Rainy Days and Mondays…Are Awesome!

 

We were thinking about leaving Downata Hot Springs on Tuesday, May 19, but it was raining. We don’t like to travel in the rain and we had hookups and fast Wi-Fi here in the campground. We really did not want to soak in the hot pools again today, so we just hung out and watched some movies and TV shows. We love those lazy days. I finally got out and took a walk.

This is a beautiful valley with some really pretty farms.

I love to look at raptors of all kinds. This is a nice red tail hawk looking out over the field for his next meal.

The weather cleared some on Wednesday, May 20, so we decided to hook up and get moving. Kim was catching up on a TV show and was not ready to leave until 2:00, so we left then. We had a drive of about 150 miles up the Snake River valley through Pocatello and Idaho Falls, Idaho. It rained on us off and on for the entire trip. We stopped off at an RV parts house to see if we could get a part for our toilet, but no luck. I guess I will have to order it when we get to a place that will accept a shipment. No big deal, it is only a minor issue.

The picture to the right is the Snake. It is a very large powerful river. It looks like more than we are ready for with the kayak.

 

 

 

 

We had some beautiful views all the way up the valley. We found signs pointing to our campground. They were not where Google told us they would be. We found out that you used to be able to access this campground via a road going over the dam, but after 911, they close the dam road and we had a 7 mile drive over a muddy dirt road. Now we know why there were very few reservations for this park for the holiday weekend. When we finally made it, we were delighted. We were the only ones in the park other than the very friendly camp hosts. The sites are very nice and the views of the Palisades Reservoir and surrounding mountains are awesome. We love this place!

The truck and trailer got some mud on them, but as luck would have it we had a water spigot right at our site and Kim rinsed off both vehicles before it dried. They look better than they have it a while. The Service berries are in bloom. They have tons of huckleberry plants in the park, but they won’t be ready until late July. We would love to stay, but we have other plans. Here are a few more shots of Calamity campground.

We have plans to spend some time paddling on this lake. The scenery is really breathtaking. We chose this campground because it looked like a place that we could stay through the Memorial Day holiday weekend. We have learned to be careful on those weekends. The parks that are never full, fill up. We are booked in for 6 nights. We will see if we want to stay longer. There are ORV trails that lead right out of the campground up into the mountains above us. It is a bit wet now, but if it dries up, I will go for a ride.

That is it for today, come back for paddling pictures and something that I have never seen before. Can you imagine a 1000 pound baby?