Godsman Travelogue '08/'09/10

We left our 5th Wheel at The Square Dance Center in Lolo, MT and followed US Hwy 12 over Lolo Pass, the same route Lewis and Clark took in the early 1800’s. This is a typical mountain highway, known as a Scenic River corridor, following the Lochsa River. Our first destination was Kooskia, Idaho at the junction of Hwys 12 and 13, which soon became Hwy 95 as we headed south through scenic Idaho. There is also a river junction here for the Middle and South Forks of the Clearwater River. These rivers are very popular with fly fishermen, and we saw many flat bottomed boats drifting along in the current, whilst the fishermen plied their rods. After turning south, we climbed 2000ft in the next 26 miles to the town of Grangeville, in the heart of Camas Prairie, one of the largest wheat producing areas in the country. Five rivers flow through five designated wilderness areas. Three of the rivers carry the Wild and Scenic designation. Near to Grangeville, there is an ancient mammoth archaeological site. There is no limit on what outdoor recreation lovers can do here, throughout the year.

Continuing south for about 16 miles we came to the village of Whitebird, which sits at an elevation of 1560 ft. In the next 7 miles the road drops about 1000ft, almost straight down, with many truck emergency run offs, in case they lose their brakes. At the base of this hill one can look back and see the old road which traverses back and forth across the hillsides. We  were  glad  we did not have our 5th Wheel with us. To our west we could see the 9000ft Seven Devils Mountains, which form a semicircle above Hells Canyon, on the Snake River. One can reach Hell’s Canyon from here, but it is a 27 mile trip on a gravel road, and on this day the temperature was already in the 90’s. For the next 28 miles, we followed the Salmon River which had cut through the mountains from the town of Salmon to Riggins, where it joins the Little Salmon River before continuing north and west to join the Snake River. This area is very well known for white-water rafting, and we saw many rafters as well as solo floaters. We continued south on Hwy 55, alongside one of the arms of The Payette River to McCall (5025ft). The valley really opens up here, and there are many small lakes, as well as a couple of State Parks, to cater for year round sporting activities. After Grangeville, the countryside was pretty barren, with just small fields and green stretches on both banks of the river. Mountainsides were devoid of any trees or bushes, and in many places reached over 9000ft. Eventually, we came to the town of Banks, at the confluence of the North and South Forks of The Payette River. This town is another center for white-water rafting and kayaking, with many rental outlets catering to this sport, and offering lessons for the non-informed. We turned east here, and entered an area known as Garden Valley on the edge of The Sawtooth National Forest. My cousin has a recreational log cabin here, built on a hillside and surrounded by huge trees. We spent 3 nights here, and 1 night at their home in Boise, ID about 55 miles further south.

Whilst in this area of Southwest Idaho, we visited Bruneau Sand Dunes, the largest structured sand dunes in North America, and the Bruneau River outlook, which is a 1200ft deep and 800ft wide gorge, in the middle of flat prairie covered with sage bushes. This gorge is 50 miles long, and appeared to run from the northeast to the southwest. The river is quite narrow, and despite temperatures close to 100F, had flowing water in it. We were also taken for a drive thru’ downtown Boise.

For our return journey to Lolo, we headed east from Grand Valley up a narrow 2-lane road, across a mountainside with drops to a river 1000ft below. The first village we came to was Lowman, at the junction of Hwy 21 (from Boise)and Hwy 24 (from Grand Valley). Hwy 21 comes to be known as The Ponderosa Pine Scenic Byway.
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This village was totaled in a firestorm quite recently, and only now are cabins being rebuilt. The heat from the forest fire caused a smoke column, not unlike a tornado, where burning embers were drawn up the column to 40,000ft, then high level winds blew the embers about 10 – 20 miles east, where they dropped to the ground and started new forest fires! There are riverside hot springs here, and we could see people in the pools, alongside the river. We continued east over Banner Summit (Elev 7020ft) to the village of Stanley, which posts a population of 100 plus tourists! Stanley is at the center of the Sawtooth National Recreation Area, Sawtooth Valley and the spectacular Sawtooth Basin. Many Outfitters provide white water raft trips down the Salmon River from here. Other activities include trail rides both on horseback and ATV’s. We continued east to an intersection, where there used to be a gold mining town called ‘Sunbeam’. In 2006, we drove from Challis on The Custer Motorway, a good gravel road, thru’ rolling cattle country and over a 9000 ft pass to Custer, Bonanza and Sunbeam. This is The Yankee Fork Gold Dredge Historic Area, and the above mentioned ghost towns provide history and dioramas, along with photos of the mines and miners from the  period 1870 – 1920. In 2006, our trip was marred by torrential rain, but this day was sunny and hot, so we elected to drive the Custer Motorway again, from the south. What a wonderful drive, and after we left the site of the Gold Dredge we didn’t see any traffic. At the summit of the pass there is an old Toll Booth where miners had to be able to pay the toll, or turn round and go back the way they came. Can you imagine climbing to the summit, with your wagon pulled by a team of oxen, then having to go back because you had insufficient funds to pay the toll!!!! At Challis, we stopped for a late lunch. When we were here in 2006, there was an Interpretive Center and Museum, together with a gold panning exhibit. This has all gone, and no one seems to know where. At Stanley our hwy became #75, and now at Challis it joined Hwy 93 which continues north to the Cdn Border. To the south it goes to Jackpot, NV – which is where my map ends! Our driving direction is now north, alongside the main Salmon River. This too, is white water rafting country, and we saw many rafts on the river.

Between here and the Town of Salmon, we were surrounded by bare mountains over 9000ft high, and we crossed The 45th Parallel – halfway between the Equator and the North Pole! From Salmon, we still had 130 miles to drive to our destination at Lolo, over Lost Trail Pass(6995ft) on the border of Idaho and Montana. There’s a ski hill here, and even though it was August, there was still snow lying under the trees. It’s a long climb to the top, then a long downhill hwy thru’ Sula, Conner, and Darby to Hamilton. Now we were following the East Fork of The Bitterroot

River, which joins the Clark Fork river near Missoula.

We were back at our trailer at Lolo by 7.30pm after driving 320 miles, and a very enjoyable trip.

Temperatures ranged between 8c and 28C, but we had no rain.

The End.

Lolo,Mt to Boise,ID to Lolo,MT – August 2009

We left our 5th Wheel at The Square Dance Center in Lolo, MT and followed US Hwy 12 over Lolo Pass, the same route Lewis and Clark took in the early 1800’s. This is a typical mountain highway, known as a Scenic River corridor, following the Lochsa River. Our first destination was Kooskia, Idaho at the junction of Hwys 12 and 13, which soon became Hwy 95 as we headed south through scenic Idaho. There is also a river junction here for the Middle and South Forks of the Clearwater River. These rivers are very popular with fly fishermen, and we saw many flat bottomed boats drifting along in the current, whilst the fishermen plied their rods. After turning south, we climbed 2000ft in the next 26 miles to the town of Grangeville, in the heart of Camas Prairie, one of the largest wheat producing areas in the country. Five rivers flow through five designated wilderness areas. Three of the rivers carry the Wild and Scenic designation. Near to Grangeville, there is an ancient mammoth archaeological site. There is no limit on what outdoor recreation lovers can do here, throughout the year.

Continuing south for about 16 miles we came to the village of Whitebird, which sits at an elevation of 1560 ft. In the next 7 miles the road drops about 1000ft, almost straight down, with many truck emergency run offs, in case they lose their brakes. At the base of this hill one can look back and see the old road which traverses back and forth across the hillsides. We  were  glad  we did not have our 5th Wheel with us. To our west we could see the 9000ft Seven Devils Mountains, which form a semicircle above Hells Canyon, on the Snake River. One can reach Hell’s Canyon from here, but it is a 27 mile trip on a gravel road, and on this day the temperature was already in the 90’s. For the next 28 miles, we followed the Salmon River which had cut through the mountains from the town of Salmon to Riggins, where it joins the Little Salmon River before continuing north and west to join the Snake River. This area is very well known for white-water rafting, and we saw many rafters as well as solo floaters. We continued south on Hwy 55, alongside one of the arms of The Payette River to McCall (5025ft). The valley really opens up here, and there are many small lakes, as well as a couple of State Parks, to cater for year round sporting activities. After Grangeville, the countryside was pretty barren, with just small fields and green stretches on both banks of the river. Mountainsides were devoid of any trees or bushes, and in many places reached over 9000ft. Eventually, we came to the town of Banks, at the confluence of the North and South Forks of The Payette River. This town is another center for white-water rafting and kayaking, with many rental outlets catering to this sport, and offering lessons for the non-informed. We turned east here, and entered an area known as Garden Valley on the edge of The Sawtooth National Forest. My cousin has a recreational log cabin here, built on a hillside and surrounded by huge trees. We spent 3 nights here, and 1 night at their home in Boise, ID about 55 miles further south.

Whilst in this area of Southwest Idaho, we visited Bruneau Sand Dunes, the largest structured sand dunes in North America, and the Bruneau River outlook, which is a 1200ft deep and 800ft wide gorge, in the middle of flat prairie covered with sage bushes. This gorge is 50 miles long, and appeared to run from the northeast to the southwest. The river is quite narrow, and despite temperatures close to 100F, had flowing water in it. We were also taken for a drive thru’ downtown Boise.

For our return journey to Lolo, we headed east from Grand Valley up a narrow 2-lane road, across a mountainside with drops to a river 1000ft below. The first village we came to was Lowman, at the junction of Hwy 21 (from Boise)and Hwy 24 (from Grand Valley). Hwy 21 comes to be known as The Ponderosa Pine Scenic Byway.
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This village was totaled in a firestorm quite recently, and only now are cabins being rebuilt. The heat from the forest fire caused a smoke column, not unlike a tornado, where burning embers were drawn up the column to 40,000ft, then high level winds blew the embers about 10 – 20 miles east, where they dropped to the ground and started new forest fires! There are riverside hot springs here, and we could see people in the pools, alongside the river. We continued east over Banner Summit (Elev 7020ft) to the village of Stanley, which posts a population of 100 plus tourists! Stanley is at the center of the Sawtooth National Recreation Area, Sawtooth Valley and the spectacular Sawtooth Basin. Many Outfitters provide white water raft trips down the Salmon River from here. Other activities include trail rides both on horseback and ATV’s. We continued east to an intersection, where there used to be a gold mining town called ‘Sunbeam’. In 2006, we drove from Challis on The Custer Motorway, a good gravel road, thru’ rolling cattle country and over a 9000 ft pass to Custer, Bonanza and Sunbeam. This is The Yankee Fork Gold Dredge Historic Area, and the above mentioned ghost towns provide history and dioramas, along with photos of the mines and miners from the  period 1870 – 1920. In 2006, our trip was marred by torrential rain, but this day was sunny and hot, so we elected to drive the Custer Motorway again, from the south. What a wonderful drive, and after we left the site of the Gold Dredge we didn’t see any traffic. At the summit of the pass there is an old Toll Booth where miners had to be able to pay the toll, or turn round and go back the way they came. Can you imagine climbing to the summit, with your wagon pulled by a team of oxen, then having to go back because you had insufficient funds to pay the toll!!!! At Challis, we stopped for a late lunch. When we were here in 2006, there was an Interpretive Center and Museum, together with a gold panning exhibit. This has all gone, and no one seems to know where. At Stanley our hwy became #75, and now at Challis it joined Hwy 93 which continues north to the Cdn Border. To the south it goes to Jackpot, NV – which is where my map ends! Our driving direction is now north, alongside the main Salmon River. This too, is white water rafting country, and we saw many rafts on the river.

Between here and the Town of Salmon, we were surrounded by bare mountains over 9000ft high, and we crossed The 45th Parallel – halfway between the Equator and the North Pole! From Salmon, we still had 130 miles to drive to our destination at Lolo, over Lost Trail Pass(6995ft) on the border of Idaho and Montana. There’s a ski hill here, and even though it was August, there was still snow lying under the trees. It’s a long climb to the top, then a long downhill hwy thru’ Sula, Conner, and Darby to Hamilton. Now we were following the East Fork of The Bitterroot

River, which joins the Clark Fork river near Missoula.

We were back at our trailer at Lolo by 7.30pm after driving 320 miles, and a very enjoyable trip.

Temperatures ranged between 8c and 28C, but we had no rain.

The End.

Travelogue 2008, Chapter 17.

As we left Cody, the highway immediately entered a rock strewn canyon with the Shoshone River in the bottom. As we traveled west, the canyon walls got narrower and higher until, as it appeared we could go no further, tunnels through the granite showed up. The first two tunnels were very short, but the third, well lit tunnel was almost 1 km long, and burrowed through solid granite. On the far side was the Buffalo Bill Dam, a huge reservoir providing much needed irrigation to the area. It is also a fisherman’s paradise, with the native Yellowstone cutthroat as the dominant fish. We continued to follow US 20 along its shores to the west end, where the village of Wapiti and it’s campground had been taken over by a tent city belonging to firefighters, with a nearby helicopter base. High on the mountainside we could see the smoke from the fire. Before the era of helicopters, this would have been a very difficult location to reach, by foot or horseback. Following the North Fork of the Shoshone River we crossed Sylvan Pass (Elevation 8559 ft) and entered Yellowstone National Park. It cost $25 for a 7 day pass, which included entrance to both Yellowstone and Teton National Parks, with camping fees extra. Our destination was West Yellowstone townsite, which is outside the park boundary, but we still had to buy a 7 day pass. Traffic was light for the time of year, especially as this was the start of the Labour Day long weekend. We continued west over two more passes, one at 8800 ft, and the other 7700 ft, before reaching our destination. Evidence of the massive 1988 forest fires, which closed the park for most of that summer, is still very much in view. But, the wildlife has returned, especially the 2200 strong bison herd which roams freely throughout the park, grizzly and black bears, elk, mule deer, pronghorn antelopes, moose and big horn sheep. We have visited Yellowstone National Park twice before in the last 4 years, and really only used it as a means to reach our destination.
Our main reason for going to West Yellowstone, was to attend The 53rd Knothead Jamboree square dance weekend. In previous years, we have camped at Lionshead RV Resort and Motel, but late last year they were bought out by the KOA organization, who immediately raised the camping fees substantially. So, this year we stayed in a lovely USFS Campground just north of town, on the banks of the Madison River, which appeared to be full of hungry Rainbow Trout. The KOA (Kampgrounds of America) place is a full service campground with all the amenities, whereas the USFS (United States Forestry Service) campground had no services, apart from a campsite with fireplace and picnic table. When we arrived on the Friday, the weather was quite hot for the elevation of 6600 ft, 35C/ low 100F, but this changed over the weekend, and snow fell on the higher peaks on Monday!!! We didn’t do much dancing because John somehow wrenched his knee overnight Friday, and could barely walk on Saturday. But, with the aid of extra strength Tylenol and a knee brace was able to dance every 2nd dance on Sunday evening. Quite disappointing really, because we had both been looking forward to this weekend, having been previous attendees.
The last few descents from high mountain passes had been quite noisy, as far as the trailer brakes were concerned, so we modified our plans on leaving West Yellowstone, and instead of driving through Grand Teton National Park to Jackson Hole, WY we drove direct to Rigby, just north of Idaho Falls, where we parked the rig on his cousin’s driveway.This lady knows everyone in the area, and she arranged for our unit to be looked at the following morning at a nearby RV dealer. It turned out there was no problem with the brakes, just the high temperatures and low humidity were causing the loud squealing. All was not lost however, as they were able to properly repair the leaking City Water inlet, which we have had problems with since August 2007. They sent the bill for this job directly to the manufacturer! Whilst in Idaho Falls
, we had coffee or meals with other family members, before moving on, after only 3 nights. We had gained a week, in our travel plans by missing The Tetons, so elected to visit other friends that we had not seen for a couple of years. We left Rigby on 4th Sept and drove north on I-15 over Monida Pass(which gets its name from ‘Mon’tana and ‘Ida’ho), past Dillon, Butte, and Anaconda, to Missoula, Montana. Fresh snow was falling on the mountain ranges, west of I-15 as we drove north to the Butte area! In previous years we have spent a couple of weeks in August at the square dance ranch at Lolo, just south of Missoula. The owners of this ranch were at The Knothead Jamboree and had invited us to stay overnight with them, if we had the time. As we arrived, and before we had time to set up, a thunderstorm accompanied by torrential rain hit the area. It didn’t really clear up until well after midnight, when the sky cleared. There were square dance lessons that evening, but after driving 547 kms that day, we were quite pleased to just visit. This was our longest trip in a day, but because we were on the interstate, it only took 6 1/2 hours of actual driving!
The next day, we continued west along I-90 over more mountain passes, through Couer d’Alene, Idaho to Spokane, WA ,and on to our friends home at Deer Park. We first met this couple in 1988, when they were the volunteer campground hosts with Parks Canada at McLeod Meadows in Kootenay National Park in British Columbia. In fact, they were instrumental in having us become similar volunteers with Parks Canada, which I have previously written articles on. We eventually moved on to doing similar work with the USFS in Montana in 2005 and 2006. After five nights at Deer Park, we continued north through Sandpoint and Bonners Ferry, ID to the Canadian Border, east along Highway 3, through Cranbrook, Fernie, Fort Macleod, north to Nobleford, then to Picture Butte, Alberta where we spent the weekend. John played golf on Saturday morning, and we square danced on Sunday afternoon. We arrived home is Strathmore on Monday 15th September, four months and one week after leaving.

In review – this was a wonderful ‘Trip of a Lifetime’ during which we drove our truck 21,924 kms, and towed the 5th Wheel 15,950 kms. We traveled through 8 Provinces and 14 States. We spent $ 5961.26 on regular unleaded fuel, and averaged 15.7 mpg. Camping cost us $2597.13. We were surprised to find gas in Quebec was all the same price province wide, at $1.38 per litre between May 20th and June 3rd. Most expensive gas in Canada was just outside Halifax – $1.48 per litre. Although we paid US$4.28 per gallon for gas in Maine, the average throughout our route across the U.S. was between US$3.80 to $3.95 per gallon. We paid US$3.75 per gallon in Bonners Ferry, ID in early September.

Highlights of our trip were our 10 days in Quebec, crossing The Confederation Bridge to Prince Edward Island, our 10 days in Newfoundland, touring Cape Breton, spending Canada Day in Halifax, the tides at the Bay of Fundy, the Oshkosh Airshow, our 10 days in Wisconsin, crossing South Dakota and our 12 days in Wyoming. There are many, many places we would like to revisit, but we don’t want to drive, to get there!!

End of Chapter 17.