Migration Route & Spring Chinook Salmon Jumping Dagger Falls in Idaho

Several years ago I tried to create a fly in from the Pacific Ocean to the mountains of Idaho showing the difficult migration route salmon have to navigate to get to spawning grounds in Idaho. Finally I have a better version of this Google Earth Fly in to Dagger Falls on the Middle Fork of the Salmon River. On July 4, 2010 Spring Chinook Salmon were jumping up the waterfalls and I was able capture this rare event on video. This journey to this point is about 700 miles and over 6000 feet in elevation gain and they go on to the spawning grounds several miles and more elevation gain

This year more Sockeye Salmon migrated to Redfish Lake at the base of the Sawtooth Mountains than have for several years. This journey is about 900 miles from the Pacific Ocean and about 7000 feet in elevation gain. If I can find some footage or still photos of this event I could make another fly in to end at Redfish Lake.

Google Earth tour of Proposed and existing Molybdenum Mine Sites in Idaho

This is a Third experimental (draft) Google Earth Tour of the proposed open pit CUMO Molybdenum mine in the Mountains North East of Idaho City, close to the Payette River. The tour also flies around the Thompson Creek Molybdenum Mine near Stanley to show the landscape effects of this type of open pit mining.

Note! This tour does not start until you click the > (play) button in the Controller Bar. You can stop the tour at any time and examine the terrain for yourself. When you want to start again click the play button and the tour will resume from where you stopped it.

Idaho Rivers United has a web page with more information about the CUMO Mine project. IRU also provides
a Fact Sheet with more details.

Proposed CUMO Mine & Other Mine footprints in Idaho visible in Google Earth

This is an experimental draft Google Earth Tour showing the location of the proposed CUMO Molybdenum mine north on a forested ridge in the Boise Watershed North West of Idaho City.

Note! This tour does not start until you click the > (play) button in the Controller Bar. You can stop the tour at any time and examine the terrain for yourself. When you want to start again click the play button and the tour will resume from where you stopped it.

Idaho Rivers United has a web page with more information about the CUMO Mine project

This tour flies to the site of the proposed CUMO mine and continues on to a few other big mine sites in Idaho that have a visible footprint in Google Earth & Maps. The CUMO mine will potentially be larger than any of these other mines. Note that 1900's Dredge Mining Tailings are still visible on Grimes Creek downstream of the CUMO mine. (I placed a tan shaded overlay on these tailings, to highlight them as I started the project, but they are visible without the shading in Google Earth.)

2nd Draft Google Earth Tour of Potential Dam Sites on Boise river

This newly revised version of the Google Earth tour of potential dam sites on the Boise River includes elevation level lines depicting water levels of each dam. The tour also includes one photo representative of the dam site area. In a next draft version of this tour we may also try to add narration and music.

Idaho Rivers United Boise River Web site is providing more information related to these potential dams and public meetings that are being held.

Rough Draft Tour of Potential Dam Sites on Boise River in Idaho

Six sites for a new water storage dam are being studied by the Army Corps of Engineers and Idaho Water Resources Board.  We helped Idaho Rivers United create a 2D Google Map showing these sites.  They are initiating a campaign to prevent any of these dams being built.  Here is a link to the IRU web page where information is available about this project.


This is just a first concept draft of this Google Earth Tour to demonstrate the 3D Guided tour possibilities to IRU and the ability to embed the tour to run on a Blog site.


Please note the "Controller Bar" in the bottom left of the tour window.  You can pause, the tour at any time.  Also note the Google Earth navigation tools in the upper right corner of the window.  When paused you can zoom in and out and move around the  map at your leisure.  When you start to play the tour again it will return to the place where it was paused.  (You can also move the controller bar slider back and forward when paused)

Salmon migration from Sawtooth Mountains in Idaho to Pacific Ocean

Anadromous Salmon smolts born in the Salmon River high in the Sawtooth Mountains in Idaho have to navigate the warm slack water and several Hydroelectric Dams on the Snake and Columbia Rivers. This tour travels the route they have to travel to the mouth of the Columbia and the Pacific Ocean, an elevation loss of 7000 feet and more than 900 river miles.

Note! Using the controller bar in the left bottom of the tour window you can pause the Tour at any time and explore photos and text related to each of the dams (Click once on any Dam Icon). You can click twice on a Dam Icon to fly down to a close 3D view of the Dam site &/or use the Google Earth navigation tools to zoom in, move around or tilt the view. When you want to return to the programmed tour click the play button in the controller bar again.

Google Earth Tour Mouth of Columbia River to Sawtooth Mountains

This is an experimental demonstration of a Google Earth Tour embedded in my Video Blog.  This is the long route that some anadromous salmon swim from the Pacific Ocean, up the Columbia, Snake and Salmon Rivers to the Sawtooth mountains in Idaho.  The elevation gain is about 7000 feet and the river distance is over 900 miles.

Northwest Environmental Data Base video ( 1993 )

1993 Northwest Environmental Data Base - The Rivers Information Systems of Idaho, Montana, Oregon, & Washington from Gary O. Grimm on Vimeo.
This archival 17.5 minute multimedia production was originally created by Mountain Visions in 1993 and transferred to video tape. Now we have recovered it from the archives, digitized and uploaded as a historical record of one of many similar productions we produced in the late 1980's and early 90s, before we started producing CD-ROMs and web sites.

NED was a result of the Northwest Power Planning Council started in 1980 and the Pacific Northwest River Study in 1984. More than ten years of valuable data was gathered by agencies, tribes, communities, businesses and individuals and put into this Data Base that provided detailed information about 34,000 distinct river segments in 135,000 miles of streams in the Columbia River System and four Northwest States.

Categories of Data included Anadromous Fish, Resident Fish, Wildlife, Natural Features, Cultural Resources, Recreation, Institutional Constraints, Hydrosite Data Base, River Reach File, and Protected Areas.

This outreach educational multimedia project was used in Town Hall and other meetings throughout the Northwest to describe the Data Base, GIS technology and how to use the Rivers Information Systems. These presentations encouraged and invited everyone to use NED and to continue to participate in its future development.

The data contained in NED still exists in various data bases and has been improved over the years. I believe that the current trend toward Open.Gov, making data more available to the public and inviting participation in gathering and analyzing data, and being more involved in decision making is the wave of the future, promised by NED even in 1993.

Heart Of Idaho - The Wild White Clouds

Uploaded repurposed 1991 multimedia show "Heart of Idaho - The Wild White Clouds"

Produced for the Boulder-White Clouds Council in 1991, originally as an 18 + minute 3 projector multi-image traveling road show, then transferred to video in 1992. Produced by Katy Flanagan and Gary O. Grimm Mountain Visions, Boise, Idaho. Digitized for archival and historical purposes for the Internet in 2010. Script by Pat Ford. Music courtesy of Steve Eaton and Wayne Millward, Seagate Productions. Photography and narration credits at the end of the program.

Visions of Wilderness - 1994 National Wilderness Conference

Click to Play

Mountain Visions (Katy Flanagan & Gary O. Grimm) produced and presented this repurposed version of "Visions of Wilderness" at the 1994 National Wilderness Conference in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Produced originally as a 3 projector multi-image show, with music, but no narration, we also transferred it to video. Only a few copies were made and it has not been available for viewing for many years. This is a digital copy of the entire show. Another version has been uploaded to YouTube divided into 2 parts both about 9 minutes long to fit the uploading requirements for YouTube. Production Credits are available in Part 2. Music provided by Bill Miller, Steve Eaton, and Walkin' Jim Stoltz.

Image Dance

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Produced in 1987 as a 3 projector multi-image show transferred to video, by Mountain Visions (Katy Flanagan & Gary O. Grimm). Music by Steve Eaton

Visions Of Wilderness - Ecosystem Protection in the Northern Rockies

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Originally produced in 1993 by Gary O. Grimm and Katy Flanagan, this 3 projector multi-image/video presents slowly dissolving natural images shapes and colors in a "painting with light" format. Produced by Mountain Visions with support from the Idaho Conservation League, Recreational Equipment Inc., The Wilderness Society. Music by Bill Miller, Steve Eaton and Walkin' Jim Stoltz.