Whitewater Rafting: Lochsa River, ID

On June 10th we went whitewater rafting with about 20+ people from Erik's work. There were three boats and some people from Erik's company did the guiding so it was free, except for the gear rental. We went on the Lochsa River in Idaho (only about 1 hour away). It is often a Class V river but as the spring runoff goes down it changes to about a Class VI with some Class III. In a week or so it won't be passable anymore due to the boulders and rock in the river. We had a blast! Our boat was the only boat of the three that did not tip/flip. Of course, I did not have my camera with me because I don't have a waterproof camera so I don't have any pictures but there are a lot of guided trips that run this river and there is a guy who is cashing in on that fact. He stands by Lochsa Falls and takes pictures of rafts as they go through and then posts them on his website for sale. Of course they are expensive, but if you really want one you can get it. The link is: www.lochsa.info Find "6-10-07 Privates" click on that. Then our boats are pictures 31-59 and 84-97. The boat Erik and I were in is the first boat in the pictures (a red boat) and it looks like it's having the easiest time! Our guide is wearing a green helmet. I am sitting in front of him, I have a redbill ball cap on under my helmet. Erik is right next to me on the other side. Enjoy the carnage of the other boats! BTW: everyone was just fine, most people were able to get right back in the boats, we only had three people who swam to shore on the first flip. What a blast, hope to do it again some day!

Some things in Montana are the same!

So I've had people ask me about Missoula and if there's a Target and where do I shop and stuff like that. Here are some facts: Missoula is about 70, 000 people big with a major University in town, two decent size hospitals both recognized as trauma centers, the biggest shopping mall in western Montana (about the size of Maplewood Mall) and traffic! I know most of the pictures I've shown are of the great outdoors but who needs to see pictures of the places we shop? Well, maybe some do........ so here's a few of the things that remind me of Minnesota!

Target: They's doing construction to make it bigger:

Favorite Craft Store:Favorite Gear store: Favorite Bargain store, although it's always a ZOO! Don't go often but they do have cheap groceries. Our supermarkets have different names like Albertson's and Safeway instead of Cub and Rainbow but they're the same too. So we're well set to find anything we could possible need out here and much more! If you have any questions about living here in Missoula please feel free to ask and I'll try to answer!

More Beautiful sites around Yellowstone National Park. Part 5

Well, it's finally here! The last installment of our memorable Memorial Day visit to Yellowstone National Park. We spent three days driving, hiking and exploring one of the great parks of the world. Maybe someday we can visit with you!
This is a shot from our first day in the park. It's from the side of the road over looking Yellostone Lake and Mt. Sheridan.

This is a picture from an overlook off the road that we stopped at after our day hike on Sunday. It's the Yellowstone River again.
The last evening and morning we were there we visited:
Here's what we saw. "Grand View"
In the morning we went to "Artist's Point" a very popular place to view the Lower Falls. You may recognize it as it's in many popular photographs and paintings.

A closer picture:

Well, I guess that's about it for our trip to Yellowstone. There are many more pictures I could have posted but you'll just have to come and see for yourself! Don't forget to let us know when you'll be here, we'd love to join you on your visit!

Yellowstone Day Hike, Part 4 UPDATED

Just wanted to share with you our day hike that we did on our Memorial Weekend trip to Yellowstone. We went on the hike on Sunday. It was hot and sunny that day. WE hike in the area of Tower Falls about 8 miles. We started on the Stagecoach Road that is used in the cumer months to give people stagecoach rides to a BBQ spot. We had to skirt by some buffalo at the start of the hike and at the end. I got some pictures at the end so you'll see in a minute. Our hike started out in a meadow/sage brush covered land. We saw tons of gophers running to their holes when they heard us coming. Then we cut through a tight valley that followed a creek and it was more wooded with big boulders and rocky landscape. We also saw lots of flowers along the trail so of course I had to stop, much to Erik's dismay, at about every flower trying to get a good picture. I did slow us up a bit! Here's a few we saw in that valley:

A prairie rose:

A sticky geranium:

Here's a nice shot of the trail, Erik and Elk Creek.

We came to a spur trail about halfway through our hike that connected to another trail that lead to a suspension bridge over the Yellowstone River. From the bridge we saw the river far below and beautiful in it's power. After lunch I found a spot where I could see both the river and the bridge. Maybe it will give you a small sense of what it was like to be there. Some cushion phlox on the trail after lunch:

Goofing off while replenishing our water.

After lunch our trail followed the Yellowstone River up on a ridge. This spot offered amazing views:

We also saw the two big horn sheep on this part of the trail. (see post about animals for the picture). Here is another one of the variety of views we had on this hike.

And this is the very end of the trail. We had to pass by some buffalo. They do not look very close but when you see how BIG they are you really don't want to get too close to them.

Overall, a wonderful hike, not too hard and beautiful scenery! Hope you enjoyed trekking with us! Stay tuned for the final Yellowstone enstallment: More Beautiful sites around the park. Later.....

Geysers and Hot Springs and Mud Pits, Oh MY!

What would Dorothy have thought if she had landed in Yellowstone instead of OZ? What did the early explorers think? Can you imagine seeing a geyser shooting up out of no where? Even in today's well educated and vastly diverse world they were a wonder to see! Our first day in the park we went to places like Fountain Paint Pots, Upper Geyser Basin and Old Faithful area. But even the following days we saw geothermal areas everywhere in the park. It was really interesting and stinky with sulfur at times! Here are some of the better pictures that we got of various geothermal activity.

I'm not sure the name of this one but it was one of the few pictures we got that wasn't obscured with steam. The air temp was low even thought it was sunny and about 70 the wind seemed cooler, thus lots of steam.

This one's interesting because of the vivid color but it was full of steam so the actual blue green large pool was masked in white.

Here's a nice shot of Old Faithful showing it's stuff:

Some places just had yummy green and yellow bacteria growing in those hot spots. Here's a closeup of one.

I love this shot of the wide view of the geyser area near Old Faithful.

Here's another wide view shot with more geysers in it. The river is called Firehole River.

The two of us in front of a geyser.

This was taken at an area called Mud Volcano. This is a buffalo awfully close to the "Churning Cauldron".

And last but not least is a picture of the view over the Mud Cauldron and Yellowstone River.

The geothermal sights of Yellowstone were a wonder to see. If you ever get a chance to see them it will be well worth it!

Hope you're enjoying these installments from our trip to Yellowstone. Check back tomorrow for other beautiful sites we saw. Catch you later!

Yellowstone N.P. Part 2: Animals Big and Small

While in Yellowstone we saw LOTS of animals. Driving just about anywhere we saw bison, bison and more bison. In fact, in Montana it's big news about the bison that are getting outside the park because the risk spreading bruscelossis (a disease) to the cattle population. So they've been "hazing" the buffalo, flying helicopter and such to herd them back into the park. Here's some of the pics we got of the buffalo:

Oh NO! Trouble in Blogland...... pictures aren't loading right now. SO, I'm off to work this evening and next. Check back on Monday for the continuation of the Yellowstone story. Sorry!

EDIT 6/4/07: Hopefully my computer will cooperate today....let's see where was I...oh the huge buffalo. Here's a shot of some buffalo by the Madison River.

some of the buffalo were huge. here's a picture of one of the biggest that we saw.

This one was right in our campground!

and the last buffalo picture is a big guy that knew right where to go:

But we didn't just see buffalo we also saw....

Marmots:

Big horn sheep (young ones):

Elk:

a black bear:

We also saw a grizzly bear, a couple pronghorn antelope, lots of gophers and birds galor. We just didn't get pictures of everything!

Hope you enjoyed the animals today. Tomorrow check out the Geysers and Hot Springs. Until then....