Wood River: Ski the Rails

Totally by luck, we stumbled upon a nordic festival in Hailey and Sun Valley, Idaho. The Blaine County Nordic Trails (no relation) put on a great party, starting at Ketchum , and ending at the Sun Valley Brewhouse in Hailey.

Chance loved the bus. A gorgeous day, free busses, dog-friendly (in fact, we'd even say a little dog-crazy), cookies for both man and beast, and, of course, porters and ales at the end. THIS WAS A DREAM SKI!!

We though ski-joring was cool, but we were outclassed by this kiddo in downhill skis, helmet, goggles, and waterski rope parent-joring.

Did we mention there was a pub at the end. Great way to put the spin on at 10:30am.

I recommend the ales. The porter was still a little young. But the band was good.

Moon Craters and Atomic Cities

While skiing across Atomic Lake, this submarine surfaced right underneath us, and Mo barely had time to jump out of the way. Chance wasn't as quick, and ended up on top of the conning tower, where some nice sailors popped out and fed him a cookie.

More on this theme later.

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A few shots around West Yellowstone. They have some great ski trails, but no connector trails. Here's Mo making her own.

The microwave chef shows off his stuff. Who says hotel food has to be boring?

One wonders why snowmachines have such a bad rap. It looks like they are going for the kinder/gentler thing here. Darth Vader vs Herbie. You decide...

Alaskan huskies are sometimes useful for stuff other than just eating dog food and holding down the back of the car. Here he helps pull the luggage load checking out of the hotel.

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On to Craters of the Moon National Monument.

Craters of the Moon was created by the same hotspot that is now under Yellowstone. Lava poured out in great quantities and filled the Snake River Valley. Some was in recent time and is told of in Shoshone legends.

Skiing among aa, pohoehoe, bombs, and cinder cones was a bit surreal.

The park is doing a nice job grooming the road for skate skiing, and it should be on every skiers list. Thanks NPS!

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Finally, on to Arco - the Atomic City. The first city lit by Atomic power. They're still glowing about it...

Not to be outdone by Slim Pickens (not Carl Perkins - as an alert reader pointed out, even though Perkins did a show on animals...), Blain takes the bull by the horns.

We were glad to see this disclaimer...

A Ski Through Geyser Country

Yes, Yellowstone in Winter. Or was it just a dream?

Mo here is staggering a bit from that "Blain's socks" smell.

The canyon at Firehole River.

Skiing through the fog made by molten rock. Man the earth is hot!

Wildlife - oh yeah. This guy actually flashed us his gang sign, but we photoshopped it out.

Introducing "Cygnet" our 1952 Bombardier snow coach and driver/guide. He loved this vehicle. Alpen Guides from West Yellowstone have the coolest rides.

After we shoved the guide/driver under a speeding buffalo, Blain took over the driving duties. He already was acting like he was the guide, so figured, "Why not?"

Here we are tailgating another snowcoach. What? it was just a little love bump... I can't help it if they were driving too slow.

Here the other passengers are yelling desperately for help and some are trying to climb out the hatch. Too bad for the 91 year old lady. She was sweet.

Onward to Old Faithful. This photo is proof positive that Raven still controls the universe. When he flew off the geyser erupted. Coincidence, you say. I say nope.

So there.

He did it.

Nobody can predict these things with any accuracy.

Umm well, okay, some NPS rangers can, but that's because they are psychotic or something. .
Here's Mo carrying her skis across the original heated pedestrian crossing. For some reason there were several places around this big lodge that they melted all the snow off the walkway. Totally random, though. Some sections they even planted green grass. Weird. Must be some sort of stimulus money or something.

As we were sitting here, a bunch of people came up and stood around us like they were waiting for something to happen. Then it did. This geyser shot out of the ground for like, a minute. Then they all walked off. It was like they knew or something. Weird.

One more dream shot. Scratch one off the "bucket list".