We had a great time in Utah but it was time to move on. We just seem to have itchy feet. We wandered across Utah and into Nevada on Route 50, sometimes called the loneliest road in America. Sounds like our kind of road. We decided to stay for a while in Ely. Nevada is made up of mountain range after mountain range separated by wide valleys, so, of course, we had to find a mountain to drive up. After all, that is what they are for.
Here is a picture of our GPS on one of our trips.
I know what you are thinking. Why would those crazy people drive on a dirt road like that? The answer is, so we can find views like this.
We found one problem however. As you can see, late May is early in the season so there was still snow in the high country. On our trips this year, we were stopped 3 times by snow banks. At least, we made it to the top of the pass and saw some elk and some great scenery.
South of Ely are some charcoal ovens used back in the old mining days to make charcoal for the smelters in the area. These things are big. Each of these ovens held 35 cords of wood.
If there are smelters there are mines. I just can’t resist driving to old mine sites.
We drove north out of Ely into Idaho. We have driven through Idaho many times but we have spent little time doing the tourist thing there. We planned to change that this summer. We found a nice county RV park in Twin Falls and proceeded to check out the area.
Our first find was a bridge across the Snake River Canyon. There are really crazy people who actually jump off this perfectly good bridge and land with (they hope) open parachutes. They are called base jumpers. This is the only bridge in the country where this insane activity is legal. The guy at the visitor center next to the bridge said that usually one or two of them a year are killed.
Near this area of the Snake River Canyon, Evel Knievel tried to jump across the canyon on a motorcycle. He didn’t make it.
Shoshone Falls
This is called Caldron Lin. The entire Snake River is forced through this small channel. It is very noisy here and you can just feel the power. It is a little unsettling to stand close.
South of Twin Falls is City of Rocks National Reserve.
If you can enlarge the next picture, you will find some rock climbers on the rocks. More crazy people.
We spent about a week near Sun Valley. The town was so touristy that we did not care for it but, of course, we found some more mountains to drive up.
Rats!!! We were about to get to another old mine but got stopped by another snow drift.
We decided to try driving a road west of Sun Valley.
We made it through the pass and squeezed through this section (pucker up), only to be stopped by our third snow bank of the year.
On the road north of Sun Valley.
Redfish Lake
In south central Idaho is Craters of the Moon National Monument. It protects a large area of lava flows. We were lucky to get there just in time for the spring flower bloom.
We found our favorite town in Idaho, perhaps our favorite town in all the northern Rockies. The town of Salmon is a small, isolated farming and ranching town, sitting in a valley with the Salmon River running through it. It is just large enough to have a few interesting restaurants and a great bakery, famous for their bear claws, but it has yet to be discovered by the tourists. You can always find a place to park on the main street and half the vehicles driving down the street are pickups. We talked to people who have lived all there lives here and would not even consider leaving. They seldom even leave town for any reason.
Here is our RV spot at the Elks Club on the edge of town.
We are big Lewis and Clark fans. I am of the opinion that the Lewis and Clark trip was one of mankind’s great journeys. They came through this valley so we, of course, had to find some of the places that were recognizable from their journals.
They entered the valley through Lemhi Pass. This pass now sits on the Montana-Idaho border. They came up this valley on the Montana side to get to the pass. I doubt the road was there at the time but there was a Indian trail that may have been used for thousands of years.
The pass itself is just yards wide so there is little doubt that they were right here.
Before they reached the pass they thought they were going to look over it and see a wide plain, sloping to the west toward the Pacific Ocean. Instead they saw
mountain range after mountain range. I can imagine what was going through their heads at the sight but I should not put that kind of thing in my blog.
North of Salmon is another site mentioned in their journals. They called this rock formation “The Pyramids.” No one knows why. They don’t look like pyramids to anyone.
We explored the mountains west of town.
We found another mountain top. ( I think I am beginning to see a pattern here.)
The town sits in the valley below, just out of sight.
The flowers were still blooming in the high country.
We are off to the state of Washington in our next post.
