Author: David Moss

GrandTeton offered some beautiful views and reflections. The weather cooperated to an extent, giving some sun before the rain arrived.

We arrived in Yellowstone in May of 2023. There was a lot of snow, especially on the mountains. Some of the smaller roads were still closed due to snow. While at the park, we also attended a photography course which concentrated on the Nikon DSLR cameras.

We spent several days in Jerome and Twin Falls, Idaho. We visited the Snake River overview, the University Museum and Planetarium, and Shoshone Falls.

Shoshone Falls

While viewing the Falls, we were told that this is considered the Niagara Falls of the west. When the Snake River is at capacity, the falls cover the entire rock face.

We are staying in Baker City. Founded in 1866, the City was named after U.S. Senator Edward Baker, the only sitting Senator to die in a battle, during the civil war in 1861.

Part of the rock collection under black light in the museum

Portion of the flying insect display at the museum

Sumpter is in Baker County, Oregon. Founded in 1889, Sumpter was a gold mining town. A narrow gauge railroad was built to bring supplies to the town. Sumpter is home to one of the largest floating gold dredges in the United States.

We are currently in Baker City, Oregon. We drove on the Hell’s Canyon Scenic Byway to the end of the road at Hell’s Canyon Dam. The canyon is the deepest gorge in North America. The original inhabitants of the Canyon was the Nez Perce tribe who were hunter-gathers. The Canyon was formed by the Snake River. Dams were placed on the river for power generation.

We visited Chloride, Arizona, along with our friend Jay, which is an old mining town founded in 1863. It is in Mojave County, Arizona about 23 miles north of Kingman, Arizona on the Hualapai Reservation. It is still inhabited by about 200 people. Silver, gold and lead were mined here. The town is old and aside from some of the older buildings, it was very small. We went to the murals painted on the rocks about 3 miles out of town and we eventually drove on a four-wheel- drive road to look for a water fall. We drove through several small streams but we could not find the water fall.

Tuzigoot is outside Clarkdale, Arizona near Sedona. It was built between 1000 and 1400. In some places it is two stories tall and has about 87 rooms. It is located on a ridge about 120 feet high overlooking the Verde Valley.

We are currently at the Distant Drums RV Resort in Camp Verde near Sedona, Arizona. The RV park is owned and operated by the Yavapai-Apache Nations, and is rated as one of the top RV parks in Arizona. Today we visited two National Monument; Montezuma Well National Monument and Montezuma’s Castle National Monument.

Montezuma Well

Montezuma’s Castle

We are back on the road again. We spent a wonderful Christmas with Barbara and Joel. We arrived in Holbrook yesterday with the intent of going to the Petrified Forest today, but snow changed our plans. We are staying one additional day due to a snow storm in Flag Staff. Today we went to the Navajo Museum in Holbrook. Tomorrow we will go to the forest and on Wednesday we will go to Sedona to visit our cousins Rick and Jason.