08.-21.10.2007: Colville - Lewiston - Hell's Canyon - Denio Junction - Winnemucca - Fernley We were now in the heart of BC's wine country and from there we drove into a desert area on the border with USA and there were several steep hills. We found a lovely little Provincial park that had free camping and the next day we went across the border into America. It only took 30 minutes to get processed. We went across into Washington State and drove through rain to find a Wal-Mart for the night. We were basically driving south to get to the sun - hopefully!! We drove passed numerous large fields of golden, cropped wheat which were quite beautiful and found a rest area overlooking Lewiston, Idaho for the night. Finally on the 13th we had a beautiful sunny day!! Hooray!!! It was also 20°C which we haven't had in months! It was also perfect timing because we were driving through very scenic canyons in North East Oregon. We were in an area known as Hell's Canyon Recreation Area which is right on the border with Idaho. It is one of those areas that are beautiful but not well visited because not many people know about it. Hell's Canyon is deeper than Grand Canyon but you need to get on a boat trip to see the deepest part. If you are interested, the boat trip costs $90 per person for a 4 hour trip. But beware - the boats run on Idaho time which is 1 hour ahead of Oregon time. We may not have seen the deepest part of the canyon but the drive was well worth it - very scenic, yellow fir trees and snow covered mountains. We stopped at an overlook for the night and the next day we took a slow, winding road along the scenic Snake River up to Hell's Canyon Dam where there are plenty of spots for RVs and free dump stations and water. We drove through Oregon and hit snow going over some hills in a National Forest area. We were back to freezing temperatures again! The next day it got very windy and because it was a head wind for us, it was very slow going. We only did a few miles and found a campground where we could just use their pay showers and Wi-fi. We spent about 3 hours there and then headed South again but got stopped several times because of cows on the road being herded by horse back riders and cars. We got across the border into Nevada and had to stay there for a day due to extreme gusty winds which howled past Winnie, rattling and rocking us quite severely. We had to keep moving Winnie because the pilot light on our fridge kept getting blown out! We did, however, have quite a good sunset. The next day we drove through a weird snow cloud that was quite low but only shed a few snow flakes, on our way to Winnemucca. Then we got on the I-80 and headed west towards Reno and found a place off the beaten track for the night.