Heading East

July 9-11, 2019

Circle H RV Park, Yakima, Washington

Day 25-27

Gloomy, cool morning. Glad to be hitting the road and going somewhere more scenic and sunnier! I'm basically taking the northern route to Boston, then down the East Coast, thru the Gulf Coast, then zig zagging thru the South West and back to California next year. Or, at least that's what my plan is.

Unfortunately had to take I5 south for about 35 miles, but once I turned on to Highway 20 east things changed. At one point, I could see Mt Rainier on my left and Mt St Helens on my right. Stunning. This one lane highway had gentle rolling hills thru pastures, forests and cliffs. Some parts were a little scary because the road was patched, and the guard rails looked questionable. As I mentioned before, roads in Washington are not as well maintained as in Oregon.

Stopped in Packwood, a cute little town. Tried to take a picture of Mt Rainier, but the white capped mountain just blended into the white gloomy sky. Did stop a few miles up the road to look at the amazing rock formations of the Palisades (see pics). Once out of the forest, the scenery really changes and looks a lot like Sonoma County with pastures and rolling hills.

We are now in the Yakima Valley where most of Washington’s apples, other fruits and wine come from. It is a huge productive valley with soft rolling hills. Some farmed, some not. The hills look a lot like the ones by Sears Point Raceway at Highway 12 and 37 in Sonoma.

RV camp is nothing exciting but seems safe even though it’s right off the freeway. Lots of flower baskets though and seems clean. Their speed bumps are killer, very high and narrow.

After unhitching, I drive around downtown. It's clean, a little historic and surprisingly commercial with tall buildings (it's the county seat and the 11th largest city in WA). Nothing much to see, so I decide to drive east to Toppenish. This cute historic town has lots of amazing murals – mostly done in the last 20 years to spark tourism (see pics). Fill up on gas, now $2.89 gallon.

Day 2 – Nice morning; a little warm and humid. Caught up on office work then off to our first dog park, Norman & Nellie Byrd. It was ok. At least there was a large, grass fenced in area. We actually played in the unfenced area because no one was there and it was better for ball throwing. Couldn’t find a watering hole to swim in, which is too bad because Yakima is on a river. The river current runs too fast to dip our toes into. There is no relief from the heat.

Stopped into a local produce stand and all they seemed to have was onions and cherries. Temp is over 90F and all the other produce is wilting.

Decided to check out one of the region’s most recognized organic wineries – Wildridge, overlooking Yakima. Went the backway up a very windy road. The cute tasting room overlooks the valley. They serve food and have music some evenings (check schedule). This high desert landscape is very interesting. Lots of small hills with some rough and smooth terrain. From a distance, the hills look like their covered in suede. I did a tasting flight of their whites and ended up buying a nice sauvignon blanc. Thankfully, the road back into town was a lot easier.

Sunset tonight was spectacular, right out of a western painting. We have had intermittent thunder showers and the payoff is amazing – orange, pink and purple skies. My RV spot is perfect too, right under some trees with a great view of the sunset. Tomorrow we are off to Union, Oregon.