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_3 October 2010 Stepping out of the coach this morning with my first cup of coffee I could see we were in a very special place. Part of it was the play of light as the morning sun crosses the lava. Our plans were to stay a couple of days and see and do as much as we could. I hate to say it, but the elevation of 5,900 feet showed me that it’s been awhile since I’ve been hiking at this altitude. Fortunately the effects of 5,900 feet didn’t last long but I know that it’s going to take a while for me to bet used to it. Soon Louise joined me and we drove off into the lava fields. Seeing as how there are over 400 square miles of lava fields to see we opted to see and enjoy the closest 1/3rd, but that also entailed driving a little closer to some of the locations we wanted to see and explore. The Monument contains some outstanding examples of spatter cones so that was one of our first stops. A spatter cone _is the later stages of an eruption that pushes lava streams out through the side or top which usually ends the life of the flow. Throughout the Monument there are over 25 such cones, but we only closely explored 3 of them. One hike that we took was to the top of the largest cones in the “near” park. It was over 180 feet deep… _We also hiked out through the lava flows to find 4 or 5 tubes (caves) that we could explore up close and personal. One of the caves we explored left us with a small opening to climb out of that would have been real tough if we were but just another 4 to 6 inches in diameter larger. _It was also very interesting to see the twisted, wavy sea of the now hardened lava flow. In the moonlight its glazed surface has a silvery sheen that comes across as a fine piece of artwork. _Now speaking of “moonlight and artwork”, you should see the stars that we enjoyed on our first night during a perfectly clear night, amazing... _2 October 2010 We spent the night at Wal-Mart in Missoula and were back on the road by 8:30 and heading to Butte. Before getting to our turn onto Hwy 15, we found a “scenic route”. One of the scenic and historic locations along the way was Philipsburg. Philipsburg was a prosperous mining town back in the mid 1800’s and quite a number of the original buildings are still up and standing. Fact is, they look pretty good. The unfortunate thing is that they have been caught in this ugly economy that we’ve all been caught in and are hurting a lot. The rest of the “scenic ride” was just that, a beautiful river that was teaming with fishermen, trees turning through the fall colors, rock and clay hills and mountains displaying the many natural hues of Montana. After finding Hwy 15 a little further east, we turn south and head through the high plains and cross the border into southeastern Idaho later in the afternoon. By 5:30pm we were pulling into the “Caters of the Moon National Monument” campground and hoping that they have a site available for us. _Fortunately they had one for us and it turned out to be one of the best in the park. _1 October 2010 We’ve never been known as “early people”, but in leaving Coeur d’Alene we found ourselves getting up in time to have breakfast with Larry Anderson, refueling, and dumping our tanks at the county building. By 11am on a sunny Friday, we were finally on the road and heading towards Montana. Driving through Montana is always a beautiful experience and on this first day of October it didn’t disappoint us one bit. Our first stop was because of a request from Bonnie, “if you get close to Superior, Montana, _how about stopping by and checking it out for me…”. Well Bon, it doesn’t look the same as when you had the cabin, but it’s still standing… _We even checked out the log cabin that Tim built and it’s looking pretty good. Our next stop was in Missoula at Blitz RV. We’ve been stopping there for years to fill our propane tank. They have a “lost leader” price of .99 cents a gallon and that is REALLY CHEAP!!! Well we found out that they are still offering that deal to all that come prior to October 1st, and then it moves up to $1.99 which is what we paid for being ONE DAY TO LATE!!! Oh well, that is still one heck of a great deal. |
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