Category Archives: Camping

Lakes, Rain, And Gentle Souls

September 10, 2014 Keevan Leave a comment

8/13/14-8/14/14

Time for a nice easy drive down the highway. We followed 83 south through Montana, winding down the mountain, spending a quiet, peaceful, and restful night at Swan Lake. In the morning it was just a jaunt across the road to the lake, where we strolled around the beautiful pedestrian pathway watching the glass smooth lake come alive.

Mid-day we drove a few more hours to Seeley Lake. On the way down, there was definite smoky haze in the air as we we were heading straight for a fire area…But when we arrived, rain had started falling, the air was crisp and clean, and the campground was practically deserted. We set up our awning, sat on the van porch and watched the puddles form, until it became a downpour, at which time we came inside and cozied up for awhile with our books. A few hours later, the sun was out, and people everywhere exited their tents, trailers and vans to walk wherever they could walk. Life was fresh and renewed. The deer came out to graze and the birds and squirrels again took up their search for food.

River with reflection of trees and clouds in the sky — Clearwater River Near Seeley Lake

Seeley Lake was peaceful and quiet, so we decided to stay put for a few days. We were immersed in nature and beauty, and continued meeting interesting and inspiring people.

Paul, for instance touched our hearts. This gentle person with a huge soul kept us company, provided us with much valuable travel information, gave ups tips on which roads to take for the best experiences, and inflamed a torch that has been lit in us, about planning a trip next summer to Alaska and the Yukon! We shared thoughts on politics, the environment and most excitingly about the Absaroka Mountains, which we were soon to make our way over the top of.

Green marsh with river winding through it — Clearwater River Marsh

Pulling away from Seeley lake, after exploring a few back roads, we passed by the Bob Marshall Wilderness area.

Green meadows, miles of vast uncluttered land, and huge mountains in the background. — A Tiny Glimpse of the Bob Marshall Wilderness Area

Thank you Bob, for being the visionary you were.

highway signage about the bob marshall wilderness area — Bob Marshall Wilderness Area

Butte, Deer Lodge, and Dillon. We camped in Boulder Creek Campground along a little used winding road. We followed some of Lewis and Clark’s trail, and saw rocks the Sacagawea played underneath as a young girl. There is much history in this area.

A Nice little rainstorm over the mountains to light our way and we landed in Bozeman for the evening.

Rain coming down from the clouds over mountains. — Driving Through The Rainstorms

Next post, we meet more unexpected acquaintances, of the four legged kind. ❧

Camping, Nature, Simple Living, Van Living

All The Comforts Of Home

August 13, 2014 Keevan 2 Comments

7/27/14 – 8/5/14

Nine days spent in Coeur d’Alene, all of them between 90 and 102 degrees. Luckily we found this lovely campground just ten miles from town and close to the lake. Like all else in life, when the weather is not cooperative, you just have to deal with it.

Sometimes too, a person really needs a down day, where one can just relax, catch up on reading, blogging, maintenance, and hygiene.

For fun on this recent down day, I put together this little photo shoot of our temporary Home Sweet Home.

Bedroom / Reading room (when not made up as bedroom)

Power! (for keeping up with this blog :) — Power! (for keeping up with this blog 🙂

Of course, not all campsites are quite this spacious, but when you find one like this, you better enjoy it! We did.

We’re off and heading to Montana next. Good bye sweet campsite. We’ll hold you in our memories.

❧

Campervan, Camping, Nature, Travel, Van Living

Giant U-Turn; Redmond to the Sierras

July 24, 2014 Keevan 2 Comments

We spent an entire week in Redmond, just outside of Bend Oregon, with our dear friend Beverly. We totally relaxed, slept in a real bed, fixed lots of delicious food, and played the board game Aggravation until all hours of the night. It’s nice to be able to take these types of breaks once in awhile to recharge and just enjoy some downtime.

Bev was such a gracious hostess!!!

We were seriously on our way to North Idaho, but while hanging around Redmond, we learned that both our kids and their significant others and children, had planned a camping trip to the Tahoe National Forest, just outside the Lake Tahoe area back in eastern California.

A small seed was planted, and after checking the map and figuring out the milage, we made a decision to go camping with them all.

A Giant U-Turn was made from our spot on the map in central Oregon, and we rode with the wind down the highway back to California, for just a small side trip. About 300 miles of a side trip.

Into the sierra’s we went, and the family we did meet.

Pine forests as far as one can see, thunderstorms in the afternoons, green meadows crisscrossed by streams and rivers. Awesome white puffy clouds against azure skies.

A wonderful time was had by all, relatives from both sides of extended families joined in on different days to make for lots of fun, food, campfires, fishing, hikes, and good talks.

Love you people dearly!

Can’t wait to meet up again somewhere along this long winding road. Thank you for a wonderful visit.

❧

Camping, Travel, Van Living

Friends, Food, and Fireworks.

July 17, 2014 Keevan Leave a comment

7/3/14 – 7/5/14

We arrived in Roseburg late in the afternoon, feeling a bit depleted of resources.

Upon hitting the town, we headed to a laundromat, did some washing up of clothes, got ourselves a couple of good strong lattes, and stocked up the fridge and cooler with fruit and veggies. We found Stewart Park, walked the loop around two lakes, and enjoyed our dinner watching the ducks, geese, and pigeons being fed over and over again loaves of bread by almost every visitor that came by. What happy birds they seem to be. I’m not sure how healthy this is for them or the lake, but they do seem to enjoy the charity.

The next morning we connected up with friends Bill and Marlene. We told them we were just stopping by for a cup of coffee. Those people were so gracious and inviting we stayed for anther two days. We enjoyed their company, ate too much delicious food, listened to great bluegrass music at the local produce stand, drank copious (for us) amounts of good red wine, and enjoyed a cafe in the middle of nowhere that served wonderful organic vegetarian faire with brick oven baked fresh bread and pastries!

We were even able to watch 4th of July fireworks from their backyard.

Though the company was fantastic, the weather was getting a bit hot, so we decided to hit the coast one more time for a last couple of days respite, before heading inland to Bend, then onto Idaho.

Bandon, a little coastal town south of Coo’s Bay was beautiful, and much fun was had strolling the streets in the cool light fog haze.

It was really nice being near the ocean again, but sorry to say, there were still too many holiday revelers for our liking, and the dunes on the coast certainly attract more ATV’s than we care to be around!

Most places we visit have both good and bad qualities. When we find those sweet spots that seem just perfect to us, we REALLY need to just stay PUT!! Seems we often pull up stakes and move on, then regret leaving the “perfect spot” behind.

Morning Stroll at Umpqua Lighthouse State Park

But then, we always want to see what’s waiting around the next corner. Someday, we keep saying that we are going to stay a few months at a time in one place. But that’s for later.

❧

Camping, Nature, Travel

Blue, Blue of Crater Lake

July 10, 2014 Keevan Leave a comment

6/29/14 – 7/1/14

The richest blue, the deepest blue, the most peaceful blue. It’s a magical blue. There is no other blue like the blue of Crater Lake.

We camped here for three days and two nights.

Whenever we go to National Parks, the people are so friendly and interesting. You meet folks from near and far. You meet folks from this country, and from many other countries. You meet people that are genuinely interested in beauty. You meet people that are interested in nature and geology and science.

I wish I could say the same about all camping spots, but unfortunately I can’t. So many of the State Parks and County parks, and private parks have just become places to party. To trash and scream and run generators, and bring porch swings, triple grilled bar-b-ques, boom boxes, atvs, dirt bikes, kids plastic basketball hoops, and whatever else is desired. There’s really not much camping left in campgrounds, especially when they are located near larger metropolis areas.

So when you find a campground run efficiently and kept clean, where the sites are spacious and at least a tiny bit private, it’s worth mentioning.

Crater Lake National Park campground is just that. A certain number of sites are reservable, for those type of campers who always reserve ahead of time. A certain number of sites are not, for the rest of us. And there are numerous electrical hook-ups for those type of campers who use hook-ups, which is great, so the rest of us don’t go crazy listening to generators roar in the middle of the wilderness.

We drove around the Rim, and hiked a few short hikes.

We enjoyed the scenery.

And the mountains.

And again, it was especially nice to meet our neighbors while we camped in the park. Chris, you are awesome! Pia thanks you dearly for the super bouncy ball you gave her! Michael & Jean – good luck on your travels. Hope our paths cross again. We are still on our way to Bend, looking forward to checking out your ideas. And to the two women in the cutest of cute tiny but efficient travel trailer from Rhode Island…Bless you both, I hope you have a wonderful time in Seattle and your trip back across the country. And Barbara, the English woman who has been living alone in her small RV for the past 6 years. Up at the crack of dawn to hike, riding her bike to the top of the grade for exercise, and being an inspiration to the rest of us. You all make our travels so special!

We really enjoyed our short stay at Crater Lake, and even splurged on a wonderful lunch at the Crater Lake Lodge on our way out!

❧

Boondocking, Campervan, Camping, Travel, Van Living

Camping Woes and Elk

June 30, 2014 Keevan Leave a comment

Finding spots along the coast to spend the night has been a bit of a challenge. Since we never really know where we are going to be, it’s hard to make reservations in advance for a campground. Especially the state parks are usually full at this time of the year. There’s not much forest land along the coast either for U.S. Forest Service campgrounds, (which we prefer) or dispersed camping on National Forest land. Weekends in particular are impossible since that’s when most of the public goes camping!

Having our bed in the back of our van makes it possible for us to take cover and sleep in some interesting places.

We generally tend to avoid rest areas, since they tend to be extremely noisy being near highways and full of big trucks keeping their refrigerator units going all night long. But it just so happens that somewhere above Arcata, and below Cresent City, there is a very beautiful, very quiet, very clean Rest Area. And as long as you don’t stay longer than ten hours at a time, it is perfectly legal to sleep there. We very rarely EVER sleep more than ten hours!!

Leaving early in the morning, we were rewarded with this peaceful sight of relaxing Roosevelt elk.

And this big fellow, watching over the ladies while munching his morning chow.

Roosevelt elk (according to wikipedia) are the largest of the four subspecies of elk found in North America. Such a beautiful sight they are.

They don’t seem to have a problem finding a place to bed down. They are protected here from being hunted, so long as they stay on state property!

Our lack of planning in our travels leads to much spontaneity and many delights such as this. Sleeping in a Rest Area makes it all worth while when we get to wake up and greet the day this way!

❧

We really enjoyed Cresent City, spending time along the beach and pier watching the shore birds. There were more Black Oystercatchers nesting, Canada Geese, Cormorants, and of course lots of seagulls.

A bit sad to leave the coast, but inching up and inland to visit our good friend in Redmond, Oregon is the goal. Moving inland will also hopefully make finding camping spots a bit easier.

❧

Camping, Simple Living, Travel, Van Living

On The Road Again

June 24, 2014 Keevan Leave a comment

We’ve spent a wonderful three weeks back in the Santa Cruz area. We stayed longer than planned, even though it was strange being there without an actual house to live in. We did a lot of yard and driveway camping, thanks to our wonderful friends and family who didn’t mind having that VW camper top popped in their yards.

The call of the ocean was refreshing after being in the deserts of the Southwest. Margarita’s and calamari on the Crows Nest patio a few times, long dog walks and bonfires on the beach, camping and picnicking with family, bbq’s and good latte’s with friends. All was well.

A special thanks to dear friend Ken, for allowing us to use his house up the coast in Davenport as a sort of home base. Not only was that comforting, we got to know Davenport well. And loved hanging out there.

We miss our nesting Black Oyster Catchers, the Brown Pelicans, and the baby seagulls we discovered. We went often and watched the parents rearing these kids on the rocks off the coast, and spent hours enjoying the antics while sipping tea or eating lunches, wondering why these little birds don’t fall off the edge of the cliffs.

We’re now in Eureka, traveling up the northern coast of California. We had planned on traveling inland, but thanks to the hot weather we decided to avoid, we’ve kept to the cool foggy coastline. We’re meandering slowing toward Oregon for a large Northwest loop, and have decided to kind of make this part of the trip about birds and birdwatching. So far, so good. We’re keeping our lists, learning about bird behaviors and habitat patterns. It’s fun to wake up excited about where to go birdwatching and what we see next!!

❧

Boondocking, Camping, Simple Living, Travel, Van Living

Cruising Westward

June 10, 2014 Keevan 2 Comments

Leaving Utah Behind

After overloading on so much National Parkitis, we were ready for a little relaxation. The Parks in Utah are really magnificent, but there really is a limit, and taking in so many beautiful vistas in one trip results in a touch of scenic wonder overdose.

The fact is that Memorial Day weekend, a major holiday celebrated in huge fashion around the Moab area, combined with a storm front moving into town, had us looking at the map again. We wanted to spend one more night in the desert outside of Moab, but were concerned about rain on the very sandy roads we were camping on. Checking the weather over and over again, the weather people assured us no more rain would be occurring until mid-day on Friday.

We believed them.

Suckers we were!!!

We awoke at 4:00 a.m. to the pitter patter of raindrops falling on little Ms. Keevan. We discussed staying, we discussed going. We both tossed and turned in bed. The saying goes, if it rains, and you are on back roads in the desert, be prepared to stay put put for day or so, until the rain soaks in and the roads are once again dry and drivable. We had already decided to move on, and really didn’t want to stay put in the muck for a few days. Back and forth went the discussion, until finally at 4:15, we got up, dressed, threw everything on the bed, pulled the top down, and beat like heck, slipping and sliding out, all the way to the highway.

We drove, trying to get ahead of the rain, which was more of a downpour than a shower, the entire width of the state to western Utah, where we happily camped on dry BLM land with another great view.

The next morning we made our way into eastern Nevada, where we found the most desirable of forest service campgrounds, with lots of “NO ATV’s” on sign posts. Ah bless these parks gods from heaven. Just my type of people. We spent a couple of days at Ward Mountain Campground unwinding, relaxing, reading, and taking a lovely hike through the junipers and pinyon pine forests.

Through the Wastelands

Nevada. Now Central Nevada is it’s own character for sure. So much nothingness! And in between the nothingness, is missile testing sites, heaped up junkyards, and half filled pee bottles strewn along the highway. Mountain ranges separated by vast flatlands.

Sounds pretty destitute for sure, but in a way it was relaxing, so much nothingness, after so much everythingness of parks, rocks, beauty, tourists, visitor centers, and overpriced souvenirs.

But here’s the real story. When we went with the flow of the nothingness of Nevada, it all came to life!

First we came across a large band of Bighorn Sheep!! Not two or three mind you, but at least a hundred of them. So close to the road, we could tell the rams from the ewes. (By the horns, is how you tell.) They were so amazingly awesome!

Next, after alternately looking for wildlife and reading my magazine, I spot a lone Pronghorn Antelope!

And if that’s not enough, tooling down the highway, over yonder, we start spotting small herds of wild horses! Yes, those horses. The famous herds of wild horses of Nevada.

O.k. no more wonders of all wonders please!! We need to start looking for a place to sleep for the night, the shadows are getting long, and the sky is dimming. The last mountain range we pass over is the last bit of forest land for a long while, so we’re looking hard for a dirt road to turn off on. I spot one off to the side. Fred does a u-turn, and we turn in to check it out.

Driving slowly over the bumps and lava rocks we come around a bend, and shhh…”Fred, there’s a horse, right there!” And another, and another, and a young baby in the herd. A beautiful palomino. A Big Black. Wow.

This is where we’re camping.

Another wow. This is the view out our door tonight. Dreams of slumber overcome us.

Life is Good. There is beauty everywhere. We just have to allow it in.

❧

Boondocking, Camping, Simple Living, Travel

Over The Hills And Through The Snow…

May 28, 2014 Keevan 1 Comment

To Bryce Canyon we go…

Via the scenic route.

(May 14-15, 2014)

Before leaving on this epic adventure, we had read and jotted down some notes of places to see along the way. Hwy 143 in Utah was one of them, supposedly one of our most scenic highways!

So off we go, looking for more scenic views! We hadn’t ventured far, when I spotted this little trail I had read about as being a good place to stretch tired legs. Hidden Haven it was called.

A bit more of beautiful cold fluffy snow to deal with, but nothing our trusty hiking boots couldn’t handle. It was a gorgeous sunny blue sky day, so we trekked on up to this lovely bench. (thanks to some random boy scout, getting his eagle badge)

As we continued to climb the mountain, we realized when the sign said “Road Open,” it was really just opened. With a 15% grade to climb, and the road sometimes one lane, we were sweating it out a bit. But lo and behold the Great White Van performed superbly, although at one point I really knew I could run faster alongside Ms. Keevan.

Brian Head. The top of the world! A very cute (what we could see of it) little community renowned for being the highest community in Utah. Obviously we were between seasons here, as it was deader than a doornail, and we saw I think one person in the whole town.

Brian Head 2 — Heading Down, Clean Plowed Road

One thing for sure, it was a picturesque and scenic drive.

Just one of those little surprises, venturing between desert and mountain ranges. The terrain changes so quickly. As do the temperatures.

Needless to say, all the side roads, and national forest service roads were closed, so um, no camping here.

Down we go…

and go, and go, until we are bombarded by more brilliant red rocks.

Which signifies the beginning of Red Canyon.

Welcome.

Drive right in and stay awhile.

Thank you very much, we’ve made to it our new home for a few days…

A bit of a challenge to get leveled up, but with a little effort, we settled in nicely for a tasty dinner and good nights sleep!

❧

Boondocking, Camping, Simple Living, Travel

Fred Puts on Shorts!

May 21, 2014 Keevan 2 Comments

Since I’m becoming quite behind in this blogging thing, I’m now adding accurate travel dates to the posts, as the posting dates seem to run about a week behind. Since I am doing this sort of as a reference, it seems like the weather should at least be when it really happened, instead of like the snow falling in the middle of June or something, when it actually fell in May…

May 12, 2014

We left Lee’s Ferry campground taking a scenic route into Utah through Jacobs Lake. We again decide to forgo the Grand Canyon, since the road to the North Rim (where we are now) doesn’t open for another three days, and we are anxious to get into Utah.

At the junction of our turnoff, we see this cute laundry, and needing to do some, stop in for a quick wash and dry, before heading out.

And this was next door!

It can’t get any better than being able to take showers, while the clothes are washing. Little did we know that 95% of the washing machines didn’t work, and 98% of the dryers were inoperable. And that the washers were sort of antiques and took forever…and the dryers took even more forever…

But oh well, while there we met two lovely ladies who were about to embark upon a six day river rafting trip down the Colorado. These ladies had been friends for over 30 years, have lived in different states for over 20 years, and decided to venture out together for this once in a lifetime trip together. They were awesome!!

We shared stories, histories, and soon photos and videos of our grandchildren. I can’t remember the names, but I’m sure they had a fantastic trip down the river, and have many many memories to share and take back to their families.

Hours later…we continue winding away from the Vermillion Cliffs, and head up to higher elevations. Much higher!

Those of you who know Fred, know he’s not much of a shorts kind of guy. In fact our kids have probably never seen this picture of their dad. So it’s pretty ironic, he decides to finally put on shorts…and we come across this. More snow. (O.k., he did just wash his two pair of jeans – which maybe explains it.)

Pia, on the other hand, rather enjoyed the snow.

We made it to Jacob Lake, at almost 8,000 feet, just as it was about dark, and the one and only campground wasn’t open yet. It obviously opens the same day as the Rim Road to the Grand Canyon. Anyway, we found a nice forest road that wasn’t too muddy, spotted a wide area, and pulled over, popped the top and yay…turned on the heater!!!

You see, our Eurovan has a propane heater with a built in thermostat, which we’ve enjoyed quite liberally with all this cold weather.

❧

Keevan Soul