Driving East

Yesterday, Quinn and I got up early (for us) and headed east for Bryce Canyon National Park.

It was a long day.

I was very tired when we got back.

So no blog post.

There is so much to say about this trip that I'm going to divided it into three blogs over

the next three days.

Then I'll catch up on the rest of the happenings!

So.

Into downtown Cedar City

turn left

go by the grade school 

head up the mountain!

Way up.

Stopped at one pull out

 to attempt cleaning the inside of the window so I could see!

This was the view.

Amazing, huh?

Looking south toward Zion National Park on the far right.

The informative signage said that Zion was about 80 miles away.

That big rock in the middle was 76 miles away.

You can see for a long way in the desert!

Remember that!

Once we reached the top of the mountain we drove most of the rest of the way

through wide meadows bordered with spruce and aspen trees.

This high the aspen had already lost their leaves

While in Cedar City they are just beginning to leave green behind.

Just before we got to Duck Creek

I began noticing large areas of ground that looked like it had been plowed.

As I went further along I realized that it looked like a lava flow.

When I got back I looked it up!

The Markagunt Plateau Volcano

You can read more about it here-

https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Markagunt_Plateau

It covers about 800 sq miles of the Colorado Plateau region and is called the 

Black Rock Desert.

Speaking of the Colorado Plateau-

There are 22 National Parks and National Monuments on the Plateau.

5 National Parks are in Utah along with 3 National Monuments.

In Utah-I've been to 1 National park and 2 National Monuments.

On the Colorado Plateau I've been to 

4 National Parks and 2 National Monuments.

I have a ways to go before I see them all!

Tomorrow, will be all about Bryce Canyon National Park!

Onward through Utah!

When traveling North to South Utah is a big state!
I'm sure that lots of people would disagree but I thinks its ugly.  At least the part from Salt Lake to Cedar City.  I took all of these from a rest area -although what the State of Utah considers a rest area is in fact a paved lot next to a gas station, not even a place for Quinn to potty!

This the the Great Basin.  It goes West thorough Utah and Nevada and ends with the Sierras in California.  For trail travelers during the Gold Rush of the 1800's it is the most difficult stretch.  The trail follows the Humboldt River until it just disappears!  Then there is no water for a very long distance, heavy sand, no feed, tired animals and people.  This is one of the places the Donner party had difficulty and because of them the State of California sent out rescue parties each fall and eventually built places along the trail with feed, and water.

 Anyway the trip down was horrid!  First there was Salt Lake City to get through and even on a Sunday morning it was busy.  Then the wind picked up and blew us all about, making driving miserable.  I was so tired that when they handed me the credit card slip I didn't know what they wanted me to do with it!

Today, I hit the Quilt shop-came away empty handed - and Walmart, out of TP! Did the laundry (I still need to remake the bed, sigh), then Quinn and I took a walk along the river in the wind, again.

Tomorrow, we are going to Brice Canyon so I hope to have some better pictures!  I also hope it's pretty enough to begin to redeem Utah!

To Utah

Les trois tétons (the three nipples) from the Idaho side!

 We left West Yellowstone the earliest ever-9:30am.  It was 32 degrees F. Remember that.
Took highway 20 down into Idaho until we joined up with Interstate 15 just above Idaho Falls.
I had noticed some very strange black rock formations and had the thought that they looked volcanic. Which I didn't think was impossible since the Yellowstone caldera and other calderas are in the neighborhood. (Well if you use a large neighborhood!)  Then we stopped at a rest area for lunch.  Guess what?  It's a large lava flow area!  They have both a long and short walk with interpretative signs along the way so we stretched our legs a bit.

Some of the many caves and rough area included.

The brown blog shows the area of the lava flow.

 We only stopped for gas etc until we came to the Brigham City exit and found our campground.  The next three photos are from our campground-the first two of the Great Salt Lake and the last of the mountain behind us.

The mountains here are not as high as in Montana and Wyoming and are nearly bare of trees.  What trees they have are stunted, shaped like cedar trees in Missouri. All in all, I'd have to say that the place is ugly.

When we arrived, I had to turn on the air conditioning!  Today, I packed up the cold weather clothes and got out the hot, as I go further south it will get even warmer!

Montana spoiled me.  I'm having trouble adjusting to traffic and noise here!  Tomorrow, we move on the Cedar City and some more national parks!

Goodbye Montana

Tree tunnel

I was struck by the "where does that road go" bug again this morning on the way to the Post Office!
So, of course, I turned in.  What I mostly did was play dodge the potholes and water puddles!  I think the potholes won.  What I saw was mostly tree tunnel like above, or tree trunks like below.

There was one large meadow, regrowth after a fire, where the mountains in the distance were visible.

Arriving at the end of the road we turned around and played dodge again.  I think I did a bit better that time!

I've been in Montana for 6 weeks or so and I've travelled all over the western part of the state. (Still haven't been out on the flat.) This is what I've learned.

It is Beautiful.  All of it.

The sky is indeed big-Montana is a big state it takes a lot of sky to cover it!  The sky is also blue.  Both those things said, the sky is not any bigger or bluer than in Missouri, or Kansas, or Oklahoma or any of MANY other places-think that must have begun as a genius of an advertisement!

It is reported that there is much wildlife in Montana-I can't vouch for that except that there are tons of Pronghorn Antelopes!  

At least 75% of the people of Montana own a camper of some kind. You see them parked by most homes and many in campgrounds.  Many own off road vehicles like, dirt bikes, ATVs and snowmobiles.

There are many folks here with rebel tendencies-like What's a speed limit, I should use turn signals?-I kid you not I saw a billboard reminding drivers of that! Dogs are not supposed to be on a leash I don't care what that sign says, oh, and I don't have to pick up their poop either!

Last, but perhaps most importantly, Montana is not my home.  I'd like for it to be, I could live here and be happy.  However, if I'm going to move so far away I want the place I move to to scream "You cannot live anywhere else--This is your HOME." and Montana doesn't.

I will miss Montana when I leave tomorrow!  I will be back!  I'll leave you with this song and invite you to "Meet me in Montana!"

Yellowstone, the sequel

Upper Firehole Canyon Falls

 Off we set for Yellowstone this morning!

Much traffic.

Much traffic.

It deserved repeating.

More than when I did the Northern loop in August.

So, of course, I took side loops.

The first was Firehole Canyon.

The road was short and sort of paved.

Not too many people took that turn off,

at least not compared to the traffic on the main road.

Lower Firehole Canyon falls.

I got impatient with the traffic and seeing nothing but trees so

I turned onto Fountain Flat Dr.

I'm so glad I did! 

This is what I saw.

Three groups of bison, likely the same large herd!

They were all sort of ambling southward.

After hitting the end of the road and turning around to start back

One of the groups had come really close to the road.

In fact three of the bison where rolling in the dust.

Of course, the idiot humans were out in force, 

perhaps 10 feet away,

taking pictures.

Park regulations say to stay back 50 feet from bison, elk, deer, etc 

and 100 feet from bears and wolves.

Had there been a Park Ranger near all this idiots would have been charged with harassing wild life.

Not to mention the danger they had placed themselves in.

Bison are huge!

could easily total a car or kill an unprotected human stupid enough to get too close.

I was so touched by the herd in it's natural place, doing it's natural thing.

I had tears in my eyes from the beauty of it.

All those people hurrying off to see Old Faithful missed it.

What a shame.

I skipped Old Faithful going out to get around the traffic.

Instead, I went on to Yellowstone Lake.

On the way I stopped at ISA Lake.

Another place hardly anyone was stopping.

What a shame.

I would guess that no other lake in the country does what Isa lake does, 

sitting on the Continental Divide.

Half the lake drains to the Pacific-the EAST half-while the WEST half drains to the gulf. 

Another parking spot overlooked this valley.  

I could see the Tetons in the distance

but they are too far away for even the telephoto lens.

Arriving at the Grant Visitors Center Quinn and I took a little walk down by the lake.

Enjoy.

We headed back towards West Yellowstone from here.

Got off at Old Faithful.

Only to be confronted with arces of parking lots filled with cars.

Much walking to be done.

Quinn in car, too warm to leave her for long.

I was not comfortable with taking her near the hot geysers.

Didn't stop.

If you really want to see a photo Google it- pictures abound!

On the way back I stopped to take these of mountains I'm sure are in Montana

 and the Madison River.

I had thought I might go down to the Tetons tomorrow BUT

I'm tired, really tired.

So I think instead of driving around 300 miles down and back

We'll stay here 

and take a short dirt road adventure!

Over Hill and Dale

Madison River

This morning we were off on the next leg of our trip!

Left Dillion, drove up through Two Bridges (for the fourth time),

Sheridan (again for the fourth time), 

and Virginia City (the Ice cream shop was open! I did not stop.)

Up and over the pass and into Ennis where I turned south. 

 Driving along the Madison River Valley.

(I was in the Madison valley when I left Three Forks but this is further upstream.) 

 Many fisher persons in boats and along the shore-hope they were catching fish!

Montana has some of the nicest rest areas!  

We again stopped for lunch, a short walk and some photos-of course!

Also the Madison River

At the rest area I saw this truckload of big fence posts

-they looked like giant,

 just-sharpened pencils to me!

Somewhere along the way I zagged when I should have zigged 

(Zags to the left, Zigs to the right!)

Anyway, I'm glad I did as I drove alongside Earthquake Lake!

On August 17, 1959 at 11:37pm a 7.3 earthquake hit Hebgen Lake MT.

11 people died and the the lake tipped sideways!

You can read more about it here.

I didn't stop at the Visitor's Center and wished I had.

Considering going back, maybe.

Earthquake Lake

Tomorrow

Yellowstone!

Lookout Old Faithful here I come!

Sweetwater Road

 Today, Quinn and I set off on yet another dirt road adventure!  I expect this to be the last one.  I am losing my enthusiasm for rattling over bad roads!  Also, we're leaving Dillon tomorrow for West Yellowstone and the Tetons before heading south and west mostly on major highways, like Interstates!

This drive though took us to Ruby Lake, though the Ruby mountains-or maybe it was over them.
The first photo is from the "Top" of the drive looking west towards the Pioneer mountains and Dillon in the valley along the Beaverhead river.

Also from the top, the big hole of a Talc mine.  There are several up there but I only saw this one.

That's the road stretching out in front of us.  Deeply rutted in places, muddy still in places-really a good thing I gave it a couple of days to dry out after all the rain last week.  Four wheel drive would have been necessary then!  When I asked Suzie about this drive she said this was the "good" road-one of us needs to adjust our definition of a good road!

I love the way the center section of what looks like a mesa is so contoured-such texture!

We passed an abandoned homestead.  All log construction but at one time quite productive it seemed.

Then this log shelter for animals and perhaps the wagon.  Just beyond was a mine opening into the mountain.  This area has many garnets, found laying on the road and I supposed mined for at some point.  (Montana has natural sapphires and amethysts as well as other crystals-along with gold, copper etc so it's appropriately named the "Treasure State")

Towards the end of the dirt road this long valley-see that green?  That's irrigation!  Boy were there a bunch of Antelope down there in that green!

I just really liked this Cupola on a barn right before we hit pavement!  Against that blue Montana sky! 

Not long after this we hit pavement and rather than return over the tooth loosening road we came back to Dillon on State highways.  Have to say Ruby Lake is VERY low!