Though it was a drizzly morning in Seattle, we decided to follow through with our plans to do some campsite scouting. The motivation for a short road trip was to go see what it means when people review a dispersed camping site and describe it as ‘The road to the right was bumpy with a few large potholes’. We threw together a small bag and asked Olaf if he wanted to go – he beat us to the truck! As soon as we got out of the city the sky started to clear.
Our first stop was @olsonsmeatsandsmokehouse.net for a few picnic supplies – beef jerkey and jalapeno cheddar pepperoni plus a few hot dogs for dog. The drive along Hwy 410 is beautiful, the sky was blue and the air so fresh. We went to The Dalles Campground (https://visitrainier.com/the-dalles-campground/ ). We slowly drove through and made notes of a few sites we really liked that we could easily park our GMC Motorhome Eleganza II and had views of the White River. We decided to get a $5 daypass so we could park and go for a walk on the John Muir Nature Trail. It was a beautiful walk, the only noises were birds and the rushing water of the river. Olaf’s nose was in hyper drive as he would stop and turn his head right to left sniffing all these new smells.
The Ranger Creek Airstrip ( https://www.campendium.com/ranger-creek-airstrip ) is a unique campground where you can stay for free. On this day it was particularly crowded because the White River 50 Mile Endurance Run was ending there but we did get a good look around on the opposite side of the airstrip. And it was pothole central! Not that our RV couldn’t get through it if we tried but it isn’t something we’d care to subject it to unless the camping area was AMAZING.
We then pulled into Silver Springs Campground just outside of Mt Rainier National Park (https://visitrainier.com/silver-springs-campground/) . This was another beautiful campground with plenty of tent and RV sites. We took more notes of sites with water views to tuck away for later.
We had a wonderful day and it didn’t end with the visits to these campgrounds. I’m going to go through the photos we took on our way to Sunrise at Mt Rainier and post those soon.
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Our New Neighborhood 2023 