2015 Western Trip – Day 20 - A Damn Big Dam

As an engineer, it is hard for me to pass up significant engineering / construction projects and when I’m within a couple hours drive of a major one, I have to pay a it visit.  The Grand Coulee Dam was constructed between 1933 and 1942 to produce hydroelectric power and provide irrigation.  These are shots of Roosevelt lake above the dam and I’m always amazed at so much dry land there is around all of that water – like the brown California hills that run into the Pacific Ocean.

To give you a perspective on what you are looking at, the dam is 550' tall and just 50' short of being a mile across.  It's 500' thick at the base and 30' thick at the top, so it relies on the shear weight of the concrete to hold the water back - unlike an arch dam such as Hoover.

This shot is from the web and shows water coming thru the spill gates in the middle.

Grand Coulee is not the tallest dam in the US as it is 220’ shorter than California’s Oroville Dam nor does it create the largest lake, as Hoover Dam’s Lake Meade is three times larger than Roosevelt Lake but when it comes to power production, Grand Coulee is two and a half times its nearest US competitor.  At 6180 megawatts, it is the largest electric power-producing facility in the United States and for comparison, it’s more than four and a half times the output of Hoover Dam and just a little less than TVA’s three nuclear power plants.  This link from Wikipedia is a very interesting read.

Notice all of the power lines leaving the dam’s three power houses.

The dams on the Columbia River and it’s tributaries generate 44% of America’s total hydro-power with an installed capacity of 36 gigawatts (36 billion watts).  These are some power lines headed east.

I had no idea WA farmers grew so much wheat but it often went to the horizon.

After the trip, the ladies went downtown to the Coeur d’Alene farmers market but at 96F, it was way too hot for me and the dogs.

Photos can be enlarged by clicking on them.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

Larry

8/12/15 event date

2015 Western Trip – Days 17 & 18 – Coeur d’Alene Area

After a busy time in Cody and two days on the road we just cleaned on our mobile house and relaxed our first day in Coeur d’Alene (CdA), a town of 43,000+ located on the shore of Lake Coeur d'Alene.  It is obvious that it is a tourist area as the main street is composed of mostly shops and eateries and it sits right on north end of Lake CdA .

On our second day we took a scenic drive on ID-97 which ran right along the east side of the lake down to the town of Harrison.  Due to the haze from the fires in the area, the following shots are from the web, but represent what we would have seen had it been clear.

Lake CdA is roughly 25 miles long, 1-3 miles wide and is a natural lake with the Spokane River flowing out of it and the CdA and St Joe Rivers flowing into it. - I was shocked to find that it was a natural lake.  It reminded me a lot of Lake Tahoe and I can imagine it being very pretty with snow on the ground.  

This is my shot of one of the lodges on the lake and of a wetland area where the CdA River enters the lake.

Thanks to the logging industry, Harrison was a thriving town in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s and the largest town on the lake.  It is a now a very small town of less than 300 people and nearly every business on the main street is supported by tourists.  You can see it all from these shots each way from our car.

In addition to shops and pretty depressed looking homes, Harrison contains a city park, a city hall, and a marina/restaurant with an attached campground, which was basically a gravel parking lot with partial hook-ups - but a great view.

While we were there, this was the busiest place in town advertising the largest scoops in Idaho and for only $4 – Bev and I split one - huckleberry of course.

From Harrison, we headed cross country for a pretty drive on ID-3 thru the CdA River valley and discovered many more lakes and wetlands than we would have imagined – this is Swan Lake.

We then came along these guys grazing next to the road and after noticing the fairly high fence and having just passed a specialty meat purveyor, we decided they might be farm raised elk.

Photos can be enlarged by clicking on them.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

Larry

8/9-8/10/15 event dates

2015 Western Trip – Day 15 & 16 – Cody To Coeur d’Alene

The Trip

The drive from Cody, WY to Coeur d’Alene, ID was mostly through irrigated valleys, first from the Clarks Fork of the Yellowstone along WY-120/MT-72, then the Yellowstone River and Clarks Fork River (different from the first one) for much of Montana.  Here is the difference a little water makes:

We made our interim stop in Garrison, MT so we could revisit the Avon Café where we had met fellow bloggers Jim and Sandie Dixon for breakfast two years ago.  We knew when we walked in the door that we wanted chicken fried steak and a huckleberry milkshake.  The last trip, their chicken fried steak was the one we used as a comparison for all of the others we ordered.  The shake was once again delicious but as is too often the case, the steak was not as good this time – too thick and not enough spices so maybe they have a new cook.  It must be pounded pretty thin or it just tastes like a hamburger as this one did.

We crossed a few mountain ranges on the way but the big diesel had no problem getting us over them – only had to go to 3^rd gear one time.  All-in-all, I enjoyed the drive and the diversity of scenery – I thought the drive through the Yellowstone River valley was especially pretty with the grass covered hills, the green irrigated valleys and the crystal clear waters of the river.

After crossing the last mountain, we descended into the Coeur d'alene area and I was stunned by the beauty of Lake Coeur d'alene as we drove along it for several miles east of town. (photo from the web)

I noticed early on that many of the semis out here had a heavy-duty guard in front of the normal bumper and grill and I decided it must be to protect the cab if an animal is struck.  So I did a little research and found that they are called Moose Bumpers.

The Route

We left Cody, WY and drove north on WY-120/MT-72, then North on US-310 to intersect with I-90 West which we took all the way to Coeur d’Alene, ID.  The roads were all good but there was quite a bit of construction on I-90 and I’m happy to put up with it as I much prefer the construction slow-downs to the rough roads that they are repairing.

The Campgrounds

Our interim stopover was at the Riverfront RV Park in Garrison, MT and we picked this place because we wanted to eat breakfast in Avon and we’d liked our stay there before.  This time it was not so good as our newly installed surge protector would not allow us to use the 50amp power supply so we used the generator to run the AC’s until the coach cooled off then plugged into the 30 amp supply for the rest of the night.

The next morning we awoke to a flat tire on the car from a machine screw we had to have picked up in the campground.  I travel with a pancake air compressor and the tire held air well enough for me to drive to Deer Lodge where the Les Schwab tire shop had me back on the road in about 15 minutes at no charge and still in time to go to Avon.  This is one of the reasons I try to avoid traveling on Sunday when so many places I may need are closed.  I doubt we’ll be this way again but I will no longer stay at Riverfront. 

We arrived at the 172 site Blackwell Island RV Resort in Coeur d’Alene and found a pretty nice park in a great location on the shores of the Spokane River.  The check-in process was efficient and the staff was friendly and helpful.  We had no electrical issues, the water pressure required we use our regulator, but the WiFi was very slow and kicked me off very often.

This is the location of the park in the area - the park where the yellow pin is, the city is to the east and Lake Coeur d'Alene is to the south. 

The sites were a little short for our coach and car but we managed to fit everything in and there was a nice distance between sites with good grass.  This is our site and a few shots of the park.

It is obvious why folks stay here as the park is on the Spokane River with its own beach and boat dock and is full of families with kids and water toys – the folks in the last shot have their own floating island.

The RV park is right next door to a marina which includes The Cedars floating restaurant.

We ate supper at the Cedars and all of the meals were just okay, but like they say it's all about location, location, location and they have a great one.

Photos can be enlarged by clicking on them.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

Larry

8/7 – 8/8/15 event date

2015 western Trip – Day 14 – The Most Beautiful Drive In America

Thus is the description the late Charles Kuralt gave to the Beartooth Highway (BT), a 68 mile long road connecting Red Lodge and Cooke City, MT which opened in June 1936 – I cannot imagine building this road back then or even now for that fact.  But before we even got on the BT, we traveled the 46 mile long Chief Joseph Scenic Hwy (CJ) from just north of Cody, WY to where it hits the BT about 15 miles east of Cooke City, MT – both the BT and CJ are closed in the winter requiring the road through the NE Yellowstone entrance to be maintained to prevent Cooke City from being cut off in the winter.

While the BT is the more famous of the two, the CJ is no slouch when it comes to awesome scenery - pasture, mountains, wetlands - and tight curves.  Rather than add a lot of words here, I’ll just post photos and you can click on above the links if you want more info or photos Unfortunately our views and shots were affected by a smoky haze from western wildfires.

The BT is an engineering masterpiece as it switches back it;s way up and down the mountain - it's like Lombard St. in San Francisco with more distance between the curves.

As we ascended to Beartooth Pass, I was continually amazed at the abundance of lakes the amount of water in them and small streams that seemed to be on top of the mountains.

Then we finally saw the source of the water - snow that was still melting.

We continued to wind our way through the switch-back curves toward the summit and it's spectacular views.

I would love to have made this drive on a very clear day.  We have been on four very scenic western American drives: this one, the Going-To-The-Sun-Road in Glacier NP, the road (US-34) up the east side of RMNP, and the Million Dollar Hwy (US-550) in south central CO.  The views in all but the last one were negatively impacted by the smoky haze from wildfires burning somewhere in the West and often hundreds of miles away.  I guess we need to make these trips in the late spring/ early summer if we want to see them at their clear best.

Photos can be enlarged by clicking on them.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

Larry

8/6/15 event date