Bruneau Dunes State Park, Idaho

Mel & Gary bought our old trailer so we made a date

to go out and test drive it.  Last week we made the

trip to their house and then followed them to camp

Mel's yard was beautiful

I love this flower. Alliums

Her roses were blooming 

and in the back you can see they have their garden planted

Their new storage shed

Their new dog, Ruger, is a cutie

Brothers ready to go

But we had to relax a bit before the trek

Off to Bruneau, it's a desert out there

full of crops and mesas

The Dunes

Camped at the state park.  Big place with nobody in it.

It was the middle of the week, however.  It filled in a little on Friday

We had a great view of the dunes from our camp site

The dunes are the highest single-structure sand dune in 

North America, at 470 ft.

and off we went to climb it 

and sled down it

Two pretty little lakes near by

Get ready!

Get set!

GO!!

Didn't go as fast as I was afraid it might

We conquered the small ones on sleds, so we walked 

over to the larger ones 

Pretty desert flowers

Looked like a small hibiscus 

Looks like the Sahara

Walt's ears pricked up when he heard this.

He flew in P3's in the Navy

The Vortex, pretty deep 

Those guys went off and left us behind

but we finally caught up at the top

and beat them down, we know how it's done

Bruneauo Canyon

Yikes!

 the Bruneau river at the bottom

Antelope along the way to and from the canyon

Had to move the table to get a nice shady spot for dinner

Pretty sunset to end the day

Amazingly enough we decided to camp out in the desert

on a New Moon weekend

There was a 45 minute presentation on Friday and Saturday
nights at 9:30

 There was free time after to use the various telescopes

outside.  We went over on Thursday night and checked things out,

which was a good thing because they don't allow any
flashes to disrupt people from seeing the stars.

They have an observatory and 

a massive amount of stars.  This building holds a 

huge telescope.  After dark we got to look at a

galaxy far, far, away 

There was a human sun dial

Access to the lake in back of the observatory

wild life -- but we didn't need a telescope for this one

The view of the observatory from our campsite

A .3 mile walk from camp

They have cabins for rent

Another view of our campsite before we left for home

Fun time with Family

We stopped at Baker City the first night on the way home

 

Walt wanted to check out some RV parks

Mountain View RV Park 

Laundry facilities and on the left a hot tub

Indoors and way to hot out at 93 degrees 

to even think about going in

The pool was way more inviting 

Nice camp ground, pretty much level and shady

 

Then we went on to Richland, WA

to Horn Rapids RV Park the next night

Pretty much the same -- level and shade trees that 

don't really shade the RVs but close enough that you have

to work hard to get your awning out

Pools are always a good thing when it's 103 degrees out

We spent some time here

This is an umbrella area but it was outside the pool area

The bathroom showers were private and good size

 Not at all like the State Park ones

This is what you do when it's 103 outside

We went home by way of Vantage

The Mighty Columbia River

Top of that loooooong hill

Mt. Rainier from the top of Vantage hill

North Cascades

They are coming right along with the widening of the freeway

and raising it

It's going to be very nice

Beautiful blue skies all the way home to Puget Sound