Wolf Creek, Oregon

Good evening, my friends. Hey! I'm back! And I'm over 200 miles from where I was the last time we chatted. We left our home under dark and cloudy skies and drove through the fog until we reached the bottom of our hill. There, we found blue skies and sunshine. Mt. Hood did everything in its power to avoid having its picture taken, but I captured it anyway.

There isn't a lot to say about this drive south. We've done it many times. We see lots of barns.

We also see lots of birds of prey. The Willamette Valley touts itself as the "grass seed capital of the world." It probably is. Our climate is conducive to grass growing. There are plenty of field mice to entice the prey birds. We're also along the Pacific Flyway here, and so there are lots of birds.

We drove through periods of sunshine and periods of cloud cover and fog. When the sun finally did burst through the fog, it was dazzling.

The temperature was 40°F, so there was no concern about snow or ice. We did see some snowy patches at some of the higher elevations.

Just over 200 miles of traveling brought us to our first stop at this Josephine County park, Wolf Creek Park.

Wikipedia tells us there are a number of creeks in Oregon named Wolf Creek, after the wolves that were once abundant in the state. Wolf Creek post office was established 1882, while a railroad station called "Almaden" was located in the same place in 1883. The station was renamed to match the post office in 1888, and in 1895 the post office was renamed to "Wolf Creek" until 1951.

The pioneer-era "Six Bit House" was an inn located on the Applegate Trail that passed through the Wolf Creek area long before it had a post office. The original Six Bit House was probably built in 1853, near a hairpin turn of the Southern Pacific Railroad. The inn went through several incarnations until the present Wolf Creek Tavern was built in about 1883. The site, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, is now run by the Oregon State Parks and Recreation Department as the Wolf Creek Inn State Heritage Site and is the oldest continuously operating hotel in the state. You can see some photos of the interior right here.

Here's an image of the Wolf Creek Inn State Heritage Site I found in the public domain.

(image credit: "The front of Wolf Creek Inn" by Only in Oregon is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0.)

Along our route, we passed plenty of these signs designating the road we were traveling as a part of the "Applegate Trail."

Wikipedia tells us that The Applegate Trail was an emigrant trail through the present-day U.S. states of Idaho, Nevada, California, and Oregon used in the mid-19th century by emigrants on the American frontier. It was originally intended as a less dangerous alternative to the Oregon Trail by which to reach the Oregon Territory. Much of the route was coterminous with the California Trail.

The kitties were happy when we finally got parked and their treats could be dispensed. Treats make everything better.

Wolf Creek runs directly behind our site.

If I turn my body to the right just slightly, you can see the RV.

There's a more complete view of our site. It's nothing fancy here, and we're just spending the night. 

As I write this the kitties are already settling into their RV routine. Smitty was happy to find their window hammocks in working order.

So there's not much more to say about today. We'll cross the border into California tomorrow. We'll have to go through a checkpoint where they'll ask us about any fresh produce we have with us. I'm going to do as I did crossing the border back and forth into Canada. I'll keep all the fresh produce in an insulated bag with me, and that will discourage them from expecting to go inside the RV. Tomorrow will see us in Red Bluff, California...a drive of about 225 miles.

Just FYI, I'll blog whenever I can. With our Starlink system, we mostly have internet wherever we go. We're under the trees here, but we have a good cell phone signal, and so I can get online. And all of that to say that I'll usually be keeping up with my daily blogging schedule. If I miss a day here and there, it will be because I have no internet access.

Get a good night's sleep tonight, my friends. We have another long drive ahead of us tomorrow.