The Wild West and running repairs

 

When we left Yellowstone National Park we headed north back into Montana.  We were wanting to go east through the park to Cody but found out that the roads taking the direct route were still closed for winter.  With one of the mountain passes over 10,000’ I’m not surprised.



Pompey's Pillar

Graffiti from 1806

Travelling eastward, we stopped at Pompey’s Pillar to see some early graffiti (at what point does old graffiti become a national treasure?).  One of the early explorers of the region, William Clark, had engraved his name into the sandstone butte.  We forgot to leave our own names for future tourists to look on in awe? amazement? disgust?

 

Had a couple of problems with the 5^th wheel but nothing that couldn’t be fixed using kiwi ingenuity.  We put on our MacGyver hats, pulled out some No 8 wire (bungie cord) and fixed our step that keeps opening out while we’re driving along and put up a temporary vent cover.  Goodness knows what happened to the vent cover – that vent hadn’t been used for a couple of days and had been checked since but we did strike some incredibly strong cross winds after leaving Billings, Montana so likely that was the cause.

 

Spent the night at Crow Agency before venturing into the Little Bighorn Battlefield Memorial and a history lesson.  A place where the Indians won the battle but ultimately lost the war.  Very sobering.

Last Stand Hill
The markers indicate where the soldiers fell,
the black-faced one being Custer's

Part of the Indian Memorial

Definitely colder up on the roof

From the Crow Agency we headed west again, calling first into an RV shop at Sheridan to purchase and fit a new vent cover.  Jean got the short straw and ended up on the roof holding the cover in place while Sue stayed in the warm and wind-free RV screwing everything back together.

 

Sue smiling because she is out of the wind

After our minor repair job it was full steam ahead to Cody where we were parking up and chilling for a few days.  Went for a walk through Cody where the most we did was call in at Buffalo Bill’s old Hotel, The Irma, and have a welcome beer.

 

 

On our travels we’ve had a few people telling us if we get to Cody to visit the Buffalo Bill Center for the West.  As we were in Cody, we did.  It’s an affiliate of the Smithsonian and it’s huge.  We spent all Friday there and only got half way through the exhibits; the Natural History Museum, Buffalo Bill Museum and half of the Plains Indian Museum.  Fortunately the tickets are good for two days.  One of the highlights is the Raptor Experience where you get to meet a variety of raptors and talk to their handlers.  A bit nervy when they look you directly in the eye like it’s a tasty morsel.

 



Teasdale
Great Horned Owl

Hayabusa
Peregrine Falcon

 

 

 

 

 

Suli
Turkey Vulture

Day two at the Center saw us complete viewing the exhibits at the Plains Indian Museum, the Western Art Museum and the Cody Firearms Museum.  All very interesting, we were there for most of the day, but I think we’re museumed out for a while now.

 







 

 

 

 

 



 

 



 

 

 

 

 

 

Snow and hot springs

Yankee Fork Gold Dredge

Spent the morning in Sunbeam visiting an old gold dredge and the old town of Bonanza City, now a ghost town.  There was a lot of mining in this area a century ago and when the gold ran out or companies went bust they just left everything and moved on.  Was snowed on the entire time, an experience that is still novel enough to bring and keep a stupid grin on my face.



Sunbeam Hot Springs

Leaving Sunbeam we travelled through the Sawtooth National Park Area down to Twin Falls.  An absolutely beautiful, scenic area that included a small hot spring.  It even smelt like Rotorua.  Ah, the smells of home.



One very dirty pick up

Took the pickup in for a service at Twin Falls.  Thought that after almost 9000 miles it would be a good thing.  He’s still real dirty though – thought about a car wash but we had showers on and off all day so that job will have to wait for another day.  How long until you get here Wally?  Took in a few of the sights around Twin Falls area including the huge Perrine bridge at the entrance to the city, Shoshone and Twin Falls and Balanced Rock out at Castleford.


Perrine Bridge

Shoshone Falls

Balanced Rock

The next day saw us travel to Almo (not to be confused with Elmo – a cute

Steinfell's Dome

red muppet) and the City of Rocks.  We zigzagged through rural Idaho to get there.  Some massive irrigation systems in the fields.  Guessing this is where the potatoes come from.  The weather was wet virtually the whole day and since we are mostly sunshine hikers, with the exception of one short hike, we stayed in the car.  Some very impressive granite outcrops.  Reminiscent of Montserrat in Spain.  The road very greasy and slippery in a number of places so it was a good thing we unhitched the RV at the Visitors Centre.

Soda Springs Geyser

We overnighted in a Walmart Car park (we needed some groceries, it was raining so we just didn’t leave) then headed out to Lava Hot Springs and Soda Springs.  We stopped at Soda Springs first where there is a man-made geyser (it occurred as the result of an accident and is now capped and timed) that erupts every hour on the hour.  We made it with a couple of minutes to spare.  It goes up about 100’ into the air.  Wonder how it compares to Old Faithful.

Headed back through the snow to Lava Hot Springs where we took time out to relax in some hot pools.  Very much like De Brett’s in Taupo – outdoor setting with pools of varying temperature.  We even had a light snow fall while we were soaking although that soon turned to rain which stayed with us for the rest of the day.

Look Ma, no hands

Ahhhhh, bliss



Old Faithful

Travelled north to West Yellowstone.  As with the other National Parks there is still so much snow around so limited with what we can do.  Still took us a couple of days to do it though.  First day we headed to Old Faithful.  We waited patiently with the hundreds of other tourists for the regular 4 minute show.  Next show in 90 minutes folks. 

Crested Pool - Lovely colours

90 minutes later we were still meandering around the other geysers and hot springs in the vicinity.  Had a bonus showing of Grand Geyser that erupted just as we rocked up to it.  Gotta be happy about that.  Not so happy about the freezing 

Leather Pool - Looked so inviting

snowstorm that hit at the same time.  Snowstorm is probably not the right word for the amount of snow we got hit by but we grew up in sunny Napier so what would we know.  Check out this video of the geyser and snowstorm.

The next section of Yellowstone we graced with our presence was the magnificent Mammoth Hot Springs.  Spent a few hours wandering around here too before making our way back to Montana for a couple of days. 

Mound Terrace

Canary Spring
Who spotted our RV in the top right corner?

For the record, there is no comparison.

 

 

South to Butte and back into Idaho

Still not very much available in Glacier National Park at this time of the year unless you have skis or snow shoes.  We have neither so quite limited to what we can do.  What we did have was a beautiful clear day with blue sky and warm-ish weather.  Views of the mountains were spectacular.  We 

Glacier National Park. 
Again we struck it lucky with
the weather and got a beautiful day

Ahh, feel the serenity

were able to drive along the Going to the Sun road as far as the north end of McDonald Lake.  From there the road was accessible only to hikers and bikers.  As we are hikers we decided on the McDonald Creek trail which took us to the McDonald Falls.  Had a lot of fun on this trail.  In amongst the trees the sun don’t shine so our path was, for the most part, snow and ice.  The snow – no problem; the ice – yeah, a little treacherous underfoot but we had fun negotiating our way along.  The song “Slip, Sliding Away” came to mind more than once. 

Jean not having quite the same difficulty
 - what's the hold up Sue?

Sue using all available tools to stay upright - at one stage
clutching a thin branch.  Don't know what that was meant to do.

The Falls were pretty as well. 

McDonald Falls

A leisurely stroll back to the car and we decided to drive on the other road that was accessible to us – north to the Camas exit.

The road north looked clear so we thought, why not try for the Canadian border.  Two reasons why not really.  Firstly, the border was closed at this crossing.  That didn’t bother us unduly as we weren’t planning to do more than get to this remote crossing, step into Canada and head back to Columbia Falls.  Secondly though, the road deteriorated into little more

than a dirt track – boggy with lots of potholes.  Worse than Sue had encountered in the mines – at least there she could call on a grader to fix things.  We gave up just shy of the border when we got to a steep decline. 

We would've got down this decline
just fine but as for coming
back up ???

Without a four wheel drive and being in the middle of nowhere we just weren’t prepared to take the chance.  Our once lovely pristine white pickup is now a beautiful two-tone white and brown.

Leaving Glacier National Park behind us we headed south and overnighted just outside Butte (not pronounced butt as I’m sure you all want to but beaut).  We spent the next day taking in a few of the sites around Butte.  Firstly a radon mine.  This mine is still open for people wishing to have radon therapy. 

Wish all mines had this level of comfort

There are 3 levels that are filled with comfy chairs, books, cards and puzzles for people taking the treatment.  Sue thought that Nifty could take a leaf out of their book for comfort underground although crib breaks likely to be twice as long if that was the case.

Next we found some ringing rocks at a place called Pipestone.  The guide we were following recommended bear spray.  Hmmm.  Does deodorant work as well I wonder? 

Despite our best efforts we couldn't get a recognisable tune happening

These rocks are quite intriguing in that when hit with a hammer (in our case a wheel brace and a small rock) they ring like a bell.  This phenomenon has only been discovered in 4 other places in the world – one being Western Australia.  Anyone know where it is?  Interesting also, if the rocks are removed from the site they no longer resonate.

We then headed north to Deer Lodge and visited the Old Montana Prison.  Shades of Fremantle in Western Australia where the convicts built the prison.  Lovely old buildings but would never want to be a local.

Cell House 1912 - there is still damage
on the LHS tower from a bazooka
fired in 1959 trying to quell a riot

On the way back to Rocker where we were staying we passed the Anaconda Stack.  A huge smokestack, higher than the Washington Monument, it has been preserved as a state park after being saved from demolition.  

This is as close as Joe Public can
get to the stack

You can’t get closer than the viewing park a mile away because of the toxicity of the land around it.

Butte itself is home to the Berkeley Pit, a 1700 foot hole in the ground that has been slowly filling up with toxic water from the abandoned copper mines beneath.  This water is eventually going to be cleaned up so in the meantime the pit has been turned into a tourist attraction.  Still wouldn’t want that in my back yard.

Finished off the day on a sombre note, visiting the Granite Mountain Fire Memorial, where 168 men died in a copper mine fire in 1917.  Sue found it particularly poignant.

Granite Mountain Fire Memorial

All that culture and sightseeing, it was nice to get back in the pickup and have another travel day.  We’re back in Idaho, travelling through some pretty amazing scenery to reach a small town called Sunbeam.  Town may be a misnomer, there’s not much here.  More just a place called Sunbeam.  We had rain for most of the day which changed to snow when we crossed the Chief Joseph pass.  Very beautiful.

 

Yep, it's snowing

Welcome to snowy Idaho - just beautiful