July 13, 2012
It's Friday the 13th...but it's gonna be another lucky day for us, because we're going to Jackson Hole Wyoming! We have some dear friends who live there, and we haven't seen them for eleven years so we're looking forward to visiting them and seeing beautiful Jackson.
It's another beautiful morning in Sun Valley as we load up the RoadTrek and head south out of town. As we pass through Hailey we drive alongside the airport...it's a big week for this little airport. The annual Allen Group conference on media and technology is in Sun Valley...this group of rich guys (yes, almost entirely guys) fly in on their private jets and talk to other rich guys about what they think is going on...or going to go on...or something like that. The "A-list" gets to park their Gulfstreams in Hailey...the rest have to slum it and park at the nearby Cary airfield about 15 minutes away (by Gulfstream). Here's a shot of the twenty or more private jets at the Hailey Airport...
Once we get past the opulent travel trappings of the 1/2 of 1 percent attending their "conference" in SV, we get into the more pastoral beauty and farming landscapes of Bellevue, Idaho.
As we drive east on Highway 20, we suddenly notice a new landscape feature..large patches of black rock. Before we drive much further we see this sign...Craters of the Moon National Monument...and then a sign for an overlook, so we pull over. We have a view over the edge of more than 75 square miles of lava rock...quite a sight.
We decide to take a closer look at the Craters of the Moon National Monument, and we ended up spending a couple of hours there. And it was so extraordinary, we are going to dedicate our next posting to this amazing geological formation!
From the Craters of the Moon National Monument we head east continuing our drive toward Jackson, Wyoming. We pass through a town named Arco, Idaho, and what catches our eyes are two things...first, there is a stone hillside on the edge of town where every high school class has written its graduation year on the side of the hill...
...and the second thing is the price of gas! Boy, we wish we needed a whole lot more at these prices...it's about 60 cents cheaper than gas at home, and when we're stopping to fill a 35 gallon tank on the RV, 60 cents per gallon really makes a difference!
We continue along towards Idaho Falls and we see the Three Buttes formation off to the right. On top of one of the buttes we notice quite a collection of antennae and wonder what that's all about...and soon our question is answered as we see a sign for the Idaho National Laboratory.
Now, you have to wonder about what goes on in a place that has a huge piece of land out in the middle of nowhere and you can't see a single building or sign of life...only signs telling you it belongs to INL. A little research (thanks to a 3G connection and an iPhone) informed us that INL is the country's leading nuclear research facility: "In operation since 1949, INL is a science-based, applied engineering national laboratory dedicated to supporting the U.S. Department of Energy's missions in nuclear and energy research, science, and national defense." Hmmmmmmm...we hope that there is not a nuclear incident while we are passing by...and it is not at all comforting that the town just to the south of INL is named Atomic City...!
The farming landscape continues as we make our way through Idaho Falls and on toward the state line...the day has turned cloudy and cooler which is good for a travel day...
One of the more beautiful crops we see long the way is rapeseed with its brilliant yellow flowers. We saw this same crop when we were in Tibet and didn't know that much about it at that time. However, a little research informed us that rapeseed is the third most popular source of vegetable oil (behind soy and palm) and it is used in livestock feed as well as biodiesel. The bright yellow flowers create a brilliant carpet of yellow...
We pass through some new places in western Idaho we haven't seen before and they are quite nice...places like Ririe and Swan Valley,
As we approach Victor, Idaho, we get our first look at the Tetons from the Idaho side...
Then, as we enter Victor it got very dark and we could see a wall of rain ahead of us...
Victor, Idaho, is where the highway heads up into the Tetons, and eventually over Teton Pass. As we begin the climb up toward the pass our RV shudders as it is hit by a gust of wind and then all hell breaks loose...wind, lightning, thunder...and then torrential rain. We make it only a mile or two up the incline and we have to pull over to the side of the road due to the river of water coming downhill at us. We wait a few minutes, then proceed again...here's what it looked like as we drove slowly up toward Teton Pass (and remember, it's two o'clock in the afternoon, even though it looks like it is evening)...
The rain slowed and stopped by the time we reached the summit of Teton Pass (which is 8,431 feet in elevation) so we stopped at the top. It was nice to give the RV a rest after climbing a 10% grade for four miles...it was slow going but now it is all downhill into Jackson. Here's a view of the valley from the top of Teton Pass...
We descend from the summit (in low low gear to save the brakes) and pass through Wilson, a small town at the base of the pass...we cross the Snake River as we leave Wilson and drive the final miles into Jackson...
On the edge of Jackson we see the farms and the hay fields...it is a drier than normal summer so the hay is not as tall as usual...
...and there it is! It's official, we have arrived in Jackson!
We reach Jackson at about 4:30...just in time for cocktail hour with our dear friends Kip and Lin...and their lovable dog Molly...it is so good to see Kip and Lin again, and we look forward to a couple of days together so we can catch up!
Lots more fun ahead as we enjoy beautiful Jackson before heading to Vale, Oregon...stay tuned!
Posted with Blogsy
No comments:
Post a Comment