Newport, Washington

August 17, 2025

It's gonna be a short post this time around since the most exciting thing we did (aside from coming home to the ole U-S-of-A) was going to Idaho to do laundry and not having to pay a $55 parking ticket.

Our drive started with clear skies, but by the time we got close to the US border, quite a bit of smoky haze filled the firmament. Fire season was upon us, but fortunately, we didn't encounter any wildfires up close and personal.

The Columbia River again (we saw it previously in Revelstoke) As we got closer to the US border, we started seeing smoky haze

We entered the US at one of the loneliest customs stations we have been to (and without incident, we are pleased to report)

Quite smoky here

There was a timber processing plant across from the Walmart we shopped at. The huge claw for moving stacks of logs was kind of mesmerizing to watch, and it moved a lot faster than you would expect.

The haze mostly disappeared in the afternoon

100 degrees today! We sure get a wide swing of temperatures in our travels!

The cute town of Chewelah, Washington

We can all use a little more "okayness" in our lives, no?

Our campsite had a fine amount of okayness for our visit

We stayed at Pioneer Park, a small campground on the Pend Oreille River (a tributary of the Columbia) and very close to the town of Newport. The park consisted of a small campground loop, a boat launch, a "beach", and a short interpretive trail along the river. As previously mentioned, the main excitement of the stay was going into Idaho to do laundry because the closer laundromats in Washington got really poor reviews or you had to purchase a special card which we didn't want to do. At least it was a pretty drive (although a bit hazy again), and it was a really nice laundromat (we are pretty much connoisseurs at this point).

A few other random pictures, and then we'll call it a day...

The "beach" on the Pend Oreille River

Down the road from the park was a private-public beach. Check out the sign by the porta potty 😉.

We tried to take a trail off the back of our campsite, but it went nowhere

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