My Happy Place!

Do you have a favorite camping spot?  One that is different than all the others?  Brings you joy, that you look forward to, that maybe you go out of your way to stop there, even if it's for only a few days?  

I do!

We have camped in all the lower 48 states, more than once in many of them.  We were on the road, full-time for almost 8 years and mostly moved about on a weekly basis, so to say that we have camped in a lot of campgrounds would be a pretty true statement.  

To be honest, we are not good at "boondocking" nor "Walmart parking" - so our type of camping is at official campgrounds.  That said, we've tried all types, from Casino to Farms, from KOA to Beaches.  We've been to "fancy" upscale resorts and ones we wondered how they even got a license.  

Some we've only stayed one night, other's a month.  Some, we liked so much we either asked to stay longer, or we made a note to return as soon as we could.  Some, we noted "never to return", but honestly, those were rare, and usually not because the campground was so terrible, but the weather or the location was not to our liking.  

Then, once in awhile you come across a gem.  In our case 2 of them, and both by accident.  One was along the California Coast near Ventura.  It was just luck that we happened to find a spot that was available along the Pacific Coast Hwy (yes, boondocking!) and we grabbed it for the night. 

The second has become our "happy place".  It's in Riggins ID.  We landed there because in August, as it turns out, is their "Mulberry Festival" and every place where we were trying to book, was full! After numerous phone calls, we found this tiny campground.  It turned out to be unbelievable!  Most of the sites are right alongside a swath of soft green grass that lines right up to the Little Salmon River.  It sits above it by about 8', but you can walk down to it via some rock stairs.  Across the river is nothing but trees and a beautiful hill to look at.  Each site has a big shade tree with a picnic table.  Full hook-ups and WiFi. Talk about peace and quiet!  

 We don't even bother to un-hook the car, as you can walk into the small town and shop or eat at the half dozen cafes or restaurants.  We actually did walk into town each day (can't sit all day, every day!) and poked our head into a couple of cute shops, even though most were closed when we were there (only open for a few hours a couple of days a week) but saw some fun things, like a tiny old refrigerator that was turned into a free book stand, as well as a nice mural of the map of the Salmon River which gave one a good perspective of how the river travels. Everyone, including the owners are super friendly.  One of our camp neighbors has caught several fish while he's been here too. Mostly though, I just sit back and read and enjoyed the wonderful sounds of the flowing river.  To me, there is nothing more soothing. 

They have different shade trees along the strip, and this time we found out we were under a walnut tree!  When the wind blew, we were graced with an abundance of walnuts!  Most of them are ripe and ready to gather, so I did, a big bag full to take home...bonus! 

To soon it will be time to leave, but it's always nice to know it's here, and that we have found such a wonderful place to come to...

...on the road...Marie

A little bit of heaven...

After leaving Ft. Pierre, we did spend a few days in Spearfish SD and had a blast walking the streets of Sturgis gawking at all the various motorcycles along with all the paraphernalia that one could buy to go along with them!  What a blast these people were going to have the next week at this rally!  They had all kinds of entertainment lined up for them, from big name bands to races.  Good for them!  Our campsite was already booked with 90% riders coming in ahead to enjoy the countryside and side trips.  The weather was great, they were all in for a wonderful week ahead!  We were there three days, long enough to enjoy the sights and buy some "souvenirs", then on to Montana to meet up with some friends...

We settled into our campground in Montana that we were to meet up with our friends, only to find out that it wasn't going to happen.  Unfortunately, family problems occurred and they couldn't meet up with us.  Life happens.  So, the luxury of having your home with you, you just check your map, and the weather, and reroute yourself!  I made a couple of calls and found out that some of our other friends were camped not to far from us in Idaho, so, we headed over to them!

We had a nice, albeit short visit with our friends before they had to scoot to Oregon for a prescheduled appointment to have some work done on their rig.  We decided that since we were in Idaho, we would spend some time driving around the areas we haven't seen in our previous visits here!  One of the nice things Jack does is keep a "Master Map" of every route we've taken through the years.  That way we can see which roads we've been on and which roads we haven't yet.  Jack found a great scenic route for us right through the middle of Idaho that looked really good for this trip, so that's what we decided to take for the next couple of weeks...making a  s l o w  e a s y  route up to Washington.  Nice.

Making my reservations for the first couple of stops, I found out that the area we were heading through over the weekend, that they were celebrating a "Huckleberry Festival" and were booked solid everywhere I checked!  Oh my..."who knew?"  Well, I ended up going a little further north (to Riggins) than we had planned and ended up at a very small campground called Riverside RV Park.  The reviews seemed nice, but there were only a couple...but I was getting desperate.  I called them and the lady seemed really nice, checked and yes, they had a spot big enough for us, and ...yes, someone just cancelled, so we could even come in on Thursday, making it 3 nights.  Yea.  I had no idea what to expect, but we could handle anything for 3 nights.  No problem.

Well, it wasn't anything like I expected...IT WAS PARADISE!!  OMG!!  I Wish we could have stayed there for a week or more!!  Pure heaven...Our sweet spot was a pull through right alongside lush green grass with a nice picnic table and all of it over-looked the Salmon River!  There were even steps down to the river, so, if you were a fisherman, or just even liked to go and sit on the rocks below and put your feet in the water, you could - right there at your campsite!  All this right under the the most beautiful, full canopied tree you could ask for.  Beautiful, peaceful, and all for $30. a night.  Amazing.  Bob, the owner was such a sweet guy too, you would see him here and there moving the sprinkler, chatting with people, etc.

Just up the road a bit, we enjoyed watching rafters spend some time on the river and wished we were with them!  ...maybe we will do that next week when we are in Grangeville.

Such a nice surprise to find a bit of heaven along our little adventure in Idaho!  It will be fun to see what else is in store for us as we travel along our "scenic route"!

...on the road in Idaho,  Marie