Today we went up over the hill behind the RV Park, through the no hookup campground in Lake Easton State Park, through Easton, and across the freeway to Easton Pond.

Easton Pond is a nice fishing lake on the north side of I-90 between the freeway and the Yakima River.

The photo above is from the lookout at the top of the hill, overlooking Lake Easton. The dam is to the left, just around the edge of the hill, past the orange barrier markers.

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Yakima River near Easton Pond.

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Easton, WA, Lake Easton RV Resort, Lake Easton State Park, Yakima River

Tags: Easton WA, RVing, Washington by john
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Today we walked from the Lake Easton RV Resort through the Lake Easton State Park to the http://www.parks.wa.gov/parks/?selectedpark=Iron%20Horse, John Wayne Trail. Then we followed the trail up to the Yakima River Crossing.

The funny straight line on the map is a case of the MotionX GPS application not playing nicely with the inCase battery case on my iPhone. I removed the case and the application suddenly discovered the satellites again, and started tracking our position.

The images below are taken looking from the bridge over the Yakima River.

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Easton, WA, Lake Easton RV Resort, Lake Easton State Park, Iron Horse State Park, Yakima River

Tags: Easton WA, Lake Easton, Washington by john
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RVing

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We’ve been in Walla Walla at the Fairway RV Resort for the last couple weeks. It’s a nice place, with good wifi internet access.

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Tomorrow we’re packing up and heading up the hill to Lake Easton Resort in Easton WA.

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Walla Walla, WA, Easton, WA, Fairway RV Resort, Lake Easton RV Resort

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We’re in Toppenish for our annual NW RV.net spring rally. Toppenish is known for a few things. One is the number of wall murals all over town. Another is that one quarter of the world supply of hops, used in beer making, is grown here in the Yakima Valley.

We toured the town murals in a horse-drawn wagon. When we got to this one mural, we got the chance to view the mural from the angle that showed the wagon like we were about to cross the bridge.

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Toppenish WA, RV.net

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While at the Lodi Stockton RV Park over the weekend (actually Friday morning) we got to see a steam train on the Union Pacific tracks outside the park.

Copyright ©2009 by Nikki Ahrens

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steam train

Tags: California by john
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Yesterday, I included a photo of the momma owl we see out our front window. Today I’ll show the babies:

Photo copyright ©2009 by Nikki Ahrens.

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Apache Junction, AZ, Carefree Manor RV Park, owl

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There’s an owl family across the street from us in a palm tree:

Photo copyright ©2009 by Nikki Ahrens.

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Apache Junction, AZ, owl

Tags: Apache Junction AZ, Arizona by john
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Yesterday we hiked up to Fremont Saddle. The trailhead is at about 1800 feet, with the saddle at 3640 feet elevation, so it was about 1800 feet of elevation gain in about 2.25 miles. And the car said 90 degrees when we got back to the parking lot!

The views along this trip were awesome, well worth the trip.

Although not out fully yet, the desert is blooming.

The Saguaro cacti provide a green contrast to the rock wall and blue sky.

View back down the canyon from the saddle. Notice how green it is.

Loved these rocks stacked one on another, like a giants cairn.

Over the back side of the saddle, you look into a bowl with the Weaver’s needle rising 1200 feet from the floor of the bowl.

A bonus shot of the trail along the canyon wall. A blue sky behind. Again, notice how green everything is. The desert got a wet winter, so the spring is spectacular.

Photos copyright ©2009 by Nikki Ahrens. All rights reserved.

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Saguaro, Superstition Mountain, Tonto National Forest, Fremont Saddle, Weaver’s Needle

Tags: Arizona, Hiking, Superstition Mountains by john
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Last Sunday we hiked to Hackberry Spring. Well, that was the plan. Except we didn’t find the spring. So we had a great hike past this abandoned farmyard (corral, loading chute, broken windmill and some fencing) down along the creek that goes through a pretty good canyon. At one point about 75 feet wide and 200 feet deep or so.

On the return trip we came back up the canyon and turned up a side gorge that bypassed the farmyard in favor of a hike up ravines, ultimately returning to the parking lot.

The first part of the trail was really an abandoned road that went over a ridge down into a bowl where the farmyard existed.

This stream went past the farmyard down into the canyon.

The stream enters the canyon.

A lizard. These guys are all over the place.

The red rock adds color to the desert landscape.

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Superstition Mountain, Tonto National Forest, Hackberry Spring

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