New Hawk and Big plans...need some help ;)

[HappyCamper]

My family and I are estatic about our new Hawk shell and upcoming trip!!! Steve at Four Wheel has been amazing and spent time with me on several occasions (I tend to drive to woodland every chance I get , thanks steve...you da man!

Option list includes:
Roll over couch
Furnance
Solar
Rear wall steps
Rear lights
Fantastic fan over bed, standard vent in back
12 volt outlets
Dual batteries
Awning

We will be towing with our tundra and the Adventure Trailers Chaser will take care of the storage/kitchen duties. We are scheduled to leave Truckee, CA on Tuesday the 1st for a 4 week adventure .

My trip planning usually consists of bullet points highlighting certain landmarks, attractions and or campgrounds that look nice/ have come recommended. Unfortunately, I just erased all my bullet points! I'm hoping the highly experienced and traveled explorers on this site can help fill in the blanks ! Below is the general route...keep in mind we don't have any reservations and can change/modify the trip as we go.

Start in Truckee,ca
Mt. Lassen, manzanita lake
Crator lake, think we'll eat and run here...maybe camp at Diamond Lake so it's not such a big push into Bend. Any suggestions?
Bend (family reunion, renting house)
Wilson Dude Ranch, 2 nights (daughter loves horses)
Somewhere between Wilson Ranch & Glacier National Park....help me guys or the wife will have my head (anything good around Spokane?)
Glacier, suggestions please
Bozeman, Showing the wife the great home prices ...anything else while we're in town?
Yellowstone, mom wants to show the kids....what highlights should we hit?
Grand Tetons
Jackson
Diansour national park
Fort Collins, co (another potential relocation spot)

Things get more vague from here
Work our way through CO on our way to Moab/canyonlands and hit rye patch on the way back home.

We have two kids (7&8) and I'd like to keep drive times to under 5 hrs per day. We also prefer to camp off the beaten path when possible (without giving up the must see attractions).

I realize we could probably spend weeks at any one of the above mentioned locations and not even scratch the surface. I'm starting to wonder if we should break this into two different trips?

If you had a new Hawk and 30 days to kill with Glacier being a key goal...what would you do??

 

[ntsqd]

oh wow! the places/partial routes that come to mind!

Military Pass Rd. E of Shasta (low overhead @ the RR bridge on the N end, hi-top shell on a 3" lifted 84 Xcab on 33's cleared fine).
Old route to the NE off the Heber summit on 97
Newberry Crater
High Desert Museum (Raptors! Critters! Log mill!) just south of Bend on 97
Smith Rocks NE of Redmond
John Day region
Snake River Gorge
Cour d'Lene lake (sp?) E of Spokane
Pon du Rey (French; spelled different than that) River N out of Spokane
Craters of the Moon
Western Museum in Cody, WY; downstairs is an extensive firearms display if it's still there. (Saw it in '77 or '78 as a wee lad)
The unfinished Engineer's House W of Cody
NE road out of Yellowstone is an AWESOME high pass, Red Lodge, Red something.....

Going to be hot in UT when you get there.

 

[HappyCamper]

Thanks ntsqd! Newberry Crater looks interesting and High Desert Museum was definitely added to the list...as was Smith Rocks & Cour de'lene lake. It looks like a long haul from the middle of OR to Cour de lene lake...are there any good camping spots along the Colombia river? Is beartooth road in Yellowstone the same as the Red Lodge you mentioned?

I had a whole list of where to stay & things to see and do in Glacier, but they were lost in my iPhone mishap. Hghway to the sun was high on the list. Does anyone have specific campgrounds we should try for?

I'm starting to think Moab, canyonlands would make a better '15 spring break trip...maybe we'll hold off on the lower loop and take our time going through OR, WA, ID & MO.

 

[ntsqd]

My mom & step-dad have stayed in a campground on the OR side of the river somewhere near Umatilla several times and liked it. It was pointed out to me years ago, but I don't recall exactly where it is. Somewhere along the 730 I would expect & may be a privately owned operation.

There we go, Bear Tooth Pass! Several folks here have been over it more recently and all comments echoed what I recalled of it from that trip so many years ago. Might poke into MarkBC's "Desert rat out of his comfort zone" trip planning thread for info more in the Yellowstone & Glacier part of the world.

 

[Casa Escarlata Robles Too]

Mr. Happy. The two lake campgrounds on the north west side of Glacier are great .Bowman is nice have been there but not to Kintia Lake,just past Bowman to the north.
Going to the sun hwy has restrictions,so I would suggest using the free shuttle. Than you can walk the trail up and out of the visitors center.
I'll post some pictures later. And some other ideas.
Frank

These are at Bowman Lake and the trail out of the visitors center at going to the sun. There is a 21' length limit on that road,IMO the best way it use the shuttle from your camp site if you can.
At Yellowstone,you can get spots at Madison fairly easy. Some of the other nice spots are first come.
Pebble Creek
Slough Creek this one is very popular and fills early in the day.
Indian Creek fills later in the day but is still close enough to the Lamar valley
Norris is nice,haven't stayed there.

Usually,I found this about Madison, they post when some of the first come sites around the park filled for the previous day.That can be helpful.
Frank

 

[alano]

Bozeman has the Museum of the Rockies. Chock full of dinosaur fossils and a very nice exhibit on geckos right now.

Butte Lake in the NE corner of Lassen NP has an 800 foot cinder cone to climb and is a less visited part of the park.

Glacier should have the Going to the Sun Road open by then. Find camp spot first thing on arrival then go do stuff. You can't pull a trailer over the GTTS road so plan on driving around the park on leaving.

Crater Lake's rim road was still 3/4s closed last week from the snow. Diamond Lake is very close and a great place to camp.

If you don't have reservations for camping in Yellowstone, get them now. We were there about two weeks ago and they all filled up early in the morning. On the plus side, there are NF all around but it makes for lots of driving. I like the Lamar Valley area best: fewer people and more wolves, bison and bears.

Have a great trip,

Alan

 

[jha6av8r]

We did almost your exact route last year in a CCW direction the last week of July and first week of August. We did it without a single reservation, even Yelllowstone and Grand Teton. Plan how you'll see the parks and understand how the campgrounds fill.

 

[HappyCamper]

Frank-
Those photos are great! Looks like you just did a trip through my old stomping ground. Love the Ebbetts pass area! I feel like a kid on Christmas Eve...eyes wide open & mind racing full speed. Picking up the camper tomorrow at 8:30 am...woohoo!

Alan-
what was your route between Crater & Glacier? Do you have any recommended camp spots between the two? Didn't realize Crater Lake has so much snow...good to know (was pretty dry winter in the Serria). I think I had the wizard island boat tour on my origional list of things to do. With that much snow I wonder if it's running? Did you get a chance to check it out?

My notes are comming along nicely and I'm starting to feel better about leaving on Tue. Bear Tooth Pass is another must see & Desert Rat's tread is full of VERY helpfull info (thanks again ntsqd!).

 

[alano]

We left Glacier and spent the night at Maryhill SP on the Washington side of the Columbia. From there we went to Diamond Lake via Sisters (quilt shop there is a magnet for the wife). Our route was disturbed by a closure of I90 that day and a rash decision to ignore the detour and make our own. Long day. Original plan was to go through Spokane and head south. Maryhill to Glacier is much more than the five hours you mentioned under normal circumstances and only 2 or 3 hours from Bend so maybe not the best stop for you.

The situation at Crater Lake will change eventually. The boat ride was not in operation as the road to the launch area was still closed. Be advised that the walk to and from the dock is the only place you can get down to lake level and is quite steep and fairly long so be prepared for a hard walk back up.

Enjoy that new camper smell,

Alan

 

[mitch h]

We stayed at avalanch in glacier n.p. seen black bear. Nice little hike to lake. Had a couple grizzley 2 days earlier on trail. I think we had good timming. Going to Bowman this year, looks nice. Beartooth Pass is worth the drive.

 

[sourdough]

Spokane was my travel hub for 24 years. I'd suggest heading east from Bend. Hwy 26 and Hwy7 to Baker. Out of Baker take Hwy 86 and cross the Snake to Hwy. 95. Go North, lot's to see and great camping on 95, McCall/Payette Lk., Rigging and the Snake R. Canyon and the LOLO hwy 12(famous) . Another option is from Baker go north to Joseph,Or. and on to Clarston,Wa. and then hwy 12 to Missoula. Either way would be my preference. North Central Or. and South Central Washington are interesting but don't match the Idaho Panhandle area.

 

[ntsqd]

Bend to Burns is interesting, but I'd rather drive Prineville to John Day and points beyond. If going to be starting east from Smith Rocks then do drive the Crooked River valley from Smith to Prineville.(Powell Butte was my summer home '71 - '81).

 

[HappyCamper]

Even though our trip is now underway I still refer to this thread/forum as often as possible because of the valuable info that you are posting. Thanks a ton guys!!!

My son and I picked up our camper on the 30th and couldn't wait until the girls were ready to test it out. We ended up heading up I80 towards Tahoe and cutting off on 20 where we eventually settled in at Bowman lake for the night. Not another soul in sight (rough road cuts the number of visitors way down. We fished until about 9 then sat by the fire until 11. A bit passed normal bedtime for my little guy, but we were having so much fun time just seemed to fly by. The next day we headed down to Roseville with a dirty truck and a dirty camper ...picked up mom and sissy and headed north towards Lassen. Attached is an upside down shot (not sure what happened) of our rig at manzanita lake Mt Lassen. On the 2nd we headed to crater lake then camped at diamond lake for the night. Lots of truck time, but the kids did awesome staying busy with journaling & new chapter books bought specifically for the trip. We arrived in Bend on the 3rd and fell in love with the little town! The 4th started with the pet parade followed by lunch and a float down the river...how fun! By dusk the block party was in full effect and the neighbors (we were renting a house/ family reunion) were EXTREMELY welcoming and accommodating...despite our big ugly truck taking up all the street parking. Although we love Bend and find it hard to leave we are currently packing up and about to start down the road towards the Wilson Ranch where we'll be meeting up with my wife's mother/step father for two nights. Our trip has only just begun and the amount of family bonding that has already taken place is off the charts !

 

[craig333]

I guess you really are a happy camper