Posted by
Wil on Wednesday, June 25, 2008 4:20:56 PM
I am recently back from 9 days of camping with my inlaws, my wifes sister and her family, and my own family. The 11 of us (including 5 kids 8 or under) spent 9 nights travelling from Northern California, across Northern Nevada, through Eastern Idaho, and spending the bulk of the trip in Western Montana. It was quite an adventure, often stressful, and pretty sleep deprived, but also very educational and interesting. If I knew how to get pictures onto my blog without a scanner, I would give you some pictures to go along with the story, but you'll just have to do without.
Nevada: Nevada is a dry and somewhat desolate place. Travelling on Interstate 80 from the California border to Elko, there are almost no trees, and in some places, not even sagebrush. It is interesting to see though that there are different types of desert...the salt flats where nothing at all lives, the gravelly sage where no grass lives, but among the brush is life abundant...badgers, mice, coyotes, lizards, snakes, and hawks were all seen, and the "high" desert that included both sagebrush and bunch grass and even more diversity of life. Another interesting aspect to Nevada is that every town, even every gas station, resteraunt or fruit stand, seems to have slot machines. Part of a gambling based economy, is that it must exist in every facet of life. My favorite town along the I-80 corridor was Wells, a small town in the shadow of the Ruby Mountains, fairly green for Nevada, and though it wasn't much more than a truck stop, there was a certain feel to it that appealed to me.
Idaho: Crossing into Idaho, we crossed into the mountain time zone and into a much different atmosphere than Nevada. For one, water was much more abundant, and much of the area between Twin Falls and Idaho Falls was irrigated rangeland, alfalfa fields, and small towns. Each town had a prominent Mormon Tabernacle, and each had a sense of community that I felt was lacking in Nevada. Idaho fights with Utah as the most Conservative state in the Union, and here in the Southern and Eastern corners of the state, you could feel it. Signs honoring our troops and seeming to support their mission were everywhere, even in the college town of Pocatello. (Idaho State University). Gas here was much cheaper than Northern California (3.90 vs. 4.45 when we left Yuba City), and we noticed food was much cheaper as well. Twin Falls had grown a lot since the last time I was there (the only place I had seen before this trip other than Reno, we passed through on the way to Denver when I was 13), and was pretty, but somewhat crowded and flat. I loved the Snake River Canyon though, including the insane people who jumped into it off of bridges and parachuted tot he bottom. My favorite parts of Idaho were Idaho Falls, a beautiful town of about 50,000 with a great museum and a nice downtown, and the border area with Montana, where the Interstate climbed to 6,000 feet and Big Sky Country really had meaning.
Montana: Montana, just across the border along Interstate 15, is stunning. Beautiful tall mountains surrounding lush green valleys bisected with cold rushing water, one followed another as we entered Montana. I love Oregon, and it has its share of stunning scenery, but nothing can compare to this high elevation summer in Southern Montana. Butte was the first city of any size we saw, and Butte was not terribly impressive. It sits in a geological bowl and the whole city has a bit of a reddish hue, especially after all the beautiful green to its south. Its main industry has been mining, and for all I know, it still is. We climbed out of the valley that housed Butte and entered another lovely sequence of pine forests and green meadows before we descended into Helena. Of all of Montana, in fact, of all of this trip, Helena is where I would choose to live. We spent three of our nine days there, exploring the city and its surroundings. Again, the green shocked me. I am used to leaving Oregon and missing green, but in Montana, May and June are the wet season because of thunderstorms and snow runoff, and it showed. Of all of Montana that I saw, Helena is the most feasible place I could see living. It had beauty, a nice size, and a welcoming atmosphere that some other places we visited lacked. Next was Missoula, also a beautiful town, but browner, larger, and much different in atmosphere. Here is where I saw "Californiafication" in full force, as I will describe in my next post. Missoula was about double the size of Helena and the traffic and crowds were a bit to get used to again. We spent two nights here before moving on. Heading back to Idaho falls, we traversed the beautiful Bitterroot Valley (which you see in "The Horse Whisperer", "Legends of the Fall", and "A River Runs Through It"). It was very beautiful, but not my favorite.
We returned home through Idaho and Nevada, all growing tired and cranky at the end of our trip, returning to find the Central Valley of California a smoke filled mess. Every place has its faults and its beauties, and If you have never been to this part of the country, I hope you enjoyed seeing it through my eyes.