GRAND TETON NATIONAL PARK 8-23-11

We headed out early, 6:30 AM, and we are so glad we had the extra time so that we could get the morning shots of the mountains and their reflection in the river.  It was 37 degrees, but I was all layered.  We had a 5.2 mile drive on a gravel road to get to the ranch.

My horse was Dallas, a beautiful thoroughbred, and Tom had Hoss, a huge draft mix.  The ride met all of our expectations.  We rode through forests, across streams and meadows.  A family from about two hours away runs the ranch in the summer and through guided elk hunting season and then they take the horses back to their ranch until next year's summer season.  What an operation!  They take out about 100 people each day.  Now we are in preparation mode for the big trip home.  We won't be anywhere more then one night and if all goes well we'll be home around the 31st.  Keep checking our blog because we still have Mt Rushmore, Crazy Horse Monument and Badlands National Park to go.  We'll just been combining a day's travel with touring.

GRAND TETON NATIONAL PARK 8-22-11

We took our high altitude hike this morning.  We rode to the top of Jackson Hole Resort on their new (2008) tram with a capacity of 100 people.  We got off at 10,000 plus feet and took a 4.3 mile hike which descended 1,000 feet.  Now we're thinking that this is going to be the best hike of vacation.  It trumped Cascade Canyon.  We could really feel the altitude and hiking back to the summit was challenging.  It took us three hours to hike the 4.3 miles.  We came back to Colter Bay by way of Jackson and got gas and, of course, ice cream.  We did our last loads of laundry and checked e-mail while we waited.

GRAND TETON NATIONAL PARK 8-21-11

We took a walk to the store for a Sunday paper and then went to church.  It was the largest crowd we've seen all summer.  A United Methodist pastor and her husband sat in front of us.  They are in their 70's and this is their last trip here as the altitude bothers them.  Another couple has been on the road since March and won't return home until October.  After our eggs we visited the Indian Museum.  It was very interesting and we're glad we saw it as this is its last year.  The park can't provide security for the valuable collection.  When we got back to our camper we found that we had new neighbors.  A couple and their six standard poodles moved in next door.  They are the cutest dogs.  Just like a giant Fluffy.  We drove out to the ranch where we will ride horses Tuesday morning and drove around on moose patrol, but didn't see anything.

GRAND TETON NATIONAL PARK 8-20-11

We got the ferry across to Jenny Lake to hike into Cascade Canyon.  Tom thinks this was the best hike of the trip so far.  We hiked two hours into the Canyon between two peaks and it took us an hour and ten to hike out.  We didn't see any critters, but a glorious hike anyway.  The trail was pretty crowded by the time we finished up.  The boat pilot told us that they transfer 1,000 people daily.  We ate in the car on the way to Jackson Hole Resort where we'll be taking their aerial tram for our high altitude hike on Monday.  They were finishing a 180 mile relay. One gal told us that her leg was in the middle of the night in bear country.  Since we had laundry to do we ate at the restaurant in Colter Bay and changed loads while we were eating.  Tom, the adventureous one, had bison flank steak.  It got an ok rating.  And he felt the bison deserved it for holding us up so much in Yellowstone.

GRAND TETON NATIONAL PARK 8-19-11

Our one planned activity was the Snake River Float.  I was well prepared with bug spray, bug shirt and bug net - not wanting to be swarmed.  The bugs here are really bad especially in the morning (our float) and in the evening.  And then the cold - four layers topped off with a PSU wind suit.  I must say that for the bugs I was over-prepared, but very cozy in my layers.  The trip was amazing and our guides very informative. We saw two bald eagles.  Know how to spot a bald eagle??  Look for a golf ball in a tree.  We saw the lateral moraine and the terminal moraine - a result of glaciers pushing through (like your hand through sand) and then receding.  After our 1 1/2 hour float we had a picnic lunch served in a wooded area along the river and then we bused back to Jackson Lake Lodge.

Since we sat in a raft all morning we biked along an eight mile dedicated bike trail to Dornan.  What a nice bike trail.  We stopped at an educational center and then...on the bridge before Dornan there he was - Mr Moose just sitting in the river munching on willow.  By the time we got there Mr Moose had been there a while.  We went for a slice of pizza at Dornan for energy to bike back and Mr. Moose was still in the water, but now standing up to better get at the willows.  AWESOME!!

GRAND TETON NATIONAL PARK 8-18-11

We're back at Jackson Lake Lodge still working on computer business.  Lots of people are here doing the same thing.  We hiked a four mile loop around the lake by Jackson Lake Lodge with views of the mountains.  Unfortunately no critters.

 

After our hike we headed to Jackson because we are in dire need of food and don't want to purchase too much in the campground stores as they are quite expensive.  Jackson is cute, cute, cute.  A town square with elk arches on four sides, a stagecoach that takes you for rides and all manner of  Western "stuff".  You can get a table with rifles for legs and six-guns for arms or have a drink at a bar with saddles for seats.  Tom got his birthday present - some binoculars which he can use on our travels, but also in our new seating at Beaver Stadium.  The last task of the day was groceries and then back to Colter Bay.

GRAND TETON NATIONAL PARK 8-17-11

Travel Day from Yellowstone to Grand Teton and what a perfect farewell we had.  A herd of thirty or so bison right on the road leaving our campground.  I know they came to say goodbye to me.  We drove 850 miles while we were in Yellowstone and it would have been more had we not stayed in Mammoth one night.  It's less than two hours to our campground in Colter Bay, but it is basically driving in the parks because one ends and the other begins.  We set up camp and then headed for Jackson Lake Lodge to do computer business.  I finished all the blogs from Yellowstone.  After supper we headed out to try to find some moose.  We looked and looked with no luck.

YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK 8-16-17

The last day, last hikes, last animal-jam, but looking forward to Grand Teton.  We drove north and hiked Cascade Lake Trail, a five mile easy walk to a beautiful solitary lake.  This lone fisher person was fly fishing in the lake.  After lunch we saw Grand Canyon of Yellowstone from the north side and Upper and Lower Falls as well.  So much more we could have done, but all in all I think we did justice to Yellowstone. 

YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK 8-15-11

The first hike of the day was a bike/hike to Lone Geyser.  It was a pleasant bike hike along partially paved road.  The geyser erupts every two to three hours for ten to 15 minutes and we arrived just in time for the show.  We ate lunch in the car and then started to hike to Riddle Lake, a very flat 4.6 mile round trip.  About a mile into the hike in the lodgepole forest the wind kicked up and the sky darkened.  The trees were really noisy in their movements against each other.  Did it mention the advice to stay out of the lodgepole forests during storms.  The lodgepole pine roots are very shallow and the forests containing them look like so many pick-up sticks.  So...we had a two mile hike.  We did bedding and linens today, packed up the bug tent and rolled in the awning.  That way if it should rain everything is dry.

YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK 8-14-11

We went for a walk before church.  The State College folks were there providing the music.  We're going to try to hear their gospel group when we get home.  After eggs and a nap we biked down to the Lake Hotel and sat on the front porch and watched the lake.  I got the Truman Everts account of his 37 days lost in Yellowstone in September of 1870.  On the way back to camp we saw the young elk pictured here in the woods beside our trailer.  It's a quiet Sunday.  I'm reading "Lost in the Yellowstone" and Tom is organizing the outside compartments in preparation for moving to Grand Teton in a few days.

YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK 8-13-11

We are taking a few days to catch our breath, do chores and actually "camp".  Remember the breakfast from Mammoth that we felt was as good as Waffle Shop?  Tom is finishing off his pancakes - they lasted him three days.  We put up the bug tent and you can see what a cozy napping place it makes for Tom.  Just like home, I nap in bed and Tom naps in the recliner.  As I writing this we had a 37 degree night and used the furnace for the first time.  So that's 37 for a low and 117 for a high - 80 degrees difference.  We took a bike ride around camp and to the visitor's center where we saw a program on wolves, foxes and coyotes. 

YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK 8-12-11

Here they are again this morning.  The elk hanging out.  And why not?  They could go up on the plateau and chomp on sagebrush and dodge the wolves who might want to eat them or hang out here, soft grass--no wolves.  Since we got a late start we're having breakfast here and checking out before our hike.  Breakfast, we agree, rivals Waffle Shop.  Tom can't even finish his pancakes with blueberries, but is getting a to go box.  I ate the granola and blueberries and the top layer of oatmeal.  Well fueled we will take on Bensen Peak with a 1,300 ft climb.  Views better be good!!  The views were absolutely worth it.  And although it was a 1,300 foot climb in 2.1 miles, it was switch-backed so well and the views were so great that we hardly even noticed.  We checked in on the elk in Mammoth and then headed to Gardiner to check e-mail and let all know that we are well.  Coming back to Fishing Bridge we stopped at a river fed by a hot spring.  Tom got in to his knees and reported some toasty warm water.  Many folks were in the river just soaking in the hot water.  On the way home we had two animal-jams - one for a black bear and one for the bison.

YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK 8-11-11

We headed to Mammoth this morning and took the route across the center of the Grand Loop - the figure-eight-shaped highway that connects the different parts of Yellowstone.  We stopped at the Museum of the National Park Ranger and saw a cabin of a back country ranger and the building built in the early 1900's.   Our hike today was a 5.1 mile loop around Beaver Pond.  The elk were very much in Mammoth today and seventeen of them were right outside our hotel window.

I must include biker puppy and his Mom.  They are part of the huge biker crowd who are in Sturgis for a two week biker event.  There are 400,000 bikers there.  We've seen a great number of them in Yellowstone.  Does biker puppy remind you of anyone??  We had dinner and listened to piano music all the while getting to watch the elk.  At 10:00 PM they moved on, but....

YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK 8-10-11

We wanted to hike two trails in the Fishing Bridge area this morning and our one hike asks that we check at the ranger station for bear activity.  We learned we could hike with a ranger at 10 AM, so we hiked Pelican Creek Nature Trail first and then met the ranger, Dandelion, yep, that's her name, from Queens, New York City.  We and about 40 others hiked Storm Point, a 2.3 mile hike by Indian Pond which we learned was a geyser blow-out that had filled with water and on to Yellowstone Lake.  Actually, it's autumn here at Yellowstone.  Summer lasts about three weeks.  The 136 sq mile lake does freeze in the winter, but not completely because of the geothermal features of the area.  The ice was gone off the lake by June 10th.  Yellowstone usually gets about 300 inches of snow each year.  This year they got 900 inches.  On July 14th the water was nine feet above it's normal level.  On our hike we saw all three of the park's trees - Spruce, Fir and Pine.  There are two types of fish in Yellowstone - or maybe in the lake.  Cutthroat Trout, the native fish, and Lake Trout, the invasive fish.   

YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK 8-9-11

It's 8:15 AM and we're headed to Mammoth Springs at the northern entrance of the park.  It's probably going to take us a while to get there so we are prepared to stay - two days of drinks and food.  A cup of coffee costs $2.30 so we got ice and have a dozen drinks in the cooler.  At Mammoth we were greeted by 15 female and young male elk, just enjoying the grass around the visitor's center.  The area was an Army compound from 1886-1918 when the Army administered the park.  Our elk greeters were totally unaffected by all of us and when we left at 3:00 PM they were still there.  We were unable to get a hotel room in Gardiner, situated at the park entrance five miles from Mammoth, but...hooray, we got a room at the Mammoth Springs Hotel, yet another of the park's historic buildings.  On the way back to Fishing Bridge we walked the Mud Volcano Trail, one of the hydrothermal areas of the park.

YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK 8-8-11

We're headed to Roosevelt in the northeast portion of the park.  Our first stop was the Roosevelt Lodge which was built in the 1920's.  It's a wonderful log building built in honor of President Roosevelt.  We attempted a hike, but the trail was thick with foliage, so we moved on to a trail along the rim overlooking the Yellowstone River.  After the four mile hike we had a picnic lunch before moving on to the Canyon area.  We hike the South Rim Trail where we saw great views of Yellowstone Grand Canyon,  Upper and Lower Falls.  We spent our evening at Lake Lodge, another historic building, listening to a string quartet. 

YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK 8-7-11

We rented a boat for a ride on Yellowstone Lake which is basically the middle of the giant caldera which forms part of Yellowstone.  At places the lake is 450 feet deep.  The average depth is 150 feet.  We saw some of the geothermal features of the lake although most are at the bottom of the lake.  It was smooth going in the marina inlet, but away from there was quite choppy.  Tom was a little nervous at times being the non-swimmer that he is.  We got back to Fishing Bridge just in time for the church service.  Five of the nine people attending were from State College.  A couple who live at The Village attend Mt Nittany United Methodist Church and their granddaughter who will be attending Lock Haven Clearfield campus this year.  By the way, the couple perform in a gospel group which includes Brad Caldwell and his wife Karen from Curwensville.  It's a small world!  We took a Sunday afternoon drive to Cody, WY, a town designed by Wild Bill Cody himself.  Our primary objective in Cody was the McDonalds for internet service.  Across from us was a group of girls working at Yellowstone for the summer.  One was skyping her brother in Japan.  Stopped at the Wild Bill Cody Museum, but didn't go in because it was about to close.  The drive was very interesting with the different landscapes.  The temperature difference between Cody and Fishing Bridge was 30 degrees.

YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK 8-6-11

This morning our objective was to find some cell service so we could do some "business".  We got to Canyon Village where there was supposed to be cell service, but no luck.  So..we drove another six miles and parked alongside the road to get our tasks done.  The fellow in the picture was just strolling down the road nice as you please and not at all concerned about the animal-jam he was causing.  The cell business completed we headed for home and hiked Howard Eaton Trail in the afternoon.  It was an easy seven mile hike through lodgepole pine forest, meadows and sage flats.  This won't be among the most memorable hikes of our trip.  The overview of LeHardy Rapids was ok, but we have seen some RAPIDS on our journeys.  All we can say was that it was a good walk.

YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK 8-5-11

We drove to the marina to take a bike ride and hike to Natural Bridge of Yellowstone.  And then in the same area we hiked Elephant Back Trail, a 3 1/2 mile 800 foot elevation hike to a spot overlooking Yellowstone Lake.  We met a couple who have been volunteering here summers for the last 24 years!  They had taken a break from grooming the trail.  They told us that this particular trail had opened for the first time this year on June 26th.  Thunder showers are due here this afternoon so we are going to do laundry and hike in the Fishing Bridge area close to our campground in case we need to dash for cover.

YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK 8-4-11

Gee, it's cold here.  It's up to 44 degrees now, so it had to be in the 30's last night.  It's Old Faithful day.  We did all things Old Faithful.  We watched the eruption three times.  We visited Old Faithful Inn, Old Faithful Lodge and Snow Lodge.  The Inn had all log staircases of knarled wood, a four story fireplace and Tom took a nap in one of the old rockers in the lobby area.  We walked the geyser trail and visited most of the geysers in the area as well as the hot pools.  We saw two films about Yellowstone and Old Faithful and it's other geothermal features.  On the way back to Fishing Bridge where we are camped we saw a huge bison just munching grass along the side of the road.

YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK 8-3-11

A short hop to Yellowstone which should take us two hours, but most of that is on the scenic loop in the park.  No casinos in these gas stations.  They have all manner of stuffed animals on the walls and a fishing supply area.  We backed up in traffic right inside the gate for 1 1/2 miles which didn't bod well for getting to our campsite, but it turned out to be people stopping to see an eagle.  We saw the herd of bison which are pictured above.  As a matter of fact there are bison all over the place.  We biked south to Lake Lodge, one of the first public hotels in Yellowstone to have a look around.

TRAVEL DAY TO IDAHO FALL 8-2-11

Travel day to Idaho Falls.  It's an I-15 day.  The big sight other than cows and horses is potatoes, potatoes, potatoes.  In Idaho Falls they have two weeks off school for spud harvest.  And if it's really hot they have to harvest at night and sleep in the day

TRAVEL DAY TO BRIGHAM CITY, UT 8-1-11

That's salt along the highway.  We're on our way to Brigham City which lies to the north of Salt Lake City.  Tom is getting gas before we leave Nevada.  California gas is $4.09 and Nevada gas is $3.59.  You do the math.  At the Nevada/Utah border we are close to 7,000 feet.  It's almost as if you could touch the clouds.  The desert is so white it looks like snow.  We did get gas in Utah for $3.38 and fresh local corn and fruit. 

TRAVEL DAY TO WELLS, NV 7-31-11

Travel day to Wells and a new state to put on the list.  It's an I-80 day.  Nevada is 100's of miles of nothingness.  Except for every gas station, hotel, truck stop and even some grocery stores which all have casinos. 

TRAVEL DAY TO TRUCKEE-7-30-11

Travel day to Truckee, CA.  It's 57 degrees now, but Tom say, "It's better than 117."  Well, maybe.  It's now 12:30 PM and it's 87 degrees.  The little town we just stopped in is at 6,000 feet.  Our campground is 71 miles away at 5,900 feet.