6/17/08 Yellowstone Day #2

On Yellowstone day #2, we began with breakfast in Canyon Village's cafeteria, and then headed north toward the Mammoth Springs area via Roosevelt. At about 10:00 AM we spotted an audience along the roadside, most armed with tripods and giant zoom lens cameras, looking out onto the hill. There they were - grizzlies, two of them! We parked, grabbed the zoom lens, ran up the hill to where the other photographers, one of which was a park ranger, had positioned themselves. From what I could gather by listening to the park ranger, these two grizzlies were a mating pair that have been seen many times over the past months. What's better than spotting a mating pair of grizzlies in yellowstone? Probably nothing, but it's pretty neat to watch a newborn baby deer and its mother interacting just after birth. Later on the way to Mammoth, we pulled aside to snap photos of a large elk grazing near the road. Just after that, upon arriving in Mammoth I caught a female elk grazing in someone's front yard. We saw grizzlies, newborn deer, and elk all within two hours of each other!

Grizzlies



Deer



Elk





Finally we arrived at Mammoth Hot Springs for a tour its thermal features. The strange minerals and chemicals in the waters of Mammoth change the rock over time to form a beautiful rainbow of colored rock.





Out last event of the day was a five mile back country hike to Beaver Ponds. On the trail Angela identified tons of wildflowers and we even saw beaver dams at the ponds.





That afternoon, on the way back to camp, we spotted more elk alongside the road.

6/16/08 Yellowstone Day #1

Just a hop, skip, and a jump from Idaho Falls, and we were entering West Yellowstone. Immediately upon entering the park we spotted a fox, an eagle, a raven, and lots of bison. Bison are everywhere! They roam the valleys, hillsides, and even the roads. There were many times when traffic was backed up as far as I could see because bison were on the road. On this first day in the park, we first set up our tents at Canyon Village campground and then motored around, stopping to see wildlife here and there. Later in the day we toured half of the Norris Geyser Basin and saw some really cool thermal features.

Eagle


Raven



Bison















Elk







Yellowstone Lake



Echinus Geyser



VIDEO: Tent Setup at Canyon Village, Yellowstone

6/15/08 Red Ledge Campground, Utah, and Idaho Falls

The night of the 14th, I took a wrong turn leaving Zion which put us finding a home for our tent quite late. We pulled into the Red Ledge Campground some time past sunset, and in these parts the sun goes down after 9:30PM. We set up camp, the only tent on a grassy knoll amongst several RVs, and passed out.

That takes us to today. For the second day in a row, I woke to a set of eyes peering through the mesh of my tent. This time, it wasn't a Cockapoo but an older man breathing real heavy. I squinted so that I could watch him without letting him know that I was awake. He stared at us for what seemed like several awkward minutes and then he bellowed, the way an old man bellows when he can't hear himself talk, "EXCUSE ME, DO YOU HAVE A KEY TO THE BATHROOM? I CAN'T SEEM TO GET MINE TO WORK." So I sprung up and showed him that the handle was more apt to turn with a little jiggle. We were best friends after that, brushing our teeth together and chewing the fat about our travels. He was on his way to Alaska in his home made RV (Nissan with a cab added).

Now awake, I assessed the situation. Aside from the unnerving resident maintenance lady, who talked, yelled, and grunted to herself, the place was fantastic. The very well kept Red Ledge Campground was furnished with full bathing facilities and a wireless signal!

Red Ledge


Sign at Red Ledge


After Red Ledge we drove north through Utah, only stopping a few times. Our first stop was the Mormon-settled city of Provo, UT, home to Bringham Young University (owned by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints). It was really hard to find an open establishment in Provo on a Sunday, but we finally found a Panda Express. As we ate our Asian fast-food, the Mormons strolled by, dressed to the nines, on their way to service. I don't know much about the Mormons, but I can say this, they keep a clean city, and they're a good looking bunch of folks. Just up the interstate, we stopped in Salt Lake City to pop into the Ikea. Angela found a few things she'd been looking for. Boy, this is a riveting blog.

The one major site-seeing event of the day was on a tip by Angela's dad - the Ogden, UT Union Station. Ogden had a quaint little downtown strip, again everything was closed, as was the Union Station. We did however stroll around the area and climb on a Union Pacific train.

Ogden, UT


Our destination was the Caribou National Forest just south of Pocatello, Idaho. Our goal was to set up camp before nightfall. Neither of these things happened. We made it to Caribou with plenty of daylight left, but the campsite didn't even exist! Here's what did exist - tons of four wheelers, dirt-bikes, and other ATVs "cutting it up" in the park. Sure, a free ATV show is cool, but we needed to sleep somewhere, so we got back on the interstate and continued toward Yellowstone, hoping to find a place to rest our heads.

Snaks in the car included Goldfish


Driving through Idaho we spotted many potato farms and even saw a billboard that simply read, "www.buyhashbrowns.com". We finally came upon Idaho Falls, ID and made our camp at the properly named Shady Rest RV Campground - and I mean "shady" as in "questionable". Again, the only tent, we were told by the camp host to set up somewhere behind the RVs, which basically put us between the sprinklers and the highway. The place was basically a trailer park, with showers that no one in their right mind would enter, and a bathroom just as raunchy. Our tent was the cleanest thing there. The silver lining was that we had driven to within three hours of Yellowstone.

Potato farms at sunset


Idaho Falls, ID


My Shady Rest computer station


Check out this book collection at Shady Rest. My favorite title is the blue book on the second shelf titled "The Hidden Dangers of the Rainbow". (click for larger image)

6/14/08 Wire Pass/Buckskin Gulch and Zion National Park

For the second day in a row, I woke to a pair of eyes peering into our tent. This time it was not an old man but a small Cocapoo (Not sure on the spelling, but I know that it's a cross between a Cocker Spaniel and a Poodle). What a weird sight in the middle of the Utah desert. I simply had to get up and see what was going on. Turns out the Cockapoo belongs to a guy named Kyle from Salt Lake, Utah. Kyle was on vacation from his four kids and had the same notion as us, to hike Buckskin Gulch.

Our campsite near Buckskin Gulch (click on photos for larger view)


Kyle and Sparky (the Cockapoo) from Salt Lake



Buckskin Gulch is a slot canyon in southern Utah, superintended by the Bureau of Land Management. We camped at the north end of the canyon (White House Trailhead) but drove around to the west entrance (Wire Pass Trailhead) to begin our hike. For the first 20-30 minutes, we weren't sure if we were even on the correct trail. We ended up walking in a dry wash for most of the time. This eventually led us to the hole in the wall that is Wire Pass.

On the trail to Wire Pass


In the slot canyon








Wire Pass is a short narrow slot canyon that meets Buckskin Gulch after only about 1 mile of hiking. The narrow passage, as the name implies, intrigued me encouraging me to start the hike there. That was definitely the way to go, because Wire Pass was extremely skinny and presented us with excellent photographic opportunities.

After a while of hiking through beautiful red sandstone cliffs, carved by water, wind, and time to look like ripples and waves of stone, you come upon the confluence, or junction, of Wire Pass and Buckskin Gulch. There we took a right turn and headed farther into the canyon. The walls grew taller and the temperature cooled by 30+ degrees in the smallest, darkest narrows. On the way back we saw two small snakes of which I have not yet identified.

Angela enjoying the cool wall of the canyon


Our hike in the canyons didn't take nearly as long as I thought it would (3 hours as opposed to 6-8). We drove up the highway a bit to Kanab, UT and took advantage of a Subway Restaurant with free Wi-Fi. It was kind of interesting that the Kanab Subway had internet but even more interesting that there were at least five Russian female college students working behind the counter. I inquired about there situation and was told by the young Russian girl at the checkout that they were on an exchange program from Russia at the local university. Nevertheless, we used the internet and figured out that we had time to visit Zion National Park, only an hour up the road.

Zion is amazing, but don't think that you're going to see much of it in one afternoon. We immediately went to the visitor center and surmised that our best option was to get on the tour bus. The Zion tour bus runs from the visitor center all the way up to the top of southern Zion. There are many stops along the way, and passengers way exit at any time, take photos, hike, and get on the next bus that passes. The busses run every seven minutes and are free.

In Zion NP


On this route we took a short hike to Weeping Rock (a large rock face that almost constantly drips - sometimes it drips on my camera). We also saw various peaks and hiked down to the river (where deer were grazing). What really made the Zion experience special for me was the bus driver that drove us from the last stop all the way back to the visitor center. His name was Jim, and he was as ornery as he was entertaining. He'd lived in the Zion area for forty years, and he'll tell ya what's what. Listening to him ramble about park coverups, hidden spots, and how he'd do things if he were in charge. If you ever get up to Zion in southwestern Utah, ask for Jim the tour bus driver.

Our great tour bus driver Jim

6/13/08 Mesa Verde National Park

Today we started the morning at the Triangle Cafe in Bloomfield, NM. We were instantly sold on the signage - a giant pie and cup of coffee. They served up a giant hearty breakfast and the service was great. We actually made lunch from the leftovers. Next to us sat an early morning hunting party of mostly Native American men. They were planning a big hunt somewhere in the area.

The majority of the day was spent seeing sites at Mesa Verde National Park. Mesa Verde is very similar to Chaco Culture in that visitors basically walk through and observe Ancestral Puebloan ruins. The main difference is that Mesa Verde is much more accessible, therefore the crowds are much larger. Still, the park offered an amazing display of ancient ruins presented by outstanding park rangers. I can not overstate this - a good park ranger can enhance a national park experience like nothing else.

At Mesa Verde we took two guided tours: Balcony House and Cliff Palace. Balcony House was as fun as it was interesting (included steep stairs, traditional ladders, and awesome sites). Angela and I decided that the tour guide was pretty much Mr. Rogers, had he become a park ranger. He even had a sweater with pads near the elbows. If he would have changed his shoes before the tour, I think I would have asked for an autograph, but all I got was a photo. There was even a pictograph at the end (pictographs are painted - petroglyphs are carved).




The Cliff Palace tour was equally interesting, led by a ranger from Houston (said he was kicked out of college) who had recently married his park ranger wife. They now both work at Mesa Verde (ahhhhhhh).





The last site visited in the park was a self-guided tour of Spruce Tree House. The coolest thing about this site was that we were able to crawl down into a Kiva - a round dug out room, then covered for privacy, used for ceremonial events in these Ancestral Puebloan structures. It's a big deal that we were able to go down there.






We left the park and made our way towards Buckskin Gulch, a slot canyon in Arizona. On the way we stopped at Four Corners, where visitors can simultaneously be in Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, and Arizona. The site is either near or on an Native American reservation, so there were many vendors of Native American crafts. I bought a small piece of stone for $1. On it was a child's drawing of a snake and the words "Four Corners".




On the way to the slot canyon Angela took a really cool photo of a guy on a motorcycle. He appeared out of nowhere in my rear-view mirror, draped in a skull mask. I thought I was hallucinating then looked up again and said, "Get the camera!"

6/12/08 Chaco Culture National Historic Park

On Thursday the 12th, we visited Chaco Culture National Historic Park, a series of architectural ruins built between AD 850 and AD 1150 by Ancestral Puebloan peoples. In the park, we toured Pueblo Bonito, Chetro Ketl, and hiked the petroglyph tour which passed Kin Kietse and Casa Chiquita. With that said, most of our time was spent observing petroglyphs and taking a ranger-led tour of Pueblo Bonito.

Our one and a half hour guided tour through Pueblo Bonito was led by an AMAZING guide! Sadly, I don't remember her name, but I do have her picture. Surprisingly, I don't believe she was even an actual ranger - she was a volunteer. Her insight into the Pueblo Bonito ruins really gave meaning to a pile of bricks that would otherwise have been, at the most, neat to photograph. Her understanding and appreciation for the Ancient Puebloans was obvious as she enlightened us on all aspects of the structure including original construction, later discovery, excavation, and now preservation. We walked through Bonito, and in almost every room she was able to expound on every nook and cranny.

After Bonito, we hiked to a series of petroglyphs in the northwest corner of the park. It was very hot, but the payoff was huge - real petroglyphs! (and some unfortunate graffiti). We took our time through the glyphs - Angela sketched as I photographed. Incidentally, we saw a small snake and an interesting lizard (neither yet identified) on the trail.

Our campsite in the park was excellent, a raised patch of sand with a giant sandstone wall as backdrop.