When my husband picked the Clearwater Crossing RV Park in Orofino, Idaho, which is right on the Clearwater River, I was excited about the prospect of being beside a peaceful river. It is beautiful there. But notice the sky in all my pictures. No blue, because of the smoke. Because of the fires.
One evening I had called my mother and was talking to her outside by the river when I heard a helicopter. Mike said he’d seen them dipping into the river with a bucket, to get water to drop on the fires. I reassured my mother that we were not near the fires. (We weren’t and we were safe.) We listened to the helicopters coming and going for a while that night. Even with that excitement, it was peaceful there and we enjoyed our stay. We stayed by the river from July 14th to the 18th, 2021.
As you enter the park, you will see these statues.
Then a mural.
The front office.
Our prime spot by the river. Beautiful and peaceful.
On the other side of the RV, a train that hadn’t moved in over six months. Quiet with almost no neighbors.
We went into town for dinner and found one place open. The Ponderosa. http://www.ponderosacafe.com/ So we ate dinner at The Ponderosa. They had one menu in the whole restaurant for us to look at. No one knew where the others had gotten off to but none of the locals needed one. Our waitress already knew what the couple behind us wanted before they told her. Mike ordered clam chowder just as they had and I took a bite. Delicious. I ordered steak, baked potato, and salad. He got chicken fried steak and mashed potatoes. Everything was good.
Each of the booths has these wonderful carvings.
Notice they have huckleberry ice cream on the menu. Oh boy! We’d never heard of it before.
Mike asked if he could have a huckleberry milkshake. Yes, he could. Oh boy! Well, he shared it with me and that shake was delicious. Let me tell you, if you’ve never had a huckleberry milkshake, you don’t know what you’re missing. I had to go to the local grocery the next day and stock up on huckleberry ice cream before we left. The plan was to try to take some back north to share with our kids and grandkids.
The restaurant was nice and quiet and we enjoyed the food.
Before we left, a woman came in to pick up bunch of to-go orders in big bags and said, “the guys are having their supper delivered by helicopter tonight.”
I’m glad the smokejumpers and firefighters were on the job and being looked after.
Just up the road from our RV park, was the landing pad and storage for the helicopters and they were working to put out/ control the forest fires which had filled the sky with smoke. The fires weren’t close enough for us to be in any danger. So we took a little drive later to see what we could see and here is the landing pad.
Just up the river and around the corner from our RV park.
I zoomed in to get a pic of the helicopter.
After four restful nights here, we moved on to Hells Canyon in Clarkston, WA where we had a river boat excursion on the Snake River planned with friends. But that is a story for another day.
If you’d like more information on Clearwater Crossing, visit here: https://www.clearwatercrossingrvpark.com/ Fishermen would enjoy this park and there’s a fish cleaning station. I’ve never gone fishing so we didn’t try it.
Remember, “Every day we are alive is a beautiful day.” – Debra Parmley, Your Beautiful Day Traveler
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