Yellowstone National Park (08-17-17)

We were lucky enough to get a spot in Yellowstone, with some help from our friends Liz and Randy.

Randy is a park Ranger, and Liz volunteers in several capacities.

The last time we were here, we were in a crowded RV park with electric, water, sewer hook up, and hundreds of other RVers. This time we were in a very small, out of the way campground, and THIS was the view out our window.  We fell in love immediately!

While we are here we will have only the water in our tank, no sewer hook up, and we aren’t allowed to use a generator, so the only power we have is what we can generate with our two solar panels.

We arrived on the weekend, so Randy and Liz were able to go hiking with us and hang out for a couple of days.

Our hike to Trout Lake was an adventure.  The lake was beautiful and we hiked past it and came across two other lakes- a Trifecta!















On the way back, we looked behind us and discovered a bison had moved onto the trail, and down to the lake for a drink of water.















Getting around the park to explore can be a challenge.  There are numerous traffic jams.














One day we were up on a hill, looking for some wildlife in the river when we noticed a bison causing a traffic issue.










Soon we saw him start across the bridge.
With the amount of bison scat on the hill we were on, we were concerned that he was headed in our direction, and in any case, once he crossed the bridge, he would be between us and the truck. 



So we booked it, and made it back to the truck just in time to see him lumber up the hill we had been on!

Of course, looking for wildlife is one of the most fun things to do in Yellowstone. We had heard that there was a pack of wolves feeding on a bison-  see the wolves? No? Me either.  This kill was so far away, we couldn’t really see anything.  But…. the next day, there was a bison kill closer to the road.

I would have loved it if we were the only ones who knew about this kill but the traffic jam was intense.  People don’t even bother to pull all the way off the road!

We gave up that first day, but got up at 5 am the next morning and headed out, hoping we would be able to find a place to park our beast.

Although we weren’t the first to arrive, we did find a spot.  It was too dark to see, but we heard that there was a grizzly at the kill site.  

Once the sun came up, the bear was gone and a wolf arrived.  Even though it was pretty close, “close” is a relative term and it was hard to get a good picture.

We were rather disappointed that we never saw any bears in Yellowstone.  Liz said its a little too warm for them and they went to higher elevations. We did see lots of other animals though…

We took a nice ride down a dirt road, looking for bears.  We didn’t see any, but this beautiful fox trotted down the road, seemingly oblivious to the 5 cars following him.

We also saw several Osprey- some were in a nest and some were soaring in the sky…

There were a few elk in the park and a few we saw up north, in Gardiner, when we went exploring..

And of course there were many, many bison.

This is getting too long so……To Be Continued…..

A Slight Detour and then Wyoming! (08-09-17)

So at the last minute we changed our route and our plans.  We were so close to Salt Lake City, we decided to take advantage of the excellent genealogy library there and made a reservation for 3 nights at the local KOA.


  Ordinarily we avoid KOA RV parks because they cater to families and have lots of perks that we don’t care about.  But this KOA has one perk that we DO care about- a shuttle bus to the LDS family research library.




We spent a day and a half doing family genealogy.  Paul and I have both hit a few roadblocks.  He loses the Porter name in 1862 and I decided to work on my Campbell ancestors in Scotland.  Neither of us made much headway but we ruled a bunch of stuff out, so that is progress.






Our last day in town was spent running around. We visited the graves of Paul’s grandparents, and bought new hiking boots at REI.  I love shopping at REI because they have a very generous return policy. I was in the market to replace my “go-to” hiking boots- mid profile, desert boots- not waterproof , so they are cooler and lighter. I literally wore mine out after 6 years.

From REI we drove right to the Millcreek Canyon trailhead and hiked almost 5 miles round trip to an overlook of the city.  It was a good test of my new boots and they were excellent.

Once we were off the trail we headed to Costco to bulk up before heading north. We were really overwhelmed by this store- it was huge!!!! It had a 5 aisle walk in refrigerator, with jackets near the door, so you could borrow one and not be cold while you shopped.

We didn’t realize until we left that this is actually the largest Costco in the world!






From Salt Lake City we drove up to Wyoming. We have a few friends spending the summer in this state, and it was on our agenda to visit them all.

Our first stop was to see Tom and Dianne (the couple on the left), where they are camp hosts, at a small BLM (federal) campground in Pinedale WY.  We took advantage of our friendship and had several things shipped to us at their campground.

  

As a bonus for us, we got to spend some time with Mike and Kathleen.  We had met them before, but this trip we got to know them better, and had an awesome time! They have been full timing for 6 years.







One of our adventures was to a small but very well done museum-The Museum of the Mountain Man.

The Pinedale area has a long history. It was the hub of something  called the Rendezvous, during the height of beaver trade of the 1800s.





While beaver pelts were in high demand for fashionable hats, mountain men  would spend months trapping beaver. Once a year they would meet up with buyers and providers.  They would sell the beaver pelts to the buyers and get the supplies they needed to survive a year, from the providers.




The first Rendezvous was just one day but within a couple of years, they lasted weeks, and became a sort of festival in addition to a way of re-provisioning and selling goods.

Hugh Glass was one of the frontiersman who had a very interesting encounter with a Grizzly bear.  His story was recounted in the movie The Revenant. I haven’t seen the movie yet but after reading about his real life drama, I think I will try to see it.

After many years of beaver hats, suddenly, fashion dictated that hats be made of silk, and the beaver pelt industry died a quick death.










One afternoon, Paul and I explored the other side of the highway from the campground. This gorgeous area is a place where you can fish and/or camp, depending on what you feel like doing.










As we were driving down the gravel road we were on the lookout for wildlife. And then we saw this. We thought they were sign posts of some type.












Upon closer inspection we realized that they were, in fact, a pair of Bald Eagles.  Later in the afternoon we watched them search for fish in the river.














On our last full day in Pinedale, we drove up to Jackson to visit with our good friends, Dave and Nancy. During the summers, they work on the Elk Refuge in Jackson.








The Elk Refuge was created when the townspeople and the Elk came into conflict, in the early 1900s. Every winter the elk migrated through the area, eating the ranchers’ hay and grasses. To keep everyone happy, the refuge was established to feed the elk in the wintertime, when food was scarce.



What that meant for us, is that we saw….. no elk. Although we did see this good looking coyote. The elk only come here in the winter. so yep, no elk for us.












Although Nancy has varied talents and interests, Dave is all about anything mechanical and technical. He spends his days fixing and tweaking anything that has an engine.  Paul was jealous.










We got the V.I.P tour of all the parts of the refuge, including the huge Quonset hut where the alfalfa pellets are stored, waiting for the arrival of the elusive elk.

Nancy and Dave have been here for quite a few summers, and this year Nancy decided to grow her own garden.  We were lucky enough to be the recipients of some extremely fresh lettuce!

Back at the campground we had one more sunset and campfire before moving on…














…next stop-   Yellowstone National Park!!

Black Canyon of the Gunnison (08-01-17)

We have tried several times to visit Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park, in Colorado, and it has always been the wrong time of year or we were in a rush to get somewhere else.  THIS time we made it!

We had two days to explore this park, so our first day was partly spent driving to all the scenic turnouts on the south rim, looking down into the canyon.

At the last turnout, there was a short, 1.5 mile trail to Warner Point, which we took. It had some nice views of the canyon.

In some areas, the canyon walls are 2700 feet high.  Deep in the canyon, the Gunnison River has been slowly carving away at the hard rock, for over 2 million years.  Every 100 years, the canyon gets about an inch deeper.

I am not really a fan of cliffs, and just seeing Paul stand on the edge gives me vertigo!

In the 1800s, an  expedition from the railroad deemed this area “impenetrable ” but in the early 1900s, a water shortage spurred on another expedition, looking for a place where a tunnel could be dug to re-route some of the water for irrigation purposes.  They found a good spot and a few years later the tunnel was built.  It is still utilized to bring water to the nearby valleys.













we had thought we might try hiking down into the canyon, but we heard from the ranger that it is considered a class 3 climb.  I knew it would be steep, but I wasn’t interested in a “climb”.
So, we drove down, instead.











We saw our first black bear of the season- he was not happy to see our truck come around the corner, and couldn’t get away fast enough!

The views from the bottom were not nearly as impressive but this is the area accessible by car, so its wider.

Our second day was spent on the north rim of the canyon.  It was a 2 hour drive to get there, since there is no bridge across the canyon.  Our mission was to hike the North Vista Trail.

We got an entirely different perspective on the canyon, as we were able see the surrounding area  in addition to the canyon itself.

This trail was about 6.5 miles long, with 1000 feet of elevation gain.  It was reasonably easy, and the views were worth it.

The north rim also had a scenic drive and although in some ways we felt we’d had enough of the canyon, we figured “eh, we’re here” so we drove down the dirt road to see the views.

Black Canyon got the name “black” Canyon because in its deepest and narrowest section, it only receives 33 minutes of  sunshine a day.

So, now we can say we have been to Black Canyon of the Gunnison….and 35 of the 59 National Parks in the USA.