It was a 42 mile drive from Winthrop to Alta Lake State Park. On our journey just south of the town of Carlton we saw a small fire in the trees that was started by recent lightning. Our daughter, Stephanie, and her kids and Tracy's daughter Sydney were there. It was hot again but the lake was cooling. We noticed some smoke from local fires. We had Steph and the kids over for dinner and had a nice evening outside.
July 16, 2014
I made plans to take the kids fishing this morning so we were off to try our luck at 7 AM. No luck so back to camp for breakfast. It was a lazy hot day with swimming and sitting around on the docket. For dinner we had Steph and the kids to our site where she fixed tacos. My sister and her son and his wife and daughter joined in with a big taco salad. It was a fun dinner like we used to have when my folks would camp here. Then a nice evening with family.
July 17, 2014
I was up at about 8 and was invited to breakfast at Steph's campsite. It was hot again and the smoke was getting worse. We had a nice day visiting with campers and taking it easy. We had planned a ceremony to scatter Dad's ashes that evening at 5 so we all gathered and shared stories about Mom and Dad at the lake. Sister Cheryl and I took a fast run around the lake in her boat to commemorate Dad's love for the place. It was a wonderful touching event. Then all went to their sites for dinner. Terry, her son and daughter in law, were very concerned about the smoke that seemed to be getting worse in a hurry so went toward Pateros to see what was up. When they returned they said, "Pateros is burning!" They went around telling the other campers of the danger. We decided it was time to get out. Other campers had gone to see what was happening and came back assuring it was a bad situation. The fact that the road into the lake is the ONLY way in and out was quite a factor in our decision as well. Everyone was packing up and is was an orderly evacuation. By then it was about 7 and was as dark as midnight. Here are some pics I took on our way out of the park. What appears to be snow or rain in the lighter pictures was in fact ash and cinders.
Within a few hours of us evacuating the fire had jumped the Methow River and run up the road along the golf course destroying houses and the camp ground.
I must add that we were not notified by any rangers or staff of the impending evacuation. We didn't see any of them after about 3 in the afternoon. This is very disturbing and many of us are going to write letters expressing our disgust.
We drove until about midnight looking for a place to stay and ended up in a rest stop on I-90 near Vantage.
July 18, 2014
We got up at about 8 to the noise of trucks leaving and traffic on I-90. I called a familiar RV park near Moses Lake and they had a place for us to stay for 3 days.when we will go to our next stop. Our Park is O'Sullivan Sportsman Resort near the Pot Holes reservoir.During our stay here until July 21 we are just taking it easy enjoying the weather and amenities.
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