http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/Rovers2/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Rovers2 en-us Sat, 28 Nov 2009 02:47:57 +0000 Sat, 28 Nov 2009 02:47:57 +0000 Wersquove seen many of the ldquobadlandrdquo areas of the western US but what we found in central Idaho is like nothing we have ever seen. The Craters of the Moon National Monument and Preserve near Arco ID contains over 1100 square miles of protected area mostly lava fields resulting from volcanic activity from as far back as 15000 years age and as recent as 2000 years ago. The resu http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Idaho/Craters-Of-The-Moon-National-Monument/blog-432685.html After leaving Harriman we had two days before we were scheduled to be back at Massacre Rocks so we decided to make a swing through western Wyoming for a quick visit with Bobrsquos nephew Pat Renz his wife Lori and their sons Patrick and Andrew. We first passed through the southwestern corner of Yellowstone National Park. We had spent several days in Yellowstone in 2007 so we didnrsquot http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Wyoming/Jackson-Hole/blog-431923.html The manager of our park asked us if we would like to spend a few days up at Harriman State Park helping them finish up the remodeling of their lodge. The park is about 150 miles northeast of Massacre Rocks near West Yellowstone Montana. Well we are game for anything new so off we went. The Harrimans were a very wealthy and influential eastern family. Averill Harriman was governor of New Yo http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Idaho/blog-430831.html Near the end of the last ice age about 14500 years ago most of what is now Utah and parts of Nevada were covered by Lake Bonneville. In what was the second largest flood in the geological history of the world the lake was drained through a breach in the natural dam at Red Rock Pass flowing down the channel of the Snake River. The flood lasted several months and the water flow at its peak http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Idaho/blog-430292.html Our first destination in Colorado was the Golden Gate Canyon State Park just west of the Denver suburb of Golden home of the Coors brewery. From Golden to the park was only about 12 miles but it was on a twolane switchback mountain road which climbed almost a mile up to the park which is at an elevation of about 9500 feet. Making that climb in a rig weighing over 20000 pounds and over 50 http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Colorado/blog-416684.html We left Lewis Clark State Park on June 19 and headed south. We have about 2 weeks before we are due in Idaho and our plan is to head down to Colorado to do some exploring. We have been on several ski trips to CO but havenrsquot spent much time there in the summer. Our first stop was Theodore Roosevelt National Park in Medora ND. Teddy Roosevelt came to the N Dakota badlands in 1883 to http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/North-Dakota/Medora/blog-413135.html We took a side trip out of Williston to visit a couple of historic sites just a few miles up the Missouri River from town. Near the Montana border the Yellowstone and Missouri Rivers converge. Fort Buford was established in 1866 to guard and protect the strategic confluence of these rivers both important transportation and trade routes of the early west. From this fort the army fought the Ind http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/North-Dakota/Williston/blog-412324.html The HistoryOn May 14 1804 Meriwether Lewis and William Clark left St Louis heading up the Missouri River on their 2 year expedition to explore and chart the lands recently acquired through the Louisiana Purchase and to seek a ldquoNorthwest Passagerdquo to the Pacific Ocean. On April 17 1805 almost one year later they made camp at Short Creek in what is now North Dakota one mile f http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/North-Dakota/Williston/blog-405657.html We left Fernandina Beach on April 29 2009 on a five month adventure that will have us spending a month in the Northwestern Corner of North Dakota two months in Southern Idaho and then back to Virginia for about a month. We wonrsquot be home again until early October. Our first stop is Arlington VA where wersquoll spend a few days visiting with our son John his wife Kemper and two of http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/North-Dakota/Lake-Sakakawea/blog-400067.html Glacier National Park is located in northwestern Montana along the Canadian border and consists of some 1600 square miles of mountains forests rivers lakes and of course glaciers over 50 of them. It became our 10th National Park in 1910. In 1891 the Great Northern Railway had crossed the continental divide at nearby Marias Pass opening the region to settlers miners and inevitably to http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Montana/Glacier-National-Park/blog-174994.html We left Oregon on May 31 after a great month at the beautiful Nehalem Bay State Park and after an overnight stay in a neat little Oceanside campground on the Washington coast headed for southeastern Washington to spend a few days with some friends Glen and Lori from Vancouver and Terry and Linda from Bonners Ferry Idaho all of whom had worked with us as volunteers in Oregon last year. We http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Montana/Missoula/blog-171942.html From Durango we headed west into Utah Stopping for lunch in Monticello where we were greeted by a blizzard by this Floridianrsquos standards anyway. From Monticello we turned north toward Moab and were soon in the spectacular canyon country of southeast Utah. We had made arrangements to meet our friends Glen and Judy Denner in Moab. We met the Denners and spent some time with them last Se http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Utah/Moab/blog-153499.html We stopped in Durango to visit our friends Jim and Becky Rodefer whom we met and traveled with last year in Alaska. Located on the edge of the mountains in picturesque southwestern Colorado Durango is a real outdoorsmanrsquos paradise with great hunting fishing skiing and whitewater rafting readily available in the area. It is also home to the Durango and Silverton narrowgauge railroad http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Colorado/Fort-Collins/blog-153472.html Crossing the Sacramento Mountains on US 82 we came to the little ski village of Cloudcroft with a splendid view of the valley ahead and some 5000 feet below. Here we got our first glimpse of the huge White Sands Missile Range. At 3200 square miles it is larger than Delaware and Rhode Island combined. Here at a site called Trinity the atomic age began at 530 AM on July 16 1945 with the the http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/New-Mexico/Alamogordo/blog-150993.html In 1898 in the Guadalupe Mountains of Southeastern New Mexico a cowboy named Jim White saw what he thought was smoke rising in the distance. When he went closer he found that the ldquosmokerdquo was literally millions of bats coming from a large hole in the ground. White and other locals knew of the hole but no one had explored it. Concluding from the number of bats he saw that this must b http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/New-Mexico/Carlsbad/blog-150859.html The first leg of our westward journey took us from Fernandina Beach FL to Ft. Gaines GA on the Alabama border. We stayed in a nice campground on the banks of Lake Walter F. George and played the golf course in the George Bagby State Park. The next stop was Montgomery AL where we spent a pleasant evening listening to the tornado warning sirens. Fortunately no tornadoes came our way but thun http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Texas/Fredericksburg/blog-149814.html The Little Bighorn is a small tributary of the Bighorn River flowing through the prairie grasslands of southwestern Montana. On June 25 1876 on a ridge over this little river was fought one American history's most legendary battles. Boy Wonder General George Armstrong Custer at 25 he is the youngest man ever to attain the rank of Major General and about 245 soldiers from his 7th Cavalry http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Montana/Big-Sky/blog-88498.html In 1872 President U. S. Grant signed a bill designating Yellowstone the worldrsquos first national park. At over 2.2 million acres it is larger than Rhode Island and Delaware combined. Although the park has some beautiful mountains rivers lakes and waterfalls over 100 of them it is most notable for its thermal features. About 600000 years ago an enormous volcanic eruption created a 1 http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Wyoming/Yellowstone-National-Park/blog-87363.html Our first stop back in the US was just across the border in Idaho at the lakeside home of our friends Terry Litfin and Linda Monks where we were joined by Glen and Lori Nyberg. The six of us had served together in May as volunteer campground hosts at Nehalem Bay State Park in Oregon. The house sits on 65 wooded acres surrounding a scenic lake and has been in Linda's family for a hundred years http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Montana/Bozeman/blog-86421.html Leaving the Cassiar we headed east on the Yellowhead Highway bound for Alberta. Along the way we overnighted in Smithers Prince George where we had stayed on the way up and a really neat little campground on the Fraser River in Tete Juane BC. It was a short drive from there to Jasper Alberta an upscale little resort town on the northern edge of Jasper National Park. From here we took the http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Canada/Alberta/Banff/blog-85427.html