Vulture Peak

We left Kingman, AZ and went down to Wickenburg which is about 50 miles west of Phoenix.  Kingman weather was beautiful - in the 70's to low 80's.  We probably should have stayed longer because we hit Wickenburg and its been around 100 degrees every day and only cooling down to the high 70's at night.  Wickenburg is a cute little "western town" in Arizona.  The Vulture Mine is a tourist attraction here (in the winter) its closed to tours in the summer.  The Vulture Mine gets its name from the neighboring Vulture Peak (pictured above).  You can climb to the top but its not recommended in the summer.   We needed to get to Wickenburg to rescue our boat that has been in storage since April.  It seems to have survived the outdoor storage alright. 

It is the end of the monsoon season (hopefully).  I took a picture of the towering clouds that formed east of us while we were in Kingman.  These are the kind clouds that let loose with the torrents of rain that are known as monsoons.  It can rain inches in minutes like a bucket of water just being dumped from the heavens.  The park we are staying in here in Wickenburg suffered damage in July from a monsoon when rushing water jumped a wash and broke through a wall and ran down the streets in the park.   When we got here you would never have known they had had a problem it was so well cleaned up. 

Wickenburg is a cute little "western town" in Arizona. 

Northern Arizona

We traveled down into Idaho after leaving Montana and then jogged over so we could go south through Nevada.  Glad we avoided Utah with all the flooding they had in the southern part of the state.  We were lucky going through Nevada because they were closing one of the roads we were on for the Silver State Challenge Race on highway 318.   It was closing at 5AM on Sunday the 20th and would be closed until 2PM -- we got through there on Saturday.  The race is one hundred miles long -- not sure why it is big deal -- didn't see a lot of activity getting ready for it. 

We got through Las Vegas and made it as far as Kingman.  A nice place to stop.  South of the Boulder Dam we stopped at a scenic overlook.  You can see the Colorado River meander through the valley.  This spot is at Willow Beach where you can camp and boat on this part of the river.  I got a nice picture of mountains colored purple being close to sunset at our campground on the outskirts of Kingman. 

Western Montana

We left Libby, Montana and stopped in Missoula for two nights.  The Elk Country Visitor Center sounded interesting so we checked it out.  They had beautiful elk mounts and lots of info on how their organization helps the elk population throughout the country.  They aren't shy about their stand that hunting and hunters help the elk flourish.  We had fun pushing the buttons to hear what a bull elk bugling sounds like as well as what kind of noise a cow will make.  Missoula has lots to see but they also have a lot of traffic.  There just aren't that many roads and lots of traffic on them. 

We are in Dillon, Mt now and took a little drive west of town.  We saw this beautiful mountain with the bright red area below it.  It was a great day for a Sunday drive and we saw some great cattle country in the valleys along the Pioneer Mountains.   The RV park we are in has its own military museum.  The owner rides around the park in his mini tank.  Its very cute and it looks like he's having a "blast" driving it around the park. 

Proud as a Peacocok

While there are deer and turkeys everywhere we came across some peacocks along the road.  Very pretty but they must have escaped from someone's yard.   I doubt they are part of Montana's wildlife landscape.   The fires around Libby have died down with some cool, wet weather so we've been able to stick around and the smoke is gone so we can breathe. 

We've been gold mining on Libby Creek and have to show off the gold we've found.  Believe it or not the amount in the pan is about $100 worth.  We also got some good exercise moving rocks, shoveling and panning.  The other benefit was seeing some great wildlife while we worked.  We watched an American Dipper bird work the fast moving water of the creek looking for insects.  Those birds are amazing, they can swim as well as any duck.  We also had a black bear come down to the creek and check us out.  He was busy looking for berries and not really interested in us.