Our First Day On Our Long Drive Back To Iowa

Thursday 10/11/2012

We said goodbye to Lake Coeur d' Alene and headed east on I-90. There was so much we wanted to see in Idaho, but the weather was turning colder, and we needed to get to Iowa before we headed south again.

We crossed the 4th Of July Pass at 3,069 ft with a 5% downgrade for 2 miles.

We entered the Rocky Mountains in Idaho.

As we went through Kellogg, ID we saw these happy faces!

Kellogg is at 2300 ft and in the panhandle or chimney of Idaho.

As we left Kellogg we saw our first fall colors. We knew we were missing fall back in Iowa.

The drive across the panhandle/ chimney of Idaho took a little over a hour.

Just before we cross the border, we climbed again to Lookout Pass in the Coeur d' Alene Mountains of the Bitteroot Range of the Rocky Mountains.

At Lookout Pass we were at 4,710 feet above sea level as we entered into Montana.

What goes up must go down.

And down, down, down we went.

 

Signs stated trucks were to stay at speeds of 25-30 MPH.

We finally were nearing the end of the long haul down the pass.

Because of the drought the evergreens had lots of color with many greenish yellow colors mixed with darker green.



At the bottom of Lookout Pass is a rest stop.

We stopped for lunch.

I found this flyer inside the rest stop.

It looked like a nice home for the price, but it didn't have a lake view.

We continued on I-90 in Montana.

We finally came to a flat area of the interstate.

The evergreen started to come and go at this point.

We followed the Clark Fork River along I-90. The river runs through Montana and Idaho.

Less evergreens,

more evergreens,

sparse evergreens again.

Clark Fork River

As we got close to Missoula, Montana, the trees were gone. The forest fire haze came and went also along our drive, but Missoula seemed to be pretty thick.

Just west of Missoula we stopped at the Crossroads Travel Center for the night.

We found a spot between empty semi-trailers. Do we look out of place or not?



It was very quite that night.

Just east from the truck stop, we could see Missoula, Montana.

View north of the truck stop.

I-90 going east, the interstate we took the next day.

View out our front window as the sun set that night.

Our day drive was only 134 miles, but it was full of mountain passes and curves.



Goodnight Missoula.

 

Tubbs Hill, Coeur d' Alene, ID

                               Thursday 10/10/2012

After our cruise on Lake Coeur d' Alene, we went home for lunch and then drove back to  the downtown with Mallery. Mallery was not welcome on the cruise, but she was welcome at Tubbs Hill.

Mudgy and Millie were at the trail head of Tubb's Hill.

We wanted to walk the center trail of Tubbs Hill to the highest elevation and get the best views. We started on the trail, but it got very narrow, and had several splits. The trail was unclear, and looked like people had made their own trails. We decided to stick with the main trail around Tubbs Hill.

View of Coeurd' Alene Resort from Tubbs Hill.

Joe standing on one of the cliffs above the lake.

The main Tubbs Hill trail skirts the outside of the hill in a loop.

There are clear markings keeping you on the right track of the main trail.

Beautiful views of the lake on the west side.

This view shows the only island on the lake.

#13 is the halfway point.

The last view to the west as the trail turned northeast.

It was a beautiful day for some good exercise.

The east side of Tubbs Hill gives you a view of homes along the lakes east shores.

The trail took us across a swinging bridge. I had to carry Mallery across it, because she would have nothing to do with it.

How do you like Joe's new shirt. Our friend Lynn that we ran into at Lake Moses, gave Joe this shirt. Her husband Doug, lost so much weight and was too big for him now. It was like a brand new shirt.

There are two entrances onto the trail. Be sure to know which entrance you start at, so you know which direction to go at this point.

We reached a high elevation on the east side, with views inland. The last1/2 mile was down hill and my left knee was causing me a lot of pain. I told Joe he was going to have to slow the pace so I could soften the pounding on my knee. Joe had been keeping a fast pace, so we would get back to the parking lot before the 2 free hour parking was up.

We got back to the parking lot before the two hours were up. Joe saved us a few dollars.

After getting to our car, I had Joe drive to the downtown area, a few blocks away.

We never had time to stroll the quaint shopping area. Coeur d' Alene has done a superb job at making the downtown and surrounding area neat, clean and a small hometown feel.

I took this picture of the mural that is on a downtown building wall, before we headed home.