| String lake is in a
chain of lakes inside the National Park. It is one of the
smaller lakes but is easily accessible. If you are looking
for a beautiful lake this is it.. however, if you are looking to
be out and alone in the wilderness the National Park is not the
place. Lots of people enjoying the outdoors. String
lake is shallow, about 4 to 5 feet deep, but crystal clear with
vista views of the Tetons. The wind on the lake can present
a challenge rowing the inflatable kayak... from the PICs you can
see I had some great help... |
Paddle of my helper. |
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Notice position of paddle of my helper. |
Time for me to take a break. Two people...
one paddling.
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A break at the upper end of String lake |
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On to Boise Idaho
A slight change in directions and off
to Boise Idaho. Over the hill and west of Jackson into Idaho
the terrain opened up into beautiful fields of hay and potatoes
with mountains as back drops. 
Then moving on west through Idaho Falls and arriving at the
Craters of the Moon National Monument. A composite of
volcanic activity where some of the past astronauts have come to
learn geology of the moon.
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Fields of lava with flowers covering like carpet.
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The little flowers that cover the lave. |
More lava |
My home in a lava bed. |
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| Past the Craters of the Moon National
Monument, farther west we came to the small town of Arco.
Arco's "claim to fame" is that is was the first town in
the world to be nuclear powered. Yep... just an ordinary
small town America with ordinary people. I had a chat with
the lady who owned a small store (pic right) and she said there
had never been any problems with being nuclear powered.
Here's a link to read about Arco -- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arco,_Idaho |
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On from Arco and up the mountain to Sun Valley...
wow! The first sign of Sun Valley was an 8 or 9 thousand
foot airport runway nestled in the valley. The airport ramp
was full of 10, 20, 50 million dollar private jets. A small
place with a big airport ! Hanging off the sides of
mountains were multi-multi million dollar homes -- I'm sure just
summer homes of the rich and famous. The place was so
exclusive I was afraid to take pictures... the wealth was almost
obscene. |
| On up the mountain
through the beautiful valleys on Hwy 93 and hooking a left west
bound on Hwy 75 toward Boise.... beautiful drive. Some miles
along Hwy 75 it was time to shut down for the day. Stanley
Idaho... what a nice little place nestled in the mountains of the
Sawtooth National Forest. This is a winter spot for cross
county skiers and a summer spot for river rafters. Very down
home and friendly... drastic change from Sun Valley. |
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PICs of Stanley Idaho |
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A left on Hwy 21 from Stanley down the hill to
Boise. Following mostly along the river, over a couple of
6000 ft plus passes, past Lucky Peak Reservoir and into a somewhat
high desert landscape lies Boise...a very very clean charming
city. Boise has a 26 mile long "Green Belt" for
walking, biking, skating, or skate boarding. I explored six
miles of it on my new bike... picture below... Haven't been
on a bike in so long I wouldn't even want to guess the number of
years. The six mile ride was enough for a day.... Here
is a link to the Boise Idaho "Green Belt"
My Bike... to be continued. |
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PICs from The Boise Idaho
"Green Belt"
Fresh off the shutter this morning of Thursday July 8,
2010. These are shots from my early morning bike ride.
Wow... my legs still worked after my six mile ride yesterday...
wow... I may be into this bike thing ! They say your never
forget... but I don't think you stay in shape ??? |
Bridge over the river |
From the bridge |
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Another bridge |
From the bridge |
The Green Belt |
River along the Belt |
More Belt |
And more Belt |
| Sunday July 11, 2010...
wrapping up in Boise Idaho today and heading on north to Montana
in the morning. Over the next seven weeks we'll be getting
down to the hard core Montana Adventure -- visiting
Kalispell, Wisdom, Missoula, Livingston, Libby, and Billings along
with many other small places and sights along the way. Look
forward to some beautiful and exciting PICs to come. See you
in Montana. |
| Monday July 12, 2010 -- Left Boise
Idaho heading north up Hwy 55 through McCall (Beautiful town on a
big lake) .... then north on 95 to Grangeville... North East on 13
to our last camping night in Idaho. |
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Last Camp In Idaho |
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Camp Site
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More PICs along the way
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NcCall Idaho
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Made it to Montana !! |
| Not like I thought it would be....
MORE !! Beautiful is just not enough word to describe it....
I think spectacular would fit better. Rolling grassland
mountains with high Rocky Mountains as the back drop.
Missoula has to be the most quaint nice little city I've ever
seen. We're going to be spending a couple of weeks there so
I'll do a section on it when we stay there. The first night
in Montana was in the National Forest off hwy 12 about 90 miles
from Missoula. From there we passed through Missoula and
moved on to Troy... a small little town of 1000 people nestled
down in a river valley between the mountains. Troy is the
lowest elevation (1800 or so feet above sea level) town in Montana
thus doesn't have really harsh winters like much of Montana.
Following are some PIC along the way in Montana and Troy. |
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| The PIC on the right is
named "Oh Shit"... About 6 miles up a narrow forest road
looking for a place to camp in the National Forest this is what we
encountered. Steep drop off on one side and fast rising
mountain on the other... no place to turn around. I had to
back the trailer down the mountain for about 5 miles before we got
to a road intersection allowing us to turn around. |
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Kootenai River Blue Grass Festival
Troy Montana
Following are some PICs of the Blue Grass Festival
and surrounding area including the old one-way bridge crossing the
river at Troy. There is also a PIC of some unknown female
Blue Grass Fan... not sure how she got in the picture but I liked
it.
    
Who is she ??? 
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| Now moving on to Kalispell and Glacier
National Park. Arrived Kalispell on Sat. July 17,
2010. Just starting to look around and get some PICs of the
Kalispell area and Glacier Park. Here are just a couple of
PIC for now. .. well and another PIC of My Bike.
   
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Exploring Glacier National
Park
We pitched camp at Apgar which is the first camp
ground in the West entrance to the Park.... coming in from
Kalispell. On the first day we decided to take the 43 mile
long dirt road up the west side of the park.... DON'T DO IT
!! Fire some years back destroyed most of the timber
and it is just a long long narrow dirt road to
nowhere.
For the rest of the time we explored Glacier on
the East side which is really where all the beauty is. Logan
Pass... St Mary... and Many Glacier. Below are some PICs of
the better parts of the Park. |
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Who is she??
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St. Mary Lodge |
St Mary Lodge |
Trail Ride |
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Camp At Apgar camp ground Glacier National Park
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And ... Oh Yes... My Bike.
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| You will see a PIC of the horses at
the trail ride we took at St. Mary. This is the only PIC of
the ride as.... for some unknown reason (said to be safety) you
are not allowed to take PICs on the ride. WOW !!! It
was a nice 2 hour outing but not something I would recommend.
The most exciting thing was that we saw a Black Bear and 3 cubs
.
Now that I have a little more time... a little more on
Glacier. Crowded... did I mention the number of people
everywhere... like in crowded !! One exciting thing:
One a drive toward Many Glacier, North East Entry to Park, I
almost killed my first grizzly bear.... yep a little Grizzly Cub
ran out from no where and almost hit the front of the truck.
Little devil was so small it would not have made much of a
rug. Glacier has some absolutely breathtaking views...
if you like seeing them standing shoulder to shoulder with someone
you don't know.. many of which have BO. Did I mention
Glacier National Park is crowded in July ? !!
Wednesday July 21... we're out of there !! Getting
ready for the weekend show in Kalispell... which didn't do much
for me so we chose to stay in the little town of Whitefish about
19 miles north of Kalispell. Whitefish is like a small
Jackson Hole Wyoming... ski slopes visible on the mountain to the
north.
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| Some first PICs of Whitefish... sorry
but they were taken through my windshield. Next ones will be
better
  
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Old Historic Train station in
Whitefish... Amtrak still operates out of here.
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| To the right is an interesting sign in
the RV park we're in. As I said, Whitefish is leaning a
little toward the "yuppie" Jackson Hole type of
town. According to the sign, I guess they are pretty picky
and judgmental about who stays in this RV park. |
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| Got out early this morning (Thursday
July 22, 2010) to shoot a few PICs of downtown Whitefish
before the streets filled with cars and people. Lighting
wasn't right but... too bad. On the mountain in the
background is where the ski slopes are... can't really see them
from my PICs... too bad. Below is downtown Whitefish in
the early morning. And in case you missed it -- My Bike
-- according to my body odometer I now have 1500 miles on
it.... and I've gained 6 pounds. So much for bike exercise
!! Maybe I'm always riding it to go get something to eat
??? Damn... I didn't think about that! |
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| To the Right: The RV site at
Whitefish. A word of advise for campers with motor homes
or travel trailers: DO NOT park with the rear of the
unit facing East !! or even worse slightly southeast.
With the awning down and slanted for optimum shade, I'll get about
6 inches of shade under the awning at about 4:30 in the
afternoon. The rest of the day it is sunny under the
awning. If you park like this.. pray for clouds.
Also... you might make note of My
Bike under the awning. |
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| Done in
Whitefish... done in Kalispell... time to move
on. After some discussion, time to move on back to
Arizona. Montana is beautiful.. being on the road is
beautiful. But as the old saying goes, "beauty is only
skin deep". After 5 weeks on the road the skin was
beginning to ruffle a little and the beauty was fading.. but the
trip would not be complete without another quick stop in awesome
Missoula... if for nothing else but to say "goodbye"
until next time. So... an illegal parking spot in a faculty
parking lot on the campus of the University of Montana along the
bike/walking path on the river. A few turns around on the
bikes... and out of there. Below are a few PICs and farewell
to Missoula. |
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Oh yes !! Almost forgot. To
the right a PIC of my bike along side the river greenway in
Missoula. |
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"On the road again... just
can't wait to get on the road again"............ |
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| Blasting South... South... South...
Interstate all the way out of Montana through Idaho and onward to
Utah for the night. NO RV TRIP would be complete without at
least one night "boondocking" at a Wal-Mart... last
chance for this experience. Provo provided the spot
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| On from Provo all the way to Tucson
!!.... damn it's HOT here !!!! I left Montana in the summer
for this ??? I must be crazy. Maybe I needed to get
thicker skin to keep that beauty alive for a longer time ?
Oh well... what's done is done. To hell with this... if I'm
going to sweat, I'm going to sweat by the ocean with a nice breeze
blowing, the sound of waves crashing.... and a margarita in my
hand. |
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VIVA MEXICO !!! |
| San Carlos Mexico... here I come
! Will be departing Tucson on or about Aug. 11th.
Below are a few pre-Pics of San Carlos. |
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| To Be Continued ... with live reports
and live PICs from San Carlos Mexico. |
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