My name is Marion Vermazen. I am a traveler, hiker, reader, Sun alumnus, computer geek, YouTuber, Spanish and French language student, knitter, weaver and genealogist.
Today was a day to visit friends and family. We started out the day in Bozeman having coffee with our friend Jean who just moved to Bozeman last week it was fun to see her new place.
Then we drove to Helena and toured the state Capitol. Duke and I like to check out state capitols when we can. This was our 25th! We had a picnic on the lawn of the Capitol and then toured the State Museum. The picture below is Duke in the Charles Russell Gallery.
This afternoon we visited with my Dad's cousin Shirley and her husband Karl. I think it has been 30 years since I have seen her.
Tonight we are in Missoula, Montana. It was smokey today for the first time on this trip. It isn't too bad so I hope it doesn't get worse!
Duke and I are on day 3 of our 2015 Road Trip. Today we headed north from Idaho into Montana.
Our first stop was at Big Springs in Island Park, Idaho. It is one of the 40 largest springs in the world and produces 120 millions gallons of water each day. We saw ducks, fish, a moose and a muskrat! The water is 52 degrees year round.
Fish and muskrat!
We took a tour of Johnny's cabin on the edge of the springs. Johnny Sack built the cabin mainly with hand tools starting in 1929. He also built all the furniture in the cabin. He used split bark veneer to decorate. In the pictures you can see his craftsmanship.
We crossed the continental divide into Montana and stopped at Earthquake Lake Geologic Area. In 1959 a 7.5 earthquake caused the whole side of the mountain to collapse into the valley and dam up the Madison River to create a new lake. 28 people were killed. Duke and I were 7 years old when the disaster occurred but neither of us remembers hearing about it. I guess we were too young. In one picture below you can see where the land slide occurred and in the other you can see the new Earthquake lake.
That is Duke in front of our car!
A bit farther up the valley is Hebgen Dam which luckily didn't fail when the earthquake happened. We had a picnic lunch beside Hebgen Lake.
We have finished day two of our 2015 road trip. We drove 320 miles today and are at the Blue Heron B&B on the Snake River just north of Rigby, Idaho. I can't remember for sure but I think we have stayed here 4 times before. It is a wonderful place. We stopped in Idaho Falls to pick up food for dinner then shared a bottle of wine and ate dinner on the deck overlooking the river!
It was a great day. Our first stop was the Hagerman Fossil Beds National Monument. It is along the Snake River and the Oregon trail. Over 200 different species of plant and animal fossils have been found here including many discovered here for the first time. The "Hagerman Horse" is a prehistoric horse discovered here. There aren't any fossils to see in the field but the visitor center was very interesting.
Next we went to Craters of the Moon National Monument and Preserve. The most recent eruption there was about 2000 years ago. The lava formations and cinder cones a unearthly. It was VERY windy but we climbed a cinder cone and later found a spot for a picnic lunch.
Our last stop of the day was the EBR-1 Atomic Museum Which is a National Historic Landmark. On December 20, 1951 it was the first power plant in the world to produce electricity from Nuclear energy. We did a self guided tour through the whole facility and even got to go into the reactor. Very cool!
If you would like to see all my pictures I am adding them to a Dropbox shared folder here or I have created an iCloud shared photo stream. Let me know if you would like to send you an invite.
Duke and I left Reno this morning on the start of a grand adventure. There’s not much to report today but I’m going to try to blog every day. We didn’t bring a laptop, just my iPad. I am learning to use Blogsy. We will see how this goes!
We have a five week Road trip planned. We will go through Glacier National Park into Canada, then across Canada to Lake of the Woods to do some fishing, then back into the U.S. To Minneapolis and down to Manchester, Iowa where we will attend Duke's 45th High School Reunion. From there we will head down the Mississippi and back across the southwest to Home to Reno. Today was the long drive across Nevada to the town of Jackpot on the Idaho border. We stayed here a few weeks ago at the beginning of our camping trip.
The highlight of the trip Today was watching all the people and their paraphernalia heading to Burning Man which started today. Black Rock City the camp in the Black Rock Desert that is Burning Man will be the third largest City in Navada this week! All the way along our route we saw lots of people heading to Burning Man. Fernley is the town where the Burners get off Interstate 80 and head north into the desert. When we stopped for fuel It was a zoo and lots of fun to people watch.
Duke and I like to pack our four wheel drive truck with our camping gear and explore the back country. We just got back from a wonderful 5 day trip to the area where Utah, Nevada and Idaho meet.
Our first day we drove 400 miles to Jackpot, Nevada in the far north east corner of Nevada on the Idaho border. We stayed at Cactus Petes Casino, had a great steak dinner in their steak house, and then played some black jack. They have a couple of tables out by the pool. It was a beautiful night and a lot of fun.
Monday morning we headed off road north and east into Idaho. I think we saw one other car all day. About 10 miles into Idaho in the Sawtooth National Forest we saw a moose! and then 2 more and a bit further along another 2! Neither of us ever expected to see Moose that close to Nevada.
We camped at Bostetter Campground and were the only ones there.
Tuesday we took a circuitous route to City of Rocks National Reserve.
The camp sites are spread out through out the Reserve so we felt like we were on our own. Our site (campsite # 19) was set in among the boulders. Duke took a video.
Wednesday we were in Utah again in Sawtooth National Forest. We camped at Clear Creek Campground and were the only ones there. Our campsite was next to a babbling brook which we used to keep our wine cool.
Thursday we visited the Golden Spike National Historic Site. That’s where the cross country railroad was completed in 1869 and the golden spike was driven.
In 1904 this section of rail was abandoned when a cut off was built across the Great Salt Lake. The tracks were taken up for the war effort in 1942. Now there is a 90 mile back country byway along the old rail grade. We drove it and felt like all we needed was a train whistle to complete the experience.
Thursday night we spent in a casino hotel in West Wendover, Nevada, and Friday we drove home to Reno.
We got some great pictures on the trip. If you would like to see them they are on Dropbox here.
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