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Montana: Bannack & Butte
The Lemhi Pass is on the Continental Divide. There is tla “Farest Fountain”, the source that is furthest from the delta of the Missouri / Mississippi.
1. Farest Fountain Creek.
2. Typical portal
3. Coyote Flat.
4. Arrival at Bannack, another really weel preserved Ghost Town in Montana that time.
5. Scool in the ground floor and…
6. … Masonic Lodge up the first floor!
7. The hotel which was before the first Courthouse of Montana.
8. Perfectly preserved cabin.
9. An ancestor of VivaLaVida! 😀
10. Church among the houses
11. Overview.
12. Leaving Bannack, I saw him. Probably a young great owl.
13. Typical farm of Montana.
14. Butte is definitely a particular mining town: the historic upper town is built of red brick…
15. Old building.
16. Main Street
17. Corner building.
18. Antique advertising…
19. Schoolgirls…
20. The drilling tower are even the city, there are a dozen of those.
The next update will bring you in Glacier National Park, far North of Montana… 😉
Ghost Towns of Idaho
As announced, here are some images of three ghost towns dating from the gold rush. Most of them have been inhabited for a few years before new gold discoveries decide to relocate their inhabitants.
1. First visit at Custer, in Yankee Valley
2. Traditional log construction.
3. This house was built in 1854.
4. Second visited site, Bayhorse. The mill for sorting the ore is still standing. This site was initially very popular for gold – this is the site where the largest amount of gold was extracted at that time (approx. US$ 90 million!) – then silver and copper.
5. Seven coal furnace allowed to produce this essential fuel.
6. Higher in the same valley, the SkyLark mine where a steam freight elevator allowed to bring the ore mined down the valley.
7. One of the Skylark mines.
8. River West of Salmon.
9. I got to spend the night to another hot spring which pools were unfortunately destroyed by the floods of winter…
10. Diagonal…
11. Late afternoon.
12. He turned when I touched his tail… 😉
13. The first Big Horn Sheep I saw.
14. On the road to Lemhi Pass, in typical grasslands of North Idaho and Montana.
15. I spent the night at Lemhi Pass, on the Continental Divide. Beautiful rainy Sunset.
16. Sky like a paint…
17. Amazing clouds while the sun is down since long…
The following will show you a little of Montana, in a few days… 😉
Idaho (3)
Still discovering Idaho
1. Sunset from Sunset Peak, above Boise.
2. Trying to reach Deadwood Reservoir, I was one more time stopped by the snow.
3. The altitude marshes are waterlogged…
4. … and rivers overflow.
5. An osprey hunting.
6. I really like these altitude landscapes.
7. Powerfull rapids on the South Fork Salmon River. It’s the only Salmon River that originated 60% of salmons in the Columbia River.
8. The “Elk Meadow” where I spent the night.
9. Here too first flowers appear.
10. Elegance…
11. This marsh is aptly named: this evening, I saw over 50 deers at a time!
12. I try to discreetly approach…
13. … and this time achieved it more or less.
14. Later, I needed more than two hours to make hime accept me and let me take this picture!
15. The next morning, elks are still there.
16. The next day, I made a long walk in grizzly territory to hot springs.
17. By late afternoon, a small detour to the Cape Horn Lake; I train for Patagonia! 😀
18. Kayaking on the beautiful Lake Stanley.
19. VivaLaVida at camp, three yards away from the lake.
The next update will show you some of the gold rush ghost towns”. To come soon…
Idaho (2)
Not far North of City of Rocks, I did some hikes in the Independance Mountains.
1. Green pasture.
2. Going up in the mountains, I find the tender green of young leaves again.
3. Snowmelt floods forest roads that borrows VivaLaVida.
4. Color contrasts…
5. The first flowers only appear at this elevation.
6. Bells.
7. Grazing light…
8. A Moose going only hundred yards away.
9. Sunset.
10. Last colors before the night.
11. Early the next day, I went to Independence Lakes, probably the most scorching hike I’ve done since I travel in VLV. 7 hours hike in deep snow, just backbreaking…
12. Back to VLV, I was resting when without warning, this young moose came out of the forest only a few yards. Excitement for both! 😉
13. He walks away, looking at me from time to time.
14. Crossing Okleay.
15. I then continued the road to the north through Boise. In this Memorial Day, I went to see the mountains nearby and the Boise River. Here, a reservoir on the Boise River.
16. Boondocking along this powerfull river.
17. Going upstream the next morning.
18. Descent of Trinity Lakes I have not met, the snow still blocking the pass to access to.
19. Nice small lake at Atlanta ID. Just above is the best hot spring in which I bathed so far!
20. Old cabins in Atlanta, a Gold Rush town still inhabited today.
21. This one looks more “cosy”…
22. … and that one more rustic.
23. The river along which I slept that night…
24. … and a neighboor ! 🙂 It’s an endemic marmott of the Rockies.
Next to come soon.
Grand Lac Salé encore & Sud de l’Idaho
Après plus d’une semaine à Salt Lake City sans parvenir à vraiment résoudre les soucis de chauffe de VivaLaVida, j’ai repris la route en commençant par contourner le Grand Lac Salé par l’ouest…
1. Derniers rayons sur le Temple Mormond de Salt Lake City.
2. Les feuilles fraichement sorties des trembles sont d’un vert tendre magnifique…
3. Cerfs attentifs à ma présence.
4. Petit matin.
5. J’ai dormi à même la piste.
6. J’arrive à Bonneville Flat dont certaines parties sont encore sous l’eau.
7. Concrétions de sel…
8. VivaLaVida sur la célèbre piste de vitesse où bon nombre de records de vitesse ont été établis ou battus.
9. Estampe monochrome ou presque…
10. Minimalisme ultime…
11. VivaLaVida emprunte une voie de chemin de fer du 19ème siècle…
12. Une petite arche naturelle dite “des Chinois”.
Je suis ensuite passé en Idaho en allant visiter la City of Rocks, un lieu surprenant.
13. Première piste en Idaho.
14. Lumière rasante sur des collines érodées.
15. Campement à même le granite de City of Rocks.
16. Petite arche sans nom au levant.
17. Après deux bonnes heures sur la selle, la vue est immense…
18. … mais je suis arrêté par la neige !
19. Le granite de City of Rocks est superbe ! C’est un haut lieu de grimpe, avec plus de 140 voies répertoriées.
20. Ferme traditionnelle.
Suite de mon périple en Idaho à venir bientôt… 😀
Great Salt Lake
Before Jean_Luc left to fly back to San Fransico, I suggested to bring him see the Great Salt Lake, a place where I saw a lot of birds during my last trip there.
1. Arrival to that so large and quite lake.
2. In the morning on Antelope Island, an inhabitant. Bisons were reintroduced at the end of 19th century and are several hundreds on the island now.
3. The weather is going bad…
4. It’s his cry which betrayed him!
5. A big thunderstorm passed not far away…
6. … then the sky clears.
7. American Avocettes.
8. Strange llight…
9. Watercolor on clouds…
10. Stop on the jetty which leads to Antelope Island.
11. (Very) long-beaked curlew.
12. Absolut quietness…
13. Pronghorn antelope.
14. This is the second time during our journey we saw burrowing owls.
15. This yellow throat meadowlark had a powerful song.
16. Euhhh… we’re only passing, ok?! 😉
17. The lighting effects are quite unlikely, it looks like the picture of a painter…
18. … Under the showers.
19. Grandiose sky!
20. Burning sunset…
21. Lastcamp for Jean-Luc in a dreamfull decor…
That’s the end of the period Jean-Luc travelled with me. I’m now continuing my journey alone, first trying to solve some heat issue of VivaLaVida… :-/
To be continued soon…
Cottonwood road article comments
Don’t ask me why the comments are off for this update, I haven’t done anything different than the others and I don’t manage to find the parameter to allow those… Sorry.
Maze Disctrict of Canyonsland NP & Moab area
The next day we decided to walk to the confluence of the Green River and Colorado River, north of Doll House.
1. Along the trail.
2. Some areas are full of flowers.
3. Colorado River 1000 feet below.
4. Jean-Luc saw him just before to walk on!
5. Using the Flint Trail to go up on the plateau, some switchbacks were really narrow, requiring maneuver. what an initiative to have drawn a road in such a steep slope!
6. We slept on the plateau…
7. … and saw a gorgious sunset.
8. We joined the Horseshoe Canyon to discover cave petrographs. Huge overhang! Can you see Jean-Luc ..? 😉
9. Panoramic picture from the bottom of it.
10. The “Great Gallery”.
11. Surprising painting…
12. … so varied.
13. Going down the canyon, we saw this beautiful snake (about four feet long), an enemy of rattlesnakes he kills by constriction.
14. At Green River UT…
15. Further, a short stop to Crystal Geiser…
16. Saturated colors!
17. Detour through a smal erg of orange dunes.
18. But the sand Wind will force us to go away.
19. Colorado River near Moab.
The next day we joined a place called “Top of the World” by another quite rockcrawling track! Here are some images of Vivalavida in action since I had a photographer there. 😉
20. Steep hill…
21. Here, both lockers were necessary! 😀
22. big step.
23. Axle crossing.
24. Where is the best way to go..?
25. There! 😀
26. The Sunset was gorgious on this promontory!
27. Jean-Luc over tausend feet emptyness..!
28. A panoramic picture to finish this update…
The next update will bring you to the Great Salt Lake, the last place we wisited with Jean-Luc who then flew back. To come soon.
Henry Mountains & Maze District of Canyonsland NP
Since Jean-Luc decided to take a domestic flight from Salt Lake City to join his international flight to San Francisco, it left us more time to explore Utah. We visited western Canyonsland National Park we reached by crossing the Henry Mountains.
1. Stop for the night at Bastion Reservoir, at about 7,000 feet elevation.
2. Jean-Luc spotted Wilson’s phalarope, an unexpected bird in this region.
3. I saw this snake without being able to identify it.
4. Campfire under the top that Jean-Luc climbed.
5. Down from Mount Helen, the culmination of Henry Mountains.
6. After going refueling in Hanksville, a really remote and depressed corner, we followed a long path to reach the Maze Overlook, first taking the Devil’s Canyon road.
7. Water crossing of the Devil’s River.
8. On the other side of the river.
9. The track is rugher I imagined and we slept at the Sunset Pass…
10. VivaLaVida over a huge overhang!
11. My acrobat brother at Maze Overlook. 😉
We then decided to join the Doll House and it took us no less than 6 hours to reach on a track probabliy the most difficult Vivalavida has traveled so far … Here are some pictures to illustrate this incredible journey.
12. Driving on the rock.
13. Sometimes overhanging.
14. It goes steep up…
15. … then down.
16. Big step.
17. It leans sometimes too…
18. It’s sometimes narrow…
19. … or tight!
20. We will end up to arrive first at Standing Rock…
21. … then the beautiful Doll House that reminds me of the Needles, on the other side of Colorado.
22. We were Lucky to get a camp place just in the middle of Doolhouse ad this is the view we had at sunset;-)
23. Last rays on the Colorado River.
24. Indian granary well protected under an overhang of sndstone.
25. Trail at dusk in the mid of needles…
To be continued…
Next updates…
I just found out how to publish updates without having Internet connexion.
I will so be able to reduce the difference between updates and the place I’m actually. Not sure it also works for translation, so sorry if you English speaking guys could see updates in French only, I will fix it later… 😉
D5 Creation