June 17,2026 Yakima Sportsman State Park, Yakima, WA To White Salmon WA

This park was ok but not stellar. The showers were hot enough but not that clean, and only about a quarter of the sites were full. We were close to downtown Yakima so we looked up a well rated coffee shop (Aventura) which turned out to be not that great. So all in all an okay stay here in Yakima,

Today we will visit an old friend Helga Burkhardt who Deb first met when she was 6 years old and living in Germany. She and her husband Klaus later moved to Oswego and were friends with Deb’s parents. We have not seen Helga for 30 plus years.

Rt 97 took us almost all the way to the Columbia River and crossed an Indian reservation. We stopped for gas in Toppenish and Deb asked about the fire we had been warned about by Google Maps. The fire was the day before and we did see burned grassland as we crossed the reservation today. A few fire folks were keeping an eye on it but there was no smoke or fire to be seen.

Once we hit the huge Columbia River we took Rt 14 on the north side of the river which took us right to White Salmon. Helga lived high above the river in a lovely neighborhood. Helga’s 87 and has been here about 20 years and her son and daughter live nearby so she has a nice setup. We sat on her back deck and caught up. She then took us for lunch at a delicious local bakery, a hike overlooking the river and then back to her house. Her son and daughter (Walter and Jeanette) and their partners all came over and we had a  nice dinner on the back deck. We all got to know each other until late and after a nice evening everyone went home and we fell asleep in the van in the driveway. Thanks Helga for a wonderful day.