A Personal Amateur Photography Blog
A cold, wet Memorial Day in Boise with little to do lead us to one of the few things in town open that day – the Old Idaho State Penitentiary. I am not sure why, but we have visited a number of these type of places over the years.
This complex is quite small, likely due to the small population of the state over the years.
Some of the buildings didn’t even have roofs.
The facility housed men, women and youth in the same complex, but in different buildings. This is the youth section
The day started out in Boise, with a tour around town to check out some of the architectural highlights.
The Boise Depot is a former train station that is now used for special events.
We then left town, headed for Twin Falls. Along the way we made a stop at Bruneau Sand Dunes.
After climbing on the dunes for a while, we continued across the southern Idaho countryside.
As we arrived in Twin Falls we crossed the Perrine Memorial Bridge. This bridge is 486′ above the Snake River. It is also the only place in the country where people can BASE jump without a permit at any time.
Also in town is Shoshone Falls.
For the last 20 years an alley in downtown Boise has been the center for creative urban art. Known as Freak Alley Gallery, it continues to this day to be changed on a regular basis.
Our cold, rainy Memorial Day weekend continued with a visit to one of the best named towns in the country, Walla Walla Washington.
The area around Walla Walla has always been farmed, only in the last few decades it has become known for it’s vineyards.
Further east, at the Idaho/Washington border lie the twin towns of Clarkston, Washington and Lewiston, Idaho. The Snake River south of the towns has an impressive canyon.
Washington Highway 129 leaves Clarkston south towards the Oregon border, which when reached turns into Oregon Highway 3. It is a very cool drive!
Our first entry into Idaho on this trip was in the northern panhandle. First stop was the small town of Wallace, and the nearby ‘ghost town’ of Burke
Burke is 7 miles up a canyon from Wallace. While it is known as a ghost town, there are still a few people residing in the area. It’s population was once 1400 (in 1910), now it is 15. It was the home to lead and silver mines. Now it is sort of a unique tourist destination to check out the abandoned buildings.
Back down the canyon is Wallace. When Interstate 90 was built from Boston to Seattle it’s route took it through these northern Idaho mountain to go past Wallace. Unfortunately the valley is very narrow here, and the good folks of Wallace didn’t want their town wiped out for the freeway, so for decades you could go from Boston non stop until you reached Wallace, where the road went through town – up to 10,000 cars a day.
The town decided this made it the ‘Center of the Universe’, with a sign proclaiming that fact to this day.
Finally they built the 4478′ long viaduct elevated above the town. And Wallace lost another of it’s claims to fame. But fear not, with the checkered history of Wallace they have other attractions in town, including a bordello museum (did not stop:)
About 40 miles further west is the small city of Coeur d’Alene. The entire town seems ‘squeaky clean’, with it’s lakefront resorts.
Today’s virtual travel takes us to Idaho. The first map in the collection dates from 1959.
It highlights, among other things, snow skiing.
Easily the most famous ski resort in Idaho is Sun Valley. With the success of the 1932 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, New York, skiing became much more popular.
In those days railroads were always looking for ways to increase ridership, and a common approach was to develop resorts as destinations. The chairman of the Union Pacific Railroad, Averell Harriman, was one of those executives that took that approach. After searching the west for the perfect location he was told by one of his workers that the area near Ketchum, Idaho had spent more money for snow removal than any other location on the line.
Harriman purchased almost 4000 acres, and voila, Sun City was born. He built a lodge, and the ski runs and the rest is history. (image from website alpinestyle56)
Today it is a premier destination, and home to many of the rich and famous. (photo from Forbes Magazine)
1969 – Bruneau River Canyon. This canyon reaches heights of 800′, making it one of the deepest canyons in the country.
1970 – Lake Pend Orielle. The largest lake in Idaho, and 38th largest in the country, it reaches a depth of 1150′ in some areas. During World War II it was the second largest naval training center in the world.
1972 – With a small population, traffic in 1972 and today on the Interstates in Idaho is quite light. One good result of this is the speed limit is 80 MPH (130 KPH).
1978 – Mountain Valley Scene. The Rocky Mountains run the entire length of the state. The highest mountain is Mount Borah, which is featured on the cover below.
This mountain has an elevation of 12,662′ (3859m). Ironically until 1934 this mountain did not have a name, but when it was calculated it was actually taller than what at the time was thought of as Idaho’s tallest, it gained it’s name.
View from the top (from website mountainoutwords.com)
1981 – Colleges and University. Boise State University is pictured.
Boise State has had a very successful football program for decades now, but is most famous for their blue astroturf field.
Why is it blue? When the stadium was first opened in 1970 it had the traditional orange running track around it. Since their colors were orange and blue Gene Bleymaier, the athletic director at the time decided to see if they could get blue astroturf – and the rest is history.
Legend has it that ducks go crashing into it thinking it is water, but many believe that is an urban legend.
1988 – Mountain Lake Scene.
1993 – Tribute to the Oregon Trail. This 2000 mile trail supported covered wagons moving settlers west from Kansas to Oregon. Over the years 400,000 settlers made their way down the trail, which was eventually made obsolete by the trans continental railroad.
This photo from Scottsbluff, Nebraska shows a portion of the trail and a typical wagon.
1994 – A tribute to state parks in Idaho. This view shows the Sawtooth Mountain Range.
The largest state park is City of Rocks. This park has a large amount of granite rising from the landscape. It is a popular rock climbing region. (Photo from Wikipedia)
1995 & 1996 – Trail Creek Lake in the Sawtooth Wilderness Area. There are actually 5 alpine lakes in this area, all called Trail Creek Lake.
These lakes are high in the mountains, all with an elevation over 8000′ (2500m).
1997 – Little Redfish Lake. This lake is located in the Sawtooth National Recreation Area.
Named for the red scaled sockeye salmon, these lakes offer beautiful views of the surrounding mountains.
1999 – Upper Dry Creek Basin in the Lost River Range. This area offers mountain hiking just outside of Boise.
2001 – Char Falls, Kaniksu National Forest.
2002 – McGown Peak.
This mountain is located next to Stanley Lake. (Photo from Wikipedia)
2003 – Camas Prairie and the Smoky Mountains.
The prairie is named for the camas, a Native American food source. (photo from USDA website).
2004 – Another visit to Little Redfish Lake.
2006 – Bitteroot Mountains. Located int he northern panhandle of Idaho, the Bitteroots have two peaks that reach over 10,000′.
2007 – Unidentified mountain scene with a focus on the 100th anniversary of Idaho State Parks.
2008 – Boise. As the largest city in the state, Boise is the center for commerce and government.
2009 & 2010 featured more unidentified lake scenes.
Our time in Idaho has been very limited, but still offered some great views and unique experiences.
Back side of the Grand Tetons from the Idaho side.
On a trip from Jackson Hole, Wyoming to Salt Lake City we caught a cattle drive in the middle of the road. Most cows made their way around our car, except one decided to stop and lick the bugs off of the hood…
Passing a potato farm!
And a stop in Lava Hot Springs.
Over the last couple of years the cars have become frequent subjects in my photos. After 4 years of loyal service, and fantastic adventures, the Audi S5 was traded in.
This posting highlights the Audi’s trips it took us on.
First trip was to Western Ohio – and a giant fiberglass bull.
Most of the time the birthplace of Presidents are honored locales, but not for Rutherford B Hayes – his is a BP station in Delaware, Ohio.
A covered bridge in Fairfield County, Ohio – The car was not allowed to cross it, but we were.
Utopia has been found (along the Ohio River).
The settling of America – on the right is a famed S bridge of the original National Road. Overhead is US Route 40 – the main route west from the 1910s through the 1960s. A 1/2 mile to the left (not shown) is Interstate 70.
A riverboat in Cincinnati.
867 feet above the Audi the New River Gorge Bridge. They offer tours where they connect you to the beams underneath and you cross – I passed.
Polo anyone. 3 horses in the field and 340 under the hood.
After Utopia, come Paradise – in the Northern Peninsula of Michigan. I find it ironic that somewhere that gets 200 inches of snow a year is considered Paradise…
The Audi is not on a runway – it is an abandoned air force base in Michigan – with some random Jets parked around town.
Welcome to Minnesota doncha ya know.
Big Horn Canyon National Recreation Area Montana/Wyoming.
Yellowstone. That is not the radiator overheating 🙂
One of the funniest moments in our travels was the day we ran into a cattle drive on a road in Idaho – this cow spent 5 minutes licking the bugs off the front of the Audi.
We drove 9 miles out a dirt road at the Golden Spike National Historic Site (where the transcontinental railroad met in the 1800s). Wondering who was dumb enough take an Audi out this dirt road, until a Tesla pulled up.
Devils Rocks Utah
Pagosa Springs, Colorado. The hotel was filled with a Corvette Club and us.
Bonjour from Paris – Texas
We went down to the Crossroads….Clarksdale, Mississippi.
We have seen Utopia and Paradise, and now the Center of the World
The original Model T factory in Detroit. They let my German car go along with all the classic American cars on the Woodward Dream Cruise all the way through the city to the burbs where the other 100,000 cool cars were cruising.
Plymouth, Massachusetts – National Monument to the Fore Fathers.
The Marine Atlantic Ferry to Newfoundland. A 600 car ferry and a 18 hour ride!
Gros Morne National Park, Newfoundland, Canada
The Audi and a large basket – but there are larger basket buildings in Ohio.
The historic Cincinnati Observatory and the Audi.
Watkins Glen Race Track. They were having club racing with little Mazdas, etc – if I had the safety equipment to go on the track I could’ve taken them – I think.
Age of Steam Roundhouse in Sugarcreek, Ohio.
The Auburn/Cord/Dusenberg Festival in Indiana. That car is sooo much cooler than mine.
The final road trip for the Audi – Downtown Chicago with the El in the background. While the Audi is gone – the adventures continue…..
Monday morning had us going south from Jackson Hole, Wyoming before heading off to the west on a small state highway reaching a town called Freedom on the Wyoming/Idaho border. If ever there was a town that looked like a stereotypical redneck Idaho/Wyoming town it was Freedom. You had the feeling everyone was carrying a gun for ‘Freedom’.
But we proceeded through without incident and made our way into the mountains past Tincup Mountain. As we were sailing down the canyon next to a creek we came around the corner to find a herd of sheep on the road, and some dogs attempting to control them onto the hillside, which eventually they did. Little did we know this was a precursor of things to come.
A few miles further and we could see in the near distance a herd of cattle being driven down the road, lead by the farmer in his pickup truck. We had nowhere to go and asked a rancher what to do. He answered just drive slowly and the cows will go around us. The ranchers were on ATVs, in trucks, and on horseback moving a large herd.
We inched forward and the cows worked their way around us but one brown cow stood stubbornly in our path and would not move. The stubborn animal stared at us only a few inches from the hood of our car. Then unexpectedly the stubborn cow started licking the front of the car. She seemed to enjoy licking the car swiping her tongue back and forth across the front of the car while the rest of the herd moved along the side of the car surrounding us from all sides.
The cow licked the car hood and front grille working her tongue to eat the bugs stuck to the car while we laughed so hard we had tears in our eyes. When she had enough bugs we inched ahead still laughing at the odd incident. The ladies at the end of the herd pulled up and asked if we were ok. Still laughing, we replied we were, just not something that happens to you in Ohio, or most anywhere else I have ever been. Later I had the opportunity to stop and inspect the car afterwards to find cow slime over the hood, taking a photo as evidence.
By mid morning we arrived in the small resort town of Lava Hot Springs, Idaho for a rest stop. Two buses of Korean tourists were finishing their baths in hot spring water pools which they believe to be therapeutic. The staff informed us they get many bus tours coming up from Los Angeles to Yellowstone from the Asian community and they all make a stop for a soak. It was a nice facility and the hot spring pools did not smell like rotten eggs like Thermopolis, however since we experienced hot springs before we moved on to Interstate 15 towards Utah.
We took a detour from our itinerary to see the Golden Spike in Promontory, Utah. The spike represents the last spike to complete the first transcontinental railroad joining the Central Pacific Railroad from Omaha, Nebraska and the Union Pacific Railroad from Sacramento, California on May 10, 1869.
Pressure from Congress forced the two companies to reach an agreement on a meeting place. After negotiations they finally decided to meet at the midway point at the end of track for each railroad company, which was at Promontory Summit.
Promontory means the high point projecting into a body of water. Leland Stanford tapped four ceremonial spikes commemorating the event where the two railroads met. The actual golden spike is at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California. The Golden Spike site is part of the National Parks system displaying two working replicas of the train engines with tenders for the ceremony. The replicas #119 and Jupiter are nearly exact to the originals in style. The replicas are ornately painted and have brass bells and fixtures. The original locomotives were outmoded and sold for scrap long ago.
We drove the auto tour that allowed us to trace the railroad noting important points of interest along the way at Promontory. Noted points such as the last climb, the parallel grading, cuts, and areas blasted to make this remarkable engineering project were marked on the trail.
A memorial stood at one of the interest points honoring the Irish and Chinese laborers who worked on the rails. We drove the entire west and east stretch of rail line and saw a glimpse of the Great Salt Lake in the distance from the rail bed high point.
We got into Salt lake City about 3 pm to check into our hotel room at The Little American. The room had an excellent rating on Trip Adviser but when we entered the room it seemed as if we time warped to the 1950’s. The bath had very old fixtures and pink ceramic tile everywhere. The bed had a fluffy pink country flair to it and a very stained pink carpet. We left the hotel to explore the city wondering if we could get a beer in a city populated with Mormons who vow against alcohol. We found the Beerhive Pub and stopped for a beer, which we found amazing that a pub was about a block from Mormon Central. I had a Red Rock Honey wheat that was very good. Then we went to a Scottish store called The Edinburgh Castle looking for a mug for Beth. The store did not have a mug but did sell, tams, hats, kilts and other Scottish items.
At the one end of downtown we came upon Temple Square, the location of the Mormon Tabernacle Church (temple as it is called here) which is only opened to Mormons. A visitor center displaying a model of the temple showed the multiple levels of the temple that seemed to set a hierarchy for seating. Mormon women at the temple dressed in western 19th century clothing of bonnets and long skirted gowns assisted tourists and people who have made a pilgrimage to the temple.
The display model also had cows at the lowest level in the temple facing outward in a circle. We learned that the twelve cows represent the twelve tribes of Israel. As we walked away from the temple, we noticed that many buildings were associated with the Mormon church and saw its influence throughout the city. Overall it was a surreal experience, sort of like a bad movie where everything looked like paradise before they took you hostage and brainwashed you – but perhaps I just watch too many movies, but best experiencing none the less after a stop at the Beerhive Pub.
We walked toward the Capitol building but it started to rain so we ran into an H& M store and shopped until it stopped. We found good traditional Utah fare for dinner, well perhaps not, but it was an excellent Italian restaurant, Michelangelo’s. The fettuccini dinner and spicy pasta were excellent. As we ate, a movie was being made across the street. Actors were dressed in winter apparel and cotton batting lined the sidewalk as snow while Santa acted in the Hallmark movie.
Another early start found us at the South Rim of the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. As usual the early start allowed us to avoid the crowds for some excellent views, along with the other dedicated morning photographers. Why buy a postcard when you can take the picture yourself.
Since we missed it the day before we returned to the Norris Geyser Basin and began our hike along the boardwalk through the back basin. Steamboat Geyser fumed so high and huge that it could be seen from most of the back basin. This geyser erupted last year and it was evident of the violent destruction that was left for us to see. As we toured we found many other geysers vending significant steam. The hot water from the earth combined with the cold air of 35 degrees created a steamy low-lying atmosphere.
The loud gurgling sounds of the geyser from Puff N Stuff was a visitor’s favorite as well as ours. It is caused by steaming vents in the earth among the dead trees in the white sulfuric basin gave an eerie feeling and a creepy setting. The tour continued on the other side of the basin where there were more geysers in the Porcelain Basin. This basin is more open and the area was crowded with tourists, along with a number of geologists and park rangers hiking back to where we had been carrying technical equipment for analysis.
Warning sign inform tourists not to toss debris into the geysers (morons of the world unite) as exemplified in the Minute Geyser located in Porcelain Basin, which was damaged by tourists and now no longer erupts as it once did nearly every minute. Over the years, tourists clogged the geyser with twigs and stones that they tossed into the geyser.
The Artist Paint Pots turned out to be our last stop in Yellowstone. The loop surrounding the paint pots was disappointing due to the lack of variety of colors that decorate the pools, primarily due to the overcast day. You could however see a variety of pools, or paint pots, nestled in a hillside with mountains in the distance.
Our plan was to go to Midway Geyser Basin while heading out the south exit toward Grand Teton’s, but instead we got stuck in a huge traffic jam. Sunday was much busier with tourists than the previous days. After an extended period of no movement I gave up, turned around and exited the West Entrance.
As we proceeded on the West Drive we came across a magnificent elk wading in the river. Everywhere in Yellowstone you see wildlife you see traffic jams, including our last as we were exiting, this one caused by a bison walking in the middle of the road and refusing to move aside. As motorists inched around the bison, it came to be directly in front of us so we shot a photo from our windshield of the bison’s butt moving very slowly almost as if it meant to do this just to say he owns the place. Eventually the bison moved off the road allowing us to leave the park.
We ended up in West Yellowstone, Montana at noon and stopped for lunch at McDonald’s. From here we drove south across the Continental Divide again and west into Idaho. The view of large mountains was spectacular and we passed many, potato fields which I had not seen before. We followed Idaho State Route 32, also known as the Grand Teton Scenic Highway.
We crossed Teton Pass back into Wyoming to reach our hotel in Jackson Hole. Since there was still plenty of daylight we drove into Elk Range outside of Jackson Hole to spot wildlife but were unlucky on that adventure so we went back to explore the town. The center of Jackson is Antler Park, named for the unusual arches made of elk antlers at the four entrances into the park.
Surrounding the park are a number of art galleries. Life-size bronze sculptures of Ben Franklin, Mark Twain, George Washington, and elk stood outside a gallery and seemed to be a popular spot for tourists to pose with the statues. The town is well known as a resort for its outdoor adventures but our stop was to take in a short visit and overnight on our way to Salt Lake City.
We chose to have dinner at the Gun Barrel Steak and Game House fitting for the western aura of Jackson Hole. The restaurant use to be a western museum and taxidermy shop and it shows from the many animals mounted on the walls. The restaurant also had a full-sized stuffed bison named Wyatt, and a 1800’s buffalo coat owned by Hank Williams, Jr. We were game to try the game on the menu so we had a sampler of elk steak, bison prime rib, and venison bratwurst, as well as elk medallions; I had mixed results with my dinner. Game meat is not fatty and needs to be eaten slightly rare so half of the medallions were overcooked and tough. The waitress brought two more medallions and only one of them was tender but I had enough to eat and it was a good experience to have eaten in a nice restaurant. The evening was cool, but the day had been long so we called it a night.
RDZ Photography 