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I’ve always had the best intentions in the past for blogging about our trips, complete with descriptions and photos of some of what we have seen and done. Unfortunately, with the seeing and doing, the blogging can’t keep up, I get further and further behind and end up not sharing all that I had hoped to share.
I think on our next trip that I’ll take a different approach. During the trip I’ll record what we do and see using the camera, a handwritten journal, and brochures from places we visit.
Blog posts will be developed sequentially from the journal entries and photos at some point when I have the time to sit down and write. Sometimes a single day of our exploring, doing and seeing may play out over several daily blog posts.
Hopefully this will give me a plan for better sharing of our future trips. I do intend to continue posting and sharing material from past trips that I have not yet shared or which has become “lost” over the years.
With my current employment situation, we won’t be doing as much traveling this year as we have in previous years, so my opportunities for trying this plan are going to be slim.
The photos on this post are from a 2007 weekend trip to Dallas, Texas.
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Yankee Fork Historic District, Idaho, July 28, 2010.
Bonanza City, laid out in 1877, was the Yankee Fork’s first mining camp, with pack trails converging from Ketchum, Stanley, Loon Creek and Challis. At its peak, Bonanza had over 600 residents, a rectangular grid of streets, and provided city services such as community wells.
An underground water system piped water for drinking and fire protection throughout the town. Despite this foresight, fires in 1889 and 1897 devastated portions of Bonanza. The loss of business due to the fires and the increased activity at Custer encouraged many to relocate. Today little is left of Bonanza with the exception of a few buildings and the Forest Service Guard Station constructed by the Civilian Conservation Corps in 1934.
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Yankee Fork Historic District, July 28, 2010
The Bonanza Cemetery provides an example of the many ethnic groups attracted to the Yankee Fork. Despite the harsh living conditions, the promise of good times and prosperity brought immigrants from many countries. Cornish people, referred to as “cousin jacks,” worked for the English owners of the Custer mine. Austrian crews built roads and many Italians lived at Bayhorse. The Custer County census of 1890 indicates sizable populations of Canadian, German, English, Irish, Italian, and Swedish residents. The largest single ethnic group found in the Yankee Fork Mining District came from China. Though prejudice kept the Chinese from working at most mines, they worked unwanted placer claims, operated laundries, or worked as cooks…. most Chinese initially buried here were later disinterred by relatives and friends and returned to their homeland.
from sign at cemetery
Sego Lily, Calochortus nuttallii, the state flower of Utah.
Insect getting nectar from wild rose.
Lizzie and Richard King lived in Bonanza where Richard worked in real estate. A heated argument with a business partner left Richard dead and Lizzie alone.
Lizzie and close friend Charles Franklin purchased the gravesite for Richard and two more next to it, presumably for themselves. Soon, Charles and Lizzie began courting and a wedding seemed eminent.
To everyone’s surprise, Lizzie married Robert Hawthorne, a newcomer to Bonanza. Six days later, both were found shot to death. Soon after, Franklin left the area for a secluded cabin near Stanley where, years later, he was discovered dead. Clutched in his hand was a locket which held the picture of Lizzie King.
Due to the mysterious circumstances surrounding the death of Lizzie King, Bonanza residents chose to bury their loved ones elsewhere, leaving Lizzie and her husbands alone on Boothill.
from sign on Boothill
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July 27, 2009 – Stanley, Idaho
Stanley is in the Salmon River Valley, quite near the Sawtooth Mountains. These photos were all in the evening after supper.
Sandhill cranes, between the campground and Stanley.
Large flock of sheep not too far from the cranes:
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On July 26, we moved from Arco, Idaho to Bull Trout Campground, about 26 miles down the road west of Stanley. The campground is next to two lakes, Bull Trout Lake and Martin Lake. Our campsite was in the newer section of the campground and was just a short walk from the smaller of the two lakes.
We didn’t get over to the larger lake – Bull Trout – other than driving the loops to see what the other campsites looked like. We walked the short distance to Martin Lake and hiked all the way around it.
The campground was 1.9 miles down a very dry dirt road whose surface was like powder. Fortunately, it rained that night. The rain washed the worst of the dust off the car and there was very little road dust for the rest of our stay.
The campground elevation is 6900 ft in a mixed growth forest of Douglas fir and lodgepole pine. Wildflowers are plentiful.
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July 25, 2010, Arco, Idaho
After a day trip with crystal clear skies for most of the day, it turned cloudy and very blustery as we were getting back to the campground. 
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photos – July 25, 2010
Located in the central section of the Lost River Range, Borah Peak (aka Mt. Borah) is the highest mountain in Idaho.
On Friday, October 28, 1983, a magnitude 6.9 earthquake centered near the base of the mountain lifted Borah Peak about a foot, while the Lost River Valley floor dropped up to 7.5 feet in places. It also resulted in a 20-mile scarp along the base of the Lost River Range and sand boils near Chilly Butte and the Lost River and Pahsimeroi valleys. Two elementary school students were killed in Challis.
The scarp – highlighted in blue – resulting from the quake can still be seen 27 years later. The red line highlights a dirt “road.” The above image was cropped from the photo below.
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Pioneer Mountains, Idaho, July 25, 2010 –
While it’s nice to find a picnic table, when we’re traveling, we can picnic in places that don’t have tables. We were going to picnic at Wildhorse Campground, but the flies and other bugs were just too annoying.
We had driven all morning on dirt roads and it shows on our black 2004 Honda CRV. I took the car to a car wash several times on this trip.
Below – Wildhorse Creek and Pioneer Mountains.
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September 15, 2009 – Mesa Verde National Park, Colorado
On our last full day in Colorado, we toured the six-mile Mesa Top Loop Drive, visiting most of the archeological exhibits and overlooks.
Square Tower House cliff dwelling is named for the four-story-high structure standing against the curved back wall of the alcove. About 60 of the original 80 rooms of Square Tower House remain.
All of the cliff dwellings, including Square Tower House, were part of the final Mesa Verde building phase. People lived here between AD 1200 and 1300.
Small lizard on a ruin wall
After spending the morning among the ruins, we took a drive in the afternoon. At one point, we found ourselves on open range, with the road blocked by a herd of horses. As I very slowly eased the car forward, the horses parted and let us through.
image and information from September 15, 2009
This post is being simultaneously published on Exit78 and Haw Creek Out ‘n About
Pithouse – For thousands of years, native peoples were living in the surrounding areas before coming to Mesa Verde. As with people all over the Southwest, Ancestral Puebloans lived in modest dwellings — shallow pits dug into the ground, covered with pole and mud roofs and walls, with entrances through the roofs.
In this excavation (above), what appears to be one pithouse is actually two. The larger one, built first, around AD 700, was destroyed by fire. The smaller one, which looks like an antechamber to a larger room, is actually a second pithouse built soon after the first one burned. It contains a new feature, a verticle ventilator shaft in one side, which appears in pithouses from then on — innovation!
Above is an Ancestral Puebloan kiva – an undeground religious room. The small circular hole in the floor is a sipapu, a symbolic entrance into the underworld – the Pueblo place of origin. This early kiva design was continued in the Mesa Verde villages and cliff dwellings.
Many fires have swept across Mesa Verde over time. Recent fires have exposed previously undiscovered Puebloan sites.
At our campsite on our final afternoon in
Colorado, 2009.
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