Wood's Prairie Travels

Thankfully we awoke to bright blue skies and a light breeze. After the storm of yesterday, this was a great way to start the day! It's interesting how a scary experience makes you appreciate when things go smoothly. Our purpose for coming to Ruby Reservoir was the lure of finding garnets that might be large enough to have faceted. This was our chance to give it a try. A leisurely breakfast of cinnamon bread French Toast followed by a coffee on the "veranda" aka the bluff was a gradual lead in to today's activity. After our morning coffee was gone, we gathered our gold pans, shovel, and a tube for collecting all of our garnets :-) To get to the beach we could go down a hazardous looking steep trail or walk a bit further to a more gradual trail. We opted for the latter and safely got down to the rocky shore. A couple of other people were already down there picking through the gravel on the beach and then washing it with a gold pan. They welcomed us and asked if w...

Today we headed toward some unknown territory. An aquaintance had told us about the Ruby Reservoir where you can pick up garnets along the shore, so that became our new destination. Heading east from Phillipsburg you climb up a gorge that twists and turns with steep dropoffs and sheer walls. A river seemingly bursts out of a canyon wall near the top. Then the world flattened out for a bit as we drove through Anaconda, Butte, and up over the Continental Divide. The landscape changes pretty dramatically to an arid region at that point. At Whitehall we headed south. The weather forecast for the Virginia City area, which is near Ruby Reservoir, was for 80% precipitation. Well that sounded like typical Western Washington weather, so no worries... As we got closer to the reservoir we could see storms with lightning and rain squalls rolling through that area. Yep, that is where we were headed! However, we found the reservoir easily and the road was fine. A campground was indicated on ...

A few years ago we passed through western Montana, and on a tip from Marlene (Pat's sister), we stopped in to Phillipsburg to try some sapphire mining.  Well we were hooked when we first saw several blue green little glass balls sitting atop a pile of gravel.  This is our fourth trip and there will surely be more. For those who may be interested in the process, this is how you mine for sapphires... well without "owning" a true mine. First, you drive south past Phillipsburg turning off toward Skahalko Pass. That is if you want more of a mining experience. You can buy buckets of gravel in town, but it just didn't feel right to us to sit along a sidewalk going through your buckets, while other tourists pass by. So we drive the half hour to the mine site, buy tickets for our buckets of gravel.  You can buy one bucket, however we do the Lucky Seven, seven buckets. The Lucky Seven has two benefits, it has a bit of a price break and you more importantly you have a better c...

Clear blue skies greeted us in the morning and followed us all day as we continued our journey to Phillipsburg. This quaint little town (and I mean little with one road, one 4-way stop, and in total it spans maybe five blocks) has a couple of claims to fame, the first is a nearby ski area and the second the local sapphire mines have stores there.  This is Montana, so it is cowboy country steeped in the history (dare I say history now with the recent cancel culture trying to re-write the American past?) of the old west.  While the town has many buildings that are spruced up for tourists, it also has a lot more that show the neglect of time. We have been to Phillipsburg several times before to take our chances with buckets of dirt from the Gem Mountain Sapphire mine. While the mine  is actually about 30 minutes from town, we had to make what is now a mandatory stop at the Phillipsburg Brewery! Our favorite of their unique brews are the Razzu Raspberry Wheat Beer and the...

Our adventure this summer began with a journey toward the rising sun. Leaving Olympia at 5AM with the planet Venus shining brightly in the east. The sky was still dark above but faded to light blue bordered with just a hint of pale yellow on the horizon. We headed up I-5 and then cut across Hwy 18 to join I-90 eastbound. As we headed up Snoqualmie Pass, the sun began to rise over the mountains. It felt good to be venturing out further than the grocery store, after months of self isolation due to the Coronavirus. We are always intrigued with the way the environment can quickly change when going around a bend or over a hill. Our driving goal today was to cross Washington, the  Idaho panhandle, and drop in to Montana. That meant we started our journey driving through the thick evergreen forests of Western Washington. Just over Snoqualmie Pass we went from those coastal forests abruptly to dry pine forests with sparse undergrowth.  Approaching the Columbia River the terrain cha...

Prequel for Adventure 2020 of Wood's Prairie Travels After the crazieness of this Coronavirus spring and the following riots, we have loaded up the camper to head out for a short get away. Our first goal... Phillipsburg, MT, for a bit of saphire mining. As we practice "Social Distancing" by camping, it will be interesting to see what the states of Idaho and Montana have open, along with the restrictions they have in place. We have a variety of maskwear... will they be required when mining? swimming? We have a supply of wipes to wash down surfaces we encounter at rest stops, gas stations, and stores. What a change from our adventure last year. Last year my first packing focus was on what food would we need and which food items were reported to be really expensive in Alaska. The unknown is always an important part of our adventures. The camper is loaded, maps are piled, and the camera is fully charged. Join us as we take a break from discouraging news reports and ...

We drove down our driveway late last night, and scattered the deer who were browsing there. Wow, it felt great to walk into our house, greet our cats, and then debrief about our journey on the back deck while taking in the quiet noises of our little prairie. Our exploratory Alaska-Canada journey was just shy of 6,900 miles and 6 weeks! We really enjoyed our first long trip now that Pat has retired. It feels great to be home, but we are already planning the next adventure...        We'll go back up to the northern country sometime, but maybe head east next year? Maine? One person we had chatted with traveled to Nova Scotia? Who knows, we have a year to think about it. We wanted to say, "Thank You!" to those of you who followed our adventure through this blog. It was our first attempt at writing one and was an interesting experience. Often we'd be driving and chatting about what people may want to know or coming up with ideas for the blog titles. Anyway, th...