Friday June 6, 2014 Clarkston, WA

We got up and had our coffee and I quickly caught up on e-mail and Facebook and we were ready to leave the park by 9:30  Our goal for the day was Clarkston WA and the Granite Lake RV Resort. We will visit cousins who live in Lewiston, ID just across the Snake River from Clarkston.

Unknown Tree

To leave the park we had to drive to the end of the row and make a look back.  Gerri spotted some trees with sweet smelling white blooms and we took pictures.  Later I Googled several variations of the phrase "flowering trees of Idaho" with no luck.  Maybe some of our readers can identify the tree from the picture.

A closer shot of the flowers and leaves

The route was simple, 275 miles north on US-95 to Lewiston and then across the Snake River to the RV Park in Clarkston, WA.  Even though there were several long steep hills we made good time with only a few stops for pictures.

Canola in Bloom

The scenery changed from farmland near Wilder to mountains and canyons as we traveled north There were several areas with Canola in bloom.

The Little Salmon River 

A lot of the route was along the Weiser River and then as we got into the mountains along the Little Salmon and Salmon Rivers.  Beautiful scenery all the way.

We arrived at the Granite Lake RV Resort in Clarkston at about 3:30 and got set up in site 36. The site is a pull in and faces Granite Lake which is formed by the confluence of the Snake and Clearwater Rivers.  We were here in 2004 for a Barnhart Family Reunion.  We may have stayed in this same site..  This park is more of a resort than many that call themselves that.  It has full amenities and is near a lot of outdoor opportunities.  It is also now part of the Premier Resorts Group and much busier then when we were here before.  There were no more than five empty sites, three of them along the lake front.

Granite Lake, Clarkston, WA

After we got settled in we call Gerri's cousin, Bob Barnhart. He and Joyce came by at 5 and took us to a nearby Mexican Restaurant, Paraiso Vallarta.  We met their daughter Bobbie and her husband Daniel and Janice and Dennis Storrs. Janice is Bob Barnhart's sister.

After dinner we went to Bob and Joyce's house and visited with them and the Storrs until about 8:15.  We also looked the their garden and saw their 2 horses which weren't here in 2004.  They did have a cow, but these days they don't raise one for beef as the prices are too high.  When it started to get dark and the air was starting to get too cool to sit outside Bob and Joyce then took us back to the RV Park, we visited awhile longer before they went home.

We spent some time catching up e-mail and internet and called it a night.

We only have 126 miles to drive to Coeur d' Alene tomorrow. We join our caravan to Alaska there on the 10th.  Some of the caravan member have announced their arrival at the RV Park, and several more will be arriving tomorrow.