On Day 17 of our RV trip to Cannon Beach, Oregon, Tom and I drove from our boondocking site at the Walmart in Moses Lake, Washington to Oak Creek Wildlife Area with a stop in Yakama River Canyon to fish for the day.
Sights along the way
We enjoyed views of the huge Columbia River, wind farms, and mount Rainer far in the distance as we approached the city of Ellensberg, Washingington. Before driving all the way into Ellensburg, we turned south on Highway 821 through Yakima Canyon so Tom could fish there Yakima River.
Tom and I camped in the canyon a few years ago and wanted to try a different campground this time. We pulled into the Umtanum Recreation Site which has a large Day Use area but only six campsites. The ranger happened to be there when we pulled in and he told us than any sites with an orange tag were already reserved. The only campsite that didn't have an orange tag was the least desirable site, right by the vault toilets. It wasn't surprising that it was the last available site but we were just happy get a site at this campground. Compared to the campground we stayed during our last visit to Yakama River Canyon, Umtanum had more for me to do while Tom fished. It has hiking trails and a beautiful suspension bridge crossing the Yakama River Canyon. We paid for the campsite using the solar-powered kiosk at the pay station. this was the first time we've seen one of these and it was much easier than trying to reserve online, especially with poor cell reception.
Tom and I quickly settled into our campsite then he walked down to fish the river while I walked around and took pictures. I decided to eat a quick lunch, gourmet vegetarian taco salad in a paper bowl, before taking Aly on a hike. Unfortunately, just as I finished eating, someone knocked on our camper door and told me we're in their campsite. They had just arrived after booking the site online several weeks ago. We compared their online receipt with my kiosk receipt and confirmed both were for the same site on the same night. Apparently someone forgot to connect the online reservation system to the fancy new kiosk reservations system. The couple was very nice and since they booked first, I moved our truck to the Day Use area so they could take the site. I figured if Tom wasn't happy with the fishing, he wouldn't mind moving on. And, if we was thrilled with the fishing, we'd have a good reason and a $15 receipt for camping in the Day Use area. Tom caught a few small fish but after standing in the rocky river all day and slipping on the rocks several times, he was more than willing to move on.
As we continued south through Yakama River Canyon, we noticed helicopter activity along the river. Then a long line of fire vehicles went racing past us, also heading south. We were the only personal vehicle on the road and we were headed straight into a fire zone. We kept waiting for someone to signal us to turn around but they didn't, so we kept driving. We watched the helicopters scooping water from the river and dumping it on the scorched hills. We hoped they wouldn't dump it on us. As we reached the south end of the canyon, we could see the road was closed heading north. The fire must have flared up while we were enjoying our day at Umtanum Recreation Site.
Happy to be out of the canyon safely, Tom and I headed west through the agricultural town of Naches, Washington. It was bustling with huge agricultural warehouses and trucks rushing fresh produce in every direction. We had hoped to stop at one of the endless fruit stands but we couldn't change lanes quick enough for the one that was obviously open and the rest of the ones we passed seemed to be closed. So, instead of filing our fridge with fresh produce, we stopped at the Ace Hardware on the way out of town to fill our tank with fresh water.
We stopped to boondock for the night in the parking lot of the Oak Creek Wildlife Area. It looks like an interesting place to visit but we arrived too late and left too early in the morning to explore it on this trip.
Slideshow - Day 17
Here are photos from Day 17 of our RV trip to Cannon Beach, Oregon.
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