Friday, July 09, 2004
AUGUST 5, 1967.....SATURDAY
We left Kalispell shortly before 8:00am and traveled the west side of Flathead Lake, on south to Polson. We stopped there for me to look through a Montana copper store and I chose pins for grandma Strain and grandma Stricklett. They had some lovely pieces but were prohibitive in price so I didn’t buy a keepsake for myself. For some time we drove down the valley with mountains on both sides of us.
We stopped at Victor (which is south of Missoula) at a little park and ate a bite of lunch. We kept driving down the valley with the Bitterroot Range on our right and the Sapphire Range on the left. The Bitterroot are larger and more rugged with snow showing on some of the higher peaks. The Sapphire are more vegetated and used for grazing lands quite a ways up to the rolling tops.
As we near the Continental Divide they both get a lot bigger and taller. The mountain ranges closed in on us all of a sudden and there was no place to go but up. As we climbed and looked across deep ravines to the facing mountain we could see where a fire had gone up the canyon wall a few years ago. Out of the blue sky with large ‘cottony’ clouds overhead there was one dark cloud that drug bottom and we were showered upon as we climbed upward. We noticed two more mountains that were badly burned with dead pine trees and stumps leaving a testament to the fact. A marker tells us it was the Saddle Mountain Fire of 1950. It is hard to believe after seventeen years it is still so scared.
At 2:00pm we are at the Divide and near the Idaho border as we descend through Lost Tail Pass (elevation 6,990-feet). All the way down on the Idaho side we saw pretty purple wild flowers blooming by the side of the road. We traveled about 10-miles down the pass and stopped to read a Lewis and Clark marker at Deep Creek. They said it was extremely difficult passing and they had to cut a road across bad rock slides with steep drop-offs to the creek. Some of the horses fell to their death or were crippled. This pass over the Continental Divide is much like the Black Hills area as the mountains are steep, all stuck in together and covered with blackish green pines. We continue down for another 10-miles (making a total of 20 so far and we still aren’t to the bottom.)
The mountains have pushed apart enough that the road is running down the valley between them now looking like giant walls on each side of us. The pine trees are thinning out to grass again….this is the last time we will see Montana on our trip. So we bid fond adieu to the beautiful ‘Big Sky Country.’
Up in the pass it was so cold we had to dig for sweaters to put on but now that we’re almost back down it is getting hot again. (It was a total of 25-miles coming down the pass.) To our right is the River of No Return….it was noted that the movie wasn’t made in this area, however. We travel through beautiful scenery as we traverse the valley between the mountains. The River of No Return turns into the Salmon River and we follow it through a rugged gorge. The big jutting rocks on the sides of the mountains are orange-red in color and the pines have disappeared altogether. The area now looks barren and like the Southwest in general. Gravel, sand and sage brush are prominent around Challis, Idaho. I see a few pines on the summits here but very few and far between. We are still following the river down the canyon wall.
We stopped along the way to Basin Creek to snap some pictures of a scenic point called Indian Riffles….it had an interesting sign explaining how Salmon spawn that far in from the Pacific Ocean and go north up stream as far as Salmon, Idaho. The river is ice cold and so clear you can see all the rocks at the bottom.
We drove on to Basin Creek where we stayed at a lovely Federal park at the foot of the mountains and a few feet from the water which made a happy little flowing sound outside our camper. After a delicious supper we all hiked around the mountain. The guys were ahead of us and saw a mother mule deer and her two fawns but we didn’t get to see them. We hiked above the camp and looked down at the pretty setting below. We had walked up creek quite a ways and Becky and I scooted across a fallen tree to cross the creek like the men had done. Aunt Beulah and mom decided to walk back the way we had come. Didn’t take us long to close camp and get to bed as it had become chilly while we were gone.
Total mileage today….381.
Note: George Jr. was so taken with the beauty of the area he took a picture near where they saw the mule deer and fawns. Later he painted the scene in oils and did a beautiful job of capturing the color and ‘feel’ of the area.
Until tomorrow,
Essentially Esther
We stopped at Victor (which is south of Missoula) at a little park and ate a bite of lunch. We kept driving down the valley with the Bitterroot Range on our right and the Sapphire Range on the left. The Bitterroot are larger and more rugged with snow showing on some of the higher peaks. The Sapphire are more vegetated and used for grazing lands quite a ways up to the rolling tops.
As we near the Continental Divide they both get a lot bigger and taller. The mountain ranges closed in on us all of a sudden and there was no place to go but up. As we climbed and looked across deep ravines to the facing mountain we could see where a fire had gone up the canyon wall a few years ago. Out of the blue sky with large ‘cottony’ clouds overhead there was one dark cloud that drug bottom and we were showered upon as we climbed upward. We noticed two more mountains that were badly burned with dead pine trees and stumps leaving a testament to the fact. A marker tells us it was the Saddle Mountain Fire of 1950. It is hard to believe after seventeen years it is still so scared.
At 2:00pm we are at the Divide and near the Idaho border as we descend through Lost Tail Pass (elevation 6,990-feet). All the way down on the Idaho side we saw pretty purple wild flowers blooming by the side of the road. We traveled about 10-miles down the pass and stopped to read a Lewis and Clark marker at Deep Creek. They said it was extremely difficult passing and they had to cut a road across bad rock slides with steep drop-offs to the creek. Some of the horses fell to their death or were crippled. This pass over the Continental Divide is much like the Black Hills area as the mountains are steep, all stuck in together and covered with blackish green pines. We continue down for another 10-miles (making a total of 20 so far and we still aren’t to the bottom.)
The mountains have pushed apart enough that the road is running down the valley between them now looking like giant walls on each side of us. The pine trees are thinning out to grass again….this is the last time we will see Montana on our trip. So we bid fond adieu to the beautiful ‘Big Sky Country.’
Up in the pass it was so cold we had to dig for sweaters to put on but now that we’re almost back down it is getting hot again. (It was a total of 25-miles coming down the pass.) To our right is the River of No Return….it was noted that the movie wasn’t made in this area, however. We travel through beautiful scenery as we traverse the valley between the mountains. The River of No Return turns into the Salmon River and we follow it through a rugged gorge. The big jutting rocks on the sides of the mountains are orange-red in color and the pines have disappeared altogether. The area now looks barren and like the Southwest in general. Gravel, sand and sage brush are prominent around Challis, Idaho. I see a few pines on the summits here but very few and far between. We are still following the river down the canyon wall.
We stopped along the way to Basin Creek to snap some pictures of a scenic point called Indian Riffles….it had an interesting sign explaining how Salmon spawn that far in from the Pacific Ocean and go north up stream as far as Salmon, Idaho. The river is ice cold and so clear you can see all the rocks at the bottom.
We drove on to Basin Creek where we stayed at a lovely Federal park at the foot of the mountains and a few feet from the water which made a happy little flowing sound outside our camper. After a delicious supper we all hiked around the mountain. The guys were ahead of us and saw a mother mule deer and her two fawns but we didn’t get to see them. We hiked above the camp and looked down at the pretty setting below. We had walked up creek quite a ways and Becky and I scooted across a fallen tree to cross the creek like the men had done. Aunt Beulah and mom decided to walk back the way we had come. Didn’t take us long to close camp and get to bed as it had become chilly while we were gone.
Total mileage today….381.
Note: George Jr. was so taken with the beauty of the area he took a picture near where they saw the mule deer and fawns. Later he painted the scene in oils and did a beautiful job of capturing the color and ‘feel’ of the area.
Until tomorrow,
Essentially Esther
