Travelogue 2022

2022 Travelogue

In September of 2022 I decided to continue a trip I had started in 2019, but had to cut short due to a loss in my family. I started off in the last third of September, which was kind of late for a lot of things. If you live in Southern California, you tend to forget that the rest of country might have seasons and things shut down.

Anyway my first destination was Merced to see the Merced National Wildlife Refuge:

http://ikemi.info/Graphics2022/MercedNWR2022/index.htm

After staying the night in Merced. Learned that Refuges were built to lure migrating birds away from farmland. Capitalism can sometimes lead to good things. 

Then it was on to revisit the Sacramento NWR

http://ikemi.info/Graphics2022/Sacramento2022/index.htm

Kind of dry, but still some birds to see. Camped at the Mt. Shasta KOA where it was very cold and they thought I was nuts to sleep in a tent. Continuing on the next day to Klamath Basin NWR, it was totally dry and almost no birds to see. 

http://ikemi.info/Graphics2022/Klamath2022/index.htm

Better luck at the Lava Beds National Monument where I did a lot of walking:

http://ikemi.info/Graphics2022/LavaBeds2022/index.htm

On to a motel in Salem and the next day it was a revisit to the Evergreen Aviation and Space Museum. Kind of a shock to see a water slide coming out of a jet airliner.

http://ikemi.info/Graphics2022/Evergreen2022/index.htm

http://ikemi.info/Graphics2022/EvergreenSpace2022/index.htm

This time the price for visiting the cockpit of the Spruce Goose had dropped to $30 and I was richer so I went for it:

http://ikemi.info/Graphics2022/SpruceGoose2022/index.htm

I camped at the Mt. St. Helens KOA. I went to one of the first visitor centers, but didn’t drive all the way up. The video feed was good enough for me. 

Made it up to Seattle to see the hugely expanded Museum of Flight:

http://ikemi.info/Graphics2022/MuseumofFlight2022_2/index.htm

http://ikemi.info/Graphics2022/MuseumofFlight2022/index.htm

Could have spent another day there.

Stayed at a motel in town. The next day I drove over to see the Wing Luke Museum

http://ikemi.info/Graphics2022/WingLuke2022/index.htm

And took the walking tour of the area. After that made it to the Seattle Asian Art Museum:

http://ikemi.info/Graphics2022/AsianArt2022/index.htm

Stayed the night in a Wenatchee motel.

The next leg was to my reason for the trip, Glacier National Park. Camped for 2 nights in the huge Glacier campground. Since it was late in the season no reservations were required to drive into Glacier, but it was almost bumper to bumper in some places. 

http://ikemi.info/Graphics2022/Glacier2022/index.htm

Definitely a fantastic place. Sad that the only glacier I could see was via my 400mm zoom lens on my MFT format camera, for an effective focal length of 800 mm if it were a 35mm format camera. The world is definitely getting warmer. To go hiking, the rangers told me to buy bear spray, which is kind of the opposite for parks in CA where you cannot carry bear spray. I bought a used can to be a good guy.

On the retreat from Glacier I visited U of  Idaho Arboretum and Botanical Gardens:

http://ikemi.info/Graphics2022/UIdArboretum2022/index.htm

And spent the night in Clarkston. Then it was on to the Idaho State Museum in Boise:

http://ikemi.info/Graphics2022/IdahoMuseum2022/index.htm

Stayed the night in a Boise motel.

The next day I visited the Idaho Botanical Garden. I was puzzled at first but the nice lady who sold me my entrance ticket assured me that there was a garden around the corner. Indeed, there is a large and interesting garden that I enjoyed walking through:

http://ikemi.info/Graphics2022/IdahoBotanical2022/index.htm

The same lady advised that I also should see the Sawtooth Botanical Garden in Ketchum. Just the drive up there was worth it, but the small garden is nice with a large Tibetan Prayer Wheel blessed by the Dalai Lama. 

http://ikemi.info/Graphics2022/SawtoothBotanical2022/index.htm

I descended back down to the KOA near Twin Falls. The Snake River runs through a gorge outside of town that should be a National Park:

http://ikemi.info/Graphics2022/Perrine2022/index.htm

The next morning I visited the Minidoka National Historic Site. This late in the season the visitor center was closed but I walked most of the history path:

http://ikemi.info/Graphics2022/Minidoka2022/index.htm

Next stop was Craters of the Moon where I did a lot of walking, getting kind of to the area where the astronauts practiced:

http://ikemi.info/Graphics2022/CratersoftheMoon2022/index.htm

While driving to Idaho Falls and my motel I noticed EBR-1, which was already closed for the season, but gave me ideas for my next trip.

Early the next morning I walked over to the Japanese Friendship Garden:

http://ikemi.info/Graphics2022/IdahoFalls2022/index.htm

This whole area along the river is very scenic.

While driving I chanced upon a rest stop called Hell’s Half Acre. There is a trail that goes around a mini version of Craters of the Moon. Definitely a lucky stop.

http://ikemi.info/Graphics2022/HalfAcre2022/index.htm

My goal for the day was the Golden Spike Historical Park. I got there just as the re-enactment of the historical moment was ending. The locomotives stayed there for most of the day and I was able to see them leave and return to their barns. 

http://ikemi.info/Graphics2022/GoldenSpike2022/index.htm

Camped at the KOA near Brigham City. It was Sunday so EVERYTHING in this part of the world was closed. The next day I visited the Bear River Migratory Refuge but the visitor center closes on Mondays. Did walk the trails, but the place was hurting for water. Bear River is the major source of water for the Great Salt Lake. 

http://ikemi.info/Graphics2022/BearRiver2022/index.htm

From there I drove to the Topaz Museum in Delta Utah. This museum (https://topazmuseum.org/) was founded in the town of Delta UT to preserve the history of the Topaz camp. I have to give Delta some credit for this effort. 

Topaz Museum Home

I drove out to the site of the camp where there is a monument but little left standing of the camp itself. Stayed the night in Beaver, UT. Wanted to make one last stop before I went home and found on Google the Clark County Wetlands:

http://ikemi.info/Graphics2022/WetLandsPark2022/index.htm

There is a very nice visitor center and lots of hiking trails. All of the waste water from Las Vegas gets processed through there to create the wetlands, before being returned to Nature (Lake Mead). Heat there if you need some nature in Vegas!

Tags: Museums, Travel