Month: August 2014

Salmon Idaho is an eclectic little town. It caters to summer tourists wanting to play on the Salmon river, bikers riding through to destinations unknown that need to inebriate at the many downtown bars, and old guys like me that like to walk around and take pictures. Speaking of that, 67 photos of Salmon are awaiting your click below.

I do the heavy lifting and take the fall, so you don’t have to. Got some time?

This old Lewis and Clark indian guide chick sure is popular around here. She gets a road named after her, the motel I’m staying in is the Sacajawea Inn and the great fish sandwich I just ate from the Savage Grill had her image plastered all over the inside. You would think this little town of Salmon, ID I’m in would have her name instead.

I chose to make this my destination today because I’ve never been here before and my employer Trpta has service here. They inherited this location along with Driggs and Rexburg when they took over from Cart many moons ago. Man I thought Driggs was a ways out but this is 160 miles from the office in Idaho Falls! There was nobody home there when I dropped by but I’ll try later as I mosey uptown to check things out.

I showed up at Green Canyon Hot Springs this morning right at 1000 and the noise of screaming kids coming from inside hit me out in the parking lot. The large indoors pool was crazy with swimming classes, parents and instructors.

I found some staff guy and tried to give him my money so I could go soak in the hot pool out back but he said the place wasn’t open to the general public until 1200. Really? I remember seeing something about summer swim classes on their website, but…

I was committed to this project today so I pushed my way back out the door through screaming nubiles and nubins and drove down to Rexburg where I had lunch at LeArbey and did some shopping at Walmarche.

When I finally dropped into their hot pool at 1200 I had it to myself and as I placed my foot in the water I thought, now we’re talking. The water temp at Norris is 100° at best. The highest we could legally get our hottub up to in Idaho was 104°. The staff told me later their pool temp was 110° but I’d say more like 106° with 115° coming out of the pipe at the bottom of the pool. I’ll have to bring a thermometer next time…

Here’s some more comparisons of Norris Hot Springs to our local Green Valley:

• Distance:

  Norris is 312 miles round-trip while Green Valley is 60.

• Non-hookup camping:

  Norris is $22 while Green Valley is $15 + $0.50 per person, although, since the latter is so close to home, why camp?

• Soak fee:

  Norris is $3 and Green Valley is $6 but I save $.50 there because I’m old.

• Pool size:

  Both are very similarly sized, actually. Norris is made of wood, this is not.

• Goodies:

  Norris has booze, food and live music on weekends while Green Valley has none.

I also have to say that with a 90° airtemp, a blazing sun and that hot water, I only lasted an hour. Here’s some photos of the drive today and a few shots of the facilities.

Some may wonder, me included, why I drive 156 miles to soak in a hot springs at Norris, MT when we have one right down the road. Green Canyon Hot Springs is 30 miles away!

I need to check this place out. I can drive there first thing for their 10:00 opening, soak for a while, and drive home wet. The senior rate is $5.50 and no camp fee.

The fun thing about having your own blog is making up words that will eventually show up in a Google search. Here’s a few miscellaneous shots from my last Missoula run.

Missoula on a Friday was happening last night. ZZ Top and Jeff Beck were rocking out and the Western Montana Fair was going on. So what did I do? Walk around and take pictures of buildings! So lame…

Anyway, if you’re into buildings, click the photo below.

My travel goal a while back was to drop into Old Town Butte, Montana and then land in Missoula. Today I completed that goal.

I left Norris early, grabbed coffee along the way and arrived in Butte just as the sun was doing it’s early morning magic on the great brickwork in Old Town. It’s a large historic area and I could have spent hours walking around but I had breakfast on my mind so I just grabbed a few shots and headed down the road.

Click the photo below to see some bricks…

I’m on the road again, heading north. Rain has been hammering our area for the last three days and I’m finally out of it. It seems like it’s becoming a tradition as I stopped at Norris Hot Springs today to soak and plan my next outing for tomorrow.

It’s $22 for the campsite and $3 for the soak. Meeting new friends, priceless! I was soaking in the cooler area when I overhead the phrase bluegrass floating across the water from the hot side. I floated on down and slowly integrated into the conversation of a couple of good old boys from Colorado.

I mentioned that I live right down the road from the Targhe Bluegrass festival (happening now) and the connection sparks started flying. Sam is a Bluegrass performer and former Drictor resident (5500 S), and knew the valley well.

The topic of hometowns came up and Sam mentioned he grew up in a small town in the South. As anyone following this blog knows, I drove Steph down to the South a couple of years ago to visit her daughter and grandson. I asked him what town he grew up in and as the same town rolled off his lips I knew I had just made a cosmic connection!

To further expand this connection, they live in Fort Collins, CO. I have not mentioned this publicly on my blog but my niece Tamara lived in Fort Collins and tragically lost her life there, a week ago today.

So, as I get older, my belief in the magic and mystery of the human connection continues to make me smile, and sometimes cry… To you Tami!

Here’s the good ol boys together: