I don’t know where you’re headed after Glacier Park, but if you’re going through Idaho, I’d recommend stopping at Craters of the Moon National Park.
It’s pretty strange and wonderful!
Bruce Chandler said:
I don’t know where you’re headed after Glacier Park, but if you’re going through Idaho, I’d recommend stopping at Craters of the Moon National Park.
It’s pretty strange and wonderful!
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Hey Bruce!
Saw that on the map and wondered about it. We’ll see how close we get.
Its amazing how much these Glacier things look like big piles of snow and ice. Interesting part of the World. Walked a couple of the trails and tested the stint they put in me. Guess its working. (http://largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-cool.gif)
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All is well!
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Tomorrow, we travel to other side of the Glacier National Park, can’t take the rigs through the park. Its about 38 miles as the crow flies, but about 100 miles to go around the bottom and up the other side. We also get to cross the Continental Divide. The roads make you feel like your driving a 33,000 lb. sports car on a very narrow road. FUN!
In the next couple of days, Jan and I are heading south to Promontory Point, Utah and Roger and Susie Caiazza are heading up to Canada to see some of his college friends. We’ll meet back up in about a week or so.
Doesn’t one of the guys here, work with the engines at Promontory?
A little research says we need to go to “Promontory Summit”, not “Promontory Point”. I’m sure there will be signs. All is well as the sun comes up over the mountains. Impressive views out the windows, as another day begins.
Its worth a trip to Promontory Summitt. I went in the off season so we got a tour of the roundhouse. Just be aware its way out in the no ones so pack a picnic lunch and plan for the whole day. Theres some old ROW that you can drive down as well.
Craig Townsend said:
Its worth a trip to Promontory Summitt. I went in the off season so we got a tour of the roundhouse. Just be aware its way out in the no ones so pack a picnic lunch and plan for the whole day. Theres some old ROW that you can drive down as well.
Craig, Thank you!!! That is a big help. Kind of what I was planning.
Yesterday morning Roger and I drove to the West Glacier Park entrance to watch the “Empire Builder” go through heading east. Quite a sight! Maybe right on time, or at least at its rescheduled time. Not over a 15 minute stop and had to move forward once, about 4 cars, to get all the people on and off on the platform.
Very cool!
The afternoon was spent exploring the carnival atmosphere of the west side of Glacier National Park. All fun, but a lot more commercial than the east side.
This morning, Susie and Roger Caiazza headed toward British Columbia. Jan and I work our way down toward Promontory Summit and Utah. You might have heard about the forest fires in the West. Well some are around Montana. We drove south down the west side of Flathead Lake and the sky looks like a bad fog or maybe urban pollution. Saw big helicopters with bags and snorkles fighting the fires. More power to the fire fighters. GOD be with the all the people involved with these fires.
We are safely in Missoula, Montana for the night. Heading south, tomorrow. Seeing lots of oil trains moving through the mountains. 3 BNSF engines on the front and a pusher on the back, maybe 125 carrs. These tracks snaking through the mountains is quite a sight for a kid from the Midwest.
Great adventure Ric! Jane and I hope to make it to Jackson WY and areas south of that in the fall after we get the new camper.
We have friends hiking in Glacier at the present time, they mentioned the smoke also. They did a 20 mile hike…hmmm
Jerry
Passed through the exits for Jackson, Montana and the “Moon Craters”, yesterday, heading to Pocatello, Idaho. I know the name Pocatello, but no clue, why.
The smoke is now north of us and hard to tell if the sky is to the north is cloudy, foggy or smokey.
Passed friends from the Ridge Live Steamers on I-90, we knew they were traveling in the same area, but shows its a small World on the road.
Clicked off another State on our USA map as we entered Idaho. Basically following the same path as Lewis and Clark, as we keep seeing references to
their exploration. Impressive exploration without GPS or Google Earth.
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The guys that figured out how to lay the railroad tracks through these mountains, were quite the engineers. I don’t care how much of the alphabet they had behind their names. Its still impressive work. Still headed south toward “Promontory Summit”.
Passed through the exits for Jackson, Montana and the “Moon Craters”, yesterday, heading to Pocatello, Idaho. I know the name Pocatello, but no clue, why.
The smoke is now north of us and hard to tell if the sky is to the north is cloudy, foggy or smokey.
Passed friends from the Ridge Live Steamers on I-90, we knew they were traveling in the same area, but shows its a small World on the road.
Clicked off another State on our USA map as we entered Idaho. Basically following the same path as Lewis and Clark, as we keep seeing references to
their exploration. Impressive exploration without GPS or Google Earth.
.
The guys that figured out how to lay the railroad tracks through these mountains, were quite the engineers. I don’t care how much of the alphabet they had behind their names. Its still impressive work. Still headed south toward “Promontory Summit”.
I just got home from Bob and Stan’s. You were missed…(http://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-wink.gif)
Ken Brunt said:
I just got home from Bob and Stan’s. You were missed…(http://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-wink.gif)
Yes, we missed being there. Torn by wanting to do tooooo many things.
Yesterday we traveled from Idaho to Utah, basically on the route of the old “Oregon Trail”. Ate lunch at a pull off at “Soda Springs Oasis”, a rest spot and relief from the travels for the pioneers as they headed west. Huge Bear Valley, must be 10 miles wide and over a mile above sea level. Destination last night was Bear lake in Utah. Interesting turquoise water on a 20 mile long, natural deep lake. Wonderful temps around 60 degrees at night. Today, our travels south by Traverse as we will be here another night. This day’s exploration is Promontory Summit and the Golden Spike National Monument. Pretty desolate part of upper Utah. Of course, that is kind of insinuating that Utah is heavily populated. Lots of space out here, lots of tumbleweeds.
Sounds like you are having a great time. Yes you were missed in Massachusetts, but I certainly understand the desire to see as much as you can.
We did visit “Promontory Summit” and the site of the driving of the Golden Spike. Interesting bit of history and how short the original route lasted as improvements in rail travel were made. I actually found the museum and displays quite dated and in disrepair. It kind of looked like the the displays were made for the Centennial in 1969 and not upgraded since.
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Please, this is just an observation.
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The engines, Jupiter and 119 are confined to their engine house, because of a broken rail and have not run since June. The volunteer crews were making the best of it, but you could feel their disappointment.
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Traced the route of the replacement trackage across the Great Salt Lake, by the Southern Pacific. Couldn’t find a good view, but found a bike trail on the old roadbed. Anyone, know when this track across the great Salt Lake was abandoned?
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All of it very interesting railroad history.
Tonight, we are in Twin Falls, Idaho.
Enjoy Twin Falls, however we would like a report back as to whom/who broke the rail at “Purgatory Summit”
“However” should never follow a comma …correcting myself for the Punctuation police.
Interesting traveling stuff on your trip… Keep posting as you go… Neat stuff. (http://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-cool.gif)
Well tried to do some research on the cross the Great Salt Lake Route on the Internet last night, poor wifi connection, poor and questionable results. Stuff from 2012 says it is still operational by UP. But we couldn’t get in a position to see it. I was hoping somebody would challenge my statement that the trackage is closed. It was very hard to get to a viewing point, that you could see much. Very flat, very marshy along the shore line. I guess we should have used the elevation of the mountains to find an overlook.
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Tomorrow we move on the LaGrand, Oregon. Plans is to be there through the eclipse and drive down to Baker City to be in the path. 45 minutes away, the way news reports are talking it may take 2 or 3 hours to get there. All the campgrounds in the viewing areas are full. Haven’t heard about the occupancy in the Clarke’s driveway in Southern Illinois, but I believe the Bluestone Southern is right under the path of the full view of the Eclipse.
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Today, we checked out Twin Falls, Idaho and the Shoshone Falls, which are basically right in town. Great history for the area. Brought irrigation, electricity and progress to the area. Had pictures of a Interurban running from town out to the Falls. The Falls are part of the Snake River and this runs all the way to the Columbia Gorge and the Columbia River entrance into the Pacific. The Snake River cuts a very deep gorge and the drainage at the right time of the year, must be amazing. Statements and charts today said flow is “low”. It was impressive today. “High” flow must be breath taking.
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For anyone interested, Jan is posting pictures of our trip on Facebook. I know little of this or how it even works. Actually, I hope I even stated it correctly as to what she is doing. If you want to be her “Friend on Facebook”, its okay with me. But remember, she goes home with me. (http://largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-cool.gif)
Ric,
Welcome to Oregon, enjoy the Eclipse and watch out for all the crazies.
If your going to Baker City I assume you are going to check out the Sumpter Valley??
see here https://www.sumptervalleyrailroad.org/index.html
I further assume you are talking about the Lucin Cutoff???
See here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucin_Cutoff
Have a safe voyage
Rick
Rick Marty said:
Ric,
Welcome to Oregon, enjoy the Eclipse and watch out for all the crazies.
If your going to Baker City I assume you are going to check out the Sumpter Valley??
see here https://www.sumptervalleyrailroad.org/index.html
I further assume you are talking about the Lucin Cutoff???
See here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucin_Cutoff
Have a safe voyage
Rick
Rick,
Thank you for the replies.
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First, yes we plan to explore the Sumpter Valley and the railroad. We are going to scope it out on Sunday.
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Second, the “Lucin Cutoff” was what I read, but didn’t have the forethought to search using that. Thank you!
So its still in use? Interesting, very hard to see much of anything. I read about the sinking and the constant maintenance and assumed the worse,
and yet, I saw where there was such a significant advantage for them to keep it open.
What you provided was a great source.
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Again thank you.
Ric,
Are you heading to Train Mountain? http://www.trainmtn.org/tmrr/
If you are be sure to check out the logging museum at Collier State Park, just a couple miles from Train Mountain. http://oregonstateparks.org/index.cfm?do=parkPage.dsp_parkPage&parkId=165
There is a great RV park there.
Have fun,
Rick
Hi Rick,
Yes, its on my bucket list, but may have to work around the other travelers agenda. Thank you for the link.