Well, here we go again. It’s now Tuesday evening, September 15th and we are in Roseburg Oregon at the Junction of I5 and Rt 138. Sunday night in Yellowstone we had NO wifi, no radio stations and horror of horrors – NO TV!! Monday night we were on the road later than I wanted to be and was way too pooped.
Now, let’s get caught up, shall we?
We were on the road out of Cody early and arrived in Yellowstone but there was already a line in front of us at the east gate. We stopped at Fishing Bridge, the 1st “village”, and quickly called to see if they had any openings as we had been calling on and off for the last 2 days. HA! We signed up for the last available room in the entire park, which happened to be in Grant, the village to the south. Once our lodging was secured, the dark green Conestoga wagon that was disguised as our Chrysler mini van set off to explore some new portions of the park that we had not seen on our previous 2 visits. And what amazing sights we saw! Forest fires had devoured huge chunks of the forest in different years and the forests were now in various stages of rebirth with some sections still showing long slender singed poles that used to be pine trees, either struggling to stay vertical or scattered about the ground like so many pick up sticks. The namesake magnificent yellow colored canyon was just as we remembered and we took a handful more pictures of the upper and lower falls. We were stopped in traffic by a buffalo herd and H wondered who had the right of way and under which coverage would State Farm cover the damage? One portly male was determined to take his half of the road RIGHT OUT OF THE MIDDLE! We were SO thankful that we were not on the big RED bike. Been there-Done that! That time we put a motorhome between the herd and us. Up in the north we stopped at Mammoth Springs to watch and take pictures of the elk herd that had taken up residence in the middle of the village green! This is rut season! The male started bugling and raking his wide spread of antlers on the ground to keep away any other males. The ranger assured me that he was the only male in that area! The lower hot springs was just about dried up but we found the drive to the upper level and walked out on the boardwalk in amazement at the colors and the sediment forms that looked as though we were looking at a vast frozen waterfall. Back to the south to find our room for the evening - a lovely room, inspite of no electronic wonders. We took in the boom box and listened to a story-till H started snoring. Monday we were at Old Faithful for the 9:30 eruption and then had breakfast in the General Store before wandering around admiring some of the other geysers and calderas with their array of colors of blues, grays, white and vivid shades of bright orange. And descriptive names to match: Teapot, Beehive, Aurora, Opal, and Heart to mention just a few. A last goodbye to the amazing sights and wonders and we headed west again via the west entrance at West Yellowstone, Montana and south to Idaho.
South Idaho and Rt 20 across the state – sometimes golden grass, sometimes green hay, sometimes potato or onion fields, sometimes-small mountain ranges. One area was black, and barren, and looked as though God had dumped a large handful of coal clinkers all over the valley. The area was volcanic and H thought we’d made a wrong turn and we were on the Hawaiian Island with all their volcano fields. Crater of the Moon National Park was our side trip for the afternoon and then we pushed on to Mountain Home for the night.
Tuesday morning was sunny and already 60 degrees when we headed west again. Breakfast was in Ontario, Oregon, just across the border on the Snake River, which we had followed on and off the whole day before. We both commented on just how much irrigation was needed to grow anything in that area. Intricate canals and miles of fat white pvc pipe along with the usual above the crop wheeled contraptions abounded everywhere. And yet another time change! Continuing on Rt 20 to Bend was the same combination of green fields, bluish sagebrush and golden grasslands bordered on both sides with mountain ranges. We were fortunate to see several large herds of antelope along the way. The flat lands turned to winding hilly areas where we zigzagged from one side of that canyon to the other side, all the while following another pretty river. South out of Bend on Rt 97 was a pretty ride with lots of National and State lands of thick, tall pines and more volcanic areas. Rt 138 was a wonderland of winding, up and down mountain roads thru towering pine forests backdropped by craggy rock formations, deep gorges and yet another beautiful cascading river all the way to Roseburg. We even passed by Crater of the Lake National Park but H chose not to return there this trip. Wednesday we’ll go see Uncle Paul and Aunt Dorie!
