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Tuesday July 8th
We have now arrived safely back home.
Now that we are back  we are busily seeing our lovely family and plotting our next adventure, which will be about Mountain Men, Lewis and Clarke, Nez Pierce Indians, gold and gem prospecting and more rivers and mountain scenery, as well as seeing our friends again.
The next blog will be:
Fall 2014: Rocky Mountain High  ( http://roadblog14fall.blogspot.com/ )

Home again

Monday 7th July
We had an uneventful flight from Boise to Seattle, the plane followed the Payette River, where we could look straight up the Snake River Gorge to Hell's Canyon, which we hope to visit next trip, and the I84 past Baker City, to Pendleton, where we could see the still snow covered Wallawa Mountains to the North and the broad sweep of the Columbia River as it curved past the Tri City area. Most impressive was dropping through the clouds to see that we were flying alongside Mt Rainier, before landing at Seatac Airport.
We stayed at the Red Roof Hotel for our overnight stopover, the nearest food being at a Denny's, not a good choice. We sat for 70 minutes waiting for our food, though there was a reason - A Convention was in town. The "My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic" is a convention which fills the area not only with My little Pony fans, but also spawns MLP lookalikes and costumed characters. The overall effect in Denny's was almost surreal and did provide some entertainment while we waited for our meal.
Our flight from Seattle to home went well and we arrived on time and in one piece. The only disappointing aspect was that the food on the Delta flight was miserable, still you can't have everything.

Chuck and Carla

Tuesday 1st July
On Tueday morning we packed up from the Hegerman RV Vilage and travelled on to our final stop for this trip. Chuck and Carla! We can look back now and know how wonderful these people are, but as we approached their house we did wonder what might be about  to happen.
We had met Chuck and Carla in the parking lot at the overlook to the Grand Coulee Dam, where they had made he offer for us to stay with them before we put the rig into storage. They were total strangers and we had only talked for about 20 minutes.That was over a month ago, and here we were bowling up to their front door to camp on their front drive. Worse than that, we also wanted to use their carpet shampooer and then wash the rig! What a cheek! What if they disliked us? What if we disliked them!

 But our fears were groundless, as we turned into their drive they threw open the front door and welcome us with warmth and smiles. They just couldn't have been more helpful and welcoming. They have a lovely house and garden, which they showed us round. They have a little canal at the bottom of the garden, the house is amongst fields, this year mint is the crop and whenever the breeze come from the North the air had a lovely minty smell. They have a big swing and a teepee.
Chuck is a mechanic and has a huge workshop with a beautiful 1986 Marathon coach, very luxurious (pics after our next visit). Also a bright yellow Cobra replica kit car, that he took both Sally and me for a ride in. Very low, very responsive, very nice.

 So we spent the next three days cleaning the truck and the trailer, Chuck helped with the washing of them and even polished out some of the scratches in the paintwork - Thank you Chuck.
Chuck and Carla love to cook and fed us royally, we managed to return a little of their hospitality by taking them for a meal in a Basque restaurant, which was great fun for us, though I don't think sheep enjoy being there!
We were not the only visitors to Chuck and Carla's home, while we were there a swarm of bees took up temporary residence in the garden, which was very interesting. Their garden is also home to a hawk and at least one family of those delightful California Quail.

 We spent July 4th with them, the highlight, apart from Chuck's BBQ Steak, being watching the fireworks that all their neighbours were setting off.
All too soon we found ourselves hitching the trailer up to take it to the storage we had arranged in Boise and after saying fond farewells we were off on our journey back home.

The Twin Falls at Twin Falls, and more besides

Monday, 30th June

Last Look At Craters Of The Moon

Whoosh! It’s pack and go this morning! One last walk around some of the lava fields, where I re-inspect the lovely yellow flower I found last night, when I had chosen to take evening pictures rather than go for a run.  That was pleasant, but limited as there was no real sunset, apart from the sun going down behind a rather large hill, though I found a plant that looked very much like a thistle, but with a lovely yellow flower, but I did not get a very good pic as it was getting dark, hence my return in the morning.  The plant I have now found out is called Blazing Star (Mentzelia laevicaulis) and is a night flowering plant, which I think is quite unusual (but then that is possibly just me) as well as beautiful.

Blazing Star - Night Blooming Flower!

Goodales Cut Off

Our plan to day is straight forward, but will be modified as we progress. Our original plan has been to drive West and camp at Hegarman, but we are now going via a southerly loop to take in the waterfalls of Twin Falls. We drive out of the COTM NP leaving the lava behind, only to find that the road simply skirts along the edge of the lave field, which stretches for mile after mile after mile. Did I mention about Goodales Cutoff? No it is not a surgical procedure. For an empty space on the map Southern Idaho has a lot of history. We have now found ourselves driving along the very route that many of the settlers travelled in the 1800’s to take up the land freely given to them under the Homesteaders Act. The whole route is called the Oregon Trail, this section was an improved part of the route which cut across the lava fields. It has constantly been in our minds the human endeavour that went into those people crossing such inhospitable lands, I think I mentioned it back at Columbia Gorge and the Scrublands of Washington State, but here the emigrants had to travel across miles of black, very sharp, very hot, very craggy lava beds, often barefoot, and get wagons across it as well.

The Manhattan Diner in Shoshone City

After about 30 miles the lava fields of COTM NP gave way to the lava fields that were not part of the park, amazing scenery, but boring to describe, apart from rough black rock covered by sage and scrub. We stopped in Shoshone for a cuppa. Talk about one horse, one stop light, sleepy railtown, wow Shoshone has got it all. The railroad (only freight now) runs down the middle of the town and the Victorian fronted saloons and shops sitting in the sunshine of clear blue skies actively exude sleepiness. Anyway we found the Manhattan Café and stopped in for our drink, slipping badly on the diet front I had a cinnamon roll, which although only $2.19 was massive, fresh and home made, Sally slipped into a ‘scone’, which I think was really a posh word for Navajo Fry Bread, which is a donut style dough deep fried sprinkled with cinnamon sugar – Oh Yummy. Like those old horror films of people arriving and being overcome with sleepiness and being trapped forever, and our bodies would then be used for all sorts of interesting practises, we could feel the soporific nature of this place, so we got out quickly and continued South to Twin Falls. However we had been warned in a dream (no actually the waitress mentioned it) that we should look for the Perrine Bridge on our way to Twin Falls. 

The Perrine Bridge

We didn’t have much trouble there as the road goes across this massive steel arch bridge, where it meets and crosses the Snake River. Yes we have returned once more to this great river. The bridge crosses a gorge, 1500ft long and 486 ft above the river it is pretty impressive, as the is the river gorge. We stopped and took pics, talked to a lovely couple from Texas who were here on a course to learn about Ancient Roman History. We then crossed the river to go to the visitor center, just on the south rim of the gorge, to get directions to the waterfalls (remember the waterfalls, that is why we are here), once we have this information we are about to leave when I spy a couple of people sat at the gorge rim where they appear to be packing tents into rucksacks, they have helmets, rock climbers? No, Base Jumpers. We find out that these guys throw  themselves off the bridge with a parachute. In fact the bridge is famous for its base jumping because (and here we learn a new facet of Idaho culture) it is one of the few places where it is a legal activity, no permit required, no insurance required, you can just throw yourself off the middle of the bridge and no one minds. This meant another delay while we watched the guys preparing and then watched one of them actually jump off. Quite amazing (I am sure that this is another way of describing insanity, but they were really nice guys). Our vantage point was also where Evil Knievel did his Snake River Jump/attempt in his rocket powered Sky Cycle.

At Last The Twin Falls

We really had to move on, so we now drove to Twin Falls, the waterfalls, which is now a park and an HEP station, however the falls are not quite what they were as one of the falls has been dammed to help with the power production. We then travelled a few miles to the Shoshone Falls, now these were spectacular, they say they are twice the height of Niagara Falls (the American side I expect, which is smaller than the Canadian bit). Here we had our lunch being most impressed with the lovely sight of this waterfall, reinforcing our respect for the power and size of the Snake River.

We were now running out of energy so decided not to make a further detour to Balancing Rock SP (another time perhaps) and instead used the Interstate 84 to drive directly to our campground in the almost equally sleepy (as Shoshone) town of Hegarman, where we stopped in the local and very pretty Hegarman RV Village.

Craters Of The Moon National Park

Sunday, 29th June
We are now running against the tide of our time available here. Having planned to visit Craters Of The Moon Nat.Monument (COTM), we have had to shorten it to a one night stay in the campground, hoping to get there early enough to ensure a campsite and leave us enough time to see this wonderful park. Then, Oh Dear! Our neighbours at Snake River RV told us about Shoshone Falls, near Twin falls, so now we have to squeeze that in, which involves a 30 mile detour and allowing time to visit the falls and see where Evil Knievel jumped the Snake River. OK, we can do that tomorrow. Then as we drive towards the COTM we remember that we have to pass EBR-1, Experimental Breeder Reactor Number 1, the worlds first nuclear power plant, which started producing electricity (albeit for research) in 1951. It was quite interesting, but really it was about seeing where it was done first. Interestingly we have driven about 30 miles down out of the mountains to Idaho Falls, where there is lots of agriculture (potatoes) along the Snake River, but to get to the COTM we drive away from the river and straight into desert for 80 miles. The point about the nuclear facility is that if something happened the land is so desolate that they thought no one would notice if a nuclear explosion happened there.
 
After the nuclear power plant museum we found time to stop in Arco at The Pickle Place, which was a very 70’s diner, for a cuppa and share a cinnamon roll before we arrived at COTM by about 12.00, to find that there was indeed space for us to camp, though it was filling fast while we were setting up and having lunch. This campground is right in amongst the lava flows, similar to the Valley Of Fires SP we stayed at in New Mexico in 2011. Very strange environment, but interesting. We then spent the afternoon driving round the lava field trail, visiting all the different forms of lava and looking at the variety of life that can survive in this bleak environment. We even ended up in the middle of a Spatter Cone, a “small”, hollow cone, created when molten rock is spat out of a hole in the ground, building a wall of rock around itself. As usual, quite fascinating.

Idaho Falls

Saturday
We left the Grand Tetons on Friday, having really enjoyed the wonderful scenery, the mountains, rivers, lakes and plants were all wonderful.
Our plan was to drive to Idaho Falls, which is the name of the city, as well as the waterfall, and then on to Craters of the Moon SP. The most direct route out of the park is over the Grand Tetons Pass, but many other RV owners said that this was not a good road to use as there were parts that had a 10% incline, but we drove it anyway. the road is a good road, but steep, one section was so steep the van would only pull at 20 m.p.h. but we made it. The downhill seemed even steeper, but 1st gear and the brakes sorted that out. we stopped in Victor for a cuppa at the Victor Emporium, very interesting shop, but did not have hot tea!, so we left them some tea bags to sell to others. The mountain pass road eventually rejoined the main road at Swan Valley and we now followed the Snake River, I think we will see quite a bit of this river in the future. We drove past it's source as we entered the Grand Tetons NP, the river runs right through Jackson Hole (most of the park) and now we were following it to Idaho Falls. We also saw our first Idaho Potatoes!!!!
We arrived at Idaho Falls and pulled into the Snake River RV Park, OK but sites very close together. Although on the bank of the Snake River we could not access the river from the campground.
Today was 'Return to Civilization Day' as we have not been near a large town since Helena, 2 and a half weeks ago. We celebrated with a pancake breakfast at 'Smitty's' and a day in Walmart and the local mall and then shared a steak at Sizzlers. On the way back to the trailer we took a walk across and round Idaho Falls, which are quite impressive. Though only about 20 feet high they are about 400 yards long, crossing the river at an angle.
 Combined with this in the background is a Mormon Temple as well as a small island which they have made into Japanese garden, which is very pretty.

Signal Mountain

Thursday, 26th June
We decided to stay for an extra day so that we could use the launderette, so we also did little site seeing, except we had to wait until after 4.00p.m. so that we could eventually drive up Signal Mountain. Though quite small in terms of the mountains around the view was spectacular, enabling us to see all of Jacksons Hole (the name for the huge valley which forms a large part of the GTNP). While standing at the top I noticed a deer running through the trees which surround the hill top, followed about 10 secs later by a black bear. It seemed to amble across the clearing, but covered the clearing in about 10 seconds. It then turned round and went back again, as though it had set out to catch the deer but when it was obvious it couldn’t it pretended that it was doing something else much more interesting. I was so busy watching this that I didn’t get a picture of it. Still I have the memory. We drove back down the mountain and had a pleasant meal at our favourite GTNP eating place – Signal Mountain Lodge, with its fabulous view of the lake and mountains.

Moose and The Mormon Row

Wednesday Looking for a gentle day today we drove south past Jenny Lake and stopped at the Thompson Visitor Center near Moose (a place, rather than the animal) where we watched an interesting film about how The Grand Tentons is about living on the Edge, only to realise that we had seen the same film in Colter Bay VC on Monday Durr!!! Still it was a good film. We had lunch looking at some nice flowers then visited Mormon Row, where a bunch of Mormon Settlers lived for a while, until the drop in food prices and increase in living prices forced them out, leaving the abandoned houses there as a memorial to their passing. We met a very nice family from Michigan while we were there and talked for a while, it was fun. While having our lunch I spied a white swallowtail butterfly which was enjoying feeding from the profusion of Indian Paintbrush flowers.

Viewing the High Spots in the Grand Tetons

Tuesday We packed a lunch and set out reasonably early to visit the high spot of the Grand Tetons. Except of course the High Spot here is over 13,000 feet and takes two days to climb, but we could look at it anyway. We drove South round the Eastern edge of Jackson Lake to Signal Mountain, only to find that it was closed to clear wood (the hill is completely covered in trees, so I don’t know why they bother, but there you are). So we stopped in for a nice cuppa at the Signal Mountain Lodge, with its lovely views of the lake and the Tetons, which one can see in a long line on the far side of the lake. This also included a v. nice blueberry muffin which we shared. We drove on to see the small lake to the south. String Lake, Leigh Lake and Jenny Lake. The view of String Lake was just like a National Geographic photo with the mountains, trees, lake and tourists playing in canoes in the sunshine or splashing around in the swimming hole. It was very picturesque. At Jenny Lake Visitors Center we took our packed lunch and strolled across the little wooden brdge to the Exum Climbing Center, a very famous climbing school, where they go from to climb the Grand Teton, which you can’t actually see as it is behind a smaller, but closer mountain. We returned to the trailer fairly early so after dinner we went for a gentle stroll down to the lakeside. Only to see some wonderful squalls way out on the other side of the lake, which as we walked round the shore seemed to be sweeping up the lake, at least that is what we thought, until we were struck by a solid wall of wind, accompanied by horizontal rain. We stood behind trees, rather than under them, to get out of the rain. The severe weather only lasted for about 5 minutes, but it was quite scary and shows how quickly the weather can change in mountain areas. The way home was lit up by a very strong rainbow which looked very pretty.

The Grand Tetons Are Calling

Monday

We planned to get up as early as possible today and travel the relatively short distance to the Grand Tetons to the south, only to sleep in until 8.00! Still we quickly packed up and had breakfasted and were on the road by 9.15, pretty good for us. The drive south was delightful – there was thick mist on the lake, which we left behind once we passed Grant Village. The we dropped down along the Snake River, to Jackson Lake and had our breath taken away by the breathtaking beauty of the Tetons on the other side of the lake. So spectacular.

We drove into Colter Bay Campground at 11.05, hoping we were early enough for a walk in site with electric hook up. Fortunately  there was one ADA site available with electricity (not water or sewer), which we gratefully accepted for a planned three night stay here.  We had time before lunch to have a look in at the visitor centre, oh dear, there seems to be a lot to do here, some rangers had some solar telescopes set up on the centres veranda, so we were able to see for the first time in real life, some sunspots and a solar prominence, quite fascinating. We also saw an Indian Artist in residence from Pine Ridge in South Dakota. While talking to him I realised, and he confirmed it, that the Indians did not get the vote until 1969! Unbelievable, I shall have to investigate more. We went back for lunch and then slept for the afternoon.

Grand Prismatic Spring and Old Faithful Revisited

Sunday

Our last full day.

 We really pushed ourselves by going to the Grand Prismatic Spring, which we had missed due to bad weather when we were at Old Faithful. We set off with a packed lunch and arrived at Old Faithful just in time to find a seat and watch the geyser do its thing, I suppose that’s why it’ called Old Faithful. The weather was now warm and sunny, but there were some big clouds away in the distance. We ate our lunch and traveled on to the Midway Geyser Basin, where the Grand Prismatic Spring is. This spring is absolutely amazing, the colours produced by those little thermopiles is quite spectacular. We stood for some time taking in the scene, even though at ground level one cannot see the whole lake, oh for a helicopter. I managed to get some nice pics, probably too many, but it was very enjoyable just snapping away. We were now in a race with the weather as a huge storm cloud was approaching against the wind, so we knew it was bad news and we were quite exposed, still we saw all we wanted and returned to the car, just as the first spots of rain fell.

We continued round the southern loop road through Norris, leaving the rain behind,  and stopped at Canyon Village for just one more Prime Rib meal at the Cafeteria, where we had enjoyed talking with the staff there, who are all student summer employees from many parts of the USA and abroad. We had met young people from North and South Carolina, Delaware, Oregon, Georgia, Wisconsin, Michigan and Colorado as well as a girl from Poland. They were very interesting to talk with.

The evening was sunny as we drove down the Hayden Valley, where on looking down at a roadside lake we saw something swimming in the water, we stopped and watched – it was an otter. Lovely to see it swimming in and around the reeds at the waters edge. We also saw many bison and elk along the roadway.  We took a short ride past the campground to Pelican Creek, where I had taken some evening pictures a couple of nights back, now however the water was absolutely flat and I took some more pretty pics, a lovely one of a grebe. We returned to the trailer tired out, to find that the big storm we had seen and missed had spread snow and ice rain through other parts of the Yellowstone National Park, so we were pleased to have missed that. 

The Northern Loop - Part 2: The Blacktail Plateau Trail Safari

We drove back to the trailer from Mammoth Hot Springs, the countryside on this road is very pretty, with views back to the Hot Springs and some more waterfalls to gawp at. All the time of course one is looking out for BEARS!, although Sally has been saying all week (we have been here for a week) that she wants to see MOOSE! (I have kept explaining that moose are becoming rarer as the YNP stock of ancient forest is depleted due to fires and they are now moving further north out of the park.)

One option on the road to Roosevelt Lodge is to take the Blacktail Plateau Trail, a six mile one way unpaved track. So we did. It is a very quiet but rough road that takes you high up above the main road through alpine meadows with wonderful views,. We hardly saw another car and were able to travel dawdle along, looking at everything. I said that it’s like taking a walking hike in the wilds, but accessible for Sally. Sally said that this must be ideal bear country (more in hope that fact), to which I enthusiastically agreed (crossing fingers). Anyway we had a lovely drive across this countryside seeing some beautiful flowers, willing the bears to appear. Knowing that every corner we turned they were all coming out onto the trail behind us singing and dancing just like a Disney cartoon.

Then there was one! A BEAR, this was a black, Black BEAR. It was on the road in front of us. I got out of the Chevy to get closer, but when it moved in my direction I decided that the Chevy was a nicer place to be. We watched it for some time, I managed to get some pictures of it before it wandered off up the hillside. This was our closest encounter with BEAR, they are lovely creatures (from inside the Chevy), to think that they are there at all seems amazing.

We continued on, Sally said that was lovely, amazing, wonderful, being that it was a black, Black BEAR, and not just a cinnamon black bear, but she really wanted to see a MOOSE!. Lo and behold as we continued, we turned a bend and there ……….. on a big boulder….. sat in the sun……….. was a ….. big……. Marmot! So I took a very nice picture of it before it ran away.

We continued on. Only about half a mile left of the trail. Up ahead a couple of cars had stopped, people were watching. Bison? Elk? A BEAR? We stopped got out and there, only about 300 yards away at the edge of the trees  was a MOOSE. For an ungulate they are quite amazing creatures and big! This one was very dark brown with, long legs, a big head, but only a small (early in the season?) rack. We stood and watched for some time, one kind person had a spotting scope so we could see it close up, before it slipped quietly away into the trees.

We were most impressed and as we journeyed on back to our trailer we recounted all our encounters with the wild life in Yellowstone National Park. Both agreeing that the ride along the Blacktail Plateau Trail was a crowning triumph of nature viewing.