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.