Left
Boise after the Steelhead Seminar Tuesday evening and drove as far as Wells,
NV and dry camped there. Then drove on into Las Vegas. Show the
"Moose" damage to Dale so he could start getting an repair estimate together.
Rev. 9/25/01
Alaska & beyond - continued
9/19 - 9/25
Boise
to Las Vegas, Phoenix, Santa
Fe, then north
Left
Boise after the Steelhead Seminar Tuesday evening and drove as far as Wells,
NV and dry camped there. Then drove on into Las Vegas. Show the
"Moose" damage to Dale so he could start getting an repair estimate together.
Took off for Phoenix. Got in there in the evening.
Spend two days with Ronnie, my brother-in-law, and Phillis, it was good to see them. It always is.
From there I drove to Santa Fe to visit Bill and Sue, Carol's best and oldest friend. I had to return Bill's "Big Bear Gun,", the .44 Magnum, that I couldn't take into Canada.
The next day, Sue and I went up to the Santa Fe ski basin to see the aspens. Bill told me it is the largest single grove of aspens in the world. The colors were great.
Spent a couple of days with them.
The
last evening we had dinner with some friends, and the next morning I headed
north.
In Colorado, going from Durango to Grand Junction you go over three high passes -- Coal Bank Pass, 10,640 feet, Molas Pass, 10,910 feet, and Red Mountain Pass, 11,018 feet. Boy, this is really touching the sky.
All along the way the aspens were striking in their brilliant
golden fall color.
Finally made it to Vernal, Utah just after dark. It has been a beautiful
drive.
Monday,
9/24, as I drove north from Vernal, Utah, the aspens all along my route were
golden and red.
The route I'm following is if you drew a line from Santa Fe to Prince George, and then took the closest road to it -- that put you on the spine of the continent, crossing and re-crossing the continental divide. It is high country, six to eight thousand feet.
The
pictures of the aspens were take near Flaming Gorge in Utah, Jackson Hole
in Wyoming and west of Bozeman, Montana -- all in their glory. One
stretch of the road was through a section with aspens on both sides. A
sign said, "Watch for Fallen Trees Next 4 Miles."
One nice thing about driving this time of year is they have
finished their new construction and maintenance and the roads are as good
as they get.
Driving down the hill to Flaming Gorge Dam, I thought of the work I'd done for Utah Power and Light. It was part of the design of the long transmission line from there to Salt Lake. As I drove across the dam, I saw that line.
In the center of Jackson Hole, there is a park with an arch
of elk antlers at each corner -- can't miss 'em, can't forget 'em. They
are gathered on the Elk Refuge north of the town. I had to drive around
the square to find the best picture.
And
north of Jackson Hole the Tetons rise, filling the whole sky on the west.
The drive through Yellowstone is always interesting. This was one of Carol's favorite places. We managed to go through part of the park almost every trip we took. And we were always looking for the animals.
West of Old Faithful, on one trip, a buffalo jumped off the bank, on to the road ,right in front of me. We were certain I was going to hit it -- but I was amazed at it's agility. It hit the road, instantly turned and jumped back up the bank.
Along the Madison River, on the west side of the park, there
was a herd of buffalo just laying on the grass on the other side of the river.
A quarter of a mile on down the river was a herd of elk wading in the river -- you have to look close, they're in the shadow. And don't ask me what they were wadding in the river for -- maybe just to keep guys like me from fishing in it.
I got to Butte, Montana just as the sun was setting. I'd foregotten
just how cold it gets in Butte the minute the sun sets. The down vest
that Sue gave me, really was just the thing.
The next morning I drove up to 717 W. Granite St., the house
my grandfather built in the 1890's. I was surprised, it's still there.
Took the route from Butte to Helena, and then on up to Great Falls. This route follows the upper part of the Missouri River. Its a beautiful stream, and was loaded with fishermen -- I was tempted.
I crossed the US-Canada border at Sweetgrass. Things have really changed since I first went into Canada in June. They went through every drawer, closet and cupboard -- I can honestly say, the Roadtrek has been seriously searched.
Drove through Lethbridge and then started on. up to Calgary. There was a car stranded on the side so I stopped. He needed to call CAA for a tow into Calgary. Cell phone comes in handy at such times -- we got a tow set up.
After telling him who I was, he introduced himself -- Elmar
Husein. He laughed, said his name had been giving him problems for
the last few years -- so he was the "Sane Husein," the other one was
the "Insane Husein." Said he'd lived in Calgary twenty-six years, and
was a Canadian citizen.
Calgary is a large city (that isn't smoke in the skyline picture -- its
a bug on my windshield). In Lethbridge I had tried to take the
truck route to bypass the city -- really got lost. So when I got to
Calgary, figured I'd learned my lesson, so stuck to "city route" --
BIG mistake. Had to go right into the center of the city, one
block , one stop light at a time, during evening rush hour -- only way
to get on to Trans-Canada 1. Beat -- so I pulled into a RV camp on
the west side of town for the night.
Maps