Campervanning in USA. Boondocking in USA

In the US they are "RV's" (Recreational Vehicles), to the rest of the world "Campervans".

19/6/2002 Wednesday, Frater Lake, WA.

North eastern Washington is also a land of rivers lakes and swamps, though not quite the fishermen's paradise that is Idaho and Montana, because access to the water is not so good. At Frater Lake on WA20 west of Tiger, a one tiger, er' horse, town if ever there was one, there is a log cabin called a warming hut, complete with a pot belly stove and plenty of cut firewood, freely available to fishermen and travellers. It has rustic wooden furniture and is a credit to those individuals and organizations who built it.

Following WA20 via Colville (where there is a Wal-Mart

) and Kettle Falls we crossed the Columbia River and into the Colville National Forest where a few miles after the river crossing we found a NF Timber Flume interpretative trail, on the RHS, and marked with signs. There is an excellent off road parking area with pull through slots for RVs, BBQs of a practical design, about the best I have seen in the USA, picnic tables, toilets, and a 1/2 mile trail depicting the history of the timber industry. A very good picnic spot and place to boondock .

No camping mind you, but then you are not camping, just parking. You're not going to put up a tent are you?

The small town of Republic is another "genuine" western outback town with appealing atmosphere and isn't just an artificial tourist town.

Further west on WA20 towards Tomasket we noted a startling resurgence of the great American JUNK SYNDROME, house after house, more like shacks, surrounded by mind boggling piles of variegated junk of the highest order. I was so impressed with this aspect of American culture that I took a picture of one of the finest examples to be seen anywhere. I can't help contrasting this mess with the always neat houses of Switzerland and Bavaria. Why don't so very many Americans have any pride in their homes?

The "Great American Junk Syndrome". On WA20. The "house" is the block like brown and white structure on the left, typical of the late 20th century school of Western American architectural excellence, surrounded by sheds, old rusting vehicles, RVs, bits of machinery, old building materials, mysterious things under blue tarpaulins, and sundry unidentifiable junk. You see the same sort of thing all through the west of the USA. ©

Heading toward Twisp we again entered National Forest and were soon able to turn off on the RHS (marked by a small red flag and a signboard about 10 yards in from the highway), into a narrow but good dirt track leading to a number of forest sites including a free campsite on Washington State land. The Kenneth W Pixley Sr Sportsman's Park, on Sweat Creek, with toilets, tables, BBQ's and a rustic timber rotunda, beside a very small, but crystal clear creek, and boondock for the night once again. 7 day legal limit, and not another soul around. Seek and ye shall find. You seldom need pay to camp. No one else was there.

20/6/2002 Thursday, Sweat Creek WA.A warm sunny day just to relax and enjoy. We had the campsite to ourselves all day until three men and a woman and a boy arrived in late afternoon and set up a tent next to the rotunda. Like most Americans they seemed friendly and we were soon sharing a beer or three and a bottle of bourbon whisky with them. They were locals from the nearby small town of Okanogan, aged around 30, they too all enjoy camping, so we had something in common.

Free camp site, Kenneth W Pixley Sr Sportsman's Park, on Sweat Creek, Between Okanogen and Twisp, WA.©

It was interesting to talk to them about American politics and policy, and they all broadly shared the same critical views about their own country that I have expressed in various places on this site. Government is corrupt and remote from the people, America's policies cause trouble all around the world. Many Americans disagree with a broad range of US Government foreign policy and meddling in other countries affairs. They know America is widely hated around the world, such hatred is justified and brought on by the way America acts. American democracy is an illusion since the Kennedy assassination. They have lost much of their freedom. The country has lost it's way, departed from the ideals of the founding fathers. They feel powerless to change anything.

A lot of Americans feel this way, they don't all swallow the propaganda served up on network TV, and the Internet has given them the opportunity to communicate their concerns to the world. That is how I learned more of the truth about America, from Americans themselves. At first I found it hard to believe many of the things that they were saying, like most Australians I had been taught to admire America, and to some extent I did, although I have always had a tendency to be a skeptic and a free thinker. Through more research and sifting a diverse range of sources and opinions, as well as by taking an open minded view of what I saw happening in the world around me, I almost reluctantly came to the conclusion that many of the criticisms of the USA were perfectly true, and in fact that most of the recent (20th century) history we have all been taught in the west was a severe distortion of reality at best, outright lies and propaganda in many cases, and every bit as sinister as the worst we have ever accused our so called enemies of in a few sensational matters.

21/6/2002 Friday, Sweat Creek WA.Very little happened today as I was largely occupied by recovering from a bad hangover.

North Cascades NP.

22/6/2002 Saturday, Sweat Creek WA.We were up early for a 6.30AM start, but the electric steps decided they didn't want to retract fully. Cleaning and lubricating didn't help so I decided to fully disassemble the drive motor and check the armature bushes and gears for lubrication. Three hours later it's all back together and working fine and we go to drive off. The steps are down, not up. They are working in reverse, they go up when you open the door and down when you close it. I must have reassemble the gearbox the wrong way. Fortunately I was able to easily fix the problem by reversing the motor wiring. Now they work perfectly, four hours after our intended early start.

Following WA20 again westward to Twisp and then Winthrop we found the latter to be a delightful western theme town, a bit like Jackson Wyoming was 25 years ago. Yes its touristy, but they have succeeded in preserving the complete small town's old world western atmosphere, far more successfully than any other town I have seen in the US so far. Lots of elderly motorcyclists on Harley Davidsons, and Honda Gold Wings. Lots of tourist junk shops which are sometimes interesting to browse around, although we never buy anything. If we had a "souvenir" from every National Park or tin pot tourist trap town we had visited, we couldn't get in the house for kitsch junk.

Winthrop, WA. Popular western theme town with well preserved 1,890's period architecture. ©

We were almost tempted to buy something for lunch, but when we went into a couple of small restaurants, no one was eating, customers were sitting at tables apparently waiting for orders, but not a meal in sight. Considering that a hamburger was $5, it would have cost the equivalent of A$20 for two hamburgers for lunch. We figured that if the service was so slow that they could have six or eight tables waiting, with not even a breadstick in sight, we would go home and make our own sandwich for about 50 cents. So we did just that, and it probably tasted a whole lot better.

WA20 continues west into the North Cascades National Park, although you don't actually have to pass through an entrance station or pay any fee to drive through on the highway.

There are numerous boondocking spots at trailheads and turnouts as well as pay National Forest campsites. My opinion of this area is a bit like Glacier NP. Very nice scenery, but not worth coming half way round the world for. In fact I am becoming a bit jaded with scenery, overdosing on mountains waterfalls and cascades, and I find myself looking forward to completing our trip, perhaps a little earlier than originally estimated. America comes in large doses, and you can simply get tired of too many mountains waterfalls and pine trees.

Along WA20 south west of Newhelm the road continues along the Skagit River through a narrow valley, where there are large powerlines along which runs a maintenance track, which is accessible from the highway at various points. There are good boondocking spots along the well maintained though somewhat overgrown track. We stopped in one such spot overnight where we were well back off the road, completely out of sight, and were totally undisturbed.

Diablo Dam, Glacial water coloured by fine rock particles, North Cascades, WA. ©

23/6/2002 Sunday, near Marblemount WA

The road from Rockport to Darrington WA530, passes through very picturesque deciduous forest and alongside rivers, also crossing many creeks. Boondocking spots are not hard to see almost anywhere you like along the road. Nice area for fishing, and a pleasant drive, but nothing unusually spectacular for the international campervan tourist.

To travel south in Washington you need to come almost to the west coast and take Interstate freeway 5, or the parallel minor highway WA9. We refueled at Arlington at a Safeway supermarket, where our free Safeway club discount card gets 3 cents a gallon off the advertised price and we got petrol for $1.35 a gallon, the cheapest since back in southern Montana. Occasionally you will get 6 cents a gallon off with the card, worth having when it costs nothing for the card. If you happen to get awfully confused and get your address and telephone number mixed up when you get the card it, will probably save you a lot of annoying junk mail and intrusive phone calls on dinner time too.

We skirted around Seattle using I405, as we avoid most large cities, and stopped at the Renton Wal-Mart for lunch and supplies (because it is ALWAYS the best value). Thence on WA167 to Auburn and WA164 to Enumclaw before taking WA410 towards Mt. Ranier, the tallest mountain in the Continental US at 14,411 feet..

Beyond Greenwater along WA410 on the RHS is a large well signed view area where on a clear day you can see the mountain. There are no signed restrictions on overnight parking and it would make a good boondock. Only a few hundred yards further on the RHS a small not well signed unmade road designated FS73 leads into the National Forest and to a network of good all weather tracks. We follow it in for almost two miles and on side road 7320 found several excellent free undeveloped forest campsites and spent yet another free night in delightful surroundings beside a river. See how easy it is. You don't need any guide books or special maps, you just have to look in the most likely places.

A three mile hike along FS73 reveals a number of other delightful riverside campsites, set amongst huge trees, most of which require 4WD to gain access, and most of which have also been despoiled to varying degrees by litter left behind by campers. At one a sign bemoans "I have been coming here 30 years. I am ashamed at what people have done to this place." A large pile of rotting material, a temporary makeshift toilet, and junk furniture, along with the usual myriad small bits of litter was the worst. Some camp sites were fairly clean, almost as if someone had cleaned them, like we sometimes do.

Mt Rainier NP

25/6/2002 Tuesday, Forest Road No 7320, near Mt Ranier, WA. The road into Mt Rainier NP is in a deplorable condition with severe surface undulations which can cause severe rocking and rolling in an RV if you travel at more than about 20 MPH. They are almost impossible to see in the dappled light and shadow of the forest lined roads. It is as much a disgrace as the roads in Yellowstone NP. The park road to White River is particularly bad, but sections of WA410 south to Stephens Canyon entrance are also in poor condition and require extra care and slow driving.

We took the hike from Fryingpan Creek to Summerland about 4.1 miles each way, but found the trail at the top still covered in hard packed snow which was slippery to walk back down on, and decided not to go all the way up, and possibly risk slipping on the descent. Nice alpine forest scenery, rushing rivers and big trees. Not much different to the scenery in Glacier NP, or in North Cascades NP.

There are few points from which Mt. Ranier can be seen because of the dense forest along the road. Good views can be had from several lookouts along WA410, but for the really spectacular views you need to drive along WA706 between the Stephens Canyon entrance and the Nisquality entrance in the south eastern corner of the NP.

Some of the campgrounds do not open until late in the year, White River was still closed today, and at Ohanapecosh Campground they charge $15 a night. That's about A$30 per night just for a primitive campsite. For some inexplicable reason we were gripped by a moment of temporary insanity and stayed there, instead of driving a couple of miles further south to the National Forest and boondocking for free.

26/6/2002 Wednesday, Mt Rainier NP, WA . The Ohanapecosh Campground is set in a grove of old growth forest with huge trees towering above the campsites. A river runs through it, and there are hot springs. It is one of the nicest NP campgrounds we have seen, so if we had to fork out $15 to camp, I'm glad it was here.

Returning to the Stevens Canyon entrance to the NP we stopped at the Grove of the Patriarchs, where a 1.5 mile round trip walk leads to a particularly impressive stand of old growth forest with 1,000 year old trees. An easy walk, but watch out for the mosquitoes, they are vicious.

Following WA706 westward towards Paradise there are numerous excellent views of Mt Ranier which are incomparably better than those to be had on the northern and eastern sides, along WA410, where only distant occasional glimpses of the mountain can be had.

The drive up the side road to Paradise also provides excellent views of both Mt Ranier and the surrounding smaller peaks.

At the Cougar Rock picnic area, along WA706 SW of Paradise, opposite the NP campsite of the same name, there is a sign saying "Camp at your own risk" and refering to the various natural hazards, floods, earthquakes, rockslides, that are common to the whole area. So it seems that the rangers don't attempt to stop people boondocking in the picnic area, just scare them off with signs, and this would be a good place to spend a free night in your RV. You will ned levelling blocks or jacks as the best parking spots still have some slope. We only discovered this on returning to the park next morning for another look at the mountain.

While there are several NP campgrounds in the SE corner of the park, we were not aware of the above and bypassed Cougar Rock as we wanted to boondock and we explored the Westside Road. At the present time (June 2002) it is only open for three miles, to where extensive roadworks are being done. There are no good SONPS along it as far as you can go at present.

For another place to boondock, go out of the part towards Ashford and take the FS52 road past the NF Big Creek campsite and 50 meters beyond the mile 4 marker look for a small track on the LHS which runs several hundred meters into the forest. It isn't a very nice campsite, just a small clearing beside the track, but very quiet and OK for a single night.

27/6/2002 Thursday, Near Mt Rainier NP, WA .

We returned to Paradise to see more of Mt. Rainier, but today was clouded, and only glimpses of the mountain were to be seen. We decided to take lunch and hike in the snow for a couple of hours up towards a hut at around 10,000 feet, although we had no intention of going all the way. Unfortunately the weather and cloud closed in restricting visibility to 50 meters and we decided to only hike up for about an hour and then return and have lunch in the snow on the way back.

Guides take novice hikers up to the hut. Carrying 40 pound packs we saw some victims laboriously taking six inch steps, looking as if they had never carried a pack in their lives before, which was probably the case. If you want to do that sort of thing, get fit first.

With our hike curt short by the weather, we decided to leave the mountain after lunch and make our way toward Mt St Hellens, the volcano which 4568790-\6790 exploded in 1980, reducing the height of the mountain by 1,300 feet and blasting out a cubic mile of rock, during which 57 people were killed.

Although there are are lots of places you can boondock, we bypassed many along WA706 &WA7 via Morton because it was too early in the day, and then took US12 towards Toledo, which we found to be a one horse town, and on to I5 intending to take WA504 to Mt St Hellens. Along I5 we found an excellent highway rest area at Toutle River and decided to stop the night there, hoping for better weather to see Mt. St. Helens tomorrow. Washington state has a quaint regulation limiting your stay in rest areas to 8 hours. Well who's counting, and unless the sleep police can prove, beyond reasonable doubt, that I have been here more than that, I'm staying for a good rest.

28/6/2002 Friday, Toutle River Rest Area, I5, WA. Rain has set in for several days and we decide to go the the Mt St.Helens visitor center first and then on to Vancouver to visit out friends Lee & Diane and Clancy. The visitor canter on WA504 has a large carpark and several campervans were there apparently boondocking overnight. Unusually they charge $3 to view the exhibits, and we didn't consider it worthwhile, as all other National Park visitors centers we have seen are free with the park pass. With low cloud over the mountain we decided there was no point in driving up at this time and proceed on to Vancouver WA to revisit friends and relatives.

29-30/6/2002 Vancouver WA.

A couple of days spent staying with friends in Vancouver.

1/7/2002 Monday, Vancouver WA A call to the Oregon DMV supervisor Mrs. Gibson soon had the registration problem sorted out. It seems there really wasn't a problem at all, but either someone goofed or administrative gremlins ran amok. It wasn't clear what happened, but it rated an apology from another section supervisor, and an agreement to have the vehicle title ready for me to pick up in person next day, or anytime thereafter, at the DMV office in Salem about 50 miles south of Portland. It was a little out of our way, but the opportunity to get it finalized and the title certificate in my hand without waiting around for the post to deliver it was worth a variation to our route, which wasn't firmly planned anyway.

Our friends decided to take us to Mt St.Helens for the day as the weather was good to see the mountain and took us in their car, a fairly new Dodge diesel one and a half cab utility, which they use to pull their fifth wheeler trailer. American diesel utes engines are notably very noisy compared to our Toyota Landcruiser diesel. They sound like older Nissan Patrol diesel 4WD's or like a large truck, and I'm not at all sure I would want one. In any event if we can find a large Toyota diesel 4WD ute for our Pick-up Camper we would much prefer it. Even in the USA Toyotas have a superior reputation for reliability.

Mt. St.Helens NP

Mt.St.Helens located about 100 miles by road north east of Vancouver WA, is an active volcano which erupted in 1980 with a huge explosion which blasted 1,300 feet off the top of the mountain and devestated hundreds of square miles of surrounding forest with the blast, mud slides, ash and debris. It is one of the largest volcanic explosive eruptions in modern times and the effects are still to be seen.

Along the road WA504 to Mt.St.Helens good views of the mountain can be had over the last 20 miles before Johnstone Ridge. There are a number of view points and some forest roads which would be good SONPS. One in particular is the little used parking area on the LHS (going up the mountain) just before a large road bridge spanning a ravine maybe 15-20 miles before Johnson Ridge, on the edge of the blast zone.

There are a number of visitor centers along the road, most of which charge fees, but one run by the forest industry called the Forest Education Center is FREE (near mile marker 33) and has an excellent display and film of the eruption of Mt. St. Helens in 1980. Although the film at the Johnson Ridge center is more spectacular than the film at this center, overall I think it has the best displays and is the best one to see, also having the advantages of being free! It is located part way up the mountain on the RHS of the road going up.

The visitor canter at Johnstone Ridge charges $3 for a pass for that area alone, or $6 for a pass covering all the visitor centers along the road. It shows a film of the eruption which is certainly very dramatic, but don't forget you can see a similar film free at the Forest Learning Canter You are supposed to have the pass to visit the area as a whole, but in reality it is only required to see the film. They give you a brightly colored wrist band to wear, but after seeing the film nobody checks for them and unless you want to see the film you really don't need to buy one. Unfortunately we did and paid for the multi center passes at $6 each, which our hosts advised we needed, but we didn't. Including passes for our friends, who had been kind enough to take us, that comes to the equivalent of A$48 for four people just to see a 15 minute film.

Golden Eagle passes (The National Parks Pass with the additional $15 Golden Eagle hologram attached) are also recognised, but we had forgotten to take our National Parks pass, and would have had to buy the hologram for it, but that would have been the best and cheapest way to do it. There are no entrance stations and no one checks for wrist bands or holograms on your National Parks Pass.

Mt.St.Helens in the background. Wildflowers adorn the regrowth area in summer, where massive trees felled by the blast still lie rotting. ©

2/7/2002 Tuesday, Vancouver, WA

We fixed the leak in Bounders back window (I think?) and did a little more resealing around the windscreen where there was still one small leak during heavy rain. Sharon went shopping for cloths as the department stores in Vancouver Mall were having 4th July sales with up to 75% off women's clothing. Although this may seem a lot of discount, you need this for the prices to be at all competitive with Australian prices. Although most clothing here is made in China, other parts of Asia or in South American countries, the "dollar parity" principle applies and therefore it is generally quite expensive compared to Australia. As US importers would be paying no more for cloths than their Australian counterparts, I suspect that profit margins must be higher here, despite the facts that domestic costs of distribution and retailing are of course US$ denominated.

Men's clothing is generally not competitive in price with Australian shops when you apply the prevailing A$1.00 = US$0.50 exchange rate, with dollar parity things being double the price. For instance a pair of brand name denim jeans is US$$53 here that equates to A$106 for a pair of top brand jeans that you can buy the same brand for around A$50 or $60 in Australia.

One thing that is noticeable is that at the lowest end of the price range quality of clothing goods tends to be a little better here. It seems to us that a lot of junk quality goods are imported into Australia for budget price range items.

Chinese food, at one restaurant in the USA.

Due to differences in state taxes petrol (gas) is slightly cheaper in Washington than in Oregon, although Oregon has no general sales tax on other goods. We were able to fill in Vancouver for $1.32 a gallon, across the border prices were around $1.43. Petrol prices vary a lot in the US even within states, by far more than would seem justified by transportation costs over often short distances.

Campervaning in the USA.

North Cascades NP.

Mt Rainier NP

Mt. St.Helens NP

Chinese food, at one restaurant in the USA.