The Adventures of Kelley & Susan Wood

 Today we went exploring, and found a short hike to a waterfall.  Jump creek is on the western side of the Snake River valley (past wine country).  A lava rock canyon with a small stream flowing out of the mountains (on the Oregon side).   Very pretty, a bit treachorous in places.  The boys were not particularly impressed, we had to make sure and keep them away from the poison ivy that was all along the path. A view of the canyon from the entrance. Heading up the trail. Caves in the lava rock along the walls of the canyon. The falls.  There were people swimming in the pool at the bottom, the water was cool, not cold.   The path along the creek. A bit steep and treacherous. A stream crossing, at least they put some round stone pads in.

 July 5, 2025 Our last 2 nights out were supposed to be in the mountain town of McCall - but we just happened to watch the news and found out that US95 (the only road in and out of McCall had a landslide and was washed out and closed between us and the town.   US95 is a narrow winding 2-lane road that follows the mountains, so there would not have been anywhere to turn arouond and we would have been stuck for several days.  Instead we headed home the long way around through Walla Walla, WA and La Grande, OR.  We will visit McCall later on this fall when its Satin's Summer at home. Stock photo of McCall

 July 4, 2025 A much cooler day today with cloud cover, so we took the boys for a long walk along the levee of the Snake River near the confluence with the Clearwater River.  We walked on the Lewiston, ID side, looking across to Clarkston, WA. This is a man-made levee to control the Snake River as it flows through the towns, there are businesses along where the original river bottom was, but the housing is all up on the bluffs above the river. There are a bunch of rock chucks (marmotts) that live in the rip-rap along the river, they feed on the grass along the levee and scurry back to their rocky homes as we walked along. This is looking north to the confluence, just past the bridge. Nice houses along the West bank of the river, in Clarkston, WA. Looking South toward where the Snake River emerges from Hells Canyon, we won't get any good views of the canyon on this trip, but it is deeper than the Grand Canyon (7993 Feet deep, while Grand Canyon is 6000), but not nearly as wide....

July 3, 2025 Headed south today toward Lewiston, ID & Clarkston, WA - this pair of towns sit on the confluence of the Snake & Clearwater Rivers, and are named for the explorers Lewis and Clark.  This is the first area that we looked at in Idaho to move to as its elevation is only about 800 feet.  The area is quite arid and major medical is about 2.5 hours away (either Spokane or Boise) so we ruled living here out, and started looking in the Boise area (Treasure Valley). We drove around the towns today after we got settled.  Clarkston, WA isn't much to look at and is quite depressing compared to Lewiston, ID which seems to have much more going for it.  The downtown is cute, nice tree-lined main street with shops and restaurants. These towns are at the outlet of Hells Canyon, where the Snake River flows north out of Idaho before heading West to the Pacific.  The section of the river from here to the coast is a shipping lane, so the cities are both "seaport...

 July 2, 2025 Walked the boys this morning around the RV Park walking path - this doe was grazing along the way, only mildly worried about us, she just walked away. We were going to try fishing in the lake, but the spot we found (just past where the deer was), the wind was blowing right back to shore, would have made casting a real challenge. So instead, we drove around to the south side of the lake, to a town named Harrison.  The drive was all along the shoreline with beautiful views and spectacular homes. The mountain town of Wallace was on our "back to see" list, so we headed there from the south shore of Lake Coeur D'Alane.  The town was very cute, the small downtown was a thriving single street with a number of restaurants and shop. We found a "Bring Fido" place that sounded interesting - The Fainting Goat, and it did not dissapoint.  We had a great shady table on the patio, the boys had a fresh bowl of water and we enjoyed a light lunch and a "self-se...

  July 1, 2025 A beautiful morning on Lake Coeur D'Alane this morning.  We took the boys for a long walk along the lake side and around the RV Park. There are several Fairy Gardens along the edge of the RV park along the walking path. After our walk we headed north to explore the area around Sandpoint, ID, sitting on the shore of Lake Pend Oreille.  The downtown area is one of the cutest we've seen in all of our US travels.  Several blocks long and wide and very much alive and thriving with small businesses, restaurants and bars.  The boom of the rich and famous has not hit here yet. There is a ski area just outside of town on top of the mountain, so we took a drive to see if we could get a view of the lake.  After a bunch of very tight switch-backs, we turned around and headed back as all we could see were trees.  Found one spot that had a bit of a view - although there was ain inconvinient power line pole in the way. We enjoyed a light lunch and wine...