Washington State to 21 November 2010

Our last week in USA was travelling westward through Washington State after leaving Coeur d'Alene in Idaho.

Spokane in eastern Washington was travelled through at high speed on Interstate 90.

Made easier by an unobstructed thoroughfare where local roads were carried on over bridges.  We were happy to pass through.

Washington is a state of extremes of country from the dry prairie...

...irrigated pastures and ...

...crops on silt flats.

In the irrigated areas grain storage facilites are common.

Modern tractors and implements are a common sight.

All this agriculture, including orchards, is interspersed with arid grazing not unlike Central Otago, NZ.

Irrigation water is sourced from damed rivers such as the Columbia River shown here near Othello.

Bridge across the Columbia River.

There was still a small mountain pass to cross.  White Pass on Highway 12 on the way towards the westcoast and the Pacific ocean.

By the time were near the coast it was dark in the town of Aberdeen not far from our destination at the seaside town of Ocean Shores.

Ocean Shores was a good base to explore the Olympic National Park area on the Olympic Mountains.

A Lodge near the Quinault Rain Forest headquarters.

Rainforest.

Moss covered stream boulders.

Narrow roads led up valleys and around small lakes.

Rivers flow from the Olympic Mountains.

 Rivers are home to various birds such as the Bald Eagle.

 Even the phone booth has its own moss top at the the High Rain Forest Visiter Centre.

Small Elk herds roam the grassland enclaves on the edge of the forest.













Where the stag keeps a watchful eye out for competitors.

The coast was rugged in places.

Located on flats and easy downs bewteen the park and the coast is a series of plantation forests.  Here a logging machine is operating, stripping side branches and cutting the log into specifies lengths before stacking.

An old iron bridge near Oak Harbor, north of Seattle, is a holiday and recreation area on the harbor. (American spelling of "Harbor")

Interstate 5 North to Vancouver.  We are heading home via Vancouver.

Montana - Idaho November 2010

Travelling through Montana and Idaho was a relocation day as part of travelling west to the Pacific coast.  From the north of Yellowstone NP in Wyoming to Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, on the border with Washington State. We stayed at Bozeman in Montana, just north of Yellowstone, on Interstate 90, thereafter following the highway as the only clear route through the Rockies. 

North from Yellowstone NP.  Easy rolling  extensive grazing land.

Soon changes to wilderness for much of the area as we move into National Forest land.

With occasional towns and good eating houses.

However the mountain passes are not very high at 4726 feet (1440m) compared with other passes.
Frequent warnings for trucks seemed to have little effect on their continued operation.

A great welcome!  In the D'Alene Mountains about an hour from our stop for the night at Coeur d'Alene.

Wyoming November 2010

Wyoming was the route west towards Yellowsone via Cody, the wild west town named after William Cody better known as Buffalo Bill.  Leaving from Rapid City in South Dakota travel was almost due west across northern Wyoming.

Much of the land was flat to rolling generally under extensive farming systems.

With a lot of saved hay for winter feeding.

Livestock generally appeared closer to winter feeding areas being close at hand when the snow arrives.

There was even a lot of quality fencing particularly along the roadsides.

On dry shallow and rocky soils conifer trees appear as scattered copse' of Pinus Ponderosa in grazing land.

The winter conditions not far away and the feedlot with its hay will become attractive to these cattle.

A few early arrivals at the hay.

In the distance Devils Tower, on highway 24 , NE Wyoming.

There was a real slow down of tourist activity at this store and cafe close to the Devils Tower.  Here we met a couple who had a cabin on a small block nearby and his neighbour had just taken photos of a couger in the area.

The Devils Tower, a core of hard rock where the softer rock has been eroded.  Now a rock climbing mecca.

The way west towards Cody.

It was not all farming.  Here electricity generation fueled by coal and also shipping coal out by rail.

A coal extraction trench across the highway.

Highway 16 traveses the Big Horn Mountains at nearly 10,000 feet (approx 3,000m)

Some signage may have made the road appear quite tortuous but it was just a normal mountain road.

With some spectacular rock formations.

It was not long before the landscape opened out to more ranching.

Irrigation and the production of winter feed is critical in a high dry land.  Here irrigation enables high forage production on small areas, mostly alfalfa (lucerne).

Yes the town was named Ten Sleep.

The fencers probably needed ten sleeps after erecting the huge lengths of fencing needed in rather poor grazing.

Then within a short distance intensive pasture or...

crop.

Not many of these fellows.  Take you pick of horn style.  Here a "double twist" and in the backgound the "back hook", better as a wolf tosser.

Cody is all about "Buffalo Bill".  This was an excellent museum about the history of the district.

A character depicted larger than life.

His highly ornated saddle.

Plenty of space in the main street.

After two days at Cody we head west again toward the northern road across Yellowstone NP.

A few locals we met along the way.

Typical conditions near Cooke City (village) on entering the NP.

Streams were starting to freeze up.

A mob of wild Elk had gathered at Mammoth Hot Springs in the NP just below the northern entrance.

Christmas is near as we leave the park and ...

...leave the Bison to his winter abode.