably need to bring my kids along with me.
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ReplyDeleteSorry, just realized I said that all wrong. Great pics and I enjoyed this post on your trip!
ReplyDeleteGreat location to travel about. Love the river view. Sorry about all of the fires. Enjoying your trip from here at home.
ReplyDeleteI don't think I've ever seen hay stacked that high! I hope the river helped drown out some of the traffic noise. Hope you get to see some of the fellow bloggers while you're there!
ReplyDelete