Anthony Lakes

Those of you who know me, know I used to play in a Marimba Band in La Grande, Kupenga Marimba.   I moved away from La Grande about 9 years ago, but the band invited me to perform with them when they are short handed, and I LOVE getting back together with them to play.    It is a wonderful group of people, and the music is delightful.     They have invited me to play with them at the Pendleton Farmers Market on October 7, so I have been practicing at home a lot, since the last time I played with them was before Covid.     Practicing on my soprano instrument only goes so far, so I traveled to La Grande to practice with them, on the Band instruments, last Monday.     I decided to make a Waddles trip out of it.

I dropped Waddles off at the Anthony Lakes Campground (one of my favorite Forest Service campgrounds) before practice and easily found a place.   This is high elevation, so getting cold this time of year, and I figured there would be lots of open sites.  I was right.

Then I drove back to La Grande to meet a friend for dinner before band practice.    I alway take back roads, and so drove through North Powder and Union to get back to town.   Along that road is this historical plaque.   It honors Maria Dorian, an amazing woman who was a contemporary of Sacagawea.     Her story is documented in a historical fiction book series by Jane Kirkpatrick.    

After practice I drove back up to the campground and crawled into Waddles for the night.    It is delightfully DARK and QUIET there.

I got up early the next morning to hike up to the top of the ski area (I was on a mission to find some geocaches).   This area has lakes, mountains, wildflowers, wildlife and is one of my favorite places to hike.

At the top, there are some interpretive signs about the Whitebark Pine trees which are a high alpine species.    There were lots of Clark's Nutcrackers, and Mountain Chickadees about. 

Hofer Lake

Fall is coming...

At one geocache I had to run a gauntlet of deer to get to the cache.   We all remained calm and moved slowly and it all worked out fine.

The old bridge

The new bridge

And then it was time to head back home.    Of course I took the back roads.

The bushes are turning, and were beautiful 

Out in the middle of nowhere!

I am hoping to get out with Waddles at least one more time.   I will be going back over to practice with the band in early October, so we will see; two days after I was at Anthony Lakes, they got 4" of snow.    Winter is coming.

 

South Dakota & Wyoming

I drove on I-90 west until Sioux Falls, South Dakota.    I have an app on my phone calls 'AllStays' which I use to find campgrounds.    It has served me well in the past, so I found a city park in Armour, South Dakota, about 30 miles south of I-90, which allows free camping, with electric hookups and showers!  So off I went.  

It was a lovely park, with kids playground, a very large lake, bird feeders, walking paths and very few people.    I was the only one camping there.    It felt very safe.   During the night there was a great lightening show, with thunder.   The sky is so big there, that even though I think the storm was not close, the entire sky was lit up.   

Sunrise the next morning was beautiful, and I hit the road early again.

I decided to stay off I-90, so headed west on Hwy 18, which crosses South Dakota and crosses through the Rosebud Indian Reservation.   Way back in the early 1970's, when I was attending Portland State University, Leonard Peltier came and spoke about AIM and what was happening on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation.   I remember it had a big impact on me, so traveling through this area was important thing to me.

I took a side trip into Nebraska, because I was so close, to get a Geocache.   Those of you who know, statistics are a big thing in the geocaching world, and I didn't have cache from Nebraska, thus the side trip.    I came back into South Dakota at the town of Pine Ridge.    Just east and a bit north is a memorial to the Wounded Knee Massacre.    I wanted to visit this site, so off I went.    There is a large sign describing what happened at that site, and at the top of the hill is a graveyard.   It was quite moving.

 

From there I headed north, into the Black Hills area.      I tried to get into a park campsite, but the entire area was overrun with people and the campground had sign that said the only way to find out if there were vacancies was to visit Rec.Gov (not my favorite website) and I had no phone reception, so decided to get out of there.     I headed west on Hwy 16 and found a lovely little Forest Service Campground on the Shoshone National Forest.     I settled in for the night. 

This pulled in, not too long after me.   Waddles big sister, a T@B trailer.

That night there was a TREMENDOUS storm.   The thunder was so strong it made the ground tremble, the wind was so strong I thought it was going to rip the windows and hatch cover off Waddles and it poured rain for a long time.    I battened down Waddles hatch and we shook our way thought the storm unscathed.   I felt pretty sorry for the campers in tents, and anyone who left anything outside!    Got up early and hit the road again.

Pretty soon I could see MOUNTAINS!!!   I had been missing them a great deal.

I got back on I-90 in Wyoming and continued until just past Sheridan, where I turned off onto Hwy 14 heading for Cody.   I don't remember ever traveling on this road before and it was SPECTACULAR.   It climbs and winds and has amazing views of amazing geologic formations.

Yup Waddles and I climbed to over 9000'!

From Cody I headed north and on to Hwy 296 which connects with the Beartooth Hwy.   That night I found another little Forest Service Campground, unfortunately called 'Dead Indian Campground".    It was on a little creek.  There were some mosquitoes, but it wasn't too bad.

I know you can't tell, but that is a lovely male Western Tanager up in that tree.

Didn't see any bears.

I will post the rest of the trip in another post, so this doesn't get too long!   Stay tuned for more amazing scenery.