Driving through Colville National Forest

Sunday, May 28, 2017

Today we are going to follow Steve & Ida on an excursion through Colville National Forest.  

Steve & Ida just got a white 2017 Jeep Wrangler 2 door already lifted. It has metal bumpers front and rear and a winch on the front.  Looks nice.

Our first stop was Marshall Lake.  Lots of people here for Memorial Weekend.
 

Our second stop was Lake Bead.  Not quite as many people here as at the previous lake.
 

This small lake was named Cook Lake.
 

This is Brown Lake.  I choose this picture because there aren't any people in the picture; however, there were lots of people at this lake also.  We saw a couple of young teenage girls in the water, and they said it was really cold.
 

 Above and below are 2 different kinds of hummingbirds.  We saw these while sitting on Steve & Ida's porch.  They look like the same hummingbirds we saw last night.  They seem to have a favorite tree top.

Above and below are the sunset for this evening.

We drove over to where we saw the owl last night but he was not there tonight.

Skookum Rendezvous RV Resort near Usk, WA

Saturday, May 27, 2017

Today we are leaving Spring Ridge Estates headed to Skookum Rendezvous RV Resort.  It is a long 20 mile drive. We will be visiting Steve and Ida Wand who also own a lot in Desert Gardens in AZ where we own a lot.

First thing we drove into the Ace in town.  We got our part and drove a different way back to Spring Ridge.  On our way we saw....

Above and below was this yard art.  Some one is very creative.

We made it to Skookum Rendezvous RV Resort.

 This is our site.  Some sites are pretty narrow.

The park is right on the Pend Oreille (said Pond Oray) River. This is a common area park inside the RV park.

We saw several kinds of birds around the park.

 A yellow-headed black bird...

 Above and below are two different kinds of hummingbirds.

Late in the evening, we saw this owl along the river bank.

This evening Steve and Ida fed us well!  They cooked a pork roast and roasted potatoes on the grill.  We also had a salad. It was a very nice evening sitting outside eating and visiting!
Tomorrow we plan a jeep excursion.

Lake San Souci Blanchard, ID and Albeni Cove on the Pend Oreille River in ID

Friday, May 26, 2017

Today the only plans we had were to go to Walmart and get a few last minute items.

Here near Newport, we are very close to the Idaho border.  If I'm not mistaken, part of the town of Newport is actually in Idaho.  Anyway we criss-cross across the borders between the states frequently.

The Walmart we plan to go to is actually in ID but is closer than the closest one in WA.  We drove through this little town of Blanchard and had to stop to take a few pictures.

This is Lake San Souci in Blanchard, ID.  It is a still morning so the reflection on the lake is sharp.
 

Again you can see some snow on a surrounding mountain.

 This long needled pine tree was in the roadside park we pulled into.  There were many of these "flowers" in this type of pine tree.  Some of the "flowers" had pine cones at the back of them and others did not.  Unique looking!

Off to Walmart. 

Later this afternoon, we decided to drive to Albeni Cove which is close to the Albeni Dam on the Pend Oreille River.

 This cool RR trestle crosses the Pend Oreille River.

This is the Pend Oreille (pronounced Pond O'ray) River just before the Albeni Dam.

The dam is releasing water at this time.  The turbulence is very strong.
 

This man was fishing at the edge of the river just below the turbulence.  We did not see him catch any fish.
 

Tic took this picture standing in the same spot as the previous 2 pictures.  The turbulence goes a ways downstream.

It has been a gorgeous day.  We are so blessed!  Thank you Lord!

Diamond Lake and Pend Oreille River near Cusick, WA

Wesnesday, May 24, 2017

This morning we decided to take a short drive around the area this morning.  We headed to Diamond Lake and on up to Cusick, WA.

Diamond Lake was a pretty little lake.  At the far north end there were several housing communities.  
 

Next we stopped at the town of Cusick, WA at their city park to have a picnic lunch.  The city park is right along the Pend Oreille (said Pond O'ray) River.  Cusick was a robust log milling town in the early 1910s.  What you see in the river now are called broomsticks. The mills used water borne logs which needed a system of Boom sticks and pilings to store them and to guide them to the "Bull Chain" which hoisted them to the mill's saw deck.
 

Above and below you can see surrounding mountains with snow caps still in late May.

This huge lilac bush was near the parking area of the city park.  It smelled delicious!  I was surprised to see such a nice park in Cusick since the town's population was barely over 200.  The whole town is only 289 acres.  It was a very pleasant and refreshing stop.

After having lunch, we drove back to Newport, WA and went to the public library.  We wanted to do more research on campgrounds along our route in Canada. 
 

We ended the day with the awesome sunset!  God sure can paint some beautiful pictures.  There is lots of eye candy around this part of Washington and Idaho. 

Tubbs Hill in McEuen Park, Coeur d'Alene, ID

Tuesday, May 23, 2017

Today we decided to go to Coeur d'Arlene and hike Tubbs Hill.  We did this 2 summers ago, however much of eastern Washington was on fire and the smoke limited our views greatly.  We could not see across the lake.  So since today is sunny and beautiful we decided to go again.

This unique metal art is at the entrance to McEuen Park, Looks like dandelions to us.

We came here to hike Tubbs Hill and then to have a picnic lunch.

Our hike started near the marina on the right side of Tubbs Hill.  

You can tell there has been plenty of rain here.  There are lots of wildflowers blooming.  Tic is so good to me, taking pictures of the flowers for me.

The views started immediately.  Tubbs Hill is actually a peninsula.  We walked around the bottom and as you will see the views were magnificent everywhere.
 

The tall trees provided shade in places which was nice.  It is actually 82 degrees Fahrenheit here today.
 

I'm just posting pictures I thought showed our hike and the views along the way.  When you get tired of looking at pictures you can quit.

 We even saw a seaplane taking off and landing several times.  We were betting he was providing tourist rides.

More beautiful views to follow.

This looks like it could be a fun family vacation!  Tic's father Kirk would have really liked it!

We know that even the boaters are safe here on Lake Coeur d'Alene.

We had our picnic in the shade of a big tree.  It was a lovely day!  

While I was working on this blog a red-tailed hawk landed in a tree just outside our window.  Tic got this great picture.Feeling blessed AGAIN!