Bozeman, MT (08-23-20)

Booking a Bozeman RV park was a little strange. We have been here before, and usually we would look to see where we stayed, and decide if we want to stay there again. But this time, we just looked at our RV park app, and started calling places to check availability. So, it wasn’t until we were all checked in, and leaving to go out, that I realized we had stayed at this RV park before. In my defense, the name had changed AND, the last time we were here, they were full, so the guy let us park in his driveway.

We used Amazon locker for the second time while we were here. Actually, we ordered the stuff before we got here. It works out great, especially since if the stuff gets here before us, no worries, it just sits there till we arrive. It’s pretty good for travelers. The only issue we have had is that two day shipping doesn’t usually work with small towns, so we err on the side of ordering it too soon.

One of the things we have had to deal with to an extent, is smoke from the wildfires. Over a million acres are burning in California and the smoke covers a lot of airspace.

When we arrived in Bozeman, we were in a red zone, meaning the amount of smoke is noticeable to the breathing of an average person.

Paul and I had sat down a few days ago with maps and a calendar to do some “ish” planning. Our goal is to be home around the first week of October, so we “only” have 5 weeks left. With the wildfires coming in to play we are going to have to pay a little more attention to where we go.

We did put together a basic idea of what we want to do- which includes driving all the way over to North Dakota.  We have never been there, and there is a national park there we can check out.














Meanwhile in Bozeman, we wanted to do some hiking but weren’t sure how the smoke would affect us, so we planned two short hikes.

The first was a 2.5 mile hike to Grotto Falls. The trail was very easy, wide, and quite populated with people, but we were able to maintain our distance.

The second hike was a 1 mile paved trail to Palisade Falls. Both were easy, and worth doing.

The following day we drove south, through part of Yellowstone National Park, but we didn’t stop- our destination was the town of West Yellowstone, where our good friends Liz and Randy are staying.

We spent an awesome afternoon with them. The day flew by so fast, I barely remembered to take one picture!













I took a look at the house on google maps and was surprised to see a new picture..its always fun to see who is in the yard!

Billings, MT (08-22-20)

I told Paul I didn’t want to be the planner for our first day in Billings, so he came up with an itinerary.

Our first stop was Pictograph Cave State Park, where we saw....pictographs.









Although some of the art is newer (there are rifles) some of it has been carbon dated to 230 BC. These are not the clearest pictographs we have ever seen, that's for sure.

The second cave, Ghost Cave, didn’t have pictographs but it did have something pretty interesting. The round boulders looked like heads to me, but they are called concretions, and each one is formed around a central point, such as a bone or fossil.









This particular bunch formed around clam shells that were left behind when this was an inland sea.  When we stepped back outside the cave you could see the continuation of the clam bed.

This area used to be a place for natives to come and prepare themselves for spiritual dreaming. One night, an Apsaalook brave was sheltering in the cave.  It was really dark and he realized he was not alone. Another man, also realizing he wasn’t alone, made his way slowly towards the Apsaalook man. Neither could see the other, nor  speak the others language- but the Apsaalook man took the others hand and brought it to his head to show that his hair was tied in the way of the Apsaalook, part of the Crow Nation, and the other man took The Apsaalook’s hand and ran it across his throat, indicating he was a Cutthroat, or Lakota. There remained an uneasy truce until daybreak, when they both went on their way.

From there we drove a half hour to get to Pompey’s Pillar National Monument.  The pillar itself used to be underwater, and when the sea receded, this sandstone pillar was left behind. 











It’s claim to fame is that William Clark, of Lewis and Clark, came this way in 1806. He and Lewis had split off, to explore a wider area, and were planning on meeting up at the confluence of the Yellowstone and Missouri Rivers, on their way back to St. Louis. 

 Clark stayed here with a small group of men, along with Sacagawea and her infant son “Pomp” (for whom the pillar is named).

Before he left the area, Clark engraved his name on the rock. It’s the only physical evidence of their journey that still exists today.  This is a replica- the sandstone on the pillar is having some structural testing done, so it is closed.








I don’t know whose job it was to plan our second day in Billings, but we ended up sitting around, writing blog posts and washing vehicles.

Buffalo, WY (08-17-20)

The high plains of Wyoming are a sight to behold....seems like everywhere you look, the rolling hills go on for miles and miles. A few of them are sporting some artwork.

My favorite was a historical fort that had the silhouettes of Indians on horseback atop a nearby hill. It was too far away to get a good Picture though.

Paul and I couldn’t imagine making our way through this area 150 years ago, without getting lost. Our truck is behind one of these hills.

Buffalo is a small town, population 4500 or so, and sits at the foot of the Bighorn Mountains. Our first full day we packed a lunch and headed up the hill. Going up in elevation also got us out of the heat, and it was a cool 56 degrees when we started our hike.







The day didn’t go perfectly, as I forgot to download the trail map, and we headed the wrong way on the trail. We finally found the “right” trail, which had a nice lake and stream along the way.

It also had a few places where we pretty much had to forge our own trail- that part wasn’t too much fun, and I was trying so hard not to fall that I didn’t get a picture.
















The last section was wooded, and pretty cool. All told we went about 5 miles.

The following day we were looking to explore more by truck, less by walking, but we still headed up the mountain.

This time we took the very narrow, very scenic road through Crazy Woman Canyon.













Eventually this road met up with the main road that goes up and over the mountain. We continued on our way till we saw a sign for the fire tower.

We knew they allow visitors so off we went, down a long dirt road. The trail to the tower is pretty short, but pretty steep as well. The rock formations were awesome, as was the view from the top.

Our busiest day was the day we went exploring scenic Rte 14.

The first part of the day was spent hiking Tongue Canyon Trail. Not surprising the trail follows Tongue River through a Canyon.








After hiking in a couple of miles we elected to turn around.  Paul had seen a sign for a cave, so of course he wanted to go check it out.

 Not me, I took off my shoes and cooled off in the river. 

In fact, it was so hot, I dunked my head under, several times.
Turns out it was 100 degrees when we got back to the truck.

Done with our hike, we followed Rte 14 up the mountain, where the views were pretty good. 

Every once in a while there would be a sign pointing the age of the rock on the side of the road.

This whole mountain is littered with small federal campgrounds and day use areas built in the 1930s by the CCC. Their work in this country was incredible- seems like everything they built was built to last.

On the way home we stopped in the small town of Dayton for an ice cream, which is sold at the mercantile store.  We bought some local syrups as well, and couldn’t resist the fresh kettle corn.

 Payment is on the honor system, so I told Paul we could buy as big a bag as we had the right change for- of course we managed to find enough for the largest bag.













Our final day in Wyoming we took it easy and headed to Petrified Tree Education Area. There is a .8 mile long interpretive walk that takes you past petrified trees.




 Before we started on the trail we chatted with a couple of volunteers. One of them screamed as she approached us....scared us all....turns out there was a rattlesnake sleeping within a foot of the trail. He was sound asleep, for sure. He barely moved as we watched him for several minutes.

Because the growth rings are still visible, they estimate the trees were 800-1000 years old when they were buried.

One of the stumps was partially excavated to show more detail.













The fencing surrounding it was part of an Eagle Scout project- I think that was just as interesting to Paul as the petrified wood.

On to Wyoming (08-11-20)

We've left Colorado and have begun our short meander through Wyoming .

We have a week booked in Buffalo, with 3 days to get there. About halfway between
Loveland CO, and Buffalo, is Glendo Lake- it looked like a nice place so we booked two nights at the state park.

That left us only one day to explore, so we tried to cram in as much as we could. We started the day with a hike, no surprise. Unfortunately we still can’t seem to outrun the heat, and our 3.5 mile hike became 2 miles. As it was, it was 97 degrees when we got back to the truck, around noon.

After lunch we made the trip to Fort Laramie, about an hour away.

This fort started as a trading post, and was taken over by the government when the number of pioneers trekking west swelled to the point where a military presence along the route became necessary.

We chatted with the volunteer ranger, who decided he liked us enough to show us his favorite tree on the property. It was an enormous willow tree.

He explained that the fort was more of a truck stop along the “highway” from East to west. Pioneers on the Mormon, California, and Oregon trail would stop here to rest, and resupply. It was the primary hub for transportation and communication in the Rocky Mountain area, until it was abandoned in 1890.




Although both the Oregon and Mormon trails follow the North Platte River for much of the way, The Mormon trail is slightly different than the Oregon trail, largely due to the fact that the Mormons didn’t want to associate with outsiders, so they usually traveled on opposite sides of the river.

Some of the buildings are still ruins, and some have been restored.

By the time we were done with Fort Laramie, it was getting late in the day and we still had an hour drive home- but we couldn’t resist a stop at nearby Oregon Trail Ruts. This small park is well done, with a paved walking path leading to the ruts, complete with signs explaining the history of the area.

The ruts can be as deep as 4 feet in the sandstone, and were usually made by the wagon wheels, but sometimes they were deliberately made, to make the trail smoother.
It is amazing to me to look at these and think about the tens of thousands of pioneers who passed this way, headed west, looking for a better life.








Just a little further down the road is the Pioneer Registry, where people passing by carved their names into the limestone cliffs- we would have like to see it- but we were tired and hungry, so we called it a day.

Loveland, CO (08-09-20)

Knowing that we would be in Loveland for a week, Paul and I got busy on Amazon, ordering things we “need”.  More coffee, some gadgets, and my favorite, an adaptor for the TV so Paul can listen to it through his Hearphones (a pretty cool Bose product- not quite hearing aids, but close), and now, woohoo, I don’t have to hear it anymore.

 I am not much of a TV watcher-although, we have now watched two movies together- The Big Short (eh, not great) and Knives Out, which was good. We have a few more on the list of movies that I will actually watch- The Green Book and A Man called Ove (I read the book and liked it).  In fact, we even bought popcorn when we went shopping, so we’ll have it.

Having a week in one spot also means we don’t have to run around trying to do everything we want, all in one day.  We have had quite a few “down” days, recovering from the hikes we have done.  We usually start each morning doing the Microsoft Solitaire Daily Challenge while we have our coffee.

 Every time I see that the pool is empty, I feel compelled to swim some laps, and have spent several hours doing just that.











About every 8-10 days we are forced to go to the store and buy food, so we spent one afternoon at Costco and Safeway, stocking up.

On the fun side of things, we found out some friends are also in town, so we met up with them and went to dinner at a brewhouse, where we could sit outside.  Tom and MJ met when they were both fulltimers, and now have a house in Yuma and escape in the summer, like we do.









Somehow we have not managed to escape the heat completely, and even here in the Denver area it’s been in the 90s almost every day.

We have managed to do some hiking, partly by heading up into the mountains where it’s cooler, and by starting early in the day. Ok, we don’t really start early in the day, we just suck it up and get hot while we hike.  Our first trail was in Button Dam Preserve.  Hiking up the road to the dam was easy and we found a nice quiet spot for a snack.

Watching the water come through the dam was pretty cool. 

We took the harder way back, going up and over a hill, where the trail was pretty steep and technical in some places.

5 miles total and 640 ft of gain.









As soon as we arrived in Loveland I checked Rocky Mountain National Park, to see if we would be able to get in.  They have a timed entry system right now.  Everyone has to make a reservation online, and only so many cars are allowed  entry during each two hour window.




 

Reservations opened a couple of months ago.  They did however, hold back some spots, so every day at 8 am some spots open for two days in the future.  I missed the first time I tried, but the second time I was able to get entry tickets for 8-10 am on Friday, so off we went.

I had chosen a 5 mile hike to Mills Lake- and it seemed like everyone in the park also chose that hike. We started the hike stressed because we had no intention of taking a shuttle, but our truck is too big and isn’t allowed in the parking lots, so  we had no choice if we wanted to hike. 








It was ok….half capacity made it better.

Once on the trail, our stress did not reduce.  It was overloaded with people to the point where we had to pretty much keep our masks on. We didn't even stop to look at the waterfall- too many people between it and us.

We found a less used path and took it, giving up the idea of the lake. 

It did lead to a nice creek, with no people near it.





The way back was much less crowded, and more relaxing, but it was a sharp reminder that we need to steer clear of crowded places.










As much as I complain about the heat, we were reminded last week exactly why we leave Havasu every summer....