Yakima Sportsman State Park, day 1

May 12-17, 2019

Ready, set … let’s go camping!

I’m all hitched up and ready to roll. The trailer is packed. The black and grey tanks are empty (the fresh water tank is full). The truck just had an oil change and its fuel tank is full. All the tires have been checked and are good to go. The frig in the trailer is set to stay cool using solar power during today’s drive. Can’t wait to get going … to enjoy a new place … to see new things … and meet new people. Let’s go!

Here’s where we’re going …

On the map above, the red circle is where I live (Tacoma) … and the red square is where I’m going for this camping trip (Yakima). I will be driving mostly on freeways … Highway 18 at first, then I-90 to Ellensburg, and then I-82 down to Yakima.

The city of Yakima (the accent is on the first syllable, it’s not Ya KEE ma … it’s YA kah ma) is in eastern Washington, east of the Cascade Mountains. Eastern Washington has a very different climate than western Washington, most of eastern Washington is much drier.

The Yakima area is known for crops … hops for beer, grapes for wine, fruit (apples, peaches, pears, cherries, and melons), vegetables (peppers, corn, beans). In fact, MOST of the hops used to make beer in the USA are grown right here in the Yakima valley.

Some famous people are from the Yakima area: William Charbonneau, the founder of Tree Top Apple Juice; Dan Doornink, NFL football player; Paige Mackenzie, professional golfer; William O. Douglas, US Supreme Court Justice; and many others.

The Yakama Nation people (yes, they spell their name Yakama) were here long before Lewis & Clark came through in 1805. While I’m camping here, I’ll be visiting the Yakama Nation Cultural Center. I’ll tell you more about the Yakama Nation when I write about my visit to their museum in the next blog post.

Approximately 41% of the population of the city of Yakima is Hispanic or Latino. Other people have come here from many other parts of the world too. There is a large population of Muslims who have settled here. The city’s total population is about 94,000 … the total population of the “metropolitan” area is about 250,000 people. It felt like a nice place to live.

But I was here for camping and exploring … so let’s find the campground and get settled.

And, by gosh, here we are!

 

The drive from Tacoma to Yakima took me about 4 hours, including a lunch stop and one other rest stop, so the total driving time was about 3 hours. It was a nice drive over the Cascade Mountains, and it felt good to get backed into my campsite (above) and get the rig set up. In the photo above, it looks like I have several neighbors pretty close to me, but actually the sites were very nicely spaced.

The people in the trailer with the black awning next to me were a whole mess of family folk … grandparents owned the trailer and pickup, their adult children were there as well, and four grandkids too. All of the kids slept in a large tent set up next to the trailer. We chatted several times; they were really nice folks.

Next to that neighbor trailer was a large “Alpine” 5th wheel trailer with several slide-outs, owned and lived in by the Camp Hosts, also really nice people. And the last rig in the photo above (the rig and its red truck to the right of the tree) was empty all day, every day. The red pickup truck would arrive around 7pm, we’d see no one outside, then the pickup would leave around 6am in the morning. So those folks were REALLY quiet … they weren’t even there most of the time.

The photo above shows the generous spacing between campsites.

 

I’m in spot #20 (the big red DOT above). The red arrow (bottom, right) is the entrance to the park.

The Yakima Sportsman State Park is partly a day-use area and it has about 70 campsites. It’s close to the Yakima River so the land has lots of trees and shrubbery and creeks and birds. It’s very pretty.

While I was here (Sunday late afternoon through Friday morning), the campground was mostly empty. Even the few folks who were here, were usually here just overnight as they traveled through the area to another destination. Very few people stayed more than one night. Mostly it was just me and the Camp Hosts (in site #18) … and that was fine with me.

As usual, in the late afternoon of my first day here, I walked through the campground checking out campsites. The one above was perfect! No neighbors could be seen except the one campsite across the little road (behind me as I took this photo), and even that campsite across the road was offset a bit for privacy. The campsite above had no electricity or water or sewer connection, but I don’t need those anyway. If I come back to Yakima, I’ll be reserving THIS campsite for sure.

After a nice quiet dinner, I sat with my neighbors for a bit (the grandparents and all their kids) and visited while we watched the kids play a frisbee game of knock-the-top-off-the-post. Those kids loved that game, especially when their dad played and every one of the kids beat him. I suspect dad might have been “adjusting” his throw when he was playing against the littlest kid. 🙂 The next morning, the whole troupe came around to the door of my trailer and said goodbye (“con Dios”) before they drove away. Really nice folks.

I was afraid the weather here might be hot, even in May, but it was lovely. My first day of my first camping trip of 2019 had been perfect. Let’s see what tomorrow brings. Hang around and come see stuff with me, ok? 🙂