Summer Sojourn: days 1 and 2

The first day consisted of a bit of work while Dohnele packed.  When I got home, we took off around lunchtime.  Destination: Ontario.  We ended up having lunch in The Dalles and dinner in Pendleton.  Just quick stops really, because we wanted to get to Ontario as quickly as possible so that we could get a good sleep in.

Sunset in the Blue Mountains east of Pendleton, OR

Got to Ontario and slept.  The next day we pushed through all of Idaho with a gas and food stop in Twin Falls.  By the time we got to the Utah Border, it had started raining and I was just shaking my head at our bad luck.  We stopped in Logan to buy camping food and to quickly visit the Utah State University campus.  Emma is obsessed with hoodies, so we picked her up a USU shirt from the Bookstore and Zephyr bonded with the Aggie mascot.

Rain squall on Black Pine Peak near the Idaho-Utah border

The stop here was brief and fortunately, the weather cleared.  We zipped up Logan Canyon and dropped down into Bear Lake.  Our first stop was the South Eden Campground where I set up camp while the kids went swimming.  I had taken care to make reservations well in advance for the only lakeside camp site.  Although it turned out that we didn't need to - there was only one other camper at the campground.  It was a pleasant 80ish degrees and the sun was out and the water was warm.  When Zephyr got too cold to continue swimming, however, we dried off and drove back to Garden City for dinner.

 Logan Canyon (above and below)

At the USU Bookstore

There were two places I wanted to take folks and one was closed, so we ended up at the Campfire Grill.  It was a complete tourist trap, but the food was amazing!  As the sun set, thunderstorms started moving in, but they were still on the horizon.  We got back to the camp and found that the evening breeze had rolled our tents (fortunately not into the lake).  I reset the tents and we got the kids tucked in.  Then I went down to the edge of the lake to sit in a chair and watch distant lightning.  After a few minutes, the rain hit.

Here is the site before the storm.  Once the storm hit us in the middle of the night, our tents got much closer!

I scrambled back to the campsite and threw on the rain flies.  And then the wind hit.  It was strong enough that I thought the tents with the girls might lift off!  And the roof of our tent was getting thrashed.  So we scrambled again to move the tent the girls were sleeping in closer to ours and then just laid in the tent listening to the wind beat the roof of the tents.

At some point the wind began to die down a bit and I think most everyone dozed off.  A couple hours later, I woke up to lightning and thunder.  It was moving closer to us and was increasing in frequency.  Eventually everyone woke up.  Lightning was flashing every two to seven seconds.  It was amazing!!!  But nobody was sleeping.  And then the rain hit again and it was torrential.  And then the wind kicked up again.

Zephyr using hot rocks on the beach after swimming until he was blue-lipped

It was a rough night.  But dawn arrived beautiful, clear, and calm.  We slept in.  Slowly packed up, ate some food and left for Wyoming.  But not before noticing that the wind the night before had actually snapped one of my tent poles.  Fortunately, I had brought my tent pole repair kit!  I seriously almost left it behind thinking "what are the odds that I'll actually need this?!"