The Landscape Is Getting Dryer and Hotter.
“By the time our cycle has reached the bottom of wherever it is we are, we have dropped thousands of feet. “(Cont.Next)
One mile South of White Bird, ID.
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This Whole Mountain Side Is One of the Many Nez Perce National Historical Parks.
“I look back over my shoulder and see antlike cars way back at the top.“(Cont.Next)
One mile South of White Bird, ID. To see both this and the new road on a map click here: Detour in new browser frame for http://www.topozone.com/map.asp?lat=45.7963&lon=-116.2675&datum=nad83 . Note: When you ask for a print you will see (both on screen and in print) the map nicely extended at top and bottom. Much more information about the new and old roads will be available. When I was here, I looked in vain for the location of this old road. But with this printed topo map in hand, it should be easy for you to find. Can someone please tell us how much of this old road is open to cars or whether it can be hiked? Please send photos that fit ZMM passages. Since this is a National Park, I should think it is accessible to the Public, but of course you should check first. The 3rd photo will additionally explain the Narrator’s road to White Bird Hill using the old road.
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The New Road Goes South Towards the Salmon River Gorge.
“ Now we must head forward across this baking desert to wherever the road leads.“ (End Chapter 24.)
One mile South of White Bird, ID. The narrator’s “wherever the road leads“ implies (and mirrors) the burden he feels that he must now plough through the topic of “technological ugliness “ and take up the “dry” (corresponding to the dry land) discussion of his proposed solutions to these problems. At this point it is implied that there is no way to escape this upcoming difficult Chautauqua Task, just as surely as it is inevitable that the road South will enter an inescapable, barren, hot, deep river gorge. He will use down to earth, ordinary every day examples, corresponding to their lower altitude and barren circumstances. The gorge mentioned by the Narrator, is just around the corner! Whereas the Narrator’s passage is situated approx one mile prior to White Bird, the above photo shows the road one mile South of White Bird. Better Photo needed: Since I came thru almost a month earlier, the land retains a bit of green, contrary to the Narrator’s above passage. Based on the Narrator’s poetic usage of town names, I am sure he likes the poetic ring of the words “White Bird”.
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A View Back Towards Nez Perce National Historical Park, the Green of the Town, and View of Roads New vs Old.
(Start Chapter 25) “This morning a solution to the problem of stuckness was discussed, the classic badness caused by traditional reason. Now it’s time to move to its romantic parallel, the ugliness of the technology traditional reason has produced. .. The road has twisted and rolled over desert hills into a little, narrow thread of green surrounding the town of White Bird, … “(Cont.Next)
One mile South of White Bird, ID. The new highway down White Bird Hill is visible as the trace coming down the mountainside at left. As you can see, it comes down a long, steady, fairly straight grade and remains at a much, much, higher elevation than the town as it by-passes to the West (The next photo shows how this was done). According to TopoZone.com, the Narrator’s road, with some 22 switchbacks, descends much more steeply down the relatively broad and smooth hill seen above the green beyond the town. Although the old road is not discernable in this photo, the slightly red-color may be the exposed red soil at the road cuts. This old road finally reaches the canyon bottom at the upper left of the trees, and follows White Bird Creek through the town. This road and the stream proceed, side by side, to the low area fore ground, and then off the photo to the left. The road and creek proceed at nearly the same elevation an additional mile to the Salmon River left. All this fits the Narrator’s passages above. Now realizing where the 1968 road is, and where the best ZMM passage photos would have been, I chide myself for not following my hunch and taking the road at right into town! .

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Achieved At Some Expense, This Is How the New Highway Avoids the Steep and Tortuous Hairpins of the Old Road! Note Volcanic Rock In the Mountain Side.
“ … [thread of green surrounding the town of White Bird,] then proceeded on … “(Cont.Next)
One mile South of White Bird, ID. The Narrator’s “then proceeded on“ refers to his and Chris’s following the old road at the base of this canyon and then proceeding to the left where it follows White Bird Creek, under the bridge. Of course, the bridge was not there in 1968. In this view, left is Westward. At this bridge, my ego precipitated “Low Quality“! I did not drive down to this older road, because I was “in a hurry“ to reach “BROWNLEE CAMPGROUND“ before dark. In retrospect, I see that many research & photo opportunities were missed! In my haste, I experienced much anxiety and fatigue. I also failed to realize that both of my camera batteries were nearly dead. So when I got to the campground, I found that I had gone 15 miles past my last source of electrical power with no promise of any for 25 miles ahead! The next day, dead batteries resulted in many more photo opportunities missed. I can now see how simple it would have been just to go into town and ask where the old road was! Obviously, the old road was in the town itself! I was low on gumption!! Lesson: I had not proceeded “without desire“. Better maps would have helped. Be sure to study the color and texture of the rock in this mountain. I believe this is volcanic rock that came from an ancient lava flow called the Columbia River Flood Basalts. As you view the next photos thru number 110-1148, look for this type of rock. About 2/3 of the pictures will clearly show it, especially photos 110-1142 thru 110-1147. [Many thanks to USCA Geology Professor Allan Dennis for his consultation concerning the rocks labeled as "volcanic" and "Columbia River Basalts" in these photos.]

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White Bird Creek and the Old Road Literally Cut Thru the Closer Mountains To the Salmon River Canyon One Mile West and At the Base of the Far Mountains.
“ …. [the road …. then proceeded on] to a big fast river, the Salmon, …. “.
One mile South of White Bird, ID. As mentioned in previous caption, the Narrator’s 1968 road, and White Bird Creek are in the deep cut at center. This is where the best photos would have been. In four miles (next photo) the view changes dramatically as we take the “new road” into the Salmon River Canyon at the hidden base of the far distant mountains. Again, you recognize volcanic rock. I have the impression that the previously mentioned volcanic flow, which covered one quarter the combined area of Idaho, Washington, and Oregon, is the biggest ever!!! It is said to have fill up 40,000 cubic miles!! The 2nd & 4th maps are interesting at Detour in new browser frame for http://vulcan.wr.usgs.gov/Volcanoes/ColumbiaPlateau/Graphics/framework.html
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Salmon River Canyon. A View North, Back Towards White Bird, Showing Gradual Descent to the River.
“…. flowing between high canyon walls.“(Cont.Next)
North end of Huge Parking Lot for Roadside Rest Area and a nice Sandy River Beach, Salmon River Gorge, ID. Note boulders that are volcanic rock. These surely came out of similar appearing rock seen at road cut in canyon wall at right. We are now four miles South of White Bird. After the bridge shown in the previous photo, U.S. Rt95 went up and over a small mountain range. After this, the highway took a steady down grade to practically the level of the river. The new highway has been relatively straight, with its steady, reasonable grade down, ever since the Grangerville Plateau. Clearly, it is much safer and more amenable to high speed traffic than the 20 switchbacks on Whitebird Hill!! But how did Idaho find the money for the very high bridge plus expensive road relocation to make the newer, wide, straight modern superhighway? How could this be justified in this remote, arid, lowly populated region? A quick look at your Idaho map will show the answer. This is only road between the widely separate, but clearly well populated Northern and Southern regions of Idaho. Moreover the only other North-South road corridors are 120 miles to the East, and even farther to the West. Why is this so? More map study will show the major (and long) North-South mountain barriers both East and West of Rt95. In addition, the deep precipitous Salmon River Gorge, combined with the Snake River (Hells Canyon) to the West, are together additional North-South barriers to road construction. (These rivers after all, are just following the North-South Mountain folds generally true of the West.) So, do you get the point? Roads respond to Geology, and Geography. The fast and heavy traffic on this road both justify and make good use of this highway in its modern form.
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The Bright Sun on the Nearly Vertical Walls of the Gorge.
“Here the heat is tremendous and the glare from the white canyon rock is blinding. …. “(Cont.Next)
South end of huge Parking Lot for Roadside Rest Area and a nice Sandy River Beach, Salmon River Gorge, ID. This photo was taken in late afternoon, and for the most part I was in the shade of the Canyon Walls. You can imagine what the bright heat would have been like with the noon sun directly South while beating straight down through perfectly clear desert dry air, into this parched unvegetated gorge! The Narrator’s “the heat is tremendous and the glare …. is blinding.“ poetically amplifies the barren life defeating “ugliness“ here and throughout this chapter. (Better photo needed.)
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General View of Salmon River Canyon Looking South.
“ …. We wind on and on through the bottom of the narrow canyon, nervous about fast-moving traffic and oppressed by the fiery heat. .. The ugliness the Sutherlands were fleeing is not inherent in technology. It only seemed that way to them because it’s so hard to isolate what it is within technology that’s so ugly. But technology is simply the making of things and the making of things can’t by its own nature be ugly or there would be no possibility for beauty in the arts, which also include the making of things. Actually a root word of technology, techne, originally meant "art." The ancient Greeks never separated art from manufacture in their minds, and so never developed separate words for them. “(Cont.Next)
Four Five miles South of White Bird, North End of Huge Parking Lot, Roadside Rest Area, Salmon River Gorge, ID.
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View Back Towards White Bird. Why Are the Canyon Walls So Close the Road Had To Be Blasted From the Vertical Walls?
“The way to solve the conflict between human values and technological needs is not to run away from technology. That’s impossible. The way to resolve the conflict is to break down the barriers of dualistic thought that prevent a real understanding of what technology is ... not an exploitation of nature, but a fusion of nature and the human spirit into a new kind of creation that transcends both. When this transcendence occurs in such events as the first airplane flight across the ocean or the first footstep on the moon, a kind of public recognition of the transcendent nature of technology occurs. But this transcendence should also occur at the individual level, on a personal basis, in one’s own life, in a less dramatic way. .. The walls of the canyon here are completely vertical now. In many places room for the road had to be blasted out of it. “(Cont.Next)
Four & 1/2 miles South of White Bird, ID. Narrative and landscape connections: It is just as impossible to leave this canyon as it is …. to run away from technology.“ Volcanic rock is seen everywhere. Of all rocks, volcanic lava is very tough and durable against being worn down. Although the river clearly wins, it can do so only by just enough to carry the water! This is the reason the canyon walls are so steep and close to the water. Next photo explains sign at right.
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Why Is the Canyon So Narrow and Walls So Nearly Vertical? It’s Probably the Tough Volcanic Rock Recognized In This Photo and Next Two.
“No alternate routes here. Just whichever way the river goes. It may be just my imagination, but it seems the river’s already smaller than it was an hour ago. .. Such personal transcendence of conflicts with technology doesn’t have to involve motorcycles, of course. It can be at a level as simple as sharpening a kitchen knife or sewing a dress or mending a broken chair. The underlying problems are the same. In each case there’s a beautiful way of doing it and an ugly way of doing it, and in arriving at the high-quality, beautiful way of doing it, both an ability to see what "looks good" and an ability to understand the underlying methods to arrive at that "good" are needed. Both classic and romantic understandings of Quality must be combined.“(Cont.Next)
Salmon River Gorge, ID. Corresponding to the river’s narrowing and “No alternate routes“, Narrator’s discussion of Quality “narrows” to the only choice possible, i.e. everyday applications. Here, fourteen miles South of White Bird, I stop to study this sign. I realize that I should have taken a photo of the dramatic walls of the gorge seen (partly) in this and prior photo. This sign explains more about the lava flows mentioned in previously. Another example of this deep-narrow cutting may be seen on the Arizona-Nevada border. Similarly, the Colorado River (same river as Grand Canyon), eroded a very narrow, but much deeper cut in a lava flow that once flowed into & filled up the then existing Colorado River Canyon. This formed a tight “plug” of strong, very durable volcanic rock. Over the years, the river gradually eroded a deep and very narrow cut. This resulted in very close, nearly vertical walls formed of very strong (and relatively new) rock. All this was just perfect for minimizing the cost of Hoover (Boulder) Dam which was founded in this most unusual place.
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These Jagged Rocks, Surplus From the Dynamite Blasting, Are Use To Provide a Guard Rail.
“The nature of our culture is such that if you were to look for instruction in how to do any of these jobs, the instruction would always give only one understanding of Quality, the classic. It would tell you how to hold the blade when sharpening the knife, or how to use a sewing machine, or how to mix and apply glue with the presumption that once these underlying methods were applied, "good" would naturally follow. The ability to see directly what "looks good" would be ignored. .. The result is rather typical of modern technology, an overall dullness of appearance so depressing that it must be overlaid with a veneer of "style" to make it acceptable. And that, to anyone who is sensitive to romantic Quality, just makes it all the worse. Now it’s not just depressingly dull, it’s also phony. Put the two together and you get a pretty accurate basic description of modern American technology: stylized cars and stylized outboard motors and stylized typewriters and stylized clothes. Stylized refrigerators filled with stylized food in stylized kitchens in stylized houses. Plastic stylized toys for stylized children, who at Christmas and birthdays are in style with their stylish parents. You have to be awfully stylish yourself not to get sick of it once in a while.“(Cont.Next) Salmon River Gorge, ID.

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A Small Oasis In the Dry, Dry, Canyon.
“ …. It’s the style that gets you; technological ugliness syruped over with romantic phoniness in an effort to produce beauty and profit by people who, though stylish, don’t know where to start because no one has ever told them there’s such a thing as Quality in this world and it’s real, not style. Quality isn’t something you lay on top of subjects and objects like tinsel on a Christmas tree. Real Quality must be the source of the subjects and objects, the cone from which the tree must start. .. To arrive at this Quality requires a somewhat different procedure from the "Step 1, Step 2, Step 3" instructions that accompany dualistic technology, and that’s what I’ll now try to go into. .. After many turns in the canyon wall we stop for a break under a scrubby little patch of small trees and rocks. The grass around the trees is burned and brown and scattered with litter from picnickers. .. I collapse into some shade, …. “(Cont.Next)
Four Five miles South of White Bird, Roadside Rest Area, Salmon River Gorge, ID. In this dry, sun-baked, otherwise treeless canyon, how do those trees find water? TopoZone shows a small side canyon that comes into this Roadside Rest Area from the East (left). This may be the water source for the really nice green grassy park just beyond some buildings deep into these trees. In this otherwise beautiful canyon, the Narrator’s discussion of “technological ugliness “ is mirrored in the supreme ugliness of “scattered with litter from picnickers“, which I am sure you can adequately visualize without a photo from me. This beauty/ugly contrast only serves to increase the Narrator’s depression and sadness.
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A View Up, Up, Up, the East Canyon Wall to the Pure Blue Sky Far Away.
“ …. and after a while squint up at the sky, which I haven’t really looked at since we entered this canyon. Up there above the canyon walls it’s cool and dark blue and far away. .. “(Cont.Next)
Roadside Rest Area, Salmon River Gorge, ID. The Narrator sits in the hot dry dust amongst the trash of civilization and wistfully views the pure blue cool sky far away. In so doing, the narrator is contrasting present day “technological ugliness syruped over with romantic phoniness“ with an ideal that could be achieved with proper application of his Quality and other forms of human caring. The Narrator said (previous caption) they were dejected by the ugly trash, conforming with some ugly parts of technology. When I was there, this was a perfect little park - shady, green, grassy, well-irrigated. It was squeezed (sandwiched) between the highway and the huge roaring Salmon River deep in the Scenic Gorge! In addition, this Modern Roadside Rest Area actually provides a wonderful long, wide, sandy swimming beach at the water’s edge. Judging from the huge size of the parking lot, this must be a very popular swimming and recreation area when the season is “just right”. However, the place was nearly empty when I was there, ditto for the Narrator, so we may conclude that mid-summer is not “just right”! The existence of such a cool green park and beautiful swimming beach is unmentioned by the Narrator. Were these amenities not there in 1968, or are they ignored as being incompatible with the Chautauqua? Was the Narrator afraid to cool off and refresh with a swim in the river? Clearly a possibility in 1968. Depressed people do not do what is obvious and needed to regain strength. You can hear the Narrator’s fatigue and dejection in his weary statement describing how they get back on the cycle, next photo.
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Looking Over The Narrator’s Shade Trees, We See Up, Up, Up, the West Canyon Wall, Here In the Shadow From the Late Afternoon Sun.
“Chris doesn’t even go over to see the river, something he’d normally do. Like me, he’s tired and content just to sit under the scant shade of these trees. .. After a while he says there’s an old iron pump, it looks like, between us and the river. He points to it and I see what he means. He goes over and I can see him pump water onto his hand and then splash it onto his face. I go over and pump for him so he can use both hands. Then I do the same. The water feels cold on my hands and face. When done we walk to the cycle again and climb on and pull back on to the canyon road. .. Now that solution. Throughout this Chautauqua so far this whole problem of technological ugliness has been looked at in a negative way. It’s been said that romantic attitudes toward Quality such as the Sutherlands have are, by themselves, hopeless. You can’t live on just groovy emotions alone. You have to work with the underlying form of the universe too, the laws of nature which, when understood, can make work easier, sickness rarer and famine almost absent. On the other hand, technology based on pure dualistic reason has also been condemned because it obtains these material advantages by turning the world into a stylized garbage dump. Now’s the time to stop condemning things and come up with some answers. .. “
Roadside Rest Area, Salmon River Gorge, ID. I could find no evidence of any hand water pump having been here. Perhaps it is incorporated into the two small buildings in the park, for which local groups may have a key. (Better photos needed.)
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This Quiet Peaceful Scene Has a Blue Appearance Because, Shadowed From the Sun, Only Blue Light From the Blue Sky Illuminates the Road, White Sign and Parts of My Car. Notice Small Places Which Are in Direct Sunlight. They Are Normal Colors.
“Peace of mind isn’t at all superficial to technical work. It’s the whole thing. That which produces it is good work and that which destroys it is bad work. The specs, the measuring instruments, the quality control, the final check-out, these are all means toward the end of satisfying the peace of mind of those responsible for the work. What really counts in the end is their peace of mind, nothing else. The reason for this is that peace of mind is a prerequisite for a perception of that Quality which is beyond romantic Quality and classic Quality and which unites the two, and which must accompany the work as it proceeds. The way to see what looks good and understand the reasons it looks good, and to be at one with this goodness as the work proceeds, is to cultivate an inner quietness, a peace of mind so that goodness can shine through.“
In Salmon River Gorge, Two miles North of Riggings, ID. The Narrator mentions “peace of mind” 24 times in ZMM. This bridge must now crossover the Salmon River because the river ahead runs tight to the East canyon wall, and on the West riverside ahead there is a fairly large flat area for a town. After this, we will have the river at our left side until we are well up to the valley of New Meadows 30 mi ahead. When the atmosphere is free of moisture, the sun is very intense and hot and the sky is pure blue. In this condition the sky naturally sends down blue light and colors objects in shadows blue. People who live in areas of greater atmospheric moisture rarely see this because sky moisture sends down a lot more white light and covers up the effect of the blue sky light.
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In the Late Afternoon, the Town and the ZMM Traveler Find Welcome Relief From the Intense Sun.
“So the thing to do when working on a motorcycle, as in any other task, is to cultivate the peace of mind which does not separate one’s self from one’s surroundings. When that is done successfully then everything else follows naturally. Peace of mind produces right values, right values produce right thoughts. Right thoughts produce right actions and right actions produce work which will be a material reflection for others to see of the serenity at the center of it all. That was what it was about that wall in Korea. It was a material reflection of a spiritual reality. …. Other people can talk about how to expand the destiny of mankind. I just want to talk about how to fix a motorcycle. I think that what I have to say has more lasting value. .. A town called Riggins comes up and we see a lot of motels, …. “(Cont.Next)
In Salmon River Gorge, entrance to Riggings, ID. At Riggings, the major flow of the Salmon River comes in from the East. The road follows ever upward, a South trending branch called the Little Salmon River. Did you notice the “blue-ish cast” to the foreground scenery, and remember why? One of mountain California photos (up coming) shows this effect quite dramatically.
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From the Barren Canyon We Come Back Up to Forests.
“ …. and afterward the road branches away from the canyon and follows a smaller stream. It seems to head upward into forest. .. It does, and soon the road becomes shaded by tall, cool pines. “(Cont.Next)
On way up to valley of New Meadows, ID. Just as the Narrator described in the passage above, the road does indeed branch from the main river channel and follow ever upward the Little Salmon River in an ever narrower V shaped canyon and into trees. Eventually the narrow V valley suddenly widens to this beautiful wide flat valley. (Photos of all this scenery are needed.)
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