North Rim of the Grand Canyon

We got to Kanab, Utah and the weather was perfect. We drove to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon on a day trip. It was about 75 miles from our campground. It was a fairly desolate drive but beautiful. We saw a herd of mule deer along the way. The North Rim is at a higher elevation than the south rim so it gets colder sooner and most of it is closed in winter. The day we were there it was in the 60's with bright sun so it felt nice and warm. We had breakfast at the Grand Canyon Lodge with a view of the canyon. Jim's tip about breakfast there -- don't order the ham -- not worth the price its just the "lunchmeat style" ham.

The North Rim is much less busy than the south. It's off the beaten path and takes about 5 hours to get there from the south rim. It's definitely worth checking out. When we got to one of the overlooks along Cape Royal road we saw a bunch of firefighters coming out of the woods all smoke and sweat covered. They had just finished putting out a fire that had burnt all the way to the edge of the canyon and and had even started to burn down the slope just as they got it under control.

I would say that at least half if not more of the tourists at the parks we've visited have been foreign, German, French, Japanese, Dutch, etc. I guess one good thing about the exchange rate --its cheap for foreign tourists to come here and spend their money. We should appreciate all the foreign tourist dollars coming into the country.

Bryce National Park

After spending some time in Rexburg, Idaho doing day trips to Grand Teton and Yellowstone National parks. We headed south and spent a night on the north end of Salt Lake City. Traveling through Salt Lake during morning rush hour isn't fun especially with the freeway torn up for 30 miles. We ended up close to the crossroads of hwy 89 and hwy 12 south of Panguitch, Utah. We spent a week there exploring Bryce National Park, Red Rock Canyon and the highway 12 scenic byway.

So much beautiful red rock everywhere in the coolest shapes. We got to see our first "flash flood". There was a dry creek bed that followed alongside the highway. At least it was dry when we went to the park but on the way back it was a roaring river of water. A real "gully washer" -- very dangerous. Amazingly just a few hours later and the whole thing was dry again.

This area is close to 5 national parks so it is very popular for foreign tourists. Many of them rent small RV's to see the parks. Its amazing --and scary-- anyone can drive an RV of any size without any special license.

We are now in Kanab, Utah a little farther south and on our way to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon.

Richest Hole on Earth

Butte, Montana was the site of the richest copper mine. Back in the late 1800's they started mining copper in underground mines here. Eventually, they went to open pit mining and created this giant hole. Its miles around and over a mile deep. They still mine copper in another open pit mine behind this one. They also recover copper out of the leach water left over from the original mining operation. This pit full of water is so acidic it will kill birds that land on it and stay too long. They have a big noise maker they blast to scare birds, ducks, etc. The city of Butte is using this toxic pit as a tourist attraction. I guess its working -- we went to see it. Its all part of a superfund clean up site that stretches from Butte to Anaconda all the way up to Missoula. They are all connected because of the rivers that flow through all of this and got very contaminated from all the mining. It's nice to see that it can be cleaned up but its going to take at least twenty more years.

Jim got his cast off and now just wears a removable brace. We are planning to head to Rexburg, Idaho next. The start of our journey south. It is time to leave Anaconda. It's getting into the very low 30's most nights -- almost had frost one night. The truck has all new filters and fluids and the tires and brakes have been checked. We just need to do a few more maintenance chores on the 5th wheel and boat and we will be good to go.

Coolidge Ghost Town

About 50 or 60 miles south of Anaconda is the Pioneer Mountains Scenic Byway. Along this byway are beautiful forest service campgrounds. Many have paved roads and paved camping sites. There are also many points of interest along the byway to stop and admire along with some great designated picnic areas. We were on this road several times going to the Crystal Park digging area and were amazed at all the great camping places and they never seemed very busy -- at least during the week.

Several miles north of Crystal Park is the turnoff for the Coolidge Ghost Town. We followed the road and it turned out to be a pretty nice gravel road. It goes up a mountain about 4 miles and turns into a one lane road with "turnouts". There were not a lot of turnouts to use to move over and let someone pass but luckily we only met up with one road grader. You park and walk about 15 minutes to the actual ghost town. They mined gold here and we walked up to the old mine. It is blocked off and gated so you don't get any silly ideas of trying to explore inside it. The town was good sized and had lots of old buildings with many of them still at least partly standing.

It was very interesting place to walk through and imagine what life was like for the people living and working here. This place is so isolated and at least now there is a nice road to it but back in the day it had to be a nightmare to go and get supplies.

Montana Flowers

Wildflowers in the mountains are so beautiful. At Logan Pass which is at the highest part of the Going to the Sun road there was a carpet of yellow glacier lilies. You can see the snow at the left edge of the picture of the lilies -- and its August. The orange flowers in the foreground of the other picture are called indian paintbrush. Indian paintbrush is the Montana state flower.

We loved every minute of Glacier and went over the Going to the Sun road four times. After leaving the Kalispell area on the west side of Glacier we took highway 83 south. This is another scenic byway that goes along mountain lakes and wildlife management areas. We followed it down and then wound over to Missoula and from there south to Anaconda.

We are going to stay in Anaconda until after Labor Dy weekend. We found an orthopedic doctor in Butte for Jim to see to get his cast changed to a removeable splint in another week. We've been up to Gem Mountain west of Phillipsburg and found some more sapphires. We got all excited because we found one that was four carats -- but it was too flawed to make into jewelry. Someone the week before had found a 19 carat sapphire there -- they said it was worth a six figure sum of money. No such luck for us.

We are close to the Big Hole River which is very famous for trout fishing. We went by it and there were rafts filled with people every 200 feet in the water. People come from all over to fish here and most fly fish. The river is shallow and rocky so only rafts and those funny shaped river boats with curved bows on each end can be used. We haven't done any fishing since Washington.

We did get some good news. We got hired as volunteers at the Imperial National Wildlife refuge down by Yuma, Az. We get a site for our rv with full hookups in exchange for working in the visitor center 3 days a week. We start November 1st and the job runs until the end of March. There is a boat launch close to the visitor center so we will try doing some fishing in the Colorado this winter.

Glacier National Park

The Going to the Sun road in Glacier is one of those things that should be on everyones to do list. I got to drive our big truck on the twisty, narrow road that climbs up the side of a mountain and then follows along the edge for quite a while. There is road construction going on which turned out to be a good thing. You are stopped on the road for awhile waiting for your turn to go through the construction and you can get out of your car and take pictures. Otherwise there aren't many pullouts to stop and look at the scenery. There were times when I'm sure I passed another vehicle with only an inch of clearance between us. There is a free shuttle service you can ride instead of driving your vehicle if you just want to enjoy the views without the excitement of driving.

We got to the top of Logan Pass and there were big horn sheep wandering around in the parking lot. I took a picture of one that was "parked" illegally by the no parking sign. We also got some great pictures of the mountains reflecting into St Mary's lake on the east side of Logan's Pass.

We have moved on from Kalispell and are now back in Anaconda which is a small town 20 miles west of Butte. We will be here for a few weeks before heading to Utah.

Gold and Cedars

Before Jim broke his wrist we were having a good time gold panning at a site along Libby Creek. The area was mined for gold in the past and is now a gold panning site the forest service supports. You dig out some dirt from a big hill of gravel and pan it out. We found a small amount of gold and may have found more if we could have kept at it.

We did some more sightseeing around Libby. We went to the Ross Creek Cedar area. You walk along the trail and see the most amazing cedar trees. They are very old and as you can see HUGE. It is just a mile loop trail nice and level so Jim could manage it. The drive to the area was equally beautiful. Overall the whole northwest corner of Montana is great. The summer weather is usually in the 80s with low humidity and few biting bugs. We would love to go back to the Libby area in the future.

We are now back in Kalispell and finally getting our chance to go on the Going To The Sun road.