Uinta National Forest Ride

Terry, Mike and I rode the UTVs from the Tibble Fork Reservoir up over the mountains to Cascade Falls exploring several spur roads along the way. If you ever needed an excuse to buy an OHV, it is the ability to see parts of this beautiful country that you would never see from the highway. Unfortunately, the mount for my gps is broken so I was unable to make a track of the trip.

One happy camper

Big Cotton Canyon

No one knows an area like the locals so for the price of a diet coke and some Hersey's chocolate, I engaged professional guides, Terry & Gail, to lead an expedition up Big Cotton Canyon to Park City and then on to Mirror Lake. No question, it was money well spent...

Terry & Gail

The slopes of Park City in the summer

Fresh fish for dinner

The Alpine Loop (Hwy 92)

This scenic byway (southeast of Salt Lake City) winds its way up through the mountains of the Uinta National Forest where you see vistas like this...

And critters like this...

All in all a great area for hiking and camping.

Museum of Ancient Life

At first I thought the Museum of Ancient Life was going to be about my cousin, Chris, but no, it is about other old fossils like dinosaurs. If you can tolerate a million screaming kids, it is an interesting place to visit.

Bingham Canyon Mine

If you are going to pay to see a big hole in the ground, then the Kennecott Utah Copper's Bingham Canyon Mine is a good place to start. It is the world's largest man-made excavation (can be seen from space). Since open-pit mining began in 1903, enough material has been removed to create a pit that is more than three quarters of a mile deep and two-and-a-half miles wide. Still in operation, this massive mine has yielded more than 19 million tons of copper as well as vast quantities of gold, silver and molybdenum. Click on photos to enlarge.

I was going to put a set of these on my UTV until I saw they were $25,000 per tire...

Payette National Forest Ride

We did not make it to Black Lake due to...

So we rode the forestry roads to various mountain tops...

Click on photo to enlarge

Owyhee Mountains Ride

Another great ride in the Owyhee mountains southwest of Boise.

Elevation ~8,400 feet (click on photo to enlarge)

Bonnie & Clyde's car?

Old Idaho Penitentiary

The Old Idaho Penitentiary was operational from 1870-1973 and is one of only four Territorial Prisons still open. If today's inmates think they have it rough, they should consider serving time here in late 1800s when you were housed in a two man cell about the size of a walk-in closet and with only a bucket as your indoor plumbing.

There is also a surprisingly good weapons exhibit.

Gatling gun

Silver City Ride

Last month at the Hells Canyon Rally, I met several riders from the Boise area, who invited me to join the Boise ATV Trail Riders and ride with them. This morning I joined Jay, Derrill and Dennis for breakfast in Murphy and then rode to Silver City via a route that included numerous creek crossings, narrow mountain trails, and pine scented forests.

Derrill, Jay, Lucy (dog), Dennis

Silver City subdivision (note half bath out back)

Experimental Breeder Reactor-I Atomic Museum

EBR-I generated the first usable electricity from atomic energy in December 1951. The tour showcases four nuclear reactors (including two aircraft nuclear propulsion prototypes), a reactor control room, remote handling devices for radioactive materials, radiation detection equipment, and much more. The facility is located 18 miles southeast of Arco, Idaho. Click on photos to enlarge.

Control room

Nuclear reactor

Here are the two nuclear aircraft engine prototypes...

Lead shielded locomotive developed to move the nuclear powered aircraft

Lastly, I photographed this encrypted code written on the mountain outside of Arco...

Craters Of The Moon

This National Monument is the result of a series of volcanic eruptions over 15,000 years (the last one occurred ~2,000 years ago). Early pioneers, who encountered this area, referred to it as "the Devil's Vomit".

There is an extensive cave system here which is open to the public but you will want to be careful as getting in and out of them is not easy.

Trivia Question

What was the first city in the world to be lit by atomic power?

My RV is starting to glow in the dark

Bannack State Park

Bannack is one of the best preserved of all of Montana's ghost towns. Over 50 buildings remain today... from tumble-down, one-room bachelor cabins to the once-stately Hotel Meade.

The infamous sheriff of Bannack, Henry Plummer, was secretly the leader of a gang of thieves, murderers and robbers called "The Innocents". This gang is said to have murdered over 102 men and robbed countless others. A group of Vigilantes hanged Henry Plummer and many of his gang on the very gallows that he built to hang horse thieves. Click on photos to enlarge.

Ohrmann Museum & Gallery

Bill Ohrmann and my father served together in the Pacific during WWII. Today, I had the honor of meeting Mr. Ohrmann and seeing some of his impressive artwork. I was also able to learn a little more about what Dad went through in the war. Tom Brokaw definitely got it right when he called them "The Greatest Generation".

Bill Ohrmann

On the way back to the RV park, this doe posed for me...

West Glacier National Park

From West Glacier the Going-to-the-Sun Road winds along Lake McDonald and then up river through a forest of old growth, moss covered trees. There are lots of hiking and bike trails that will take you off the beaten path. Today, the road was closed to motor vehicles at the Avalanche campground.