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Bob & Cindy's 2012 Travel Web Site
Helena, Montana to Ridgway, CO
After leaving Glacier NP on Labor Day, we worked our way down to Helena for a quick restock (Costco) and then headed down to
Island Park, Idaho to visit wonderful friends (and superb hosts), Larry and Gay Wood (from Austin). After a lot of laughs, food,
and drink (+ Gay's wonderful spicy green salsa), we went on down to Teton Canyon CG on the back side of the Teton's for some hiking
and reading. The smoke was still very thick throughout all of this time from the fires in Idaho and the picture taking
was worthless. We went into Jackson, WY for shopping and to get the oil changed in the truck. From there we tried to escape
the smoke by going on down to Grand Junction where we still had smoke, then on down to Ridgway, CO where we still had the smoke (rats!),
but we finally had a system come through that blew it all away (finally!!).
I mentioned smoke, here is a picture from the top of Teton Pass overlooking Jackson, WY. The valley is full of smoke from the
Idaho fires and also from a fire that was just 5 miles south of Jackson. Visibility did get better as it got later in the day.
Our hike on the Alaska Basin trail. Haze in the air and dryness from a very long drought that has contributed to the fires.
Classic picture of the Tetons in Grand Teton NP. Very little snow and also evidence of the dry conditions. It may be dry
but it's still a beautiful sight.
Our camping spot in Teton Campground, no hookups but we are pretty good at this dry camping thing (solar panel, TV, plenty of water).
Not exactly roughing it but very relaxing.
Smoke from the fire that was just over the ridge in Jackson, WY. The firefighters had a pretty good handle on this by the time
this picture was taken but it took another 5 days to get it mostly out.
From our campground at Ridgway, Colorado. The San Juan Mountains make a great backdrop. Nice to finally have some cooler
weather and some rain and snow to make the mountains stand out.
We hit it lucky on the aspens turning. Because of the dry weather, the "season" is 3 weeks early this year .. we are usually
way too early for that. So we decided to drive up to Owl Creek Pass.
It was a cloudy day but still beautiful, this is up close to the pass.
Loved driving through all this country.
More color on the mountains, some other aspens have not turned.
From the ridge of the campground overlooking the town of Ridgway. We went down to town to go to the farmers market to stock
up on some fresh produce.
The weekends on the side roads were busy but no traffic at all on the weekdays. Nice to have the place to ourselves.
Just before leaving Ridgway we went over to Telluride and saw some more wonderful country. Go to the next page to view some
of those pictures (with some more off road stuff that led to some come back places).
