Columbia River Gorge

The view from Chanticleer Point, overlooking the Columbia River Gorge, which is 80 miles long and up to 4,000 feet deep with the north canyon walls in Washington State and the south canyon walls in Oregon State. We routed our trip home to be able to spend a day exploring this very special National Scenic Area. It was overcast but the views were still spectacular.The interior of the Vista House, known as the "Jewel on the crown". This structure was built in 1917 at Crown Point with sweeping views of the gorge. The architecture is spectacular.
The exterior of the Vista House.
When you stop at Crown Point be sure to take time to notice the attention to detail and the craftsmanship of the Vista House and surrounding grounds.
There are seven waterfalls along the along the Historic Columbia River Highway. This one is Latourell Falls.
And this one is Wahkeena Falls.
A beautiful and architecturally stunning walking bridge crosses Multnomah Falls.
Betty and Lucy on the bridge.
Even the bridges on the roadway are great!
Horsetail Falls.

Roslyn, Washington aka Cicely, Alaska (Northern Exposure)

A special stop for those of us who remember the Northern Exposure TV show, which ran from 1990 to 1995 (yes, it was really that long ago...) The series was based in Cicely, Alaska but shot in the small Washington town of Roslyn. Each show started with a shot of this mural, which was modified to read "Roslyn's Cafe".

Ahh, the Brick -- you kind of expect to see Holling behind the bar and Shelly waiting on tables. We found out that the inside of the Brick was never used on the TV show. The story goes that CBS was only paying $100/day compensation to use the inside of buildings. At that time the real Brick was making about a $1000/day serving meals and libations. They weren't about to trade $1,000 for $100 so a sound stage was built in Redmond, Washington to recreate the interior of the Brick. Many of the old buildings had "squeaky floors" and were unusable for production, so many other sound stages were also built for various interior sequences. We were told that only shots that looked out through the windows and showed the town were filmed from inside the real buildings.
Yes, below is the original "Dr. Joel Fleischman" sign from the TV series. The owner of the store made an agreement with CBS that when the filming of the series was over, she would retain ownership of the window with the sign. The windows have since been replaced with new double-pane glass but the piece of the original window with the name has been preserved and is proudly displayed in its original location.
Roslyn is still a draw for Northern Exposure fans and Dr. Fleischman's office is now a gift shop (surprised?). If you look closely you can see Marilyn's desk beneath piles of t-shirts in the picture below.
If it has to do with Northern Exposure, they probably have it here. The gentleman behind the desk was a huge Northern Exposure fan and decided to move here about 9 years ago. He seems to have every episode memorized (there is a TV showing episodes of the series in the back of the store). He was a wealth of information about the town and provided us with a lot of background and a map showing where various houses were (Maggie's, Marilyn's, Ruth Ann's, Maurice's, etc.) and which locations were used in the filming (Ruth Ann's store, churches, lots, etc)
Except for the new furnishings, the walls were all left as they were in the show, sagging wall paper, faded paint and all.

Joel's office still looks the same from the outside.As does the main street, which looks much as it did in the 90's. The population today is less than 700. (In the TV show the population was stated as 850.)
This is Maggie's first house - the one that burnt down in the TV show. (They built a replica of this house in the vacant lot next door and burnt the replica down.)
Minnifield Communications, the home of "Chris in the Morning".
Still nicely preserved inside...
A large autographed print of the cast adorns the wall of the restaurant where we had lunch.

There is still an active Northern Exposure Fan Club and they have annual Fan Festivals in July of each year. For more information visit www.moosefest.org.

Glacier National Park

Although we were only able to go part way on Going-to-the-Sun Road due to a closure for seasonal repairs, we thoroughly enjoyed our one-day side trip. The park was virtually empty and we savored the solitude. While at Lake McDonald,only one other car (with 2 people) came into the parking lot.
Betty and Lucy enjoying the view.
Ah, the serenity...
The water cascading down the rapids along Going-to-the-Sun Road is colored a wonderful blue-green from the glacial melt.
The fall colors are as vibrant here as any I've seen.

Garnet "Ghost Town", Montana

First of all, it you plan to visit, I'd recommend entering off Highway 200 and not directly from Highway 90, unless you have a high-clearance vehicle. We came in off 90 with our Acura and the road was really too primitive for this car. It took us almost an hour to traverse the 10 bumpy miles...
In 1898 Garnet was a bustling mining town with over 1000 residents. Four stores, four hotels, three livery stables, two barber shops, a union hall, a school (with 41 students), a butcher shop, a candy shop, a doctor’s office, an assay office, and thirteen saloons comprised the town. During its heyday over 60,000 ounces of gold, 50,000 ounces of silver and 60,000 ounces of copper (with an estimated combined value of $950,000) were excavated from the 20 mines surrounding Garnet. By 1905 the rich veins of minerals were mostly tapped out and only 150 people remained. In 1912 a raging fire destroyed half of the town, which was never rebuilt, and Garnet was officially "abandoned" in 1947 when Frank Davey, the last resident, died.
Since 1972, the Bureau of Land Management and the Garnet Preservation Association have worked together to preserve many original buildings. The goal is to keep Garnet as authentic as possible, retaining the ghostly nature of the abandoned buildings. Unfortunately, most of the town's original furnishings were looted before the preservation efforts began, but the site is still well worth the visit. Because of the reliance on wood for building construction, these places are quickly disappearing, even with preservation efforts. Garnet may be one of our last opportunities to to experience an authentic piece of our pioneer heritage.Today thirty building remain, including a mix of commercial buildings and miner's cabins.
Preservation efforts include replacing some items (from donations) to recreate a flavor of the era. There is no commercialization of the town so there is a real authentic feel to the area.

A few more pictures from Yellowstone

The elk are in rut and the males are getting a bit agressive and defiant to the ranger's attempts to move them from the traffic lanes. A couple days ago a ranger told me that there were over 90 elk here in the Mammoth Hot Springs area alone.

A cow elk crossing the Gardiner River.

As the weather starts to cool, the fall colors are beginning to appear.

Taking it easy on the lawn in Mammoth.

And a couple pictures of the gentler side of Yellowstone.

He gave me the look like I'd better put one more picture of him on the web or he'd take out the grill of my car...

Yellowstone Summer Camp

Long time no post... We've been working here at Yellowstone since June 4th. I decided early on to refrain from putting up any images right away, knowing that if I started posting too soon it would result in dozens, if not hundreds of posts as we explore the park. So now, after being here for several months, I'll try to refine the thousands (yes, thousands!) of pictures I've taken into a manageable few highlighting our summer adventure.

Here we are at the Roosevelt Arch, which spans the northern entrance to the park in Gardiner, Montana. This was the original road into Yellowstone, the nation's first national park. In 1903 president Roosevelt felt it fitting to create a monument dedicating the park to the people of America and took the inscription "For the benefit and enjoyment of the people" from the 1872 document that created the park.

Yellowstone is still one of America's most popular national parks. The national park system has grown over the years to 394 parks, monuments, seashores, recreation areas, historic sites, military parks, battlefields and other designated units - the largest national park system in the world. Consiquently many of the visitior are international travelers coming to see the type of open space and animal preserves that may not exist in their own countries. Attendance is down slightly from last year's 3.6 million, but still there were enough visitors to keep our little store quite busy.

This is the town of Mammoth Hot Springs, originally built to house the army when they ran the park from 1886 until the formation of the National Park Service in 1918. The old military buildings today serve as home for Yellowstone's National Park Headquarters. We work at the General Store, the building in the left center of the picture below, between the service station and the Mammoth Hotel's Grill and Restaurant. We work just under 40 hours per week helping customers, scooping ice cream and stocking shelves. We love it and have had the opportunity to meet so many interesting domestic and international travels, as well as host several friends who have visited us over the summer. Truly a memorable experience! (Remember that you can click on any image to see a larger version!)

Yellowstown Thermal Features

In the late 1800's, professor Ferdinand Hayden of the USGS wrote of the azure blueness of the water in Yellowstone's Mammoth Hot Springs and suggested they are "bathing pools...arranged one above the other" and "had the appearance of a frozen cascade". Little has changed in the 100 plus years since Hayden made his observations. The rock "grows" at a rate of up to 2 feet per year so the area is constantly changing - springs dry up and new ones awaken to continue building the expanding formation. We are told that the volume of water emerging from the springs here remains constant but where it comes out is ever changing. So even if you were here a couple years ago, it's time to come back.
On top of the Mammoth Springs formation you can see the springs that create the formation (or you could see them if these people would just get out of the way...)Yellowstone has more thermal features that all other locations in the world, combined! Bubbling mud pots are created when the heated water is highly acidic, dissolving the rock as it rises. The resulting mud is extremely fine, having been worked for possibly a thousand years. When the bubbles burst, the mud can be spurted several feet in the air.
We're told that a pocket of molten magma is just 5 miles below the surface of the caldera in Yellowstone. The water from many of the hot springs emerges as full rolling boil.

Other hot springs are just gently bubbling pools, but are still incredibly hot. The temperature of the water can usually be determined by its color. Micro organisms live in the water and cling to the rocky walls of the springs. Clear blue water indicates the water is too hot for these organisms to survive.
And then there are the geysers, varying in eruption frequency from minutes to years. There are four major geyser basins on the eastern side of the figure eight loop that runs through the park. At any point in time, there is usually at least one geyser showing off in every basin so you won't leave disappointed. The height of the geysers range form a few feet to 390 feet. Regardless of how many times we've been to an area we see something different every time.Several of the rivers through the park are directly fed by thermal springs, making portions of them too hot to even wade in. With names like Boiling River and Firehole River, these warm waters provide sanctuaries for the wildlife that winter here - from fish to otters to bison.
And there are the smells of Yellowstone. The high sulphur content in the steam smells like rotten eggs.We were privileged to see an eruption of beehive geyser on one of our excursions.Green water, must be cooler than blue, right? Nope, this spring water has an extremely high sulphur content that coats the walls - yellow sulphur plus clear blue water equals green appearing pools. More examples of deposits left behind as mineral-rich water flows from the springs.
They say that you leave 95% of tourists behind when you hike just a half mile from the paved roads. Here we are with a group of co-workers from the store. Lou Ann organized a hike to Tomato Springs on one of our days off. We were joined by Loyal (Lou Ann's husband), Preston & Michelle and Bill. There is no path to this spring so it required bush-whacking a somewhat round-about path, but the journey was well worth it. As you can imagine, there are many thermal features that are only accessible by a little exploring.
Lattice Spring is another jewel we passed on our way down from tomato spring.
You have to look close to see our group spread out across the basin - that way one grizzly can't catch and eat us all :-)

Minerals or micro organisms? Doesn't really matter - the sights are amazing either way.
And the mandatory picture of Old Faithful.
This hot spring used to be a geyser, but it blew its top creating a crater that filled with boiling water. I wish I was a better photographer so my pictures would do this place justice.
One final look at lower Norris Geyser Basin...

On  Betty's last day in the park before her trip home we hiked up to the top of the hill overlooking Grand Prismatic Spring.  Not a bad view...