Fires In Eastern Washington Changed Our Plans

We enjoyed staying at Little Diamond Thousand Trails. Amazingly there were NO mosquitos. We just had to tread carefully to not step on a yellow jacket ground nests and we did have to deal with gnats and grasshoppers. Hub did not get stung so his reputation with the yellow jackets was good. The day we left it wasn't very smoky at the campground, but by the time we hit I-90, the haze was very bad. I did some research on Crescent Bar and found the haze and smoke was pretty bad there AND, there is zero cell service, we use our MIFI cellular modem for internet.

Neither of us felt like playing disc golf in the smoky haze, so we made a plan to play our online game. The best place to do that would be Leavenworth, and we were lucky to get a spot. We suspect there have been many cancellations because of the smoke. The little fire that had started two weeks ago, called the Cougar Creek fire, has now burned over 29k acres. It is currently only 5% contained and is predicted to burn into September!

So, with our plan in place, we pulled up to the ranger station and Hub saw right away that our particular camp site was taken. But another even closer was available. As soon as I checked us in, he drove into the spot which is a pull through. We thought we might like to turn our fifth wheel the other direction, so Hub took the rig around the loop and repositioned us the other way. Nope that wasn't going to work because then our bedroom faced the internet repeater, we wanted our laptops to face it. So around the loop he went again, pulling in the first way. /whew. We aren't typically picky parkers, but this was a special occasion.

The next morning the smoke was extra thick and according to the air quality meter we were at 241. I was so glad we'd changed to Leavenworth where we have good enough internet to play the new expansion of our game. I did take pictures of the sun which is very orange through the haze and everything outside has a yellow tint to it. The picture was taken around 11am. And our camp chairs had ash on them.

One interesting critter to note is this unique caterpiller that was hanging out on our water faucet when we were setting up camp. Not sure what type it is, I've looked online and cannot find it. 

I read that possibly mid week there would be some favorable wind, and there was. Today our air quality score is down to 196. Not good but certainly better than the previous two days. The sun has been out all day. Our game is very fun, so we are content for the moment staying inside. I hope we have another clear day tomorrow so we can get a round or two of disc golf in.

I've checked the areas in Western Washington where we could camp and their air quality is also bad, we figure if we really want to avoid the smoke, we would have to go to the coast. That is a very long drive so we will hang out here for a bit. That is the nice thing about living in an RV, we can move when we want to!