The Adventure Comes to an End

Left Crawfordsville, Indiana, and headed eastward on I-74.  Went around the south side of Indianapolis on I-465 until we met I-70 on the east side of Indianapolis.  We continued on I-70 until Columbus, Ohio.  We again went around on the south side of the city on I-270 until we returned to I-70.  We crossed into West Virginia at Wheeling with the crossing of the Ohio River

and then crossed the northern panhandle and a small section of Pennsylvania.

 At Washington, Pennsylvania, we got on to I-79 which brought us south and home to Morgantown.

It was still very hot and humid again today and, at least this morning, the skies were very overcast.  We could see a rain storm passing south of us and saw sections of the road that were still wet, but we never got rained on.  It is definitely not as hot as it had been in Nebraska and Iowa, but still not comfortable to be outside.

We have been carrying numerous bottles of water with us in the cooler.  Most of the motels have refrigerators with freezers, so we are able to freeze the bottles each night and use them both to cool the inside of the cooler as well as providing us with cold water.  It has been surprising how much water we have been going through each day, particularly out west where the humidity was unusually low.

The flat fields of Illinois and Indiana gave way to the rolling hills of Ohio and West Virginia.  Still saw some farms in Ohio but not in West Virginia.

No longer flat country, Ohio with West Virginia in background at the Ohio River

All during the trip there have been extensive road construction projects, and the orange signs, cones and barrels have been everywhere.  The highways are frequently down to one lane crossing from one side of the road to the other.  But, luckily, we were never held up for any long periods of time.

Somewhere in Ohio; ah, which way do we go?

Got home in time to make a "picnic" dinner with the lunch items that we had carried in the cooler and to start bringing some of things into the house from the car.  The rest will just wait until the morning.

Home again

This "western adventure" is now a wonderful memory that we will remember for years to come.  There was such a variety of things that we did and so many different types of places that we visited, that it would be impossible to choose one place / activity that I enjoyed the most.

With a digital camera we have captured it all on hundreds of photographs;  Eb says that he has taken 1, 289 pictures that include lots of duplications and many that will be deleted, but we will have lots of visual memories of the trip.  We are home again and the western adventure has come to an end.

Crossing the Mississippi

Left Clive (Des Moines) on I-80 and continued across Iowa and then across Illinois.  Just as we got in to Illinois we turned south on I-74 which took us across Illinois and into Indiana where we have stopped for the night in Crawfordsville.  We have entered the Eastern Time Zone and lost the final hour.

Nebraska and Iowa both were under the dome of extreme heat and high humidity that has been over them for days and will continue for several more days.  Even early in the morning and late in the evenings it would still be oppressively uncomfortable.  The actual temperatures are in the high 90s to just over 100 and the humidity is also very high so the heat index (what it is supposed to feel like) is around 110 - 115.  Even in the shade it feels too hot.  As we stopped for gas in Illinois and, now this evening, in Indiana, we can feel that it is not quite so overwhelmingly hot.

Going westward we never really got a good view (or pictures) of either the Mississippi or the Missouri.  Yesterday as we entered Iowa, we stopped at the Welcome Center and I asked the woman where we could get a good view of the Mississippi.  She gave us a brochure about the small town of Le Claire which is right on the bank of the river.  There is an Information Center there that is privately run and has two different levels of decks that look down on the river. We took numerous pictures of the river from there.  The woman behind the desk at the center was a retired school teacher and we chatted for quite a while (in amongst her need to answer a question).  Besides talking about our teaching past, she recommended a small German restaurant that was right along side the river.

The I-80 bridge over the Mississippi

We went to Die Bierstube and had lunch at a table right at the window looking out on the river.  The food was excellent.  They make all of their own sausages and had lots of homemade items on their menu.  I had their broccoli and cheese soup.  Daddy had German potato salad and red cabbage along with his Reuben sandwich.  For dessert we shared a slice of Black Forest Cherry cake which had many things that reminded us of Oma's.  We ate inside the restaurant (still around 100 degrees here with high humidity) but did take pictures from the cute little deck.

The Mississippi from the restaurant deck

Went across the Mississippi River bridge to Rock Island, Illinois and went to their overlook and took more pictures of the river and the bridge that we had just crossed over.

Looking west - this is the view we missed when going west

Nebraska had been pretty barren (except where they irrigated) and mostly flat.  Iowa had rolling hills of corn fields.  Illinois was flat with large fields of corn and smaller fields of soybeans.  Because it is so flat you can see for miles out to the horizon.

Central Illinois is really flat

Tomorrow will be our last day of this "Western Adventure" and it will be sad to have it come to an end, but these last few days have been a lot of driving and I will not be sad to have the driving completed.

Hot Day on the Plains

Left North Platte this morning and continued our travels eastward on I-80, across the state of Nebraska (all 460 miles of it) and then on in to Iowa. 

Nebraska corn

In Nebraska we were following the Plate River for much of the way and there were more trees and there was more farming because of the use of irrigation.  In both Nebraska and Iowa there were just mile after mile of corn fields.  On our trip westward, it was right before the 4th of July ("knee high by the 4th of July") and the corn was still small, but now the corn has the tassels on it and is quite tall (5-6 feet high).

We crossed the Missouri River at Omaha (Nebraska) and Council Bluffs (Iowa) and didn't get even a small glimpse of the river.  There was construction zones everywhere on the highway and there was a high concrete wall where I think the river might have been.   I-680 (which is what we tried to use before) and I-29 are still both closed from the flooding.

During the morning Daddy noticed that we were getting close to 150,000 on the odometer and we wanted to stop and take a picture of the car and of the place where it happened.  We got just into Iowa and Daddy noticed that the odometer was at 150, 019 - we had missed it.  We assume  that it must have happened in Omaha, and probably in the construction zone where there wouldn't have been anywhere to pull off.

Iowa farm with corn fields

In western Iowa the land is more rolling than it was in Nebraska, but still lots of corn fields and large irrigation systems.  We saw numerous wind farms, with the tall wind turbines right in the middle of the corn fields.   There would be many rows of turbines that would extend for miles.

Part of an Iowa wind farm

There is a dome of extreme heat centered over Nebraska and Iowa with daytime highs just over 100 degrees and high humidity so the heat index was 112.  At 8:30 this evening the temperature was still 97 degrees and the heat index was 103.  Because of the hot temperatures we ate lunch in an air conditioned restaurant and ate a "picnic" dinner in the air conditioned motel room.  We had leftover barbecue ribs from the dinner last night, small carrots, and a raspberry pastry for dessert.

Tonight we are staying in a Days Inn in Des Moines (actually it is in Clive which is a suburb of Des Moines).  This is the first motel with an outdoor pool on the trip.  The water in the pool was quite warm (I suppose because of the very high air temperatures.  But, I certainly enjoyed my long swim in the pool this evening.  There was a breeze (there is always a wind out here on the plains) and it actually felt chilly when I got out of the water.

Cooling off from the heat

Tomorrow we will continue going across Iowa, cross the Mississippi River, go across Illinois, and stay in Crawfordsville, Indiana.  There are only a few more states (Indiana, Ohio and a small piece of Pennsylvania) before we get back to Morgantown.

Just Heading East Through Wyoming and Nebraska

Certainly didn't need the atlas today;  just stayed on I - 80 east,  mile after mile.  We got on to I - 80 at Rock Springs, Wyoming and stopped for the night at North Platte, Nebraska.

During the day we crossed the Continental Divide three times and, in Nebraska, we crossed in to the Central Time Zone so we lost an hour today, but now are only one hour different from West Virginia.

In the morning we could still see snow-capped mountains and high buttes with stony cliffs along the road.   The Snowy Range was just south of the interstate and we could see snow patches on those mountains.  We could see the Snowy Range in the far distance almost all the way to the eastern border of Wyoming.

Snow on the mountain at the edge of the Snowy Range; equipment in foreground is for rebuilding part of I80

Stopped at a nice rest area for lunch amidst darkening clouds and rumbles of thunder, but never got any of the rain.   Because of the lack of trees (no shade) and constant winds, all of the picnic tables have a roof over them and walls on three sides.  This rest area is the highest point on Interstate 80 at a little more than 8, 000 feet in elevation.  There was a very large statue of Abraham Lincoln.  The Lincoln Highway (used to be US 30 and now is I-80),  went across the United States and was created in the early 1900's to encourage tourism.  The statue was sculpted by a local (University of Wyoming) art professor (Dr. Russin) who took 11 months to complete the statue on the 150th anniversary of Lincoln's birth.

During lunch we were visited by a small prairie dog type animals that would venture over towards the picnic table and sit up on his haunches and look around and then scurry off.  They lived in burrows in the ground amidst the sage brush.  We also were visited by a sea gull which we were not sure how he got to eastern Wyoming.

Cattle grazing in the pasture, Snowy Range faintly visible at left

In the afternoon the view was more of the sage brush covered dry rolling plains with little signs of farms or ranches.  Later, as we got closer to Nebraska we got into the flatter areas.  There were farms that were able to grow some crops if they were using the large irrigation sprayers on the fields.  The irrigation sprayers are huge pipes (of different lengths, some maybe 1/4 mile in length) that move on wheels across the large fields.  The farms appeared to be growing wheat, corn, and alfalfa.  There also were ranches where there were some cattle grazing.  We passed one huge feedlot with hundreds of cattle and it was very smelly.  I smelled it before we noticed it, but not in time to get a picture of it because of the trees blocking the view of much of it.

An irrigation sprinkler at work - see water spraying at left end

We filled up on gas at Little America, and got 50-cent ice cream cones there.

A small butte

During the day, many of the towns were called ____ Bluff or Butte.  The butte is a flat top hill, usually having rocky cliffs along the sides.  There can be a whole ridge of buttes or just one solitary butte rising up out of the prairie.

During the day we would frequently see lightening off in the distance and see the dark trails of rain coming down, but we never actually got in to any of the rain storms.  During lunch we kept hearing the rumbles of thunder.  The radio kept talking about "extreme heat warnings" in much of the area with "feel like" temperatures, considering the temperature and humidity of 115 degrees.

We ate dinner tonight at a restaurant called "Whiskey Creek".  We had eaten at one of these restaurants on our way west.  The motels handed out discount coupons for the restaurant and it was nearby (easy to find).  The restaurant is a cross between Texas Roadhouse (buckets of peanuts to eat and shells all over the floor),  Damons (TVs on the walls, at least at this one), and Outback (good steaks and barbecue ribs).

Tomorrow we get back on I-80 and again head east towards home.  Our goal for tomorrow is to get to just west of Des Moines, Iowa.

Granite Hot Springs Pool and Too Much Sage Brush

We enjoyed another breakfast at the picnic table with the panorama of snow-covered peaks against the totally blue sky and the varied colors of the paragliders.  We watched to see when / where the paragliders would first come into view and then watch as they drifted across the fronts of the peaks and then finally land in the grass field next to us.

We left Teton Village and headed in to Jackson where we headed south on to Highway 89 / 189 / 191.   Each of the highways turned off until we were finally just on Highway 191 which got us here to Rock Springs, Wyoming.

About 18 miles south of Jackson we turned off on to a gravel road which took us the 10 miles to Granite Hot Springs Campground and the Hot Springs Swimming Pool.  The gravel road wound along the sides of the hills above Granite Creek which was roaring along with lots of swirling white water.  The road had many rocks sticking up to scrape the bottom of the car or potholes (particularly where culverts were starting to collapse.  We stopped to look at Granite Falls cascading over the rocks.   We have camped in the campground years ago and Michael was in the hot springs pool when he was four years old.

Falls of Granite Creek

Looking up Granite Creek to the pool

The swimming pool is fed by a hot spring; the water is about 98 degrees.  The pool is a somewhat circular shape with the hot springs water coming in to the pool through a large pile of rocks.  There are submerged rocks and ledge along the far side of the pool that you can sit on.  The pool is back up in Granite Creek Canyon and there is a high rocky cliff on one side and tree-covered slopes that go up to a snow-covered peak on the other side.  The white waters of Granite Creek roar down the slope near the pool.  A young deer come up along side of the fence around the pool.

Even though the pool is not really advertised and is at the end of a 10-mile long gravel road, there was quite a crowd (maybe 45 people) in the not-so-big pool.  We chatted with a couple from San Diego, California, a Mennonite family from Indiana, a youth group from nearby Jackson that were camping there, and a family from Utah who live in a two room log cabin that is solar powered.

When we first arrived there weren't as many people as there were later.  You still couldn't really swim laps because of the small, irregular size of the pool.  But I could swim back and forth.  Most of the time I sat or lay on the submerged rocks near the entrance of the hot water or on the far side of the pool.  The temperature of the water made it ideal to stay there forever - you never got chilled or too hot.   But eventually we had to leave so we could continue on our way.

Going back out the gravel road we passed numerous slopes / fields of a bright dark yellow flower which is called arrow balsamroot.   We have seen many other wild flowers - purple lupines and white western buckwheat.

The first half of our drive provided beautiful views of the different mountain ranges - the Teton, the Gros Ventre range, and the Wind Rivers.  We would drive around a curve and a new view of mountains would appear.   We went through Pinedale where the road goes off to the trail head for the hikes that we did in the Gros Ventres - the first time was when I was pregnant with Michael (thought I was experiencing more altitude sickness than usual).  We went back there when Michael was four years old both times with Doug and Hazel and other friends (including Uncle Chuck)

The second half of our day's drive was up on the high plateau, in the "high desert" according to the signs.  It is just mile after mile of sage brush which is low to the ground and a pale green color against light brown ground - not exciting to watch for 2 - 3 hours, particularly after spending so much time enjoying the mountains.  Did see two pronghorn antelopes close to the highway.  They look like large deer but have black and white markings on their face and have antlers that just slant straight back.

Gros Ventre and Wind River mountains in the distance; they eventually disappeared over the horizon, leaving just the sage-covered terrain in view

Got into the Days Inn here in Rock Springs early and had a good steak dinner next door at the sports bar.  Tomorrow we will be heading eastward (and home) on I - 80.  It was sad throughout today to think that we were saying good bye to the Tetons and the snow-covered mountains of the west and having to head home.

More of the Old Memories and Making Some New

Two people on this paraglider

We woke this morning to a completely blue sky and paragliders drifting slowly by between us and the beautiful snow covered mountains.  Going outside we found that they were landing in the grass just along side of our parking lot.  We watched as groups of them appeared over against the mountains and drifted along in our direction.  Most of them had two individuals – a guide and a student attached to each paraglider.

We ate breakfast at the picnic table entertained by these paragliders and the view of the beautiful range of mountains.

 

Our breakfast table just outside the hotel

We walked over to the aerial tramway and rode the tram up to the top of Rendezvous Peak.  In the tram car were groups who were riding up top with the large packs containing the paragliders.  On top we watched as the opened their packs and then slid down the snow slopes to their edge and were lifted upwards by the upslope winds.  We could watch them lifted high overhead and then drift slowly back down in to the valley.

Just as at Mt Rainier, the Tetons and Rendezvous Peak had record snowfalls this past winter.   Rendezvous Peak usually gets 500 inches of snow and this past winter got 800 inches.  There is much more snow on all of the mountains.  Many trails are not passable and bridges have been closed because of the high water levels.  At the top of the tram we used to hike a ways before being able to find a snowfield.  Today there was snow right there where we got off of the tram.  There were two couples that had packed in their skis and hiked to a snow filled bowl about 1 1/2 from the tram.

A snow bank in a place we haven't seen one before, and th southern Tetons in the background.

Our campsite in 1974, about the middle of the picture (I think)

It was a beautiful day to just sit up at the top and enjoy the sun and views in all directions.  We watched the paragliders take off from their snow slope.  We tried to pick out which area in the basins along the sides of Rendezvous Peak we had camped at back in 1974 with Michael.  Eb tried hiking over in that direction but turned back when he ran in to too much snow.  I sat in the sun on a bench and watched people playing in the snowfield right next to me.  One group made a small snowman and took a picture of it.  One woman took off her flip flops and had her husband take a picture of her bare feet in the snow.  We ate a picnic lunch up there on the top with the most amazing view - mountains all around us - northward toward the Tetons, including a view of the Grand;  out to the Gros Ventre Range and Gannett Peak;  and southward to the Wind River Range.  All of these mountains are places where we have backpacked in the past, usually with Doug and Hazel and other friends.

After coming back down to Teton Village we drove over the Wilson-Moose Road to go up to Jenny Lake in the Teton National Park.  This road is a back road that the map indicates is not maintained in the winter.  Part of the road is gravel.  It goes through forested areas as well as sage brush filled plains.  There are many trailheads along this road.

The Tetons - from the valley

It was a beautiful afternoon to get pictures of the Tetons.   Both Eb and I (both separately and together) have done many backpacking hikes, camping, and even rock climbing in the Tetons.  We came here on our honeymoon and happened to  be here on our 25th wedding anniversary.   There are many places here in the park that have many special memories.

Hidden Falls, much water

Neither of us remembered ever taking the boat ride across Jenny Lake, a much smaller lake than Jackson Lake but also right in front of the Teton Mountains.  We took the boat ride across the lake and did the hike to Hidden Falls.  Eb remembered hiking up to those falls and remembered just a thin stream of water coming over the falls.  Today the water was rushing over the edge, and all the way down the mountain, as we hiked, was a roaring cascade of white water.

Sat outside the restaurant for dinner tonight and I thought of Alana and how much she would have enjoyed this place.  The childrens playground for Teton Village was right there close to the outside deck of the restaurant.  There were the usual climbing structures and slides.  But there were also fountains of water that spouted out in random sequence.  Just to the side of the playground there was an organized campfire that we had also seen last night.  The children at the tables around us would get up to play on the playground while they were waited for their meals and when they were finished and their parents sat around. This village reminds me very much of Snowshoe with many elegant stores and expensive restaurants, condominiums, lots of organized activities and rentals (mountain bikes, paragliders, bungee trampoline, and a rock climbing wall).

As you can tell by these postings, we found out that the Hostel did have Internet (for a small fee).  Tonight we are in a room with two regular twin beds and one set of bunk beds.  They also have dormitory rooms where you share a bathroom and you share the four beds in the room with whoever else signs up for the space.

Reliving Old Memories

We left Bozeman as early as we could, so that we would have as much time in Yellowstone National Park as possible.  We drove east on I-90 and then had the choice of getting off at Highway 85 (driving two sides of a triangle) or getting off one exit earlier and taking a back road (driving only the one side of the triangle).  We took the short cut which was labeled as Trail Creek Road which was a winding road through the rolling hills.  In about 10 miles we were faced with a sign “Pavement ends” which actually meant it became a gravel road.  Passed some cowboys herding cattle into one end of a field.  Saw many very nice houses that looked relatively new mixed in with the farm / ranch houses.  Eventually we came to a T intersection with no indication of which way to choose.  We choose the left and it wound down the hill between fields and we could see the highway on the other side of the fields, paralleling the way we were going.  Unfortunately, we were heading back north instead of south.  Eventually we reached Highway 85 and later found the intersection with Trail Creek Road – obviously we should have taken the right hand turn back at the intersection.  Always be suspicious of thin black lines in the road atlas drawn as perfectly straight lines.

After "Pavement ends."

Roosevelt Arch

Highway 85 followed the Yellowstone River to the entrance in to the national park.  We passed under the Roosevelt (Teddy) Arch and came in the north entrance of the park.  Teddy happened to be in the area in 1903 during construction of the arch and was asked to place the cornerstone and the arch was then named for him.

Eb and I had come to Yellowstone and the Tetons on our honeymoon 43 years ago.  Both Michael and Brian have been out here on several different trips over the years.  Each of us remembered different places and things to do that we wanted to return to.

Our first stop was in the Mammoth Hot Springs area.  The hot springs have formed huge terraces.  The terraces are stained different colors (white, yellow, pink, orange) because of the microorganisms in the water which are determined by the temperature of the spring.  Steam is constantly rising off most of the water.

Some of the colorful  deposits at Mammoth Hot Springs.

As you are driving through Yellowstone there are large geyser basins and just individual hot springs / geysers / fumaroles just randomly along the way.  It must have been astounding for the first explorers coming through the area who had no idea of what was in this area.  The park posts signs “Dangerous Ground”.  Thin crusts of mineral deposits are formed but, if you try to walk across this ground, this crust can crack and you might land in some very hot water.

One of many small thermal area along the road through Yellowstone.

Our second stop was an attempt to view the Upper and Lower Yellowstone Falls.  We had to drive on the loop around to the Canyon Village.  We followed the signs to the parking lot labeled “Upper Falls”.  It turned out it was for the “brink” of the Upper Falls and not a view of the entire falls.  It still was very impressive to see the mass of water roar over the edge of the cliff and then from another view spot see how the spray from the water would shoot up 10 – 20 feet above the plunge pool.  We could see two different overlooks for the Upper Falls (even with people there), but couldn’t find on the map that we had how to get to them.

Looking over the brink of the Upper Falls of the Yellowstone.

As we were driving around we saw the signs of the blackened trees from the earlier Yellowstone fires.  On the trip in 1993 (with Brian) we had seen the blackened trees fresh from the big West Yellowstone Fire from the previous year.  Now there are young trees growing up amongst the downed or blackened trees.  The signs along the road indicated that this was natural reforestation, the natural cycle of pine cones opening due to the heat of the fires causing the cones to drop out their seeds.

The new trees are growing.  A few of the trees killed by the fire are standing although most have fallen.

Hail on street (above); closeup (below), coin is a quarter

My previous memories of Yellowstone always included that of Old Faithful Geyser.  We arrived there to see an eruption going off in the far distance as we were walking towards it from the parking lot.  We decided to stay for the next eruption (which was in about 50 minutes).  Eb had gone off to get something and I was sitting on a bench by Old Faithful when a park ranger came by warning people of an impending thunderstorm containing lots of lightning and telling us to get inside of the nearby building.  Sat on a bench under the porch with a woman from Seattle and we were enjoying a conversation when the beginning raindrops turned into a severe thunderstorm – strong winds, lightning, and hail.  At first we were safe from the rain under the porch, but the wind started blowing in all directions, and we had to retreat from the bench.  The hail wasn’t large in size, but covered the ground with a layer of white which stayed on the ground for about 20 minutes.  The temperature dropped considerably and we were all quite wet so it made us feel quite chilled.  The park ranger had predicted that the storm would move through quickly, and by the time of the eruption of Old Faithful (at 3:38 pm) the rain had stopped and the sky to the north was blue again.  Unfortunately the sky in the background of Old Faithful was still overcast.  The eruption of Old Faithful went off exactly when it was predicted.  It started by increasing the amount of steam coming out, and then with just some small spurts, and then it shot out about 100 – 120 feet into the air surrounded by a cloud of steam.  The water running off along the ground also had more steam arising from it.

Old Faithful geyser, height of eruption and afterwards

Our last stop in Yellowstone was at the West Thumb Geyser Basin which is at the south end of Yellowstone Lake.  I have always remembered enjoying watching the mud pots as they “plopped” with each gas bubble rising up through the thick mud.  In the basin there were a variety of different colored hot springs (due to the organisms and temperature) and some fumaroles (steam coming out of holes in the ground).  There also was an elk sleeping in the grass in the middle of the basin.

Some pools with elk at West Thumb; Yellowstone Lake in background.

We did not see any bears in Yellowstone.  We did see bison in several places, the elk, and a coyote running across the road.

One of the buffalo we saw, this one sleeping by the side of the road

In order to see Yellowstone, you need many days, instead of the one day that we had.  It is huge area and you need lots of time just to drive from one place to the other.  There are many different geyser basins to visit, hikes to go on, and visitor centers and museums to go to in order to get more information.

We left Yellowstone and drove south to The Grand Teton National Park.  On this drive we crossed the Continental Divide three times.  Going over the passes we had snow right along side the road and back in to the woods.  All day we had been seeing snow-covered peaks and this drive south gave us some spectacular views of the mountains, finally climaxing with our view of the Tetons which have always been breath-taking to see, but this year they are more snow-covered than ever.

On the wall at home we have a picture of Michael (at age 4) and one of Brian (at age 14) both in the same place – playing in the chilly waters of Jackson Lake (which was formed by damming up the Snake River to provide irrigation) with a point of trees and the Tetons in the background.   We found the same place, in the picnic area at Coulter Bay, and got a picture of Eb and I in the same location (but not out in the water).

Coulter Bay, 1976 with Michael, 1993  with Brian, and us in 2011

We are staying in a Hostel in Teton Village which is at the base of the Jackson Hole Ski area.  Michael, when you were just two years old, you were camped up on the ledges on Rendezvous Peak just above Teton Village.  We were supposed to have met Doug and Hazel up on the mountain but ended up there by ourselves.  That night there was a terrific thunderstorm with gusting winds and lots of lightning.  Daddy and I stayed awake while Michael slept through the storm.  Daddy had to keep putting large rocks on the tent stakes to keep them from pulling out.  The next day we hiked up to the peak so we could ride the tram back down the mountain.  The tourists coming up for the view (in their shorts and t-shirts) were shivering and complaining and went right back down.  We were dressed in boots, gloves, and warm jackets and enjoyed sitting up at the building on the summit and eating a lunch / snacks before going down.  Brian, when you were here at 14, we rode the tram up the mountain and hiked over to a snowfield which was about 1 ½ miles away.  You enjoyed sliding and playing on the snowfield in August.  It looks like the snow is completely covering the top of the tramway.  We are going to ride the aerial tramway up the mountain and enjoy a picnic lunch up on the top.  But, we are planning on wearing lots of layers because I am sure that it will be cold and windy up on top.

Here in Teton Village there are many large resort hotels and condominiums along with many elegant restaurants (went to the Mangy Moose for an excellent dinner – I had steak and Daddy had trout).  The rooms in the Hostel have just a bare minimum but are nice and clean.  There is a king size bed which dominates the space in the room.  Daddy is already asleep on the bed, so I better close this off.  There is no Internet (and we are going to be here for tomorrow night as well) so it may be another two days before this gets posted.  But, at least, I got it written while I still remembered what we did today.

Just a basic Traveling Day

This morning we left Spokane Valley and spent all day heading east on I-90, going through the remaining few miles of Washington, the narrow width of the northern panhandle of Idaho, and across Montana to Bozeman.  We went up and down fairly high mountain passes where we saw the signs for chaining up and chain removal parking areas.  We looked out at snow-covered mountain peaks on both sides of us.  We went through flat river valleys where there were farms and ranches.  And we went through the dry, rolling plains where there was very little other than light brown grass and the pale green sage brush bushes.

Typical scenery for the first part of the day.

In the afternoon there were storm clouds all around us and we did have some misty drizzle and some steady rain.   On the radio we heard the severe thunderstorm warnings for the area that we had just come through.  In these valleys you can see the storms and the lightning from a long way off.

Our one stop of the day was late in the afternoon in Butte.  As we arrived it was still raining, so we went and did some grocery shopping, hoping that the patches of blue sky would catch up with us - and they did.  We visited the Berkley Pit which is the most contaminated mine pool.  There are embankments around the edge and you must walk through a short tunnel to get out to a platform that overlooks the large pool of water.

Looking out at the Berkeley Pit.

Mining at the Berkeley Pit has been in operation since the 1890's.  They first panned for gold in that area.  They have had underground mines from which they obtained gold, zinc, silver, and cobalt.  Most recently there has been an open pit copper mine there for many years.  After the open pit mine was abandoned, the pit has gradually filled with water and it contains a variety of metals (copper, aluminum, cadmium, zinc, and sulfate as well as  arsenic).  The pH level  of the water is 2.5.  Their displays emphasized the positives;  they stated that life does exist in this water in the pit, but it turns out it is one small aquatic insect (the water boatman) and some iron-eating algae.

There is still a working mining operation here, the Continental operation,  just to the southeast of the Berkley Pit.

The Continental operation, being watched over by Our Lady of the Rockies (the large white statue on the ridge).

The water level is currently at about 5,100 elevation level.  When it reaches 5,410 elevation (which they have predicted will happen in 2018) it will reach a critical level that would endanger the groundwater of the town.  They have built a water treatment plant on the east side of the pit that will be able to treat seven million gallons per day, or five thousand gallons per minute. 

The town has old Victorian mansions and a multistory old hotel that show the historic prominence and wealth of this town.  The center of the town shows the decline that came with the decline of the mine.  There are some lovely new houses on the outskirts of the town that look out on to the snow-covered mountains in the distance.

The rains caught up with us as we left Butte but the darkest storm clouds stayed to the north and south of us.  We have been very lucky in that the only times that it has rained has been when we were driving and in the car.

Today we have lost the first of the three hours as we head home.  Yesterday we were in the Pacific Time Zone and now we are in the Mountain Time Zone.  We had been three hours different from Morgantown and now we are only two.  From here we are heading for Yellowstone and the Tetons.  For the next two nights we are probably not going to have internet access, so it will be a couple of days until there is anything new here