Traveling west from Billings, MT on our way to Bend, Oregon to attend a week long wedding ceremony for a nephew and his lovely Fiancé. I 90 is our chosen fast highway for the long journey driving our 40 foot long motorized RV lovingly named Old Blue–old it is but still less than ten years old and it is really blue! I 90 in this area west of Billings heads generally west to Seattle, WA but in a NW course through the great Rocky Mountains and other western ranges including Bitteroot and Cascades with Mt Rainier south of Seattle and Mt Hood SE and far away in central Oregon; and lest we forget Mount St Helen who blew her top in 1980 with a great explosion and tremendous loss of properties–but some good remains as we now have Helenite, a gemstone in bright green that is lovely and valuable! From many tragic events evolve new horizons, opportunity and even joy! (Not to detract from the trauma suffered by the residents who we will never forget.)
I am following I 90 West and eyeing the continual NW course which will take us much further north than our destination of Bend, OR in central Oregon on the east side of the Cascade range when I spy in Missoula, MT US Hwy 12, the route my family used in 1943 during WW II to Hanford, WA home of the Manhattan Project. I was first grade and remember so many fun adventures along US Hwy 12 including climbs along waterfalls and exploring empty caves with evidence of bear and cat….! Wow, let’s take US Hwy 12 and share some of those early year memories, see if they still exist, and US 12 takes us SW and a more direct route to Bend, OR. Off we go in Old Blue and our mini van trailing on a two wheel tow dolly, all secure and steady. In Idaho we join what appears to be the Locksa River running south. Similar to the picture above it is in this area a placid and docile river, rather shallow with visible gravel bed and so serene nestled in the mountains with all their splendor, silence, and beauty! We are enthralled with such a new discovery. The river also flows south and the valley wide enough there are no hills on the highway! We idle along peacefully at 45 miles per hour for miles! Sporadically there is a bridge from a vantage point along the highway over the river and we stop at each and stretch our legs walking over water and enjoying the trout swimming below, the trickle sound of water moving and peace! One of our really quiet and genuinely pleasant trips. Unreal the absence of accelerator use and the great gas mileage!
US 12 intersects US Hwy 95 South at Grangeville, ID and is again a more direct route to Bend so we turn south and within a dozen miles, behold, the Salmon river runs adjacent to the highway or really the highway runs adjacent to the river, it being there first! More tranquil travel and continual beauty.
We continue south on US 95 and arrive make nearly a U-Turn at Meadows, ID and pick up Weiser River for continued awe and contentment. Arriving Ontario, OR on the Idaho border we turn west toward Bend and the Great Cascade Range, but the Desert Journey to Bend is another story of vastness and a new kind of beauty!