The Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness is the second largest wilderness preserve in the lower 48 states. (Death Valley Wilderness in California is the biggest.)
The Main and Middle Forks of the Salmon (the River of No Return for which this wilderness area is named) have carved a canyon here that is 6,300 feet from the river bottom. That is deeper than the Grand Canyon.
It was named for Senator Frank Church, who played a key role in helping to get the Wilderness Act of 1964 passed.
There are 296 maintained trails (approximately 2,616 miles of trail). There are 114 bridges over streams and rivers, 32 Forest Service Roads, 66 trailheads, and still there are 1.5 million trail-free acres. It is administered jointly by the Forest Service and BLM and hosts campers, hikers, packers, fishers, hunters, horsepackers, backpackers, skiers, picnickers, and day-trippers. The picture above is the statue in front of the Sacagawea Inerpretive Center located here.
It is a dry country with as little as 10 inches of rainfall per year near the rivers, but as much as 50 inches of snow on the mountains. The Wilderness hosts eight big game animals and hundreds of other species.
I'm not much of a camper, but it sure looks gorgeous.
The Grand Hotel in Oslo.
Nobody actually knows where the name Oslo came from. There are some theories, but no agreement. For a brief time, Oslo was Christiana, then Kristiana, Christiana again, and then it was back to Oslo. There is some talk of renaming at least a part of the city Christiana again.
Oslo's Port in March
Oslo is a capital marked by greenspace.
Vigeland Park
Interestingly, it is actually much warmer than one would expect. It is in the path of the Gulf Stream, which makes it not as cold in the winter as it should be.
