The Last Summer on the Road Part 2

 

Leaving Missoula, we traveled South down the Bitterroot Valley and made the seven mile climb over Lost Trail Pass into Idaho.  After a brief rest stop, we began the descent into the Salmon River Valley.  Slowly…..descending a six degree slope with hairpin turns and being pushed by over 34,000 pounds of metal can be harrowing.  At 30 MPH with the exhaust brake roaring we reached level ground and checked into Waters Edge RV Park, a nice park with sites backing up to the North Fork of the Salmon River.  This is a narrow and beautiful Valley, with mountains both east and west, and only small towns along the river.  The next day we backtracked to the tiny town of Gibbonsville and picked up a dirt road to the East.  We spent an hour or so climbing back out of the valley on multiple switchbacks through the forest until crossing back into Montana and the Big Hole Valley.  This is a beautiful place; a sparsely populated high valley (6000’) 20 miles wide and 75 miles long, home of some of the oldest cattle ranches in Montana. 

 

At the north end of the valley is the Big Hole Battlefield National Park.

In 1877 the Nez Perce, led by Chief Joseph, were attacked in the early morning in an attempt to stop their escape to Canada.  After many women and children were killed, the Nez Perce regrouped, captured the army’s howitzers, killed 29 soldiers, seriously wounded over 40, and held the soldiers in the forest while the women and children escaped.  The Nez Perce story is told in an informative visitor center and there are paths to the location of the Nez Perce village. 
In the lower parking lot next to the paths are shaded picnic tables – a good place to have lunch.

 

Back at our RV site, it was tempting to just stay there,
relax in a chair under the trees, and nap with the sound of the river right at your feet.  But there were places to explore, so:

 Sometimes we run across things we didn’t expect – like an Amish store we discovered on our travel to the Lewis & Clark Historic Trail. 

They had sandwiches on their home-made bread and local meats and cheese.  It was amusing to see that most of their merchandise came from the Walnut Creek Marketplace, a store we visited twice while in Sugarcreek, Ohio.  Stocked up with lunch, we headed up another dirt road into the Beaverhead range of the Bitterroot Mountains to intersect the route that Lewis and Clark took to cross the Continental Divide and enter what is now Idaho.  

 

Climbing from the valley into the forest, the dirt road
(which was in good condition) led us to the summit 2500’ above our starting point.  A horseshoe turn started us back down and to the Lemhi Pass marker, where there were information panels and picnic tables. 

After a windy lunch, we headed back down and after a little over an hour of travel, were back on the highway.  We never tire of visiting Lewis and Clark historic sites; their journey is simply beyond our ability to comprehend.  Imagine the struggle to reach the pass, only to look into the distance and see that there was an even higher mountain range in the distance.

Lewis and Clark Monument

Looking West from Lemhi Pass

Back on the valley floor, we stopped in Salmon for a visit to the Sacajawea Interpretive, Cutlural, and Education Center, a 71-acre park dedicated to the life of the Shoshone woman who was born in the area.  The centerpiece of the park is the beautiful bronze statue of Sacajawea holding her baby.

 

Next stop - Challis, the home of the Yankee fork.

 

South to Bryce Canyon

Leaving Grand Teton National Park, we headed south through Wyoming to spend a few days visiting Bryce Canyon National Park, one of our favorite places from past visits. The drive through Wyoming was both beautiful and interesting; there were numerous small towns that had what looked like a migrant RV park nearby. It became obvious that we were looking at the new oil boom - a cluster of office trailers, surrounded by dozens of cheap RVs, and a sign announcing the site of an energy company. Since there are few houses in the area, workers buy low-priced trailers and 5th wheels and move to the area. Not too scenic, unfortunately. While traveling along a little-used road on our way to the main highway, we were surprised to come across this historic site, called Signature Rock. The sandstone cliffs mark a crossing point near the Green River for the Oregon trail used by emigrants on their way west, and are covered with names and dates of the people who passed through. The most famous name was that of Jim Bridger, famed frontiersman and guide, who name was dated 1844, well before the wagon trains used the trail and presumably carved when he was scouting the area. Standing there in front of the rock, with the surrounding area virtually unchanged aside from the lonely road, it was easy to imagine what it must have been like for the original pioneers traveling in their "travel trailers".
We crossed into Utah, picked up Interstate 80 West, turned onto the I-215 bypass to avoid Salt Lake City, then headed South on I-15. Traffic and congestion in this area is remarkable, and it wasn't until we were well past Provo that it began to thin out. We picked up US 50, crossed over to I-70, then onto US 89 south to Panquitch, where we stayed at the Hitch-N-Post RV park, a small but comfortable place to stay while we visited Bryce Canyon.
Southern Utah is home to a number of impressive National and State parks. It's a unique combination of mountains, desert, forest, and multicolored rock formations. At Bryce Canyon NP, water and wind have created a fairyland of red and orange rock formations that are incredibly beautiful. From the entrance and visitor center, a good road runs along the canyon rim for 18 miles, with pulloffs and side roads to parking lots and overlooks. Like Yellowstone NP, Bryce Canyon was busy with tour buses full of European visitors taking advantage of the strong Euro (that's probably over!) and each overlook was filled with French, German, and others. It's an easy day stopping at the overlooks, visiting the lodge and visitor center, and hiking the short distances on the canyon rim. For the more adventurous, there are trails that wind through the hoodoos and canyons, but for us, the altitude and length of the trails was a bit too much and we worked up our sweat in the gift shop. There's not much to say that can describe the rock formations from the vistas, so I won't try, here are some pictures. Come back and visit as we wrap up our trip!

A Journey North

Having enjoyed our stay in Chama, it was time to work our way north to Montana and a visit with our friends at the Lee Metcalf NWR. On our first day, we headed west from Chama, then turned north to Durango, Colorado (lots of tourists and traffic), to Cortez, then a few miles south for two nights at the Ute Mountain Casino and RV Park. I don't know about you, but for us, the words "casino" and RV Park" just naturally go together. Surprisingly, it was a very nice casino with a pretty good restaurant, and the RV park was above average, with shade, grass, and free WiFi. We wanted to explore the area, especially Mesa Verde National Park, and are glad we took the time. What an impressive place! Entering the park, we climbed to the top of a huge mesa into pinion pine (hence the name "green table"), following a paved loop road which took us to a number of scenic overlooks. The mesa contains 600 cliff dwellings, some, like the "cliff palace" are huge, while other, small dwelling are scattered almost under every overhang. Looking at the dwellings, it hard to imagine how the occupants journeyed to the river for water and to forage for food; most of the dwelling are high above the valley and look like they would require a large number of ladders to reach - here, sending the kids "out to play" must have been interesting! We spent most of the day here, and would like to return during a cooler, less crowded time to explore more of the park. Leaving the park & casino a few quarters lighter, we continued north into Moab, Utah where it was a warm 107 degrees. We arrived early in the afternoon, and had a chance to make a quick visit to Arches National Park. Southern Utah is a wonderland of colorful, magical shapes; here, the red sandstone contains over 2000 natural arches and many interesting formations, like "elephant head" pictured. It was blazing hot and the skies were hazy from the smoke of distant wildfires. After a circuit of the park, we took a drive up the Colorado River Canyon, and were amazed at how large the river is and how steep the canyon walls were that towered above. It's a very scenic area but July is not the time to visit; the next day we were off early, traveling through green valleys to Provo for a night's stay, then on to Hill AFB and the base family campground (Famcamp). Here I had the chance to show Brenda one of my old stomping grounds (it's a much nicer place to visit when you're not working) and we had the chance to stock up at the commissary, rest, and visit the Great Salt Lake. We visited Antelope Island State Park, the largest access area to the Lake, crossing a long causeway. The shore on each side was full of California gulls on one side and beautiful American Avocets on the other. On the island, Pronghorn Antelope were everywhere and the view across the lake to Ogden was pretty. While it's a one-of-a-kind place to visit, beware - the whole place smells like dead fish and the brine flies are everywhere. Not a place we'll return to. Leaving Hill AFB, we headed north on I-15 to Blackfoot, Idaho, then off on a lonely road through Atomic City (home of the first nuclear reactor) and finally a stop for the night in Arco. The next day the scenery became beautiful as we picked up the Salmon River Valley in Challis, then on to Salmon, and finally, North Fork. At North Fork, we spent three days at the most beautiful park we've been to. With only 8 RV spots, River's Fork Lodge is on the banks of the Salmon River and we were able to pull forward to a spot on the bank within 20 feet of the water. Our windshield view was filled with river, forest, and mountain, and in the evening we watched as Elk came out of the forest to feed. The owners went out of their way to make sure we were comfortable and even had the post office call them to tell us our mail was in! What a great place - we can't wait to return. At North Fork, the Salmon turns west from the highway and we were able to drive along the river for over 25 miles into the boundary of the Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness Area. The river flows through a broad valley where we saw nearly a hundred Elk grazing, into a narrow, rocky canyon where the water flows fast and there are large stretches of rapids. Along the way there are the ruins of old mines and cabins, and in the spring the river is crowded with fisherman as Steelhead, an ocean-going trout, make their return to spawning grounds. The smoky haze of wildfires kept us from getting clear photos, but hopefully you can see how rugged the area is. After three memorable days, we headed north over 7200' Lost Trail Pass (the motorhome performed flawlessly!) and into Montana. We'll keep you posted on our travels; come back and visit!