Have Camera, Will Travel.: Vancouver to Craters of the Moon June 2

June 3
After a day of packing and preparation, we saddled up and headed for the USA border. We includes me, Emma and Sonaa the dog.

As usual Sonaa called (barked) shotgun and hopped into the passenger seat, leaving Emma sitting in the back of the RV.

Sonaa ready for the trip

As Emma voiced her disapproval, Sonaa turned to me with big pleading eyes that seemed to say, "Come on Dad back me on this one." Once we got the seating arrangements sorted out, we headed south. Well, technically north because we were in Point Roberts, Washington. To get off this USA peninsula, you have to enter Canada first, then drive over to Blaine, Washington, in order to drive south.

Both the border crossing into Canada and the Blaine crossing back into Washington State went smoothly. The Seattle traffic on the I-5 was heavy as usual but not insanely difficult as is occasionally the case. Emma is my canary in the coal mine when it comes to assessing traffic hazards. Today she was relatively unfazed by the aggressive drivers weaving in and out around the RV.

East on the I-90 and over the Cascade Mountains we went. By late afternoon, we sailed past Ellensburg. We had not gone this way in a few years. The sagebrush looked the same but it appears that they have more than doubled the hundreds of windmills in the area.

Columbia River

As the sun set, we arrived at the Columbia River and stopped at Vantage for the night.

All day the hot desert air rises. By nightfall, there is a huge vacuum over the Columbia Basin and the cool mountain air from the Cascades blasts down to fill the vacuum. We kept the slide-outs in and went to sleep as the cyclone winds rocked the RV.

June 4

In the morning, we went for a walk along the banks of the Columbia River.There were hundreds of Bank Swallows about with their burrows in the side of the sandstone river bank.

The swallows dart in every direction then swoop into their burrows

27) Bank Swallow

Naturally, in this hot dry climate there were snakes about. This is just a little one. However, many years ago I was here with my then three-year-old son, Ian. He wandered around the sagebrush at our desert campsite. When he emerged from the brush a seven-foot rattler was following him. Junior must have looked like an over-sized jackrabbit to the snake. The family jumped up on the picnic table while I fended the beast off with a long stick.

As we walked along the banks of the Columbia River, Emma and Sonaa relaxed to enjoy the moment.

Sonaa is a golden retriever and loves to play "swim and fetch". When we first got her at five years old she had never gone swimming in her life. Emma and I had to play catch with a ball in waist-deep water to coax Sonaa to swim between us. Now at eight years old, she is a powerful swimmer and looks for any opportunity to dash into any body of water.

In the mid-morning sunshine, we went south along the banks of the Columbia River. We headed to the new Hansford National Monument.

28) White Pelican floating down the Columbia River

Hansford National Monument

When we arrived at the map location of the Hansford National Monument there was only sagebrush prairie to see - no sign and no visitor centre. There are a few other national monuments like this one where the land, flora and fauna, are conserved to protect a unique ecosystem. In this case, I think the government was also motivated to have a bigger unpopulated buffer zone around the Hansford nuclear facilities. Designating the land a national monument made better political sense as it looks better on a map to have this unpopulated buffer zone designated to the National Park Service rather than the military.

We recrossed the Columbia River at Richland then headed south-east through Oregon. It was hot and dry in the Columbia Basin and climbing up into the Blue Mountains was a welcome relief. When we reached the 3,615 summit of Deadman's Pass, we had lunch.

We were on the historic Oregon trail where tens of thousands of pioneers traveled west in the 1840s to get to the north-west coast. As the colorful name of this pass suggests, it was a major hardship getting oxen and covered wagons up and over the mountains. To this day you can see the wagon wheel ruts as they descent from this Blue Mountain pass.

Oregon Trail at Deadman's Pass

We descended from the Blue Mountains then traveled across open rolling prairie. By the evening, we arrived at Farewell Bend on the Snake River. As night fell, Emma spotted three fledgling 35) Great Horned Owls above our campsite. Unfortunately, it was too dark to take a picture.

June 5
Our morning walk was along the banks of the Snake River. This major waterway is over 1,000 miles long as it winds like a snake from the Grand Tetons to meet the Columbia River at Richland. We were intrigued by the name Farewell Bend particularly because just downstream you take your life in your hands if you try to shoot through world famous Hell's Canyon.

The Snake River at tranquil Farewell Bend

Following the Oregon Trail, we drove into Idaho. At Three Island Crossing we planned to camp for the night. Turned out the state park was full but we landed a campsite at the nearby RV site adjoining a winery. Lucky us.

Winery Tasting Facilities

Ground Squirrel

June 6
Three Island Crossing is the location where the Oregon Trail crossed the Snake River.
River crossings were always perilous as the depth of the ford varied with the rainfall and most of the pioneers could not swim.

Covered Wagon

There is a nice museum at Three Island Crossing that highlights the history and lifestyle of the early Oregon trail Pioneers. After a short visit we headed to the Hagerman Fossil Bed National Monument.

We followed the Snake River to Hagerman and found the visitor centre in the middle of this small, quaint Idaho town.

Snake River near Hagerman.

Before entering the visitor centre, we took a few minutes to admire the monument to the the early sheep herders of Idaho. This is not the type of sculpture display you see everyday.

Monument to Sheep Herders

Emma chatting up a sheep herder

I tried to get Sonaa to pose with this border collie but she wandered off.

The small Hagerman Fossil Bed exhibit was interesting. I've always been fascinated by the fact that horses and camels evolved in North America then crossed over the Bering Straight land bridge to Asia during the ice age. Horses and camels continued to evolve in Asia but went extinct in their North American homeland. It took Spanish explorers in the 1500s to re-introduce the horse to North America.

The Hagerman Fossil Bed National Monument protects the site where more than 100 extinct ancestral horses have been excavated.

We drove from the small town of Hagerman across the Snake River to the prairie landscape of the Hagerman Monument. The picture above also shows another section of the Oregon Trail as it ascended the hills around Hagerman.

On the road again, we headed north-east toward Craters of the Moon National Monument.

Open Road in Idaho

The late afternoon skies turned overcast as we approached Craters of the Moon National Monument.

Stopping for tea on the open prairie. The beauty of RVs is that you can stop to eat or sleep whenever you feel the urge.

Prairie Thunderstorm approaching

The dry prairie responds quickly and breaks out in shades of green when the spring rains fall.

We arrived at our destination and quickly found our campsite at Craters of the Moon National Monument. The site was in, and surrounded by, miles of black volcanic rock.