Wow, another week. We're in Coeur d'Alene at an RV park near the Spokane River. Not a great park but after our last two days, anything will suffice. When we left La Pine, we drove to Plymouth WA and spent two nights at a USACE park. We have always enjoyed Corp. parks. When we got in, the host gave us a CD with all the Corp parks in the US. It has a map and facilities list with campground info. for each state. Since we were heading to Coeur d'Alene, we checked the Idaho page for parks. Sure enough a Corp park right on the Dworshak Reservoir. The name if you're interested is Dent Acres. Never heard of it but heck, if it's a Corp park it must be OK. The park is not bad. It's older and could use a few infrastructure updates but overall OK. If you like fishing and boating it's probably a 10. However if you consider the 18 mile drive to the park from Orofino, you might downgrade it a bit. Maybe a lot.
The drive up from Orofino was challenging. At least for me, a still relatively new and inexperienced motorhome driver. The host, who told us the 18 mile drive from Orofino was rather twisty, forgot to mention it was also a bit hilly. OK if you don't mind twisty mountain roads with grades up and down as much as 11.4% you'll probably enjoy the ride. However, if that doesn't get your juices going you might want to consider a different park. My biggest concern once we were at the campground was how would I get back down. I tried in vain to connect with the internet to consider my options. But the Verizon Air Card could barely pull in a connection. So we got out the old paper maps. Unfortunately not very helpful. There actually is another way to get to the park. But that is via Elk River which is maybe 20 miles from Dent Acres and 15 miles of that is on a gravel road with an elevation gain of maybe a 1000 feet. Not bad compared to the way we went. The road in from Orofino is paved. Still it is a typical somewhat narrow 2 lane road. Not a lot of guard rails. But it has spectacular views. At least that's what Maria thought. I was too nervous to look.
Now that my heart rate is back to normal and we have an internet connection that I can actually use, I checked a couple sites to determine how significant those grades actually were. The drive up began with a 1 mile climb of 400 feet. That's 7.5%. The next mile saw another 500 feet incline. That's 9.5% I still wasn't thinking about the return trip. After the 3rd mile things settled down a bit. That was a relatively flat 5.7% grade. Only 300 feet over the course of a mile. Mile #4 provided us with the most exhilarating climb of 600 feet or 11.4%. By the time we finished mile number 5 I figured we must be close to the park.
Remember its an 18 mile drive. But after 5 miles at 10-15 mph, you figure you gotta be close. The last mile was a measly 200 feet incline and only 3.8%. Hardly worth mentioning. The next 6 miles were relatively flat and scenic. I was beginning to relax a bit. But where was the park? Oh, we still have 7 miles to go. Now the road starts to go down hill a bit. Actually the next 4 miles took us down 1500 feet. That's a 7% grade going down on a twisty two lane mountain road. Finally, we see the reservoir. There's a bridge that crosses a branch that's maybe a 1000 feet wide. But where is the park. Oh, we still have 2 miles to go. But it looks like the road is going up again. That can't be. Now I'm really looking for someone to curse at. Up? Again? Yup. Another mile of 9.5%. Finally the road to the park entrance. But where is the entrance. That is another 2 miles of 7.5% grades down a road that made my stomach turn.
So that how you get to Dent Acres at Dworshak Reservoir near Orofino Idaho if you'd like to go. :
Oh, the road down. That was easy. Disconnect the toad, put it in second gear and smell the brakes cooking.
