Lewis and Clark Trail Museum

Alexander, North Dakota, which was founded in 1905, grew slowly as homesteaders arrived from Norway, Germany, and Ireland and it remains a small town with a population that barely tops 300. 

The museum focuses on the early settlers. An entire room features  cases filled with individual family histories and artifacts.  

Other exhibits cover farming, ranching, and local businesses. Besides the main museum, which is housed in the old Alexander schoolhouse, there's a log cabin, a sheepherder’s wagon, a church, an old Boy Scout headquarters building, and a building with trucks, tractors, and wagons on display. A number of large petrified redwood stumps are located on the grounds of the museum. 

The entrance to the main museum is under repair and will have a ramp when the repairs are completed. The first floor doesn't have much on display but there is a stairlift to the second floor. The lift was too high for me to transfer into so Tony lifted me onto it. This was the first time I'd tried a lift like this and I found it rather scary. The third floor is not accessible.

Ramps access the other buildings and the interiors are accessible. 

RVs can be parked along the street. Museum  47.84517, -103.6418

  

Bowdoin National Wildlife Refuge

The wildlife refuge surrounds Lake Bowdoin, an oxbow that was part of a pre-glacial Missouri River that flowed farther north than it currently does. The refuge which includes saline and freshwater wetlands, prairie, and marsh, supplies a resting, feeding, and breeding habitat for thousands of birds and other wildlife. 

Activities include photography, hiking, cross-country skiing, and upland bird and waterfowl hunting. A 15 mile driving tour circles the lake. A .4 mile paved trail starts near the visitor center.

We visited on a summer day and while we would usually walk along part of the gravel driving tour road we decided to just do the .4 mile trail due to the heat. The trail is accessible and makes a loop through the grasslands and around a small pond. The visitor center was closed so we didn't get to visit it. 

Our 25' RV fit in the accessible space at the trailhead. The visitor center parking lot is large enough for any vehicle.  It's a short uphill hike to the trailhead from the lot. Refuge   48.39353, -107.72923

 

Summit Campground

 The sites in this small campground are tucked into the trees and surrounded by wildflowers. Amenities include tables, fire rings, and vault toilets. Fresh water is not always available. There's some noise from US 2 and the nearby rail line. 

 None of the sites are designated accessible. We camped in site 5 which has room for an RV and tow vehicle so it was wide enough to deploy my lift. The table and fire ring are down a slight slope.   Campground  48.31968, -113.3509

Sherman Pass Log Flume Heritage Site

 The heritage site has picnic tables, vault toilets and two paved trails. We couldn't find the entrance to the Log Flume Interpretive Trail 77 but I think it's near the toilets. The Log Flume Trail 93 starts at the west end of the parking lot and has a sign designating it as the Canyon Creek Trail. 

We walked/rolled along the Canyon Creek Trail from the heritage site parking lot to the Canyon Creek Campground, about a mile one way. The trail is paved, accessible, and climbs gently but steadily uphill. The deck of the bridge that crosses Sherman Creek does not fit flush to the ground. 

 

The parking lot has spaces long enough for RVs. Heritage Site 48.58274, -118.22628

 

Growden Heritage Site

Camp Growden, a Civilian Conservation Corps camp, was built as a permanent national forest camp which meant the work involved forest management tasks such as firefighting, logging, and replanting burned areas along with building lookout towers, constructing forest roads, and stringing telephone lines. The CCC facilities could house up to 200 men and included barracks, a recreation building, storage buildings, a mess hall, library, injury ward and dispensary, machine shop, and education room. A dam was built on Sherman Creek to form a small lake for swimming and fishing.

 

The camp operated from 1934 until 1941. Little is left at the site today. The dam was removed in 2009 to return the creek to it's natural condition. The only building remaining is a small log structure that served as a changing room for the camp residents. 

 A gravel path with interpretive signs circles through the site. The path is rough and overgrown but can be navigated with assistance.

The parking area is large enough for RVs. Camp  48.58553, -118.30439

 

White Mountain/Sherman Overlook

 A 1/4 mile paved, accessible trail makes a loop through a forest that shows the effects of fires in 1929 and 1988. Interpretive signs provide details. 

The parking lot is small but RVs can be parked along the side of the entry road.  Overlook  48.60157, -118.51475

 

Round Lake WDFW

 Three small lakes are strung out along Aeneas Valley Road. All of them are operated by the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife. None are designated as camping locations on the WDFW website but as far as I know camping is permitted in all of them.  The first in line is Long Lake which has a very sloped parking area. We moved on to the next one, Round Lake, and camped on the hill overlooking the lake. It looks like there are some nice spots on the other side of the lake too but we did not check it out or go to Ell Lake, the last lake in the line.  

 All of the lakes have boat ramps and vault toilets but no other amenities. 

These camping spots may not be suitable for large RVs.  Lake  48.6085, -119.12775

 

Shafer Historical Museum

In 1919 Simon and Joyce Shafer moved to the Methow Valley where Simon found work as a hired hand and soon saved enough money to buy ownership in the Winthrop Meat Market. Simon expanded the meat market into a general merchandise store and began accepting tools, heirlooms, and other treasures in trade for his goods. By 1948 his collection had become so large that he decided to start a museum For that purpose he bought the Waring Castle, an unusually long log home built by Guy Waring who founded  the town of Winthrop.  

      

 

For almost 30 years the Shaffer family ran the museum all the while adding buildings and artifacts. In 1976 the Shaffer children donated everything to the Okanogan County Historical Society. The museum continues to grow as more buildings and artifacts are donated.

 

Paved paths connect the buildings. Most of  the buildings have ramps so they are fairly accessible. The large mining and farming equipment is located in lots surfaced with loose gravel which is very difficult to push through. 

Parking is on the street with plenty of room for RVs.  Museum  48.47698, -120.18193