Day 5 (Tuesday): Hello again everyone! Thanks for keeping up with our great venture west!
Montana continued: We awoke to a beautiful day in Butte, MT. It was warmer than we thought it would be and though everyone told us it was going to snow the coming weekend we were in the clear for our trek through the most mountainous leg of our trip! Here are some pictures of the hills we climbed up and down.
Here is some great red rock. And we were also driving along a river for most of the day. We hopped off I-90 shortly into our day once we got to Missoula and jumped onto I-12 (this road leads right through Clarkston,WA where we were planning to spend the night with Jen and Jacob's aunt and uncle). For almost all of this part of the trip we drove along side Lochsa River in the Clearwater National Forest. It was gorgeous!
And even though we kept seeing signs for great wildlife... we didn't see any hug elk or moose. Jen is still feeling sad about that, but have no fear we will make sure to hike or drive in a place we will definitely see them in the near future!
Don't worry everyone... we saw buffalo!!!!!! A whole field- farm- of them right off Rt12 in Montana! I zoomed in so you could see. Jacob was the first to see them and shouted "BUFFALO!" and of course Jen and I almost didn't look because he'd been teasing us and crying wolf (or buffalo as the case might be) for two days! But I had the camera ready and snapped some evidence of our victory on the eternal quest for the buffalo!
I just love these welcome arches leading to people's ranches. Most bigger driveways had some version of this. So fun!
Also we saw even more lovely and remote cabins out here!
Here's the Lochsa!
Loving the tall pines!!
Several weeks ago while Jen and I were mapping out our trip I said that I would love if we could stop at a hot springs along the way. We lo and behold we found a hot spring listed on the atlas right on Rt 12 on the western edge of Montana, Lolo Hot Spring! We obviously had to stop even though with the cold we had no real intention of getting in bathing suits to partake, hot water or not lol. Below you see the Lolo Hot Springs Resort.
It was their off season and we there was no attendant at the pool/hot springs desk so we just walked in so we could explore. It wasn't a whole lot to look at, but it was warm in there (below is the actual hot spring- well where they pipe it to). I was surprised that the smell was so mellow, but glad because who really wants sulfur smell in their nose?
And we saw this hysterical sign behind the desk!
These huts were perched on the mountain side with piping leading to the hot springs bathing area.
Of course Jen and I had to check out the water streaming over some rocks by the outer huts to see if that smelled lol. It didn't
Here's a place for some family fun! I think 20 people could sit around this massive fire pit!
Then as we walked toward the 'Resort' portion looking for a gift shop we encountered the dirties little puppy. He was literally running around by himself playing and walking through every puddle he could find. It was freaking adorable!
That was all for Lolo Hot Springs (no souvenirs- that shop was closed), though the man inside told us we could get some souvenirs "just down the road." When we asked how far he said "Oh about 25 miles." I guess 'just' has a different meaning in the middle of the woods Montana!
Idaho: Besides gaining another hour as we crossed the time zone border the drive in Idaho was much the same as Rt12 in Montana. Rest stops few and far between. Trees aplenty. And slow going on the hills.
The stripe on the mountain over from where we were driving is a logging road. It's just 2 tracks precariously close to the the edge (literally on the edge) of the mountain. Wish we would have seen a truck going up the mountain, though I'm sure it would have made me nervous- looks like there's no way it would fit on that tiny 'road'!!
Here are some more views from the top of the hills we climbed up... then climbed down!
Here we made Jacob pull into one of the many small pull off areas (for trucks to put chains on their tires in the snowy season!) so we could stretch and take closer pictures of the beautious Lochsa River. A note on our word of the day "beautious" - the night before someone had said it in the car, and it was practically the first thing out of Jacob's mouth that morning so we stuck with it! Calling out beautious whenever we looked out the windows because we had gorgeous views for 99% of the day!
Here is a cabin area of a camp ground along the road. We saw tons of signs all day for campgrounds and RV parks, which is apparently the most popular mode of camping in this part of the world. There were RV rental/dealerships all along I-90 it was strange to us, but Judy (Jen's aunt) confirmed for us that night that it is extremely popular for families and the like in that area.
About an hour before we crossed into Washington we stopped at a gas station and grocery store for a bathroom break and snack refresher. And this is what we saw...
Oh yes! Animal heads right in the grocery store... There's your moose Jen!
And here is the great big dog just chillin' in the car outside the grocery store. When Jacob tried to greet him he growled and so Jacob ran away lol
Here is the Clearwater River (which was the Lochsa River in the national forest part of the drive)
Washington: The Evergreen State! We made it! (Well at least we were finally in the last state!) Hooray!!
Here's another look at the Snake River from going up Judy's road!
Ok let's just have a moment to talk about the road Jen and Jacob's aunt Judy lives on... It was RIDICULOUS! Right off Rt12 we turned onto a road that was paved for about 10 feet then became gravel and climbs straight up the mountain (not a hill)! The the car and trailer it made for quite a slow climb... then we went into the wrong driveway due to mixed messages and a distinct lack of visible house markers at the end of long drives. Jacob maneuvered the truck up and tricky S-shaped drive up to the wrong house! Judy (who can see her whole road from where her gorgeous house is perched on the top of this mountain) called to tell us our mistake and met us down at her neighbors. After a tense 10 minutes of finagling a turnaround in a small skinny drive we made it back to the torturous climb up to Judy's. And we made it! Then we had the BEST dinner of our trip, which Glen (Jen's uncle) made for us, and relaxed to some nice conversation! We tried to get Lucy (their dog) to let us pet her, but for a lab she was reticent and eventually just sat in the living room with her back to us looking over her shoulder disdainfully. I was quite amused! Thanks again for your hospitality and generosity Glen and Judy it was a great first evening in Washington!
Overall it was quite a beautious day!
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