For our end of summer vacation I took my daughter Ash, best friend Jacs and our friend Sam and we drove 6 hours to my family’s cabin in Conconully, Washington. Since most of you will have no idea where that is here it is on a map.
After a stop in Wenatchee for dinner and groceries we got back on the road. It was about another two hours from there but it was getting dark as well. When we arrived at the cabin it was pretty much pitch black outside and I was thoroughly impressed with Sam’s skill at backing the boat into the very narrow driveway with a pretty good drop to one side.
My grandparents have had the cabin since 1957 but my uncle owns it now and has done a wonderful job of renovating and still preserving the original feel of the cabin of my grandparents generation.
We have been having another bad fire season in Washington this year and are also affected by the smoke from Canada. So many of the pictures will seem hazy or have a red glow. This is sadly because of all the smoke and the forecast is that our already short summers here, even on the West side of the mountains, will continue to be like this.
The next morning the sun started to peek though the window pretty early so I was able to watch the sunrise over the lake, the ducks and geese just starting to wake up as well and travel over the glassy lake to find breakfast.
Slowly the others started to wake up and for the first time Sam and Jacs could see that even though I had taken them to the middle of nowhere in the pitch black of night, the view, peace and quiet were worth it!
I had arranged for us to meet up with my Cousin Barb who lives in the area and sit with them for the Omak Parade. As Sam put it, small town parade where there were more people in the parade than watching it, bucket list checked! We had a blast watching this small town come together for this event, oh and this was one of the longest parades I have been too. Rodeo Queens on horseback from all over the state, even Canada and Idaho, Classic Cars, Floats including A Christmas Story by the town theatre troop and A Spoonful of Sugar. The Fire Department was out in force (3 trucks) and were spraying all the kids with water as they passed by. It was an absolutely fabulous and funny way to spend our first morning.
After the parade we headed back up to Conconully to have lunch at the Sit n Bull (yep that is what it is really called) with my cousin and her husband. For a little tiny bar in a very small town the food was pretty good too. It was starting to get warm out so we decided to go back to the cabin and take the boat out in the lake. It had been a very long time since I had been to the end of Conconully Reservoir (also known as Salmon Lake), so I really didn’t know how far it went around the bend that can be seen from our cabin. I took a short video to give an idea of how quiet it was, we were one of the few boats on the water. We had a great time relaxing on the boat and enjoying the sun.
In all my years of going up to Okanogan (my dad was born here), Omak and Conconully i had never been to Omak Lake. The lake is a saline endorheic basin that is on Native American land. The Okanogan People once believed that Omak Lake was inhabited by spirits, and avoided the area. The drive from Conconully takes about 40 minutes to the middle of nowhere and that is saying alot coming from our cabin…no cell service, no wifi, not another car in sight. We missed the cuttoff to Beer Can Beach so had to turn around. I guess we had been looking for a real road instead of a dirt road down the side of a cliff. After the long twisty road we ended up at the beach and the “boat ramp”. I put this in quotes because it was basically a dirt path down to the water, uneven and bumpy with no support once you are in the water. But Sam once again was amazing and did it like a pro. We started out to try and go to the end of the lake but the wind was strong and it felt like an ocean with white caps and swells. We turned around and found the perfect little cove with little to no wind and once again we were the only people in sight. It was totally worth it as the lake is an amazing color of blue and when you jump in it coats your skin in a velvety sheen. We enjoyed the day lounging in the sun, jumping in to cool off, having a few drinks and general laziness.
Every evening we took the dogs and walked into town for an ice cream, stroll the town, say hi to the goats and see if we could find any deer, we found quite a few, including one lounging in the front yard of a house.
One morning we took a drive up to Salmon Meadows, it was too late in the season to see many flowers but we did spot a few relaxing cows. That afternoon we took a 4 mile kayak trip up the lake and spent the remainder of the day on our floats soaking up the sun and chasing off yellowjackets (the only downfall to the trip, but no one was stung).
The last night we were there was the most beautiful glow on the lake as the sun was going down. Not a soul on the lake, nor a ripple in the water. This picture reminds me of why this 6 hour drive to the middle of nowhere is worth it…already planning for next year.
Happy Travels!
