Montana, Sandpoint, and home !

On the advice of John Luster, we took an 11 mile detour and camped at Lava Hot Springs for the night. We found a camp ground right next to the Pourteauf River and off leash trails everywhere. The volcanic springs are funneled into a series of pools in the spa, each progressively hotter than the other and the volcanic hot waters were a delight to our skied-out legs. Maybe 20 people inhabited the pools while we were there and with the mountain sun beaming in, it was a perfect wind-down to a 3-month sojourn.  The next night we stayed at Fairmont Hot Springs in Montana and woke up to snow and 18 degreees!

Indian teepee at Fairmont

What a change from Arizona and southern Utah.

 

 

 

 

We wound our way back through Coeur d’Alene where we hooked up with old buddies from the days when we were only 30 years old.  They still hike, ski and bike, so we enjoyed some of that while we visited.

John on Schweitzer Mountain, Idaho

Mineral Ridge

 

It’s hard to believe this 3 month journey is winding down. I can’t even tell you which leg was my favorite. But I can say, I’d be happy to travel this great country of ours, exploring every nook and cranny.

Lincoln Rock State Park

Alta powder, and Deer Valley grooming

Illegal snow boy!!

Hi again, We arrived at the Cottonwood Residence Inn in Salt Lake, a jumping off point to all the major ski areas of the region (Deer Valley, Alta, Snowbird, Brighton, Park City, etc.).  We hit windy weather the day after our arrival, and Joe missed his plane, so we only had 2 days to ski.  But they were memorable days.  We headed up to Alta the first day and were blessed with 11″ of new snow, still falling while we skiied.  The altitude at the top is over 10,000 feet, so needless to say, the snow is light and hardly a “push around” like it can sometimes be at Baker.  I skiied until my quads wouldn’t hold me up any more (about 2:30 p.m.), even though the lifts stay open until 4:30.  I left the boys to ski a few more runs while I looked vainly for a glass of chardonnay. The watershed in the Alta area (unbeknownst to me) is closely guarded against any polution, including  dog pee and poop (not sure how they control the deer and badgers).  Anyway, the staff who helped us park informed me that Cisco was not allowed in the parking lot, or even in the car, and that the “marshall” was watching us.  Well, I was descrete, and kept the boy between the cars during luch break, but at the end of the day, the thought “what the hell?” and let him loose on his first taste of snow in his entire life (he was born in March in Ferndale and we’ve been in the south west all winter, right).  I just couldn’t resist.

Liquor laws in Utah are extremely frustrating.  Anything over 3.2 beer is considered “hard liquor”, so you can’t just walk in and order a glass of wine.  Nothing over 3.2 beer is sold in grocery stores, so you drive miles to find a state liquor store.  Restaurants are just as frustrating.  Unless they have a special liquor license, which few do, you have to order a meal to get served a glass of wine.  I have to say, the snow is the best we’ve ever skiied, but if you like your wine, as we do, it’s almost worth traveling the extra distance to Colorado to ski.

Well, enough “whining”.  The next day, we skiied Deer Valley.  Both Alta and Deer Valley are snowboard free, so that makes things rather relaxing.  Comparing the ski areas is like comparing a lovely, down-to-earth country girl with her sophisticated city cousin.  Alta is small, unpretentious, and has way more snow.  The snow is light, and not often do you encounter groomed runs.  Deer Valley is huge, with gorgeous homes and people, and every ammenity you could imagine.

Last chance run

Docents wait for you as you drive up to the lodge, helping you with your equipment and providing directions to locker rooms, restaurants and lifts.  There are 10-12 ski lifts, maybe more, with mountain hosts stationed everywhere, providing directions and advice, depending on your ability level.  Every intermediate run is groomed daily.  And there is a restaurant in the lodge that sells WINE!!  (However, only after 2:30 and you have to buy food). Even though we ended up with only 2 days of skiing, we had a great time, and enjoyed some hiking as well with our 4-legged friend in the Parley wildlife refuge about 15 minutes from our hotel. We loaded up the airstream on our last morning and headed up I-15 towards Pocatello, ID.

 

 

 

 

Slickrock hiking in Moab

Moab is an adventurers playground.  When you drive through town, every other storefront lures you to zipline the canyons, raft the Colorado River, learn how to rappel down the red walls of the parkland or get your fat tires onto the rocks.  We’ve been exploring this gorgeous country with our 4-legged friend, and even though we’re staying here for 6 nights, we are finding we could be here for a couple of weeks and still not run out of fun things to do.

Teresa & Cisco

Our weather has been sunny and warm (anywhere from 65 to 75 degrees) during the day, and crisp (35 ish) at night.  Really perfect.   Our campsite was situated along the Old Spanish Trail,a contiguous trail that linked California with Santa FE, NM and

was used during the early 1800’s by Indians, fur trappers and missionaries.

The red rock arches abound, not just in Arches National Park, which of course, is a stunner.  We are not overdoing the national parks, mostly because pets are not allowed on trails, even on a leash.  But we did spend a few hours in the Arches and Canyonlands just for eye candy pleasure.  John snagged some stellar pictures in Canyonland National Park on a glorious sunny day.  Then we skipped over to Dead Horse Point State Park, right next to the national park, and got a good hike in along the rim with the pup.  According to legend, the point was used as a corral for wild mustangs, and sadly, left some to die of thirst.  The views are amaxing.  The point is situated 6,000 feet above sea level, and standing on the rim, 8,000 feet of geological strata is visible, revealing sediments left 300 million years ago!

One of our best hikes was up to the Corona Arch, where we were able to scale the slickrock with the help of a ladder and a strong wire cable.  Viewing up close and personal, the spectacular arch, made the effort worthwhile.

Corona Arch

I took a morning to jump in at the end of a 3-day workshop with Salt Lake City yoga instructor, Adam Ballenger.  His focus was all about alignment and spinal health.  Not surprisingly, I found my arms and shoulders to be a bit tender the next day.  He gve me some things to work on, for sure.

We spent stellar day biking 30 miles up the Colorado River for a cancer awareness bike, and while quads were screaming (we haven’t been on bikes for 6 months!), we contributed to a great cause, while biking an incredible canyon!  We passed campgrounds, Indian petroglyphs and indominable climbers, rappeling up the sheer cliffs by the side of the road.  My thought, “Send your most challenging youth and they will meet their challenge!”  Patti said she did something like that in Outward Bound.   Anyway, the scenery was beyond compare.

We leave Moab after 6 days of “funshine” an head to Salt Lake City to meet up with our kids, Joe and Maiga, so ski Alta and Park City!

Getting colder in Navajoland

We left the warm, sunny skies of Tucson and headed up through the circuitous mountain passes north on Hwy 77.  We also left the lovely, picturesque saguaro cactus and as we departed, some odd form of southwestern pine took it’s place.  The road was a white knuckle (especially towing an airstream), but we made it to Snowflake and beyond in fine form.  The White Mountains are a refuge for Arizonans during the summer months, and boasts many lakes.  We spent 2 nights in Holbrook, very close to the Petrified Forest National Park, so of course we spent several hours there, and drove to D.B. Burnham trading post in Sanders, AZ, to buy some stellar rug yarn, and later to Windslow to enjoy a top tier dinner at La Posada restaurant.  If you are ever in the area, all three stops are worth the drive.

Our altitude in Holbrook is about 5,000 feet and the nights are getting down to freezing.  No sun today, so it stayed cool for our walk around the Blue Mesa in the Petrified Forest National Park.

Cisco & me in the Petrified Forest

I put the Pendleton blanket back on the bed, and we were happy to have it!

We then headed north on Hwy 191 towards Ganado, where the Hubbell Trading Post still operates.

Hubbell trading post

To qualify as an authentic trading post, you have to have a store, where commodities, such as milk are sold, a pawn shop, and a gallery.  I was amazed at the rugs and woven baskets!  Just as I was ready to check out with my small purchase, I enjoyed the opportunity to listen to a Navajo woman, speaking her language, bartering with the trading post “guy” (also Native American) over the sale price of the handwoven rug she had just brought in.  These posts are alive and thriving, hopefully to the benefit of the indigenous people.  I would love to come back here and hang with one of the weavers for a couple of months at some point.

We traveled northward on Hwy 191, a route I’d recommend to anyone who loves scenery, toward the Utah border and into Moab.  The desert in the 4 corners area is amazing.  Called 4 corners, because of the convergence of the 4 edges of the states of Utah, Colorado, Arizona and New Mexico.  Doesn’t happen anywhere else in our glorious US.  The carved, red promonatires, make it really hard to keep your eyes on the road.  Then, as we approached Moab, the snowcapped peaks in the distance counterbalanced the desert drama with amazing affect.  More on Moab to come.

Tucson: Finding Arizona

Hi again faithful followers!  We met super-friends, Cathy and Jim Stirling, at the new Cubs spring training park in Mesa, the last day of our Mesa, AZ  stay.  Great reunion with our Coeur d’Alene/Tucson friends, perfect weather, terrible game for the beloved Cubbies against the Diamondbacks.  Cathy and Jim braved a night in their camper in our Mesa digs and headed back to Tucson to get their place ready for an Airstream invasion that afternoon. When we arrived, our pad was ready, we backed in and looked out back at the gorgeous Catalina Mountains behind the Stirling’s home.

We spent a day hiking the chaparel of the frontage of the Catalinas, and scoping out the campground at the state park there to see if we want to park there for awhile next winter.  Our hike was shortened a bit by the fact that dogs aren’t allowed in the higher elevations of the Catalinas from January through April because that is the season females Bighorn sheep calve their young.  We walked through a forest of Saguaro catcus as we passed through the more lowland canyoned areas of the park.

4 hikers+ Cisco

Tucson is 3,000 feet above sea level, the air cleaner, and the environment less dusty than the Phoenix area.  When we snowbird again, we will definitely look into camping in the Catalina State Park.

John and I spent a day in the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum, a well-tended collection of flora and fauna from that part of the world. We timed our excursion to be able to see a demonstration of raptor free-flight with barn owls, grey hawks, and peregrine falcons.  They were literally inches above our heads!!

We enjoyed the 4 days we spent in Tucson, and catching up with friends in the area. Time to move north.  We’ll wander through Northern Arizona and Southern Utah to arrive in Salt Lake City in time to ski with Joe and Maiga.