Smokey Crater Lake

We moved to Collier Memorial State Park to be close to Crater Lake NP. I can remember from years ago the amazing blue of the water that can't be captured on film.

Campsite at Collier Memorial SP

This time there are several large forest fires southwest of the park and the winds are blowing all the smoke right over Crater Lake. The visibility was awful and there was no seeing the blue of the water. This year has been extremely dry in OR and the forests are easily ignited by lightening. The smoke was so thick that my camera was having trouble focusing. We drove all the way around on the Rim Loop. We had a picnic on the north side where the smoke wasn't as thick.

Approaching the Crater up through a narrow canyon

 

 

 

 

Famous Pirate Ship Island that can only be seen from one spot on the rim

Camping in LaPine SP

Approaching Bend, OR you can see the snow covered Three Sisters Mtns. We are heading for LaPine State Park. Since we have to go through Bend, I called my niece and we are going to meet her for lunch. We went down to the old mill section along the river which has been developed into a shopping and restaurant area. Afterwards we all walked along the river with Emily and Bailey. It was warm and Bailey took a little dip in the river.

The Three Sisters

We are camped at LaPine SP which is home to the largest Ponderosa Pine in the state - 326 inches in circumference and 191 feet high.

Campsite at LaPine SP

Big Tree and friends

Big Tree

River running through LaPine SP

 The next day we drove up to the Lava Beds Visitor Center of the Newberry Crater Natl. Volcanic Monument. There is a large cinder cone there and we drove up to the top. It was quite a view.

Up the Cinder Cone we go

 

Truck on Top

View from the top

 There is also an ice cave you can tour. I'm not much on caving so I just peeked inside.

Ice Cave

Heading round the Bend

After we left Arco, we moved on to spend several days in Boise. This turned out to be my only bad experience with KOA. They had us packed in there tighter than sardines. There was no room to maneuver the truck. I had to open the trailer door carefully to avoid hitting the truck. They weren't real keen on dogs either.

Left Boise and parked in a lovely RV park in Burns, OR. This entire area is farmland growing potatoes, sugar beets and onions. They were being harvested and the entire area reeked of onions.

Look out Bend - here we come.

Craters of the Moon

Continued westward across the arid plains of eastern Idaho. We pulled into a little town, Arco. Of all places on earth, this is where they put the first peaceful use of nuclear power to see if it was practical. They built the first electric producing nuclear reactor right on an ancient fault line of known volcanic activity.

First Peaceful Use of Nuclear Power

About 20 miles down the road is Craters of the Moon Natl Monument. When we first drove in we went through the campground and found the site we had used 25 years ago when we first discovered this gem of a park.

It is a huge lava field which resulted from several eruptions over thousands of years. It is an amazing unbelievable landscape.

There are examples of flowing lava, cinder cones, lava tubes, ice caves and spatter cones.

Spatter Cone

Lava Flow

Ropey Lava Flow

Lava Flow like Taffy

Cinder Cone

Ice Cave

 There are also examples of nature's resilience.

At one parking lot we spotted a camper with International tags on it. It had stickers from all over the world on it, like Dubai and Germany. They've been all over the world and now they were at Craters of the Moon. Amazing.

Out and about in the Grand Tetons

It turns out that we can't take Emily and Bailey anywhere with us in the park. They would just act as bear bait. Bears are aggressive and hungry at this time of year trying to build up fat for their long winter nap.

This morning we are going directly over to Jenny Lake early. We took the shuttle boat across the lake to the hiking trails on the other side. We wanted to hike up to Hidden Falls. The water was just a powerful tumbling rush over the strewn boulders. The falls lived up to their name - even close up you could barely see them through the trees and brush.

Riding the shuttle boat across Jenny Lake

Dock on far side of Jenny Lake

Hidden Falls is up there

Once back across the lake, we drove around looking at some unusual formations and never getting enough of looking at the mountains.

Another lake

The next day we drove down to the southern end of the park at Moose Junction. The southern portion of the Teton range is just as beautiful as the three famous Tetons. We then drove north around the boundary of the park and checked out every nook and cranny of this area. Here we were close to the Snake River. This is the area where the early pioneers located and the infamous Jackson Hole.

The only moose I saw

 

Snake River

Into the Grand Tetons

It was back out through the beautiful Wind River Gorge this morning. We headed west going up across a 9700 ft pass near Dubois where we got our first view of the Grand Tetons. What a presence on the horizon.

First Sighting of the Grand Tetons

We rolled down into the Grand Tetons NP and got ourselves situated in the Colter Bay Campground. They are repaving the roads all around so there is the pungent aroma of asphalt in the air instead of the pine that I expected. Oh well - progress. The winters are hard on the roads in the park.

Quite a view from the campground

I am going into withdrawal. There is no phone reception and no wifi anywhere around the campground. We drove down to a scenic overlook the next morning that was 9 miles away. Here I could download my email and make some phone calls. The view was magnificent.

Hard to concentrate on anything but the view

After that we drove down to Jenny Lake but it was so crowded that we couldn't even find a parking space. We just did a circuit of this end of the park. We did stop at Jackson Lake for a wonderful view of the mountains.

Jackson Lake

Thermopolis

We drove through the lovely Wind River Gorge on our way to Thermopolis, WY.

Wind River Gorge

Wind River Gorge

There is Hot Springs State Park located there where people have come to bathe for thousands of years back to the native tribes of the area. It was a place of peace. We went up there one afternoon for a relaxing soak. We smelled of sulpher for hours. I got my hair wet. We both felt like Gumby after the 20 minute bath. We went back to trailer and replenished our fluids with Coors "mineral water".

Mineral Hot Spring

We visited the Wyoming Dinosaur Center which has a wonderful collection. There were lots of interesting explanations of the development of life. A lot of the skeletons were posed interacting with other dinosaurs. You could also sign up and go on a "dig" for a day with paleontologists in the field.

First skeleton revealing feathers