The Great American Eclipse

How are all you steemit users out there? Today i wanted to share the 2000+ mile / 3218+ kilometer round trip I took to see The Great American Eclipse.

The Great American Eclipse was the term dubbed by the U.S. media of the total solar eclipse of 2017. It was given this term due to the fact that it passed over the entire contiguous US from the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic Ocean. This was the first of its kind in almost 100 years. The path of totality started in Oregon and made its way south west all the way to South Carolina. At its maximum it lasted almost two minutes.

Prior to the eclipse i had a feeling that this was a once in a lifetime event and i was not missing out on it. My girlfriend and i packed up the truck and headed from Southern California all the way to the middle of Idaho. Now one might ask, why not Oregon? It was a shorter trip but i had been all over Oregon and felt if i was travelling this far a new state was in order.

When i researched the path of totality i noticed it passing through the center of Idaho through a pretty rugged looking area.

Most of the US saw some part of the eclipse

The path of totality was a mere 60 miles wide so there was only a little sliver of the state that would see it completely. I was looking for an area that would be mostly void of the crazy rush that would be on to see it. I also looked up some free camping spots in the area as we would just be there a few nights to see the eclipse and be on our way. The media had been hyping it up for weeks, even going so far as stating that this path would be jammed packed with onlookers all over the highways. I wanted to make sure we arrived in a timely manner as to beat the rush.

The fastest way up to Idaho from southern California was to go through the Nevada desert. Most dont realise that there are large swaths of highway with no petrol stations whatsoever. This isnt an issue for vehicles with capabilities of 300 miles/482 Kilometers but our little Suzuki was only able to do 222 miles/357 kilometers so we had to make sure to watch the odometer.

After a 20 hour drive we made our way into central Idaho and entered an area known as the East Fork Salmon River. This was the road we needed to take to get to the free camping spots i had researched. It was very late and i was exhausted from the drive and wanted to set up camp fast. The road winded down towards Sheep Mountain but you couldnt tell with how black it was out.

Driving down the road i couldnt help but notice how many vehicles were parked on the side of the road. When driving that many hours your only worry is to keep your eyes on the road and not get everyone killed. We rolled up on the first camping spot i had researched, It was packed. It only had one camping spot and a parking lot that people were parked in with their tents in between cars.

We headed back up the road to the second spot i had researched. It was up a side dirt road that we had passed on our way to the first spot. I was beginning to worry that we would be delegated a little spot off the road to put our tent for the next few days. I was extremely tired so i did what i didnt want and pulled off into a small spot. I could tell the road we were on was on a little cliff and i needed to make sure i wasnt blocking the one way road. Without actually making it to the second spot, we popped up the tent and got the sleep we both really wanted.

We awoke to the sound of vehicles every 10-15 minutes going by as well as dirk bike riders who were on cross country. It was early and the sun was still fresh in the sky, but i didnt want to sleep in and miss what could have been a great spot to snag and see the eclipse. I packed up the stuff in the car and my girlfriend had both dogs on the leash and happened to strike up a conversation with one of the dirt bike riders who was passing by. He admired the two pups and my girlfriend asked what was up the road.

He explained it lead to Railroad Ridge and that we could camp at the parking lot near the mill (the camping area i was talking about) or if that was full we could head up the rugged dirt road to the top of the ridge if we had a ¨small jeep style offroad vehicle¨. He mentioned that it would be a great spot to camp and see the eclipse so we wanted to put the little Suzuki to the test.

Just as we guessed the parking lot was PACKED and a few vehicles were already heading up the ridge. I forgot to mention just how beautiful the scenery was that i had missed the night before.

The road was actually pretty rough and it was only one vehicle wide which made navigating around others a nightmare. There were a few spot off the lower section of the road that had people in them already and once we hit the switch back it was one car at a time. The view looking at the peaks waiting for other cars to go up was great!

Once everything was good we headed up the steep road on the side of the cliff. Once at the top of the ridge we could see cars sparsely populating the small patches of trees that happen to be growing. We saw a patch that was very close to were we had just crested to the top and we jumped on it. We set up camp and enjoyed watching others drive up the road and take over the landscape that was around us.

Now i found out later Railroad Ridge is actually said to be the highest road accessible to full size vehicles in Idaho. The elevation of the ridge was at 10,400 ft / 3169 meters which explained why the carburetor on the Suzuki was running rough. We called it a night as we had a whole day to explore before the eclipse.

The next day we headed back down the ridge to get water from a creek we had passed up right before the switch back. There was no water on the ridge and we didnt realise how much we would go through. Rebecca took the dogs for a walk while i filled up the bottles with filtered water.

When we got back to the top i decided to take a walk up to the top of the ridge and get a few photos. I only made it half way as it was a lot further than i actually thought.

I made my way back and called it a night with my family. The next morning we made sure to be up and ready as to beat the rush. As we were almost done packing i thought we were early so i decided to put on the glasses and test them out. To my supprise the eclipse had already started and a small sliver was missing. We both thought this odd as no one had come up the ridge to see.

We rushed to get a good spot and waited for totality. Everyone was ready.

Its hard to even explain what i actually saw when it got dark. It was like looking at a giant glowing halo around this dark moon. The smart phones had a hard time focusing as they were picking up all the low light.

The entire valley went dark under the eclipse

Here is a video of how it all went down. Sorry for the language! It was so amazing i was just letting things fly. The video cuts short because the camera could not actually pick up on the eclipse itself.

After the lights came back on we didnt hesitate and headed down the ridge. We decided the first half of the eclipse was just as exciting as watching the other half. We wanted to beat the traffic that was bound to happen on the way home. We said goodbye to Idaho.

I hope you enjoyed this story and thank you for sticking through the long post. Seeing a total solar eclipse in its totality is a once in a lifetime event i hope everyone can experience. Cheers!

All photos in this post, unless otherwise stated or sourced, were taken by @csusbgeochem1 and his girlfriend Rebecca

!steemitworldmap 44.1401911 lat -114.5572887 long ´Railroad Ridge Idaho´ D3SCR