View Trip east to Voyageurs National Park in a larger map
Sally and Tom are on the road again. After a fun filled, way too short, time at Malheur we have hit the road. We toured with our friends Glenn and Karin some of the high points in eastern Oregon and northern Idaho.
The Rocky Mountain Range extends from mid-Alaska to the tip of Chile. The range spawns great rivers. One of the northwest's most powerful rivers is the Snake River. It originates in the rugged Rocky Mountains in Wyoming and flows through Idaho and Oregon, carving out great canyons. (For more on the river: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snake_River.) One of those canyons is called Hell's Canyon. It is on the Oregon and Idaho border. It is a National Recreation site, and quite remote.
We stayed in Enterprise Oregon near the town of Joseph. Joseph is famous for its statues - pretty stuff. We drove a truck high into the mountains to get to the Hell's Canyon Overlook.
We have been plagued by rainy, cloudy weather, and our trip that day was no exception. Flooding was forecast on most of the rivers in eastern Oregon and in Idaho.
The rain held off until we had taken many pictures of this deep canyon, too deep even to see the river, at some points a half a mile wide, at the bottom. It is an impressive sight, even in the rain.
Glenn and Karin have friends that live on a mountain top in Idaho. Our next trek was to stay on their ranch. It was quite a climb to get to the homestead of Ace and Lori, but it was a beautiful area.
We originally parked our rig on a flat spot that turned out to be not so good. We sunk up to our axle. But not to worry (easy to say now), Ace has a friend with a track driven Caterpillar who pulled us out. There was lots of gnashing of teeth in the process, but we survived.
From the mountain top, we took trips to St Maries (pronounced Mary's) and Coeur D' Alene Idaho. We saw a few boats on Lake Coeur D'Alene that we would like to live in, but they are a little pricey for our bank account.
We also ate dinner at the restaurant run by Christina Crawford (yes, that's Joan Crawford's daughter of Mommie Dearest fame).
Pretty good meal in a lovely location and a very unusual sunset on the way home.
Next stop was way up in northern Montana. We had wanted to tour Glacier National Park in 2007 on the way to Alaska, but it was still too snowy. So we tried again this year. It was still too snowy, but we stayed visited anyway.
Got part way up the Going to the Sun Highway and all the way to Polebridge and Bowman Lake.
Polebridge reminded us of Alaska. A great bakery in a very old building, the Nothern Lights Saloon (soon to open under new management) and (according to Sally) the very best thing she has ever eaten. Huckleberry turnover.
Glenn and Karin are among the crowd from our first work camping job up in Maine. We also keep in contact with others, including Pat and Jeff. They were working at the Lee Metcalf National Wildlife Refuge near Missoula Montana. We drove over to see them, parking the rigs in the Charles Waters Campground at Bass Creek Park in the Bitterroot National Forest.
On the way, we toured the National Bison Range - it has a 19 mile auto route. We saw bison (with babies), a black bear (very far away), pronghorn antelopes, and an elk herd (also with babies). Gorgeous scenery too.
We re-supplied up in Missoula, but then chose to stay for a week at the campground. Missoula has a lot of interesting things to see. They have a smokejumpers school and base. The plane at left is the one they jump out of to fight fires in roadless areas.
They also have a carousel. Sally had to ride. She says that it only cost a quarter for children (no distinction between first or second childhood.) Picture courtesy of Karin.
Stevensville, the town closest to the refuge, had it's annual Heritage Days Festival. That's the end of the parade - a decorated crop sprayer. Besides the parade they had craft vendors, a tour of town in a horse drawn wagon and lots of other fun.
Stevensville was the beginning of Montana - St Mary's mission was started in 1841. So we had history too.
There is a nice brewpub, good restaurants, and we had good company to sit around a fire or two, so the time there was a lot of fun.
We are sad to leave our friends Glenn and Karin (and their dog, Cooper, and cat, Chico). The next adventure waits as we travel east following the Oregon Trail. See you in the funny papers.
