Rainy Day

When we wake up in the morning we see that the snow has been inching its way down the mountains

Homework .......... at my age???

It is actually nice to have a quiet day once in a while. We do love to be moving and exploring but, when the weather says “take a break”, we listen. Some days we have been out early and back late. Not yesterday! Strong winds, which blew up dust storms out in the dry lake bed areas, were a precursor to a weather change which brought an “all-day” rain, sorely needed in the area. Today is back to sun, warmth and exploring.

Because we are traveling we are not immune from the requirements of “home life”; paying bills, washing clothes, etc. Yesterday was the day. Also, I have enrolled in a distance learning program in Viticulture from UC – Davis. The odd rainy day allows me to stay on top of that. Meanwhile, I think Brenda has memorized every word of “1000 Places to See Before You Die”. Rainy days have their place.

Tomorrow, we are heading to South Dakota on the way home.

Salt Lake City

A great view at lunch - The LDS temple (with spires) in the foreground constructed between 1853 - 1893 with the domed Tabernacle in the background (built in 1867). I suspect that the shiny metal roof is a modern embellishment

One of Brigham Young's 2 homes. Not too shabby for someone who just crossed half the continent in an Ox cart.

Since I left my camera at home, I had to grab this picture of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir from the Internet. It's exactly what we saw.................. and heard!

Remember those smog inversions I mentioned a few days ago?

Salt Lake’s downtown is dominated by LDS church buildings, all with a unique and artful architecture, creating a homogeneous, open, airy city, surrounded by mountains ……… very “visual”. The Mormon history and their accomplishments since arriving in Utah are admirable and, much celebrated. I wouldn’t mind having the men’s “white shirt” franchise for Salt Lake City ….. everyone is in a white shirt!

We were fortunate to be in SLC on a Thursday as we were able to attend the Thursday concert of the 360 member Mormon Tabernacle Choir, along with the President and a delegation from the Czech Republic. We’ve seen the choir on TV and, heard their recordings but nothing could prepare us for seeing them live, in front of that booming organ, in what appeared to be the perfect acoustics of the Tabernacle. They sang both religious and secular music, stirring the audience with each song and, ended with a rousing Battle Hymn of the Republic. As you might imagine that got a long, standing ovation from “the red, white and blue set”! It WAS amazing. The concert was far too short. I foolishly thought that cameras would not be allowed into the Tabernacle and, left mine at home. Not only were cameras allowed but, people were walking back and forth all through the concert! Then there were the ubiquitous “backwards” baseball caps. Don’t get me started. I’m getting old!!!

Being in Utah during the Warren Jeffs trial and reading local newspaper articles on the case is interesting (to say the least)!! Not quite as much outrage as elsewhere.

Brigham Young’s two houses in SLC are both very large, ornate homes with almost dormitory looking wings to house his many wives and children. Wives with children and childless wives lived apart from each other within the homes. (My witty editorial comments have been censored!!!)

Ski towns without snow are just towns but, the drive up to Park City and Deer Valley was well worth the effort. There is a small amount of snow at the summits however the autumn foliage made the trip worthwhile. It won’t be long!!! Our ski-boarding waitress at lunch said that many of her friends have been climbing to the north facing valleys off the peaks to get in those first few runs in September. Oh to be young again!

The Oregon Trail

One can almost visualize the Prairie Schooners rolling over this vast land

The 1882 LDS Meeting House, now presiding over a ghost town

Downtown Salt Lake City from outside our door

We were unaware how important Idaho was to the opening of the American West. Not only did Lewis and Clark transit Idaho on their quest for the western ocean; they crossed the Continental Divide in Idaho and headed “downhill” to the Pacific from here. Also, both the Oregon and California Trails passed through Idaho, splitting from each other at Fort Hall (now Pocatello, our Idaho location). Many Conestoga Wagons and Prairie Schooners passed through this very area on their way west. Those people were tough!!

Chesterfield was an early LDS (Later Day Saints – the Mormons) village, established in the area of Fort Hall (Pocatello) in the 1880’s. Today it is a ghost town. What is interesting to the current visitor is that the occupants lived in log cabins and simple wooden homes, with one or two “wealthy” merchants or church officials occupying brick homes. However, all of the church’s buildings, including a tithing office and a tithing grain elevator were grandly constructed of locally produced brick. The contrast in construction is striking!

The drive to Salt Lake City was uneventful. We are back in shorts and T-shirts; the pool is open and, we just might use it. After being in the crisp clean air of the mountains, it was a shock to see smog sitting in inversions in mountain valleys 60 miles outside of Salt Lake City. At one point it looked like we were coming to the end of the world as the scenery just disappeared into a veil of smog. Progress!!

Hello Winter - Goodbye Winter

Heading up into the Targhee Pass

I wonder if that "Let sleeping dogs lie" thing also applies to Wolves??

The Radio Shack in West Yellowstone also rents and sells Ski-Doos and associated equipment. In fact the majority of the store is taken up with large, new snowmobiles. When I asked if they carried Canon printer cartridges, the clerk greeted me with a knowing smile and replied, “What? In this town!!”. I took that as a no. However, I could have picked up a dandy snowmobile suit.

The weather in Yellowstone has consisted of warm, sunny days and cold nights, with the evening temperature dropping like a stone as soon as the sun is down, to just above freezing. Yesterday it rained and, by morning there was a light “skiff” of snow on everything. So, it’s time to head south into the land of computer printer cartridges and lower altitudes. The locals here all claim to love the winter but ........... only for the first six months!

It’s forecast to be in the mid to high 70’s F° in Salt Lake City consequently ………. let’s go there. We waited for the snow to melt and headed south to Pocatello, Idaho. We were no more than 15 minutes out of Yellowstone and only about 500 feet higher, heading through the Targhee Pass, when everything became covered in REAL snow. I think we are “getting out of Dodge” in the nick of time. We have booked a spot in Salt Lake City to leave the motorhome when we fly home for Thanksgiving. So, our next week will be about exploring southern Idaho and northern Utah.

Yellowstone and Grand Teton

The "88" fires killed or consumed millions of trees

Finding the wildlife is easy..... look for the guys with the "spotter scopes". One couple, who shared their scope with us, had been watching a single Grizzly for 3 1/2 hours!!!

I think there is a Wyoming State law that requires one to visit "Old Faithful" if you enter Yellowstone

Geothermal activity is everywhere - in the hills; in the valleys; in the meadows. BTW that black spec is a lone Bison. Double click if you don't believe me!

Our first view of the Tetons through golden Cottonwood and Aspens

We finally added "Meeses" to the list

I am at a loss as to how to describe Yellowstone. It is a special place! It is classified as an active volcano although there have been no lava flows of any kind for 70,000 years and, the last eruption was 640,000 years ago. However, with a caldera measuring 50 miles by 35 miles, it has a huge area of geothermal activity including geysers, mudpots, fumaroles and hot springs. Lots of steam wherever you look! In 1988 several fires united to burn over 36% of the park’s 2,200,000 acres (about the size of Connecticut) leaving are eerie legacy of skeletal trees, most of which have not fallen in almost 20 years. Because it is such a high, dry environment (average altitude 8,000 ft), the wood does not rot quickly.

Oh…… and there are a few animals!! In one day we saw grizzly bears, black bears, rutting elk, pronghorn antelope, mule-deer, wolves, coyote, bison, bighorn sheep and a 40 year old eagles’s nest (the nest is 40……not the eagle). What …….. no moose yet?? There is rushing water everywhere although, like many places lately, water levels are dangerously low. We have been surprised at how much of the area is high mountain meadow and grassland but, now we know what attracts all the wildlife! Hide in the forests, graze in the grasslands ……. A perfect life! Also…… it’s mating season ……… Hubba hubba!

The town of Moose, Wyoming was so named for the abundance of ……….. (how many guesses will you need for this one?) …….. moose in the area therefore, on day 2 we had no difficulty filling our moose sighting quota. We again saw herds of elk, bison and pronghorns (the locals drop the “antelope” and just call them pronghorns ……. gotta be cool and in-the-know). We have never seen such abundant wildlife anywhere! The tour guides call it the Serengeti of North America. We damn near hit a red fox as it jumped in front of our car.

We also drove south of Yellowstone into Grand Teton National Park. There is not so much wildlife here except for the town of Moose, which is outside the southern park gate however, the beauty of the Tetons is all that is required. The highest peak, Grand Teton is majestic and, we got to see it just before the forecasted bad weather arrived and the clouds began to shroud it.

Thank you Ulysses S. Grant (not Teddy Roosevelt as many think) for having the foresight to designate this place as the first national park. It’s special!

Through Montana

As mountain climbs go, this one was easy!

Through the Gallatin Mountains

For my lawyer friends - The City Court in West Yellowstone

News flash …….. In an effort to keep readers fully informed of pivotal events in the west ……… Within 24 hours of its unveiling, Seattle’s bureaucracy has moved quickly to rename their new transit system. The system is now officially named the South Lake Union Streetcar. However, retailers cannot get enough “Ride the S.L.U.T.” T-shirts to keep them on their shelves. That horse is out of the barn!!

Montana is one big state! In fact geographically it is the 4’th largest state in the Union with the 44’th largest population. The residents number ..... 920,000 people and, over 3,000,000 cows. What if cows could vote? The drive to Bozeman started with numerous “up and down” runs through mountain passes in the Rockies but, quickly transformed into a “cruise control” drive through the rolling pastureland where all those cows live. After a quick overnight stop in Bozeman, we turned south to head for the community of West Yellowstone, Montana, smack on the border of Montana and Wyoming. Most of Yellowstone Park is located in Wyoming.

We have seen some spectacular scenery on this trip but, neither Brenda nor I wanted the drive from Bozeman to end. Climbing into the Gallatin Mountains, following the course of the swift Gallatin River all the way, we passed through deep mountain canyons and climbed into mountain meadows where the Aspen were providing their last golden show before winter and, the mountain meadows were ablaze in the colours of autumn. The route took us through Big Sky, a favourite ski hill from a past ski trip. A nearly cloudless sky silhouetted the skeletal remains of trees left from earlier forest fires on the hilltops, with a next generation of forest springing up at the base of their trunks. Lone fly fishermen were spaced along the river at discrete distances from each other, providing the only human input to the scene. It was a great drive and…….. we made it to West Yellowstone at an altitude of 6,666 feet. Now if only the Grizzlies and Big Horn Sheep will co-operate over the next few days.

Back in the USA

Did anyone know that the "pot-of-gold" at the end of the rainbow is an old RV?

The Columbia River below the Grand Coulee Dam

I missed this branch by 1/4 inch. It never touched the RV. Lucky!

The grain fields of northern Washington

There is "history" everywhere in Wallace (Double click to read the signs)

Crossing the border on Monday morning, south of Osoyoos BC, required over ½ hour to allow the Customs Inspector to search our motor-home for treacherous and evil substances such as chives, COOKED corn-on-the-cob, canned beef bullion, canned beef chili and other wicked items. Were I American, I would sleep well knowing that my government was protecting me from such terrible stuff. We could have had a radioactive “dirty bomb” in storage below, but they would have confiscated our chives!!!!!!!!!!

To close my wine whine about Okanagan (Okanogan south of the border) wines, we purchased a bottle of award winning California Chardonnay as soon as we crossed into the US. We tried it for dinner. It was as good as, or better than, any Chardonnay we sampled in the Okanagan. And…….. it was 4 bucks!!!! ($4.49 to be precise) A case of this stuff would be equivalent to the price of a bottle of good Okanagan Chardonnay. The Okanagan vintners are playing with us!!!

When we stopped in Grand Coulee, Washington to take pictures of the namesake dam, I parked on the side of a tree-lined street. Unbeknownst to me a low hanging branch was less than ¼ inch from taking off our large side awning. It’s great to be lucky!!!

Crossing northern Washington State was a surprise to both Brenda and me. The interior is starkly different from the coast. After crossing a few small mountain ranges through low passes, we drove for mile upon mile through grain fields stretching to the horizon and rolling, rocky grasslands reminiscent of Saskatchewan. Once into Idaho, we encountered low mountain ranges and entered “Silver Country” where many historic silver mines were founded. Some still flourish to this day. Last century over 1 billion ounces of silver were mined from the hills around Coeur d’Alene, Idaho (Core de Lane in American), the ancestral home of the Shoshoni and Nez Perce Indian nations and, the largest deposit of silver in the world. This century will see at least that much again taken from these hills. The town of Wallace, near where we are parked, focuses their historical presentations on silver and bordellos. We have been focusing on silver!!!

We’ve just been watching a Seattle TV news station and, I’ll bet anyone $10 that they will soon rename their new transit system, now the South Lake Union Trolley. What do you think?