The edge of the earth...Part 3

Greetings!

Here it is, the last in our three-part series. Here is where the fun really begins, and where a careless misstep might have truly sent us careening over the edge of the earth!


Just east of where the Bull Lake Road joins up with Highway 2, you come to Kootenai Falls and the Swinging Bridge. There's a moderate size parking area on the north side of the highway. From there, you take a relatively short hike down to the cliffs carved by the Kootenai River (pronounced koot-in-ee). The scenery here is gorgeous, and one can often see bighorn sheep on the steep hillsides on the north side of the river. Unfortunately, we didn't see any on this trip, but we've seen them in the past and will surely see them in the future.

The Swinging Bridge is a remarkable structure, strung high over the rushing river below. From the bridge, you can look upstream and see the lower reaches of Kootenai Falls.
The bridge can seem a little intimidating, but it's really very sturdy, and doesn't bounce nearly as much as you'd expect...even Tucker (as you will see) handled the bridge with ease.

Enough backstory, let's get to the photos!

Thanks for stopping by, and enjoy!

~OTP

The edge of the earth...Part 2

Greetings!

The next photos in our series come from a couple of spots along the Bull Lake Road. These are of the Cabinet Mountains, already dusted with snow in mid-October. Winter comes early to the high country, and from what we've been hearing, it could be a whopper of a winter.

Now let's get to the photos!

Thanks for stopping by, and enjoy!

~OTP

The edge of the earth...

Greetings!

It's been a long, long time since we've posted anything here at Out There Photography, but you'll be happy to know that we haven't fallen off the edge of the earth...or not quite, anyway!

While our amount of available free time has decreased significantly due to various factors, we're still making time to get out there, enjoy autumn in the mountains, and take photos.

This past weekend, we decided to take a little drive over into Montana. From home, we headed up to Sandpoint, then took Hwy 200 over the Montana border to the Bull Lake Road (also known as Hwy 56). Took the Bull Lake Road north to Hwy 2, then after a brief detour, took the rest of the loop...Hwy 2 over to Hwy 95 @ Bonners Ferry, then down to Sandpoint and home. This is a beautiful drive that can be done in an afternoon (or a little longer, depending on how many times you stop to enjoy the scenery, take a walk, etc.). We took about 6 or 7 hours to make the loop, but things seem to take longer with camera in hand.

The photos from this will be in a three part series...and we might even get all three posts done tonight!

So, without further ado, let's get to the first set of photos!

Following Hwy 200 east from Sandpoint, one comes to the little town of Hope, ID, which sits on the hillside overlooking Lake Pend Oreille. Just east of Hope lies the Hope Peninsula. There are a couple of small resorts out there, as well as a park/campground. The entire Hope Peninsula is a game preserve, so the deer out there are plentiful and very comfortable around humans. It used to be that they would sometimes walk right up to your car, but that was back in the days when people used to feed them from their cars...pieces of bread, leftover french fries, etc. Feeding the deer is no longer allowed, so the deer aren't quite as friendly as they once were, but they love to pose for the camera!

Thanks for stopping by, and enjoy!

~OTP