Epilogue: From Big Skies to Weird Skies to Big Fires reaching for the Skies.
July 25 & 26th, 2011.
Some of you are already familiar with the 640x480 resolution of photographs that the IBA requires for it rallies. When we started our journey home from Big Sky, I had forgotten to reset my camera from that low VGA resolution. We took some beautiful roads from Big Sky to Butte. Hwy 84, Hwy 257, Hwy 359 and Hwy 2. If you ever find yourself traveling from Butte towards Yellowstone, do yourself a favor and get off the Interstate and take these Montana back highways. Picture perfect farm country with beautiful barns and granaries, scenic lakes and a great view of the mountains. Unfortunately, I do not have pictures for you so just take my word for it.
It wasn't until we were headed for Missoula that I realized my mistake and reset the camera resolution. Here is Brian heading to Missoula on I-90.
We were going to take Lolo Pass and its 99 miles of curves towards Hells Canyon. Big smiles in anticipation for the fun that was going to come!
Beautiful curves running right alongside the river..
The first introduction to Weird Skies!
Three distinct shades!
Looked like a Tsunami of clouds waiting to engulf us..
The rain did catch up to us by the time we reached Hells Canyon Recreation area. Intermittent showers, which actually felt good and cooled us off. It was great fun running through Hells Canyon..
Tempting curves as we were once again united with the Salmon River..
.. and it's beautifully carved canyons..
We stayed the night in Ontario, Oregon. We had no choice, it was getting dark and we weren't feeling like pushing through the stretch back home in the dark. The town is a dump and that's all I have to say about that..
The next morning was home stretch, we dipped down Hwy 95 through Oregon towards the Nevada border, we had left the greenery behind and were back in the desert..
Yea, Oregon is SLLOOWW.. $%@#!!
Are we in Nevada yet? I am bored and this ******** 55mph Oregon speed limit is killing me!!
Back in Nevada! Is that a Dirt Devil? Can't be ... could it be? Naah...
Heading into the fire!
This was a sizeable blaze, there was scorched earth all around, the firefighters were trying real hard to keep the fire from jumping I-80. Traffic was stopped in either direction. As we sat there for a while it seemed that the fire was going to get the upper hand, the flames were leaping for the skies..
One can surely quell the fires in the wild, but no one can pacify the fire in our belly!
Thank you for reading and for the kind words my friends!