Riverside State Park - Spokane, WA

 We are currently staying at Riverside State Park's Equestrian Area campsite and we are the only campers here - other than the camp hosts. This is a shame and more equestrians need to come and enjoy this park.

The corrals are good sized. We are keeping each horse in their own corral as they get along better when they are near each other but not on top of each other. They can share a pasture, but not a corral.

Here's our campsite. Plenty of room for our trailer. We have electrical hook-up. There is water close by, but no water hook up.

The trails are very nice, well maintained and easy to follow.

Yesterday we rode along the Spokane River.

This is me on the airfield outside of the RV park where we were staying.

This picture is from yesterday next to the Spokane River

Getting closer to the Spokane River.

Finally getting our toes wet in the Spokane River. The bank is pretty rocky.

We are going to play tourist this afternoon after our morning ride and see some of the sights in Spokane.

K Diamond K Ranch - the next day

 

Livestock wanders freely at the K Diamond K. It is a bit startling to see steerhead in the parking area.

These guys tried to get into the back of the trailer this morning. They were after the hay. Look at those horns! Luckily no damage to the trailer and they left peaceably.

This little miniature donkey liked hanging around our horses as they ate breakfast.

Did I mention the bunny rabbits? They are everywhere.

In the morning, guests can help milk the dairy cows.

Kids can feed the baby calf.

The views on the trails were pretty wonderful.

We put boots on both horses for the second day's trail ride. My horse (on the left) is wearing Scoot Boots with Cavello socks. Ari's horse (on the right) is wearing Cavallo boots with Cavallo socks. The socks keep them from getting sores from the boots rubbing on their skin. They were a lot happier wearing boots during the ride.

The alpacas liked hanging out with us.

This little Tuxedo kitten hung out with me while I was playing bridge with some friends on my laptop.

Did I mention the pigs wandering around?

K Diamond K Guest Ranch - Republic, WA

 We are spending the next few days at the K Diamond K Guest Ranch in Republic, WA.

We have stayed at dude ranches before, but every ranch is a bit unique. This ranch is very different from most. Kathy is our host and she is an A+ hospitality person. She kind of reminds me of the character, Julie, on the Love Boat.

Livestock are allowed to wander all around the property. We were awakened by cattle standing outside our LQ door at 5:30 expecting us to feed them. 

Our horses are in a large paddock area with a nice large water trough. They have plenty of shade, which is good, because temps here are in the triple digits by afternoon.

This is a Mama cow and her baby nursing.

There is a lodge with rooms set up for families (most rooms have a queen size bed and two to three twin size beds for kids.).  There is a large game room to keep kids entertained.

There is a small petting zoo for children with goats, chickens, ducks, bunnies, and sheep.

This is one of the cows that woke us up.

Kathy took us on a tour of the ranch on an ATV. This baby black bear was on the road, but ran as soon as he saw us. No sign of Mama Bear, but plenty of bear poop on the road as we drove.

Lots of berries growing on the side of the road, so I expect they are eating the berries.

We rode this morning, and Ari put on his hunting knife in case we met a bear again. Kathy told us that she has lost several cattle and a couple of horses over the past year to wild wolves, but the wolf pack has supposedly moved on.

The trails are wide and well kept for the most part and plenty of riding. We need to ride early though before the heat starts.

Tillicum Riders - Cashmere, WA

 

We entered into an area where I couldn't find a campsite or horse motel. When that happens, county fairgrounds are usually a good bet. In this case, I managed to score a contact with the Tillicum Riders who have a horse camp right next to the fairgrounds.

No trails to ride, but a safe place to spend the night. The horses shared a large round pen and we had electric and water hook-up.

We were the only ones there, so it was quiet and peaceful.

It was a Sunday and we popped into the downtown area o poke around, but it is the kind of town where everything is closed on a Sunday.

We left first thing in the morning as we had a long drive to our next stop - the K Diamond K Guest Ranch in Republic, WA.

A visit from a Farrier - Easton, WA

When you are living in an RV full-time, trying to meet up with a farrier can be a challenge. It took several phone calls to locate and set up and appointment to get both horses their usual barefoot trim.

Both horses did fine for their trim. When we were riding at the Cowboy Camp a few days ago, my horse seemed to be limping on and off, so I asked the farrier about it. It looks like he had picked up a stone in both his front feet. Both front feet are bruised. His right front has a small abscess starting.  Overall, their feet looked OK. The farrier recommends that we use boots on them every other time we ride.

We had the horses feet done in mid-June, so it had been about 8 weeks since their last manicure. Normally by now, their feet would be ready for a trim. Because we have been riding almost every day, the farrier said their hooves were still pretty short, he just needed to trim them to help with their balance and open up the area where stones were catching on my horse's front feet.

So, we are going to give the horses a couple of days off from riding so my horse can heal up a bit. They are in a pasture right now, so they have plenty of room to move around.

Tomorrow we leave for Cashmere, Washington to stay at a horseman's club for the night. Then on to Rock Lakes Campground.

We are heading south. I had hoped to spend time in Yellowstone National Park - but due to COVID-19, all the horse campsites are closed. I had hoped to spend time at Arches National Park, but the campsite I wanted to stay at is fully booked and I am on their waiting list. But, we will get to spend some time at Bryce Canyon and near Zion National Park.

 

Silver Ridge Lodge & RV Park - Easton, Washington

 

We are currently staying at the Silver Ridge Lodge, an RV park that allows horses. We are in an RV site with water & electric. The park has a dump station, so we can dump our black and gray water on our way out. There is a gas station next door where we can top off our propane. There is a diner and a coffee place next door as well. Ari walked over there this morning after feeding the horses and picked us up a couple of chai lattes. I feel incredibly spoiled.

The horses are sharing a large pasture. It is pretty much devoid of grass, but they have plenty of room to move around.

There is a water trough in the pasture. I filled it up and then Ari pointed out that it had a large hole and basically couldn't hold water. So, we brought over the water buckets we use for the horses and filled those up.

I hung our stall signs on the pasture fence so folks would be able to call out to our horses by name.

This is the trail map we got from the office. It is not very useful, but we were able to pick out the power lines, the airfield and locate the lake on our rides.

We are able to tack the horses up right at our campsite, so that's nice.

On Friday, a large family moved into the campsite behind us. We let the children give the horses cookies and gave pony rides to all the little ones.

The horses appreciated the cookies and the pets.

To get to the lake, you ride across a private airfield. This is the airfield.

Signs are posted all around the air strip so you know a small airplane might be coming in at any point.

The trails are well maintained even if they aren't marked. Because there are so many trails and they criss-cross, we cut up small sections of bale twine into ribbons and dropped them as we rode to use as breadcrumbs so we could find our way back.

You are allowed to swim with your horses in the lake. We had the lake all to ourselves. The only way to access this part of the lake is to hike or ride in. We didn't want to swim with our horses, but we did wade in the water a bit.

In other news, I got the collapsible desk I had ordered from Walmart. A leaf folds down so the desk fits in the space between the fridge and the door. When I want to work, I just rotate the desk, unfold the leaf and set up my laptop, monitor, etc. It is a lot more comfortable and then Ari has the dinette all to himself for his laptop. I am using a padded bridge chair that folds up to sit on. 

The RV park where we are staying is up for sale. Hopefully whoever buys it keeps it open for horse people as it is pretty popular.