Living in our own Private Idaho

We left the madness of Seattle and drove across the state of Washington for a brief dip into the Famous Potato state of Idaho. We were happy to be back in the countryside and enjoy simple country pleasures, such as the roadside Tourist Information sign which advised us  “Crop identification signs on fence, next 14 miles”. And so they were…..Potatoes, Alfalfa, Sweet corn, Potatoes, more Potatoes, what do you know, Potatoes. Just occasionally, we’d see a sign for Peas. So all we are saying, is give peas a chance.

We arrived in the little town of Wallace just in time for the Gyro Days Carnival (crappy amusement rides held together with fencing wire and the screams of small children). Wallace is a historic town that claims to be The Silver Capital of the World. But hang on; Broken Hill is The Silver City – so there! We also visited another very important geographical feature……

Who knew it was there all along.

Next day we rode the Route of the Hiawatha, a 24 km rail trail along the old Chicago, Milwaukee and St Paul railroad. The bike trail winds its way through the Bitterroot Mountains, crossing 7 huge trestle bridges and going through 9 tunnels. The first tunnel, the St Paul Pass Tunnel, is 2.7 km long and is pitch black, dripping wet and really really cold – 4 degrees in fact. And there ain’t no light at the end of this tunnel for a very long time. The great thing about the ride was that it was all downhill – we caught a shuttle bus back up to the top car park to save the effort of riding back uphill.

Coming out of the St Paul Tunnel

Leaving Idaho, we went north into Montana to Glacier National Park. On the way, we stopped at the externally promising “Homestyle Café and Antiques”. We walked into a dingy junky bar full of tattooed bikies glued to the wall TV, but there was no backing out for us. Somewhat surprisingly, it turned out that the bikies were watching the US Open Golf, and were discoursing eloquently on the finer points of the game. You just can’t make assumptions now, can you?

Eventually we checked into Lake MacDonald Lodge, a beautiful historic lodge on the shores of Lake MacDonald, with wonderful views of the mountains. 

Next morning we walked to Avalanche Lake, another fantastically scenic spot. Glacier National Park is prime grizzly bear territory, and the advice is to carry bear spray and make lots of noise. So we did. Mike was Chief Walking Noise Maker – equipped with bear bells (it is said, however, that black bear poo is full of berries, and grizzly bear poo is full of bells) and a speaker for his I-Pod which was belting out 80’s rock anthems. All the bears gathered, swaying with their cigarette lighters aloft and taking turns crowd surfing in the mosh pit. At least they weren’t eating us. We didn’t see any evidence of bears, but we were excited to see a moose by the side of the lake. In the words of Bill Bryson, moose (is the plural ‘meece’?) walk like their legs haven’t been introduced to each other.

Mike's all tooled up

Very A moosing

Later in the afternoon, we hired a rowboat so that I could watch Mike exercising. I had a lovely relaxing time; Mike worked up a sweat in the outdoor gym. Who needs a rowing machine when there’s a whopping big lake right there?

The following day we celebrated Mike’s birthday by going to the Sun. As you do.  We drove part of the famed “Going to the Sun Road” which crosses the park from east to west. We were just a few days too early to drive the whole road, which is still closed at the highest pass while they clear the last bits of snow off the road. As we were staying on the west side, we had to drive the long way round the south of the park to start driving the road from the east entrance up to Logan’s Pass.  It is an absolutely stunning road, and either we are getting better at edges, or it actually wasn’t as bad as other roads we have been on. We again had glorious weather allowing for wonderful views.

St Mary Lake

Logan Pass, all snowed in at the top

Leaving the park after 2 fabulous days, we stopped at another geographical marvel – the Montana Vortex and House of Mystery. They tried to say the site is in the centre of a number of vortices resulting in magnetic anomalies, auras, and unexplainable mysteries (and probably visits from Elvis), but in reality it was just a number of optical illusions. A lot of silly fun really.

A big chair, how original!

This is doing strange things to my head.

On our way to Yellowstone National Park, we’re having a brief stopover in Butte Montana – home of the Richest Hill on Earth. We’d like to meet him and see if he’ll fund the rest of our trip.