Bobbie & Sal's RV Adventures

Natchez, Mississippi & The Trace

2012-01-19T10:30:00.001-07:00

You would think that with all of this time off of work that we’ve had, I’d be all up to date on my blog posts. Well, that is nowhere near the case! We’ve had too much fun while visiting family and friends, that I’ve actually fallen further behind. But, I’m still gonna try to get caught up, so be patient with me! LOL

When we left Branson, our little gang we had traveled with all went our separate ways. It was sad, but all good things must come to an end. But, if we had to sit somewhere by ourselves and miss our friends, at least we chose a beautiful place for the night! This was the view outside of our windows at Lake Chicot State Park, which is Arkansas's largest natural lake.

Not too shabby, huh? The people that we dealt with at this park too, were among the nicest we’ve met anywhere. Great place!

For years, I have wanted to drive the Natchez Trace. After searching maps, I realized that we would have to go way out of our way to drive very much of this 444-mile roadway, so then I decided that if we could just stay a night in the town of Natchez, I could visit the Visitor’s Center there and then plan the drive for some other time. Well, we ended up staying three nights there and I still look forward to the return!! We stayed at the state park there in Natchez, and the drive into it was beautiful!

After we got all set up in camp, we headed into town. I had no idea just how much history there was in Natchez. I mean, who knew that the first women’s college in America was chartered here on February 17, 1819? There isn’t much left to look at, but still very interesting information!

So many of the houses in this town continually had me saying “Wow!” It gets too difficult to look up all the names of these and all the details that go with them. That’s what gets me so behind on my blogs! LOL! Anyway, I thought I’d just share some of the photos by themselves instead. Hope you enjoy them!

And those are just some of the buildings that we saw the first afternoon we were in town! Amazing! We were literally driving all around and I just kept jumping out of the truck to take this picture and that picture until it became too dark for good photos!

So, the next morning we headed out to check out part of the Natchez Trace. I have wanted to check it out ever since reading about quite a few years ago. It’s a modern road today, but it first began as an animal trail. It later became an Indian footpath that linked tribes in a large region between what is today Natchez, Mississippi and Nashville, Tennessee. There are still come places where you can see parts of the original Trace. It’s pretty cool to think of all the feet over time that have traveled along the path.

While driving along the Trace, there are many stops along it where you can take a break and read about it’s history and such. One such stop was at Mount Locust. It remains as the only one of more than 50 inns that existed between 1785 and 1830 along the 500 mile Old Trace.

Travel along the Old Trace hit it’s peak around 1810 when as the US was growing west, men would travel down the Mississippi River in the late 18th & early 19th centuries and would sell their wares, and took what money they could get for the lumber in their boats. The river’s swift waters made traveling upriver nearly impossible so the men would walk back home northward on the Trace. They would stay at the Inns along the way. Archeologists believe that 12 to 16 slave cabins once stood on the property, with four to five people occupying each dwelling. On the west side of the property, a cemetery holds the remains of 43 enslaved workers. A single headstone marks the area. We weren’t able to meet him, but apparently one of the Interpretive Rangers is a member of the family who built and lived here for so many years. Talk about having a connection to where you work! It’s amazing the contrast when you compare the above with what the family cemetery looks like. We’ve come so far away from the days of slavery that, I admit, I sometimes forget how different they were treated. Visiting the Natchez area really reminded me though.

Close by was another section of the Old Trace. Stories of settlers, mail carriers, soldiers, bandits, missionaries, and opportunists paint colorful images of the Old Natchez Trace.

In the 1790s new settlers were attracted to this area by the rich soil and many springs. They cleared the land, built homes, and in 1837. built an impressive brick church that still stands today, The town had been a station for a circuit-riding preacher who stopped by only once or twice a month.

Between 1860 and 1920, the area was devastated by the Civil War, yellow fever, the boll weevil, and land erosion. Behind the church still stands many, many headstones in the cemetery.

We continued our drive up to Ross Barnett Reservoir where we turned back around. In all, we traveled about 105 out of the 444 total miles of the Natchez Trace. We’re hoping to return at some other time to travel the whole Trace and take advantage of the three free campgrounds along it’s route.

The next day, we retuned to the town of Natchez and visited some of the Antebellum Homes.

We also did a couple of different walking tours through town that took us by numerous historic homes and buildings. The entire area was just fascinating!

One of the last places we visited was the home of William Johnson, a freed person of color. He was a barber, entrepreneur, and even a slave owner himself. I don’t ever remember learning about a previous slave later owning his own after being freed. It was very interesting!

I do apologize for such a long post and for including so many photos, but it’s really hard to describe this area without all of it. And believe it or not, I’ve only touched the surface of what we saw and learned!

Hope you enjoyed it. Happy Trails!

Elvis & Tigers are Here!

2011-12-02T16:53:00.003-07:00

We left the Black Hills in South Dakota and began heading towards Missouri. We spent our first night back on the road from here in a Nebraska State Park just outside the town of Ogallala along Lake McConaughy. We appeared to be the only ones there and we were well rewarded with this incredible sunset!

This lake is Nebraska's largest reservoir with over 100 miles of shore line. It is also 20 miles long, four miles wide and 142 feet deep at the dam. It’s a beautiful area for sure!
On our way south, we stopped in Chanute, KS and spent a couple of free nights in the City Park so we could take the tour at the Nuwa Hitchhiker factory. It was very interesting and we really learned a lot! I highly recommend taking the time to do this if you’re an RVer who finds themselves in this area.
After our time in Chanute, we headed toward Branson, MO. We first headed to Pea Patch RV Park which is a Passport America park there, and we had the very WORST experience we have had at an RV Park. First off, they lied to us, which is always a pet peeve of mine! He disregarded our own ability of knowing what/where we can take our rig and when Sal was trying to get back out of the place (after trying to fit in where we knew we couldn’t fit but he kept telling us we could) and the ladder on the back of our rig was dragging on the ground, the man from the RV park looked at me to say, “Oh. It will all be okay.” This put me over the edge and then had me hollering at him telling him, “This is our HOUSE” not just some weekend rig!” And telling him that he had no right to tell me anything about what was okay with it and how dare he try to tell me what is okay with it or not! After all of this, we all took off to find a better place to stay! We ended up at the Branson Stagecoach RV Park and had such a different and wonderful experience! The people here were extremely helpful and nice!! If you find yourself in the Branson area, I HIGHLY recommend this place!! It was less expensive and we got so much more for our money.
Anyway, I will get off my soapbox now and tell you about our Branson experience!! Shortly after driving into town, we were greeted with this! Branson wasn’t was I was expecting. It was so much bigger than I thought it would be. We hung out in town the next day and took in an Imax movie and then went to the Kirby Van Burch Magic Show that night. My personal opinion was, it was okay, but it didn’t live up to all the hype. I wasn’t allowed to take any pictures during the show, which made sense once I thought about it. I really had only wanted to try to get pics of some of the large cats he has in his show anyway, and realistically, they weren’t on stage long enough for any photos anyway!
The next day, we went to an afternoon show to see Joseph Hall’s Elvis Tribute show. It was FANTASTIC!! He was on America’s Got Talent a few years ago and although I saw him on the show, until I saw the clip from the show, I didn’t remember it. Anyway, this show was so much fun!

His show focuses on three basic part of Elvis Presley’s career. He starts with the early Elvis from around 1956.

After that, he moves on about 12 years or so to the leather suit. He has definitely studied all of Elvis’ mannerisms and facial expressions!

He started this career by going to a Halloween costume party dressed as Elvis. He did some songs that night and that is what started his interest! Four years later, here he is! He always thought he would end up in the restaurant business after he and his dad owned a restaurant. It seems like he was born to do this though! He is great!! This is what he saw as Elvis’ Vegas years. Joseph is a great showman!Later that night, we took in the Presleys’ Country Jubilee show. We weren’t sure how much we were going to like this or not, but we were very pleasantly surprised! It was actually a lot of fun!

The Presleys’ actually built Branson’s first music theatre in 1967. They did their part to help the town to become the live music capital of the world!

Their music is pretty much a blend of country, gospel, and bluegrass, with a bunch of hilarious comedy thrown in too. It really was a lot of fun. The next day, which was our last full day in Branson, the rest of the gang decided to go to an acrobatic kind of show, which they said was incredible, but I had found out some information about the National Tiger Sanctuary nearby and I couldn’t miss out the opportunity to visit! The first cat you see when you start the tour is T.J. (Tiger Jack). Isn’t he beautiful??!!

By these animals coming to live here, it is keeping them alive. They have all come from some situation that they would be put to sleep or else they could come here to live out the rest of their days. Some of them have come from some sort of show and a few were actually pets to other people before.

These animals were just magnificent to see and you could really see that they all had different personalities too.
Such as this gal. This is Tina and she’s only been at the sanctuary since August of this year. Unfortunately she is de-clawed on all four paws and is missing a bit off her tail from an African wild dog or a lion. Luckily for us she has been spayed. She makes all kinds of noises when you get anywhere close to her enclosure as if she’s talking to you! She reminded me of our cat, Sophie, who pretty much does the same thing! They have other big cats besides Tigers too. This is a mountain lion named Banshee. She originally lived down the street from the sanctuary until her owner passed away in 2008. Being an ex-park ranger from California, these are the “big” cats I’m used to thinking about, but seeing her after looking at the tigers, she seemed so small. So beautiful though!!

Midnight came from a private individual, who bought her as a baby. When a child came into his life he thought it would be best not have her around.

This lion, Merlin, was a show cat at the Kirby Van Burch magic show. When the trainers and Kirby realized that Merlin did not like the showbiz, they decided to find him a place to live out his life comfortably. After they came and visited the sanctuary, they thought this would be the perfect place to donate him to. Branson wasn’t exactly like I though it would be, but we definitely had so much fun while there!! Definitely glad that we went, and we would definitely go back again! If you find yourself in the area, you’ll have a great time! Hope you enjoyed reading about our visit.
Happy Trails!

Wind Cave, Custer and Crazy Horse

2011-11-16T19:49:00.001-07:00

While we were hanging out in the Black Hills area of South Dakota, we decided to check out the Wind Cave National Park. There are actually a couple of caves in the area that you can visit, this one and Jewel Cave National Monument. After a group discussion, we settled on Wind Cave. It is considered one of the world's longest and most complex caves. It is different than any other cave that I have visited before. It is considered to be a “dry cave” where most others that I’ve seen have been considered “wet caves.” We found it to be a little less colorful and spectacular than other caves we’ve seen.

It doesn’t include stalactites and stalagmites that are so often associated with caves. Instead Wind Cave has a formation called boxwork, an unusual cave formation composed of thin calcite fins resembling honeycombs.

Regarded as sacred by American Indians, the cave was not found by settlers until 1881, Jesse & Tom Bingham (two brothers), heard a loud whistling noise. The sound led them to a small hole in the ground where the wind was said to blow with such force out of the hole that it blew Jesse’s hat off his head! This is the only known natural opening to the cave. There were several mining claims established here, but they were unsuccessful. J.D. McDonald, who was hired to manage one of the mining claims, and his family realized they could make money by giving cave tours. They filed a homestead claim over the opening and came up with a manmade entrance & enlarged passageways for tours.

Alvin McDonald, J.D.’s son, fell in love with Wind Cave and it was his eagerness to share it with others that helped to aid in the development of Wind Cave National Park. Even to this day, occasionally pieces of his string are discovered by survey teams and his signature is discovered written or carved into a wall or ceiling. As recently as August 2009, his signature was discovered where it has been assumed no other person had ever visited. The signature was dated July 1893. He also had some of the very early tourists sign their signatures into the walls of the cave when they visited.

It was a very interesting place to visit. After we finished that tour, we took some time to walk around the historic streets of Custer City which is the oldest city in the Black Hills. We just kind of did some of the typical “touristy” stuff.

And then later that day, we headed over to the Crazy Horse Memorial. It is to be the world’s largest mountain sculpture, and a memorial to the spirit of legendary Lakota leader, Crazy Horse and his culture. Sculptor Korczak Ziolkowski and Lakota Chief Henry Standing Bear officially started Crazy Horse Memorial June 3, 1948. That first dedication blast took off 10 tons of rock, but millions of tons have been removed since, although they still have a long way to go! They don’t expect the sculpture to be finished for at least the next 60 years!

Lakota Chief Henry Standing Bear learned of the sculptor when one of his sculptures won first prize at the 1939 NY’s World’s Fair. Here’s a portrait that they have of Korczak as he will always be remembered.

When he arrived in the Black Hills in 1947, he was almost 40 and had only $174 left to his name. A strong believer in the free enterprise system, he turned down offers of federal funding. He also knew the project was larger than any one person’s lifetime, so he left detailed plans to be used by others to continue the project. He did so with multiple scale models. This one is a 1/34th scale model.

Inside the Indian Museum, they have this 1/300th scale model that you can line up with the carving on the mountain. It’s a pretty cool view!

Since his death in 1982, Korczak’s wife, Ruth and some of his children, have directed the work which continues. I suppose that I won’t see the finished product in my lifetime. Interesting concept if nothing else. Happy Trails!

The Black Hills of South Dakota

2011-11-07T14:01:00.001-07:00

I know I’ve gotten a bit behind in my recent postings. That’s because we were busy having lots of fun! Not that we’re not now, but we are now settled in for a little bit, so I’m going to try to catch up.

After we left Devil’s Tower, we all headed over towards the Black Hills in South Dakota. For Sal and I, it was our first visit to this area. The drive to Custer was a very pretty one. We arrived at the French Creek RV Park in Custer, SD fairly early on a Sunday. Dave had called ahead the evening before and talked with “Rock” who is the owner of the place, so we all just picked some sites and got settled, knowing that he was in church. Well, “Rock” showed up with his gun on his hip after he got back from church. He invited us all up to the office to fill out paperwork. On the way though, he stopped outside and opened up a freezer while he told us about BBQ’s he does in the summer months and such. Inside the freezer was a shelf full of different liquors and he wanted all of us to “pick our poison.” We all thought he was joking and quickly found out that he was not joking, and was not going to easily take no for an answer! It is definitely a different kind of RV Park and we had so much fun!! If you’re planning a visit to the area, check out the French Creek RV Park for sure! It’s even a Passport America park too!

So, after we took care of everything at the RV Park, we headed off towards Mount Rushmore National Memorial. Along the trip there, we ran into a group of these Mountain Goats (Oreamonos americanus), also known as the Rocky Mountain Goat.

There were also a few cute little babies with the group!! They are so adorable!!So after stopping to hang out with them for a little while, we continued on the National Memorial.

Added at the time of the Bicentennial of the Declaration of Independence in 1976, there is a flag-lined entrance that is the formal Avenue of Flags that creates a very impressive approach.

The faces of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, and Theodore Roosevelt are about 60 feet high, and the grouping extends approximately 185 feet along the crest.

There is short trail that you can walk along that takes you closer to the base of the memorial and can really give you a bit of a different perspective. To say that it was an inspiring thing to see is an understatement!!

Over 450,000 tons of rock were removed to bring out the faces. Most of the rock was removed with dynamite, about 10% had to be done with jackhammers and facing bits! They had to use air compressors at the base of the mountain to operate them. They still have one of them on display. An 1800-foot, 3-inch pipeline is what carried the air from one of these up to the top.

We finished our visit to the memorial itself and so then we drove along the Iron Mountain Highway, which includes tunnels that were blasted through the rock, where the faces on Mt. Rushmore are framed through the tunnel.

The other views from some of the overlooks were pretty amazing as well. We continued to drive through parts of Custer State Park and came across this beautiful White-Tailed Deer (Odocoileus virginianus) hanging out.

Our next stop on our Black Hills tour will be to the Wind Cave National Park and to the Crazy Horse Memorial, so check back again soon! Happy Trails!

Devils Tower National Monument

2011-10-24T21:18:00.002-06:00

Since we had to put our last kitty, Scruffy, down after being quite sick, our other younger cat, Sophie, has been on her own. She’s a very well-behaved cat who is very, very spoiled! So, we’ve started to let her roam around in the truck, within reason, when we’re traveling. She has gotten to the point where she expects it now!! She loves watching out the window.

We left the Tetons about a week ago, and we’ve been traveling with our good friends, Mike & Jackie, and Dave & Jeanene and we’ve been having a great time!! We began our trip by stopping over at Devils Tower National Monument.

You can see the huge stump-like formation, which rises around 1200 feet above the Belle Fourche River (pretty fork river), well before you arrive. It inspired the imagination of the Indians. They called it Mateo Tepee, which meant Grizzly Bear Lodge. Near the visitor’s center they had this cool picture!

Nearby just outside of the park, you can see some red sandstone and siltstone cliffs above the river. Very beautiful!!

Shortly after you enter into the park, you drive past Prairie Dog town. Yes, I said Prairie Dog town!

These little guys were EVERYWHERE! And oh so cute!!

They are one of the most social wild animals of North America. We watched and listened to them for quite some time!!

They are actually a member of the squirrel family and bear no similarity to dogs except for their call which is termed a bark like that of a dog. These are Black-tailed Prairie Dogs (Cynomys Ludovicianus), and are one of five prairie dog species.
Back to Devils Tower. It was America’s very first National Monument! I never knew that and being an ex-Park Ranger, I found this to be very interesting!! The Antiquities Act is what made this possible which allowed the President to set aside “historical landmarks, historic and prehistoric structures, and other objects of historic or scientific interest that are upon lands owned or controlled by the United States as National Monuments." President Theodore Roosevelt, on September 24, 1906, proclaimed Devils Tower as a national monument. We took a trail that went up towards the base of it, and as you looked up, you could see a couple of guys who were getting ready to rappel down after climbing up.
Coming down, climbers use the rappel device to slide down a doubled rope passed through bolts anchored to the rock. We didn’t have to wait too long before seeing one of them begin their walk backwards down the wall.

So they have a trail that goes around the “tower” itself and so, of course, we had to walk around it! It’s kind of amazing how different the Tower looks from the different sides.

The first known ascent of Devils Tower by any method occurred on July 4, 1893, and by William Rogers and Willard Ripley, local ranchers in the area. They completed this first ascent after constructing a 350-foot ladder of wooden pegs driven into a continuous vertical crack in the rock face. Today, most climbers free climb it, utilizing naturally occurring ledges, cracks, and projections.

The Tower is considered a premier crack climbing site. Crack climbing is a form of free climbing. Ropes and equipment are used only as safely precautions. Today, climbers are not allowed to place new permanent anchors, chip holds in the rock or modify the Tower in any way.
The Tower is sacred to several Native American Plains tribes. Because of this, many Indian leaders objected to climbers, considering this to be a desecration. Climbers argued that they had a right to climb it, since it is on federal land. A compromise was eventually reached with a voluntary climbing ban during the month of June when the tribes are conducting ceremonies around the monument.

There are brightly colored pieces of cloth hanging in some of the trees along the trail that are referred to as prayer cloths and prayer bundles. They are physical, symbolic representations of prayers and are here by American Indian people as part of their religious ceremonies. I found out that it is considered culturally insensitive to photograph these items so I don’t have photos to include here, but they were very interesting to see throughout the area.
But here are some other pics you might enjoy from around the other side of Tower.

Then on the way back to where we were camped close-by, we got to see a few more Prairie Dogs. I just really love them little guys!!!
And on that “barking” note, that was our trip to Devils Tower National Monument. Our next stop will be in the Black Hills. Check back soon and Happy Trails!!

Last Big Hike in the Tetons

2011-10-19T21:48:00.001-06:00

I took advantage of the still great weather and made another hike that I had really wanted to take last year, but wasn’t able to. I decided to hike up to Holly Lake. The beginning of the hike started over near String Lake.

It then went up and crossed over the outlet from Leigh Lake. I was surprised that there wasn’t more water than this, but I don’t think I’d been down here this late in the season before.

I don’t know why, but I expected the hike up Paintbrush Canyon to be similar to Cascade Canyon since it was only one canyon over, but it ended up being quite different!! Where Cascade Canyon was really open and you can see towards the end of the canyon much of the way, this was full of trees and much more closed. The fall colors were everywhere though! It was so beautiful to see!!!!

The trail didn’t travel along the side of the creek until you got quite a bit further up.

Every once and a while you’d get to a point where you could see out of the canyon and got a glimpse of Jackson Lake. They were doing some prescribed burns in the area, so everything looked a bit hazy. The leaves were just incredible to see the further I got up the canyon.

Down towards the mouth of the canyon, every once and a while you get a quick look at Leigh Lake.

And then you’d get ducked back into the canyon again. Once the trail went along the creek, it stayed there. Whenever the trail came out of the trees and you were able to see the canyon walls, the view was incredible!

Once I made it to the top of the canyon, I could see all the way back down towards the lakes below. It was incredible!

Being at the top of the canyon also meant that I had arrived at my destination. I had made it to Holly Lake and I definitely was not disappointed!!

I sat on a rock along the shores and enjoyed my lunch knowing that I was the only one there for a while. Eventually, this group of three young people showed up on the other side of the lake and then they swam for a little. Then I could see them getting ready to leave, and I realized that I probably should too. So I put my pack back on and started walking around the lake when all of a sudden the other group started talking really loud and I started thinking, Great. I’m going to have to listen to them make all this noise all the way back down.” As I approached them closer though, one of them looked at me and said, “If you wonder why we’re being so loud, it’s because there’s a bear right over there!” All of a sudden it all made sense. Not only was there a bear, but she had a cub too!

The two of them crossed the trail and went over to the lake. Two hikers coming up the trail actually had to back up to allow the Black Bears more room. It made the trip complete to see them!!!

I definitely had a grin from ear to ear on the way down after getting to see that scene!! The scenery in the other direction was beautiful too!

And of course, a hike up Paintbrush Canyon wouldn’t be complete without see some Indian Paintbrush along the way!! More fall colors to be seen on the way down too.

It was an incredible hike!! It was also the last big hike that I did this season in the Tetons. Seeing the bear and cub just made it all so great!! Since we’ve already left, I’ve got more blogs to write already!! I’m always behind no matter how hard I try to keep up!! Oh well, at least I’m having fun!! Happy Trails!

Emma Matilda Lake

2011-10-13T08:50:00.001-06:00

A couple of weeks ago, Sal and I went hiking on one of our days off. Sal was even willing to do a longer one with me, so we headed out to Emma Matilda Lake Trail. This is a hike that I did myself last year in the spring but Sal had never been. This loop hike is about 11 miles. Some fall colors were beginning to emerge near the beginning of the hike.

The first part of the hike took us by Christian Pond. It was named after Charles A. “Tex” Christian, who managed one of the first lodges in this area.

After stopping at the pond, we hiked a little while longer and then we saw our first glance of Emma Matilda Lake from Lookout Rock.

Most of the trail on this side of the lake went through the evergreen forest. It was very beautiful!

As we continued, we came to hike right along the shores of the lake itself. Emma Matilda Lake was named after the wife of William “Billy” Owen, who was the first, along with three other climbers, to ascend to the summit of Grand Teton in 1898. Glaciers scouring out hollows created the lake by pushing earth and rock ridges around the depression. Around 15,000 years ago, the glaciers began to retreat and then it filled with meltwater.

The water was so still it created incredible reflection photos!! It was truly breathtaking!

On the other side of the lake, the trail is above the lake and more open than the south side. This also allowed us to see further out and we could even see out to Jackson Lake from this vantage point.

Emma Matilda Lake was threatened by an irrigation project in the 1920’s when water storage rights were granted to a sugar company and a livestock company after the severe drought of 1919. Grand Teton National Park hadn’t been created yet, but the Superintendent of Yellowstone applied political pressure to halt construction of the water project.

An obsidian knife estimated to be 8,000 years old was found near Emma Matilda a number of years ago. Anthropologist believe early hunters living near Yellowstone migrated south in late spring to hunt for animals and gather food.

Eventually we reached the outlet of the lake and we had to hop over on rocks and tree branches to get to the other side.

And then after about 10 miles, we were close to finishing up our hike along this beautiful willow area. Many times in this area, there is quite a bit of wildlife, but unfortunately for us, we really didn’t see any. We did get to hear a male Elk bugling to try to add to his harem, but we couldn’t see him. It was still fun to hear though! Happy Trails!

Fun at the Old Fashioned Chuckwagon!

2011-10-10T15:40:00.007-06:00

A few weeks ago, our friends had their daughter and son-in-law come and visit them here. We really had a great time while they were here too! One day, Sal and I, took a hike with them, along with Jackie, over to Hidden Falls and Inspiration point. Here’s Jackie and her daughter Jamie at the top of Inspiration Point.

The views along the way were still amazing too and we were lucky with some really wonderful weather!
The next day we all took a trip up the Aerial Tram at the Jackson Hole Resort in Teton Village up to the top of Rendezvous Mountain. The weather wasn’t so great though and we got stuck up at the top of the mountain and had to wait an extra 45 minutes before we could ride it back down because of a thunderstorm!!
After our day up there, we all went to the Bar J Chuckwagon in Jackson. We had heard a lot about the place, but never made the trip last year so we were really looking forward to going this time.

It’s a really popular place to go, so if you want to get any of the best seats, you gotta get there early and hang out in line.
We finally got to go inside and we did end up with very good seats! They do the show inside of, basically, a very large barn.

And they’ve got the place decorated all nice and purty and stuff!! I think someone might have stole my boots!! LOL

The Bar J Ranch was founded by Babe Humphrey in 1977 when he, along with the Bar J Wranglers provided a western experience that the whole family could enjoy. Babe taught his sons, Scott and Bryan, the importance of family values and western hospitality for which the Bar J has become renowned.

This picture shows Scott on the left, with Bryan on the right, with Danny in the middle.

This one shows Tim on the left with Scott again on the right.

The show is kind of a mix of stand-up comedy, good old-time western music, and just a whole lot of fun!!

From early in the 1800’s, cowboys who were on the cattle drive had a very long and hard day in the saddle. At the end of each day though, after a good ole rib-stickin’ meal, they would sit around and tell tall tales, and play instruments and sing. The Bar J was started to recreate this atmosphere and share it with others. They do feed you a hearty meal of BBQ Beef, Pork Ribs, Rib-Eye Steak, or Chicken. Everyone also gets beans, potato, applesauce, biscuit, and spice cake. It’s all cooked outside the old fashioned way and served up on tin plates. The barn can hold 750 people, and they can get everyone fed in 25 minutes!
Now with every good comedy team, they’ve got to have one guys who is the “straight man.” For this team, that job belongs to Donnie. He rarely smiles, and pretty much always has the same look on his face.

The man could play just about any instrument with strings that you could imagine though!!

The most hilarious part of the whole show though was when “Grandma” was out on the stage telling some amazing and the most comical stories you’ve every heard.
And after she got done on the stage, Bryan came back to do some incredible yodeling!!

The really amazing thing is that this group puts on this show every day, seven days a week, between Memorial Day and the last weekend in September. Every day!! Then in the winter months, they are hired to put on shows all over the country and also the Bar J is still a working cattle ranch!
It was a wonderful evening with good food, good friends, and good entertainment. If you ever find yourself in the Jackson Hole area of Wyoming in the summer months, I highly recommend taking the time to visit the Bar J Ranch! It really takes you back to the spirit of the old west in a great atmosphere! Happy Trails!

The Rest of the Backpacking Trip

2011-10-08T11:42:00.002-06:00

Sunrise in the morning was incredible! I do have to admit it was a cold one though!!

Since it had only been 8 weeks since my knee surgery, I decided to stay camped in the one location and spend the day hiking without the added weight of my pack on. I was surrounded by granite!

My plan for the day was to hike to the top of Hurricane Pass. Along my route were these two side-by-side waterfalls along the one side of the canyon.

The trail continued up and up and the views though were just breathtaking!

It’s rare that you can be this close and still get a photo that has Grand Teton, South Teton, and Middle Teton all in it, but I was able to do so as I climbed toward the pass. Looking back down toward the valley that I had just been hiking from was amazing! I kept telling myself, “Wow!” over and over again. I was awestruck!

On the south side of the trail just shortly before arriving at Hurricane Pass, you look down upon Schoolroom Glacier. Of all the glaciers within the park, this permanent snowfield is marked by textbook examples of lateral and terminal moraines, crevasses and a lake clouded by glacial flower at is toe. Thus how it got its name.
And then I finally arrived at the top of Hurricane Pass which sits just below 10,400 feet. You could see all the way over into Idaho from here!

A bit further along the trail, you see stunning views down into the Alaska Basin.

Guide Paul Petzoldt named the basin in 1924 after he and a horse party crossed the snow-covered alpine meadows early season.

After lunch on top of the pass, I began my trek back towards camp. And the views were spectacular!!!

On my way back down, I stopped along the glacial lake at the base of Schoolroom Glacier and filled up my water bottles with ice cold water that tasted oh so good!!

And then there were more amazing views along the trail….

This photo was taken looking toward Avalanche Divide.

I got to see a few animals on my way back to camp. This Yellow-Bellied Marmot sure was cute! And a bit chunky too!!!!

Then a little while longer I ran into this doe along with her two fawns.

Is this pic of one of the fawns alone adorable or what???!!

The next morning was even colder than the one before, but the weather had completely cleared up and it was a beautiful day to hike out. Hope you enjoyed coming along with me. Happy Trails!

A Great Backpacking Trip

2011-10-08T11:39:00.003-06:00

I’m trying to catch up on my blog posts for the summer now. The weather has finally turned cold and snowy outside, so it gives me more time inside to do things like this.
Well, as many of you already know, I had knee surgery earlier this summer. And because of this, I wasn’t able to do all the hiking and backpacking that I normally try to squeeze into any summer that we are in such an amazing place as Grand Teton National Park. My last visit to the doctor told me that I could take a backpacking trip as long as it wasn’t too extreme. Well, that’s all I needed to hear to send me off packing into the woods!! I began my trip going up Cascade Canyon, which is still amazing and some of the waterfalls were still flowing.

And so was Cascade Creek down the entire valley. It wasn’t flowing as much as the last time we were in this area, but it is still just as beautiful.

After passing that last cascade, it was all new territory for me! I hiked up the South Fork, and followed that part of the creek along the trail.

The trail had quite a few creek crossing along the way too. I was in seventh-heaven out in nature. This is where I truly find my peace and serenity. Hiking and backpacking have been a passion of mine since I don’t know when. If I don’t get enough of it, I start to get real antsy! How could you not enjoy a scene like this?????

The wildflowers were still blooming at this higher elevation too.

As I kept hiking up and up, at times, it felt like I was climbing up to the top of the world. This is looking over towards North Fork Cascade Canyon.

The views just continued along the hike. I did get rained on a little while. I just found a place under a tree and hung out for about a half hour until it had passed over me.

The trail crossed over the South Fork of Cascade Creek numerous times along the way.
Here’s the view looking back towards Cascade Canyon where I had begun my hike. As I got closer to where I would set up my camp for the next two nights, this cascade was right along the side of the trail.

I finally arrived where I was going to set up camp. The view from the location was amazing! This is looking one direction.

And then this is the view looking the other direction up at the rock formation called The Wall. Shortly after I got the tent set up, I had to wait out a thunderstorm as it passed over. It rained really hard so I was lucky it happened AFTER I had the tent up and not during or before! I wandered down to the creek to fill water bottles later so I could cook some dinner. It is such a beautiful area!!!

After the rains, it cleared up nice and allowed the moon to look incredible that night above all the rocks.
I’m going to stop this post and I’ll do the rest of the trip in another one as to not overdo it with too many pics in one post. It’s already written, so you can just continue with the next one! Don’t miss the views from Hurricane Pass!!

Check Out This Bus!!!!!!!

2011-09-22T18:46:00.001-06:00

A little while ago, we had a special potluck dinner here at the employee RV park. Earlier in the season some new workers came in and everyone had to take notice of their extremely unique RV. Immediately it was the “talk of the town” and everyone wanted to take a tour, but it’s not like you can just invite yourself into someone else’s RV! Eventually, the owners, David & Angel, gave in to everyone’s requests and offered to host a potluck and give tours through their bus. You have to admit, it a bit eye-catching!

Yes, that is a VW Bus up on top! And there really is a picket fence around the roof too. David and his brother took about 7 or 8 months to put this all together. Here’s our wonderful hosts and one of the men who put his heart and soul into making this. Here are our wonderful hosts for the evening! Did you notice the beautiful woodwork on the door? Because it is also throughout the entire inside of the bus as well!

Even over the seats in front. They took 2 x 4’s and then milled them each into three different boards and then installed them in the bus. I hope I am explaining it in such a way that it makes sense to you. Aren’t they just amazing though?

Here’s the view looking down their “hallway” towards the back of the place. I’ve never seen any kind of RV like this! They’ve even got a “wood-burning” stove in their living room. It’s actually a propane stove, but I still couldn’t believe it when I saw it sitting there!

Check out the bookshelves and the desk too! Amazing!

Now, in case you were wondering what the VW Bus is for up top; it is their master bedroom! What an idea, huh?! Here’s the real kicker when it comes to their unique home on wheels. They have a PIANO!! Can you believe that one???? Here’s the proof!

Pretty incredible, isn’t it? As you can also see, they also travel with other instruments and love music!! In fact, after everyone was done eating those who could play instruments all got together for a fun jam session.

Some other games were also played and fun was had by all!!Thanks to Dave & Angel for a wonderful evening and for sharing their home with all of us curious folks!!

Hiking Again!!! YEAH!!!!

2011-08-26T20:17:00.001-06:00

Well, just in case you couldn’t tell by the title, the knee is doing well enough to start hiking again!!! Took a friend’s advice on the ease of the hike and decided to check out Bailey Meadow. I attempted to take this hike in the spring, but due to all the extra snowmelt, I couldn’t make it across Arizona Creek. You can see the difference at the trailhead when you look at the creek now compared to the pics I took back in June.

Unfortunately, there was a fire burning not too far away, so it made photos of the mountains pretty hazy. Still beautiful views though.

I could really tell just how much snow has melted up in the mountains too. Although, high up there is still so much more than is usual for this time of the year. Here’s how much snow was up there just a couple of months ago.

Although it is so late in summer, there are still so many wildflowers blooming along the trail.

We finally arrived at the creek crossing that kept me from completing the hike last time. This time it was actually not such a big deal to find a way across. This hike actually involves crossing through quite a few small meadows along the way to Bailey Meadows. This is just one of them.

You definitely knew when you finally arrived at Bailey Meadows because it is just so massive! It is a huge meadow and a beautiful one too! Unfortunately, we didn’t see any wildlife to speak of along the hike. We saw and heard quite a few Canada Geese, but that’s about it. Again, we were a bit disappointed with all of the haze in the air.

We sat along the edge of the meadow and ate lunch and listened to all the geese fly by and rested my knee before making the trek back out. The last mile or so of the hike in was an uphill climb, so the downhill had me a bit concerned for my knee, but it did pretty well. We just took our time as we went and enjoyed the views!!

We got quite the show on our way back out too when we came across these two …. uh-hum….. enjoying each others company. They just kept moving further and further up the side of the trail for quite some time. We tried our best not to startle them too much. Anyway, the hike ended up being a bit over eight miles round-trip, which was a little longer than I had originally thought, but at the same time, my knee did pretty well so that part was great!! That means more hikes to come, so check back soon!! Happy Trails!

The Flip Side of the Tetons

2011-08-18T18:04:00.001-06:00

Over our last weekend off of work, we took some advice from one of our friends and headed over to Grand Targhee Ski/Summer Resort for a different view of the Tetons. It was breathtaking!! To get there we had to drive over Teton Pass.

The views down to Jackson are sill so amazing from up there.

The wildflowers were in full bloom at this elevation too!! I just had to stop for the photo opp!!!! Considering the last time we drove over this pass, it was still completely covered with snow, it looked a bit different this time around and was beautiful!!

We drove over to Driggs, ID and stopped at O’Rourke’s Sports Bar & Grill for lunch. The service was awful, but the burgers we both ate were very good! As we left and headed towards the resort, we could see the tip of the back side of the Grand Teton.

The drive up and into the mountains was an amazing one! I thought it was very cool how there were all kinds of farms below the incredible mountains above! When you arrive at the resort, you can’t even see the Tetons anymore. To get the view of the backside of them, you have to go for a little ski lift ride.

The views along the ride were beautiful!

Once you reached the top and looked back down towards the town of Driggs, you could see all of the farms that stretch across the valley. The views looking the other direction toward Grand Teton National Park were just simply breathtaking though!!!

After visiting this overlook, we walked over to another one on the other side of the ski lift that we were told had even better views of the “back” side of the Tetons

While we were hanging around up on top of the mountain, we were visited by this Golden-Mantled Ground Squirrel. Then after just a bit of time, this little baby Squirrel showed up too!! It was soooooo cute!!!!!!!

Some people ride up the lift with their bikes so they can ride down, a few ride up to hike down, and then many, like us, ride up to look around and then ride back down. I actually would have loved to hike down, but it was still too soon for my knee.
After our wonderful day up on top of Grand Targhee, we enjoyed our drive home too. Along the road, we happened upon this Missy hanging out in a pond. It was nice of her to stop eating to check us out too!!

And then more great views down into Jackson going over the Pass again.

This is such a beautiful area of the country!!! We got to see this approaching storm coming over the mountains as we neared back home. Pretty amazing!! Well, the knee is doing much better, so hopefully we will be hiking again very soon!! Happy Trails everyone!!

Waterfalls, Moose & Grizzlies! Oh My!!

2011-08-02T12:19:00.001-06:00

Okay, here’s a write-up from when we hiked up one of my favorite canyons here in Grand Teton National Park, Cascade Canyon. Because we wanted to hike back in the canyon as far as we could, we took the Jenny Lake Shuttle across to save us the 2 mile hike around part of the lake.

The views as we began our way towards the mouth of Cascade Canyon were beautiful! If you look close, you can see the waterfall in the middle, below the snow.

We had been told by a friend that there were waterfalls all along the canyon because of all the extra snow this year. He wasn’t joking!! Cascade Creek coming down the canyon was just roaring as well!!!

And sure enough, we kept hiking and we kept seeing more waterfalls coming down the canyon walls!!

At multiple places along the trail, it passed immediately next the creek. We have never seen it so full of water and rushing so fast!! Definitely beautiful!!!!!

The reality is that if all of these waterfalls have names, I have no idea what they are. I’ve tried to do the research to find out too with no luck.

I’ve always loved the views up the canyon, especially once you’ve started moving into the canyon itself. They are incredible!! And the waterfall views kept coming!!!

It amazes me how the same creek that was roaring along further down the canyon, is also the same creek that also gives these peaceful and quiet moments.

Some of the waterfalls along the way were bigger and some were smaller, but all of them were just such a treat to see!!

After a while, we came across this guy hanging out under a tree in the shade. Isn’t he beautiful????? And then, again, even more waterfalls!! It just felt like every few steps we were finding another new waterfall!

The further back in the canyon you continue, the views towards the end just keep coming! If you’ve never been to Grand Teton National Park, it’s definitely an amazing place and there is so much more to it than just the mountains you see from the road!!

I’ve often wondered how they get equipment out onto trails to do trail work. I’ve seen Conservation Corp. groups before, and I used to lug chainsaws and other tools out to trails to do work before when I was a park ranger. NPS uses people on horseback and mules to get some trails cleared. We caught up to this guy with his stock on the trail, then he’d pass us further up and then we’d catch up again!

The scenery never seems to get old along this canyon either. They views just keep coming and coming!!!!

At one point along the trail, the most amazing thing happened! First we saw a female moose down near the river, so I went closer to try to get some good photos. All of a sudden, Sal was hollering at me to come back up to the trail “right now!” I wasn’t sure what was going on, but I knew it had to be even better than the moose I was already watching for him to say it that way. So, up to the trail I returned. And it was definitely worth it!! This is what was waiting to greet me!! It started to neigh for it’s Mama, so while trying to keep an eye on Mom, I kept taking pics of the little one!!!

Mama wasn’t too alarmed with us by the baby, so we just kept watching, and of course, I just kept taking more pics!! Finally the two got closer together and the baby stopped bawling for help. Mom just kept waiting for the little one to catch up, all the while munching on the nearby greenery.

We all just kind of hung out there for a little while watching and talking. Another hiker was with us taking photos too. After he left, the trail worker with his stock came up, which startled both moose, and so they both headed into the river!

The baby sort of fell over before realizing that the river wasn’t really all that deep at this location and got back up on it’s feet.

Then they both arrived on the other side, safe and sound!! The whole event just kinda made you feel good all over!!!!By this time, we were quite a bit closer to the end of the canyon and the views continued to be amazing!! The largest waterfalls that we saw along the hike were towards the end of the canyon! They were just INCREDIBLE!!

After we arrived at “The Forks” we hiked up the south fork of the trail, based on the advice of the hiker down by the moose. We certainly were glad that we heeded his advice!

We hung out here for a while before turning around and heading back. Towards the end of the hike, we took a different trail to get back down to the boat ramp. This was the first we’d been on this part of the trail this season, since it was closed earlier when we were here. We had heard about quite a few avalanches occurring in the spring from the extra snow, but wow! We were very surprised by all the trees that had been knocked down and how easily you could see the path that it took!!! We hiked a bit further and got to Inspiration Point, 420 feet above Jenny Lake.

We finished by walking down to the boat dock and taking the Shuttle Boat back across.

Then on our drive back home, Grizzly Bear 610 was hanging out along the road with her two cubs. All I got was pictures of their butts AGAIN!

On a side note, there have been some interesting developments with the nearby grizzlies here. As I’ve written earlier, fifteen-year-old Grizzly 399, had three cubs with her this year, and her five-year-old daughter, Grizzly 610, gave birth to two of her own cubs over the winter. Well, 610 has now adopted one of 399’s cubs!! It happened between the 16th and 20th of July in the Willow Flats area of the park. They still aren’t sure why, but one theory is that a large male grizzly might have had an altercation with one, or both, of the mothers. Males have been known to kill cubs in order to bring females into heat again. Anyway, it has caused quite a stir around here and the last time each of the mothers were seen, the adoption still remains in effect!!!!

I hope you enjoyed Cascade Canyon with us and be sure to check back. I’ll keep you up to date with the Grizzly Drama!! Happy Trails!

Two Beautiful Lakes in the Tetons!

2011-07-26T14:18:00.001-06:00

Again, another hike we did before my knee surgery was a hike we’ve now done every time that we’ve been here in the park. We hiked up to Bradley and Taggart Lakes. The morning was another amazing day!!! Blue skies all around and waterfalls full of snow melt coming down the mountains!!! Before we even walked more than a few feet up the trail, we all of a sudden saw this female Moose running, literally, across the open space in front of us!! We couldn’t figure out what had caused her to run instead of walk, but it was fun to watch!

Near the beginning of the hike, the trail crosses over Taggart Creek. Towering above the trees, you can see the top of Grand Teton.

Like so many of the other creeks and rivers in the area, it was swollen with so much more water than any other typical year!!

To say that the views along the trail are amazing and beautiful just seems like such an understatement!!

As we continued further along, we decided to take the loop hike in the opposite direction than we ever had before just to change things around a bit. Avalanche Canyon still stood up on the other side of the lakes with Shoshoko Falls coming down like crazy!! So incredible!!!

When we got to this boulder along the side of the trail, it looked like the perfect place to get a good photo of Sal. What do you think? Continuing further along the trail, we got to the top of a hill, where we got our first glimpse of Taggart Lake through the trees.
After a while longer, we finally hit the shores of Bradley Lake (elevation 7022). Above it is the beautiful Garnet Canyon.

We spent quite a bit of time at the lakeshore talking with a family that was visiting the park from New Jersey. They were quite entertaining and were having a fantastic time! I love hearing about how other people enjoy the park and get their perspective. Afterwards, we hiked further along the shores down to the narrow neck of Bradley Lake where the views were still stunning!!
Looking the other directions, away from the mountains, the rest of the lake sits off to itself. Every other time we’ve been here, this area has been more of a swamp, than a lake. But on this day, it was still full with all the water from above and incredible reflections from the sky!

Turning around and heading back along Bradley’s shores, we kept hiking towards Taggart Lake. As we walked, I kept looking up at Garnet Canyon, when I realized that we could see Bannock Falls up above. We did the hike into Garnet Canyon last year and it was beyond incredible!!!!!

The trail took us up and over the glacial moraine that separates the two lakes. Between the trees, and above the Arrowleaf Balsamroot (Balsamorhiza sagittata) flowers below!

From the top of the moraine, before we descended, we could see Taggart Lake again. The other views along the ridge top were so beautiful! This whole area still just amazes me!!!!
We also got a better look up into Avalanche Canyon with Shoshoko Falls on the right side. I think I want to try to hike up into this trailless ravine that goes between two 11,000 foot peaks (Mt. Wister and Nez Perce) later this summer!
After a while longer, we arrived along the shores of Taggart Lake (elevation 6902).

Some of the views along its shores include a magnificent reflection of the mountains above its waters!!

All the way down at the other end of the lake, while standing on the bridge that spans over the lake’s outlet stream, we got this nice reflection of the amazing Grand Teton (13,770 feet) itself!! Both lakes were named after members of Hayden’s 1972 expedition to this area. Frank Bradley, chief geologist for the expedition, drowned while trying to find a ford across the Snake River. W.R. Taggart was an assistant geologist for the same expedition. He first visited Jackson Hole in 1860 as a member of a survey for the U.S. Army Engineers led by Capt. W.F. Raynolds.
After hanging out here for a while and eating lunch along the water, we took one last look across the lake, and headed back towards the parking lot. Hope you enjoyed coming along on another of our great hikes! Still have more adventures to come so check back again!!! Happy Trails!

Hike Around Jenny Lake

2011-07-20T09:23:00.001-06:00

Okay, so I am still working on catching up on my posts with my pics from hikes we did right before my knee surgery.

We’ve had some very busy bears in our area up here this summer. There is one bear, named 399, that had triplets a few years back and raised them here. She has now had her second set of triplets this year! I have had a tough time getting pictures of her and her cubs though. I was lucky enough to hang out and watch her one afternoon, but she and her cubs were so far away that I still couldn’t get photos like I wanted. They refused to cooperate! At least 399, looked up briefly at one point, even if the little ones wouldn’t.

In addition to 399 hanging out with her three cubs, a daughter from her first set of triplets, named 610, is also running around this summer with her two cubs!! Good photos of them have also eluded me so far, but I’ve gotten glimpses of them on a few occasions. On our way to take a hike, we saw these Elk running around like crazy! And then we got a look at what was causing all the commotion! It was 610 running after them!!

After she took off into the willows with her cubs in tow, we went on with our plans and headed out for our hike. We decided on a hike we’ve never done before, around Jenny Lake. The trailhead starts by crossing over the String Lake Outlet Creek. The trail continued along the edges of the creek, which is running higher than we’ve ever seen because of the snow melt.

We finally arrived at the outlet into Jenny Lake. This is the second largest lake in the park. The trail continued along the edges of the lake with incredible views of the mountains above. All of a sudden, we got a special treat in front of us on the trail. We met up with this Mama and Baby Yellow-bellied Marmot (Marmota flaviventris). Aren’t they so cute??!!

Further up the trail, we ran into more and more Marmots, but I’ve never seen one quite this dark! We continued our hike through a Lodgepole Pine forest with amazing views above the trees of the Tetons!!

Further along, we could see glimpses of Ribbon Cascade above us as it drained out of Hanging Canyon.

The creek from the falls eventually crossed the trail we were hiking on before draining into Jenny Lake.

One way to get to this side of the lake, if you don’t want to hike, is to take the Shuttle Boat that crosses numerous times daily. Cascade Creek comes down through Cascade Canyon and over Hidden Falls and then down into the lake. We’ve never, ever seen it running this fast and full!!!!! It was really just insane!!!!

As we climbed up the trail a bit heading towards Hidden Falls, all of a sudden you could still see the creek below, but could also see through the trees out to Jenny Lake!!! We had heard before that there were a couple of the bridges that were out due to avalanches earlier in the spring and ice coming down the creek. Not sure exactly which did the damage to this bridge, but it definitely wasn’t in any kind of condition to be used!!

Close by we arrived at Hidden Falls. It is a beautiful 80-foot-high waterfall that cascades over the canyon’s boulders and rocks. Again, we’ve never, ever seen it this full of water!!!

After leaving the falls area, the trail continued along the shores of Jenny Lake. This lake was formed about 12,000 years ago by glaciers pushing rock down Cascade Canyon, forming a terminal moraine which now holds the water in the lake. Jenny Lake is estimated to be about 260 feet deep and it encompasses approximately 226 acres. We continued along the western side of the lake, which allowed some incredible views of the Grand Teton (13,770 feet) towering above us. We found a very cool place to stop and enjoy our lunch off of the trail where we had beautiful views of Broken Falls.

And below us was a Moose Pond. I looked and looked through the binoculars too, but unfortunately saw no Moose hanging out. Oh well, still a pretty incredible view while eating!!!! After a while we arrived at the Jenny Lake Visitor Center area, which is also where the Shuttle Boats leave from to take you across. Robert Reimer took over the Jenny Lake Boat Concession in 1935, and then two years later built this personal cabin along Cottonwood Creek.As we continued our hike along the east side of the lake, we got some better views of Ribbon Falls on the other side.

We also had some amazing views across Jenny Lake over to Cascade Canyon. The lake was named by members of the Hayden Expedition of 1872. Fur trapper “Beaver Dick” Leigh and his Shoshone wife, Jenny, assisted the explorers so much that they broke from tradition of naming landmarks after their own team members and named Leigh and Jenny Lakes in their honor.

We finished our hike by hiking back up the east side of the String Lake outlet and back to where we’d parked the truck at the Leigh Lake Trailhead. And then, much to our surprise, on the way back home, 399 was hanging out again with her cubs!! I was able to even get a bit of a better photo of them all too. Although, I’m still going to try for better over the rest of the summer!! They certainly are adorable!!! Well, hope you enjoyed virtually coming along with us on our hike!! More still to come! Happy Trails!

Dinner Cruise to Elk Island

2011-07-16T07:44:00.001-06:00

Who knew that you could go on a dinner cruise in a national park? Well, it is a bit different than your typical dinner cruise. Anyway, let’s do first things first. In the morning, Sal decided that he needed to do some chores around the house, so in typical Bobbie fashion, I decided to go hiking! I took off for Arizona Creek Trail just up the road. The trail passed through multiple meadows along the way, which were quite water-logged. In the next photo, I was standing in the meadow taking a photo of the mountains too, and all the water in the foreground is actually in the middle of the trail!!

I kept telling myself that I really should give up and pick a different hike, but I wouldn’t even listen to myself! How sad is that???!! I kept getting to places where the water just kept streaming right down the trail! As long as I could figure a way around the water, I just kept trekking along. It was a very nice hike. I never saw another soul along the way, which is my favorite way to hike!!

I got to the point in the trail above, when I all of a sudden, came face to face with a huge Black Bear! I would love to show you a pic of the guy, but it happened way too fast for that. I came up and over a small hill and there he was, no more than about 20 feet away! We surprised each other and he turned, took off, and ran! He stopped at one point to look back at me through the trees and I tried to get a picture, but he moved before I could get my camera to focus. Still a very cool experience!!!

As you can see in the above pic, there was a lot of water in this place, and I thought again, after the bear took off, that I should probably turn around and leave, but of course, I didn’t. I kept hiking until I finally got to a point where I had absolutely no choice but to turn around. I got to a point where the trail led directly into the creek and the creek was running at high octane!!

So I finally gave up and made my way back to the truck and drove back towards home, but decided to make a stop and hike around near Sargent’s Bay of Jackson Lake. I had heard about the area from a friend and wanted to check it out myself. I hiked down the hill hentowards the bay and ended up eating my lunch sitting next to this small lake close by. After eating, I continued to walk around and explore. The entire area was very beautiful and peaceful. Here’s what Sargent’s Bay itself looks like. It’s named after John Dudley Sargent, who, in 1890, claimed Jackson Hole’s northernmost homestead nearby. Isn’t it amazing?

Afterwards I headed towards the University of Wyoming/NPS Research Station, also known as the AMK Ranch, even though it was never a working ranch. Mr. Sargent and his business partner, Robert Hamilton, ran a lodge here named the Merymere.

In 1926, Hoover Company Executive, W. Lewis Johnson purchased the Sargent ranch, and built this two-story lodge on the property. The AMK Ranch name came from the first initials of the next owner’s family: Alfred, Madeleine, and their son Kenneth Berol, in the mid-1930s. They bought the ranch from Johnson and then built the Berol Lodge. The University of Wyoming/NPS Research Center formed and moved here in 1977. Still called the AMK Ranch, now serves as a research facility for social, physical, and biological sciences. They furnish housing, laboratory space, transportation, equipment, and financial support for scientists. The view they are surrounded by as they study is completely stunning!! I wish I had known about a place like this when I was in college. I’m sure I could have come up with something to study while I hung out around here!!! LOL Actually, it is a very cool thing that they provide and in the summer months, they provide all kinds of talks, and classes for the public and anyone who wants to attend. After my day of exploration and fun, I went back home and then we met up with some of our friends and headed down to Colter Bay Marina so we could take a dinner cruise to Elk Island. We left the marina and head out getting closer and closer to the beautiful Teton Mountains.

The boat travels across Jackson Lake out to Elk Island where there are numerous picnic tables all set up ready to serve a feast! Once we arrive and disembark, we’re met my Mary, the Assistant Manager of the Marina and she welcomes us to the island. It’s a beautiful setting!

The cooks have been here for hours grilling away like crazy!! We are fed steaks, trout, corn, beans, cole slaw, and rolls. I’d like to say that it was oh so delicious, but it was okay. Dessert was apple or blueberry cobbler. You definitely can’t beat the view while you dined though!!

We wish the weather had been a bit better, but at the same time, we were extremely happy that we weren’t getting stormed on since we could see storms in the distance. We are hoping to take a breakfast cruise next time. The photo opportunities have got to be amazing! The lake is almost always like glass in the mornings, and the sun is in the best place for outstanding reflections. I’ll share those photos when we do that trip. This is the view we had heading back towards Colter Bay. As some of you know, I am currently recovering from a recent knee surgery. So, hopefully, I will catch up with the other photos that I have been holding on to so as to write blog posts during this recovery time. Happy Trails everyone!!

Finally a Summer Weekend!!

2011-06-27T19:50:00.001-06:00

Yay! We finally have started having some warmer weather and it’s starting to look more like summer! We had a couple of days off where it wasn’t raining or snowing so we got out and about in the park!! On our “Friday” we headed into town to do some chores and such so that we could enjoy our two days off work. On our way back home I saw these little baby Canada Geese and just had to stop to take pictures. I’d never seen any little ones before and they were so cute and fuzzy!! Mom looked as if she was hurrying them along for one reason or another. And the reflection of the mountains on Flat Creek that flows through town was so beautiful, I had to stop for that photo too!!

The next morning, we took off towards the Gros Ventre Mountain Range which is kind of at the south end of the park and they extend into the Bridger-Teton National Forest as well. We stopped near Mormon Row so I could take this photo of all the yellow flowers with the Tetons behind. I thought it was amazing!!! As we got further into the National Forest we came across these ewes hanging out on a hill above us.

We drove along the Gros Ventre River for much of the ride into the forest area. In the background is some of the remnants of the old Gros Ventre slide, which is one of the largest earth movements in the world. It happened on June 23, 1925. About 50 million cubic yards of sandstone, limestone, shale and rock moved quickly from an altitude of 9000 feet, across a valley bottom and then up the side of the hills on the other side. It actually formed a dam 225 feet high across the river and created this lake, which is aptly called Slide Lake. Right near the lake, we came across these three rams. I truly didn’t know that there were so many Bighorn Sheep in this area!

This guy decided to lie down and just strike a few poses for me!! Very nice!!!!So we continued on and finally arrived at the trailhead and began our hike. Towards the beginning of the hike, the views of the Red Hills were amazing.

After a little while, we came to a plank crossing of East Miner Creek. We came across this little guy hanging out in the middle of the trail a while later. I haven’t had time to try to identify the exact species, but just thought I’d share the photo anyway.

After hiking up and then down a few hills, we came back down and came to another plank crossing; this one of West Miner Creek.

All the creeks, and even the Gros Ventre River, are running full of water due to all the snowmelt. We’ve had warmer temperatures too so the melt has definitely increased. This was supposed to be only a “small run-off stream” according to my hiking book, but it definitely seemed like more than that to me!!!

There were a few times that the trail itself was literally taken over by a nearby stream or creek!! Some of the open views along this hike were just incredible!!!

After a few hours, we finally arrived at Grizzly Lake where we sat next to the water and ate our lunch enjoying the solitude of the place. The hike back out was the same as the way in. There wasn’t a way to do a loop hike. Of course, even if you hike in and then return back, the view looking in the other direction can still be more beautiful!

With the warmer, sunny weather that we have FINALLY gotten lately, the wildflowers have also begun to spring!! I always enjoy me some good wildflowers!!!!

Wildflowers near Grizzly Lake

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Then after our hike, we got a surprise we definitely weren’t expecting along the drive back home. Who would have ever thought we’d come across a whole herd of cows crossing the road???!!!

Further in the park, we had to stop while another herd of animals crossed the road in front of us, but this is a herd we’re used to seeing….the Bison!!! And the best part is the herd now has a few little ones traveling with them too! They are just so adorable!!!!!!

So it was an awesome day off in the park! We had a unique trip on our other day off that I’ll blog about next. Come back and check out our Dinner Cruise adventure!

Back to Park City & Over Teton Pass

2011-06-18T16:10:00.001-06:00

I had to return to Park City, UT again to see the doc about my knee. At least Sal was able to go with me, so I didn’t have to do all the driving alone this time. The landslide I wrote about immediately after my last trip down south was actually cleared enough that we could drive through, so we took that route on the way down. As we were leaving and just beginning our trip, we saw what we call a “Bear Jam” on the road. This is the equivalent of a traffic jam, except it is caused by a bear hanging out along the side of the road. Once we saw this beautiful Grizzly, we agreed that it was definitely worth stopping to see!!!!

We decided to drive back to Wyoming on a different route though to check out some new scenery. The drive through most of Utah that we traveled through was nothing to write home about. A lot of cityscapes and dreary weather. We did drive by the Great Salt Lake, which neither of us had seen before, but the weather was so dark and dreary, everything including the lake just looked gray. As we drove further north though, things got a bit prettier around us. The mountains that surrounded us were very pretty with all the snow on top even if we are to the point where we’re ready for it to just go away!

Although we also saw many areas that have begun to flood near houses and many rivers, like this one, that are over their banks already. It will only get worse if all that snow up top melts too quickly. We got into Idaho, which neither of us had ever traveled through and found the southern end of it to be just incredible! We drove through the hills with communities hidden in the canyons. Then as we drove further north, we past by many potato farms. And I mean potato farms EVERYWHERE!!! Miles and miles of potato farms! We saw all kinds of these storage buildings too. Some of them were like the one in the back of this photo, where the roofs were made of earth. Others were newer like the one in the front, made of metal. This was the only place where I actually got to see both kinds. But after a while, and seeing farm after farm, we also realized that some of these potato farms must be very profitable. I mean check out this house!! Anyone want to go in on a potato farm with me???? We continued further north and went through Teton Valley on our way to Wyoming. Another beautiful area!!! The weather was getting worse and worse as we were traveling too. We actually drove through a rainstorm that was so intense we could barely see through the windshield! And we were watching the lightning strikes right along the side of the highway!! We kept moving on though and the last big thing we really wanted to see on the trip was Teton Pass in Wyoming that goes on in to the town of Jackson. Both of us had heard about the pass, but we’d never been on it. Well, it didn’t let us down! There were a few pretty lakes along the road.

As we kept going up and up, the mountains had more and more snow on them, but was still incredibly beautiful!!!

Once we got up to the top we were told that there was an amazing view of Jackson. Instead we got a good look at the incoming fog. It actually looked really pretty sitting down in the valley below us. After we started down the other side of the pass, we got a close-up look at the fog as it came blowing up the side of the mountain and then over the road. It was pretty cool to see!!

Then all of a sudden, we were finally below all the clouds!! The view down to Jackson did not disappoint, even if it was lower in elevation than we had expected to see it.

Although it took us quite a bit longer than we anticipated taking this route versus our original way, we were still glad we decided to take it. In fact, we decided that we want to take the route again, preferably on a prettier day weather-wise.

Well, I’m sure that I would receive questions about how my doctor’s appointment went if I weren’t to include what he said. So, I found out that it seems I will have to have yet another surgery on my knee. At this point I’m not sure when it will be done. It will only be orthoscopic, but I’m still not looking forward to it. Oh well, that’s the way it goes.

I hope this finds everyone having a great summer so far! Happy trails and check back soon! I’ll keep you up to date!

Finally Saw A Bear!!!

2011-06-07T19:24:00.001-06:00

I know it’s been a little while since I’ve updated the blog. I took a quick trip out to Oregon to visit my Grandma who just tuned 90 and also visited my Mom there too. When I retuned here, I started work the very next day and have had only a few days off since then and so have been really busy doing chore-type things and have had less time to take photos and have fun.

I did have a couple of days to walk and drive around immediately before I left for Oregon. The Elk have definitely begun moving more into the park and have continued. I spent some time just walking through the campground before it opened. I just wanted to see how snow melt was coming along and such. I was greeted by this little tree-squirrel on my way in. At the time, there was still a whole lot of snow in the campsites, but the views of the mountains from there were still amazing!! I walked down to the Colter Bay Marina, which is right here in the area that we stay in. I couldn’t believe how much snow was still there!!! The really amazing thing is that although in this photo there is still so much snow, but today, there is so little amount of water that the marina is still not open for boating, and they aren’t sure when it will be able to open. The reason that there is so little water in the lake at this point is due to the fact they have still been letting more and more water out through the dam to prepare for all the snowmelt that will fill the lake after the weather turns warm enough. In fact, they increased the amount of water coming through the dam. I took a walk down to the picnic area in Colter Bay down by the lake too. It was so quiet there with no visitors. That will change soon!! It already has some. This is what the view was looking over the lake towards Waterfalls Canyon. The lake did begin to thaw out though and has recently thawed the rest of the way, but now with a lot less water in it. I took this photo right before I left for Oregon. It was one of the very first good-weather days we had after arriving!! I also took a drive down to Jenny Lake to see how it was coming along when it comes to melting, but it was still frozen. It’s amazing how much can change in such a short period of time though. This is what it looked like before my trip to Oregon.

And this is what it looked like just a few days ago.

Different times of the day make the mountains look a bit different too, but I still couldn’t get over how quickly so much snow had disappeared. Except for on the mountains themselves. From what the Park Service had said, there is still about 20 feet of snow on some of them!!!! I can’t help but wonder if it will ever melt enough for me to be able to take the backpacking trips I was hoping for this summer!! It will be interesting to see how and when all that snow melts. Hopefully, the flooding won’t be too bad. And if we didn’t already have enough snow, on Memorial Day, May 30, 2011 and what most consider to be the unofficial beginning of summer, we added more snow to the piles here! Check out this video and see how hard it snowed on us that day!!

With all that snow, as you might have guessed already, the campground didn’t have too many visitors! It has begun to pick up a little this week. We’ve also started getting some better weather too. Hopefully it will continue. The bears have started coming out more and more too. We finally saw our first bear of the season when we saw this Black Bear along the road a couple of days ago. Needless to say, we (especially me!) were very excited. We got one more visit from another Tree Squirrel too when it came climbing up a tree immediately outside our back window. Sophie found it to be quite entertaining!!

I have to admit, the squirrel was pretty cute!!! Well, hopefully, the weather will stick around, things will fall more into a routine, so that I can get out and take more photos and see more exciting things so I will have more to share in the blog. I hope this finds everyone having a wonderful start to summer!

Happy Trails!

Now Closed Highway in Wyoming

2011-05-22T10:00:00.001-06:00

A couple of weeks ago, I had to make a trip back down to Park City, Utah so I could see my orthopedic doctor to have him check up on my knee progress. As most of you know who have been following my blog, I tore my MCL this last March while working at Deer Valley Ski Resort and it still hasn’t completely healed. Since it was a workers compensation injury, I need to make sure to follow up on it. I still have to make at least one more trip down there again too in a few more weeks. At least this time, Sal will be able to make the trip with me. This time, I had to travel alone and it took six hours to drive there!

I do have to admit that the drive was a very pleasant one though. I drove south through Grand Teton National Park and then through the town of Jackson, often referred to as Jackson Hole. Back in the 1800’s a high valley surrounded by mountains was referred to as a “hole” and when an early mountain man, named David Jackson, spent the summer of 1829 along the shores of a lake here in the valley along the Snake River, the area was labeled “Jackson’s Hole.”

After leaving Jackson, I traveled into the Bridger-Teton National Forest. It is the second largest national forest in the lower 48 states and covers 3.4 million acres!!! It makes up a large part of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, which at 20 million acres is the largest intact ecosystem in the lower 48 states. The whole area is incredible!! Then the road took me along part of the Wyoming Centennial Scenic Byway. I can easily see how it got that designation!! It’s a beautiful drive along the Snake River!!!
I continued further south along Us Hwy 26/89 and went through part of the Wyoming Range and the Salt River Range. Now this part of the roadway is closed to all traffic after a recent mudslide has covered up about 100 yards of the highway! There is no estimated opening date! Unfortunately, the slide is continuing to move at a rate of approximately 1 foot an hour!! Is that crazy or what??!!! You can see an AMAZING time-lapse video of the slide at this link. It’s doubtful that it’s going to be cleared before my next trip to Park City, so we’ll now have to travel more than 100 extra miles one-way. At least I’ll get to see new things. Gotta look at the bright side.

Anyway, the Salt River area is very beautiful. The road takes you down through the middle of a valley, where you are surrounded by mountains above.
And as you probably already assumed, the Salt River winds back and forth along the side of the road.
Then the trip took me into Star Valley. It was settled in the late 1870s by hardy Mormon pioneers and was proclaimed the “Star of All Valleys” for all its natural beauty!!
Driving through some of the valley on the return trip, I came across this site. It came as quite the surprise all of sudden!!!!! Only in Wyoming could you find cowboys herding sheep right along the main highway!!!!!!
Anyway, there are quite a few very small towns throughout Star Valley. Afton is actually one of the larger of the small towns, but I was fascinated by this Elkhorn Arch. I found out it is the World’s Largest!! It was built in 1957 and spans over Main Street and has over 3000 antlers in it!!!!
The highway continued south and went through miles and miles of ranchland as I got closer to Utah. It was extremely beautiful!
And the scenery got a lot more typical for Utah as I got to Evanston, WY and then into Utah. By the time I got here, I was glad to know that I was almost to my destination. As I already wrote in the beginning of this entry. I still have to make at least one more trip down south in a few more weeks. I’d be really surprised if they were able to have the mudslide cleared by then. I guess I’ll have new photos to share after that trip with a new route. Hope everyone's summer is coming to a great start!! Happy Trails!

Wish For Us Warm Weather & Blue Skies

2011-05-10T14:42:00.001-06:00

As I’ve already been blogging about, there is still a whole lot of snow here in Grand Teton National Park. The day we arrived, about two weeks ago, we were still surprised by just how much snow there was. We had friends that were already here that tried to tell us, but it’s always different when you actually see if for yourself!!!!!All day on Mother’s Day, it was snowing and since then it’s been raining and snowing constantly. It does seem like the snow is beginning to melt though, even if it’s not very quickly! Here’s what the snow looked like outside our window last Sunday.

My day yesterday started out really well, with this chubby little Robin sitting right outside the window in the tree. Sophie was running around trying to figure out how she could get outside to play with this cute new “friend” of hers!Later in the day I decided to drive around the park and try to see any new wildlife that might be out and just look around and see what was going on. I noticed that some of the creeks that were previously frozen are beginning to break up. This is what Pilgrim Creek looked like when we got here. I’d never seen it look like this! I’ve seen it flowing and totally dry, but never just solid snow. Yesterday, I was happy to see Pilgrim Creek with some water flowing in it under the snow. Spring may really be on the way!! My heart goes out to all the people who are along the Mississippi River that are being affected by the flooding. It’s terrible!! I know it’s to no extent even close to any of that, but they are concerned about flooding occurring here as well. You can really see the difference in some of the creeks too. This is Pacific Creek along Pacific Creek Road from a couple of days after we arrived. And with only a little bit of warm weather, and quite a bit more snow and rain, you can really see quite a difference. A lot of snow has melted and the creek is swelling. The large Jackson Lake in the park is at 155% of normal already, before most of the snow melts! Once the snow really starts melting, they’re worried that it could start causing some real problems in certain areas. They’re trying to let water out through the dam now to try to save problems from happening later.

Of course, this is making the river flow at a higher rate, and it’s helping more of the snow to melt that’s in it too. It’s such a beautiful river here in this area. They do a lot of white water rafting trips on the river further downstream and if they have to continue to release large amounts of water, it will affect their ability to run the trips safely. It will be interesting to see what happens as time goes by and more snow melts.
And we still need much more to melt too! This is a photo of the local Visitor Center here in Colter Bay, which is where the campground that I will work in is located as well. You have to look really close to see the roof through the trees back there! It’s just amazing the snow they’ve had this year!! The Visitor Center is due to open on the 26th of May along with some of these cabins here in Colter Bay as well.

They’ve begun to try to plow what they can around some of these cabins, but it just doesn’t seem like it’s possible to get it all done in time!! I mean, look at this dumpster which is located in the campground. How easy do you think it’s going to be to throw trash into this?? Some of the problem is that in certain areas, such as the campground and also where the cabins are located, there are so many trees that snow melt is just not going to happen quickly at all! And with 350 sites, shoveling them doesn’t sound like much of an option either. It’s going to be interesting!
Of course, the other side of all this snow is that, I do have to admit, it is extremely beautiful to see!! Jackie and I went for a walk last week and although the view ahead was very pretty, the snow was so high we couldn’t see on either side of the road! Since a bear had recently been seen in the area, it did make us a bit nervous. I took a trip out to Jenny Lake to see how it was looking too. It is still frozen, but again very gorgeous! Well, I guess we will have to wait and see how things come along. I will keep you up to date as you follow along with us. Hope for us some warm weather and blue skies!! In the meantime, I will just keep enjoying the scenery!! Happy Trails!!

Some Grand Teton Wildlife

2011-05-07T08:17:00.001-06:00

As I wrote before, although Sal has already started working, I am still off work for a little while longer. Jackie and I went out quite a few days trying to see if we could find some wildlife to watch and photograph.

Before we ever arrived, our friends, Dave and Jeanene saw this industrious little Beaver hanging out near Oxbow Bend working and working. I’ve gone looking for him/her on multiple occasions, but still haven’t run into it myself! I’m not giving up though!!

The first wildlife we got to see after the trip in was this Coyote that was hanging out at Oxbow Bend the day after we arrived. I thought it was really funny how it looked like all these Canada Geese are sitting there watching it walk by. We also went down towards the dam to see if anything was there. We came across this Osprey up in a nearby tree. Sorry the pic is a bit fuzzy; I was zoomed in just a bit too much for the quality. Down near Moran Junction, we came across these two Moose killing some time in the willows. While we were watching them, I kept post-holing into the snow up past my knees. Jackie just kept laughing at me!! At first we only saw the one on the left and finally right before we were leaving, the one on the right appeared through. We were the only two watching them for the longest time before a family showed up to watch too. As we were driving away, just a little bit away, was this beautiful creature!! On another day, Jackie and I got up early to see if that helped us. As much as we were enjoying seeing the Coyote, Moose, and all, we also really wanted to try to find Wolves and Bears!! So, we were off! We drove down to Pacific Creek Road and headed out!!! Unfortunately, all we got to see out there was tracks!! We did see Wolf tracks even if not the animal itself.

We saw this interesting track, skid mark, or whatever you want to call it! The way it looked to us was that a bear had either slid down on its butt, belly or its back and then gotten up at the bottom. In any case, just picturing what might have done this made us both laugh like crazy!! After not seeing any animals, we decided to drive somewhere else. So we went up to Leeks Marina on a whim and we finally got to see a couple of Wolves!! We were both just like little kids on Christmas morning!!

Now, just to give you a little perspective to just how far away these guys were from us, here is a photo zoomed out, of the island that they walked around the back of in the above photo. As much as we really had wished that they were a lot closer to watch, I was still so excited to see them at all!!! That’s what binoculars are for, right?!!!

So, I was all happy and content at that point! Sure I still hadn’t seen a Bear, but Wolves!! And then we got quite the show from this little cutie right outside of our door!! It hung around for quite a while too. In fact, check out how close it came to Jackie while she was taking pictures!! I kept wondering where all the Bison were that usually hang out in the park, and then finally there was one! It was only one though, which is pretty rare. Jackie and I came up with all kinds of stories in our heads as to why this guys hangs out alone. Of course, we have no idea of the truth, but have been told by someone who lives here year-round that this fella does this all the time. Oh well. Still a beauty to see!! Some of the Elk have finally started coming in from the Elk Refuge too. Normally by this time they are EVERYWHERE, but not yet this year. They’ll come more after more snow melts I’m sure. Down by the Gros Ventre Campground where there is a lot less snow, we’ve came across quite a few Moose. They are definitely enjoying the lack of snow, and the abundance of new growth to munch on. We went for a walk through the campground to see if there were any more animals there. We didn’t find any mammals there, but we enjoyed watching a couple of Bluebirds playing with each other, as well as this Red-Shafted Northern Flicker. Isn’t it gorgeous???? Then on the way back home, we came across another fox. I seem to be seeing them often since then. That is definitely one advantage to arriving here so early in the season. There is a lack of other people and things are still pretty quiet so therefore, you get to see more wildlife. A few days later we had a Pine Martin come visit for a while. They are really hard to get photos of because they are way too high-strung and they move around a whole lot and really quickly!!! Well, there is a bit of the wildlife living here in the Tetons. And no, I still haven’t seen any of the elusive Bears! I have seen tracks so I know some of them are beginning to wake up, but with all this snow, they’re probably coming out and then deciding to return to their nap for a while longer! Hope you enjoyed the pics!!

Getting To Grand Teton National Park

2011-04-29T12:56:00.001-06:00

So, after our friends, Mike & Jackie, got their tire fixed, and their “check engine light” taken care of, and after we got our electrical system problems figured out and fixed, we finally all hit the road heading north again, leaving Colorado Springs, CO.

We had an uneventful trip up to Cheyenne, WY where we stayed at Terry Bison Ranch. It’s a pretty cool place to stay; I blogged about it and posted photos of it here the first time we stayed. The night of our arrival, the winds picked up to 60 mph and the next morning, the day we were supposed to leave, they were up to 70 mph!! Needless to say, we stayed put in our sites! We used the extra day to have a Mexican Train marathon and had a whole lot of fun!! It was definitely much better than just sitting around and worrying about tipping over!

We were able to leave the next morning though and took off towards Rock Springs. It didn’t take too long before we got a glimpse of what could have happened if we hadn’t stayed put the previous day.

We saw another travel trailer, or small fifth-wheel, that was broken to pieces so badly you couldn’t really figure out which it was! Don’t know why people were in such a hurry as to travel in such dangerous circumstances, but it sure made us realize we made the right decision!!

We continued up and over the pass along Elk Mountain. Beautiful views!! We knew we were in Wyoming once we started seeing all of the Pronghorn along the road! All of a sudden, they were appearing EVERYWHERE!! We hadn’t seen any in a long time, so we enjoyed seeing so many! We traveled closer and closer to the Wind River Range. Once we got to Rock Springs and arrived at the RV Park there, we found out that what used to be Good Sam park last year, was now a KOA park. Since neither of us are KOA members, we really didn’t want to pay their price to stay the night, so we decided to move on up the road to an RV park in the small town of Boulder, WY. We continued to see more and more Pronghorn along the way!!! We were very glad we chose to drive the extra miles once we arrived at Highline Trail RV Park. They were extremely nice! The park was cute, clean, and the views were incredible!! And the sunset on the mountains was gorgeous!! We all got a good night’s sleep and headed toward our final destination of Grand Teton National Park in the morning. We couldn’t have asked for a better travel day!! The skies were blue, no wind and not too many miles to travel!! A lot of our day was along the beautiful Hoback River, also called the Fall River. It is approximately 55 miles long and is a tributary of the Snake River. The entire length of it is free flowing and unobstructed by any dams. We finally arrived in Jackson and stopped at Smith’s to pick up last minute grocery items and fuel up before heading into the park. As we were leaving town, we passed the Elk Refuge where many, many Elk were hanging out waiting for more snow to melt away in the higher elevations. The migration of the Jackson Hole Elk is the longest herd migration of elk in lower U.S.After a little while longer, we finally got to see those amazing Grand Tetons in the distance! They have a whole lot more snow on them than we’ve ever seen before!!! At Oxbow Bend was another incredible view of the mountains! As we got closer to what will be our home for the next 5 1/2 months, we had an amazing view of Mount Moran (12,605 ft). It is named for Thomas Moran, an American western frontier landscape artist. Several active glaciers exist on the mountain, but with this much snow, it’s hard to tell where they are!! As you can see in the following photo, we arrived to quite a bit of snow still on the ground as we entered into the employee RV park. So, we had to dig out both of our sites before we could try to settle in. It took us a while, but we all worked together with our friends to dig out both of our sites so we could, at last, get parked!! I took this pic a couple of days later to give you an idea of what it was like. Unfortunately, both Sal and Mike had to start working the very next day after we arrived. The repairs and wind from earlier in the trip put us back a couple of days in our schedule, so we lost their “cushion” days. Jackie doesn’t start for a little while and I have even more time before I start so, the two of us made plans to go wildlife searching. Stay tuned for more blogs and photos! Happy Trails!

Visiting With Friends

2011-04-25T10:05:00.001-06:00

We were lucky enough to squeeze in a visit with our fulltime RVer friends, Bobbie & Jim Chapman in Alamosa, CO. The afternoon that we arrived, we just hung out and caught up on what all of us had been doing since the last time we visited which was about a year ago. Later on Jim took us to where he stored his old El Camino that he restored. We’d heard about it before, but this is the first time we had the chance to see it ourselves. Very nice!!!!! Then we all went to a Mexican Restaurant for dinner. Yummmm! It had been quite a while since we had eaten a good Mexican meal, which we both love and this one definitely fit the bill! It was great!! The building used to be an old hotel building. Once you started to really look around, you could tell. It was very pretty inside. In fact, in this photo, you can even see the old phone booth in the corner. Although there was no phone still inside, Jim shared that he remembered when there was in the past. The next morning, we had all made plans to get up early so they could take us up to where they work in the summer months. We had heard about the campgrounds and such but had never had the chance to see them. Before we headed out, I was lucky enough to catch this great photo of the sun coming up near Mt. Blanca. Very beautiful!!!Before we took the drive to see their campgrounds, we all went out and had an incredible breakfast at a place called Ef’s Restaurant. We all had skillets that had the BEST green chili on top!! After breakfast, we headed out. The views were amazing!! Along the way we passed a place called Best Western Movie Manor. There’s actually a Drive-in Theater here! And then they also have this hotel where you can rent a room for the night and the movie is piped into the rooms so you can watch! Isn’t that a great idea?!?!?! I thought it was very cool!!! Maybe that’s what makes it one of the few Drive-in still in use these days. We still kept going further up the mountains. Soon the more desert-like surroundings changed into more evergreens and definitely mountain-like views! We were in the Rio Grande National Forest and then we arrived at the first of the campgrounds that they were able to show us. This is the one that they actually stay in themselves for the summer. This is one of the campsites there along Park Creek which is the also the name of this campground. Here’s some views from the campsite itself. Yeah, I think I could stand to stay here for a summer! What do you think? We continued further up the mountain to see some of the other campgrounds that they are in charge of. I think they said that they are in charge of 10 in total. The whole area was just gorgeous!! At the entrance to the next campground, we saw this little fella hanging out. Don’t quite know why, but I just love these little marmots!!!! They are just so damn cute!!!We stopped at this one pullout along the side of the road to take some pictures of the river. It was windy and cold, and a few snowflakes even flew shortly after this, but it was still a beautiful place! Another one of their campgrounds we visited is called Upper Beaver Creek and is another fabulous campground, with more sites right along the creek. Also in this campground is a restroom that is on the list of National Historic Places. Can you believe it??!! It is one of only a very few of the original Forest Service restrooms that are still around. Pretty cool, in a strange sort of way! We were on a time schedule due to the fact that we still had to make it to Colorado Springs to meet up with some other friends that same day. The four of us are traveling up to Grand Teton National Park to work for the summer. So we had to head back to Alamosa so we could get going, but we did stop along the road to take pictures of this cute little catholic church in the country. We made a stop to meet with Jim & Bobbie’s friends, Rich & Terri, who work close by in South Fork for the summer. Nice place and extremely nice people! We made it back to Alamosa, said our goodbyes, and took off for Colorado Springs. Leaving town, we drove over the Rio Grande River. We got to see some more amazing views along the way! Some of the upper elevations had gotten a new dusting of snow the night before. We drove along and got a close-up, well relatively, view of Blanca Peak. It looks to me that it is an ancient volcano. And then later, we drove over La Veta Pass, which took us next to this incredible view!! We finally arrived in Colorado Springs and met up with Jackie and Mike Reid. Unfortunately, they had gotten a blow-out on their fifth-wheel along their way there. Mike was already working on repairs when we arrived and Sal jumped in to help.

Well, we truly enjoyed our time with Jim & Bobbie and had such a great time with them! We always share a lot of laughs and good times when we’re with them and we certainly thank them for all of their hospitality. And now we’re also happy to be with Mike and Jackie heading towards the Tetons too. That’s what is so wonderful about this lifestyle. We are so lucky to get to know so many people and make such wonderful friendships! Happy Trails!

Historic Route 66 & Santa Fe, NM

2011-04-23T08:04:00.001-06:00

Like I told you in my last blog post, we spent a couple of days in Albuquerque after our quick trip to Texas. And the RV Park that we stayed in was along Historic Route 66, so we decided to check out some more of this famous highway. In November of 1937, a realigned Route 66 became New Mexico’s first completely oil-surfaced road and shortest east-west route, which cut the distance through the state on route 66 from 506 miles to 399 miles. The original north-south route remained in use as US 85. We traveled a bit on the original route, but didn’t see too many of the original buildings left. We found many along the newer route and here’s a sample of them.

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After we toured Central Avenue, we drove north a bit and headed to Santa Fe, which is apparently the oldest state capital in the United States. It was a beautiful day and the area was quite busy when we arrived. We soon found this building, called the Hewett House. It is one of the few remaining military buildings from the period when the US Army maintained two military reservations in Santa Fe. This one was one of six constructed as housing for officers and their families assigned to the Headquarters of the Military Department of NM in 1870-71. We then moved down the road and wandered the Historic Santa Fe Plaza. It has been the commercial, social and political center of Santa Fe for hundreds of years. Some of the buildings surrounding the Plaza date back to the 1600s.

There was a whole lot of activity going on through the place. There were all kinds of people who had made jewelry that were trying to sell it. There were also people throughout the middle of the plaza that were playing instruments and singing too. After getting some lunch and some very good locally-brewed beer, we wandered through the area exploring a bit more. Up at the end of one of the streets is the Cathedral Basilica of Saint Francis of Assisi, commonly known as Saint Francis Cathedral. The cathedral was built by Archbishop Jean Baptiste Lamy between 1869 and 1886 on the site of an older adobe church. In front the the cathedral is a statue of Kateri Ketakwitha (1656-1680). She is the first Indian of North America to be promoted a Saint. The inside of the place was amazing to look at. The architecture and stained-glass were just incredible!

Outside was an area called the Rosary Walk where there were many people sitting quietly. The trees blooming there were very beautiful! After the cathedral we headed further down the road and around the corner to the historic Loretto Chapel, built in 1873. Another incredible building!! Although it is quite small inside, it was also quite stunning!!

More incredible though are the two mysteries that surround the spiral staircase inside: the identity of its builder and the physics of its construction.

When the chapel was completed in 1878, there was no way to access the choir loft 22 feet above. Carpenters were called in to address the problem, but they all concluded access would have to be via ladders as a staircase would interfere with the interior space of the small chapel. But as you can see in the above photo, a spiral staircase was eventually built instead. Legend says that to find a solution, the Sisters of the Chapel made a novena to St. Joseph, the patron saint of carpenters. A man later appeared with a donkey and a toolbox looking for work. Months later, the elegant circular staircase was completed, and the carpenter disappeared without pay or thanks. They are a magnificent structure! The staircase has two 360-degree turns and no visible means of support. Also, it is said that the staircase was built without nails – only wooden pegs. Questions also surround the number of stair risers relative to the height of the choir loft. No matter all of that, I just found them to be incredibly beautiful!!!!!

After the Loretto Chapel, we continued walking around town, had a very tasty ice cream cone and just continued to enjoy the Santa Fe Plaza. Then we finally headed back to the truck to return to Albuquerque. We happened upon this interesting statue in what they called Burro Alley. They have to to pay homage to the Burro who came through this area with wood peddlers, farmers and merchants. Burros economically served the many cultures of New Mexico. For many years the people of Santa Fe relied on the Burro for their welfare. I found it all very interesting.

We really enjoyed Santa Fe and I hope you enjoyed the info and photos. Happy Trails!!

We Finally Found Warmth!!

2011-04-21T19:33:00.001-06:00

We left Park City, UT a little while back and definitely drove into warmer weather! It is very nice to our bones!! We needed to head south because Sal lost his wallet while skiing at Deer Valley and we tried everything we could think of to find it. Ski Patrol at the resort even took a rescue dog out to smell around with no luck! Anyway, since we have Class A licenses, Texas won’t send a replacement through the mail, so south we headed! Our first stop was in Moab, UT. This area is so beautiful!! Here’s the view from the RV Park we stay at in Moab. After Moab, we headed down to Albuquerque, NM. Views along the way were pretty amazing.

I thought this looked just like a building sitting on top of a rock. The way that some rocks and layers erode at different rates and create things like this is just fascinating to me! We drove through a town named Shiprock, NM. This rock is an example of a volcanic neck, or a central feeder pipe. The remnant of an eruption around 30 million years ago during the Oligocene, it is the basalt core of an extinct volcano. I thought it resembled a castle much more than a ship, but that’s just me. ;-) Still very cool to look at! A couple of hours later, much to our surprise, we crossed over the Continental Divide. Don’t know why, but I just didn’t expect that how here in the middle of the desert! We finally arrived in Albuquerque and stayed at Enchanted Trails RV Park. It’s located along the Historic Route 66. It’s a pretty nice place if you’re ever in the area. And it’s also a Passport America park too making it affordable. Originally a Trading Post , called the Hill Top Trading Post, built in the late 1940’s, the flat roofed adobe building is typical of the region. The property has been used as a backdrop for several films. Most recently their vintage cars and travel trailers were featured in a Route 66 video.

After a night in Albuquerque, we headed further south towards Texas. This was the first traveling we’ve done since we had to put Scruffy down, so we weren’t real sure how Sophie was going to do traveling by herself. She never had before. Since she’s not a very nervous kind of cat, we thought we’d try allowing her to roam a bit in the truck if she wanted to. She was funny to watch!!

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She’d walk around, look out the windows, meow a lot, and then she would just decide she was done and then return to her little “home” and just hang out. She’s still adjusting, but its going pretty good. We arrived down south after racing against the high winds that were coming!! It was a little touchy here and there, but as soon as we got set up, we headed to the closest DMV immediately. After a two hour wait, Sal FINALLY got his license replaced. Yay!!

After all of that, the next morning, we turned around and headed back north!! We returned to Albuquerque, to the same RV Park. We were blessed with an AMAZING sunset!!!

This time we spent a couple of days here and checked out a few nearby sites. I’ll cover that in my next blog. We’ve had a few days where we didn’t have reliable WiFi, so I’m trying to play catch-up on the blog! Happy Trails!!

Spring is Coming – I think…….

2011-04-11T19:31:00.001-06:00

We’ve only got a few more days here in Utah before we hit the road to continue our adventures somewhere else. As much as we enjoy skiing, we’re ready to leave it behind! The last few weeks have been tough ones for us anyway. First, I tore my MCL in my knee, but at least it should heal on its own without surgery, so we’re happy about that. And then we lost our battle against our cats cancer too. Scruffy put up one hell of a good fight though, and we will miss him always! So we will now be traveling with only one kitty. Sophie’s a handful all by herself anyway! Since I can’t ski any more this season, we decided to take a drive a few days ago on our day off. We started heading south on Hwy 40 and made a stop at Daniels Summit Lodge for some lunch. Its cute little place! First we walked around in the lobby. The lodge has a rich history, beginning in 1876, when the original structure was the prize of a poker game. It was then converted into a boarding house where people could eat and sleep on the floor for a mere 50 cents. After switching owners several times, in 1925 a 15-room boarding house was built to accommodate travelers on the stage line. In 1963, the building burned and sat vacant for 20 years.

The lodge there now was renovated and made into the vacation spot it is in 1998 after a 6 million-dollar renovation.

After we finished walking around the lobby, we headed over to the Lodge Pole Grill for lunch. The food was really good and the people working there were really, really nice! It’s a cute little place we were really glad we stopped at!!

After finishing up our meal, we continued further down the road towards Strawberry Reservoir. The views along the way were very beautiful! Since it’s April, we were a little surprised at the amount of ice and snow still sitting on the water. Strawberry Reservoir is Utah's premier trout fishery and the largest cutthroat trout ever caught in Utah was taken here in 1930. It weighed 27 pounds!!After looking at a map, I noticed that there was still another lake further south, so we decided to keep driving for a while and see what it was like there. After a short while, we were finally low enough in elevation that most of the snow was gone. All of a sudden as we drove, we saw a sign that said Strawberry Pinnacles with an arrow. It sounded interesting, so we headed that direction. Within a very short period of time, we found ourselves in the bottom of a beautiful canyon. Strawberry River flows down the middle of the canyon and apparently it’s a popular fly-fishing area. After a while, we finally got to where the Pinnacles actually were. There was a lodge and houses around the area. They were way cool to see! We drove for a while past them to see what it was like further in the canyon. Still beautiful to see! Since we had no idea where this road was going to lead us, or how far it went, we finally turned around and headed back to the main highway. We did finally make it out to Starvation State Park. Apparently it got its name from cattlemen and homesteaders in the late 1800s and early 1900s. They were trying to make a go of it along the banks of the Strawberry River in the area now occupied by the reservoir and dam. Winters were hard, long and extremely cold. Their cattle and livestock often froze during the winter months and growing season in the area was extremely short and hindered by flooding, hailstorms, early frosts, etc. They did face near starvation on numerous occasions and so nicknamed the area “Starvation” and that’s how the highway bridge, reservoir, dam and state park received their name. I thought it was pretty, but it was pretty barren out there! We just enjoyed our time away from the snow! Then the next day, we woke up to this……… Hopefully, spring really is on the way….. somewhere!!! Soon we should be on the road and hopefully some warmer temps! Happy Trails!

Provo Canyon Utah

2011-03-25T09:28:00.001-06:00

The other day, we took a trip over to Orem to order Sal some new glasses and the way we usually take to get there is through a canyon named Provo Canyon. It’s a beautiful drive!! This is the view looking towards the mouth of the canyon from Heber City. As you travel closer to the canyon itself, you get to Deer Creek Reservoir. We were surprised that it was still frozen. And then, even more surprised when we saw people out on the ice fishing!

The ice didn’t look thick enough to us, but obviously they must know how to tell when it is or isn’t. Construction of the dam that creates the reservoir was started in May 1938 and completed in 1941. Here’s another pic of the reservoir with the beautiful mountains behind. As you travel further south, you get into Provo Canyon itself. It is one of my favorite places in this area! The canyon is large and surrounded by huge limestone cliffs on both sides. Some of the first people to inhabit the canyon were the Ute Indians, which the state of Utah was named after. The road through the canyon was finished in the summer of 1958. I found out that Provo Canyon is the most well known ice climbing area in Utah. You can kind of see why when you look around at some of the canyon walls. Keep in mind that this photo was taken in the beginning of springtime, so much of the ice has already melted. Imagine what it must have looked like in January instead of March. This area is called Stairway to Heaven to ice climbers. I borrowed a beautiful pic I found on the internet to show what it looks like when someone is actually climbing it. Can you believe this???!!!! Another beautiful view in the canyon is Bridal Veil Falls. Legend has it that an Indian named Norita and a brave from a rival tribe, named Grey Eagle met and fell in love. They planned to meet near a streamlet high on the mountainside and elope to a land far away from both their tribes. On that fateful night, instead of her lover, Norita was confronted by braves from her own tribe. Fearing her lover had been destroyed she leapt from the high ledges. Mother Nature was touched by her wild beauty, and she caught up Norita’s streaming tresses and made from them a Bridal Veil of falling water. Here’s another pic I borrowed from the internet to show what this amazing waterfall looks like during the fall months. Also along the bottom of Provo Canyon, and where Bridal Veil Falls flows, is the Provo River. This is one of Utah’s Blue Ribbon flyfishing spots.

The river was originally named the Timpanogotzis after the American Indian tribe living on its banks. Early settlers changed the name to Provo, after trapper Etienne Provost, for whom the city of Provo is also named. He is thought to be the first white man to explore Provo Canyon. Also in the canyon, you can see old railroad tracks. This was formerly part of a Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad branch line that connected Heber City to Provo. It was completed in 1899 and operated freight and passenger service until the line’s abandonment in 1967. Hope you enjoyed Provo Canyon. Like I wrote earlier, it’s one of my favorite places in this area. One of these days, we’ll have to visit it during a different season other than winter to check it out!

Happy Trails everyone!

Skiing Deer Valley

2011-03-11T20:03:00.001-07:00

I can’t remember whether I’ve mentioned it before or not, but Deer Valley has been voted the #1 Ski Resort in North America for the last four years in a row! They treat their guests better than you can imagine and they are known for having some of the very best groomers in the US for their ski runs! It is a great place to ski!! And there are numerous stars and famous people who have houses adjacent or very close to the resort.

There is one particular run that is very popular for skiers to take so that they can see all of the wooden carvings of animals that people have on their houses and decks. Check these out!!

I constantly get asked while working at the lift for directions on how to get to where all these carvings are. It’s all pretty cool to see!! These pics only show a small portion of all the carvings that are there. In fact, some are as large as life-sized. Ooops! Sal snuck into this one!!!!!

It is a really cool place to ski for other reasons too. They have three different day lodges that serve food & beverages and have beautiful places to sit by the fireplace to warm up on cold days. They also have a couple of places on the mountains themselves where you can stop to get a small bite to eat or a coffee or hot chocolate. This is me in front of Snowshoe Tommy’s on Bald Mountain. And as I’ve shown in other posts, the views from different mountain tops are simply amazing!! Here’s a view from the top of Empire Mountain.

We had a friend come and visit us from Wyoming a little while back. Jeff is actually Sal’s supervisor in Grand Teton National Park and is also ranked #1 in Nastar Racing in Wyoming for multiple years. Deer Valley has a small Nastar Course and Jeff and Sal just HAD to check it out!! Here’s Sal on his trip down.

And then here is Jeff on his trip down. I did mention that Jeff knows what he’s doing, right???? Sal is, well…….Sal! But we love him anyway!!!!!!

Hope you enjoyed the visit to DV. We all had fun and hope you did too. Stay safe everyone!! Stay tuned for more updates!!!