9/21/07 - Jackson & The Tetons

We are suppose to get a storm in this weekend....so we decided we better take advantage of the beautiful clear day and head to Jackson & The Tetons. This is the same canyon area that we had the pictures from the other day....just have blue sky today. Wildlife sightings today: 4 Moose, 2 Elk. If you want to see where we are go to: http://map.datastormusers.com/user2.cfm?user=2430

The Tetons.

The Snake River with the Tetons in the background is one of my favorite pictures....you hardly ever see a scenic calender without some picture from this area.

Mt. Moran and The Snake River.

Mt. Moran is in the background.

Lots of little trout...they were probably only 2" long.

This couple were enjoying a canoe ride with beautiful scenery at every bend.

This large moose had been laying down for a couple of hours....we were surprised as to how close the rangers would let us get to him.....sure glad he didn't decide to get up and go after someone. Then we saw a cow and two calves and finally an elk back in the trees.

Jenny Lake at the foot of the Tetons.

9/19/07 - Fall Colors

We headed up to Alpine to get some river rock for our yard and decided to take a short drive up the Snake River Canyon towards Jackson. Within 5 miles these are the beautiful colors that we saw......we didn't have blue skies today so will come back this way in a few days. to get some better pictures.

Looking through the leaves down on to the Snake River.

We always seem to find narrow dirt roads....this was up the Grey's River Road out of Alpine, WY.

9/11/07 - Thayne, WY

It was nice to get to Thayne yesterday afternoon (9/10/07). We had several people come by to talk to us as they were wondering if we were ever coming back. It feels kinda good to know we will be sitting in one place for 3 weeks. When we went to Jasper National Park in Alberta, Canada in 1975 with our travel trailer and four kids....we were wishing then that we had the time and the funds to go onto Alaska. So for 32 years we have talked about wanting to go to Alaska and this year God made it possible for us to fulfill that dream. We thank Him for the travel safety He granted us and all the splendor and beautiful country He created for our enjoyment. From the time we left Thayne until getting back we were gone 105 days, traveled 7500 miles in the motorhome and 3200 miles in the jeep. It was a trip of a lifetime! We are already starting to plan and talk about our next trip to "The Last Frontier"! The blog has been fun doing (however much more time consuming than I ever imagined), we hope in some small way you were able to share a little of our wonderful summer through the pictures. Taking the amount of time we did and literally going to the end of many roads we really did see Alaska. Words or pictures really can't do justice to what we experienced.....we have heard many people say "Once you go to Alaska you leave a part of you there" and I know that we both feel that way. I won't be posting our daily activities now but will still post from time to time. We are planning on leaving Thayne on September 30th and driving to Sunset, UT. We have an appointment @ Charlie's on October 1st to have our windshield replaced, our front step worked on and my passenger chair repaired (from two muts who decided to chew one day)! Not sure how long we will be at Charlie's but from there it will be a couple of days and we will be back home. We are getting anxious to see all the kids!

9/10/07 - Mtn. Home, ID to Thayne, WY - 307 miles

Our destination tonight was our RV Lot in Thayne, WY. We went by Craters of the Moon National Monument, tried going in but all the RV parking spaces were full (mainly by cars....which tends to frustrate us as to why they park in the RV parking spaces). It has felt funny traveling the last few days and not referring to "The MilePost" book. This is a must for anyone traveling to Alaska. We would also recommend "The Great Alaskan TourSaver" coupon book. It saved us over $600.00. When we got to Thayne the colors have started to change on the mountains and it is beautiful. Wildlife sightings today: Antelope & Coyote. If you want to see where we are currently (9/15/07) go to: http://map.datastormusers.com/user2.cfm?user=2430

Craters of the Moon National Monument.

Palisades Reservoir...this is about 20 miles from our RV lot in Thayne, WY. We could not believe how much lower it was from when we went by in May. The second picture is around Alpine, WY and the flat dirt area is usually all under water.

9/9/07 - Lewiston to Mtn. Home - 321 miles

We had planned on going to Stanley, ID and spending a couple of nights in that area camping along a river again (I love being parked in the trees by rivers)! We were going to cut over to McCall, go south a little and then back north toward Stanley. It had been real hazy (from fires) all morning and when we got around the McCall area it was so smokey you could hardly see the mountains. We stopped at Cascade to get some information on where the fires were etc. We were told that from Banks to Horseshoe Bend it was single lane with a pilot car leading the traffic through the fire area. At that point we decided to skip Stanley for this trip and just head south toward Boise, we'll come back when it's not so smokey. We really didn't want to stay in Boise so went on to Mountain Home and found a beautiful brand new RV park. We had gotten so use to campgrounds having nothing over 30 AMPS and this park had 50/100 AMPS. I guess with all the bells and whistles on the huge new rigs some of them are actually needing 100 AMPS to run everything. The pull through sites were 90' with a large cement pad and lots of grass and the rate was $28.00 less any discounts you might have. They had four rows of sites done and were working on another whole section. The entrance area was done beautiful and when they are finished it will be one of the nicest parks we have seen. Wildlife sightings today: Coyote. If you want to see where we are currently (9/15/07) go to: http://map.datastormusers.com/user2.cfm?user=2430

We traveled along the Salmon River again today....we had seen the Salmon River on May 30th when we traveled up through Salmon, ID. Se saw alot of sandy beaches along the river. We were surprised at how full it was for this late in the year.

When we got between Banks & Horseshoe Bend they had just stopped using a pilot car to take the traffic through the fire area, so we had no trouble at all.....just really smokey!

The firefighters had their base camp set up around Horseshoe Bend.

9/8/07 - 2nd Day in Lewiston

This was such a pretty area we decided to stay another night here. We had a real lazy day just hanging around the campground and enjoying the beautiful weather and our huge campsite. Pat was able to get internet with our portable dish even with all the trees. They were having the Lewiston Roundup Rodeo here but we just relaxed today. Wildlife sightings today: None If you want to see where we curretly (9/15/07) go to: http://map.datastormusers.com/user2.cfm?user=2430

Looking across the Snake River from our campground is Clarkston, WA. The state boundary goes right down the middle of the river in this part of Idaho & Washington.

Hells Gate State Park was a beautiful state park along the banks of the Snake River. There were three camping loops - A Loop - full hookups, B-Loop - water & electric hookups, and C-Loop - dry camping. We stayed in B Loop and pretty much had the whole end to ourselves plus the sites already were big and lots of grass. There was also probably a mile long area for day use and picnics....they really had done a beautiful job on this state park.

9/7/07 - Post Falls to Lewiston - 129 miles

We said our goodbyes to Richard & Karen and had a short drive to Lewiston, ID. Was pretty seeing all the open countryside with wheat fields as far as you could see. We stayed at Hells Gate State Park right on the Snake River in Lewiston. Wildlife sightings today: None. If you want to see where we are currently (9/12/07) go to: http://map.datastormusers.com/user2.cfm?user=2430

What a fun 3+ months we have had with Richard & Karen....in ways we hate to separate...but we are both getting anxious to get back and see our families. Don't know how long it will be before we see them again but we will always have many wonderful memories of our "North To Alaska" trip with them (even though they always gave us a bad time about wanting to be in "the trees")! Really how can you go to Alaska and not be in the trees....just kidding guys!.

Just doing some more goofing off.....we did plenty of this but that's what made the trip so fun!

Once we left the Coeur D'Alene area the countryside really changed to wheat fields for miles and miles. They were pretty much done harvesting except for the straw.

9/6/07 - 2nd Day in Post Falls

We were planning on leaving today so got up early and Pat washed the motor home and jeep and I cleaned inside. About 11:00 we decided to stay over another day even though this was the highest price RV park we have stayed in. They charged $3.00 per dog per day......we hadn't run into that before....so needless to say we won't be coming back and staying at this park. Really were glad we stayed as we just kicked back the rest of the day and reminisced with Richard & Karen about our trip. Wildlife sightings today: None. If you want to see where we are currently (9/12/07) go to: http://map.datastormusers.com/user2.cfm?user=2430

Cleaning the rigs - we still had the mud and dirt from the Cassair Highway.

9/5/07 - Oroville, WA to Post Falls, ID - 212 miles

About 20 miles after leaving Oroville this morning Richard & Karen keep going south to go by Grand Coulee Dam. We wanted to go to Deer Park, WA to see an engineer that worked for us when we had the production company in Salt Lake City in the 70's. We will meet up again with Richard & Karen in the campground tonight in Post Falls, ID (it is right next to Coeur D'Alene). We had a really nice visit with Vern and Alice. Vern had heart surgery in May and is doing really good. He is 86 and still drives back and forth to St. George, UT every year. Wildlife sightings today: None. If you want to see where we are currently (9/12/07) go to: http://map.datastormusers.com/user2.cfm?user=2430

We crossed the Columbia River when leaving Washington & entering Idaho.

9/4/07 - Lac La Hache, BC to Oroville, WA - 301 miles

This is the first day of 300 mile driving we have had since May 20th, but we were wanting to get across the border today! We ended up going down an 18 mile hill that wasn't marked well at all, Pat looked in his rear view mirror about the time Richard came on the walkie and said his brakes were smoking really bad so we were able to find a pull out and let them cool down for awhile. Both Rich & Karen were pretty shook up when they got out of the motorhome. Then we got on 97 heading south through Peachland, BC and couldn't believe all the wineries and orchards through about a 50 mile area along a lake. We later found out that there were over 50 wineries in this area which is called "The Okanagan Valley". It is also called the "Banana Belt" of Canada and lots of retired people live here. We were wanting to stop and get some fruit at the fruitstands we saw but didn't think we could take it across the border. When we got to the border and the agent came in to check the motorhome we asked her about the fruit and she said there was no problem bringing fruit in from this area but that we would have more opportunity as soon as we got in WA. It felt good being back in the USA! Wildlife sightings today: 5 Deer. If you want to see where we are currently (9/12/07) go to: http://map.datastormusers.com/user2.cfm?user=2430

The view at our lunch stop today.