The Backroad to Hell...(an escape from Chaco Canyon)

Today, we'll dip into the archives and revisit a trip from the past.....


We have visited Chaco Culture National Historic Park twice now. If you're into cultures of the past, American history and Anasazi ruins Chaco is certainly a place you don't want to miss. From Farmington, NM take Hwy 64 east to 550 and head south. Travel 550 for approximately 40 miles or so. The turn on CR 7900 is well marked for the park. You'll then travel another 21 miles to the park entrance. A very short part of the 21 miles is paved. The rest bears a strong resemblance to your great-grandmother's washboard. In fact, it is SO bad that we actually saw a bicycle that had vibrated right off of someones bike rack!

The park offers a one way tour through acres of carefully excavated ruins. The excavation is still in progress and it was fun to see what they'd accomplished between visits. These sites are huge, and unlike most sites, you can wander through them unattended at your leisure. This is the site of the ever photographically popular "infinity doors". The doors are located in the Pueblo Bonito site. On our first visit I didn't know which of the sites the doors were located in and so it was kind of a fun little "hunt" for them when we arrived. If you visit during a busy time it can be difficult to get a shot of all 4 doors without someone wandering through your shot. A little patience is all you need. It's worth the wait.

This particular trip was sort of an impromptu visit. We were planning to stay in Farmington but decided it was early in the day and we had more than plenty of time to visit Chaco while in the area. We cancelled our reservations and decided we'd camp at the park. We realized this was a risk, but figured if worse came to worse we'd just drive on to the next town for lodging. To our dismay, all of the campsites at the park were already taken and so we figured we'd just push on when we were done.

While out wandering the sites, the wind picked up and the sky darkened. It never really "rained" but there was a scattering of huge drops and we knew it was coming. We didn't want to backtrack all the way back to the highway we came in on so we decided to take the "back road" out of the canyon. Now, this "back road" is actually Hwy 57. Where they got the audacity to call it a highway is beyond me. It's not paved....it's not even gravel. It's what I would call something of a clay substance perhaps. The surface was somewhere between Elmer's paste and Mary Kay face masque. Before embarking, we stopped in at park headquarters and asked about exiting the canyon by that route....... "No problem!!!" they said. They also indicated that there was a family who lived about halfway between the park and Hwy 371 who rent campsites. We figured we'd check it out.
When we first started down the road everything was fine. It was a dirt road, but we weren't worried because we had 4 wheel drive and plenty of clearance should things get "iffy". We had driven for maybe a 1/2 a mile and found ourselves behind a little Toyota Avalon from Maryland I believe it was. I honestly have no idea how this couple made it out of there in that car. He had it wound up in first gear and there were times I was sure he was going to blow the engine! It spoke well of Toyota though! He offered to let us go by but we figured we'd better stay behind them in case they got stuck. At least they wouldn't be stranded (alone).
As we continued down the road, the surface became increasingly sticky. Before long, all of our tires were completely caked with this foul, sticky horrifying mud substance. I hesitate to even call it mud. Being a N. Idaho native I'm VERY familiar with mud and this stuff was like nothing I'd ever seen before. We had the Yukon in 4whl-low and were still spinning in this stuff. It was the scariest driving experience I've ever had in my entire life. The name of the game was "keep it between the ditches". I had no idea "mud" could be like this. Give me snow, give me ice, give me flood but please Lord, don't ever make me drive in this crap again!!!! I finally stopped on a cattle guard to try to scrape the tires off a bit. I couldn't stop on the road because walking in this stuff was impossible without falling down. It was useless. The stuff wouldn't even budge! It took us over 2 hours to drive the 20 some miles back to the main road. It was absolutely horrific. Crossing the cattle guard back onto the main highway was like crossing the finish line at the Boston Marathon! We all got out of our cars and ran around cheering! We had a bond with these people now. We had all survied the "Escape from Chaco" together.

We ended up continuing on to stay the night in Gallup, but that's another story for another day. Today, let me just say....If you're contemplating a stay in Gallup, just don't. And if you do, don't say I didn't warn you.
What is the moral of the story, you ask? Visit Chaco. It's a fascinating place. There are ruins and rock art galore. Don't miss it. Bring your camera, tripod and prepare to spend half the day here at least. But, whatever you do, DO NOT go out the back way if it is raining, has been raining, could start raining...... Even if it doesn't LOOK like rain, stay away. Whatever the cost, go back. You'll be glad you did.

Bonners Ferry to Sun Valley....

We spent the week after Easter in Sun Valley / Ketchum, ID. I’d always wanted to make the drive from Bonners Ferry to Ketchum, but never could really justify it. Rodd had a conference to attend so I tagged along. It’s nice being able (and allowed) to work out of the office at a remote location. When it works, technology is marvelous! Because flying into Sun Valley is so ridiculously expensive we opted to drive down. We took Hwy 200 out of Sandpoint toward Clark Fork to Missoula. At Missoula you hook I90 for just a few miles and then jump off on the Reserve St. exit. Follow Reserve to Hwy 93. Once on 93, you follow this south through Hamilton, Salmon and Challis. At Challis, leave Hwy 93 for Hwy 75 and head for Stanley. Following 75 west and then south, you’ll drop right into the Valley. It’s about a 9-10 hour drive from Sandpoint, depending on the weather. If you’re of a mind to stay at a mid point, the Super 8 in Hamilton, MT is an extremely “doable” lodging situation. I’m not huge on Super 8 as it’s generally a lower end motel, but this one was really very nice and the staff was fabulous. It sure beat the H-E-double hockey sticks out of the Best Western we stayed at in Ketchum! (We’ll get to that shortly!) The price was right, too! I think we paid all of about $58.00.
The drive has a lot to offer. We saw coyote, deer, bighorn sheep, mountain goats and unfathomable quantities of elk. You also drive by Sunbeam Hot Springs before Stanley. We didn’t have time to stop, but maybe on a future trip.
One thing I found odd on the drive is that the home carrier route mail delivery people must not go down many of the county roads in that area. We saw bank after bank of mailboxes at the end of county roads along side the highway. They really grabbed my attention just because it was odd. I stopped to shoot this particular bank because I liked the fact that only one had its flag up. I decided to isolate it using a very shallow DOF with my 50mm 1.4. I think in retrospect I should have shot it from the other side. I did a few from the “flag side” but I didn’t isolate the box as well as I could have. This one was shot at 50mm at 1.6.
The cabin is found as you’re just entering Stanley. It might offer a nice opportunity in the summer. The day we passed by it was snowing and blowing and a bit frigid, really. I took a few shots of it anyway. Mostly to remind myself that I’d like to go back when the weather is nicer.
We ran into a bit of weather and I was a little concerned because the car has some ridiculous “high performance” street tires. (I think this is a fancy way of saying that they cost a small fortune but have almost literally no tread design.) I’m not sure why anyone living up in this country would want these tires, but they were new on the car when we bought it and winter was almost over. We’ll be investing in new tires before next winter. We got about 4-5 inches of snow our last day in Sun Valley and had to take the long way around to get home to avoid Galena Summit. If you make this trip when there’s still potential for snow, I recommend decent all season tires at the very least. Four-wheel drive is optimal. We contemplated taking the gas guzzling Yukon, but just couldn’t stand the thought of burning twice the gas.
If you visit Sun Valley, I personally, would forego most of the restaurants there and in Ketchum. There are 2 that we would recommend, but many more that we would not. The Sawtooth Club and the Smokey Mountain Pizza Co. are both quite good. The Sawtooth was totally slammed when we were there. The atmosphere was cramped and noisy and the service was mediocre, but the food was quite good. The pizza place had a decent, casual atmosphere and good food to boot. If you want a really good meal with excellent service, I recommend driving the 11 miles to Hailey and checking out the Red Elephant Saloon. We loved it.
I DON’T, however, recommend staying at the Best Western Tyrolean Lodge. What a total dumpola! It’s old, they have no in room fridge or microwave and they lock the “breakfast area” after breakfast so you have no access to a microwave. We stayed on the 2nd floor and they were doing refurbishing on the first floor (which was long overdue throughout the entire hotel) so we were greeted each day by saws, drills, hammers, barking dogs…… Yeah, that’s right DOGS! The construction guys had a dog that they brought into the hotel and it was in the hall outside the rooms where they were working. The walls at this place were paper-thin so a good night’s sleep was out of the question. Oh, and one day they slid notes under all of our doors to tell us that they were shutting off the water to the hotel for 4 hours. Needless to say, we won’t be returning. This place was unreal. All in all, when we return to the area in the summer we’ll probably seek lodging in Hailey or head up to the mountains to camp. Hailey is less expensive and much less crowded. It’s worth a trip down into this area. The Sawtooth range really is beautiful and we’re looking forward to returning when we can access the back roads.

Copper Falls....a bust!

Well, our outing to Copper Falls yesterday was a bust. As soon as we left the highway we encountered snow. We PROBABLY could have gotten a bit further than we tried, but we really weren't in the mood to shovel ourselves out should we get stuck.

We opted to take the "scenic route" home and make our way down Meadow Creek Road. We stopped off at what's left of the old Addie townsite and did a bit of shooting there. It certainly wasn't what we had planned for the day, but we had a very nice time and didn't have to return home empty handed.

If you've visited my website ( http://www.soulreflections.us/ ) you probably recognize that I like working with black and white and I love old abandoned "stuff". I also enjoy shooting interesting perspectives. Yesterday, I got to do a bit of both.

To reach the old townsite: Heading southbound on Hwy 95 from the Canadian border, take a left at Good Grief on Meadow Creek Road and then take another immediate left on the road across from the old Good Grief Tavern (I think it may be a cafe now). Drive this road until it makes a 90 degree turn to the left. You'll come to a railroad crossing and a bridge across the Moyie River. You can park before the crossing and do a bit of exploring. I honestly must say that I have no idea if this is RR land, public land, private land....???? There are no signs posted, but I should probably check into it.

These images were shot in Raw in color and then converted to black and white via the PS channel mixer. They were then converted to a grayscale image and yet again to a duotone.

A Day Trip to Copper Falls

Today we're supposed to be going on a little day hike to Copper Falls to do some shooting with my sister and brother-in-law. We were hoping for a little sunshine, but I guess that's not to be. At the moment it's actually trying to snow. I'm sure there will be no accumulation, but it's still a little disheartening. As long as it doesn't begin pouring buckets of rain, we still plan to go.

Copper Falls is just southeast of the Canadian border off of Hwy 95. To get there:

From US-95 northbound from Bonners Ferry continue on US-95 toward Eastport and the Canadian border. Watch for Good Grief (on your right). The turn is about 2.5 miles from Good Grief. You'll cross the UP railroad track and then continue on about a 1/2 mile more until you cross the Moyie River. On your right is Copper Creek Road (#2517). Make a hard right and follow Copper Creek Road for about 2.2 miles to the campground and trail head. The base of Copper Falls is marked and is an easy 1/2 mile trail hike from the parking area.

This is a great hike if you have kids along. It's a short, gentle climb to the falls. You can either return the way you came or there is a loop trail that runs down by the creek you can follow.

PHOTO TIPS:

Copper Falls is also a nice photographic opportunity. Its 225 foot drop to the pool below requires a wide angle lens to really get it all in there. If you don't have a wide angle, just be sure that you bring a standard 18-XX. Don't show up with only your 70-300 zoom or some such or you'll be sorely disappointed.

The best time of day to shoot the falls (in my opinion) is either in the earlier to mid morning or late late afternoon to early evening. The area is heavily treed and during these times you don't have harsh, direct sunlight. Midday shooting at the falls with the sun high overhead can make proper exposure very difficult. Honestly, my favorite time to shoot the falls is on an overcast day.
You'll want to be sure to bring a tripod and neutral density filter if you plan to shoot longer exposures for that "silky water" effect. It's also a good idea to bring a lens cloth or lens tissue as the mist from the fall will quickly coat your lens and filters.


Hopefully I'll return with a little something to share!