Jul 29, 2011 - Challis, Idaho, USA

On the way to Challis, Idaho we stopped at Craters of the Moon National Monument. It was named because a geologist who explored the area described it as "the surface of the moon as seen through a telescope." Later some of the astronauts trained here to better understand the rocks they might find on their moon walks. The craters found in this area are of volcanic origin. The volumes of lava issued from long fissures along the Snake River Plain. We have a geologist in our group and we divided the caravan into 2 groups. Half went to the...

Jul 29, 2011 - Crater of the Moon

We drove 199 miles from Eden, Idaho to Challis, Idaho. We have been traveling on the Salmon River Scenic Byway (Route 93). The scenery is beautiful and the traffic isn't all that bad. As we went around one bend in the road there was an explosion of lava rock. On our way to the campground, we stopped at the "Crater of the Moon" National Monument. It was named the "Crater of the Moon" because it looked like the surface of the moon as seen through a telescope. In the beginning of space travel, astronauts prepared here for their moon missions....

Jul 7, 2010 - Challis layover

We used our stayover at Arco to get 'the Neighborhood' cleanned up after our long stay in Island Park area. One of the new weather conditions we had to deal with was an enormous pollen storm. It is hard to describe, but a big windstorm came up and combined with several days of great summer weather all the connifers let go of their pollen. It was weird, great plumes of pollen, almost like a forest fire were everywhere, and after two days, it was everywhere in our home. After golf and cleanning we headed up US 93 to Challis Hot Springs RV...

Sep 30, 2008 - Missoula, Montana to Challis, Idaho

We arrived at Big Sky BMW in Missoula about 10:30AM and by about 11:30AM we had put a deposit on a new BMW F800GS motorcycle. It did not take long to know it was just what we would be looking for in our next bike. It is pretty trim compared to the big 1200GS. In fact it is very comparable in size and overall feel to our F650GS Dakar, but with a whole lot more power and better carrying capacity. The F800GS specs read 85 hp vs. 50 hp for our Dakar. The weight of the bike is nearly identical. This was not really a “spur of the moment”...

Jun 5, 2008 - Day Off and Trip to Challis

Brrrr - another cold night and the snow level is dropping. So on our day off we decided to take a drive up to Challis. There's only three directions you can go from Stanley. Picture the road as a 'T' - the bottom of the'T' is the road entering Stanley from Boise to a stop sign. Turn right and the road takes you south to Redfish Lake and about another 60 miles to the Ketchum/Sun Valley area (been there done that). So we decided to take the left turn and head to Challis - about 58 miles north. But first things first. Getting tired of...