Adventures Chasing the Eclipse

Seeing the eclipse was the sole and overriding goal of this trip but it didn't mean we didn't have fun along the way. On Friday night we landed in Denver. Although the eclipse, as shown in the map above, would stretch across the whole country the weather west of the Mississippi had a 20% higher probability of being clear. From Denver I could get a 1000 miles east or west along the eclipse track in 2 days so it gave me a lot of flexibility. Before the flight to Denver I checked the weather and astronomical forecast and focused on 3 cities Casper Wyoming. Rexburg Idaho, and Weiser Idaho which looked to have the highest probability of having clear skies. Anything east of there looked to be cloudy on Monday. I found Clear Outside tool and NOAA's digital forecast tool to be the best and most accurate tools for forecasting clear skies. For two weeks before the trip I had checked them against the actual local weather in the spots when I plan to see the eclipse. They weren't 100% accurate but when they were wrong they over predicted the cloud cover not under predicted it which I liked.

We stayed in Fort Collins on Friday night and a check of the weather showed that there was a 30% chance of light clouds in Casper on the day of the eclipse. That meant you would probably see the eclipse in Casper but there was still a 30% chance that a stray cloud could come along at the wrong time and block the Sun at the critical moment of the eclipse. Casper would have been logistically the easiest place to go since it was a 4 hour drive from Fort Collins. However to get the best shot at seeing the eclipse we headed west towards Idaho where the eclipse forecast showed between a 0%-15% of cloud cover.

So on Saturday we got up and started driving west with the goal of getting to Ogden Utah just above Salt Lake city by the end of the day. This would put us in reach of Rexburg Idaho, and Weiser Idaho where the weather was slightly better than Casper.

To get to Salt Lake City from Fort Collins you head north to Wyoming and then head west on Interstate 80. After reaching the border of Wyoming we saw the bull silhouette that Laura had mentioned on her trip out there last year.

The drive west on 80 was uneventful but enjoyable as the scenery was interesting along the way.  We went over the continental divide so we went up and down some pretty big hills and were some where between 6000 and 8000 ft for most of the time.

To break up the long drive to Salt Lake we decided to do a side trip. My friend Fred, who joined me for this trip,  likes to visit tri-points. This is where 3 states meet. The side trip was to the Utah, Wyoming, Colorado tri-point. According to the research Fred had done it should be possible to get there by car along some dirt and gravel roads. The attraction for me was that is was the highest tri-point in the country so it kind of fit with my high point theme of a couple of years ago.

About three quarters of the way along Interstate 80 in Wyoming we got off the highway and headed to the tri-point. The route there took us through the town of Podunk up the county highway to nowhere. Half way to nowhere just past the town of "Why the Fuck would anybody live here" we made a left on Devils Elbow Rd which took us to Bender Basin Rd then on to Road 4 and finally got to a dirt path that the GPS said should get us to the tri-point. For the most part the roads were packed dirt and gravel some better than others. When we got 4 miles from the tri-point the road turned to just two dirt ruts through the prairie grass. We had rented a Nissan Rogue which had 4 wheel drive so as long as the dirt was solid I was OK to keep going. However the road started having some deep gullies caused by rain water run off. Eventually we got to one that I thought was too deep for us to attempt to go over. If we got stuck or broke down at this point it would be a 10 mile hike to the nearest main road. I also didn't think phones would work around here with all the mountains in the way.

I was sad that I couldn't get Fred to the tri-point but we didn't want to do something stupid and spend the night in the wilderness. We turned around and headed back toward the highway. I will say that although this is a desolate area it does have a certain beauty to it and I stopped to take a couple of pictures.

About a mile before we got back to the county highway we saw a heard of elk. There had to be at least a hundred of them going across the road. I took a picture and had to wait 10 mins before we could continue. It was a really cool thing to see and made the tri-point detour worth it.

Saturday night was spend in Ogden Utah. It wasn't a bad place, we had a decent meal and a good nights sleep before continuing on to Boise Idaho on Sunday. The reason we decided to head to Boise is that the weather on the western side of Idaho by the Oregon border looked better than the eastern side for eclipse day. It was just under 300 miles to get there but with the speed limit at 80 mph it was a relatively quick drive.

Since I didn't know exactly where we would be staying each night I couldn't really make hotel reservations but was also afraid of all the hotels being sold out as we got closer to where the eclipse was going to be. My solution to the problem was to book multiple hotels for the same day at the different places that I might be. I would only book hotels that had a free cancellation policy where I could cancel a day before I got there. This worked out pretty well as every morning I would decide where would be going and cancel the hotel rooms I didn't need.

The hardest place to get a room was Boise Idaho as this was just 50 miles south of where you could see the total eclipse. I got really lucky and 4 days before I flew out to Denver and found one room in Boise for Sunday night on priceline.com (for $60). There were a few other rooms available but they were close to $1000 a night and I would rather sleep in the car than pay that price.

The room in Boise was in the Boise hotel which was a crap hole of a hotel but the staff was friendly and the room was clean. It was better than sleeping in the car.

When we checked in they told us our room wasn't ready and to come back in two hours. We decided to head out to a park to test out the telescope I brought along to make sure everything was working. We ended up in a park just about a mile from the hotel.

We had a few problems with powering the telescope off the cigarette lighter because the accessories won't stay on for more than 5 mins and some of the connections won't stay together. We worked out the problems and got a few good pictures of the Sun. I'm glad we got all the kinks worked out of the system before the big day.

While at the park we met a man (Kurt) walking his dog. Seeing the telescope he asked where we were headed to view the eclipse. We told him Weiser to which he said that he thought Smith's Ferry would be a better place. He has been listening to the news all week about the eclipse and said most people would head up to Weiser or Stanley and he had heard that theses towns were already overcrowded. We had talked to a couple of people at the hotel in Ogden this morning who were heading to Smiths Ferry to see the eclipse so the more Kurt talked about it the more sense it made to us to go there instead of Weiser. The piece of information that sealed the deal was that Kurt said that if we couldn't find a parking spot in Smith's Ferry all we had to do is go over the bridge by Cougar lodge and talk to his friend Janet who would let us park on her property. It is refreshing to me that you can meet a stranger and talk to him for a few minutes and have them trust you enough to give you some good advise and offer to help you with out wanting anything in return.

So after the talk with Kurt we decided to go to Smith's Ferry which ended up being a good decision I think. Smith's Ferry was actually on the center line of the eclipse so it would give us the most time in totality and if Kurt was right we would have an easier time getting a good parking spot because it was less crowded.

So Sunday night we are in a crappy hotel in Boise but we only have 70 miles to drive to get the a spot to see the eclipse.  The weather is looking perfect for Monday all the planning is working out and I will get to see the eclipse. I was almost too excited to sleep.