Western Washington to Vancouver

We continued to dry through other coulees as we headed west. Then we descended several thousand feet on US-2 and reached a river valley covered in orchards. Further on, we climbed the mountain valleys with peaks on either side over Stevens Pass. Finally we descended into Everett Washington and headed North toward Canada on I-5. I had planned to stop at a Spark Museum in Bellingham, but the labor day traffic had us running an hour late already and we still had to go across the border. 

We ended up at Tynehead RV Camp in Surrey, Canada at about 4:30. We have a great campsite shaded by tall trees, but the camp is primarily long-term campers, so we feel lucky.

Grand Coulee

Grand Coulee Irrigation Pumps

It was only a few miles to the Washington border, but almost immediately the landscape changed from mountains to wheat fields. We took the tour of the Grand Coulee Dam, the largest electrical facility in the US. It can power the cities of Seattle and Portland. However, it was designed primarily to provide irrigation water to Eastern Washington, an area as large as Rhode Island. We saw the 12 pumps that take the water out of the Columbia River and pump it up 280 feet into Banks lake from which it is distributed. These pumps can move 1 billion gallons a day. Two of the pumps were down for their 25 year maintenance. Only 2% of the flow from the Columbia is removed here for irrigation.

We continued on to Dry Falls State Park. Here we met an enthusiastic ranger, who was happy to share with us the story of this place. After the last glacier period, the glacier dammed up the water creating Lake Missoula, which was the size of Lake Erie and Ontario combined. The water caused a massive flood when it broke through the ice dam. Here was a 3 1/2 mile long water fall falling 350 feet and tearing away the basalt rock flowing at 60 mph. Eventually all this water found a path to the ocean , meanwhile it created these coulee formations.

Lake Missoula and the Coulees

Travelling through Northern Montana and Idaho

We started heading west on US 12 and I-90. The land was very scenic: ranch land with tall hills, brown grasses, and dark green trees. We seemed to be always crossing varied rivers. As we hit Idaho the country really changed, especially after we left the Interstate. The mountains were higher and the roads twistier. We camped at Heyborn State Park on Chatcolet Lake. I had planned a small hike here to see "the river in the lake"  but we never found the trail head. We walked around by the marina and campground instead. This was our first night on the trip with data access on our phones.The campground offered electricity and water. 

Meadow of Chatcolet Lake

Helena

Last Chance Tour

We took the Last Chance Tour of the town. It toured the Capitol area, the downtown, and then the mansions built by those who discovered gold or sold supplies to the miners. The main street in town is paved over Last Chance Creek where  the gold was discovered in 1864. There are quite a few strangely shaped building because they take their shape from the original gold claim.

Alex C. Johnson Residence

The capital building is rather small, but very ornate. Helena became the permanent capital after a vote of the state. People here were concerned that would become a ghost town after the gold ran out. Funny thing, the county had twice as many votes then there were voters.

Montana State Capitol

The Montana History Museum described the people of Montana emphasizing the Indian cultures, mining, and agriculture. They have a dedicated room to the artworks of C.W. Russell who spent most of his life here. He is famous for his art depicting Indians and cowboys.

C.W. Russel - When the Land Belonged to God, 1904

We had a late, great lunch at the Windbag Saloon before heading back to camp.

Virginia City, Montana

Virginia City

We woke up to 35 degree weather and rain. As we crossed the Continental Divide there was snow on the trees around us. We took US 287 northwest out of the park past Quake Lake, formed from the 1959 earthquake. We've been here before and recommend a stop at the visitor center. Our stop for the day was Virginia City, Montana. This was the site of a gold strike in 1853. Two billion dollars worth of gold came out of the hills. The town today has the largest set of buildings from the 1860s, because there were no major fires. In the 1860's there were 20,000 people living here. It was a lawless town until  a group of vigilantes became the law. They hanged 5 criminals one day from the beams of one of the buildings and then buried them on Boot Hill above the town. Virginia City became the territorial capital of Montana. The historical society of Montana has preserved many of the buildings and recreated the scenes from the 1860's from a barbershop to black Smith’s to the dry goods store.

Tea and Coffee for Sale

We camped at Black Sandy State Park outside Helena. The campground seems ideal for fisherman, many campsites have boat piers. 

Black Sandy Campground

Yellowstone Grand Loop

Whirligig Geyser, Norris

Today, we're taking the Grand Loop to see the Northern part of the Park. At Norris, we took the back basin trail. We were shocked to see that Steamboat Geyser, which often doesn't erupt for years, had erupted 4 days earlier! We still enjoyed the other features: Emerald pool, Echinus Geyser and the sizzling Black Pit Spring. As we were heading back Vixen Geyser was playing for the tourists, it quit soon after we arrived. But the most colorful displays were the views of Porcelain Basin with its pastel colors.

Porcelain Basin

We headed up to Mammoth Hot Springs, but only a few areas of the terrace were active: grassy spring, Cupid Spring, and the Mound Terrace. We completed the loop around the park, stopping at Tower Falls. Next time we'll have to spend more time in the Northeast section of the park.

Mound Terrace, Mammoth Hot Springs

Yellowstone Canyon

We headed to Mud Volcano for a ranger talk. On the way, we found out that we had just missed a bear, but soon we ran into a herd of bison just off the road. It's rut season, several males were butting heads, others were rolling in the dirt, and of course, some were closely following the females.

The Haydn party in 1852 had heard the trappers say that Mud Volcano could be heard from the river and had 100 foot eruptions every 7 to 8 minutes, but by the time they arrived it had destroyed itself leaving a large crater. Nearby is Painters Palace, a section of colorful vegetation in the hot water. A fungus protects the roots from the 80 degree, acidic water. We learned that mud pools are acidic and clear pools are alkaline at Yellowstone.

Yellowstone Canyon from Lower Falls

Our trip to the Canyon area was shortened because the viewpoint of Upper Falls and Uncle Tom's Trail to Lower Falls were closed for construction. We still enjoyed Artist Point with its view of Lower Falls, the trails to the brink of both falls, and the North Rim viewpoints.

Geysers

Morning Glory Pool

We started our day at the Old Faithful Visitor Center to attempt to view as many of the predictable geysers as possible. Then we hit the boardwalks seeing Old Faithful shoot off from a distance. The day warmed up as we visited the various pools, springs, and  geysers admiring the colors from the algae and microorganisms. We passed Grand Geyser about half an hour before its 2 hour eruption time-slot. GrottoGeyser was quiet as we passed by, so we made it all the way to Morning  Glory Pool one of the prettiest around. On our return trip Grotto was erupting, we watched until it ended. The crowd had disappeared at Grand, so it had gone off. Then we could see Castle Geyser begin its 20 minute eruption and in the distance Old Faithful for a second time.

We headed to Great Fountain Geyser hoping to catch the eruption, but it had occurred about 30 minutes earlier. We explored a few of the other thermal features before heading to the Firehole Canyon Drive to see the waterfall. This was our turnaround point for the day. Next stop Fountain paintpots, one of my favorite features watching the mud gurgle. Further along the trail are pools and constantly erupting geysers.

At Midway Geyser Basin we saw the crater around Excelsior Geyser. While Excelsior doesn't erupt, over 4000 gallons of water a minute flow out of the geyser. Further up the trail is Grand Prismatic Spring, the largest spring in the park. It looks best from the air with its magnificent colors. 

Grand Prismatic Spring

After all these beautiful features Biscuit Basin was a disappointment. We headed home to Bridge Bay Campground and a great campfire talk on Lake Yellowstone. The ranger had been here for 46 summers and told us about both the early history of Fishing Bridge and the Lake as well as recent discoveries. They just recently found the deepest hole (400 feet) in the lake, but their thermometer melted after reading 350 degrees.

Elk by our campground

West Thumb

Black Pool

We headed up to Yellowstone today, stopping at the Visitor Center for the exhibits and movie about the 1988 Yellowstone fire. We had been in the park that year about a month before it engulfed about 1/3 of the park. The Park service faced a lot of criticism about their fire policies. People were worried that the park had been destroyed. Today, we can observe how letting the fires burn actually replenished the park.

Colors along the Lake at West Thumb

The thermal features at West Thumb are not spectacular, but since they are on Lake Yellowstone, the surrounding scenery makes it special. Reading about the history of the features, you understand how they transition between active geysers, pools, and some just dry up.

Natural Bridge

In the afternoon I took the short hike to Natural Bridge. The trail to the top of the bridge has been refurbished, allowing anyone to climb up. The campfire talk that night was on the history of Yellowstone Park. The ranger who gave it told great stories, it was the funniest history lesson I've ever heard. I got to talking to the woman next to me, Liz, she graduated from my high school 4 years after I did.

Marmot in the rocks of Natural Bridge

Teton Road Adventure

Storm over the Tetons

We were supposed to take a float trip on the Snake River this morning, but we woke up to a thunderstorm. Instead we visited Cunningham Cabin, a homestead cabin from the 1880s. Then we took what looked like a gravel road through the nearby national forest to eventually head south. Well it's lucky my car had a navigation system because we often reached points with several alternative roads. So we followed what appeared to be the route on the map. This led us up into the foothills east of the park over high clearance roads. Because of the rain, we had several occasions where the road turned to muck and our wheels just followed the ruts. After climbing forever, we started descending finally reaching the sage brush plains. At one point, it looked like we needed to turn North to connect up with a south directed road. My mistake, I had read the park boundary as a road on our navigation system. We ended up doing a circle on these forest service roads. 

Mud Slinging on the Slick Road

We eventually found the highway and took conventional roads to Morman row, photographing the buildings and barns with the cloud filled Tetons in the background. Then up to Gros Ventre to see the 1927 slide that dammed the river to form Slide Lake. Finally we headed into Jackson for a beer at the Cowboy Bar and a Mexican dinner.

The barn along Mormon Row

Grand Teton

If you prefer a video of this trip, rather than the day to day details, just go to youtube. 

Brook Lake Creek Falls

We left Colorado yesterday for the drive to Dubois, Wyoming about 50 miles shy of Grand Teton National Park. We camped that evening in the Falls Forest Campground. They've added electric hookups to loop A since our last visit.

Colter Bay in the Smoke

This morning we had no trouble getting a campsite at Colter Bay in Grand Teton National Park. Electric sites require reservations month in advance, but we've never had a problem getting a non-electric site. 

Mother bear and cubs

The smoke from the huge fires in California to Canada obscured the view of the mountains. Instead, we had a wildlife day. On Signal mountain, we found a mother bear  and three Cubs in the forest. On top, we found  a Sage Grouse and then near Jenny Lake , we spotted a red fox. We had a pleasant hike to Leigh Lake, watching all the folks on their float boards.

Red Fox