Thursday 30 June 2011

June 10th - Yellowstone IV

Saw a couple of elk in the morning, but nothing bailed us up!  We spent a couple of hours in Tower Fall, admiring the elk that were sunbaking on the lawns. We also shook our heads at a tourist who walked right between some elk grazing in front of a building. His wife looked scared, but I swear he didn’t even see them! They saw him though and looked a bit menacing – we half expected them to charge him. What an idiot! We watched another video of Yellowstone, this one about how the park was first founded and almost loved to death. To be honest, I don’t know why they don’t have a bus shuttle service like they do in Zion and Bryce. That would take care of pollution issues and people going where they shouldn’t be! Maybe there are just too many places to go that it wouldn’t be economically viable.   we were on the road to Tower Fall, the last leg of our Yellowstone adventure. A nice drive out there, seeing more and more bison. No moose though. The pass which had been closed when we arrived was opened today, but we already had our plans to head out of the north-east part of the park. We filled up with petrol and then went up to the Tower Fall campground. As we were driving we saw lots of cars stopped in front of us again. We expected to see moose, but then we saw the ranger cars with lights flashing and a ranger directing traffic. Then we saw it – over to the side of the road was a black bear! It looked pretty awake and was walking along looking quite purposeful. So we took as many bear pictures as we could driving past. How exciting!! 

We stopped further along at a look out, admiring the little chippies trying to run under parking cars. A nice view of the river in a steep sided canyon and there was even an obligingly photogenic bison on the opposite side. Then we continued on, but Tower Fall campground was full, having only about 30 sites. Darn. We decided to have lunch and then continue on. We stopped at about the only picnic area in the immediate vicinity (not like other areas where it’s bench to bench picnic tables) and shared a table with a family from Indiana who only just managed to snatch the table we parked near and were eyeing up. They were really nice and told us about the bear that broke into a bin near their place and also how they’d loved Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado and had even seen a moose there (damn, should’ve gone there). Their moose picture was so cool! They took a picture of us and we gave them this blog address – so if you’re reading this, hi! Then it was time to hit the road again.

Those little specks are bison. 
We drove through the most gorgeous valley that really personified all I imagine Yellowstone to be. Snowcapped peaks in the distance, rolling hills and a huge wide valley with a thin river snaking through it. Bison were everywhere – hundreds of them spotted across the valley. And of course there were plenty of cars stopped everywhere trying to take photos of these huge shaggy beasts. A few pronghorn antelope were also around on the prairie and we even saw some elk with freshly grown antlers! They still looked velvety and not quite fully-grown. Magnificent. 


Icebox Canyon.
We also drove past Icebox Canyon, a very chilly spot where ice had formed big spikes on the side of cliffs beside a small river. The sections of ice were at least two metres long – obviously the sun doesn’t get down in this part of the park, hence the name. Lots of huge cliffs towered above us as we continued on our drive, sadly, out of the park. 

The last campground before the park ended was closed, though we weren’t sure why. I felt pretty nostalgic driving past the ‘Leaving Yellowstone National Park’ sign, as it was such a milestone in my travelling. It is definitely a spectacular park, not to be missed. I guess I was sad because I knew that I might never go back and I wanted to remember all the cool things we’d seen and done!

Eventually we found a campground that wasn’t closed, a small one with mountains on two sides. Our camphosts were so nice and friendly and chatted to us for ages. They are both retired teachers, he a high school science teacher and she a kindergarten teacher. Teachers – everywhere! They split their time between being here outside Yellowstone and staying with friends in Florida. A tough life! It was nice to find out a little about teaching in the USA – our holidays are very similar, though their class sizes can hit the 30s!

A relaxing afternoon, cooking tacos on the fire and toasting marshallows (again – I’ve never camped so much or eaten so many marshmallows in my life!!). Will made me ration wood, but we still had enough to enjoy a s’more or two. After dinner we went for a quick walk up a little hill near the campground to admire the elk in a paddock in the distance and also the snowy mountain peaks. We also went across the road and checked out the falls smashing their way down a cliff face. We were a little afraid of bears, so we made plenty of noise walking along! The camphosts were adamant about reminding us to be careful leaving food/plates or anything out in case bears arrived. We’ve heard it a million times on this trip and I find it irritating as we can’t just tip out our washing-up water anywhere we like! However, the lady said that last year two people were killed by a bear. They were sleeping in their tent and they had food in there with them and that’s what the bear could smell. Thank goodness they haven’t worked out how to get into RVs for food yet! 
Another bison, just hanging out on the side of the road as we drove past!

9th June - Yellowstone III


Can't....breathe...stinky!

Today we went back to the Norris Geyser Basin and did the part of the loop that we didn’t do yesterday. Lots more steaming holes and gurgling mud. We read about the thermophiles that grow in the hot conditions – the red ones like temperatures of about 60 degrees Celsius, which isn’t actually that hot, but I guess if it gets much hotter they’ll be roasted to death. The sun came out and it was quite nice. Didn’t improve the smell of stinky sulphur though. 

We continued on our drive up to Mammoth, stopping at Roaring Mountain to take photos of the solftara/fumaroles - some reference to the crusty layer of some of the geothermal movements and the sulphur emissions they produce. It looked pretty cool, like the ashy side of a volcano with steam still pouring out of some parts. We saw a couple of bison as we drove along (so noted because of the tourists pulled over with their cameras out!), but nothing like the herds we saw yesterday!

We stopped at a point where RVs weren’t allowed, but turned back as Sheepeater’s Cliffs didn’t look that impressive from a distance. (we drove down there illegally!) At the next scenic drive we parked and walked as Will didn’t want to get into trouble for driving where RVs aren’t allowed. We walked and walked and then suddenly we were at Mammoth Springs (by accident!) – a series of hot springs set in encrusted pools. I imagine the pools at that place we didn’t get to in Turkey, Pamukkale, look like this, but bigger. Anyway, these ones were pretty impressive and walked around them and took pics. A few of the springs were no longer springing and there wasn’t a lot of water going down the side of the cliff, but they still looked pretty cool. Lots of blues, oranges and greens just like the other ones we’ve seen. These had more pools though and less steam and no geysers. 

A hairy drive through town, with a woman determined to be on our side of the road and a guy determined to be t-boned by us. When we hesitated maybe two seconds he turned across in front of us and earned a few flipped birds and angry words. Idiot. Then we continued on to the campground down the hill, only to be pulled over by the park ranger (e.g. park police) as we turned into the campground. I didn’t even notice him! Flashing lights, but no siren. He said he’d seen some liquid spill out when we hit the breaks at the idiot up the road and he thought it was ‘gasoline’ (insert Wyoming accent). Will assured him it was water, but apparently he still had to taste it. Eww. Lucky it was just water! Then he wanted ‘license and registration’ and again, I was reminded of Super Troopers. Must stop making that comparison! He also wanted to see our insurance papers, which we keep all together in a folder. Then he asked Will had any convictions or warrants and ran a license check! Of course, Will was clear, but I guess the cop gets told that all the time. The lady who checked us in to the campground said that the cops ran a check on a guy a little while ago and he was wanted in Alabama, so I guess they can’t be too safe!!

After that little encounter with the law, we had lunch. We have been driving around for seven weeks so it makes sense that we should be pulled over at some point just so that they can check poor Betsey for weapons or (open) alcohol. No luck for this cop and he must’ve been disappointed because he stopped being chatty when he realised it was just water. We had a quiet afternoon relaxing, reading and in Will’s case, napping. A late dinner and then afterwards when we went to the toilets, I nearly ran into three elk! We’d seen one earlier in the day at the campground, just grazing near the road. I just didn’t notice them until Will said stop! Then they were eyeing us up and we really needed to go to the toilet! They didn’t have any horns though so I figured they wouldn’t be able to do us too much harm! One in particular was pretty bold and just watched us walk past! Something different – bailed up by elk when all we wanted to do was go pee! 

Wednesday 22 June 2011

June 8th - Yellowstone II


Yellowstone canyon - maybe how the park got its name?

A sunny morning, so we decided to drive out to Old Faithful. Quite a long drive as the maximum speed limit in the park is 45 miles an hour. That’s because drivers hit a 100 bison, deer, sheep, bears and moose a year, so they’re trying to stop crazy drivers killing them and themselves. I guess it still doesn’t stop them driving fast sometimes. So it took us a while to drive there and we had to stop a few times as there were lots of bison on the way. We saw quite a few big herds off in the distance and then as we were coming around a corner we saw the car coming the opposite way had stopped. There was a bison walking along the road! On our side! So we pulled right over and let him walk past. It was so great seeing one so close up! He had the cutest little beady eyes and a huge shaggy neck. He didn’t seem worried by us taking pictures of him out of the window, or the cars around him. Crazy Cruise America tried to overtake us on the gravel median strip of course, what a fool. Guess he didn’t see the FRICKING BISON on the road! (Like the ranger said at the info centre yesterday – he gets off the road when he sees Cruise America (the bane of our RV existence) and he drives with a 42 foot trailer. On a side note, he said so many tourists come here who have never seen snow and then hire a huge beast of an RV which they can’t drive. That explains a lot!) 

Bison walkin' the line. 
We drove a little further, seeing more bison. Then suddenly we had to stop in a line of probably fifty cars. We wondered if that was the queue to get into the carpark to see Old Faithful and cursed our bad timing. Then as we finally were able to continue on, we realised we had been waiting for a bison family to cross the road. There were the cutest little babies! Bison calves I guess! One bison even stamped its foot and charged at the ranger’s car! Didn’t hit it though – just a bluff, but it still looked pretty funny!

Old Faithful – little squirts; not that spectacular. Walked the loop, taking photos of mudspots, hot bubbling springs and geyers. Castle geyser was the best – huge!

Had lunch listening to the ambient sounds of small dogs barking and car alarms bleeping, then headed back for more of Old Faithful. Small children kicking (and adults) pushing us put us off kids again. Not as good at the first show = pretty poor! 
Traffic jam reason - can you see the baby?

Started to rain, so we went to watch the movie at the Visitor Centre, but it was the one we’d already seen so we left. We went to the post office (off for lunch of course) so then went to the visitor shop. Bargain t-shirts and caps! Post office again, avoiding crazy idiots who stopped dead in the middle of a two-way thoroughfare and then proceeded to offload, reload people who stepped out in front of us. D-heads.

Headed back to Norris. Drove Firehole Lake Drive, then Firehole Canyon Drive. Avoided tourists taking photos of bison in several places. Especially amused by the ones taking photos of one or two bison in the distance, when hundreds awaited around the corner!
Stinky hot water hole thing.
Went back to Norris campsite where someone realised he didn’t have change for our site. Went down to Norris Geyser Basin to buy a bookmark to get change. Did the Back Basin loop and saw Steamboat Geyser and several mudspots and hot springs and bubbling puddles. It looked pretty cool – lots of stinky sulphuric steam though! Some parts, with the burnt dead trees, made the landscape look like a warzone or something out of a Dr Who episode set on an alien planet. 

Back to campsite (lucky we held our spot as the loop filled up where we were!) Stopped to take pics of bison and bison babes (Borisina and Alanis Borisettes). Soggy dinner once the fire worked, evacuated to inside as it rained (does that work? To inside??!)

Castle Geyser going crazy - it went higher!!
A quiet night with Sudoku, iPod and old school paper style. And I believe Will sneaked in some Angry Birds too – as always! Hot chocolate with marshmallows and Hershey’s choc like last night. Chilly again. 

June 7th - Yellowstone


Frozen lake!

A rainy morning. After our version of sausage and egg Mcmuffins, we headed off to Yellowstone. When we got to the checkpoint for the NP, I ignored the ‘snow tires’ sign thinking yeah, right, but then the ranger told us we could go on at our discretion as they wouldn’t actually check. They were stopping trailers, which is why we were a bit confused because there were heaps of cars and trailers and RVs pulled up next to the checkpoints. Being the confident travellers we are (well, Will more than me!), we decided to soldier on, figuring we could also come back if we got stuck in snow. As we drove it rained and rained and rained. We drove higher and higher, but didn’t see any snow except for the huge drifts on either side of the road. We passed Lewis Lake, which was completely frozen over. It looked awesome and is the first frozen lake either of us had seen. There were low piles of snow scattered all over the lake, which were white against the pale grey of the frozen water. Will climbed over a snowdrift to get photos! 

Our first elk.
We continued on, but still no snow. We stopped at Grant Village for postcards and to watch the first video in a series about the NP. Each visitor centre has one, so we will do the video crawl, which may last a few days! This particular one was about fire in the park, particularly the big fire of August 1988. It surprised me how anti-fire everyone was ‘congress will have to answer to this,’ etc. Back then they didn’t realise it is an integral part of the rejuvenation process. People were complaining about how things just wouldn’t look the same and how the park was ruined and so on. And then they cut to a section about how Lodgepole pine trees’ pinecones don’t open unless they are subject to fire! Duh. And suddenly there were lots of new trees etc. I think it was such a huge fire because they hadn’t really let one rip through the park since it became a national park in 1872. So that’s quite a few years worth of dead trees etc.! 

Next stop was the West Thumb Geyser basin, where we inhaled sulphur as we watched a muddy patch bubble and spew steam. Then we saw an elk! Part of the trail was closed because there was a family of them wandering through this part of the park and someone had been charged at by one a couple of days ago. The elk did not have the huge antlers we’d expected, but it was still a magnificent animal. It was a big thing, happily grazing. 

As we were leaving, Utah drivers really surpassed themselves. In stupidity. There were at least 100 car parking spaces and we were parked in an RV space, which was a little too long for us, but they didn’t have to park RIGHT BEHIND US. Get your own parking space, loser! This is after we had a great big dirty bus parked next to us as we tried to eat lunch. Again, we were there first! Then another Utah-ian decided to do a U-turn without an indicator right in front of us as were leaving. Will reckoned he’d only just noticed the geyser which was right in front of the entrance! It wouldn’t surprise me if that were true!

Is there a bear out there?
We kept driving up to Fishing Bridge, mainly following Yellowstone Lake. Suddenly as we were happily driving along we saw about thirty cars pulled up on the very narrow shoulders of both sides of the road. So we knew there was something to see! Will, kindly (not) parked me in a snowdrift, so I had to literally climb out of Betsey and then I nearly slipped on my arse coming down off it. I think another tourist may have laughed at me. I know Will was just trying to pull right off the road, but we were more off the road than all the other cars!! Anyway, what everyone was gawking at was: a bear! Our first wild bear! It was two or three hundred metres away, so it just looked like a bear-shaped speck walking along and scaring flocks of birds. It was pretty awesome though! 

Stinky, sulphury, steamy geyser. Rotten eggs to the max.
Continuing on, we stopped at Fishing Bridge for more postcards. Then we were heading into Hayden Valley, which Lonely Planet had promised would have lots of wildlife. We stopped off at Mud Volcano to see the mudpots. They were great, all stinking hydrogen sulphide, mud and steam. They looked cool when they were bubbling and stinky. Like a witch’s cauldron haha. The Dragon one was awesome – the water was spewing out of a cave next to a little waterfall. The edges of the cave were red, green and brown and yellow. There were little plants growing on the little island in the middle of the streams, so they must like warmth and sulphur! We walked the loop, looking at all the various pools – keeping on the trail just like all the signs told us. I took Will’s photo with some of the pools right before the end of the trail and he was asking me about whether I zoomed in and I was like ‘WOW!’ There was a bison maybe 10 metres from the edge of the path! Just munching his way along, oblivious to anyone or anything. He didn’t really seem to notice the tourists wandering past and taking his photo. It was so cool! He was pretty big, with a hug shaggy neck! Then later, when I was waiting for Will at the toilets, the bison crossed the path and kept grazing. He was maybe a metre from the path and still hadn’t noticed anyone. Thankfully! Will said, well if we were that close, we’d run, but I’d just read something that said bison can outrun people. They run at up to 30 miles an hour, which is pretty quick for how big they are. So no outrunning them!! 

Pickin' up a bison.
We drove over the plains of Hayden Valley. We saw a ranger and some cars pulled over, but I couldn’t see anyone out taking photos. Then as we drove past, in the distance we saw what looked like a bear. Will reckons it was a grizzly, but I couldn’t tell. You can tell them apart because a grizzly has a huge hump on its shoulder and its rump is lower than that. A black bear has a higher rump. We kept driving and saw what may have been elk or moose and more bison in the distance. Damn them being so far away that I can’t take a photo! We also saw lots of birds, particularly Canada goose and Great Blue Herons (thanks to my field guide to animals and birds which I bought in Jackson at the visitor centre. Which is right next to the National Elk Refuge – but we were there at the wrong time of year to see any L).

Canyon Village – watched video on general Yellowstone (discovery channel doco perhaps? Discovery logo at the start). Learned more about how to identify bears (grizzlies have little ears and a dip between their eyes and snout in profile, black bears have pointy ears and a straight snout). Saw shots of moose headbutting cars and a bison attacking a family that were about a metre away from it (fair enough, I thought!).
 
Drove a slow 12 miles to our anticipated campground, Norris. We saw a Boris Bison along the lake near the campground as we checked in. (All Buffalo/Bison are now called Boris or Borisinas or Barry – to go with Scotties and Chippies – squirrels and chipmunks).

Chicken burgers and wraps for dinner, then a freezing cold walk – Will’s suggestion of course. A quiet and early night, ready for tomorrow’s adventures! 

June 6th - Grand Tetons


Antler arches in Jackson.
Today we drove from Victor to the Grand Tetons. The drive from our RV park to Jackson, which is just south of the National Park, was a bit hairy! It was really steep in a short distance going up, then the same going down. Quite windy, with lots of switchbacks, and we were back in the snow again. Very pretty. Then we were at the bottom of a beautiful canyon and driving through Wilson (‘Wilson, noo, I’m sorry’ – bad Castaway impersonation) then Jackson. Jackson is a very pretty town (must be touristy) with lots of shopfronts which look like something from the Wild West. We went for a walk through the town square, again enjoying the little bit of summer weather we have had since we have been in the USA. Each of the four entrances to the square had a huge arch made solely out of elk antlers. There were hundreds of them! The elk drop them whenever they do that and boy scouts collect them. These particular ones have been here since 1960 and it will cost you $750 if you steal one. It looked awesome. We went to a few tourist shops and saw some pictures of them at night time with lots of fairy lights draped around them. We saw more moose pjs and t-shirts – so cute! My new favourite: chocolate moose. With a moose covered in what initially looks like mud, but is actually chocolate. Fun! We looked for the tourist information place but we couldn’t find it, so after fueling up, we headed out on the road to the Tetons. And then found the visitor centre. As we turned into the driveway of the centre we were nearly wiped out by a 16-year old. Well she looked that young and she was on the left hand side of a two-way road (her left) so I assumed. Will was too polite to honk, but I yelled obscenities (with the windows closed!). 

The stunning Grand Tetons.
The lady ranger in the visitor centre was very nice and helpful, but soo slow. ‘And then…if you…go there…you will….see lots of…bison.’ Ohhhh yeahhh. That slow. She did laugh at us when we asked about wildlife and promised we would see lots in Yellowstone. So I imagined bumper to bumper moose, elk and bison. The usual warnings about bears, because Yellowstone has grizzlies and black bears. Fun, not.

We drove the recommended way by the ranger, our eyes peeled for any kind of wildlife. Nothing by cars and possibly a horse. Then we saw bison!! Just grazing a couple of hundred metres from the road. They looked so cool with their big shaggy necks! We drove a bit further but didn’t see any more, until we turned down a road which connected us to the main one. And we saw a huge herd of tens of the animals. They were too far away to take good photos with our camera (zoom lens, yes, please!). However, the Tetons were beautiful. Big pointy granite mountains covered in snow. They looked absolutely stunning. And this to people who have seen many snow-covered mountains in the past six weeks or so! 

Cold lake water!
We stopped at the Moose Visitor Centre for postcards and lunch. The lady ranger there told us we were lucky to be seeing the Tetons today as they were expecting lots of rain and snow in the next few days. So we took some more photos! Then we took the Jenny Lake scenic driving route. We went along Jenny Lake and we went down to the shore and I was able to dip my toes in the water. It was freezing!! But very clear water – it is 200 feet deep (I read that, I couldn’t actually see that far haha). There was no RV camping at Jenny Lake so we continued on to Signal Mountain campground, further along at Jackson Lake. Like all the other campgrounds in Teton NP, it was $20 but at least there were flushing toilets. I am so sick of droppers. Ick. We walked down to the water and again, my toes nearly froze off as it was so cold!

First bison/buffalo sightings!! From a distance anyway...
Although it was only pretty early, I was hungry and wanted dinner! The clouds were starting to gather as we had flame-grilled burgers for dinner, followed by a banana and melted chocolate and a new ingredient: marshmallows! So so good! And of course a couple of extra marshmallows on the side (slightly burned, definitely my favourite J). We finished dinner just in time and had packed up when the rain started. A bit sugared up, I helped Will plan our movements for the next day and we peeked out in the rain hoping to see hundreds of moose or at least a soggy squirrel, but we didn’t see anything. Thankfully, no bears as they had been spotted in our area! There was a pile of poop just down from us, but I figured they looked more like elk or moose. Maybe should’ve bought the guide that identified scat. An early night once the sugar from the marshmallows wore off! 

5th June - On the way to Yellowstone...


The next morning we left on our drive to the Grand Tetons. We did a big Walmart shop in Idaho Falls to stock up, including $2.77 bottles of wine and a hatchet. Prob best not to use them together! 

RIBS!
Then we drove to Victor, which was back towards Wyoming, for camping. We stayed at an RV park because we needed to do some laundry!! A quiet afternoon in gorgeous Idaho sunshine, reading, blogging, tidying and doing laundry before our big adventure!That night we had a treat for dinner – ribs! We got some from the supermarket – a full serve was $10, already marinated. So Will cooked those on a grill and we also had corn and mashed potato and salad. It was so so delicious!! We had s’mores for dessert, but we cheated a little. At Costco I bought some crackers that had a thin layer of dark chocolate on one side, so we sandwiched the marshmallow between two of those. Wonderful! We may also have done a couple of marshmallows on the side…our new marshmallow stick melter thing worked a treat! (Long-handled two pronged fork that looks like it is made of the same material as a coat hanger!)



S'mores! Delicious! 

June 4th - Logan, UT and beyond


This morning we went to a local farmer’s market in a gorgeous green park. There was so much fresh produce, it was awesome! Especially after the lack of it in Horsham!! We saw trout, lots of lettuce (of which we had to get some!), eggs, cakes, rhubarb, asparagus and lots and lots of bread! We sampled so much bread with delicious sauces. Will caved (he is such a sucker for fresh bread!) and we bought a loaf of awesome orange and cranberry bread. It was so lovely with lots of fruit!! We had samples of a ‘borderdog’ which is a hotdog wrapped in bacon. Then Will had to get one – not so good for the cholesterol levels! We listened to the live band they had there, belting out ‘Sweet home Alabama’ which Hillary said reminded her of pubs in Hobart haha. I have been asking Will if we could have a cat, or dog, or hamster or mouse or turtle or some kind of pet in Betsey, but he keeps saying no. Even though we saw a cat being walked in an RV park outside of Zion NP. So instead I got him to buy me a parsley plant! His name is Parry and there are actually four of him and his pot is too small, so I will have to pot him on sometime. He cost me $1 and is a good little pet J.

Then it was time to head back to Idaho. We drove north, admiring the gorgeous snow-capped mountains, which surround Logan. We wanted to stop at a truckstop  just in Idaho on a native American reserve but we ended up going to the casino to use the bathroom! A very dark casino that was packed!! We were pretty impressed though – free tea and coffee! So we helped ourselves, Will sampling the vanilla and hazelnut creamers! I took a teabag for the road too – maybe I should’ve taken more J Another closed campground due to potential flooding, then we found one outside of Blackfoot.

Yummy cranberry and orange bread!
We didn’t have $16 in change – Will only had a $20 note, so we didn’t pay for the campground at first. Then a guy came along who was throwing a Frisbee and he said he was the owner and we told him our change situation, so he said that’s ok you are only hooked up to power, $5. So we got a great campsite with water, electricity and hot showers for $5!! Bargain!! That guy was an amazing Frisbee-ist too – he threw it about 100 metres, easily. There were the hoop things for frolf, so obviously he plays! 

Friday 17 June 2011

June 3rd - Logan, UT


Another shot of Bear Lake from yesterday.

We went for a short walk at the campground that morning – enough for Will to spot a tiny, long snake and for us to go up a bit of a hill. Then we headed to Logan. We didn’t realise it was so close and twenty minutes later we were there! We stopped at a McDonalds for the usual email check and Will found a place where we could shower! An annoying thing about state parks is that when they are on a lake (which is most of them), they charge a day use fee. The park we went to was just out of Logan at Hyrum - $6 for us to spend the afternoon in the sunshine and also to use their showers!! Free (apart from the entrance fee) – hot water for as long as we needed! (so not an exciting thing for you non-travellers!). 

Hanging out at the Lake in Logan. Very pretty town!
We visited Walmart, but forgot we were in Utah – they don’t sell beer over 3.2% alcohol content in supermarkets, being a Mormon state. Instead we had to go to a state run liquor store – where you can’t buy anything already cold, because you might drink it straight away! Shock horror! 

Then we went and visited Will’s friend, Hillary. She studied at Utas in Hobart for a semester and used to hang out with him and his Jane Franklin friends. She is currently doing her PhD at Utah State University. Her and her husband, Josh, have a really cute cottage in north Logan! We hung out there for the afternoon/evening. Josh even had Coopers Sparkling Ale in their fridge – he used to live in Adelaide and loves it! Pretty random to find a nice Australian beer in the USA, rather than just Fosters!! They cooked us a delicious dinner of grilled salmon (yum!!), corn, a huge mixed salad and fresh gourmet bread (no Walmart stuff like we’ve become used to!). They too, have a funny cat, who likes to hang out in the rafters and whack small toy mice at you. Then you have to throw it back up to her so she can bat it down again.

We watched some crazy random TV show that I can’t remember the name of – ‘Tim and Eric’s adventure’? Spaghett! It was so dumb it was actually kinda funny. Could’ve been the wine too! Still at a high altitude! 

June 2nd - Back in Utah


We drove along to Bear Lake, admiring the cheap fuel prices as we went – $3.56 a gallon! We also stocked up on firewood! Then it was time to leave Wyoming, just for now. Bear Lake is half in Utah and Idaho. It is such a blue lake - it was just hard to take pictures with all the houses and trees around it. We were driving up the west side of the lake, admiring how amazingly blue it was, when all of a sudden Will spotted the ‘welcome to Idaho’ sign. We looked at each other and both laughed as we hadn’t actually realised we were going to cross the border! We stopped along the lake for some lunch (the not so nice, animal sanctuary end. We only saw birds though), then drove back into Utah! We had a beautiful view of the lake as we drove up and up. Most of the campgrounds around there were closed either because they were still snowed in or had the potential to flood. We stopped to ask some people who were in one of the closed campgrounds where we could camp! There were only two open and we were practically in Logan already! We stayed at the ‘nicer’ one, which was leafy and green, but $17 a night. I am getting very sick of drop toilets!!! 

A quiet afternoon, napping and reading. A cool night in Betsey. 

Thursday 16 June 2011

June 1st - Flaming Gorge NP and beyond...


There are yellow-bellied marmots hiding here!

Wandered around the various lookouts at Flaming Gorge and admired the red canyon. Will, bravely wandered out onto a part of the ledge which looked as if it were almost cracked all the way through and ready to plunge 1700 feet to the river below. The gorge is about 4000 feet wide, according to a huge sign at one of the lookouts. 

Went to the Lodge to scam some wi-fi. I took lots of photos of the cutest yellow-bellied marmots  (the animals we saw yesterday). I even bought a postcard showing a family of them, after asking the lady in the gift shop what they actually were! I managed to get pretty close to them!
Cute!!
Continued on to Manila, with Betsey getting hotter and hotter. Crossed into Wyoming, then went back to Utah to find an old man who is the only (albeit retired) mechanic in town. When he’d explained to Will what the problem was (something to do with the fan which is used to cool the engine down – I think the spring had died), they cooled the engine down with a hose and we continued limping to Green River (yup, ANOTHER one, this time in Wyoming. As an aside, looking at the application we’re using on the iPod which shows campsites all around the USA, there are so many Avons – nearly one in every state! There are quite a few recycled names – not just Springfield!). Will managed to get Betsey above the speed limit (75 miles!!) – all in the name of keeping her cool of course! 

A few stops in Green River and we found a friendly mechanic who dropped all his other jobs to help us!

Another cutie!!
We visited the museum while we were there – lots of things about horses and dinosaurs. This is definitely cowboy land (and still trying to cash in on the dinosaur element from Utah). Mexican for lunch, with a waitress who didn’t speak much English. ‘Water?’ Blank face. ‘Agua?’ Nods. Si. I don’t even speak Spanish!! Delish tostadas and a soaked burrito later and we were refuelled and ready to face the mechanic’s bill. Kind of. Ouch. (I’m still not sure how to eat tostadas – I believe I made a bit of a mess!). At least now we know Betsey is all fixed! She didn’t struggle like she used to on the interstates, even with their long, slow horrible hills. 

Back on the road, heading to Little America. Honestly! It is a truck stop where we were able to stay in the carpark for free. With free wi-fi and a posh bathroom. We managed to catch up on some blog posts (well I did anyway, oops, only 17 days behind now!) and even charged the laptop a little. Then it was sleepy time for this little travellers as it had been a long day tending to poor Betsey.

Tomorrow we will head back towards Utah to catch up with a friend of Will’s in Logan, before continuing on to Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks. 

Tuesday 14 June 2011

May 31st - Dinosaur National Monument NP III


A sad morning, as I was bitten by a red ant. That’s what I get for copying Will and wandering around in ‘flip-flops.’ I put shoes on straight after! It swelled up a bit and after the initial sting, was fine. Me = tough J.

A hot, sunny hike. 
We went on a 7.64km hike through the desert – Voices of the Desert Trail, then the half-mile connector to the Sounds of Silence loop. It was quite a long hike, with some quite steep parts. We saw about fifty little lizards, which whizzed across our path and scared Will after his snake experience from yesterday! There were lots of pretty wildflowers, including lupins and daisies. Pinks, purples, whites and yellows. The scenery was really nice, with stark white cliffs, red cliffs and juniper trees everywhere. We followed a dry creek bed for a while which narrowed a lot, then it was back to the up and down. We had tired feet by the end of it – two and a half hours later! 

We continued on to the Visitor Centre to get the shuttle bus for a tour to the dinosaur fossil, but unfortunately the last shuttle went at 1pm. We were a little upset, but then figured it probably wasn’t going to be THAT amazing and besides, we already saw dino prints and a fossil in Arizona. And we were able to actually touch those ones! Anyone would think these tours would go all day, but apparently not!

Me at Flaming Gorge.
So we continued on Vernal to find some internet. McDonald’s obliged as usual! Two burgers later (one each!), we had checked our email and met a man who told us about the area. He asked us where we were going and worried us a little when he asked if there are many Jehovah’s Witnesses in Australia, but then when we didn’t really seem to know much about the group’s population, he moved on to more neutral territory: kangaroos and koalas and whether we eat them. He was very nice and drew us a map of the Flaming Gorge area and told us the nice spots to go. He reminded me of my late German grandpa! So helpful and nice. He showed us some pictures of the Flaming Gorge area and even one of a mountain lion that one of his friends saw in a tree in their backyard! As he kept saying to us: neat! We even managed to charge the laptop! I believe that this particular McDonalds had THE laziest employees ever. They just seemed to be sitting around, eating and drinking and when one of the girls came out of the bathroom as I went in, she didn’t move aside, just barrelled straight at me. Rude. I bet she is only paid minimum wage – our $3 purchase will not make much of a contribution to that! I think I drank too much ‘soda’ though, cos I got a bit shaky on the sugar…
Flaming Gorge. 

We knew from the old man, Kellar, that the drive up to Flaming Gorge NP would be steep, but after 10 switchbacks (hairpin turns!) and 3000 feet in 10 miles, we were up! Betsey became a little hot, but a few downhills cooled her off. Some of the campgrounds were closed, but after several laps, we finally decided on one. $15 was not the cheapest for drop toilets, but we picked the newest of the four or so campgrounds. Some of them were so new the firepits didn’t have grills yet. We picked one with a picnic table and water right near by – perfect for Will to do the washing up! On our little detour to see all the campgrounds in the area (must be a common decision to all have the same price) I became grumpy as I came down from the sugar high of McDonald’s Dr Pepper – no Diet – but I cheered up when we saw some medium-sized golden/brown furry critter running away from the road. We believe it may have been a marmot, but we’ll have to check. It was so cute!! We saw a couple more scampering around as we continued on.

Big helpings of spag bol later (my first attempt here – result was delicious!) and we went for a little walk to see the gorge. We were actually quite a long way up and could see down into the valley to the lake/river below. Quite hazy. We collected a bit of firewood on the way back – heaps there, so we thought we’d start stocking up for Yellowstone. A couple of final The Goodwife Season 1 episodes later and it was time for these crazy hikers to get some sleep! 

30th May - Dinosaur National Monument NP II

Belated happy birthday to Ruth Castley!! (Will’s ‘mom’ hehe).

Me pretending to be a dinosaur in Dinosaur, UT.
We left when the ranger parked extra extra close to us this morning in the carpark where we’d stayed. There was heaps of room so it seemed a bit weird, but  we were ready to go so we left! I think the ranger was off talking to the rafters, some of whom had just arrived that morning. We drove to Dinosaur where we stopped at the Visitor Information Centre to try and work out what this National Monument has to offer. Found out that dinosaur bits and pieces are actually on the Utah side. There were various hikes to be done in the Colorado side, but it was a drizzly, windy day so we decided to continue on to Utah where we found the weather was not much better. We also stopped at a small store in Dinosaur (actually the name of the town!) looking for a Colorado magnet, but no luck L.
 
Me and Dino.
Josie Morris' cute cabin.
We stopped at the visitor centre in Utah – the temporary one as the other one suffered ground movement a few years ago and has been an unsafe construction site ever since. I got a picture with the awesome dinosaur there! Reminded me of the Loch Ness Monsters we saw last year in Scotland. We had lunch at the campground and chatted to a few Scotty Squirrels which scampered around and nibbled on water we’d poured out (yes, weird I know, but that’s what he was doing!!). Then we drove to the end of the park’s road, mooing at the cows on the side of the road (no fences, could’ve had steak!). We stopped on the way to admire some cave paintings, which could have been done by somebody yesterday with a sharp rock. We did a
short walk from the cabin of Josie Morris into the canyon. Amused Will by echoing in the little caves at the end of the valley (echo, echo, echooo) – the area was called Hog’s Canyon. Then we walked the shorter Box Canyon, where she corralled her animals, particularly pigs. Surely this should have been hog’s canyon??! We giggled at the ladies with their walking stick pole things – the walk was half a mile, as in 800 metres. Return. Hardly needing walking support. We admired the cute cabin of Josie Morris  and the wild mint growing in the stream – not to be drunk, because of some mysterious water-borne illness starting with G. 

Will in a little cave.
Then we went back to the campground, where Will read and I had a nap (role reversal!). He escaped from the deathly jaws of a snake and hid inside, after warning our neighbours of the black creature, particularly as they have a small child. We chatted to them later on and the guy is from Bendigo and went to school with a colleague of mine at Horsham, Steve! Small world. He and his lady and little son came over for a chat. After our dinner of flame – grilled cheeseburgers (made by us – not instant!!) and a chocolate banana for dessert, we joined them at their fire for chats. It also turns out Matt’s brother used to live on Quayle St where Will and I used to live before we moved in together. Small world!! He and Lara know and like Horsham because of the rockclimbing at Arapiles. They have been travelling around south and central America for nearly a year with their little son, Tas, who is such a cutie. It was nice to talk to them and we hope to catch up with them again at some stage during our travels. 

May 29th - Dinosaur Monument NP


Today Will finally gave in and bought Betsey some radiator coolant in Hayden. We had someone tell us to do that in Zion!! Then we limped on to the Walmart in Craig for some supplies and more coolant. We took the 40 to Dinosaur National Monument Park. We drove for what seemed like ages down some random road, waving to the highway patrol as we went. He didn’t wave back (I don’t think he saw the wave). Finally we saw some cars on the side of the road – most with empty boat trailer. Most of this campground, Deerlodge Campground, had been packed up (well the tables had been) as they’d obviously had a flood through there. There was still heaps of water racing down the river. We called it a day and spent a bit of time reading – the weather outside had turned really windy so we stayed inside. There were no envelopes so we didn’t pay J. It was a quite a nice spot at the eastern end of the Dinosaur National Monument at the Colorado end. That evening we saw people inflating a huge raft and unpacking and repacking bags of stuff, food probably, and heaps of bottles of water. Must be rafting somewhere fun! 

Sunday 12 June 2011

May 28th - Steamboat Springs, CO


Steamboat Springs - looks a bit Swiss!

In the morning it was quite chilly again – and we saw some little deer prints in the snow – cute! We drove back through Edwards and dropped off a book at Jacki’s, used her internet hehe, then continued north through Colorado. Quite a lot of windy roads zig-zagging over large hills. Lots of crazy people overtaking on blind corners, etc. and nearly wiping out motorbikes and trucks turning onto narrow roads. A big day for poor Betsey Blue, who struggled quite a lot up an absolute killer hill! The campgrounds were still completely snowed under as we climbed 4000 feet in 15 miles. We had to stop every couple of miles, to let her cool down. Then finally we gave up and drove back down the mountain and into Steamboat Springs – Will’s nerves were a little frayed!! That night we stayed at the Steamboat Springs RV Park. There were kids in these low seated bicycles zipping around everywhere and yelling and milling around. Enough to put us off kids. The SHOWERS = bliss! Our campspot was on the other side of a really full river and we could see there had been flooding. Still quite a few sandbags lying around. Back behind us there were some kids with lighter fluid, squirting it on their fire – how they didn’t accidentally ignite themselves, we didn’t know, but we watched them with amusement!

With our dying bananas (at 52c a pound, we can’t waste them hehe), we tried out Andria’s camping idea of chocolate bananas, which she introduced us our last camping trip in Oz at Lake Ararat. Delish! 

May 27th - Out and about in Colorado: Aspen and beyond IV


Frozen Turquoise Lake.

We timed our camping at Twin Lakes well because as we were leaving this morning a man was putting a sign up for fees! Memorial Day Weekend I guess (still not sure what it means, but apparently it's a public holiday). A stupid thing with lakes here is that you are charged a $5 or $6 usage fee for the state park. We don’t have a boat, we just want to stop somewhere to have a snack! So we took a few photos and took our leave, heading back up north. Our aim was Turquoise Lake, but when we got there the lake was frozen! It also meant we couldn’t camp at the site I wanted, as the road was closed, probably due to snow! We drove around a few places, but the campsites were all closed. We saw some people in a bus-type RV parked in a day-use area with their folding chairs out, so we figured we’d copy them! So we went to another spot a bit further along and pulled up for the afternoon. We went down to the lake and walked all over the snow and frozen ice right beside it. I tried to throw a rock in the actual lake, but I couldn’t throw far enough L. We collected a little bit of firewood, then headed back up to Betsey, where we read all afternoon and enjoyed the sunshine. 
Action shot: throwing snow!
The spots where we were all had fire grills, but they were buried in about two feet of snow, so we drove a couple of hundred metres away to one that we could fully see, with a non-snowed-in picnic table. As we were pottering around getting dinner ready, we saw what I thought was a dirty, white-ish yellow wolfie! He walked around Betsey maybe ten metres away and looked like he was going to come towards us, but my brave man scared him off (before I could get the camera). I thought it was a wolf, Will though it was a fox, but since then I’ve decided it was actually a coyote!!

On the snow 'beach.'
More The Goodwife after delicious grilled burgers (again). No one came to move us on from our free campspot, which was nice! 

May 26th - Out and about in Colorado: Aspen and beyond III


One of the lakes at Twin Lakes...

More adventures in Colorado. We went to possibly the smallest Walmart ever in Gunnison. Continued on to Salida which tested Betsey out as we had to go over an 11, 312 foot pass called Monarch Pass. Lots of stopping to let her cool down. Several people stopped to see if we were ok which was really nice. As always, we had plenty of water on board for her, and with plenty of rest, she made it up the Monarch Pass. Lots of snow and the ski field looked impressive. 



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We continued on from Salida up north through Buena Vista and camped for the night next to one of the lakes at Twin Lakes. We saw lots of deer on the drive today, but we were not sure if they were wild or not as they were in paddocks. All up about 40, so that beats the last daily total! Also, we saw some mountain sheep with big horns. We assumed they were native sheep because of the horns, but who knows! 
Monarch Pass

May 25th - Out and about in Colorado: Aspen and beyond


Today we continued on our drive down the valley. We saw the ‘lake’ that we camped near, but it was only a muddy rivulet. We saw lots of evidence of rockslides – huge boulders on the side of the road. Drove past quite a few coalmines, with massive piles of coal waiting to be loaded and taken away. I was too busy looking at these and missed the baby elk or deer that Will saw on the side of the road. We did see lots of gorgeous tiny chipmunk/squirrelly things skittering across the road and racing up trees.

Turned off the 133 onto the 50 and made our way up a crazy high mountain. Stopped for lunch at the top and admired the view up at the snowy mountains and down at the reservoir hundreds of feet below us. A very pretty valley.

Made our way to Blue Mesa Lake, down from the crazy mountain (Will was disappointed there wasn’t an elevation sign). We found a few good campsites and after filling Betsey up with water at the big expensive campground where people were launching their boats, we opted for a non-water view site for $6! Again an exclusive campground just for us J. Even though it was early, we spent the afternoon relaxing, me reading and Will napping. Then a smokey fire to cook our dinner by and then all of a sudden the light was fading and it was time to curl up with more episodes of The Good Wife.