Road to Missoula

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Some days I find it very easy to write this blog and other days I do struggle. It depends a lot on how tired I am and how inspired I get with what we did and or saw that day. Yesterday was a struggle. Hopefully today will flow. So here we go.

We left Pocatello, MT at 8:10 AM and 73 degrees. And we spent a good deal of time fighting with the soft talking lady in the black box. She wanted us to travel to Missoula on the interstate. But that is not where you have the best experiences and see the best vistas. So we continued to argue with her and work around her for the better part of two hours, until she finally relented and let us have our way. And boy were we right.

The first part of the drive was through rather barren areas with the never-ending prairies. We passes the turn to the Craters of the Moon National Park and kept going. We were there two years ago and, while it was an interesting place to visit, once is plenty for that park. So we moved on. Eventually we found ourselves in a deep, and I men a really deep, canyon where the Salmon River flows. For the second day in a row, we discovered a scenic drive that is a real winner…route 28 north , between Challis and Salmon, ID. We drove for about 50 or 60 miles sandwiched between sheer rock walls that reach for the heavens, as we followed the river north. The rock formations were multicolored masterpieces of red, orange, tan and grey accentuated by horizontal striations and vertical cracks of every dimension. It reminded me of our drive in 2017 as we followed the Snake River not far from here.

When we emerged from the canyon, we drove on for hundreds of miles surrounded on four sides by tall mountain peaks of various colors and size. And the land was fertile. We saw farms growing potatoes and wheat, small ranches growing cows, and horse farms growing, well, horses.

Eventually we hooked onto the Bitter Root River and followed it all the way to Missoula. Oh, and did I mention casinos? We crossed into Montana and immediately we saw the never-ending rows of casinos. They are on every corner, attached to gas stations, and sitting by themselves behind big signs enticing everyone to come and win a fortune. We did not go in.

We arrived at our hotel around 5 PM and immediately went back to the chore of planning, figuring, plotting, and reserving hotels. We are now out to the end of the month.

Tomorrow, Walla Walla, WA.

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Comments

[Sharon G Gauert]

Sounds Interesting
We have never explored that deeply into Montana -- your notes are making me want to explore there. Also enjoyed comments about the challenge of dealing with a GPS that insists on driving the Interstates. They just are not trainable.

[Rudy Martzke]

A fine day for Jackie and Steve.
Glad you guessed right about off-Interstate HWY route to Missoula. Surprising views.