August 15, 2013 Day –thirty-seven

Las Vegas NV, home

We both woke up with the feeling it was time to head for home.  Getting out of Vegas was a hassle, with traffic, and we were trying to find a simple place for breakfast and it is clear that Vegas is a town built for the night not for the morning.  Places were either strange bars, had no parking or weren’t yet open.  We opted to get out of town and eat granola bars and yogurt from our own stock.  Time to head home!

It is always good when coming back form a long trip, to get to the Welcome to California sign.  Almost home.

Just after we passed the border we could again see the new solar plant.  It is the largest such plant in the world.  It uses mirrors to focus the sun on towers to heat a solution into steam which drives generators to create electricity.  These arrays are unbelievably huge, spreading across the valley floor.  Those mirrors facing somewhat in our direction certainly were bright.  We agreed that we did not want to be responsible for dusting all of those mirrors.

We were struck again by how dry the Mojave Dessert is.  The drive through the mountains and  valleys are an ever changing mosaic of rocks, sand, and very hardy plants.  At this point in our trips we always do some reflection.  It gives us a chance to not only quantify what we have done but to discuss what it has meant to us.

So, what did we do on our summer vacation?  During the past five weeks we:

* Visited 12 states

* Went to 10 national parks, 4 national monuments, and 10 national historic sites

* Went to 5 museums, 1 zoo, 1 landscape arboretum

* Drove about 7,000 miles

* Went on a river raft float trip

* Went to many ranger talks and the victors centers at each of the parks

* Saw family and friends

* Saw bison, mule deer, elk, wild burros, wild horses, rabbits, prairie dogs, golden mantel ground squirrels, sand hills cranes, chimp monks, bald eagles, osprey, peregrine falcons, cormorants, vultures, red-tailed hawks, white pelicans, skunks, prong horn, moose,

* Drove through low desert, high desert, alpine mountains, prairie, hardwood forest, arboreal forest 

* We saw license plates from every state except for Rhode Island, and lots of the Canadian provinces

* Were in three different time zones

* Experienced temperatures from 34 to 104 degrees

Home

We both agree that the best part of the trip was doing it together, and even after being together virtually 24 hours a day for 37 days, we are still very happy to be together and so glad to be coming home together.  Ready to settle in to our lives, not having found any place we would rather be living.  And already starting to plan, the next adventures.  Stay tuned.

“All journeys eventually end in the same place, home.”
― Chris Geiger

August 14, 2013 Day –thirty-six

Great Basin National Park,  Las Vegas NV

Dick was up early to watch the sun as it worked its way down the mountains into the aspen trees.  He so enjoyed soaking up the last bit of mountains before we return to CA.  Great Basin Park was really a gem of a stop.  The drive down off the mountain was beautiful, watching the changes in the types of trees and the views form the “sky-island.”

We headed down towards Vegas on a highway known as the Great Basin Highway, US 93.  The drive was quite relaxing, as we were generally the only car within sight. Dick enjoyed being able to keep looking back and see Mt. Wheeler for nearly 80 miles, still glimpsing the high peak.

We made a stop at an old mining town, Pioche.  Now it has about 600 people, but in the late 1870’s nearly 10,000 people lived there as the rush for silver was in full swing.  Once the mining played out, the miners went to the next hot spot.  We stopped at The Overland Hotel, with an old ornately carved wooden bar that had been shipped going around Cape Horn to get here.   New owners are restoring the hotel to its former glory.  We were impressed with all that we were able to see.

We also visited the million-dollar courthouse, with a museum there.  The courthouse didn’t actually cost that much originally to build, but got caught up in some shady dealings and bonds that didn’t get applied to pay off the loan.  And the strike played out so most people left.  When it was finally paid off in the 1930’s, with interest, it ended up costing nearly a million dollars.  A nice woman gave us a tour of the courthouse.  We also got a copy of a promo cd for the Highway 93 area, and entertained ourselves the rest oft the way driving to Vegas by hearing stories and history of the tiny towns and mines that were so important to Northeastern Nevada.  The Pony Expressed rode through this area, as well as the transcontinental railroad, and important stagecoach routes.  This was pretty interesting to hear about.

One stop we made for lunch was at Cathedral Gorge State park.  This was a smaller version of Bryce Canyon, with the same type of rock formations.  The Mormons used this canyon to put on bible pageants in earlier times.  The heat, now nearly 100 degrees made it less inviting to do some hiking down in the canyon, but it was a lovely stop.

Coming into Vegas was a shock to our systems.  Traffic, heat (104), and too many people, made us long for the mountains that we had just come from.  We made a quick stop to see if there were any show tickets that drew us for the evening, but nothing really sounded good, especially for the money.

We checked into our resort hotel.  It was huge and fairly impersonal, although very nice.  We decided to cool off for a bit, then head down to the strip for a buffet dinner.   We ended up at a very nice Seafood and Sushi buffet at Planet Hollywood.  We were pretty sure it was authentic in quality as ¾ of the patrols were Asian, many not speaking English.  The food was plentiful and tasty, ending with crepes made to order and chocolate dipped strawberries.  We weren’t going to get those camping in Great Basin National Park, so some good advantages to the City.

We decided to not stroll around longer on the strip since it was still nearly 100 degrees, we don’t gamble, and it was too crowded.  Instead, we went back to the hotel and enjoyed the “lazy river” floating on our inner tubes.  The water was just the right temperature for cooling off.

One more night and ready to head for home.

“...I had always believed that I left a bit of me wherever I went. I also believed that I took a bit of every place with me. I never felt that more than with this trip. It was as if the act of touching these places, walking these roads, and asking these questions had added another column to my being. And the only possible explanation I could find for that feeling was that a spirit existed in many of the places I visited, and a spirit existed in me and the two had somehow met in the course of my travels. It's as if the godliness of the land and the godliness of my being had fused.”
― Bruce Feiler

August 13, 2013 Day –thirty-five

Great Basin National Park

We woke up still so happy at the Meteor Watching last night…and we glad to find out that we should be able to see them again tonight (without the party).  We were so pleased with our decision to spend two nights here at this really lovely park.
 

We took a short drive out of the park to the little town nearby.  On the way we stopped at a Ranching Exhibit.  It had a great panorama sculpture of various ranching scenes.  It was  very well done.  Behind the exhibit was an old rusty Ford truck.  When you got closer you could see it was being driven by a horse skull.  There was a sign next to it saying it was the horse with no name, with name crossed out and mane put in;-)  I guess desert humor.  But the Drive was ahead. The views were great. The trees wonderful.   Things were lovely close up and far away.

After our errands, we headed up the mountain for a great scenic drive where we got up above 10,000 feet. At the heart of the park is Mt Wheeler, over 13,000 feet.  As we climbed we kept getting new views of the tallest mountains and then a view over the surrounding desert.  We could easily see why  the refer to these mountains as sky islands.  They are separated from other mountain ranges by hot, dry deserts so the plants and animals are isolated, as if they were on islands in the ocean.

We found a lovely campsite at the end of the campground.  Behind the site was a short ridge which provided a great view of the mountains.  The air was so clear and the breeze invigorating.  As we drove away from the site we saw a mule deer doe just a short distance away.  We thought this was a very good sign for us.s

We decided to take a three mile hike up to see some ancient Bristlecone Pine.  These are the oldest living things on Earth.  Some of them have been known to live 6-7,000 years.  They are very hearty, and often seem to be dead, but have parts that are still alive.  They are amazing, and slightly grotesque, but you just keep wanting to look at them.  The hike was lovely, but 10,000 is really high elevation, and we had to stop to let our hearts and breathing catch up at times.  It was a hike well worth doing.  Always the folks you meet when hiking are part of the experience.  We were amazed at how many Europeans knew about this remote Park that most Americans don’t know about.  They do their travel homework, for sure.

Back from the hike, we set up our van and took at glorious hour and half afternoon nap.  What luxury!  Then a great dinner, time for photos and blogging and getting ready for the sky show again.  We took a few moments to watch the shifting sunlight on the mountains as they turned golden before the light faded. We were so glad that we gave ourselves this easier reentry time.  We are both beginning to think about home and work, but not quite yet.

One more sleep, a night in Vegas and then home.

“Travel and change of place impart new vigor to the mind.” – Seneca

August 12, 2013 Day –thirty-four

Eden UT,  Topaz Interment Camp,  Great Basin National Park

We left our condo feeling rested and ready to head down the road on our way out of Utah.  Not too much Monday morning rush hour traffic going through Salt Lake City.  Not on our schedule to stop this time, but a very interesting city.

Signs marked the location of former structures

Our next stop was one more of the Japanese internment Camps. This one was called Topaz Relocation Center.  It is, surprise, out in the middle of nowhere.  The nearest town was called Delta, Utah, but from there we drove and drove and drove.  This camp had 11,000 internees.  Although there are plans for a museum and visitors’ center, right now all that is left is really some ruins of buildings, and some signs identifying where things were, thanks for an Eagle Scout project.

One of the parts that made the visit there more poignant, was at the same time arrived there, so did a family whose mother appeared to be Japanese.  Watching them walk around the site, and then later talking with them, especially the adorable 5-year old son, made it more real.  To know that these were the types of people who were locked-up here.  So many small children including babies.  We left feeling like we didn’t get to hear the whole story, but were later able to buy a book, which Patti is reading about this particular camp.  Both of us feel like we really want to honor those people and their experience in our coming to these camps.  Sobering, but a good thing to do.

Then we drove a couple more hours and passed over into Nevada, the next to last state before we are home.  Destination:  Great Basin National Park.  This is a park that Dick has been curious about for many years, but you have to want to get there.  It is also definitely not on the beaten path.  This was the trip to check it out and see what there was to see.  It is between Salt Lake and Vegas, but going across some very open country.

The Great Basin itself is a very large area that stretches from central Utah to the Sierra Nevada mountains.  It is called the Great Basin because the water within this area doesn’t drain to any ocean.  This is why The Great Salt Lake doesn’t go anywhere else, and why Death Valley is so low with water not coming out.

The Park has some wonderful hiking and views. And they also have a most lovely cave, available for public ranger guided tours.  We were able to get on the 2:00 tour with only 9 people, so it was almost a private tour, our favorite kind!  This cave had a lot of beautiful and unique formations.  This included some rare “shields”, as well as many other wonderful things to look at and wonder about.

We took a little rest before dinner, because then we were off to a ranger talk on Bats.  The young ranger was highly enthusiastic about bats, and not only wrote and played a bat song on his guitar, but also had a devise which could be pointed at the sky and could identify the echolocation sounds that the bats make to find their insect food, and make the sound audible to human eats.  Very, very cool. 

Then starting at about 9pm, people began to gather at the visitor centers for a Meteor Watching Party. Each early August, the Earth cross path with a bunch of meteors giving this grand showing for several days. We got to hold a couple of actual meteorites that had landed on Earth.  They were quite heavy, but very cool.  This park happens to be one of the darkest places in the country and so we were not only treated to seeing dozens of meteors, but the Milky Way was so bright and beautiful.   The parking lot was filled with people, rangers with telescopes, whole families, and lone campers all enjoying the show.  It had a bit of the sense of a fireworks display with sometimes loud “Ooohs” and “ahhs” and “did you see that one?”  We were falling asleep around 10:30, (changed time zones again) and so had to go back to our campsite, where we caught a few more.  What a happy and wonderful natural thing to be able to do.

“Roam abroad in the world, and take thy fill of its enjoyments before the day shall come when thou must quit it for good.”
― Saadi

August 11, 2013 Day –thirty-three

Eden UT

Oh, a day to hang out and catch up before the final push on home.  Day thirty-three on the road.  We were up just in time to see the sunlight hit the mountains on the west side of the valley. We spent the morning doing “an owner update” for our Worldmark timeshare program.  We met with a young man who had been an owner only two month shorter than we had: over 15 years.  We have so enjoyed the opportunity to travel and stay in many wonderful places while having the comforts of home.  We got some great tips, and some new ideas for trips we would like to go on.  Well worth a couple hours on our lazy day.

We truly spent the afternoon reading, playing with photos and just kicking back.  Not the pace we have been keeping for the past month, so a welcome relief.  We got the chance to hang out in our backyard, watch the neighbor’s really cute kids run around.

Dick made another great meal on the grill, and did some advanced cooking for the next two days of camping.  So much nicer to just warm up a home-cooked meal than to cook it by scratch on a camp stove.   We watched the lovely sunset as the sun sank behind the mountains.

Then off to soak in the hot tub and have a great chat with a young couple from Utah.  A nice sunset.  Good living!

“I have found out that there ain't no surer way to find out whether you like people or hate them than to travel with them.”
― Mark Twain, Tom Sawyer Abroad

August 10, 2013 Day –thirty-two

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Eden UT and Golden Spike National Historic Site

Waking up knowing that we still had another couple of nights here before we have to pack up was a nice feeling. A nice leisurely breakfast cooking bacon and eggs…. you forget how nice it is to have a stove, refrigerator and dishwasher.

Then we set off to a very interesting day at The Golden Spike National Historic Site.  This was the pace where the two sets of railroad tracks came together outside of Salt Lake City to meet and form the first transcontinental railroad. 

Presenting the Golden Spike

A couple times of a year they do a huge reenactment of the pounding of that final railroad spike.  With the completion of the railroad, crossing the country would now take only two weeks, forever changing the need to take 6 months to go across the country by horse, walking or by wagon.  This was mind blowing that the time and changed everything. 

Driving the final spike

We so enjoyed the dozen reenactors who did a marvelous job showing us the ceremony that took place, as well as getting to see the two replica steam engines in actions.  It was very moving, all the more so having spent a lot of time driving across the country and being very glad we were not trying to do it by wagon.

We also enjoyed the two steam engines, exact replicas of those participating in the ceremony in 1869.  We had the chance to tour the engines and talk with the reenactors.  These are definitely people who love these engines. The moved the engines around the grounds several times during the ceremony with their whistles blowing and bells clanging.  It was fun to see them in action.

They also had a lot of old fashioned games to play, including toss the buffalo chip-Dick was outstanding at this, tossing his over 80 feet.   Patti used her discus throwing technique, for a lovely looking toss, but only about 40 feet.  We know that this game was practiced by both the pioneers and the Native peoples.  These are the same buffalo pies that both groups also used as fuel since there were few trees on the prairie. The "pies" are actually almost exclusively made up of grass so they burned well without smell and were surprisingly light to throw.

Patti took a turn at throwing wood logs into a boiler to burn to make steam (harder than it looks!)   On the actual engines, they burned through 3 cords of wood every 25 miles, and so had to keep adding in more wood constantly.  It was hard work just doing ten logs. One of the volunteers told us that in the winter, they used long hot dog roasting sticks and cook themselves hot dogs while tending the fire. 

And both of us delighted in getting to ride on a railroad handcar, where you had to pump it, and on a speeder, a small gas operated handcar.  What a great chance to see these things up close.

Did we were mention that we liked history?  We do.

Then it was back to the resort for some hang out time-grilling on the gas grill on our deck and another soak in the hot tub and a DVD. Pretty hard core hanging out, but we somehow managed.  Another lovely day.

“Every one of a hundred thousand cities around the world had its own special sunset and it was worth going there, just once, if only to see the sun go down.”
― Ryū Murakami, Coin Locker Babies

August 9, 2013 Day –thirty-one

Minidoka Internment Camp, Eden UT

Returned Mess Hall &Barrack

Our morning ride took us just a short way to the actual site of Minidoka Internment Camp.  We always hold our breath a little as we are coming up to these places where thousands of Japanese Americans were held against their will. Some sites are now just cornfields with a small plaque or monument, but Minidoka was a really impressive site.  The National Park Service is doing a good job of reacquiring the land, purchasing and returning buildings, and providing a walking tour with great interpretive signs.  

Most of the camps we had previously visited had been populated primarily with individuals and families from California.  Minidoka had virtually no one from California.  Here Japanese-Americans from Oregon, Washington, and Alaska were interred.  These internees went from the moist, temperate coastal areas to the dry, temperature extremes of the high desert of Idaho. 

 This land, prior to the war, had not been particularly productive.  Most farms were at a bare subsistence level.  Many of the Japanese-Americans were highly skilled farmers who figured out how to make the land produce so much more.  One example of this productivity was the Root Cellar.  This huge structure was able to store the equivalent of over 50 rail cars of root vegetables, including nearly a million pounds of potatoes plus carrots and cabbage.  By the third year, the camp became self-sufficient, producing the meat, vegetables, and fruits that they consumed.  Farmers in the area began to adopt the farming methods used by the internees.

One of the really tricky parts of the internment camp process was a loyalty questionnaire given to all adults in the camps over 17 years old.  They were asked a whole variety of questions but included a questions asking if you would serve in the military in war if requested, and if you would forswear any loyalty to Japan and the Emperor.  These questions were open to some interpretation, and both women and the elderly were concerned that if they marked Yes, that they would be sent to war.  Also there were many young men who said that they would indeed fight in the war once their families were released form the camps, but not while they were locked up.  And some felt that if they said they were forswearing the emperor, this was like admitting you had loyalty to the emperor before (kind of “When did you stop beating your wife? type of question.) Throughout all of the camps, there was lots of controversy about these.  In the end, the men who answered these two questions with “No” (they were called the “No, No Boys” were all rounded up and sent to Tule Lake Internment Camp in Northern CA.  There all of the supposed "disloyal" Japanese Americans were gathered together.  This included about 3 percent of those who were in Minidoka, the lowest percentage of all of the camps.  These men experienced not only additional punishment from the government, but also were often ostracized form their own community. 

We were struck again by the differences in how the camps were administered and the reactions of local people to their presence.  Many people around Minidoka assumed that the internees were being coddled because they had food provided and had running water.  The internees were assumed to have many luxuries, including not having to abide by rationing.  Having entered the camp with only what they could carry in a suitcase and light package, these internees had had to give up everything else they had owned and now lived behind barbed wire.  In other camps the movement in and out of the immediate area of the camp became more lax.  Guard towers were no longer manned with soldiers with machine guns.  At Minidoka, the towers remained armed and a new barbed wire fence was erected just a year before the camp closed.

As you can tell, this story continues to really move us, and as we walked around the nearly two mile trail highlighting much of the camp’s activities, we felt like we were paying honor to those who suffered there.

Following the closing of the camps in 1945, the buildings were sold off and taken away.  Here in Idaho, they sold the land in 90 acre plots and threw in two barracks and another building or two. It was in one of these barrack buildings that our Ranger, from yesterday, had grown up without realizing its origins.

One particularly interesting group of buildings had been part of a project called “Farm in a Day” where a thousand volunteers came together to create a modern farm and farmhouse in 1 day.  They leveled the fields, removing the foundation blocks used to hold up the camp buildings, and built a farm house.  The farm included a former barrack and a fire-station, both repurposed into farm outbuildings and a barn. This was done in 1950.  It has the sounds of one of the Disneyland, Carousel of Progress.  The plots of land were available to the public, with an emphasis on Veterans, but The Japanese former internees were not allowed to participate.

We had several more hours drive and then arrived in Wolf Creek Utah, at our nice resort where we would take a much needed three day rest as we move into the end of our journey.  We were very pleased to use both the hot tub and the washing machine as we cleared off some the grime of another week out on the road

“The very basic core of a man's living spirit is his passion for adventure. The joy of life comes from our encounters with new experiences, and hence there is no greater joy than to have an endlessly changing horizon, for each day to have a new and different sun.”

― Christopher McCandless

August 8, 2013 Day thirty

Idaho

Didn’t push ourselves to get up too early, because we didn’t have to drive too far in the day.  As we were heading over to Carters of the Moon National Monument, we kept seeing signs talking about atomic power, and advertising a museum.  Once we got to the place that looked like it could be a museum, it didn’t look very inviting, but rather like a sinister industrial complex way out in the middle of no where, with no directions as to where the museum was.  So we turned back and continued on.  Patti was able to Google the place, and find out that the little town up the road, Arco, was the first town in the “Free world” that was lighted by a nuclear powerful plant, in 1951.  Just as we were trying to confirm this amazing fact that this had happened our here in the serious middle of nowhere, we came by a restaurant Pickle’s Place advertising Atomic Burgers.  It was too early to order one, however.  Dick speculates that they put our nationals’ first experimental nuclear reactor in such an isolated place because they feared they might not be able to control the reaction, and there was less out here to blow up.   Sorry we didn’t get to tour the Experimental Breeder Reactor #1, but we did get to learn this important fact and now share it with you.

Also, as we were driving we suddenly saw ten tractors each pulling a hay bailer driving on the road.  When we asked about this at the Park visitor center, we were told a company does designer alfalfa bailing, getting this really high quality alfalfa bailed up and then it is shipped to Kentucky or Florida to feed racehorses.  Who knew!  The woman behind the counter had been caught by these coming the other direction and it had been impossible to pass them as they came through a week ago.  So we ere lucky!

Craters of the Moon National Monument does look quite a bit like a lunar landscape.   But we had seen similar landscapes at Lava Bed’s National Monument and CA, and on the big Island of Hawaii at Volcanoes National Park.  So we knew what we were seeing.  It is still quite eerie to driving along seeing regular looking farmland, and then suddenly to be in the midst of miles and miles of dried up lava.  We appreciated the visitor’s center and had several interesting exhibits and videos.  Then we drove the scenic loop, stopping to take photos, and walk some of the trails. 

We scampered up to the top of a 160-foot cinder dome where we could see 360 degrees around the park.  There were also caves one could visit, but because we had within the past month visited another cave and didn’t have different closed toed shoes to wear, we were excluded fro going to the caves due to the concern about spreading white Nose Syndrome which is killing off millions of bats.  The Park Service is working diligently to try to avoid cross contamination, so we passed up the chance to see the caves and lava tubes.

Today’s drives were mostly on scenic byways.  One called Peaks to Craters, and one called Thousand Springs Scenic Byways.  So much more fun than the free way.  One added theme that came back in was we discovered that part of the Oregon Trail went through this area, through the Crater of the Moon park, in fact.  We had a great time looking for the remains of this trail, where they were trying to get the wagons around the lava.  Yipes, that would have ben really tricky!  The travelers reported leaving many parts of their wagons along that stretch of the trial.

Then we drove on to Hagerman’s Fossil Beds; to see some more fossils (here comes the dinosaur them again) and they also have the interpretive information for another Japanese Internment camp, which is about 40 miles down the road.  Can you imagine out in the middle of nowhere again! This time so far out of the way that it is where they put an experimental nuclear reactor soon after the camps were closed.

We found the staff at the Hagerman Center to be informative and delightful.    One had just finished her Master’s Degree in Volcanology (volcanoes).  She was so pleased to talk about the different National Parks that have volcanoes or a volcanic history.    She also provided some information about fossils, and why they were at this location.  This area was where the most prehistoric horses in the country were found.  Actually, more like prehistoric zebra.  We went out to to the area where the fossils were dug, and it was truly beautiful, on a bluff overlooking the Snake River. (This was the same river we floated on yesterday, only a couple hundred miles away.

We also talked with another young Park Ranger about the Minidoka Internship site, which we will visit tomorrow.  She had the experience of growing up in one of the former barracks buildings.  Once the camps were closed, buildings when up for public sale, often for very cheap.  She never realized the source of her home until she got a job with the Park Service at that location.

Besides enjoying the fossils, and learning about the interment camp, there was also another Oregon Trail Connection at this site.  We were able to walk a small portion of the original trail, and could see other remnants of this trail.  We learned that by the time emigrants got to this place, they had likely been walking for 1,300 miles.  Holy cow.

  

We then made a drive into Twin Fall, Idaho to spend the night in another hotel (and take another shower…what a good invention)

"Never go on trips with anyone you do not love."

Ernest Hemmingway

August 7, 2013 Day twenty-nine

Grand Tetons National Park

We woke up early enough to see the sun peaking over the mountains behind us, to see the sun on the Teton Mountains.  Wow!  Then, following breakfast at our campsite we were treated to a herd of bison going back and forth across the road just a short distance from our campground.  We stopped, along with a dozen other cars and watched them for more than half an hour.  What a sight! It was like a nature special but in real life, especially when the big bulls pawed the ground and then slammed their heads together. We watched many other bulls just eating and then one stirred up the ground and then rolled in the dust cloud.

The females watched carefully over their calves who sometimes nursed but more often engaged in play. Small groups deciding when they should brave the road to cross, while the bulls crossed whenever they left like it. Safely in or near our car, we were struck by not only being able to see them, but also to hear their grunts and bellows, and to see the dust go flying when the rolled in the dirt.  Best wildlife show in town!

Then after a few errands, we were off to go on a scenic river raft trip on the Snake River.  Patti picked out a company called the Lewis and Clark River Expeditions, because.... well we LIKE Lewis and Clark and so why not?  And these folks had gotten good recommendations on Trip Advisor.  It turned out to be a good family owned company and we joined six others on our raft, with one other raft on this trip.  We got very personalized attention, and really enjoyed our young guide, Claire.  She had graduated college a year ago and was totally enjoying the adventure of living the life of a river guide.

On the trip on the river was just south of the National Park.  For much of the trip we could look back and see the mountains, now framed with the Snake River.  The scenery was so lovely for our whole trip.

We were watching carefully for wildlife.  The highlight was seeing a dozen Bald eagles, sitting on various trees watching the river.  They were magnificent.  We also saw some osprey, ducks, and beaver lodges.  The folks on the raft were fun and we all really enjoyed ourselves. Our guides set up a nice table for lunch on the beach.  A couple of celebrity brushes with fame included a large chunk of the land we floated by was own by Harrison Ford, and we also went by a house owned by Sandra Bullock.  No glimpse of either of them unfortunately.  It would have been nice to have them wave to us. 

We had such a fun time on the river.  Floating at over 6 mph meant we were always seeing something new, especially with each bend of the river.  When the trip was finished, we were happy and not too sunburned.

We left town having had a great visit in the Tetons, and vowing to return sometime soon.  We had an easy drive into Idaho, stopping in Idaho Falls and settled in for a welcomed shower (after four nights of camping), and had the chance to hook up with the Internet and download some photos for our blog.

“Travel, in the younger sort, is a part of education; in the elder, a part of experience.”

Francis Bacon