Elk and Bison, Up Close and Personal

Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone River

2019-09-04 Wednesday

Another long day in Yellowstone National Park, and we have done a LOT of driving in that Jeep!  We got another very late start, plus we had a lot of errands to do in West Yellowstone—upload yesterday’s blog (with photos), call a pharmacy in Bozeman so we could get some prescriptions refilled on Saturday when we are there, make some other phone calls, post office, gas station, Ranger Station to pick up some maps, and go to a sandwich shop to get some sandwiches to go for our lunch. 

The first stop was the Ranger Station, right between us and the town. Of course, we arrived at 12:08, and they closed at noon for lunch! So we went to our WiFi hot spot in the middle of town, and did the phone calls and uploading. Then we went to get sandwiches for lunch. We got some for dinner, too, because I suspected we would not be back for dinner, and yesterday we didn’t have sufficient real food with us, only snack stuff. When we walked out with the sandwiches, Joey pointed out it was lunch time, so we sat at a picnic table outside the shop and ate our lunches! Then we went to the post office, and I saw a rack with cards and realized I had a few birthdays coming up and wanted to send cards. So I bought those, and some more stamps. At that point, Joey pointed out it was after 1:00, and the Ranger Station would be open. On the way back there, we stopped for gas for the Jeep, and then went for the maps.

I got very lucky with the maps—the young woman behind the desk was delightful and very helpful. I explained I wanted the “big white maps” which are called Motor Vehicle Use Maps, for National Forests, and which show dispersed camping sites inside the forests. The last time we stopped, the ranger explained that each station only has maps for their own region. That means we need to stop at every ranger station we see, in order to get as many maps as possible! This stop produced four or five, because she had several from other regions she could give me. Also she gave me good Montana and Idaho maps, and we discussed routes for Joey and I to take in the next few weeks. So it wasn’t a super-fast stop, but it was very fruitful. And THEN, we were ready to go back into the park.

My Favorite View—the Madison River

The ride from the park’s West Entrance runs along the Madison River, and is just gorgeous. I was still trying to get the definitive perfect photo, so Joey kept stopping at every turnout saying “This one? This one?” Suddenly we saw a bunch of people pulled over on the side of the road, and I looked into the meadow and saw a herd of elk, with a big daddy elk with HUGE antlers presiding over them. He was really something! I jumped out of the car, while Joey found someplace to pull over safely. Unfortunately, though, i wasn’t too thrilled with my photos... Big Daddy Elk was too far away. I did watch him, though— he went into the trees as soon as I got my camera out, but it was only for a minute— he was herding two of his ladies out of the woods and over to join the rest of the group. He did the same thing with another one a few minutes later, and then they all moved further away. It was clear he was in charge!

Just before we got back on the road after that, a Park Ranger car with sirens wailing tore past us, and we figured THAT didn’t sound good. Sure enough, about 20 or so minutes later, we encountered a dead stop on the highway. At first we thought it could be an animal, but it became clear that nothing short of mating grizzly bears could bring the traffic to not move at all. Then I remembered the ranger with the siren. We waited for about 15 or more minutes, and then I got out to reconnoiter. I heard another driver say that there had been an accident and they had to bring in a helicopter to carry someone out. It was very hot in the direct sun, and while we waited, Joey got out and put the roof back on the Jeep so he could run the AC. Just after that, we saw a helicopter take off over the trees, and then the traffic started coming from the other direction. The entire thing was about a 30 minute delay, I think, and when we passed the ranger directing traffic, it seemed that the accident happened on a side road just off the main road which we were on. 

Somewhat sobered, we continued to Canyon Junction, and found our way to the side road which runs along the north side of the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. There were several scenic stops along the route, where you could park and get out and take a short trail to the rim. Unfortunately, Joey started feeling a bit sick from the altitude, and didn’t want to walk much. I couldn’t help taking photos, though— the river and canyon there are incredible.

Yellowstone Falls (background) 

By the time we got done there, we were back at Canyon again, and I left Joe in a shady spot in the parking lot while I ran into the General Store for a couple of things. I’m afraid I spent too much time, just like yesterday, but he was happy for the break. He also discovered a few bars on his phone, so he was able to phone his doctor for some medication for the elevation sickness—something he remembered having last year as well. So that prescription was added to the list for Bozeman.

When we left home this morning, I had had the bright idea that we should drive to the Lamar Valley to try to see wildlife. I totally forgot that the drive from Canyon to Lamar goes over a very high pass, and the road is VERY scary— lots of curves along the outside of the mountain, and about 25 miles per hour most of the way. I was driving, so Joey got the view of the incredible mountains, but if he’d been driving, I would have kept my eyes closed anyway! We came over this route in Mo back in 2007, and I remember being pretty scared then too, except then we were on the inside next to the mountain at least! (I should add that on the way out of the Canyon Junction, across the intersection from us, we saw a wrecker with a damaged car on its flat-bed— I think it must have been the car from the crash earlier in the afternoon! I sure hope the driver and passengers were not hurt too badly.)

By the time we got to Tower, where we would have to turn toward the Lamar Valley, we were worried about getting home on that road in the dark. So we decided against Lamar, and continued on the main Loop Road west again toward Mammoth Junction. Almost immediately, we were rewarded by a small herd of bison grazing right beside our road. So we got our wildlife after all! The road also was much easier to negotiate than the road from Canyon to Tower, and a lot less scary to drive.

The best was when we arrived in Mammoth— I had remembered from 2007 that there is a herd of elk which frequent the center “town” there— there are lots of lodgings for the park personnel, and a large hotel, a gas station, a restaurant, etc., and the elk just make themselves at home on the central “village green” among the buildings. There are always rangers there to make sure visitors don’t get too close—of course many folks are standing out there taking photos, and we joined the line of cars going into the area so we could see them. I immediately saw a parking place and pulled in, just as the ranger in charge started suddenly shooing people away. It seems that this herd, too, was a lot of females and their calves, ruled by one Big Daddy with glorious antlers, and he had decided it was time for the stragglers to join the others. He was herding them right toward the tourists. When he had them collected to his satisfaction, he stopped in the middle of the road and let out a loud bugle— we’d never heard something like that! They are very beautiful animals (and we are now sure that the one which ran across our road last night was also an elk.) 

Elk Herd in the Dusk 

We continued to watch as Big Daddy herded his harem through the cars and people (who gave way as he approached) and right down the street between the houses. He bugled several times along the way—wow! When it seemed they were gone, we turned our car around—only to catch a glimpse of the male running fast a few blocks away (we didn’t see the females.). We did, however, notice three female elk who were on their own in a different corner of the center of town, and they didn’t go with the others.

Joey and I wanted to eat our dinner sandwiches before we did the last part of our drive home, so we parked again, and sat down at a picnic table. We noted that there were two elk down at the end of the area where the table was, and were keeping an eye on them, when suddenly, the third female appeared from between the parked cars, almost next to our table! She was not looking at us, but we still were a little freaked out, and as she walked toward the other two, we decided we’d better choose a table someplace else. We finished our sandwiches quickly, and as we got back in the car, we saw the three ladies grazing right outside the windows of the restaurant next door.

We headed south again, along the main loop, as the sky was getting darker. I was using my high beams most of the time, and driving as carefully as i could. I kept pulling out to let others pass me, too. Just south of Mammoth, we hit a section of road where there is road work going on— no center line, and orange cones lining the highway. The pavement was very smooth, though, so we went fairly fast despite the fact that it was now dark. Suddenly I saw ahead of me a few car headlights, where one car seemed to be on the shoulder and the others passing. I dimmed my headlights as I got close to them, but something didn’t seem quite right... and then suddenly I hit the brakes HARD. There was a bison standing EXACTLY in the middle of my lane!! I stopped not 20 feet from him!  I would have seen him a little sooner if I hadn’t dimmed my bright lights for the cars I thought were coming toward me— but they were not really moving—they were stopped in the road! 

I turned on my bright lights as soon as I stopped, and this ENORMOUS face was looking RIGHT at me, drooling a little bit. I was really freaked out, I mean, these animals are HUGE. I dimmed back to regular headlights again (but the car in the oncoming lane, which was not moving either, had its high beams shining right on the beast, so I could see him clearly), and after maybe a minute or two, he started walking toward me. Joey said, “Close the window!” As I did that, I suddenly realized that there was a second bison walking along the very edge of the other, oncoming lane. I could hear the people in the car across from me talking— we couldn’t move because the animals were in our way. Luckily, they are not confrontational— the one in my lane walked past right next to the car, and I looked out at him, noting the massive fur on his forelegs and head and shoulders, and his horns. I could have  reached out and petted him as he walked past, he was that close. I am just so lucky I stopped in time! He was invisible until I was close enough for my car lights to illuminate his legs, which was what I saw first. 

After the bison was behind me (and the other one, which I’d only glimpsed in the darkness, was invisible), we continued, but with a LOT more care, looking for wildlife. Between the elk and the bison tonight, we feel we got our money’s worth out of Yellowstone’s fauna. Today we saw two herds of elk, one herd of bison, and of course our own little bison close encounter. Joey reminded me of the antelope which almost hit us when he was driving a week or so ago—so now we’ve both had our near misses with huge animals on this trip. And that is plenty!

We made it home at about 9:30, to a delirious dog who was simply desperate to get out of the RV and do her business. Then she was all over us—she acted like she thought we’d abandoned her in the wilds of Montana. She is now sleeping next to my bed, which is usually only her spot when there’s a storm and she is anxious. I guess she is not taking any chances!

Tomorrow we are heading for Yellowstone Valley Lodge, where we are being treated by Betsy and Sean to a meal they promise will be extraordinary, and a night of luxury in a real room with a real shower! This will be a first for us on an RV trip, and we are really looking forward to it.

Jeeping Through the Geothermal World

Firehole Falls

2019-09-04 Tuesday

We had a lovely start to our day with fresh biscuits and cream of wheat for dessert. Then we filled the rest of the morning with chores—I can never figure out WHAT takes so long with us in the morning. I walked Cassie, we collected our big list of things to take with us for a “day trip” in the Jeep (food to eat, long sleeves to add in the evening, and miscellaneous electronics such as chargers, iPad, camera, etc.) That and the usual morning get-up-and-go meant we left the campsite at about 11:30 or something like that.

Our first stop was in West Yellowstone, where we finally had bars on our phones. That allowed me to upload yesterday’s blog (I took a quick photo of Joe at the wheel of the Jeep sans roof to illustrate it), apply more sunscreen, and to make some phone calls. Then at last we headed back into the park, with the sun shining brightly and fluffy clouds in the sky.

Yesterday at Madison Junction we’d driven north, so today we drove south, into the midst of the most geothermal activity in Yellowstone. This route included several roads that do not allow RVs, and I kept saying, “THIS is why we brought the Jeep!!”  We drove along the Firehole River and saw the Firehole Falls and Firehole Cascades— it was just a beautiful road. We saw people swimming down in the river (it is allowed there in one place) and decided we would do that tomorrow, although I’m having my doubts now— I have other plans in the entire opposite direction. But anyway....

From there we continued to the Lower Geyser Basin, and walked the

trail there. That was something we’d done last year as well. After that, we were heading for lunch, but suddenly off to the side, we saw cars parked, and when we looked, there was a small herd of buffalo. The exciting part was, some of them were RUNNING to catch up to the others! Just there was a loop I hadn’t noticed on the map, so we pulled in and saw that in the center, just beyond the bison, was a geyser shaped exactly like an upside-down cone, and it was erupting! Sadly, we missed getting a better view than that, because of trees, and it didn’t erupt again (it had a 2-minute eruption, my guidebook said.) So we drove around that loop, which had some hot pools and small (quiet) geysers), and noticed the bison again as we left. Then, we pulled into a lovely picnic area (“No RVs Allowed”) and ate our picnic lunch at a table under the trees.

After lunch, we went a mile or so further, to Midway Geyser Basin, which was my “goal” for today— Midway is the site of Grand Prismatic Pool, which is one of my very favorite features in the park. The parking lot was so crowded that there were cars parked along the road in both directions at the turnoff, but we knew that it was a long path just to see the pools, so we waited in line for a space. That was a good choice, because we ended up very close to the river and beginning of the “hike” around the pools, and that part was 1/2 mile. 

This spot is just amazing to see, with the runoff from the pools above cascading rapidly (and steamily) into the river below. It would be delicious to be able to swim in that river, it must be WARM! I will try to upload some photos when I post this—I took most of my photos on my iPad today so that I could upload them more easily when we get our brief connectivity.) Anyway, I just love the sight of the blue river, the yellow/green grasses, and the bright orange thermophillic bacteria (Joe told me that!) which line the cascading, steaming water as it plunges down the slope into the river.

Then we joined the large number of people and climbed up to the top of the slope, where we looped around the one-way boardwalk to see Grand Prismatic an the other pools and geyser which are nearby (I left my guidebook in the car, so can’t remember the names of all the pools.) We were up there for at least an hour, between sitting to watch the pool, chatting with people (Joe was explaining what caused the colors along the pools), and staring in awe at Grand Prismatic. She is just lovely. I also took a couple of photos which are identical, I think, to photos I took years ago, one of which is currently framed and hanging in the RV. It is just THAT photogenic a spot, it’s hard to tear your eyes away.

We made a brief stop at another small turnout to get a photo of the river, but better than that was a single bison who decided to meander right through the parking lot as he headed for the water. There was no place to park, so we didn’t stay—I just jumped out of the Jeep and took a photo of the bison while Joe drove loops around the parking lot.

Overflow from Hot Pool cascading into River

By now it was getting a little late, and we had not packed enough cold drinks or water, I thought. So since the next stop along the route was the Upper Geyser Basin (better known as Old Faithful), we drove there and pulled in in front of the General Store. Joey stayed in the car while I went inside, bought some cold drinks and nosh, and brought it out to him. Then he fell asleep and I went back into the store and wasted a lot of time browsing for postcards and other small items. At about 6:00, we finally left, having not seen one single geyser, including Old Faithful. (This was no hardship, since we’d seen Old Faithful last year, and walked the fantastic Upper Geyser Loop in the past.) We could have done the geysers, but we were hoping to see some animals in the evening hours on our way home. Therefore, we decided to continue the long way around the lower loop of the park roads, so we could pass through Hayden Valley.

Grand Prismatic Spring

I’m still not sure we made the best decision, even in retrospect. By this time, it was getting cooler, and I put on my long sleeved shirt. A while later, Joe put on my sweatshirt (he’d insisted he didn’t need anything in the morning, so hadn’t brought his.) We stopped to switch so I could drive, and just then a large deer-like animal— we think it was a female elk—ran across the road in front of us. So that was exciting. The park is just HUGE, and we probably drove an hour just to get to Hayden Valley (we did get beautiful views of Yellowstone Lake as we headed around the southeast corner of the park.) It was getting quite dusky by the time we got to Hayden (the sun disappears at 8pm) but we did, eventually, see that telltale line of stopped cars. Sure enough, there was a herd of bison grazing right by the road, with lots of calves included. We lingered there for a bit, but then noticed that in the distance we could see rain clouds, and we did not have the Jeep’s roof panels with us. So we headed home—another hour’s drive in the dark. It was pretty cold without the roof, but we had the idea of turning on the car’s heater, and that kept us very comfortable for the rest of the drive. After seeing one herd of bison and the young female elk dashing in front of us, we got home a bit after 9:00. Dinner was soup, and I collapsed before writing the blog—Joe had to wake me up (the lights were all on) to get undressed and actually get into bed.

So now we’ve driven around the entire lower loop, some of it quite rapidly, and we have one day left. And we haven’t even enjoyed any of the rivers yet! We did notice the road to the upper falls trail is closed this year—luckily we saw it last year! So tomorrow we will go to the Yosemite Falls overlooks which were too crowded for us last year. It seems that something is always closed somewhere in this park!

Arrival at Yellowstone National Park

No Roof!

2019-09-02 Monday (Labor Day)

We left Jefferson Lake this morning promptly at 10:30, and headed north on US 20 toward West Yellowstone. My thinking was, I couldn’t really expect to get reservations in Yellowstone National Park (I’d done a lot of research a few months back, and with the Jeep, there were limited sites available that we would fit into). But I figured that a lot of folks would be checking out of their campsites on Labor Day morning, because of the end of the long holiday weekend. My destination was Baker’s Hole, a National Forest Service campground only 3 miles from the west entrance to Yellowstone; and the west entrance is the closest entrance in the park to the main two scenic  loops which make up the park’s interior (only 14 miles, if I remember correctly.) Last year, we were 3 miles outside the east entrance; but it took an hour just to get to the main loop. This should be much quicker.

Despite stopping on the road when we saw an RV dump sign (the Jefferson Lake campground had no dump) and handling that little chore, we arrived at Baker’s Hole Campground at 1:00 pm. I was right; there were plenty of empty campsites, and we were lucky enough to get a pull-through site, meaning that when we are ready to leave, we can just hook up the Jeep and drive out of the site. We get half off with our senior national park card, but we are paying $8 extra/night to have an electric hookup. But for a campsite in the pine woods, with no close-by neighbors (the sites are very spacious), and electricity, and only 3 miles from our daily goal, we are very pleased indeed.

After unhooking the Jeep and settling in, we had some lunch and gave Cassie a good long walk around the campground. Then, at about 3:00ish, we threw some drinks and snacks into the Jeep, along with “shower bags”, and we headed for Yellowstone. The shower bags were because YNP has public pay showers in a number of different locations, and we figured if we were in the right place at the right time, we’d take showers. Oh—and the BEST thing we did—my idea, was we took the roof off the Jeep! So as we drove into the park, the glorious air was all around us, and we could see the mountains by looking up, instead of having to peer sideways through the windows! 

It was loads of fun driving along the Madison River with the breeze blowing and the sun shining on the river running through meadows and pine woods. We felt on top of the world! We stopped at a cascading pool, Beryl Pool, Gibbon Falls, and then decided to walk on a path to some paint pots and geysers. While there, we heard someone talking about Steamboat Geyser, which was due to erupt any day now, about 400 feet into the air. She said it makes small eruptions every 12 minutes or so, but that everyone is waiting for the big one! Steamboat was only a few more miles down the road, and we did walk the path to get to it, but it was a little disappointing. It wasn’t being very eruptive, and the most interesting things were the people who were sitting in their camp chairs, just waiting for the big eruption. There were at least a dozen of these folks, taking up most of the viewing platform. But we got tired of waiting, and walked back to the car.

By this time, it was almost 7:00 pm, and we were getting hungry (pretzels and ritz crackers with cheese were no longer helping stave off the desire for a meal.) We gave up the idea of making it all the way around to Hayden Valley at dusk to see the animals (it would have been hours to get home if we did), and instead we just retraced our tracks. But we weren’t entirely disappointed in the animals— we passed a buffalo determinedly walking down the side of the road, and we saw a herd of elk in one of the meadows along the Madison River. We got back to the RV at 8pm, put the roof back onto the Jeep, and came in for some dinner.

A couple of fun tidbits: We met a couple at the first cascading pool we stopped at, and chatted for a few minutes. We then ran into them at 3 other stops along our route! Also, when we got to the Norris Geyser Basin (where Steamboat Geyser is), we had to wait for a parking space because a car was being loaded onto a flatbed truck to be towed away. Needless to say, this can cause a mess in the small parking lot areas in Yellowstone. We ended up taking the space after the car was out of it, and then the owner came up to us to say he’d lived in Flemington, NJ for a while! We exchanged a few comments and then went to see Steamboat. We stopped briefly to sit and rest during that walk, and were joined on the bench by a nice couple who, seeing Joe’s t-shirt, asked when he had been to the Galapagos? He hadn’t, of course, but this started a whole conversation about “doing it all while you still can,” to quote this other woman. They seemed very lovely, and later I said to Joey, maybe we should vacation with THEM for a while!  Finally, as we left Norris Basin, we ran into that first couple again, and they asked us where we were heading next. When we said the Olympic Peninsula, the young people near us said, “You’re heading for our back yard!” So Joey asked, “Can we give you a call? What’s for dinner?” We had fun shmoozing with all these people— not our usual style, really. Back in the Norris Geyser Basin parking lot, I noticed a number of cars completely covered with protective covers, and realized these must belong to the folks waiting for the big eruption! This was because signs at the gate said “Caution—Steam from Steamboat Geyser can contain chemicals which can damage your car’s paint.” I guess these people were just truly optimists, that the fallout from the geyser would get that far!

Tomorrow our plan is to head in the opposite direction, toward Old Faithful and all of the geothermal places where we couldn’t visit last year. We’ve already noted that there are far fewer people in the park than last August, when we could hardly move. I’m playing the license-plate game, too— I’m going to see if I can get all the states JUST in Yellowstone. So far, I think I have almost half of them! (Including Alaska—they are parked across from us!) 

One last note: there is no cell reception in our campsite, and none throughout Yellowstone. We are passing through West Yellowstone every day, and the phone is able to work better, so I will try to upload from there. But pictures are probably a lost cause for now!

More Wows and a Yow!

Red Rocks in Wyoming in the Wind River Reservation

2019-08-31 Saturday

We woke up today expecting a long, scenic drive, and we were not disappointed! After getting gas (the prices are going up with each state we pass), we headed west toward Grand Teton National Park. We were not planning to visit the park, but the most direct road to our destination for tonight was right through the park, and through Jackson and Jackson Hole.

But before we got anywhere near that, we were already oohing over the scenery. The Wind River region is beautiful range land, with low rock formations surrounding it. The road went through the Wind River Indian Reservation too (and we saw a herd of antelope!) When the rocks suddenly changed to deep red (my favorites), we stopped at a pull-out to take some photos. They were absolutely beautiful.

The largest “city” on our route was Dubois, WY, which of course is really a smallish town, and is  dominated by the tourist industry. But because it was a holiday weekend, there seemed to be an awful lot of special things going on. We passed a church having a “dog wash” fund-raiser, and we would have stopped, except there was nowhere to park. We passed a trio of people dressed as pioneers (the sheriff waved to us), and all kinds of other things seemed to be bringing people to the sidewalks and streets. We finally pulled up at a curb which was large enough for us, and made ourselves some lunch there, because we wanted to take advantage of the good cell phone and wifi reception we were getting. I was able to add a few photos to yesterday’s blog, although not the scenery ones which needed emailing/downloading via wifi-- it wasn’t strong enough (I took scenery shots today with my phone to avoid that problem for this blog.)

Teton Mountain Range

We continued on after lunch, and were rising higher into the mountains and the national forest land. And then, we saw the incredible pointed peaks of the Tetons rising in the distance. Grand Teton NP has never been one of my favorite parks, but there’s no denying how amazing it is to see those craggy mountains. We drove on into the park, and were soon welcomed by a herd of buffalo grazing in a meadow not far from the road. Of course we had to stop to take photos, even though we’d already seen buffalo up close and personal in Custer State Park.

Joe and Cassie go out to look at buffalo

We wound our way along the base of the Tetons as we followed the road south to the town of Jackson. There we turned west again, and had one more hurdle to get over-- the Teton Pass at a mere 8,432 feet. We were not worried about it, because we’ve gone over lots higher passes--but not, it turns out, while towing a 3,000+ pound Jeep. Also the grade of the road on the way up (and down, for that matter) was a 10% grade, which is STEEP. We started on our way up, and soon felt very sorry for the line of cars following us-- we were chugging up the mountain in first gear! And even at that, we were not going the speed limit and the engine was really working hard. There was nothing to do about it-- there were no turnouts to let people pass until we’d been driving for perhaps 10 minutes. 

At last we came to a large turnout, and by that time we’d discussed unhitching the Jeep and driving in two separate vehicles. So when we saw the large area on the opposite side of the road, Joe turned into it, letting everyone get past us. We stopped, and looked down from this vantage point at the valley and road below us. It was SO far down there, it was no wonder that we’d had trouble getting up it--the steepness was apparent from above. So we unhitched the Jeep, and after carefully making sure we were on the same page as to our plans, I took my phone (which was virtually without any battery left), my handbag, and a walkie-talkie, and I got into the Jeep. Joe had the other walkie-talkie, and he drove ahead of me in the RV.

Looking Down from Teton Pass on the Road below

It turned out that this was a great plan, except we should have implemented it about 8,000 feet sooner. We hadn’t realized that we were almost at the peak of the pass! We soon came to a small pullout that had a lot of cars, and people looking at the view... the RV wouldn’t have fit into it, even without the Jeep. But from there, it was a downhill run. I followed Joe, making sure (via walkie-talkie-- a brilliant idea, and we could hear each other perfectly clearly) that he’d seen the road grade signs and the speed limits. We also exchanged occasional comments. And so we proceeded until we passed a “Welcome to Idaho” sign. Joe asked if I expected any more uphill climbs, and I didn’t, so when we came to a gas station, he pulled in with me behind him (he got gas while I parked on the side of the lot), and we re-connected our two vehicles.

Once we were back together, we discussed the fact that we will be encountering a number of other high mountains during the next few weeks. So we will plan to detach the Jeep at the BOTTOM, rather than when we are most of the way up, and drive the vehicles separately. Although we don’t like the idea of not being together, it’s clearly going to make it a lot easier for the RV to get over the mountain passes. I mean, we don’t even consider 8,432 feet to be that high-- last summer we went over 12,000 foot Independence Pass, a few years ago we went over the Red Mountain Pass at 11,018,  and we took Mo over the Tioga Pass (9,943 feet) to Yosemite (not once but twice!), and the Beartooth Highway at 10,900+ feet.  But the extra weight on the tail end of the RV is obviously a drag (literally)!

We still had an hour or so to drive, but the road was beautiful! To our surprise, we DID have a bit more climbing to do, but the ascent was not nearly as long nor steep as the Teton Pass had been, and we soon came into a beautiful plateau area full of golden cut wheat. This is one of my favorite “colors” on the road, and the fields just rolled away for miles, while the mountains rose up beyond them. Running beside us was the Snake River, which we discovered last year seems to be omnipresent in the state of Idaho. It is fast and beautiful in this part of the state, and we stopped at a wayside rest area to take photos of the landscape.

Looking Down at the Snake River Valley

It was only about 30 minutes from there to our campground tonight, a county park in Rigby, Idaho, with a large lake which includes a beach and campground. I had called a couple of days ago to see if they had any sites open, because of my concern about the holiday weekend, and the woman on the phone said she had one site, because she had had a cancellation that morning! So I grabbed the site for tonight and tomorrow night (I had researched the location a few months ago while planning my trip, so I had the info with me.) It is not our usual venue, being quite crowded with families and young people everywhere, and a bit noisy. On the other hand, the people next to us on either side are not very close. The campsites are on a loop road around the lake, and we are not on the “lake side” of the road, so when the sun set a little while ago and looked so nice over the lake, I couldn’t get a photo without it mostly including RVs, campers, and tents. But we are fine here--we have water and electricity, there’s plenty of room for our Jeep in our site, and we are in a suburban area. There are museums near by, and we have a LONG shopping list which must be tended to tomorrow. So museum and shopping is our current plan for the day.

Varieties of Wyoming

2019-08-30 Friday (lots of photos, but having trouble with internet, so will upload scenery photos later)

We woke up this morning with an agenda to leave our campground early, so we'd have no trouble getting to tonight's campground with plenty of time to set up our TV connections for the MSU football game. Despite a nice morning with showers and shmoozing with Beth on FaceTime, we left by 10:00, which was right on time.

We started driving west from Casper toward Lander, Wyoming, and as soon as we got out of the city, I started in with the wow wow wows again over the scenery. Wyoming really is a spectacular state-- no matter what route we've taken (and this one was new for us), it's been so beautifyl. Unfortunately, most of my photos are on my iPad, and the iPad is refusing to connect to the internet, which is not good here (more on that later.) I hope I can get the photos into the blog tomorrow, because that is what most of the blog is about!

At a little before noon, I noticed on my map that we were just about to pass a historical interpretation site called the Devil's Gap and Mormon Hand Cart site. We pulled into the area and immediately saw the Devil's Gap in the near distance--a distinct break in the rock walls ahead of us. But just as I took a few photos of that, Joe said, "Look on the side of the road!" and there were 3 antelope just looking at us! When we got too close, they started to depart, but I was able to get some photos of them.

Hand-cart replicas. Mom pulled one handle, Father pulled the other.

We ate some lunch, then got out to explore the interpretive site. There was no one there but us, although it seemed like some kind of ranch or something like that--there were quite a few buildings and several parking areas, including a large one for "trekkers" (we were not sure what that meant.) But as we wandered down the steps toward the area saying "visitor's center", a man came out to greet us. The site is run by the Church of Latter Day Saints, and he was a Mormon who was there to give information to visitors. He told us about the history of the site, and when we went into the small museum, it made everything even clearer to us.

Example of loaded handcart

In the 1850s, there were a lot of Mormons moving west to Salt Lake City. The church set up a fund to help finance this immigration, but the funds ran low because so many were coming to America to join the church out west. So Brigham Young came up with the idea that instead of having to pay for expensive large wagons and teams of animals to pull them, the people could move their belongings in small hand-carts which they pulled themselves. Small settlements were then set up along the trail, and the Mormons in Utah would send out regular supplies to the settlements, so the immigrants could have their supplies replenished every few months as they ran out.

The Martin Company set out in 1856, but unfortunately were delayed in their departure due to a lack of hand-carts-- the builders could not keep up with the demand. As a result, they left late, and missed the window of opportunity to safely complete their journey. When they arrived at the settlements, there were no supplies for them. Many of them died along the trail, and this site where we were was the area where many of them died, before finally being rescued by members of the church coming from Utah after hearing that there were two companies (there was another one 2 weeks ahead of the Martin Company) who had run out of supplies and were stranded. As our guide/host said, "This really marks the site of a disaster rather than a triumph." He said he himself was descended from survivors of this migration.

It seems that this location is a place where members of the church come to re-experience the travails of their ancestors. "Trekkers" come and head off into the surrounding hills, pulling handcarts for several days to understand better the ordeal it must have been for those in 1856. Our guide told us that 20,000 people had come during the past summer, although it is winding down now. It was all very interesting. I told Joey that this reminded me a lot of the concept of the March of the Living, that Jewish kids go on to visit the concentration camps in Europe. As our guide said, it's important not to forget your own history.

We wandered around the site for perhaps an hour before finally getting back on the road. Not long afterwards, as I was looking down, suddenly the RV swerved violently back and forth! As I looked up, I caught a glimpse of SOMETHING. I made some kind of exclamation (you can imagine what kind) and Joey said an antelope had just run across the road RIGHT in front of our RV, and he had both braked and swerved to miss it. If it had hit us and come through our windshield, we'd have been in big trouble! It was VERY scary for both of us.

After that, there were no more incidents, and we arrived in Lander at 4pm. We went into the center of town to see if there seemed to be strong wifi, because we were willing to go elsewhere if necessary. Then Joe called the campground, where they insisted that the wifi was usually pretty good at our assigned site, but if not, it was very strong at the office and we could sit there to watch our game. So we went to the campsite and checked in, but as soon as we got to our space, we didn't have any wifi or any decent internet connection.

I'll spare the details, but we spent an hour, both trying to connect via internet, and by using an app on my phone to connect to the radio network in East Lansing that broadcasts the Spartan games. Just before 5pm local (7pm EDT), we got everything working, both radio and tv. We were able to watch or listen to maybe 90% of the game, I'd say-- but the internet did keep cutting out. When the picture was lost, I'd turn on the radio. It was a little crazy, I guess, but football fans ARE a little crazy.

Joey made us dinner while we were watching, and at halftime we did give up and go sit in the patio area near the campsite office. Luckily it was an absolutely lovely, mild evening, and very nice to sit out. The game ended at 8:30 (MSU won, 28-7), and after we put our electronic paraphernalia back into the RV, we went out for ice cream in the Jeep. Then Joey went to bed, while I did the dishes and then wrote this blog. I just hope I can upload it-- the internet is really NOT what I'd prefer, that is for sure!! And I suspect it will get worse from here on, so we are probably lucky we at least saw the first game of the season. And that was the evening-- I will try to upload this, and then I am going to bed. We have a long drive tomorrow, to Idaho.

Heading West on our 48th Anniversary

2018-08-29

Not much to write about today— we got out of our campsite at 11:15 this morning, after cleaning up and hooking up the Jeep. We had some difficulty with Cassie—she simply refused to get into the RV. She gets this cow-like look on her face, with her head held down and looking up at us at the same time, simply refusing to go up the stairs. We finally tied her up to a tree while we hooked up the Jeep, and then it was a battle of authority and she caved and got in the RV.

We drove south and then west in the Black Hills, and stopped for lunch at the parking lot in Jewel Cave National Monument. We did the exact same thing last year! After that, we drove into Wyoming, and everything went smoothly until we found ourselves in one of those construction zones where you have to wait for the flag an and the pilot car. The wait was about 20 minutes, and then we followed with a long line of cars as the pilot car led us about 5 miles going 20 or so miles/hour, back and forth through the construction and new pavement. That backed our time line up by about an hour.

The Road Ahead in Wyoming

I almost forgot— there was one thing that was really cool about today’s drive— we saw ANTELOPE at the side of the road! Here we are out west, driving through the prairie grazing land. And suddenly, there were these deer-like animals, and then I realized, they were antelope! We’ve never seen that before. Joey took the photos on his camera, because I was driving, and he hasn’t sent them to me. So I’ll have to add them later. But it was very cool.

After much discussion, we decided to splurge on a site tonight at an RV “resort” in Casper, Wyoming. After 3 nights with no electricity, our house batteries were very drained, and we couldn’t even charge our phones overnight because we didn’t want to risk draining them further. We also were essentially out of water (luckily the drinking water pump was adjacent to our site, so we were filling old water jugs with water for the past day) and we needed to dump our waste tanks. The electricity was the deciding factor, though. So we are at an expensive (for us) campground, but we are happily using up a LOT of electricity. In addition, Joe spent some time playing with our television access via our new antenna and laptop, and as I type this, I am watching the Minnesota/South Dakota State game on FS1. This makes me SO happy because, if our internet connection is good tomorrow, we will be able to watch the MSU game, which is also on FS1. So we’ve splurged for tomorrow as well, to make sure we are in a campground which has full hookups for our laptop etc.

Today was our 48th anniversary. We’ve spent a lot of anniversaries on the road! Once I remember one in Wisconsin, where we had a problem with Mo all afternoon. About 4 years ago (I think), we were in East Lansing for our anniversary. And there have been a lot of others. Today was very nice— nothing to stand out about our drive, but our campground is next to the North Platte River, and after we got here, we sat in a swing in the grass by the river, watching it flow and feeling relaxed and mellow. And that is just a fine ending to a fine day, as far as I am concerned.

From Loveland With Love

Day 24: Sept. 19, 2011

Today just goes to prove, we have no idea where we will end up by the end of the day, even though I spend hours planning our route and itinerary. We went with serendipity today and what a great day!

We started out as planned, driving into downtown Cheyenne to the Union Pacific Railroad Depot, which is now restored as a museum and visitor’s center. I was interested in the Union Pacific Railroad because the company helped build the first transcontinental railroad, which followed the route of the Oregon Trail, the Mormon Trail, the California Trail, the Pony Express, and… after the railroad, the Lincoln Highway and now, Interstate 80. We learned about all this last year when we went to the Great Platte River Road Archway Monument in Kearney, Nebraska. And the second reason I was interested is because of the movie Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, when Butch’s gang kept robbing the same train and Mr. Woodcock wouldn’t open the train doors because, “I work for Mr. E.H. Harriman of the Union Pacific Railroad, and he ENTRUSTED me….”

When we got to the Depot, we had to decide exactly how and to what extent we were going to explore the city of Cheyenne itself. Cheyenne has no less than 3 museums which AAA gives a Gem rating to. But it was a beautiful sunny, not-too-hot day, and neither Joe nor I really felt like going to a museum (besides, how much cowboy, frontier and westerward expansion collections can two New Jersey kids be expected to take, anyway?) We decided to be relaxed and instead we got tickets to take a 90-minute trolley ride with a narration of the history of Cheyenne. The tickets included admission to the Cheyenne Depot Museum.
So after parking Mo and Roxy a couple of blocks away, we took a 90 minute trolley tour. Before it started, we had a little time to read some of the many historic markers in Depot Plaza, a park- like area with sculpture, seating, grass, and ambience. One thing that stood out was all the large painted cowboy boots--Cheyenne had a project like other cities, where they invited various artists to paint cowboy boots to tell a story. We always love that kind of thing--we’ve seen cows in Chicago, seagulls in Ocean City, MD, and some others of the same ilk. So I took photos of the cowboy boots whenever we saw them.

Our tour guide was really excellent--I think she was a frustrated actress, because she didn’t just narrate, she made a dramatic presentation of every story she told, even if it was just facts and figures. We saw all the historic buildings in downtown Cheyenne, and heard all kinds of fun stories. Cheyenne was a city which was founded and expanded in literally *months*, just before the railroad came to the town. It was wild and woolly and had the nickname “Hell on Wheels”, but so many wealthy folks from the east also came to the new town (to make even more money! Or because they were officers in the army, which guarded the town as a strategic position in the Wyoming Territory) that the city was quickly semi-civilized.

Many old buildings still remain and are being lovingly restored. And there is a lot of western influence everywhere--the city really trades on its image as home of the famous Frontier Days Rodeo. But the thing Joey and I noticed most was that although the city looked really nice downtown, there were so few people! So little traffic. NO congestion of any kind. It was really bizarre. I would have been comfortable driving Mo through the very center of town, right in front of the Capitol Building--there was just no significant traffic. This is what it’s like out here--so much room, and so few people compared to New Jersey, that everything looks “empty”.

After our tour, it was lunchtime, and then we went to the Depot Museum. I really enjoyed it--it was cool looking at all the old photographs of the city being built up, and the influence of the Union Pacific. This city literally was founded from scratch in 1867, so its growth is documented from the very beginning. I loved the quotes from the local newspaper, which started up almost immediately and chronicled everything of importance that occurred. The Depot itself is a historic landmark, and is really beautiful, in that old-wood, tiled and elegant way of public buildings from the beginning of the 20th century.

The trains are still very much present, although there are evidently no passenger trains anymore. But the tracks run right along next to I-80 (we saw a lot of trains while driving yesterday) and right through Cheyenne. We heard them all night from our campground, and probably almost a dozen went through while we were downtown. They say about 90 trains PER DAY (!!) go through Cheyenne.

By the time we finished with the museum, it was already 3pm, and we decided we needed to get going. So we found our way to I-25 South, and drove 7 miles until we crossed the state line into Colorado. We stopped at the visitor center in Fort Collins, because I wanted to see if there was anything fun we could do east of Denver--almost everything touristy in Colorado is based around the Rocky Mountains, which by the way showed up immediately in the distance and got closer and closer as we drove.

I have to say, when the people staffing the visitor center can’t think of ANYTHING to tell you to see in the eastern part of their state, it’s kind of discouraging. So I discussed how to bypass Denver and went back to Mo. Little did I know that serendipity had stepped in--Joe had picked up one brochure, for Loveland, Colorado. It seems that Loveland bills itself as a “work of art”--the entire city is full of public sculpture, including several parks and sculpture gardens. Loveland was only about 16 miles south of us, so we decided we would stop there and see some of the sculptures.
We used the brochure’s map and our GPS, and found Benson Sculpture Garden. It was in a residential neighborhood, a large grassy park with no vehicle entrance point. We simply parked by the curb, leashed Roxy, and started walking through the park. It was about 5pm, a lovely time for a stroll, and the sculptures were fantastic. The shadows made it hard to get good photos of many of them--which is probably lucky for this blog, since uploading photos is so hard!

When we found a plaque describing the place, we learned that the property had originally been a homestead which the Benson family had given to the city, to be kept as a wildlife and wetlands area. Indeed, the center of the park was a large pond, surrounded by cattails and other plants, and all of the grassy areas in the center were “natural”, not mowed or otherwise altered. Some of the statues made obvious use of the natural landscape.

But the entire perimeter was lush lawn, and many sculptures were set into the grass. As Joe said, we HAD to walk on the grass to look at them and read their titles and the artists’ names.
So we had the most delightful evening stroll for an hour or so, passing other families with children and dogs, and just relaxing and enjoying ourselves. There are over 100 scultpures in this park alone--there are other parks and places all over Loveland with sculptures. It seems to be a “lovely” place to live!

Now it was 6:30pm, and time to really think about dinner, and where to spend the night. And once again, Loveland was just perfect--there is a state park right at the edge of the city! No wifi, of course, but electric hookups, hot showers, and a lake next to our campsite. With a fantastic sunset just as we arrived. So that is where we are tonight, and when we woke up, we had no idea of spending ANY time here whatsoever. Just goes to show you. Joe’s angel of inspiration was directing us today.

Housekeeping in Wyoming

Day 23: Sept. 18, 2011

It’s always a bit strange spending the night at an interstate rest area--on one hand, no one ever bothers us and the highway noises are never as loud as you might expect. But we always wake up early, and it’s a conducive way to get an early start. So we were actually back on the road by about 8:30 this morning.

We had several priorities and a general direction in mind. The former included finding water--we discovered before dinner last night that we had run out! I’m referring to Mo’s tank of water, which we use for washing dishes and flushing the toilet--for drinking and cooking, we use bottled water, which we still had plenty of. But it is disconcerting to turn the tap and get nothing! Usually we top it off whenever we get the chance, but we must have missed doing that, or else we used a lot. Also Joe wanted to change Mo’s oil, since we have travelled over 3,000 miles. The general direction was: east on I-80 to Laramie and Cheyenne, and then south to Denver and a connection to I-70 east.

50 miles down the road from our rest stop, we stopped in Rawlins at a Flying J for the water fill-up, gas, and tank dump. By then it was just after 10, so with the help of our Next Exit book, we found an auto parts store in Rawlins. Joe bought oil and some other stuff so he could change the oil and filter, and repair the boo-boo Mo got when we tangled with the rock the day before (the muffler to the generator had gotten knocked off.) It only took Joe an hour to change the oil and fix the muffler--he is amazing! I did some internal housekeeping meanwhile--washing the dishes from the night before, now that we had water, sweeping, and putting away stuff that was floating around.

At 11:30 we left Rawlins and drove another 100 miles to Laramie, arriving just at lunchtime. We went directly to the Wyoming Territorial Prison State Historic Site, a “gem” attraction in the AAA book. We ate lunch, then went in to find out more about the only prison which had ever had Butch Cassidy behind its bars.
The place turned out to be very interesting. The prison building itself was built
in 1872 and was used until the very early 1900s. Then it was taken over by the University of Wyoming, which used the buildings and land as an experimental stock farm. It was restored and renovated in the 1990s using rigorous archaeological principles, and the panels explaining how the building was rebuilt were very well done. They did make use of their Butch Cassidy connection, however!
Most interesting were the stories of the prisoners, and the information about daily life in the prison, from the pov of not just the prisoners but the wardens, the guards, and people who came in to give the prisoners some access to culture, religion, and education. They had people of every type as prisoners at one time or another. This is a panel about Julius Greenwald, a Jewish immigrant from Poland. He was a cigar maker by trade. The plaque says that he shot his wife at a “house of prostitution”. One is left to assume that he found her working there. A nearby panel referencing the problems of domestic violence mentioned that women sometimes worked as prostitutes to bring more money into the family. Evidently if this is was Mrs. Greenwald was doing, her husband didn’t appreciate it. But it’s certainly not the usual story of a Polish immigrant to America! While he was incarcerated, he made cigars which were sold all over the country. This was not that unusual--a number of the prisoners were able to pursue their trades in prison and this made money for the lessee of the prisoner laborers.
Besides the prison, the historic site includes renovations of the wardens’ house, the broom factory, and several buildings left from when the site was used to raise stock. So it was later than I’d expected when we left, and we still had to stop at yet another Walmart. We needed some basic groceries and a few things for Mo. It’s amazing how we run out of *something* we need almost every day--I suppose it’s because we keep everything in small quantities. We did have an unexpected bonus as we left the store, though. The clouds in the sky were extra-dramatic, and there was a semi-circle of sunrays coming through the clouds. I pointed it out to Joe, and he said, "It's heaven!" If nothing else, this photo shows how big the sky is out here, but I think you can see the rays, too.
By this time, I had realized that no way would we make it any farther than Cheyenne tonight, and that is where we are, at a campground in Cheyenne. As usual, we had wonderful scenery on the road here. We are hoping to see a little bit of Wyoming’s capital tomorrow, before we get back on the road.