Landscapes

As I drive home each day I pass the Cataldo Mission. The oldest standing building in Idaho it sits just off Interstate 90 on the Couer d'Alene river. In the evening, when the sun has that gorgeous golden glow, it is one of the loveliest spots on earth.

In the fall of 1996, after a particularlly wet year, the Coeur d'Alene river flooded for over a week. The following photos were taken just 1 mile from the mission above. Many people lost their homes and their possessions during this flood and the areas along the river will never be the same. Shortly after these photos were taken the water began to go down. After a winter of record snowfall (200%+ of normal) the river flooded again.

Under normal conditions this bridge is 25-30 feet above the water.

Stop? Boats don't stop!
The intersection at the bottem of the I-90 off-ramp at Cataldo, Idaho.

In a heroic effort, doomed to failure against mother nature's wrath, these workers tried to prevent the flood waters from destroying the town of Cataldo.

This was the only place where the levee did not protect the town. The road under I-90. The intersection shown in the previous picture is on the water side of this makeshift dike.

The water was high enough that it blocked one lane of Interstate 90 going each direction and flowed down the center of the freeway. In the distance you can see the road rise over the river. This photo was taken while driving East on I-90.

I spent my teenage years growing up less than 100 miles from Yellowstone National Park. I moved back to Montana and during the next 3 years spent many a weekend touring and photographing the animals, geological features, and people in the park. It is a wild area where the Earth's crust is thin and the magma of the core bubbles close to the surface. Water from rain and melting snow (Lots of that in Montana and Wyoming!) percolates down through the rocks becoming heated and finally returning, mineral rich, to the surface. Sometimes it bubbles up in steaming pools, sometimes in explosive geysers, and sometimes as a stinking sulpherous mud.

Lower falls of the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone in Yellowstone National Park. This is one of my favorite views of the park. I never tire of the majesty of this river.

Mammoth hot springs, Yellowstone National Park. That water is hot enough to steam, even though I took these on a warm summer day! By the way, that blue sky is real, not retouched, not enhanced with a graduated filter. I did use a polarizer to cut the glare.

Another view of Mammoth hot springs. The hot water is full of minerals and builds these intriguing shapes as it flows down the hill side.