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| Walk / Tour | 2.73 Miles |
139 AEG |
| | Walk / Tour | 2.73 Miles | 1 Hour 17 Mns | | 2.13 mph |
| 139 ft AEG | | | | |
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| no partners | | July 13, 2022 I was looking forward to my hike around the Idaho Falls River Walk. Idaho Falls is along the old Montana Trail. I had a half-waffle at the Super 8 and a small cup of coffee before heading out. I started at the bridge on W Broadway Street and opted to go counter-clockwise. This walk is on the Greenbelt along a portion of the Snake River. Your first look is a great preview for the rest of your show. I spent a few moments taking video of the falls, both natural and man-made.
Next to the flowers I started my walk and headed for the bridge to cross over the Snake River. At 1,078 miles long, it is the largest tributary of the Columbia River, in turn the largest North American river that empties into the Pacific Ocean. I would then head north on a paved walkway. There was a variety of trees and unique seating accommodations with occasional flower gardens and benches; everything was well manicured. The Veterans Memorial was very nicely done and they even had a long-range gun of some sort set up next to it. Further along there is also a band shell. There were some great benches and seats like one set of four that had dog paw marks on top, An old fashioned penny-farthing bike bench, and bear seats to name a few.
Here is where you will also start seeing the animal sculptures that have plants growing out of them, mostly succulents. What a great idea. And there were many of these sculptures on both sides of the river. You eventually make your way by the Idaho Falls Temple. It made its way into many of my pictures as I walked around the river. As I continued I noticed lines painted on the walkway for passing, no passing, and slow. I didn't initially notice these.
I would walk across another of the Snake River bridges, this time on Highway 20. I would come down to a big cul de sac as I headed south. I saw some geese across the waterway (like a natural canal) and continued passing by a great variety of trees. This side of the river (west) is definitely the commercial side with hotels and eateries. I assume it's a little more expensive to stay next to the river but it is a nice view. If I stop here again, I would want to hike it in the evening after having dinner at one of the restaurants looking over the river.
You pass by Keefers Island (an old gold mining claim) in the river before coming to where the main falls are flowing. They have a viewing ramp to get you above the spillway-like area and where you get a sweeping view of the man-made and natural part of the falls. As you continue you can get closer to the river as they have a couple areas you can drop into for a different point of view. The greenbelt part continues with flower gardens and various trees along with benches, some very quirky. I finished where I started enjoying the flora and flow of the water. I am sure I missed a lot along the way but I couldn't dawdle much more than I did as I had several hundred miles to drive. I highly recommend this walking hike; well worth your time.
Part 1 [ youtube video ]
Part 2 [ youtube video ]
And now to continue my drive to Big Arm, MT but not before stopping at the Starbucks for a large iced skim-milk cappuccino, the perfect drink for my long drive. The first part takes me through an area that someone planted a lot of Russian Olive Trees that my cousin loves. It's just intriguing how many there are along here. Before getting to DuBois, I would pass by trucks transporting a wind turbine in about six different trucks for the blades and the base. Initially I couldn't tell what big long cylinder the trucks were hauling but figured it out fairly shortly. They do travel somewhat together but some had pulled off the road. And then there was the tarp covered hay around DuBois.
Eventually I would hit my first big hill at Spencer ID before descending into the big valley toward Montana and Monida (named for Montana/Idaho) Pass. You can see mountains in several directions that still had quite a bit of snow for mid-July. I do try to identify a lot of this in my videos including what looks like an old dilapidated house that was actually a schoolhouse and barn. It's sad to see it disintegrate.
I arrived in Montana and continued to enjoy all the scenery including the beautiful green valleys and tall mountains of various textures. It's a pretty drive with so much to see. The weather was pretty nice though very windy. It was interesting that almost every time I saw a 3-pup FedX truck there was a UPS 3-pup not too far behind (sometimes it was UPS first). I saw at least five of these double 3-pup trucks (UPS and FedX).
I passed by Red Butte, Clark Canyon Reservoir before coming to a mountain with spires near Grasshopper Creek. I didn't realize that the side of this mountain had a formation called Pipe Organ. As I neared the Highland Mountains (I thot they were the Pioneer Mountains) I did see in the distance the Humbug Spires. They are quite interesting and would be fun to get up a little closer with the impressive outcroppings of quartz monzonite, part of the Boulder Batholith, that rise 300 to 600 feet. I did my usual stop at the Rest Area just southwest of Butte and the I-90.
The weather started turning as I headed west on the I-90. It became overcast especially as I rolled nearer Anaconda and Deer Lodge. I did manage to get several pictures of the Smelter Stack, the tallest surviving masonry structure in the world. Once again, there were various mountain ranges in all directions, some still with snow. I finally made it to Missoula where I stopped at Costco for fuel before heading north on Highway 93.
The weather gradually improved and was actually pretty toasty when I got out at Allard's (St Ignatius) for my "huckleberry" stop. I had my first dish of huckleberry soft-serve ice cream and while it was good, regular huckleberry ice cream with bits of huckleberry is much better. While I was wandering around I found more huckleberry stuff to buy. They have the best huckleberry taffy.
I finally made my way into Polson at the south end of Flathead Lake and drove the last fourteen miles to my friend's house at Big Arm on the west side of Flathead Lake. If you'd like to take the drive with me, here are the three videos and once again, I tried my best to identify the landscape:
[ youtube video ] Idaho Falls to Clark Canyon Reservoir
[ youtube video ] Clark Canyon Reservoir to I-15 Rest Area southwest of Butte and I-90
[ youtube video ] Montana I-90 west to Missoula and 93 north |
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Wildflowers Observation Isolated
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For me, sometimes it's just as much about the journey as the destination.
Oh, and once in awhile, don't forget to look back at the trail you've traveled. |
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! I continued my walk to the bridge that crosses the river. I saw that they have a Snake River ferry which appears to be some sort of house boat. Doesn't look like it really goes too far but I didn't check out the official route. I turned around in the middle of the bridge and headed back. This time I heard some music with surprising lyrics to my ears. I continued south back to the river. I noticed the moon and US flag in the distance but it wasn't lined up quite right to get a great picture. I headed up the embankment to the bridge that crosses the little canal. There are various of these little walkway bridges that take you to the hotels on this side. I stopped and listened to the jazz for a while before heading onward. It was such a pleasure to enjoy; I haven't been around that kind of music in a while.
for me and my neighbors. I had planned a little hike in Flagstaff but the weather was menacing so I continued on; south of Flagstaff I hit that long delay on the freeway and finally arrived home in the late afternoon. My total trip was around 3400 driving miles from July 5-30, but a week of that I did no driving as I was at the ranch and we always took cousin Connie's pickup to toodle around.
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