Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Pics - May 25&26,2008-Mt.Rushmore, Badlands, Black Hills, Etc.






























































Here are pictures we took on our way to Rapid City, SD plus those we took at Mt. Rushmore, the Black Hills, Badlands National Park, and the Needles Highway









Saturday, May 24, 2008

May 24, 2008 - Riverton, WY to Rapid City, SD







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Today we traveled a long ways. We left Riverton, WY early this morning and traveled across WY and into NE and turned north. We made our way up to Custer, SD and through Hill, SD and on to the outskirts of Rapid City.




The drive from Riverton through most of WY was not very interesting. This area is what is called "high desert". It is mostly flat, with lots of sagebrush. The towns are tiny and far apart. One town had a populations of 44 and another had a population of only 1. I'm surprised it even rated a sign. I took a couple of naps during this part of our trip.




As we got closer to the NE line, the landscaped started to change. The land started to roll softly and the sagebrush gave way to green grass. Mike says that this time of the year is the prettiest in this part of the country because there is enough moisture to make the grass green. Not too far into NE, the land flattened out. There were a few homes dotting the countryside, but very few. We saw lots of deer and antelope and cattle. This is big cattle country. I was shocked at how beautiful this area is. I fully expected it to be desert country.




We turned north toward SD. Our journey took us into the Black Hills area. We did not realize that we were going to drive through Wind Caves National Park. We had no idea we were going to pass through this park. It is an interesting place. It is a buffalo refuge above the ground, and under the ground are 116 miles of caves.




We also passed by the mountain carving of Crazy Horse and the turnoff to Mt. Rushmore. Tomorrow we are going to visit these places as well as a short drive into the Bad Lands and along Needles Highway.

Friday, May 23, 2008

May 23, 2008 - Grand Tetons and Jackson Hole

I can’t believe another week is almost over. Today is Friday and we left Yellowstone this morning. I need to make a correction to a comment about Yellowstone Lake. I said in an earlier blog that it was so wide that I could not see the opposite shore. Well, today it was sunny when we left the park and I was able to see the other shore. Granted, it was a long way off, but I could see it. The snow and bad visibility prevented me from seeing the mountains on the other side when I first viewed the lake.

OK - Now that my correction is out of the way, I’ll move on. We left Yellowstone this morning around 9am and headed out the south side of the park. Almost immediately upon leaving Yellowstone on the south side, you enter the Grand Teton National Park. We did not take any of the side roads in the Grand Teton Park because we were making out way to Jackson Hole, WY. We had mail waiting on us at the Jackson Hole post office and we needed to pick it up before they closed.

The Grand Teton mountains were off to my right going toward Jackson Hole. The Snake River runs along them and there is a very wide valley on either side of the highway. I think what makes the Grand Tetons so remarkable is there are no foothills in front of them. The rise sharply right out of the valley floor. I don’t know the height of these mountains, but they must be pretty high because they still have a heavy snow cover on them. It is such a sight to see the contrast of the deep blue of the mountains, the bright white of the snow against the lighter blue of the sky and green of the valley. I hope the pictures I took will be turn out good so that you can see the beauty of these mountains.

Well today it finally happened. I SAW A MOOSE! We have seen tons of elk, deer, antelope and buffalo, but not the elusive moose. We were well into our drive to Jackson Hole and saw cars stopped. We slowed down and I strained to see what everyone was looking at. I couldn’t see a thing. Mike asked me if I wanted to stop and see if it was a moose. Mike pulled off and stopped the truck. I got out and walked back to check it out. Sure enough, back in the trees just a short way from the road, a female was lying down. I got some good pictures. I was hoping she would stand up, but she never did. A noisy car came by and she did open her eyes and raise her head. I think she even winked at me. Anyway, I can now rest easy as I have finally seen a moose in the wild.

Jackson Hole is a neat little place. Mike had been there before and knew I would like it. The streets of the town are narrow so we found a back road where we could park the RV. We walked around town for a while and had a bite of lunch. Jackson Hole is a ski town filled with lots of expensive little shops. As a true typical ski town, they have a great pizza place. Mike and I ate lunch at Mountain High Pizza Pie. It sure was good. I’d been wanting some pizza and this hit the spot.

We found out that the main post office is now outside of town. So, we had to go back and get the truck and RV and drive out to the new post office. Thankfully, the roads in the newer section of town are not nearly as narrow so we did not have any problem driving to the new post office.

We left Jackson Hole and backtracked a ways ant then took another highway toward Dubois, WY and on to Riverton, WY where we spent the night. Our time on this trip is fast running out if we want to bet back to KY for a family reunion by the 23rd of June. We still have several places we want to visit on our drive back east. I would have liked to stayed in Jackson Hole and visited some of the shops, but I knew I was not going to buy anything and we needed to get on our way.

Pics - May 23, 2008 - Grand Tetons and Jackson Hole, WY


















May 21st and 22nd - Yellowstone National Park

We are on our way to Yellowstone. The weather is lousy. It was raining when we left Ennis around 10:30. The temperature in Ennis was around the mid-40’s.

About 50 miles outside of Ennis on US287 there is a lake called Quake Lake. This lake was created by an earthquake in 1959 that caused an entire mountainside to come down and block up the Madison River. As you drive along today, you can see how huge this slide was. The only changes made to the landscape since the slide is the recovery of the highway and the opening that was cut to allow the Madison River to flow out. The dead tops of trees stick out of the lake along the sides. They give the area an eerie sort of feeling. Mike says he thinks he read that there was a town that was either covered by the slide or the waters that backed up quickly. I really need to check the internet to see if there is any information out there on Quake Lake. Now that I have seen the slide area and lake, I know it would be an interesting read.

A bit farther along US287, there is a dam and another large lake with several small housing villages along the shore. The weather has changed to snow and there is ice on the lake. There are a few hearty souls out fishing. I like the guy who has his fishing lines in the water and is sitting in his truck watching the lines. I guess it is kind of cold to stand out there on a day like today, but his desire to fish is great.

As we came to the intersection of US 287 and the road to Yellowstone, we had to stop because there was a herd of wild buffalo out in the middle of the road. I was super excited to see them. The ranger had the traffic stopped in three directions. Just when I thought it could not get any better, three rangers rode up on horseback and corralled the buffalo through a gate onto rangeland. It was just like in the old west with cowboys on horses!

We drove on through the small town of West Yellowstone and turned into the park. It was snowing like crazy. The ranger said they are expecting several inches of show today. I guess this was not the best time to visit Yellowstone weather wise, but there not a lot of people here this time of year and that is nice. We only drove a mile or less when we saw our first wild animals inside Yellowstone. There was a heard of buffalo in the road and several elk along the side of the road. Just a bit further, we saw another heard of buffalo with lots of calves.

I should have mentioned that the countryside is still scarred from the forest fire that ravaged this park in either 1988 or 89. New trees are growing, but the massive fire damage can still be seen everywhere. I can’t imagine what it must have been like to be here and see the fire raging.
The Gibbon River runs along the road from the west entrance. Water levels are high here and the meadows are saturated. It almost looks like swampland. Our visibility of the landscape was limited by the snowfall. We saw several more buffalo and elk along our way. They are skinny (according to Mike). The winter is hard on them and they are seeking out food in the lower areas. Mike says that by this fall, they will be much fatter as they store up fat to carry them through the harsh winter here in WY.

We had to travel almost 50 miles once inside Yellowstone before we came to Fishing Bridge Campground. The elevation at the campground is right at 8,000 feet. This is the only campground in Yellowstone with electric hookups. With the temperature expected to dip below freezing, we needed electric to run our ceramic heaters. We could use our gas furnace, but we try to save the propane when we can. Besides, I am not much on “true” roughing it. I like my modern conveniences here in the wilderness.

I fixed us a bite of lunch and then we headed off to see Old Faithful. It is 39 miles from Fishing Bridge to Old Faithful. Yellowstone Lake was on our left as we went toward Old Faithful. It is a huge lake. I could not see all the way across the lake for a long ways. I guess the length of the lake is at least 20 miles because it was beside us of most of our way to Old Faithful. The sad thing is that the lake is still frozen over so we won’t get to see the color of the water. I’m sure it is just beautiful in the summer.

Old Faithful only erupts every 90 +/- minutes and we got there with 40 minutes to spare so we went into the Old Faithful lodge and walked around. The lodge is an old log building with rustic fireplaces and tall ceilings. There is a huge sitting room where you can relax while you are waiting to see Old Faithful erupt. They have a cafeteria and a couple of places to get snacks as well as a gift shop off the sitting room. We had time to walk around the gift shop and get cup of hot chocolate before going outside to see the eruption. It was snowing so hard that even with our rain jackets on over our coats, we were cold. We took umbrellas and they helped keep the blowing snow from hitting us in the face.

I’ll have to admit that the eruption of Old Faithful was not what I was expecting. It was actually very un-exciting. I don’t know if some eruptions are better than others or not, but this one was not much. We saw steam come out in puffs, but not anything shooting up high in the air. It might be that the wind was blowing so hard that as the steam came out, it got blown sideways instead of shooting up. I wish we could have seen it erupt again to see if the next eruption was more exciting, but we did not want to wait another 90 minutes for the next eruption.

On the drive back to the campground, we stopped at one of the waterfalls next to the road. They have had a lot of snow this year and the rivers are very high making the waterfalls spectacular. The water crashing down on the rocks below sounds much like rumbling thunder.

We also stopped at a couple of places to see the mud pits that boil up out of the ground and some places where there is sparkling clear water boiling up. It is funny to go along in all this snow and see steam rising out of the ground. There are quite a few places along the edge of Yellowstone Lake where steam is rising. Mike and I both commented on there being openings under the lake. I bet there are places on the lake that never freeze because of the heat from the vents under the lake. I guess I should ask someone.

We got back to the campground around 6:30pm and it was snowing like crazy. I took the dogs out about 10:30 and I bet we had gotten several inches of snow. Mike stuck a bottle of wine in the snow to chill it. This was a trick we learned in CO the first year we were there skiing.

May 22, 2008 - Continuation of trip to Yellowstone

Today, we started out around 9am for a day of sightseeing. We are limited in where we can go due to the snow. Most of the walkways to the river and lake are not cleared. At least it has stopped snowing and we can see some of the scenery.

Our first stop today was to see several mud volcanoes. It is interesting to see mud boiling up out of the ground or out of the side of the mountain. Mike commented that I could take a mud bath - I think I’ll pass. I don’t know that I could get pass the rotten egg smell of the sulfur. Plus there are signs that say the temp is a bit higher than I would prefer.

Next we stopped to see the upper Yellowstone Falls. Talk about BIG water - these power of these falls is created not only by the sheer drop, but by the narrowing of the river by rocks that cut the width of the river by about half. The upper falls are not the tallest falls we have seen on our trip, but they sure are mighty.

Our next stop was at the Yellowstone Grand Canyon. I did not realize that there was such a place until yesterday. Mike said something about the Yellowstone Grand Canyon and I read about the area in the information we got when get came into the park. This canyon is really something to see. I think the sign at the canyon said that the distance across is up to 4,000 feet and the depth is up to 2,000 feet. You can see and hear the Yellowstone River rumbling along the bottom of the canyon.

A bit further down the road, we stopped and viewed the lower falls of the Yellowstone River. The viewpoint was from way up above the falls, but the sight was magnificent. The lower falls are much taller than the upper falls. Our viewing vantage point of the lower falls gave us an panoramic view of the falls and the into the canyon. We were also able to see an Osprey nest up at the top of one of the finger cliffs in the canyon.

We pulled out onto the main road and immediately saw cars stopped up ahead. Here in Yellowstone, this means that someone has spotted some wildlife. We slowed down and got to see our first wolf. He was just a 100 yards or so up a hill. I’m surprised someone spotted him because he blended in so well with the landscape. While we were taking pictures, he moved across the hillside and onto the snow. He stood out better against the white snow and we got some great pictures. Our next critter was just up the road a few hundred yards. We came around a curve and a coyote was right beside the road. I got a couple of great shots of him as well.

We took a route toward Mammoth Hot Springs and the North Entrance of Yellowstone. We had no idea what a treat was in store for us. The hot springs area is a large land section on the side of a mountain that has large springs of hot water and minerals that have built up over time. The colors are beautiful shades of beige, brownish oranges and turquoise. I believe the tall mounds of these minerals are called plumes. There is a road that allows you to drive around the area and numerous places to park and get out and walk on the boardwalks to get closer looks at these springs. The wind had picked up when we were there and it was too cold for us to walk far. So, we mostly viewed this area by car. We did get some pretty good snapshots to add to the blog.
From Mammoth Hot Springs, we could see what we thought was a village down at the bottom of the mountain. It turned out to be old Fort Yellowstone. The buildings we were seeing were some of the old barracks plus a visitor center and a newer lodge. Our drive down the mountain took us through this fort area and then to the North Entrance gate to Yellowstone. I learned that the North Entrance has historically been the entrance that most people use to come into the park. There is a monument arch here that gives the date of the dedication of the park.

By this time in our tour, it had started to snow pretty hard. As we went back up the mountain, the visibility became more and more limited and the snow began to stick to the windshield and the roads. It was a wet snow and even though it was sticking, we did not have any issue with traction. We saw a couple of buffalo at several different spots along the way. We were surprised to see that the wolf we saw earlier in the day was still sitting in basically the same spot on our return. About a mile or two from where we were to turn into our campground, we saw a number of cars stopped. We knew this meant that there was an animal up ahead. It was a black bear. The bear was back a ways into the woods and was just walking along as if no highway or cars were around. It even pulled some leaves off the branches of a tree. One time, it turned and headed toward the road. We thought it was going to come much closer to us, but it turned again and headed back away from us and up the hill. Mike and I both tried to get some pictures, but they did not come out well. The trees and the distance were an issue.

The only disappointment for me was not seeing a moose. I wanted to see one last year on our trip to Alaska, and I did not. I had hoped to see one here, and I have not. Mike says that there is still tomorrow on our trip out and to Jackson Hole, WY. He has seen them in Jackson Hole in past years. I’m crossing my fingers for good luck for a sighting tomorrow.

Pics - May 21st and 22nd - Yellowstone National Park, WY