Leaving Sun Valley

October 17, 2011

Below is a picture of our "campground" showing a portion of the 109 rigs in Sun Valley, ours is the one to the left of the blue truck.  There are other full service campgrounds around a few south of Ketchum in the town of Hailey but not nearly enough to handle the entire crowd.  The hosts at the parking lot have been hosting for 12 years.  Thats dedication because they come in about a week before the parking lot is open and they do the striping and numbering the aisles.



Leaving Sun Valley south on Hwy 75 we decided to go over to Craters of the Moon National Monument and Preserve.  We turned east on Hwy 20 and pass two small towns; Picabo and Carey.  This is Carey, the larger of the two.  All the trucks on the right are empty livestock trailers, they might be waiting for all the sheep that need to be transported to Southern California.  No wonder lamb is so expensive.

Craters of the Moon are lava flows, just no mountain, only several places that the lava flowed or spit out cinder.  It covers about 750,000 miles
As soon as we got into some lava I had to stop and have a closer look.  What looks like a long tree branch and then bent in the middle is actually a type of lava that cools quickly and then was pushed by other lava.

This is a cinder cone, which can spew just cinders or sort of spatter.  All the little white spots are little white plants.  During the summer the ground temperatures can reach 150 degrees.  The plants here have to adapt or die.  There is very little water.

A close up of the white plants.  These plants have "hair" on the branches and leaves.  When there is moisture in the air the hairs open up and absorb the moisture for the plant.

 Buddy waiting for us.  He is a very good traveler but he can sure get into trouble easily if I have left anything in the truck or even my purse that he thinks might have food.

We were lucky to meet up with a Ranger that led a group to one of the lava tubes.  Along the way we came across this gopher snake.  The snake put his head into the little crevice and peered out the other side and was very still, I guess he thought we couldn't see his long body.

 These are two circles of rocks put there from long ago Indians that traveled through the area.  There is only speculation as to what this is.  Some geologist say that the rocks were used to help hold down tepees in the wind.  This is at the top of a knoll and usually windy.  the lava tubes are close and are known as the Indian Caves because there was evidence of Indians using the caves, probably the Shoshone.  The temperatures in the caves (tubes) is much cooler than on top and could store food in there.

A small tube that has collapsed

Our group climbing down into the cave

The cave was about 500 ft long at this area.  This is the other end of the cave.  If you climb over the lava ruble and then turn left and go another 300 ft you come out on top again.

 This side trip was well worth the effort.  If you go be sure to have sturdy shoes and be able to spend at least 2 hrs there.  Better yet stay at their campground and then you can enjoy  some of the many trails every where.

Craters of the Moon is where NASA's Apollo Astronauts Alan Shepard, Edgar Mitchell, Eugene Cernan and Joe Engle learned basic volcanic geology in 1969 as they prepared for their moon missions.

The early pioneers on the Oregon Trail went along the Snake River to the south of Craters of the Moon, however there was a group of them that took a short cut called Goodale's Cutoff that went on the north side of the Craters of the Moon.

Sun Valley Jazz Jamboree

October 8 - 17, 2011

We came for the Trailing of the Sheep and then Stayed for the Sun Valley Jazz Jamboree.  This is sort of a long post, but mostly pictures of all the bands we saw.  We had a fabulous time and would highly recommend putting this on your bucket list. 

As I mentioned before Joe and I were volunteers for driving.  On Wed we drove to Boise airport to pick up band members  This was approximately a six hour round trip, Joe picked up Louis Ford & His New Orleans Jazz Flairs.  I picked up people that were in three different bands.  Sunday I took back the Louis Ford and Joe took six people from several different bands.  For the volunteering we were given back the money we paid for our parking and the admission tickets.  When we drove to the airport on Wednesday we missed the catered luncheon that was given to honor all the volunteers, however we were each given a $20.00 gift certificate to a very nice Mexican Restaurant.  They were very generous to the volunteers.

Tuesday 10/11/11 was a free community concert, this was Sherri Colby's Racket Makers & Friends. 

The Jazz Festival started on Wed 10/12 but we were driving so we started the adventure on the next day with                        The High Sierra

The Midri Brothers

Paul Midri

Tom Hook and Yve Evans

Tom and Yve

Clarinet Clambake with Joe Midri on the far right

US Coast Guard Dixie Band

St Louis Rivermen

The next three pictures are from the Piano Extravaganza

This John Cocuzzi and Jeff Barnhart

Jeff with Tom Hook

And, John in the background, Jeff and Tom on the piano and

Yve Evans singing

Tom Rigney & Flambeau

Louis Ford & His New Orleans Jazz Flairs

The next several pictures are of  The Whiffenpoofs.  This is a Capella  (I'm not sure of the spelling)

They all attend Yale University.  This was a real privilege to see this group.

The Whiffenpoofs have been performing since 1909 and they are wearing the same formal attire as they did when they first started in 1909

Here they are singing in Greek as they enter the stage. 

High Street w/ Danny Marona

We saw this group at the Good Sam Rally in Redmond also.

St Louis Rivermen

Titan Hot Seven

Sunday, return to the airport, this is the Louis Ford group

Believe it or not, they all fit in the van along with their luggage and instruments 

Sun Valley Lodge

the white specks on the left by the water are a pair of swans

Mr & Mrs Swan of Sun Valley Lodge

Well that's it for the bands.  we only saw about 1/10 of them. I have always liked Jazz but now I have fallen  in love with Jazz.  This was our first jazz festival and we hope to go back in a couple of years.

The entire valley of Ketchum and Sun Valley has miles and miles of bike riding and hiking trails.  It seemed like everyone walked or rode they bike everywhere.  They even have a small street sweeper that cleans the paved portions.

This is it for Sun Valley.  We had so much fun we hope to make it back in two years (next year we need to be in Delaware by October 1st for a caravan down the east coast.)

I almost forgot to mention, the The Parking Lot Host counted a total of 109 rigs, every shape and size parked in the River Run Parking Lot.  No water, no sewer, no electric.  At 7:01 am everyone was out turning on their generators, including us. A couple of mornings Joe had to scrape ice off the generator. There wasn't quite enough sun for our solar system and we wanted our coffee first thing in the morning.  I must say also that the bathroom and showers in the River Run Lodge were very luxurious, they even provided big fluffy towels.

We were parked for nine days (left Monday 10/17) and probably could have gone several more days, of course we were gone and ate out almost every day.  All the venues had very reasonable food.

Safe travels to all

Nancy and Joe

Ketchum/Sun Valley ID

The first days in Mountain Home were kinda wet and windy, but Saturday 10/8 we woke up to a beautiful cloudless blue sky, a great day for traveling.  We fueled up in Mountain Home at the Pilot, intersections I-84 and Hwy 20 for $3.99/gal diesel.  I forgot to mention that we also filled up at Love's in Troutdale OR on I-84 and paid $3.55/gal.  We filled up in the truck section which at this station it is cheaper than the car section. (I only mention this just in case anyone wants a good deal and happens to be in the area)

On our way north on Hwy 20, nice drive but a little bare, however you could see on the far mountain tops a dusting of snow.  Hwy 20 has many pullouts for historical markers.  Apparently this was a stage coach route.  One place was Rattlesnake Station, another was Toll Road.  Below is along the hwy 20 toward Ketchum.

(not able to load the picture)

We are parked in a huge parking lot that is used for RVs at the River Run Lodge just outside of Ketchum & Sun Valley. It got down to 35' last night.  RV's are coming in here from all over the States and Canada, mostly the people that volunteer.  Joe and I are volunteer drivers.  We will be driving to Boise to pick up jazz festival bands.  We lucked out and we are both working the same day, Wed. and then we will work again on next Sunday to start returning the bands to the airport.  That will be the extend of our commitment, the rest of the time is ours to listen to as many bands as we can.

Today, Sunday is the annual event of Trailing of the Sheep through the middle of Ketchum.  The sheep are being brought down from the mountains and herded right through town, about 1,500 of them. They will then be trucked down to Southern California to fatten up for either the butcher or lambing season.  The start of the "parade" had bag pipers and dancers, several of the sheep camp chuck wagons (I'm not sure of the proper name of these chuck wagons), and then the sheep.  Last in the parade were three street cleaner/sweepers.

 (Yea! I actually got all these pictures copies)
Several of the sheep broke through the heard at the front and those dogs were after them in a flash to bring them back.  The whole family and other ranchers helped bring the sheep through the town.  These sheep had been out roaming the hills all summer and now they were faced with being herded through streets lined with people.


At the River Run Lodge looking up the hill, you can barely make out the chair lift on the right, Joe and I road that lift to the top during the summer about 10 years ago.  It was his first time on a chair lift, he enjoyed it thoroughly, especially the lunch at the top.

This is what we see from our RV parking lot.

 Joe with buddy waiting for me

Bridge across the river going to the Lodge

Here we are in the parking lot looking at the same ski run.  This is dry camping only and starting Tuesday we are able to use the Bathrooms and Shower Rooms at the Lodge.

Safe Travels to all

Nancy