The first day on the road was one of long driving that started early and ended late, basically sunup to sundown. The route was all freeway - I-90 to I-82 in Ellensburg to I-84 in Oregon and on through much of Idaho.
Our stop of the day was at the Oregon Trail National Monument where we had lunch and toured the OT Museum. We had to admit that the EuroVan sure beats a covered wagon for crossing this country - the OT pioneers were getting 10-20 miles per day where we were getting 21mpg with air conditioning.
We hit the two lane roads to City of Rocks National Preserve in the late evening and were scanning the hillside for elk. We were looking in the wrong place, coming over a hill we found a bull elk in the middle of the road! We pulled into City of Rocks right at dusk and found the campgrounds completely full and saw a few lights on the pinnacle summits as climbers were preparing to rappel in the dark. We tried 70-some of the 90+ campsites before giving up and camping in the group camp's parking lot.
Camping in the group lot