Diving south out of British Columbia into Montana in September, we spent several leisurely days on Flathead lake near Kalispel. It's surrounded by mountains and the water is so clear I just had to have swim, but forgot how cold it would be, so it was a quicky. We continued south into Idaho for some more sightseeing.

After following the foothills of the Bitterroot mountains in Idaho, we spent a day walking on the 15000 year old lava fields at "Craters of the Moon" park. A hike up the outside edge of this cone, gave a good sight of the whole crater created from the volcanic eruption.

In northern Nevada we visited an old railroad town that has seen many better days, but it has the history of the pioneer's travel with several routes that bisected this area. A local museum had lots of personal history of their struggles and life on the trails. From here we found this pretty mountain lake for a day hike, following a switch back road to reach the top.

We drove across the state of Nevada on the loneliest road that we have ever traveled on, with no shoulder, no cell phone service and oncoming traffic passing about once every 20 minutes. Admittedly, it was scenic with some canyon like passes and broad open desert, but it was a relief to arrive at the town Pahrump and a campground with a vineyard.

Behind the vineyard, our campsite overlooked the Spring mountains and gave us many different sights, from a vivid lightening storm one night to evening glows at sunset.

A vineyard in Nevada???? Yes. Our campground was adjacent to it and they do produce wine. although most of the grapes come from California. It still made for a pretty setting and some good wine tastings.

A drive to the top of Dante's Peak gives a panoramic view of the Death Valley. The basin below is 230 feet below sea level and is filled with an an ancient salt water sea bed.
(Steve..this picture is for you, but no tripod yet)

A few days in Las Vegas brought us back to big city life with the excitement of the Stripe and we toured the Hoover dam just to the east. What a engineering marvel

Following the weather south

We're now in Northern Arizona in the red rock area near Sedona for a six week stay. It's nice to be stationary for awhile, using our membership parks and meeting up with our "full timer friends" That also means many good pickle ball games and happy hours to share travel stories.

Crossing the Straits of Georgia back to the British Columbia mainland, on yet another bright sunny day

Our membership park just east of Vancouver has the most beautiful pool setting that I've ever used. We spent a week here and met up with Florida Pickle ball friends who were returning from summer in Alaska.

Bob at the local Blueberry farm. We picked 2 buckets of delicious berries

The Trans Canada highway is amongst the most scenic we've ever driven.

The town of Revelstoke has a pretty setting overlooking this glacier mountain and we had a good view of it from our campsite.

Over Labor Day weekend we camped at this quiet campground with nice mountain views and within easy walking distance to a glacier river flowing over a rocky riverbed.

This was the most scenic lunch stop ever. Even Bob agreed to eat outside.

The Trans Canada Highway going east. The sign warns of an Avalanche tunnel coming up, which protects the highway in the winter.

Going south, we stopped a Radium Hot Springs for several days at another nice mountain campground.

Kootenay National Park, just outside of Radium Hot spring, where we spent a day to see the sights.

Heading south into Montana, just as the there is a hint of snow on the mountain tops.

After leaving our Pacific campsite, where this eagle made it's home, we drove north following the Olympic Peninsula to the lumber town of Forks.

A day trip took us to the Hoh rain forest to walk the trails through the lush greenery...

....and checked out the big trees. These are Douglas fir and can be more than 200 feet tall and 8-10 feet in diameter.

These sea stakes are typical of the pacific coast along Washington.......

...and Huge logs strewn the beach.

The drive up Hurricane Ridge into the Olympic mountains was spectacular with a nice hike at the top. One sight as great as the next.

Bob talks with a motor home couple while we all wait to board the ferry from Port Angeles, Washington to Victoria, Vancouver Island

Successfully loaded on the ferry.

Victoria is the Provincial capital and has a spectacular harbor with the Hotel and Parliament buildings alongside.

The town of Chemainus has beautiful town murals. Flowers are everywhere....on roadways, parks, bridges, gardens.

Qualicum Beach, which is the only beach that we've ever seen that has snowy mountains behind it. We walked the boardwalk which followed the shore for miles.

There is only one road that goes to the Pacific side of Vancouver island over a very scenic mountain pass and arrives at this rugged shoreline. we spent the day hiking the shoreline and seeing the fishing villages.

Typical North west harbor surrounded by snow capped mountains. So different from the east coast waterways.

The most northern stop was Campbell River overlooking Desolation Sound .

Of course we had to check out the Nanaimo harbor which has a very scenic waterway surrounded by mountains.

A provincial park offered a great walk along the little Qualicum river.

Our last stop on the island was in Nanaimo with our campsite overlooking the harbor through the trees.

On the Pacific

After a 3 week trek westward, our 5th trip across country, we arrived to sun shine on Washington's Olympic Peninsula. Our campground is right on the ocean with paths across the dunes that lead to the beach for nice walks and some kite flying. Even spotted an eagle today. They also built a land mark on the dune, made from beach trash so you can find the path back to the campground.

It's amazing to see how the landscapes change as you drive west, starting with the shores of the Great lakes, to the forests and farms of Wisconsin and Minnesota, then the vast plains of North Dakota, followed by the big sky country and mountains of Montana. We spent extra days in this area staying in an old western town, taking a chuck wagon ride on an 1860s ranch and generally appreciating the mountain views. We saw the flooded rivers, including the Yellowstone that we followed for miles until it headed south to it's mountain source.

Luckily we managed to stay ahead of the heat in the middle of the country and behind the thunder and hail storms that were to our west which made Bob a happy camper. The sun stayed with us through the mountain passes and the trusty Ford turned 100,000 miles as we descended the last hill. Hope it has a few more miles of travel left in it.

Next stop will be the rain forest and Mount Olympus as well as more sights of the Pacific coast, before we take the ferry across to Vancouver Island.