Adventure Travel Photography Blog
On my way out of Ketchum and Sun Valley, I stopped at the local cemetery to pay respects to Ernest Hemingway. He penned portions of For Whom the Bell Tolls while he stayed at the Sun Valley Lodge. His grave stone is like a wishing well…covered in coins. Surrounding it are various empty bottles of wine and champagne.
ON THE ROAD AGAIN!
After morning coffee with Sandy, I headed south to meet my friend, Kathryn. An ex-colleague out of the Houston office turned doctor, that now lives in Boise. We went for lunch at a local brewery and walked along the Boise River to the Boise Zoo. The giraffes were hiding. I’m sad because I had my camera with me the whole time and forgot to take a picture!
After lunch I continued south to Shoshone Falls which were absolutely spectacular. I was on information overload. Each time I turned to look at a different portion, I noticed something new. The Snake River tumbles 210 feet over numerous rock outcroppings. I just loved it!
From the falls, I turned north up Highway 75 to end in Sun Valley for the night. I got a great chicken stir fry at the Sun Valley Brewery which almost reminded me of Chef Wang’s at home. An amber beer on tap and a little preseason football added to a relaxing evening. ETB
Learn more about my road trip across the USA, or click the link below for the interactive map.
From Dworshak State Park, we followed the Clearwater River through the Nez Perce Indian Reservation and made a roadside stop at the Ant and the Yellow Jacket. According to an Indian Legend, the stone arch was once two insects. Ant and Yellow Jacket fought over who had the right to eat dried salmon in the area. The Coyote, the all-powerful animal spirit, ordered them to stop. They failed to heed his warning, thus he turned them into stone while their backs were arched and their jaws locked together during combat.
ON THE ROAD AGAIN!
As I was leaving Missoula, I realized there were a few sights I probably should have explored, but I guess I was excited to get to Idaho which is the last of the 48 contiguous states in which I really haven’t spent any time aside from driving through a portion of it a month ago. I was hoping to fulfill my geocaching needs in this state, but AT&T doesn’t seem to exist here thus my apps are currently worthless.
ON THE ROAD AGAIN!
Relative to yesterday, we had a slow day, including a slow start. I was blessed with a marvelous migraine and had to take Petey to the vet for a puncture wound. Once we finally bid farewell to Melinda in Kalispell, we took Highway 93 south along the western shore of Flathead Lake. The lake is lovely, but not very conducive to old, injured dog activities.
As a result, we made our first stop at its southern tip in Polson, where I had lunch at Pop’s Grill, one of a few choices in the small town. After lunch, Petey and I took a stroll through town and down to a park on the edge of Flathead Lake before returning to VANilla.
ON THE ROAD AGAIN!
What a wonderful day in Glacier National Park! Our first stop on the Going to the Sun Road was at the St. Mary’s Falls Trailhead. I followed the St. Mary’s Falls trail through the forest along the aqua blue river to numerous waterfalls. In fact, there were so many falls on the 3.6 mile round trip, that I, along with others, were confused as to which were which.
I was expecting to only see St. Mary’s Falls and Virginia Falls, but there were two more in between. What a pleasant surprise! At St. Mary’s Falls, water cascaded over the rocks as the river bent around cliffs like a backwards “C”. The next two unnamed cascades were multi-tiered falls certainly worthy of a visit. In fact, I liked them better than the final destination, Virginia Falls. That said, Virginia Falls, whose main falls tumbles 50 feet is quite impressive.
ON THE ROAD AGAIN!
Well, I don’t know where the time went today. By the time I reached Glacier National Park, about 150 miles away from my starting point, it was nearly 4 pm, and I can’t say I have much to show for it.
My first stop was at Choteau, the home of novelist A.B. Guthrie, Jr. who is the author of The Big Sky. Choteau is known for its abundant wheat and barley harvests evidenced by the rolling fields of yellow and black (grain and fallow soil). The town’s courthouse, on the south end of town, required a $40,000 bond issue which
was very controversial, though it passed by about 50 votes. All I can think is…inflation!
We returned to Livingston this morning to visit an old train depot, to see world famous Dan Bailey’s Fly Shop, and to find a geocache in Montana. The old depot displayed a variety of old train paraphernalia and some fantastic western paintings and black and white frontier photographs. I just window shopped at Dan Bailey’s. It
was full of flies and rods and a variety of other fly fishing gear. The visitor’s center was a nice place for a geocache. I have now found a cache in 46 of the lower 48 states. Two more to go…then I’ll have to make a trip to Hawaii and Alaska.
We entered Yellowstone National Park via the northeast entrance and bison peppered the valley while spectators peppered the road. I’ve seen so many bison lately, I wondered if the visitors were waiting on a bear to run through the herd. It didn’t seem like a very spectacular event to me especially since they were generally far away. Then I saw a line of them cross the river. I guess people were waiting for them to cross the water like people wait for wildebeest to cross the river in Africa.
ON THE ROAD AGAIN!
We spent most of today traveling across Beartooth Highway, a 68-mile stretch of road that opened in 1936 which zig-zags through Rock Creek Canyon and climbs over almost an 11,000 foot pass, making it one of the world’s highest. As one would expect, the views were spectacular, as evidenced by our first stop at Rock Creek Vista Point, 9,190 feet in elevation.
ON THE ROAD AGAIN!
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