I was in Montana yesterday -- found three along the Snake River. More details in a couple of days.Quote:
Originally Posted by Judy
Mark
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I was in Montana yesterday -- found three along the Snake River. More details in a couple of days.Quote:
Originally Posted by Judy
Mark
I don't know how big the ferry is (couldn't be much bigger than the one's described here), but there is a Ferry Crossing in Washington, Judy, that might be up your alley. In Eastern Washington, on the far upper Columbia on highway 21, there is a free crossing on the river between the main Columbia Basin and the Collville Reservation, called the Keller Ferry, and another between Gifford and Inchelium (from highway 25 to a local Collville Tribal road) called the Gifford Ferry. Both are free, so the next time you are up around the Collville Tribal Lands, check them out. The Columbia river being not increadibly wide, there shouldn't be a boat any bigger than perhaps a 6 car ferry (depending on traffic).
Cool...thanks, Brad. I've been up that way several times but I guess I've never gone the right way to find ferries. Might be worth a special roadtrip just for that. It's just such a quaint idea. They sound charming. Much more fun than the big behemoths which ply Puget Sound. Oh, not that these aren't fun as well but the smallness of those little ferries just appeals to me.
Mark, I'll look forward to those details!
Day 14! Day 14! Day14!
Just a little more encouragement to continue with your travelogue efforts.... (We're enjoying them!)
Bob
Day 14: Two nice things about staying near a city (in this case, Little Rock) are that there are plenty of moderately priced, slightly upscale places to stay, and that when you leave town in the morning, the rush hour traffic piles up on the opposite side of the median. In any event, today’s first stop is Crater of Diamonds State Park outside Murfreesboro, AR. This is the only diamond mine in the US, and may be the only one in the world that allows the general public to dig for and keep the precious stones. It also has the usual state park amenities such as hiking, camping and a nice little museum, but the draw here is digging. They routinely plow up the ground to aid in the search and will rent the casual visitor some simple implements, but make no mistake, this is work. Even though I arrive relatively early in the morning, there are already a few dozen people out in the field, and more arrive constantly. It’s clear that most of them are regulars and have brought serious digging and sifting tools, chairs, shade and water. Considering that the largest diamond found since this became a state park was 16 carats, and that a OOO (perfect) diamond was also found here, one can understand why. However, it all looks like much more work than I want to put in, and I doubt I’d find anything in the hour or two I could spare, I just watch for awhile, tour the museum and head out.
For the rest of the day, I work my way west on US‑70, basically following the Red River. I do make a small detour to go to Beaver’s Bend State Park north of Broken Bow, OK. This is just one more gem of a state park. It’s listed as a ‘resort park’ and lives up to its name. It seems to cater to canoeists, fishermen and wildlife watchers. I again get great advice at the visitor’s center and make use of their 2 mile nature trail that focuses on the trees of the region. The main thing I note, though, about traveling US‑70 in this area is that I’m back in the southwest and speed limits are back up to 65-70, and the towns are getting pretty far apart. Even so, I get to Waurika too late for the Chisholm Trail Museum which closed at 4:00, so the day ends when I pull in to Vernon, TX. Miles on the Dials: 505.8
Day 15: I’m now definitely back in the southwest, and things are drying out rapidly. I’m also starting to realize that I’ll be home shortly. I start the day with a stop at Caprocks State park just north of Quitaque, TX. This is badlands terrain, mainly set up for camping, horseback riding and fishing. I set off for a hike back up into some canyons on a well marked trail and just enjoy a bright warm day. There have been many warnings given by various contributors on the advisability of carrying sufficient water when hiking in the desert, and today proves to be a case in point. I went in with about a liter of water and turned around when I had used half of it. Even though I hadn’t been hiking all that long, it was very warm. As it turned out, on the my return I came to realize that the trail I had been following had many footprints on it, but where I was now showed only the tracks I was making as I went. Clearly I had lost the trail at some point, but where and most importantly, how far would I have to backtrack? My water was nearly gone and I hadn’t seen anyone since I entered the park. As It turned out, I had to backtrack about a half mile to a point where the trail had crossed a wash at an oblique angle and I had followed the wash. What little water I had left, I drank and kept a steady pace (and close eye on the trail) back to the car where I had a gallon of chilled water waiting. I was lucky that I noticed that I had lost the trail as early as I did and did not hesitate to just follow my own tracks back to the trail. But still, never take anything for granted.
I also make a stop in Sumner, NM to see the grave of Billy the Kid and the small, adjacent museum. This is another one of those stops that is worth making, but only if you’re going to be in Sumner anyway. The grave is nothing spectacular. But then how many graves are. And the museum is an eclectic catch as catch can bunch of stuff, but still, all in all, the stop was a pleasant enough way to spend an hour and a few bucks in an otherwise empty landscape. I had planned on this being a relatively short day, and only covered 384.9 miles, but I was making much better time than I had inticipated on these wide open, high speed limit two-lane roads and rolled into Vaughn, NM for my last stop at what was only 3:30 local time. My wife and I are scheduled to have dinner with her sister tomorrow night, so I just keep my mind on central time, go to bed early.
Day 16: So, I get up at 4:00 the next morning (local time – 3:00 where I’m headed), and head out. The plan is to stop at some pueblo ruins in central New Mexico if time permits. Things were going well (or so I thought) until I suddenly found myself facing an on-ramp for I‑40 which should have been well north of my route. It turned out, as near as I could tell, that I had taken a wrong turn in Encino, NM, picking up US‑285 instead of staying on US‑60. I’m not so much upset that I missed a turn, such things happen. But I am a little bit miffed that nowhere in the 27 miles from Encino to I‑40 had there been any signs indicating the route number I was traveling. Not that big a deal, It probably added maybe 50 miles to the trip, but it meant that the pueblos were no longer on my route. So I just headed on home (551.3 miles today), took a nap, and then went out to dinner with family, a great end to the trip
AZBuck
How many tiny ferries are there? I don't know, but I do look for them when I plan roadtrips and will take them when I can. A few that I know of (and have pictures on the web):
Woodland Ferry, DE
The Green River and Houchin ferries in Kentucky
Cumberland River, KY
Rocky Hill - Glastonbury, CT
Chester - Hadlyme, CT
Oxford - Bellvue ferry in Maryland
There are also at least half a dozen ferries still operating on the Mississippi, a similar number (passanger only) serving Smith and Tangier Islands in the Chesapeake, and a few in tidewater Virginia as well as the ferries previously mentioned on the Columbia. All of these are in addition to the major ferry systems of Alaska, Washington and North Carolina. I just find them a welcome and restful break in any driving trip.
AZBuck
Thanks for yet another great trip report! I'm sad to see them end. But I'm glad you discovered you were off trail before you got farther and it became even more risky for you. In other words, here's to your health!!
Thanks for the tips about the small ferries. (The one in Green River, KY, is especially cute.) How do you find them when searching your trips? I'm going to make this my mission to find these types of ferries for future trips. But, unless the state DOT websites have them, how else do you track them down?
Hey AzBuck- Sounds good. I might keep this in mind & contact you via this forum in the next year or two, to COPY your trip in detail.
Thanks for the ideas.
There are two of these little ferries that operate north of St Louis -- one across the Illinois River, the other across the Mississippi. They are easily located on the map.
Yikes! That is a riveting tale! My maternal great grandfather and his family organized some of the Texas cattle drives and help set up the territorial governments of Wyoming and Montana... There are some hair-raising tales from those early days too -- I will locate my notes and add some.Quote:
Originally Posted by AZBuck
But... with respect to your family tree --I would say that your accomplishments outstrip even your great-8-grandfather's exploits -- how many people do you know that can claim to have managed and/or worked on planetary missions to every planet in our solar system? That is an amazing feat!
Mark