Vacation Journal
Friday, September 08, 2006
Clark and Roosevelt and Lewis
If you keep encountering these three names, you must be traveling in Montana and North Dakota, which we are.
From the entry to our campground in Gardiner, Montana, you can see the Roosevelt Arch, the official northern entry into Yellowstone, which was dedicated by President Roosevelt in April 1903. One interesting fact, he dedicated it before it was built. He then went camping in Yellowstone in the area where Roosevelt Lodge is now located.
We left Gardiner on Wednesday morning, heading north to Livingstone. On the way we got a good look at a Mountain Goat on a hill near the highway. We also saw a Coyote run across the highway. We followed the Yellowstone River as we left Gardiner and essentially followed it all the way to the North Dakota border. Livingstone is the place where William Clark reached the river overland on his return to St. Louis. He followed the Yellowstone all the way into North Dakota where it meets the Missouri. That's where he rejoined Lewis. So, 90% of our return route so far has been retracing the steps of parts of the Lewis and Clark Corps of Discovery. We spent one night in Miles City, Montana where the Tongue River meets the Yellowstone River.
About 25 miles into North Dakota, we stopped to visit Theodore Roosevelt National Park. Teddy had two ranches in this area. He lived for about three years in North Dakota. It is my opinion that Teddy and the National Park have a couple things in common, they are both somewhat rough and they are both dead. I guess you could say I didn't particularly care much for the park.
We crossed into the Central Time Zone late in the afternoon on Thursday, so we lost an hour. We spent a full day in the Bismarck area. We ran out of time and didn't get to do all the things we wanted to do. We visited the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center in Washburn, north of Bismarck. This included a reconstructed Fort Mandan where Lewis and Clark spent the winter of 1804. Our guide at Fort Mandan was a full-blood Teton Sioux. He was a good talker.
Then we visited the Knife River Indian Villages National Historic Site about 15 miles away. It was interesting to learn about the Native American tribes in this area who were agriculture-based. They were not nomadic tribes. We visited the site of the village where Sakakawea lived. We got to visit a reconstruction of a Mandan earthlodge, their type of home where 10 to 20 people lived in a one room house.
We visited Fort Abraham Lincoln south of Mandan. Mandan is the town on the other side of the Missouri River from Bismarck. Originally the area had been another Mandan village. Then it had been a U.S. Army base with Infantry. Later, Cavalry was added. George Custer was the commander of the cavalry. It was from here that Custer left on his way to the Little Big Horn. The post had been abandoned in the 1890's. The local pioneers took down all the buildings to use the lumber in their homes. Later the CCC marked where the original buildings had been and rebuilt a few of them. Then after WWII, the state rebuilt even more. We were inside the Commissary building which looked to me to be almost identical in construction to several buildings at old Fort Sill. Since Custer had been at Fort Sill sometime before he was sent to Fort Abraham Lincoln, it seems that both posts were built about the same time. We took a tour of the reconstructed Custer house and the reconstructed Mandan Village. The guides at both places were informative and we enjoyed both tours.
There is a lot to see around here. If we ever get to this area again, we will spend a few days and see more.
When I left the RV on Friday morning, I immediately went back into the RV and got the heaviest jacket I had. It was cold! The high on Friday did not reach 70. The weather man tonight was talking about the possibility of a frost soon. I guess we are leaving just in time.
Tuesday, September 05, 2006
Maine
We saw a Maine tag this evening. There is a couple in our RV park driving a Mercedes with a Maine tag. They are camping in a tent. All we have missed on this trip is Hawaii. We got a Hawaii tag two years ago, but it took almost four months.
License Tags
We did find Vermont and Rhode Island, leaving just Maine and Hawaii on our missing list. People come to Yellowstone from everywhere. I expect my dollar bills to get taken everywhere and entered in the next few weeks. One has already escaped to Minnesota.
Into the Bear's Mouth Again
On Labor Day we drove the Beartooth Highway again. It was very crowded, mostly locals out to enjoy the holiday weekend. I've never seen so many people on this road before. The scenery was still fantastic. We finally got to visit the Clay Butte Lookout Tower. It would make a nice summer home except for a lack of amenities, like electricity and water. We've added Red Lodge, Montana, one end of the Highway, to our list of places to visit for a longer time. The other new places we've added to our list this summer are the Snowy Range; Dubois, Wyoming; and Greybull, Wyoming.
We managed to end this trip to Yellowstone without seeing a Moose, unusual for us. I guess most of them are still in the high country.
The nearby wildfires are creating a lot of smoke in the area. Interstate 90 was closed for a few hours the other day due to smoke. Hopefully it will be open when we use it tomorrow.
Now that it is time to go, I'm wondering why I only scheduled two weeks here. We are still working on plans for next year. I doubt that we come to Yellowstone again for a year or two. We've spent over nine weeks here in the past three summers. We will spend about 10 days in the Yosemite area in June (flying into Reno). The rest of our plans will likely involve leaving the RV in the mountains a couple times as we return to Oklahoma and Texas to visit Grandkids. We will likely to get to British Columbia for part of the summer. We are accepting suggestions (accompanied with cash donations).
Saturday, September 02, 2006
Water
People come to Yellowstone for two primary reasons, water and wildlife. My guess is that the vast majority come for the water. Granted, there are the oddballs who come for the rocks (geologists). We've identified lots of rocks. There are the Black Bear Rocks, the Bison Rocks, and even an occasional Wolf Rock. These are the rocks you see in the distance and first identify as some animal. Then you realize that it's only another rock. There are big rocks of all colors scattered everywhere, left behind by the frozen water (glaciers). We are also getting good at identifying the Bison and Bear tree stumps and logs. There might be a few people who come here for mountains, but there are much better places to see mountains than Yellowstone.
People come here for water, but not for the usual reasons. They can't canoe or kayak in the park. You can use a motorboat on Yellowstone Lake, but I've never seen anyone ski. You don't surf. There is only one spot where you are allowed to swim in a hot springs (which does stay busy). The rest of the water is too cold for real swimming. The water that attracts people are: 1) geysers; 2) hot springs; 3) fumaroles; 4) mud pots; 5) rivers, creeks, and lakes used for fishing; and 6) waterfalls.
We have visited several waterfalls: Wraith Falls; Tower Fall (yes it is singular); Undine Falls; Gibbon Falls; Rustic Falls; Virginia Cascades; the Upper Falls of the Yellowstone; and the Lower Falls of the Yellowstone. There is a lot of variety in appearance and size. All of them are worth seeing. There are about 200 falls in the park. Most of them are in the backcountry. Some of them don't even have trails to them. We stick to the relatively easy ones.
We've seen a few geysers and fumaroles, although we haven't made stops just to see them. There are just so many that you will see some of them no matter what. We've seen the mud pots on previous trips. We have stopped to view several hot springs including our favorite, the Grand Prismatic Spring. All the roads in the park tend to follow rivers and streams, so you get to see them. We've seen hundreds of fishermen on every trip we've made to Yellowstone except when we came in January. You will also see wildlife along the waterways. We've seen two Black Bears, several female and young Bighorn Sheep, several Mule Deer, many Pronghorns; two Coyotes, hundreds of Elk, and thousands of Bison. The Coyotes have put on the most animated shows. Both of them did stalking and jumping and running, etc. We've also seen a lot of birds; Clark's Nutcrackers; Gray Jays; Mountain Chickadees; Ravens (hundreds); Brewer's Blackbirds (hundreds); Brown-headed Cowbirds; Yellow-rumped Warblers; Dark-eyed Juncos; Chipping Sparrows; Mountain Bluebirds; American Pipits (dozens); Magpies (dozens); a Bald Eagle; Osprey (15 or so); a Red-tailed Hawk; various other unidentified hawks; and many unidentified small birds.
There is plenty of variety in Yellowstone. We have decided that in future visits we will either come in late May and June or later in September. Although we've seen wildlife, we haven't seen as much as we do in late May or June. This time of year, much of the wildlife is up in higher country where we can't see them. They will start coming back down later this month.
Thursday, August 31, 2006
1902
We went to a presentation this evening at the Mammoth Springs Hotel. Randy Ingersall, an employee of Xanterra, gave a slide show on what it was like to tour Yellowstone in 1902. Xanterra runs the hotels and eating places in Yellowstone. Randy first worked as a dishwasher at Old Faithful in 1979. He decided that Yellowstone was the place for him and has worked here every summer since. He collects Yellowstone memorabilia. In 1988 he found a scrapbook in Santa Fe, New Mexico about a trip in 1902 by the Carland Family. It was a one month trip from Albany, New York to Chicago to St. Louis, to San Francisco to Los Angeles to Seattle to Yellowstone and back to Albany by train. Mr. and Mrs. Carland were going to a Shriners convention in San Francisco. The Shriners in Albany booked a special train to do this one month trip. It cost $250 per person (the average house in 1902 cost $2,500).
The Yellowstone part of the trip was five nights. They traveled by stagecoach. They stayed at hotels that no longer exist. A soldier was their tour guide since Yellowstone was run by the Army back then. They stayed in tents at Old Faithful. One of the most amazing things was the amount of clothing they wore while traveling back then. The men always had coats and ties. The women had full length dresses with lots of petticoats. Mr. Carland used to work as a salesman for Eastman Kodak and now owned his owned camera supply store in Albany. He took lots of personal photographs which were in the album. He made several mistakes labeling the photos, probably while trying to remember what they were several weeks later when he was putting together the scrapbook. He should have emailed the pictures out daily while he could still remember what they were.
The Carlands had one son whose second wife was living in New Mexico when she died. Randy tracked down that much of the son's history. He speculates that's how the scrapbook ended up at an antique store in New Mexico. Randy also got someone from Albany who heard his presentation a couple years ago to take a picture of the Carland's old house in Albany. That picture is now in the slide show (269 Spring Street). It was a fascinating story. Randy's main job for Xanterra is playing the piano in the hotel's recreation room every night. He gives one other presentation about the music of the park. We will be going to that on Sunday evening.
Laundry
I learned yesterday that we've been doing our laundry all wrong. I was sitting in the campground laundromat at 9:30 last night using the internet. This older couple (70ish) came in and began removing removing clothes from a couple of the dryers. A few seconds later, two ladies in their late 30's or so came in. Then a guy in his late 30's came in. The older lady was going through the clothes from the dryer. She asked the older guy how many pairs of underwear he had in the wash. Then she wanted to know if they were new pairs or old pairs. Then the younger guy responded that his were new pairs. A long discussion followed of how many pairs each had. The older guy said his new ones were 36's and his old ones were 34's. I stared diligently at my screen. I did not look to see the clothes under discussion. I managed to keep a neutral expression on my face. After a few minutes they seemed to get the underwear issue resolved although I'm not sure if the young guy was in agreement with the solution.
Next the older lady asked where the colored clothes were. The older guy said in the dryer. She said that she had emptied both dryers and apparently someone had taken their colored clothes. There was some discussion of this issue before the older guy said that the colored clothes were in the dryer around the corner. I had finally decided that this was a mother and father, their two daughters and a husband of one of the daughters, all staying in the same RV. Apparently you just mix the clothes from everyone together and wash them without regard to being able to identify the clothes when they are done.
During some of this stimulating discussion, one of the daughters put another load of clothes in a washer. All four washers in the room had been empty during the preceding 30 or 40 minutes while the dryers were going. Now she decided to wash another load. She put the clothes in the washer and added the soap. Then she started asking each and every person if they had any quarters because she still needed a couple more to start the washer. She asked several of them before she got enough quarters. I never realized the proper technique at a laundromat is to put in the clothes and soap and then see if you can get enough quarters to start the wash. Finally, after 10 minutes, the whole group left and the laundromat was peaceful again. I made sure to finish using the internet before the washer completed its cycle. I don't know where the lady was going to get the quarters for the dryer, and I didn't want to hear the conversation about how to dry clothes without quarters.
This is why I travel. You never get to have these experiences if you just stay home.
Tuesday, August 29, 2006
America's Most Scenic Highway
The Beartooth Highway has been designated as America's most scenic highway by long-time traveler Charles Kuralt. I have no reason to disagree with him. If you've never seen it, I highly recommend coming out in the next couple months to give it a try before the snows close it down for the season.
Monday, August 28, 2006
Beartooth
On Monday we decided to make a quick dash out the Northeast Entrance of the park and drive Beartooth Highway, one of the most scenic mountain roads we know. We drove the whole thing in 2004 and really enjoyed it. In the spring of 2005, several portions of the highway got washed away during the spring snowmelt and the road was closed for over six months. In 2005, we could drive up the Wyoming (south) side of the road to the top of the mountain, but we couldn't drive down the Montana side into Red Lodge, Montana. This year the whole road is open again.
The smoke from the forest fires had gone away, so we had some good views. You get up to almost 11,000 feet twice while crossing. The road on the Wyoming side is a more gentle climb, but it has more curves. The Montana side goes down a very steep mountain using switchbacks with two or three miles of steep grades between the individual switchback curves. We found several locations on the Montana side where the repairs had been made. I've sent some pictures.
We saw lots of Marmots. We saw a couple Northern Harriers hovering motionless over the terrain in the strong winds. We saw an American Pipit. We saw several birds we didn't identify. We saw snow. We saw great mountain views in all directions. It would be easy to be convinced that the mountains go on forever in all directions. We stopped at a location with great views and had a picnic lunch.
As we were passing through the Lamar Valley in Yellowstone on the way out of the park, we got a great view of a Bald Eagle flying low parallel to the road. We also saw hundreds of Bison and lots of Pronghorns. We also got to see a family of Sandhill Cranes (two adults and a colt) - our first this year. We saw four Osprey in the vicinity of the Lamar Valley Osprey nest - one on the nest and three flying.
On the way back through the Lamar Valley we had to pick our way through a Bison herd crossing the road at a leisurely pace. They seemed rather indifferent to cars as if they might just shove them out of the way if they wanted to. I thought one bull had decided he didn't like us as he ran onto the road just barely in front of us, but it turned out he was interested in the female on the other side of the road who also crossed in front of us. The bull followed her back over to his side of the road.
We did stop for a short while in Red Lodge, Montana on the other side of the mountains. Charolette visited a quilt store, and I bought a cup of coffee. Our cell phones worked in Red Lodge. This is the first time since last Wednesday that we've had cellular service.
The Wyoming side of the mountain is Open Range. Apparently many tourists don't know what this means, so the signs read: "Open Range Expect Cows on Road". Then on the other hand, the cows aren't all that smart either. I sent a picture of one of the cattle guards.
Our drive, with very few side trips, was 255 miles, during which the vehicle was moving for 7 hours and 15 minutes according to my GPS system. The Beartooth Highway itself is about 60 miles each way. We're thinking about driving it one more time before we leave next week.
An update on license plates - we found New Hampshire - only four states to go.
Sunday, August 27, 2006
License Tags
I doubt that I will ever grow up. I've been watching car license plates again. In one day, on August 25, 2006, we spotted the tags from 41 states here in Yellowstone. The ones we did not get are Hawaii, Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Connecticut, Rhode Island, South Carolina, West Virginia, and Alabama. On our next trip into the park on August 27, 2006, we got four more. All we need now are Hawaii, Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, and Rhode Island. Where are all the New England people?
Friday, August 25, 2006
Can You Spell The Name of Your Town?
We're staying in Gardiner (with an "i"). It is named after someone with the last name of Gardner (without the "i"). Apparently a local citizen messed up the spelling when the town name was officially registered. As you leave the town of Gardiner (with the "i"), you follow the Gardner (without the "i") River into Yellowstone National Park for several miles. Apparently the National Park Service can spell better than the citizens of Gardiner. The Gardner River runs into the Yellowstone River in the town of Gardiner. I wonder if any of the tourists actually notice the difference in the names?
This reminds me of the story of Casper, Wyoming and Fort Caspar. Casper was named after Fort Caspar. However, the representative of the City of Casper who went to the territorial capital to register the name didn't know the correct way to spell it, so the city has an "e" in its name instead of a second "a". It was never corrected. You will find old Fort Caspar still on the outskirts of Casper. Check any map of Casper.
Apparently it is difficult to correct mistakes in government bureaucracies.
My wife's name is Charolette. When she was born, a birth certificate was filed by the attending physician who was substituting for a doctor who was out of town. When the regular doctor returned, he also filed a birth certificate. Both doctors misspelled Charolette's name in different ways. Charolette's mother had certified copies of both birth certificates. A few years after Charolette and I were married, we decided we needed to get her name straightened out. We contacted the State of Oklahoma as to what we needed to do. As it turns out, the state had already eliminated one of the birth certificates as being a duplicate. All we had to do was file a form with two supporting pieces of evidence as to how Charolette's name should be spelled. The two pieces of evidence we submitted were an affidavit from Charolette's mother stating what the correct spelling should be and a copy of our daughter's birth certificate showing her mother's name as Charolette. We got an amended birth certificate from the state with the correct spelling. So, why didn't Gardiner and Casper do the same thing?
Thursday, August 24, 2006
Weather and Wildlife
When you live in an oven, you don't expect to wake up in a refrigerator. After the 100 degree days in Oklahoma, I left on our Yellowstone trip without a jacket in the car. I have several in the motor home, and it never occurred to me that I would need one before we got to Dubois. It was 60 degrees on Sunday morning when we woke up in Laramie. That wasn't too bad. However, when we got to the Snowy Range where we sat and watched birds, it was probably 55 degrees. It was chilly, but I made it. Monday morning when we got up in Dubois, it was 45 degrees, but now I had a jacket.
Tuesday in Greybull it got up to 97 degrees, but fortunately the humidity was below 20%. We spent most of the day exploring the Big Horn Mountains and Big Horn National Forest where it probably only reached 90 degrees. We never felt like we were in the oven like you do in Oklahoma. By 7:00 in the evening, Greybull had cooled off below 80 degrees, and it was very pleasant outside. We sat in the lawn swing on our patio and read.
Wednesday it was hot (90+ degrees) and humidity (33%) when we got to Gardiner, Montana. The air was filled with smoke from forest fires in Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho. The smoke arrived on Wednesday as we did, because the wind had shifted. It cooled off fast in the evening. We are at 5,200 feet at our campground with the cold Yellowstone River running immediately behind our RV (about 15 feet behind us and down about 20 feet). We have a nice view of the river out our rear (bedroom) window. Wednesday evening we walked back to watch the river and got to see an Osprey catch a fish about 100 yards upstream. I wish I had a house with a view like this.
Thursday the high was under 80 degrees and is expected to remain below 80 until next Tuesday.
Thursday morning we watched a lot of birds our our bedroom window when we got up. We had lots of Brewer's Blackbirds, a couple American Robins, Brown-headed Cowbirds, and an Osprey. We drove into Yellowstone to check out the road to Dunraven Pass which has been closed for the past three years. We stopped at an overlook above Blacktail Ponds because we decided the windshield needed to be cleaned. While there, a coyote decided to stand in the road about 100 yards behind us. It stayed on the road for a couple minutes. Then it began creeping into the grass like it was stalking something. It stalked for a couple hundred feet until it reached the edge of one of the ponds. Then it just jumped in and climbed back out and shook itself. I guess it decided it needed a bath. After shaking, it took off running straight towards us and then it turned and went between us and the ponds. It ran until it was out of sight over a small hill. Meanwhile, we saw a couple bluebirds flying into and out of a pine tree. There were a dozen or so American Coots on the ponds. There was one Cormorant which flew from one pond to the pond closest to us. There was one other kind of waterfowl which we didn't identify. There was one bull bison laying down about 1/4 mile away. We ended up spending 20 minutes just watching all the wildlife at a random spot where I stopped to wash the windows.
We stopped at a known Osprey nest in the Tower Falls area. It had one Osprey on the nest. Later, when we stopped again, there were two Osprey on the nest and three flying around overhead. Apparently the family on the nest had a good year. We also discovered a new (to us) Osprey nest in the Lamar Valley. It had one Osprey on the nest making lots of noise which is typical of a young Osprey expecting one of its parents to show up with food. When we stopped again on our way back, it was still there calling. A second Osprey was sitting on a dead tree about 300 yards away on the other side of the river. I guess it was one of the parents taking a break.
As you may have gathered, we come to Yellowstone to mostly see the wildlife. We hope to see lots more while we are here.
A friend from Bartlesville, Gary Gompf, just showed up while I was typing this note. Gary and his wife, Karolena, will be staying in the same RV Park for several days.
Tuesday in Greybull it got up to 97 degrees, but fortunately the humidity was below 20%. We spent most of the day exploring the Big Horn Mountains and Big Horn National Forest where it probably only reached 90 degrees. We never felt like we were in the oven like you do in Oklahoma. By 7:00 in the evening, Greybull had cooled off below 80 degrees, and it was very pleasant outside. We sat in the lawn swing on our patio and read.
Wednesday it was hot (90+ degrees) and humidity (33%) when we got to Gardiner, Montana. The air was filled with smoke from forest fires in Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho. The smoke arrived on Wednesday as we did, because the wind had shifted. It cooled off fast in the evening. We are at 5,200 feet at our campground with the cold Yellowstone River running immediately behind our RV (about 15 feet behind us and down about 20 feet). We have a nice view of the river out our rear (bedroom) window. Wednesday evening we walked back to watch the river and got to see an Osprey catch a fish about 100 yards upstream. I wish I had a house with a view like this.
Thursday the high was under 80 degrees and is expected to remain below 80 until next Tuesday.
Thursday morning we watched a lot of birds our our bedroom window when we got up. We had lots of Brewer's Blackbirds, a couple American Robins, Brown-headed Cowbirds, and an Osprey. We drove into Yellowstone to check out the road to Dunraven Pass which has been closed for the past three years. We stopped at an overlook above Blacktail Ponds because we decided the windshield needed to be cleaned. While there, a coyote decided to stand in the road about 100 yards behind us. It stayed on the road for a couple minutes. Then it began creeping into the grass like it was stalking something. It stalked for a couple hundred feet until it reached the edge of one of the ponds. Then it just jumped in and climbed back out and shook itself. I guess it decided it needed a bath. After shaking, it took off running straight towards us and then it turned and went between us and the ponds. It ran until it was out of sight over a small hill. Meanwhile, we saw a couple bluebirds flying into and out of a pine tree. There were a dozen or so American Coots on the ponds. There was one Cormorant which flew from one pond to the pond closest to us. There was one other kind of waterfowl which we didn't identify. There was one bull bison laying down about 1/4 mile away. We ended up spending 20 minutes just watching all the wildlife at a random spot where I stopped to wash the windows.
We stopped at a known Osprey nest in the Tower Falls area. It had one Osprey on the nest. Later, when we stopped again, there were two Osprey on the nest and three flying around overhead. Apparently the family on the nest had a good year. We also discovered a new (to us) Osprey nest in the Lamar Valley. It had one Osprey on the nest making lots of noise which is typical of a young Osprey expecting one of its parents to show up with food. When we stopped again on our way back, it was still there calling. A second Osprey was sitting on a dead tree about 300 yards away on the other side of the river. I guess it was one of the parents taking a break.
As you may have gathered, we come to Yellowstone to mostly see the wildlife. We hope to see lots more while we are here.
A friend from Bartlesville, Gary Gompf, just showed up while I was typing this note. Gary and his wife, Karolena, will be staying in the same RV Park for several days.
Monday, August 21, 2006
On the Road Again - August 18-21, 2006
We left home at 9:00, Friday, August 18, on our way to Dubois, Wyoming to join up with our motor home which had been enjoying the much cooler Wyoming weather while we endured many 100 degree days in Oklahoma.
I hope I never get tired of driving across the United States. The variation of the land and people is fascinating to me. I have particularly enjoyed this trip since I haven't traveled much lately. Our first stop of consequence was in McPherson, Kansas where we visited the Button Hole, a quilt store and fabric shop that bills itself as the fourth largest fabric store in the United States. It may well be. It certainly was the largest fabric store we have visited. It even had a coffee shop in one corner where I bought a cup of the flavor of the day and read my book while Charolette was shopping. Shortly after I bought the coffee, the clerk entered the one-dollar bill I paid with into Where's George. This was the first time in six years and 36,000 bills that someone entered a bill I spent where I spent it while I was there.
After an hour's delay at McPherson, we were on the road again. Instead of going into Nebraska and taking I-80, we decided to take I-70 across Kansas which we have not done in several years. We were impressed. I-70 has been almost completely resurfaced and is a great road. We will probably take it more often since it is in much better shape than I-80. We enjoyed the continual small hills of Kansas. I always think of Kansas as flat, but it really has a lot of hills. Once we turned onto I-70, we were under continual threat of rain the rest of the day. Storm clouds were everywhere. We could see one or more patches of rain in the distance at all times. However, we only got sprinkled on a couple times. For some reason it never seems to rain where I am. We made good time to Colby, Kansas and spent the night in a Holiday Inn Express.
We were on the road again about 9:00 Saturday morning. It was foggy when we started. Then we again saw rain clouds everywhere. We got a little rain near Limon, Colorado, but mostly we just saw rain in the distance. We got off I-70 just before Denver and took state highways to avoid getting into the Denver metropolitan area. It worked well. We decided we would bring the motor home this way in the future. We dislike driving it through Denver. Along the way we saw several herds of cows that had a strange color scheme. The looked somewhat like those pigs that have distinct color bands, one for the head, one for the body, and one for the rear where the color borders look like someone used a straightedge. We have never seen cows that way before. Maybe they spray paint them. We got on I-25 heading north. We stopped at St. Vrain State Park to check out the birds. We didn't see many, but decided we might camp there sometime when passing through.
We got off the interstate at Fort Collins and took U.S. 287 to Laramie. This was new country for us and we enjoyed it. The road was good and we made good time with all kinds of interesting rock formations to look at. We got to Laramie in time to stop at a quilt store. We spent the night at a very nice Hampton Inn which served a great breakfast.
Sunday morning we left before 9:00, heading for the Snowy Range, some mountains in the Medicine Bow Mountains and in Medicine Bow National Forest. We were in for a shock. Even though they are not exceptionally high mountains, they are one of the best looking mountain ranges we have seen. The mountains are made of a whitish rock which gives them their name. They have lots of pretty lakes all around. We stopped at several lookouts. We spent about an hour at Lake Marie enjoying the awesome mountains (Medicine Bow Peak) and the birds. We saw Mountain Chickadees, American Goldfinch, Yellow-rumped Warblers, plus several others we didn't identify. This was the first time I've ever seen a Goldfinch anywhere besides at a feeder. We were reluctant to leave. We did decide to come here for a week or two in the future.
We enjoyed the drive across central Wyoming to Dubois. We went through the Great Divide Basin, a place with no outlet to the ocean. No water escapes from this place because it doesn't get enough precipitation for any to need to escape. It gives the land a different look when, even on a small scale, not every spot is connected to some kind of a water drain, such as an intermittent creek. During the day we saw two different Golden Eagles sitting on electric poles. We stopped at Split Rocks National Historic Site which was used as a navigation aid by both wagon trains and the Pony Express. We got to Dubois about 5:00. The forest fire in Bomber Basin that was here when we visited in July is still going. There is also a new fire on the backside of the mountains near Union Pass. The air in the area was hazy. There were many firefighters living in tents in the Dubois City Park. The government had an arrangement with our campground to provide showers for firefighters. There were signs all over town thanking or welcoming the firefighters. I'm guessing there were at least 200 in town.
Monday morning we broke camp, hooked the Jeep behind the RV and hit the road about 9:30. There was a definite smoke haze in the air for over 60 miles. We went through Riverton, a very neat town with a large Wal-Mart. We went by Boysen Reservoir and then through a gorgeous canyon, the Wind River Canyon carved by the Big Horn River. We went through several tunnels that sort of make you wince when you're driving a motor home even though the clearance signs indicate no problem. I'm not sure I've driven this motor home through a tunnel before. We stopped in the canyon for a picnic lunch. The Wind River Canyon is definitely worth seeing. We had a Magpie making lots of noise where we stopped. I guess he didn't like us being there.
We reached Greybull about 2:00. We plan to take several scenic drives tomorrow as we are spending two nights in Greybull. One interesting fact about Greybull, they sound a siren every night at 9:00. It used to sound to signal the curfew for young people. Now it sounds as a test for the local volunteer firemen, whose average age is supposedly 78. I guess once they can no longer hear the siren, they have to stop being a fireman.
I hope I never get tired of driving across the United States. The variation of the land and people is fascinating to me. I have particularly enjoyed this trip since I haven't traveled much lately. Our first stop of consequence was in McPherson, Kansas where we visited the Button Hole, a quilt store and fabric shop that bills itself as the fourth largest fabric store in the United States. It may well be. It certainly was the largest fabric store we have visited. It even had a coffee shop in one corner where I bought a cup of the flavor of the day and read my book while Charolette was shopping. Shortly after I bought the coffee, the clerk entered the one-dollar bill I paid with into Where's George. This was the first time in six years and 36,000 bills that someone entered a bill I spent where I spent it while I was there.
After an hour's delay at McPherson, we were on the road again. Instead of going into Nebraska and taking I-80, we decided to take I-70 across Kansas which we have not done in several years. We were impressed. I-70 has been almost completely resurfaced and is a great road. We will probably take it more often since it is in much better shape than I-80. We enjoyed the continual small hills of Kansas. I always think of Kansas as flat, but it really has a lot of hills. Once we turned onto I-70, we were under continual threat of rain the rest of the day. Storm clouds were everywhere. We could see one or more patches of rain in the distance at all times. However, we only got sprinkled on a couple times. For some reason it never seems to rain where I am. We made good time to Colby, Kansas and spent the night in a Holiday Inn Express.
We were on the road again about 9:00 Saturday morning. It was foggy when we started. Then we again saw rain clouds everywhere. We got a little rain near Limon, Colorado, but mostly we just saw rain in the distance. We got off I-70 just before Denver and took state highways to avoid getting into the Denver metropolitan area. It worked well. We decided we would bring the motor home this way in the future. We dislike driving it through Denver. Along the way we saw several herds of cows that had a strange color scheme. The looked somewhat like those pigs that have distinct color bands, one for the head, one for the body, and one for the rear where the color borders look like someone used a straightedge. We have never seen cows that way before. Maybe they spray paint them. We got on I-25 heading north. We stopped at St. Vrain State Park to check out the birds. We didn't see many, but decided we might camp there sometime when passing through.
We got off the interstate at Fort Collins and took U.S. 287 to Laramie. This was new country for us and we enjoyed it. The road was good and we made good time with all kinds of interesting rock formations to look at. We got to Laramie in time to stop at a quilt store. We spent the night at a very nice Hampton Inn which served a great breakfast.
Sunday morning we left before 9:00, heading for the Snowy Range, some mountains in the Medicine Bow Mountains and in Medicine Bow National Forest. We were in for a shock. Even though they are not exceptionally high mountains, they are one of the best looking mountain ranges we have seen. The mountains are made of a whitish rock which gives them their name. They have lots of pretty lakes all around. We stopped at several lookouts. We spent about an hour at Lake Marie enjoying the awesome mountains (Medicine Bow Peak) and the birds. We saw Mountain Chickadees, American Goldfinch, Yellow-rumped Warblers, plus several others we didn't identify. This was the first time I've ever seen a Goldfinch anywhere besides at a feeder. We were reluctant to leave. We did decide to come here for a week or two in the future.
We enjoyed the drive across central Wyoming to Dubois. We went through the Great Divide Basin, a place with no outlet to the ocean. No water escapes from this place because it doesn't get enough precipitation for any to need to escape. It gives the land a different look when, even on a small scale, not every spot is connected to some kind of a water drain, such as an intermittent creek. During the day we saw two different Golden Eagles sitting on electric poles. We stopped at Split Rocks National Historic Site which was used as a navigation aid by both wagon trains and the Pony Express. We got to Dubois about 5:00. The forest fire in Bomber Basin that was here when we visited in July is still going. There is also a new fire on the backside of the mountains near Union Pass. The air in the area was hazy. There were many firefighters living in tents in the Dubois City Park. The government had an arrangement with our campground to provide showers for firefighters. There were signs all over town thanking or welcoming the firefighters. I'm guessing there were at least 200 in town.
Monday morning we broke camp, hooked the Jeep behind the RV and hit the road about 9:30. There was a definite smoke haze in the air for over 60 miles. We went through Riverton, a very neat town with a large Wal-Mart. We went by Boysen Reservoir and then through a gorgeous canyon, the Wind River Canyon carved by the Big Horn River. We went through several tunnels that sort of make you wince when you're driving a motor home even though the clearance signs indicate no problem. I'm not sure I've driven this motor home through a tunnel before. We stopped in the canyon for a picnic lunch. The Wind River Canyon is definitely worth seeing. We had a Magpie making lots of noise where we stopped. I guess he didn't like us being there.
We reached Greybull about 2:00. We plan to take several scenic drives tomorrow as we are spending two nights in Greybull. One interesting fact about Greybull, they sound a siren every night at 9:00. It used to sound to signal the curfew for young people. Now it sounds as a test for the local volunteer firemen, whose average age is supposedly 78. I guess once they can no longer hear the siren, they have to stop being a fireman.
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