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We’re Out of the Smoke

The Visitor Center

We drove into a campground outside of Bryce, UT on Thursday to clear skies. Well, actually we RV’d through some pretty fierce thunderstorms getting here.

The scenery is awesome and we haven’t even toured Bryce Canyon yet.

We decided to take a “do nothing” day in order to get used to camping at 7,600 feet. There is a difference.

However, on Saturday we’ll start touring and photographing the park. Can’t wait. We stopped by the park’s visitor center today, bought some T-shirts, and soaked up info on Bryce Canyon. More photos to come.

After Bryce, we’re headed to a campground outside of Zion National Park for a week. Finally, we’ll be back in Lake Havasu at the end of the month.

Our Bryce Campground

Note to Self: Avoid the West during Fire Season

The last time we saw blue sky was August 31 on our boat ride up the Clark Fork river (see Fire, Water, and Eagles).

Click on map to enlarge

Smoke from the many Western wild fires have been “hazing” our views . . . as well as making it difficult to breathe at times.

When we were in Saint Regis near Thompson Falls, the smoke was as thick as fog and we could “taste” it. Ugh.

We figured by the time we got into Idaho that the smoke would be gone. Think again. It looks like we’ll be near Las Vegas before the air is clear again.

Smoke from Western Fires

Fire, Water, and Eagles

We’re camped near Thompson Falls, MT for the Labor Day weekend.

Great View from Our Front Window

Our Campground’s “Mining Town”

It’s beautiful country — mountains, rivers, and that big sky — but just incredibly dry (see our previous post Wildfires).

This is as bad as it gets

CLARK FORK RIVER BOAT RIDE

We took a boat ride up the Clark Fork River from Thompson Falls to Trout Creek and got a bird’s eye view of the dry country . . .

Clark Fork Boat Ride (click to enlarge)

Our Boat

EAGLE FISHING

FIRE ON THE RIVER

Fire on the River

We spotted at least two large fires in the mountains as we travelled up river. On our return trip back to Thompson Falls, we saw a large helicopter getting water from the river and flying it to a nearby fire.