Vernal, UT

Flaming Gorge Natl Recreation Area

After a few days at Hill AFB visiting the towns of Ogden, Eden, and Willard Bay State Park, we've moved over to Vernal, UT for the weekend.  This puts us pretty much in between Flaming Gorge National Recreation Area and Dinosaur National Monument.  I selected this area just to go see Flaming Gorge. Overtime, I became aware of how close we'd be to Dinosaur Natl Monument.  What I didn't expect were the state parks that are nearby.  So we need more than a weekend.  We'll have to come back.

First up was an early morning trip to Red Canyon Lodge to watch hummingbird banding,  After that, we walked the Red Canyon Trail up to the visitor center.  From there we made it to the dam for a picnic lunch and shared a picnic table with a couple from Wyoming.  After a return and quick break at the trailer, we drove over to the Dinosaur Natl Monument's Quarry Visitor Center just to find out what's there and any hikes we'd like to do.  That pretty much took the rest of the day.

So, lots of pictures, yesterday.  First up:  How to catch a hummingbird, followed by Flaming Gorge and, finally Dinosaur Natl Monument.

 

Twin Falls, ID

Perrine Bridge (People routinely base jump from the bridge - $250.00 fee)

We're here to see Shoshone Falls, but our "short week" visit became a visit where "I didn't know that _____" came out quite often.

First "I didn't know":  They turn the water on & off to Shoshone Falls.

Second "I didn't know": Snake River Canyon began this far east.   

Third "I didn't know": "Evil" Knievel tried to jump the Snake River Canyon near here.

Fourth "I didn't know": There's several water falls here, and

Final "I didn't know": Twin Falls is a pretty big town.

Twin Falls is in the Snake River plain along the Snake River Canyon.  There's a great paved path along the south rim of the canyon for walking and bicycle riding (when it's not to hot). You can see at least two different waterfalls (in addition to Shoshone Falls) from the trail.

Pictures of our walk along the canyon trail are below.  Thanks for dropping by and checking up on us.  We plan to leave tomorrow for Ogden, UT tomorrow.  David

Perrine-Coulee Falls

Along the Canyon Ridge Trail

 

Craters of the Moon Natl Monument

Craters of the Moon Natl Monument became one of my bucket list visits when I learned of the place while volunteering at the fish hatchery near Jackson, WY.  It's taken us awhile to get here, but we made it.

Craters of the Moon lies along the historic line the Yellowstone hotspot has followed (actually, the tectonic plate has traveled) over the last whatever millions of years.  The park's newspaper describes it as "...a weird and scenic landscape, peculiar to itself.  The park contains three lava fields formed by volcanic eruptions originating from a 52-mile long tear in the earth's crust, known as the Great Rift.  Eruptions began about 15,000 years ago and continued until only 2,000 years ago...and will likely continue..."   Greg Bahnmiller called it ugly.

We, however, enjoyed our visit.  Weather was hot.  The park is somewhat small, but gives you a good feel for what recent volcanic action looks like.  We did not crawl through any lava tubes, but did go down into one just to get a feel for it. We did get to the Inferno Cone, Spatter & Snow Cones, Tree Molds Trail (where lava cooled by the steam of burning trees took on the form of the tree - think making an impression of burning tree bark into clay), and Indian Tunnel.

Pictures are below.

Indian Tunnel Lava Tube

July Update

Idaho Falls, ID

Terribly late getting this up to date.  We left Great Falls on time and spent three days in Butte, MT.  Wanted to stay longer, but campsites we wanted weren't available for the weekend.  (BTW we knew this February).  We had a good stay.  We were back in the heat, but still got a good hike up Maud S Canyon.

Butte, MT

Last Friday we left for Idaho Falls.  Hot there, too.  We got a walk in along the Riverwalk (photo at beginning top of this post) and made a trip over to the fish hatchery in Jackson, WY to visit & see the changes made from last year. (They've added a visitor center with big screen TVs and two fish tanks.)

Yesterday (Tuesday), we made the trip over to Twin Falls, ID.  This is another bucket list item to visit Shoshone Falls.  We'd learned of this water fall by a painting in Signal Mountain Lodge.  We eventually learned it was Shoshone Falls here in Twin Falls.  We're here for about a week.  Still more to see, but back to Shoshone Falls.

I was concerned we would arrive at Shoshone Falls before the Snake River ran out of water.  Snake River is down, but not too low.  My first big surprise: I have never seen a water fall that can be turned on or off, but that's what they do with Shoshone Falls.  We arrived at the park about 30 minutes before they released water from the upstream hydroelectric dam over the falls for the day.  Consequently, we were able to get photos of the falls dry, then the release of water, the fill of the water pool above the falls, and finally the water fall itself.  Pretty cool to see.  Pictures are below.

The dry falls

Initial release of water from the dam

More gates are opened

All planned gates opened and water pool is filled

Water pool over flows

Full falls at current water level

Shoshone Falls at full flow

 

Great Falls, MT

The Great Falls before Ryan Dam was built 

We've spent the week in Great Falls, MT.  It's another one of my bucket list items.  I've read the journals and books on the Corps of Discover (Lewis & Clark) and just wanted to see what they were up against when they arrived at the Great Falls area.  It just hadn't registered with me that they actually had to portage around five falls - not just one big water fall and numerous cascades. I didn't really understand the terrain they were dealing with when they arrived (high desert and rolling hills). The Indians knew and as was noted at the Lewis & Clark interpretative center, no one lived here when the Corps of Discover came by.

Today, one water fall (Colter) is under water behind Rainbow Dam. Three are below dams. Only Crooked Falls is not interrupted by a dam. Even though this area is under an extreme drought, you wouldn't know it by the volume of water of the Missouri River passing through. The area & people are nice, but the area itself is not scenic. The reservoirs aren't that inviting. We're told winters are harsh. Great Falls, itself, is bike and walking friendly and generally looks & feels like a blue collar town. When a hydraulic leak became big enough Wednesday that our trailer could no longer stay level using the hydraulic leveling legs, it only took a half-day to get it into a shop & a day to diagnose and get a new hydraulic line built & installed.  They worked around other appointments to get us taken care of.  

We've had a good stay.  It's getting warmer for us as we're out of the mountains.  Tomorrow we head south to Butte, MT for a few nights.  From here on out we'll be in heat and wildfire smoke.

Thanks for dropping by and checking up on us.  More pictures of three of the falls below.  David

Rainbow Falls

Great Falls (today)

Black Eagle Falls

 

Kalispell - Flathead Lake - Whitefish Lake, Montana

 

Happy 4th of July!  It's 3rd of July today...a date speculated that Thomas Jefferson once said in 1776, "Oh, crap!  That's due tomorrow??"

Anyway, we're in Kalispell, MT for the 4th of July. We're doing well. We've been here a week taking care of personal business, resupplying, truck maintenance, and try to recover from eating too much while at Coolin, ID.  Been tough.  There's a Famous Dave's here and a Stone Cold Creamery nearby.

We've spent the time visiting Flathead Lake and Whitefish Lake.  Flathead is a big lake south of us, and I recall watching a TV show where a family built their mega log home on one of the islands in the lake. (see video of the lake above) 

Whitefish Lake is north of us and has excellent hiking trails all around.  Whitefish (the town) is a tourist hotspot similar to Jackson, WY.  (In other words, money lives there.)  It's bigger that Jackson with narrow streets, tight parking and on a 4th of July weekend, just as busy.

That gets you caught up with us.  Thanks for dropping by and checking up on us.  Pictures of Whitefish are below.  David

Whitefish, MT