Heading home

March 2013 vacation: part 10 - from hwy 89 we took hwy 30 west at Soda Springs Idaho and headed towards Pocatello on  I-15. At I-15 we jumped onto I-86/84 which took us to Boise (whew lots of road #'s huh! - you never know you might want to retrace our route). Just outside of Boise is hwy 55 & The Payette Scenic Byway, one of our favorite roads in Utah..

Many more frozen lakes were on this stretch of the road as well. We also saw Sandhill cranes by the frozen lake between Cascade and Donnelly. One of the largest frozen lakes on hwy 55 was at McCall. 

The Payette Lake.

The road down hill from McCall to Meadows is quick, steep, & windy. Whew!

We enjoyed watching kayakers having fun on the Little Salmon river from Meadows to Riggins on hwy 95.

We stayed on hwy 95 all the way to Moscow, Idaho, then headed to Washington on hwy 8/270/26 to Othello. Got in to Othello very late at night, ready for bed. We continued our back roads route, from hwy 26 we got onto hwy 17 to Ephrata, hwy 28 to Quincy and then meandered down the Palisades road near Wenatchee.

side trip fun near the Palisades road

Then on to hwy 2 to Leavenworth.

in Leavenworth

Needless to say our dog Lexis who was vacationing at the kennel -

was super glad to see us, we just had to take her on a much deserved welcome home walk -

Total days gone 16, total miles driven 4,196.

Utah's high country and a Moose sighting

March 2013 vacation: part 9 - we are still taking a more scenic route to home. After leaving Hanksville, Utah we took hwy 24 to connect with I-70. We then went north on Hwy 6/191. Just north of Price, Utah we took hwy 191 north. The pass toward Duchesne is awesome, very steep up and very steep down - beautiful area! We then headed west on hwy 40. In the Duchesne area there were many oil pumps as well as lots of dead Mule deer all along the road, and a hwy truck was stacking them on a flatbed. Bizarre! There were no "Caution deer crossing" signs posted. We joked that maybe the Duchesne auto repair stores didn't want any signs posted. Just west of Duchesne was a wonderful rest area. The Pinion Ridge rest area has a nice paved walking path around it with picnic/BBQ sites along it.

We really enjoyed Utah's high country. 

We were surprised to see Strawberry lake completely frozen over since it was so large.

A good time to get out and stretch our legs and snap a few pictures.

click on the panorama to enlarge it

Just after going over Daniels summit on a hill side we spotted a Moose. 

click to enlarge

Just north of Park City, Utah we connected with Hwy 189/I-80 and decided to just pop in and out of Wyoming just for fun. As we were passing the entering Wyoming sign I noted that we hadn't seen any Antelope on this vacation at all, no sooner had the words come out of my lips my husband said look up, and there was a large herd of them. Too funny!

On to hwy 89 north and back into Utah! We decided to take hwy 16 and connect with Bear lake on hwy 30. This is a huge lake that is in both Utah and Idaho.

next post heading north via hwy 89 into Idaho....