8-16-09 Cow Train

8-16-09 Cow Train
Originally uploaded by roswellsgirl

Today we drove home. The wonderful thing about driving home is realizing that we live in a place that is pretty wonderful too. I love to travel and see new things but I am so thankful to have such beauty close to home. We stopped in Pashastin, Wa a little town in the Cascades. The farm stand was just brimming with colorful fruits and vegetables. Thought this little Cow Train and Barn was worth a photo.

8-15-09 Sun Setting on Tea Pot

8-15-09 Sun Setting on Tea Pot
Originally uploaded by roswellsgirl

A bit of Americana for my photo today. This little gas station in Zillah, Washington was built during the TeaPot Dome Scandal of the 1920s. Currently, it is not being used as a gas station. The price on the pumps reads $1.76 so it has been a while. Although we did lots of driving today, I did have some interesting photos to choose from today. We started our morning in Boise. Boise is a neat little capital city, but the reason Erik likes to go there is that it is the closest place with either a Texas Roadhouse or a Sierra Trading Post. We spent time at both. Erik says that the drive through the North East corner of Oregon is boring, but I don't think so. The blue mountains are beatiful with the stark landscape and the sky that goes forever. We spotted a train carrying fuselages of air planes. I took some photos, but didn't really get a good shot. It was really interesting to see plane parts being carried by train. We also stopped at the Pendelton Mills in Pendelton hoping for a goot photo. (We have been there before for an interesting tour of the mill.) The real attraction here was a huge Great Dane named Beat who was traveling with his people from coast to coast. Beat was impressive, but no where near as cute as Roswell. We then headed up into Washington to Yakima. This part of Washington is known for fruit orchards and vineyards. We enjoyed a beautiful sunset as we rolled into Yakima for the evening.

8-14-09 Idaho Farmland

8-14-09 Idaho Farmland
Originally uploaded by roswellsgirl

Since we still had 3 days before we needed to return home, Erik suggested that we head to Boise today. This journey would not be on any planned route home, In fact, it is adding about 900 miles to the trip. But, we had never been in the Eastern part of Idaho and we like Boise, so we decided to go. 640 miles of canyons, rolling hills, farm land, and snaking rivers. Lots of driving and not much stopping. We traveled in the footsteps of Lewis and Clark and the Oregon Trail Pioneers. All of my photos today were shot out of the window of the car as we traveled past at 70 miles an hour. Not the best day for photography, but we did see lots of beautiful country.

8-13-09 Montana Wildflowers

8-13-09 Montana Wildflowers
Originally uploaded by roswellsgirl

Today we left the beautiful Canadian Rockies and headed out on another adventure. Today was all about rolling plains, fields of wheat, Native American communities and watching stormy skies. We passed by the East side of Glacier National Park. Soon after our last visit to Glacier, they had huge forest fires. Sadly, the effects of those fires is still really evident. But new growth is starting to emerge in the form of colorful wildflowers. Lots of beautiful wildflowers and the vastness of the big Montana sky graced us as we drove to Great Falls, Montana.

8-12-09 Banff Reflections

8-12-09 Banff Reflections
Originally uploaded by roswellsgirl

Our last day in this majestic area. We traveled up the Ice Field Parkway to Jasper National Park stopping to hike to amazingly blue lakes along the way. Throughout the day, we watched the sky do amazing things as the clouds would roll in and out. At the Athabasca Glacier, we waited out a down pour of rain. When the rain had ended, the scenes were spectacular as the sun and mountains started to peak through. We were in the puffy white clouds at the tops of the mountains. We hiked to the edge of the glacier. This is a longer hike each year as the glacier continues to recede. We stopped in Banff for dinner before heading to our hotel in Canmore. We took one more drive out to Vermillion Lakes and were treated to this beautiful reflection.

8-11-09 Urban Landscape

8-11-09 Urban Landscape
Originally uploaded by roswellsgirl

We left the amazing Banff landscape and headed to the urban landscape of Calgary for the day. We chose to explore Calgary today because it was supposed to rain in the mountains today. We drove from the mountains to the prairie to the surprisingly big city of Calgary. We stopped at the Canadian Olympic Center. This was the home of the 1988 Calgary Winter Olympics. Lots of daredevil things to do there like roll down the hill in a giant hamster ball or take a Ski lift up to the top of the mountain and ride your bike down. We decided to stop on the West side and took the C-Train into town so that we could explore the city. This urban landscape doesn’t hold a candle to the amazing beauty we have seen the past few days in the Canadian Rockies, but we enjoyed a nice day of exploring a new city.

8-10-09 Moraine Lake

8-10-09 Moraine Lake
Originally uploaded by roswellsgirl

This morning we explored two beautiful alpine lakes. The first was Moraine Lake. Absolutely stunning blue, surrounded by mighty mountains. We enjoyed a beautiful walk around the lake. We then headed to one of the most photographed lakes in the world. Lake Louise. Lots of people, but again, absolutely stunning. We then headed to Radium Hot Springs in Kootenay National Park. The drive was beautiful. At one point, we were warned that there were wolves on the road and not to stop. We didn't see any wolves, but we did see a moose. On the way back, we drove the Old Bow River Parkway. We saw an ospreys on their nest above a bridge. Again tonight, the sky was incredible and the evening light lit up the massive mountains was awe inspiring.

8-9-09 Early Evening Light

8-9-09 Early Evening Light
Originally uploaded by roswellsgirl

Beautiful day in Banff today. We started off by taking the Minnewanka Loop. The lakes were beautiful this morning with the reflection of the mountains in the water. We saw big horn sheep and mountain goats along the way. We then explored the beautiful, yet crowded and touristy town of Banff. Although I have seen photos of the Banff Springs Hotel many times. I still gasped at my first glance of this massive inn. We took a walk in the evening up to a lookout to take photos of the Inn. It was impossible to take it in up close. With rain threatening we ended our day with a drive around Vermillion Lakes. There was a mixture of blue sky and puffy clouds and looming gray clouds. The late afternoon light illuminated the mountains in the distance. Great day. We are so thankful to get to spend time in this very beautiful part of the world.

8-7-09 Church at Spencer's Bridge

8-7-09 Church at Spencer's Bridge
Originally uploaded by roswellsgirl

Beautiful drive from Mount Vernon to Kamloops today. We passed through amazing, grandeur and diverse country. Not a boring, mundane place on the route. A man at a restaurant in Hope suggested we take old highway 1 up to Kamloops. This road follows the Frasier and Thomson Rivers winding through gorges and blasting through tunnels. This is the gold mining route and along the way we past several little historic towns. Hard to believe that Yale, BC was once the largest city West of Chicago and North of San Francisco. If you blinked now, you would miss it. We saw lots of old wooden churches that I am sure have many stories to tell. At one point, we were surprized by 4 big horn sheep grazing on the side of the road. My photos aren't as nice as I would have liked due to the haziness caused by the nearby forest fires. We did seem flames, but we did see the helicopters with the big buckets for water. We were surprised at how hot it is in Kamloops. Erik realized he forgot his fleece, which he will need in Banff. We went to a store to find him a fleece. When we asked where they might be, the lady looked at us like we were crazy. Why would we possibly need a jacket in weather like this? (we found a jacket on clearance)