More of Idaho

Today we drove up the western side of Idaho along the scenic route. We followed the Payette River much of the way, with rolling hills and the occasional farm.

We entered the Pacific Time Zone shortly before passing into Washington. Soon enough, we were in the Palouse district, famous among photographers for its rolling hills. I took some really nice images from the car window, but unfortunately the shutter speed was too slow at that time of day and they’re all blurry. I should have just made Leslie stop the car.

We went to Kamiak Park, a county park, on one of the high points in the region and set up camp. The nice thing about camping is that you’re right there for sunrise, like I was for Devil’s Tower.

Idaho

We awoke to hang gliders landing in the field adjacent to our hostel in Teton Village. Tandem hang gliding and para gliding is a popular tourist activity in the summer. We decided not to hang around the area, but to head on out to Idaho and catch some sights along the Snake River and camp in Twin Falls. We calculated that we’d have enough time to hit southeastern Washington for the rolling hills of Palouse, regardless of the less-prime season to do so. Then we’d turn south and take three days to get to southern California in time for my 40th high school reunion.

Taking interstate 80 through Idaho Falls, American Falls, and Twin Falls, I figured we’d surely see something good. We stopped at American Falls which has no falls. Apparently they moved half the town and dammed up the river a long time ago and lost the falls. But one interesting feature is a left-behind silo that sticks out of the reservoir. Okay, maybe not so interesting.

After day’s worth of driving we hit Twin Falls, home of Shoshone Falls (and evidently some other falls somewhere). We found a cheap campsite in the Thousand Springs area along the Snake River. Thousand Springs refers to an aquifer that emerges from the cliffs on the north side of the Snake River.

After so much desert and barren ground, Star was pretty happy to score some real grass for a change.

Deeper into the earth are geothermal waters. This particular campsite is an adjunct to a year-round indoor swimming pool heated naturally by these waters. They also have hot tubs you can use by the hour. I was anxious to see the Shoshone Falls, which wants late day sun. While I went to the falls, Leslie stayed behind and took in a hot tub session, which she said was awesome.

The falls were farther than I thought, and I almost turned back as the sun set along the way. But I figured I’d gone this far, I might as well at least try for the last bit of twilight. With long exposures, I got the silky water effect so desirable with waterfalls. It was just about dark for this shot, which took 8 seconds at f4.

Yellowstone, Day Two

We woke up after a night of freezing cold and continued our loop back into the cauldron area. Several geyser areas provided worthy photo opportunities. The bubbling mud holes yesterday were pretty interesting, but the colors and clarity of the pools today were breathtaking.

I don’t understand why the steam on Grand Prismatic Spring is so colorful:

The Sapphire Pool is crystal clear turquoise, and very deep:

This fella decided to cross right in front of our car!

Finally we arrived at the Old Faithful area with a couple of lodges and the visitor center. We ate an ordinary lunch at the Old Faithful Lodge and watched an eruption of Old Faithful. We hung around for the next ‘showing’ so I could take pictures of it. I set up my tripod on the porch of the lodge, which was high enough to get a view of all the people watching the geyser show.

We left Yellowstone in late afternoon for the Tetons. As we approached the Teton area, we happened upon a Buffalo Jam, which is a traffic jam caused by a herd of buffalo. People pull over on the side of the road to gawk and take pictures.

The Tetons really need morning light to appreciate, so I only took one token photo as we entered the general area. At Jackson, we investigated lodging and ended up at The Hostel, which is a commercial version of a youth hostel, except they provide bed linens and towels, and don’t assign you a chore in the morning.

Yellowstone, Day One

We drove an hour west of Cody to reach Yellowstone’s eastern entrance. This took us along the northern shore of Yellowstone Lake. We could smell the sulphur in the air. Steamboat Springs, an area at the edge of the lake with steam spilling out of the earth, was our first look at the geothermal activity here. A little farther along after turning north away from the lake, we stopped to see bubbling mudpots.

Soon afterwards we left the active cauldron area and stopped at the waterfalls on the Yellowstone River in the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone, familiar in many paintings. There were two falls; this is Lower Falls as seen from Artist Point.

This was a nice layer of volcanic ooze that crystallized into hexagonal shafts, like Devil’s Tower. I like the way some of it has crumbled and fallen down the slope. Geologists, feel free to chime in and comment.

By the time we got to the Hot Springs, the day was getting late, perfect for photography. Unfortunately I got wrapped up in the drama surrounding a herd of elk passing through the middle of the lodge area, with the possibility of two bull elks having a showdown over the herd of females. I wasted so much time waiting for something to happen (nothing did) that we left without seeing the springs and their built-up calcium-rimmed pools. I’ll save that one for a return visit. Leslie was afraid we might not find a place to camp if we dallied too long. But we were okay, and camped that night near the junction of the western entrance and the loop road (most of the campgrounds were closed for the season; this was one of two still open).

Devil’s Tower, WY

Last night we reached Devil’s Tower and set up camp in the NPS campground as night was falling. By the time we reached the area the sun had already gone behind the mountains, but since the tower was right there, I figured I’d roll out of the tent at dawn for a sunrise shoot. So this morning I parked myself on the eastern side of the campground and got a fence in the foreground for a leading line and to set some context.

Later when I took Star for a walkabout, I went to the western side of the campground and discovered a clean natural view. But I think I prefer the fence element.

On the way out, we stopped at the visitor center where you could get up close and personal. I climbed up a little ways on the boulder field looking for a big hexagonal chunk of rock.

The Indians hold the tower as sacred, and if you pay attention you’ll see prayer bundles like this in the trees.

Later we stopped for a great breakfast in the little town of Moorcroft. The bacon was thick and perfect, unlike anything you’d get at the supermarket. There’s a big expanse of Wyoming between Devil’s Tower in the extreme northeast and Yellowstone in the extreme northwest, but luckily the speed limit is 75 mph. Except when there’s a posted sign saying 30 mph because of road work. When I passed the cop giving an unfortunate driver a ticket, I was doing 50-ish, and slowing down. But darned if that trooper didn’t put his victim on hold while he pulled out and came after me. He pulled me over and took my driver’s license and registration and went back to his car. Then he drove away! He went back to the original car and shepherded him up to where I was parked. He finished his business with him and then finally wrapped it up with me. I tried to reason that there weren’t any people working, but he said there were workers just over the hill. Not a worker in sight. I think I’m going to try to appeal this online.

The last stretch of the day was through a scenic mountainous area dotted with geological signposts. Eventually we made it to Cody, about an hour from Yellowstone. Cody was the only place we had mediocre food at a local joint (Granny’s), but we found a great pet-friendly motel for the night where we could do some laundry.

Mt. Rushmore

I’ve always been fascinated by the idea of a huge sculpture on the side of a mountain, so naturally we had to stop here too. Approaching the monument, there are a few turnouts for photo opportunities, and this one is placed so that with the right camera focal length and subject placement, you can position your friend so he or she becomes a fifth head. These people weren’t exactly doing that, but I thought it was a cute vacation moment. (Neither Leslie nor I felt like being immortalized right now.)

Here in the middle of nowhere, land all about, the visitor center feels the need to charge you $11 for parking. The park pass is no good for third party concessions like this. I figured if I sold one XLarge image on iStock, it would pay for the parking, so I coughed up the money and parked. I got some decent editorial-type images that I’ll put on iStock later, so that took the sting out of it. I also took some closeups of the heads, but nothing any different from the thousands of photographers who came before me, so I’ll just share these few.

We passed under this interesting bridge twice: first on the middle level going to the badlands, and again on the base road leaving Mt. Rushmore. It is made of wood, not steel.

(In case anyone is confused by these postings showing up late, in WordPress you can specify when your entry is posted – in the past, at the moment, or into the future. I’m specifying the actual date I’m writing about so the little dot with the date is accurate to the trip. Today we’re really in the Tetons after a couple of days in Yellowstone.)

Required visit to Wall Drug

The famous Wall Drug invests a lot in billboards clculated to suck in the traveller.

When we turned off the highway into the small town of Wall, the signs led us to what seemed like the edge of town by the railroad tracks. Actually, that’s just what it was. Wall Drug is a collection of tacked together buildings on a crummy main street. We were both pretty underwhelmed. We went inside and discovered it was really just a collection of vendors, each in their own “department”. Leslie talked to the proprietor of the “homemade ice cream” department and he freely disclosed that it came from some factory in Kansas City.

We went ahead and got lunch here, a buffalo hot dog for Leslie and a buffalo hamburger for me. I held my camera and pretended to fiddle with the knobs on top and got a few shots of the pickup window at the food vendor. Your camera’s Live View is your friend in cases like this.

We got back on the road and headed south for nearby Mt. Rushmore.