Glacier to Capitol Reef

 July  5 - Glacier National Park
We decided to try the hike to Howe Lake.  It required driving up an unpaved single lane narrow road through the burn area of 2003.  We met a few cars coming the opposite direction and were able to get past each other, but we decided we would skip the hike as we felt spending several hours looking at burned trees with head high regrowth wouldn't be too scenic.  We decided to take the Lake McDonald boat tour instead.

We turned around and made out way back to the Apgar Transport Center to pick up a shuttle bus.  Our truck is pretty large to park in random spots along the Going to the Sun road or lodge parking lots that are generally full.  We had 1.5 hours to kill before the tour, so we went to the Lake McDonald Lodge Bar to try some local drinks.  I had "Moose Drool" brown ale and Terri tried a huckleberry daiquiri.  It turned out that we "knew" the bar tender!  We had met at the volunteer fire house car wash.

The boat tour used the historic DeSmit boat.  We started in the bow, but were driven inside by yet another rain.  Not really very much to see, and the beer may not have been such a good idea as there were no restroom facilities.

We took the shuttle back to the village area and did some shopping.  It was 0.5 miles back to the transit center and we waited for about 1/2 hour with no shuttles, so we took a very nice paved path to get there.  We drove out to Hungry Horse again to get diesel and more food supplies, then back to the RV.

July 6 - Drive to Arco, ID
We hitched up and started the long 408 mile drive to Arco, Idaho.  The Montana scenery was extremly nice.  We went through canyons, along large lakes, though broad rolling valleys with lots of cherry orchards.  In Idaho we followed the Peaks to Craters Scenic Bypass that followed rivers cut through the weathered mountains.  At Elk Creek Summit, I picked two sprigs of Sage (small shrub) that were very fragrant and we enjoyed them in the truck for several days.  The road left the rivers in the Salmon River valley.  408 miles Not a single mile of interstate and we are getting 11.4 mpg so far for the entire trip.

July 7 - From Arco, ID
We wanted to see the Experimental Breeder Reactor (EBR-1) that was 18 miles outside Arco.  The concept is to have uranium 238 absorb a neutron from U235 fission reaction and become Plutonium that can be used for fission reactions.  Basically, create more fuel that it uses.  This was the 1st reactor to create more energy than it consumed.  It was designed to shut itself down in any situation, and even had a passive convection cooling system that did not require pumping (if not electricity is available).  Of course, it used caustic liquid metal (Sodium/Potassium) that would burn on exposure to air or water, so not without some risk.

Back to the RV for lunch, then 25 miles in the opposite direction from Arco to Craters of the Moon NM.  This is a section of a very large lava field formed by basalt erupting from an enormous crack (rift) every 2000 years.  (Last one 2000 years ago.)  We took several small trails to see various kinds of activity (cinder cones, spatter cones, rope lava, block lava, etc.).  The "worst" form was A'a lava (Hawaiian for "hurts your feet", or as I spell it AHHHH, AHHHHH) that is sharp, jagged, and basically impassable.  We took a ranger led tour of Indian Cave where a lava tube had collapsed.  Lava tubes are long hollow tubes where the roof had cooled but hot liquid lava continued to flow.  We learned the difference between a hot collapse where the roof was still flexible and just flattened out like a souffle that falls, and a cold collapse where it fractures into blocks.  We had to scramble over rock falls to get out the far end, then travel over the lava fields back to the trail.

The entire valley of Craters of the Moon NM "points" at Yellowstone NP.  The explanation was that the crust in the area has been moving west over a stationary "hot spot" that forms giant caldera every few million years.  The expectation is that the rift will erupt in the next 100 years as it has been shown to do, and the Yellowstone will "explode" within the next 100,000 years as the geologic record shows it regularly does.  See it now before it goes away!

The RV park in Arco included a breakfast in their cafe.  Two large pancakes with two eggs cooked to order and coffee.  The pancakes were wonderful, with some crispy parts on the outside.  The cliff behind the town was covered with large numbers, obviously the work of the graduating classes from the high school.  It appears to have started in 1922 or before.  With all the good flat spaces taken, future years will have a harder job of it.

Every time we go to the store, I point at something interesting (scalloped potatos with garlic) and ask Terri "Do you need this?"  Her answer is generally "Get it if you want it" or "I don't know."  She decided to empty out all the cabinets and see what was in there, and merge similar items into the same cabinet.  There was quite a pile of things on the counter, so I think we can probably survive for a while.

We continue to find things that are vibrating loose or moving while we travel.  Terri spotted a small bolt on the floor in front of the TV and it took us 5 minutes to find that it fell out of the ceiling fan.  Of course, other bolts were loose on other blades.  There is a pull out pantry with three shelves to the right of the stove that appears to come open and allows the drawer handles across from it to rub the front panel of the pantry.  We now have to pack pillows between them.  The screws above the refrigerator continue to work them selves out, indicating to me that the slide they are in is flexing as we travel.  That same flexing is what opens the freezer doors (my theory).  We now put a bungee cord across them to keep the ice from dumping out.

July 8 - Travel to Torrey, UT
Once again we were treated to a day with almost no traffic for the 455 miles to Capitol Reef NP.  We were generally going under the speed limit and we would never catch another vehicle and rarely have one come up from behind on us.  The traffic in the other direction was just a light.  We planned a 32 mile (each way) side trip to see the Golden Spike NHS where the Union and Central Pacific railroads joined track to create the first transcontinental railroad.  This was the emblem chosen by Utah for their state quarter, really a huge thing in the opening of the west for settlement and trade.  As we were there in the afternoon, we really couldn't leave the dogs in the truck, so we didn't get to see any movies or spend much time in the visitor center.  We were there at exactly the right time to see two replica steam engines demonstrated. Very nice.  The dogs were well behaved and popular.

Traffic in Salt Lake City was very heavy, worse than Denver.  I guess that was to be expected as we were in Denver on a Sunday and Salt Lake City on a Thursday.  We went through some passes at about 8400' elevation and arrived the Thousand Lake RV park (no lakes in sight, named after a nearby mountain).  Beautiful views, nice wide sites, lush grass, lots of groups and families having a great time.  We like our choice.

40 new photos posted at http://picasaweb.google.com/rosser.tom/RVVacation2010#