Monday, June 11, 2018

Today is the day we explore the North Rim of the Grand Canyon.  We had a quick breakfast at the small restaurant at Jacob Lake and gassed up.  One thing we’ve been told is to always fill up even if you’ve only used a quarter tank, because on some of the roads we travel the gas stations are infrequent.  In addition, our windshield always needs cleaning.  This station had a young man who cleaned the windows for you.  As to be expected both here at the motel and the Park there are a lot of college kids working here for the summer.

The number of bugs we’ve massacred along the way must be mind boggling.  Almost immediately after we left the gas station we hit a swarm of bugs.  So many of them hit our windshield it sounded like it was raining.  Pretty disgusting.  We have found a few car washes along the way and they do an ok job of getting rid of the dirt, but the bugs are glued on. Hopefully we’ll figure how to clean the car properly when we get home.

Once reaching the entrance to the Northern Rim of the Grand Canyon we headed to the visitor center.  The park service personnel have always been extremely helpful.  We got information on several hikes we hoped to take today, along with a strategy on how to see all of the popular vistas.  We started at a short, but steep trail called Bright Angel Point that originated at Grand Canyon Lodge. The trail led to a fantastic view of Bright Angel Canyon and all of its glorious mesas, buttes, and spires

While the temperature hovered in the mid-80’s, even a short hike of 1 mile seemed to tire us out.  Perhaps it is the altitude, or perhaps we’ve been traveling for weeks and are not giving ourselves enough time to sit and relax.  Whatever the cause, we concentrated on seeing the sights rather than spend several hours hiking and exhausting ourselves.   When we were exiting the Bright Angel Trail a young couple with teenagers in the back seat asked us how long the hike was.  When we said 1 mile, they opted not to go because that had just done a hike that wiped them all out.  It was somewhat encouraging to learn that it wasn’t just us.

It was about a 45-minute ride on twisting, turning roads to reach our furthest point of the day, Cape Royal.  Considered the most spectacular view of the Canyon, on a clear day you can see 100 miles away.  An easy to walk 1/2-mile walk took us to the viewing area.  Along the way signs provided information on the flora and fauna.  Fortunately for us there were guardrails at the main viewing areas, but all about us were teenagers and young adults scurrying up piles of rocks or walking out onto precipices on the edge of the Canyon.  It was scary just looking at them.  Regardless of which direction you looked, your eyes saw something dramatic and beautiful. It offered a great view of Angels Window, an enormous opening in the rocks, and for the first time we could see the Colorado River twisting miles away from us.

Dan discovered a perfect place to have a picnic at Cape Royal.  As usual, we had picked up sandwiches and drinks that morning.  Our table was right near the edge of the Canyon, and more importantly, it was in the shade. It couldn’t have been nicer.  Walking along the edge of the Canyon from our picnic spot was a place that evidently must be used for weddings as it was called Wedding Site and provided wood bench seating for guests.

Walhalla Overlook pointed out a mesa far in the distance that was apparently the home of Puebloan peoples who had lived in the area 800 to 1,100 years ago.  Of course, it also offered more beautiful scenery.  It was at Roosevelt Point that it made clearly obvious to us that the North Rim was about 1,100 feet higher than the Southern Rim.  When you look at the Southern Rim from the Northern Rim you see a flat plateau running South from the Southern Rim.  You are basically looking down on the Southern Rim which is 10 miles away from the Northern Rim. Outside of more views of the Canyon I don’t remember what was special about Vista Encantada.  Point Imperial Point, however is the highest viewpoint of the Canyon at 8,803 feet.  Due to the rock formations, the sun, the time of day, and the color of the rocks themselves, every view offered a different perspective.  Some of the colors were somewhat muted almost appearing to be a pastel painting.

After ending our drive of the North Rim, we stopped for a cold drink at the Lodge and headed back to Jacob Lake, where we enjoyed a thick chocolate milkshake for dinner.  Neither of us were very hungry.  We also stopped at the gift shop, which I thought had the most beautiful native American jewelry and crafts that I’ve seen.  The woman who offered to help us turned out to be the daughter of the owner.  Her ancestors were the first to settle in the area and she explained how her grandfather, and now her father, have become experts on Navajo rugs.  I’ve never seen such a beautiful collection, but they were very pricey.  We met her Dad, who gave us even more information about the rugs.  I did end up purchasing a small seed pot to add to my collection. Tomorrow we begin our two-day travels to Agoura Hills-North of L.A.; and will travel to Kingman, Arizona.

Sunday, June 10, 2018

NOTE: Unknown to us we discovered that there was no internet accessibility at our motel, Jacob Lake Inn.  Located about 30 miles from the North Rim of the Grand Canyon it is the closest place to stay place other than inside the park itself.

The B&B  ( Inn on the Hill) we stayed in last night was lovely, but we discovered that in addition to regular shades the windows also had blackout shades, something we didn’t uncover until we tried falling asleep in a room lit up by bright porch lights.  In addition, for some reason we never figured out, the traffic noise from what was a residential street was extremely loud for most of the night.  All was forgiven in the morning when we enjoyed our gourmet breakfasts of chicken sausage, waffles, eggs, fruit, veggies, potatoes and English muffins.  The staff also showed us the Max Parrish stained glass window that was original to the house. The window was colorful but small picture of a locomotive.  The view from this Inn was great since it is on a hill. The doctor that built the house was a physician for railroad.  (NOTE:  While it is a haunted house, we did not meet any ghosts. Oh well, we can’t have everything.)

One discovery we made by finally reading what our tour book had to say about Salt Lake City, was that on Sunday mornings a service that features the famous Mormon Tabernacle Choir is open to the public.  Directly after breakfast we walked over and took our seats about 60 minutes before the 9:30 AM start time.    Good thing we arrived early because the place was entirely full by 9:00 am.

For 89 years the service has been broadcast nationally.  Today’s broadcast went out to over 2,000 television/radio stations.  We actually heard the service twice.  The first time was a rehearsal to make sure they fit the service into the allotted broadcast time, and the second time was the official broadcast.  The service was primarily musical.  The choir was the largest choir we have ever seen.  Our guess was that there were over 200 people in the choir.  They were accompanied by a full orchestra and organ. The choir sang 6 songs, and only two of them were religious in nature. One of the religious songs was a psalm from the Old Testament.  For example, the choir sang Deep River (a spiritual), This Little Light of Mine, and the Battle of Jericho. Overall it was inspiring in its beauty.  Even the brief sermon was relevant to all people with no mention of Jesus.  The sermon was about the ‘heliotropic effect’ of light, meaning that things are attracted to the light/good.  Even the building itself was devoid of any religious symbolism, although the size the choir, sound system, and lighting made it all very dramatic.

After our religious service we went to see the State Capitol building just up the hill from our B&B. Then it was time for our next long drive.  Downtown Salt Lake City itself didn’t appear that large to us but driving out of town made us aware of how expansive the city has spread.  Much of the territory we drove through in Utah was flat and dry with mountains as a backdrop.  It wasn’t until we started to approach Zion National Park that the scenery started to become more interesting.  To be honest we didn’t even know we would be driving through the Zion until we got to the entrance.  The ride from that point on was spectacular.  Maybe even more spectacular than the spectacular we ‘ve been seeing over the past few weeks.   I must admit that we are suffering from spectacular overload.

Between our GPS, maps, and the road signs this part of the trip was the most confusing for us.  Signage in Utah did not tell you what was coming up in Arizona, the GPS wasn’t always taking us the best route, and the map of the area was difficult to read.  Fortunately, we made all the right decisions and arrived at Jacob Lake Inn by 6:00 PM.  The Jacob Lake Inn is all that there is in Jacob Lake.  We had dinner at the Inn’s diner-like restaurant but it also has a nicer dining room available.  It is known for its baked cookies and milkshakes.  The cookies were delicious, as for the milkshakes that will have to wait until tomorrow after we’ve visited the Northern Rim of the Grand Canyon.

Saturday, June 9, 2018

Goodbye Tetons!  We grabbed our Starbucks fix, but before leaving town we stopped at the Native jewelry shop, where we had seen a moose necklace that looked like a chai while strolling the streets the night before. The one in the window was made with yellow and white gold, but I walked out of the store with my cute, silver moose.  It was made by a local artist, so I doubt he designed it with the chai in mind but that’s what got the sale. It is a ‘Moose Chai’ or a ‘Chai Moose’; i.e., “LIFE”.

Rather than travel the highway we took side roads through some beautiful mountains and valleys in Wyoming, Idaho and Utah. While passing through the town of Afton, Wyoming we were welcomed by a pair of dueling elk.  It is the home of the Butch Cassidy Museum that we didn’t stop to see.  In the town of Paris, Idaho we did stop at the Mormon Tabernacle built in 1888.  Two young women approached us when we stopped to investigate what it was we were looking at.  They asked if we would like a tour, and since neither of us said no, off we went.  Made from local sandstone it was built by pioneers sent by the Church to establish new Mormon communities. They thought they were in Utah but discovered years later that they were in Idaho. Of course, there was a little proselytizing, but even the girls weren’t entirely comfortable doing it. So, we were only slightly Mormonized.

The tabernacle is located in an area called the Bear Lake Valley.  Bear Lake is a pristine, Mediterranean blue lake that is miles long (70,000 acres of water) in both Idaho and Utah.  In winter, Bear Lake is known for its ice fishing. The lake wasn’t very developed on the Idaho side, but there was a lot of boating and swimming activities on the Utah side.  There wasn’t much more to see as we made our way to Salt Lake City.  Fortunately, even though it was close to rush hour the traffic was moving.

Very close to the city there are miles of industrial gas producing factories.  It looked a lot like New Jersey on the drive from Washington, DC to New York.  Very close to all of this industry lies downtown Salt Lake City.  We are staying in a B&B called ‘Inn on the Hill’ in a lovely residential area. The 26-room mansion was built in 1906 for a Dr. D. Woodruff and his family.  I need to pay more attention to my surroundings tomorrow morning because apparently it has Maxfield Parrish Tiffany glass windows and leather covered walls which I failed to notice when checking in.  It also has the reputation of being one of the 10 most haunted homes in Salt Lake City. We are looking forward to their breakfast which is ordered the night before for a specific time and prepared by a chef.  As of now given the rooms and other amenities such as a pool table room; amazing sitting rooms, etc. we would highly recommend staying at this place.

The B&B is located walking distance from the State Capitol building and much of downtown Salt Lake City, including the Temple Square, the headquarters for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (LDS).  Despite the 96-degree temperatures and strong winds, we walked to Temple Square which is a huge complex made up of religious and administrative buildings, including a conference center that seats 21,000 people.

Two young women served as our tour guides of the Tabernacle, Assembly Hall, and the visitors center.  I had told one of the women that Dan and I had visited the Mormon temple in Washington, DC before it was consecrated.  She asked me to repeat what I had told her about I had learned about the room of mirrors where couples were married for eternity, and the baptismal where one could Baptize those relatives who have passed away.  When she asked who would like a copy of the Book of Mormon, who else but Dan raised his hand?  According to Dan, we have always been married for eternity.

(Of special note, the stained glass windows on all four sides of the Assembly Hall building were Jewish stars.)

A short distance from the Square is a new shopping center/mall area.  We found a place called the Blue Lemon, an upscale cafeteria style place.  After dinner we climbed the hill back to our haunted mansion. Tomorrow morning as mentioned we are looking forward to breakfast at 7:45am and then off to hear the Mormon Tabernacle Choir at 8:30am.   Afterwards we leave for the Northern Rim of the Grand Canyon.

Update from several days ago.

Saturday, June 2, 2018

Today was supposed to be a day to relax and take in the quite beauty of Big Sky.  We found the local laundromat that was located very close to the Adler’s home, but according to locals it has been closed for 1-1/2 years.  The owners had wanted to serve alcohol and cleaning services at the same time and because their liquor license was held up, they couldn’t operate solely as a laundromat.  So, to make a long story short, we had to drive an hour back to Bozeman in order to do our laundry.  At least the drive was just as beautiful today as it was yesterday.

After the laundromat we had a nice lunch at a place called Toro Urban Cantina in Bozeman.   We each had a fried shrimp avocado taco and shared a watermelon salad with jicama, mint, coriander and pickled radish.  Very tasty. Afterwards, we drove an hour back to Big Sky.

Upon our return to Big Sky we drove up to see the Big Sky ski area.  The mountains were beautiful, but the resort was totally dead.  This is definitely a winter-oriented area.  Afterwards, we took a walk on a trail that is basically now part of a new housing development around the corner from the Adler’s.  Not very exciting, but at least we got out of the car for a bit.

We grabbed a quick dinner at Moe’s Barbecue, the only restaurant we could find open in the area.  The rest of the evening will be spent plotting our out route for tomorrow through the Northern part of Yellowstone and putting away all of our clean clothing.  It was nice having a day where we didn’t have to be anywhere.  Plus, we haven’t had a laundromat experience in over 40 years.

Friday, June 8, 2018

For the first time in a long time we slept until 8 AM and took our time leaving the hotel.  Turns out that was a minor mistake.  Our friends Eileen and Jim had told us about a delicious breakfast at Jenny Lake Lodge, but what we didn’t know and hadn’t bothered to check, was that breakfast stopped being served at 10 AM.  We arrived at 10:30 AM.  We ended up taking in an absolutely gorgeous overlook of Jenny Lake and the mountains and took a short hike until lunch was served at 11:30.

Jenny Lodge was nothing like I had expected.  While it’s visitors tend to be the well-heeled, it is a very understated place in the woods.  The staff was extremely friendly, so I imagine the overall service at the place is outstanding.  It would be a wonderful place to stay and relax for several days.

The entire Jackson Hole area is paradise for those that love outdoor sports.  It is much better suited for those activities than Yellowstone.  In fact, Yellowstone reminded us of an amusement park with special “rides” you had to see or your visit would be incomplete. It was a fascinating place, and we loved being there, but we never felt we were in the wilderness.  Grand Teton National Park is exactly the opposite, and we decided to spend the afternoon hiking.

The trail we took was inside the Laurance S. Rockefeller Preserve.  In 1927, John D. Rockefeller began to purchase ranches in the area with the goal of donating the land to the National Park Service.  Through his efforts he donated 33,000 acres to the park in 1949.  The family retained 3,100 acres around Phelps Lake as a family retreat, but by 2001 L. S. Rockefeller donated the balance of their property to become part of Grand Teton National Park.  The Rockefeller’s still own a ranch located not too far from the Park.

Our hike was only about 3-1/2 miles, but it took us 3 hours.  That wasn’t due to the difficulty of the hike, but because of the photos we kept taking of the beauty all around us.  Most of the path on our way to Phelps Lake followed Lake Creek which was wildly cascading over rocks.  The path was rocky, and wound through pine woods and sagebrush meadows, but except for some uphill stretches wasn’t very difficult to navigate.  The reward was seeing the pristine Lake and the snowcapped mountains.

Our next activity was much more mundane.  Our car was so dirty it looks like it had been driven for 3,680 miles – which it was.  We needed a car wash badly, and fortunately we found one that was still open.  We then headed to a place called Sidewinders American Grill for dinner.  The restaurant had been featured on Diners and Divers for its onion soup and chicken pot pie.  Now neither of these are dishes one would ordinarily order in June, but we ordered one of each.  They were both delicious.

After dinner we took a short walk through Jackson.  I probably mentioned it before, but it is a quite charming place and definitely has a western flare.  Stores and restaurants line the streets, but most were closed.  Quite a number of them had clever, mostly animal oriented, signage.  Then it was time to head back and start working on our blog. Tomorrow we head to Salt Lake City

Correction:  We incorrectly identified a small animal in an earlier blog as a prairie dog.  It turns out that there are no prairie dogs in the greater Yellowstone ecosystem.  The little critter was an Uinta ground squirrel.

Thursday, June 7, 2018

Today we said our goodbyes to Yellowstone and headed out to Grand Teton National Park.  Once more we were buffaloed, but the delay wasn’t for too long this time. With the windows down, we sat in the car and enjoyed the delicious pine fragrance and the birds singing all around us.

We made a few quick stops along the way toward the South entrance of Park, including Lewis Lake and Falls. From there we entered Grand Teton National Park (GTNP).   There were no lines to enter the Tetons, but there was a long line going into Yellowstone from the Tetons. At the information center we picked up a map as well as lunch. A short distance away we had a picnic with a view overlooking Jackson Lake and the mountains.

To break up the ride to Jackson (Jackson Hole) we decided to take a hike.  The Lake Trail was located at Colter Bay near the Jackson Lake marina and looped around a small island in the Lake.  It was lovely walking in the dense pine woods and we spent some time just sitting on a log on the edge of the lake admiring the scenery.

The route we took toward Jackson was the Teton Park Road.  Just like in Yellowstone, there were plenty of turnoffs that allowed us to admire the mountains.  While most of the other turnoffs provided different views of the Tetons, we did stop at a few places of special interest. One stop was the Jackson Lake Dam that provides electricity and protects the area from flooding. The Chapel of the Sacred Heart was log structure built during the 1930’s to service the growing Catholic population. It was in that parking lot that Dan spotted a black bear and her THREE playful cubs.  Adorable!!  Earlier in the day we saw an eagle sitting atop a dead tree and a coyote that pranced alongside our car for a short time.

With a little persuasion Dan took a side trip up a narrow winding road to the top of Signal Mountain.  It had been recommended to us by a forest ranger. The view from the mountain top was quite inspiring with the valley and lakes stretching far below us. What I liked best, however, was the abundance of white, purple, pink and yellow wild flowers.

The Tetons are considered young geologically and have very little growing on them – at least that we can see.  Instead of the usual foothills there is simply either a lake or plains and then abruptly, there are the mountains.  They are dark, rocky, jagged (especially Mt. Teton) and frosted with snow giving them a very dramatic appearance.

Our hotel, The Flat Creek Inn, sits just outside the town.  Directly across the street is the National Elk Refuge.  It is a vast open area, but not a single elk could be spotted.   Some of the signage on the shops were quirky and fun.  One showed a family of bears on raft.  Hopefully we’ll get back to town to take a few more photos.  Tomorrow we will return and explore more of the Grand Teton National Park.

 

Wednesday, June 6, 2018

This morning we entered the park at about 8:45 AM and had no problem heading North toward Roosevelt Tower.  As usual there were lots of buffalo and we tend to ignore them now that we’ve seen so many.  Today, however, we stopped to take photos of calves that happened to be closer to the road than usual.  Once again we were thwarted in our attempt to take a hike, this time to Cascade Lake. We met a young man named Rick who offered to walk with us one way and protect us with his bear spray.  Unfortunately, about 10 minutes later we came upon a sign informing us that the trail was closed due to possible dangerous bears.

From Roosevelt Tower we headed further North through the Washburn Mountain Range.  All around us were beautiful green mountains (except where there had been forest fires) with streaks of snow.  A few times we saw kids playing in the snow banks and having snowball fights.  Suddenly we spotted a group of people standing in a field – that meant an animal sighting.  It turned out to be a Mamma Grizzly bear and her two playful cubs.  This is where a good camera would have come in handy.

On our journey we made a quick stop at Tower Falls, like all the other waterfalls we visited it was impressive and beautiful.   At Tower Falls was one of the parks stopping plazas.  One thing that is a plus at Yellowstone is that in each section of the Park there are places to get gas, food, and gifts.  There are also basic restrooms at all of the major tourist points plus many more scattered everywhere.  For the last two days we picked up lunch at a Park store and had a picnic. Today, Dan and I shared a huge turkey sandwich.

Earlier in our visit we had seen a sign to see a petrified tree and skipped going there, but today we went.  We can’t seem resist trying to see everything.  Once upon a time there were three pretrified redwood tree trunks, but tourists chipped away at them and only one remains. There also happened to be a hiking trail that wasn’t closed, although it did warn people to travel in groups of three and to take bear spray—neither of which we did.  It was a very lovely walk with plenty of wild flowers to admire.  We actually had to strain ourselves a bit by jumping over a stream twice in order to reach The Lost Lake.  I’m proud to say we discovered the lake along with the bleached skeletal remains of an elk. So far, it’s the only elk we’ve spotted.  A cute little prairie dog entertained us for a bit almost coming right up to us.  On our way back, a couple of cowboys rode past us with pack mules. They were actually maintenance workers using the mules to haul stones they would use to fix the trails.

The rest of the Day was spent driving through the Lamar Valley, known for one of the best places to spot wild life. It was here we saw a very large herd of buffalo on our trip. It didn’t take much imagination to picture what herds of these animals must have looked like to Native Americans. At another spot we saw a female moose.  In addition to animals, the Park is filled with geological wonders.  Glaciers picked up and moved huge boulders and tossed them helter skelter in the middle of fields, up mountain sides and into small lakes.

Here is where our luck didn’t hold out very well in terms of lines of traffic.  First, we were stuck waiting for a huge line of cars to snap photos of a grizzly bear.  Then when we thought the coast was clear we were stuck again, this time for 45 minutes.  Were people gazing at a wondrous elk, moose, wolf, or fox? NO!  We were stuck on the road because people were taking photos of buffalo.  There are buffalo throughout the park and one would think that by 5:00 PM they would have seen at least a 100 of them.

Finally, back in West Yellowstone, we grabbed a quick bite at Las Palmitas for some Mexican food. The place is in a converted bus and served up pretty decent fajitas.  Tomorrow we head to Grand Teton National Park.

 

 

Tuesday, June 5, 2018

We apologize for the delay in our postings, but we had no internet for several days and as a result have fallen behind.   Over the next several days we hope to catch up, but for now will start with today.

Dan and I were in line to enter the Park by 8:45 AM, but that wasn’t early enough.  We made it easily to Madison.  Madison is the main junction when traveling from West Yellowstone.  From there you can head either East or South.  The quickest route to Yellowstone Lake, our main objective for today, was to head South.  That is where we were caught up in a huge traffic backup.  It was probably due to people trying to locate parking at the first major stopping point, but we’ll never know.  We turned around and took a longer route mile wise, but at least we were moving.

On the way we stopped at Virginia Cascade.  It was quite beautiful seeing the powerful water flowing downhill.  We stopped at the ‘Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone’ and the Lower Falls of the Yellowstone River.  The Park’s name was derived from the yellow rock walls of the Canyon.  Because of the snow-melt all the rivers and streams are flowing so strongly they have white caps.  This made waterfalls, cascades, etc. even more impressive.

‘Sulphur Caldron’ (a bubbling pool with hot smelly steam coming out of it) and, Mud Volcano, a geyser that shot mud up into the air, were our next two stops.  After grabbing a bite to eat, we headed to the Lake Butte Overlook.  From that vantage point we could see across the Yellowstone Lake, a distance of 30 miles.  Except for Grant Village, there is no significant development between the point we were at and Jackson, WY, one hundred miles South.  It is the largest wilderness area in the lower 48 states.

The elevation of Yellowstone Lake is 7,733 feet, the highest and largest alpine lake in the continental U.S.  Surrounding us at the butte vantage point were acres and acres of dead trees, destroyed in a forest fire.  In 1988 a massive fire wiped out most of Yellowstone Park, but much of it has regenerated on its own.  Most fires are started by lightning strikes and occur almost every year.  Fire fighters’ main objective is to keep the hotels and other buildings safe.

We then headed to the Natural Bridge Trailhead.  The trail was closed, however, due to bears.  In fact, there have been several locations we could not enter due to the bears springtime activities.  Instead of our hike we spent a considerable amount of time at the West Thumb Geyser Basin, which is literally part of Yellowstone Lake.  It did make us wonder how all of the acidity, and various chemicals impact the Lake.  Apparently not much since we spotted a number of fishermen. 

It was getting to be time for us to start heading back.  We stopped at a few spots we had missed.  Another beautiful cascade, called the Kepler Cascade and more geothermal action at The Black Sand Basin.  Fortunately, our ride back was uneventful.   We did stop to see the Yellowstone Historic Center Museum which is inside the Union Pacific train depot built in 1909.  Another historic building we saw today was Lake Lodge. Tomorrow we head back to the Northern part of Yellowstone Park; which is mountainous; and still has snow at the higher elevations.

NOTE: Recommendation to others visiting Yellowstone:  Leave seeing high traffic tourist places such a ‘Old faithful’, ‘Midway Geyser Basin’, etc. for the late afternoon; after 4:00 pm.  The car traffic is much less, and these hot tourist spots are much more accessible.  Plan to see other places first during the day.

Friday, June 1, 2018

Cody was founded by Col. Wm “Buffalo Bill” F. Cody in 1896. We stayed at the Best Western Premier Ivy Inn which was one of the nicest places we’ve stayed. (It was even booked with Tauck Tours while we were there.) There is quite a bit to do in the area including a rodeo and a “famous” chuck wagon supper, both of which didn’t begin their season until the day we left. Bummer.

We did visit the “Buffalo Bill Center of the West” which is sensational and is affiliated with the Smithsonian. It consists of five museums in one: Buffalo Bill Museum, Cody Firearms Museum, Draper Natural History Museum, Whitney Western Art Museum, and the Plains Indian Museum. It would take a good 4 hours or so to see everything in the place, but we saw the majority of it in about 2 hours; but missed a lot.

Dan thought that it was the best museum he has ever visited – and he’s been to lots of museums. The museum offered many ways to draw adults and children into the exhibits, as well as lectures, tours, and even a raptor demonstration. Especially enjoyable for us was the cowboy art which included paintings and sculptures from the 1800’s thru today. One room was devoted to the sculptures and paintings of Frederic Remington. I had never thought of him as a painter.

At the entrance to the Buffalo Bill Museum a ghostly image of him welcomes you. It was some sort of holographic image in a vapor. His life was so fascinating that you essentially learned a lot about the history of the West just by following his life path. Born in Iowa in 1846 at the age of 14 became a rider for the Pony Express (although some historians dispute this), joined the 7th Kansas Calvary, became a scout and buffalo hunter. Of course, he is best known for his Buffalo Bill Wild West Show. The show was not only within the United States; but internationally as well. He even had a private show for Queen Victoria at her palace in 1887. Several hundred people took place in all of his shows. Both Dan and I would love to have seen them…. but we are not old enough to say that we did.

After our race through the museum, we raced through the main street of Cody. I found some nice beaded bracelets at a shop called Native Images. We also snuck into The Irma Hotel’s main dining room. The hotel was established by Buffalo Bill, and the room was filled with memorabilia from that era.

The main reason for our rush out of town was that we had a long drive from Cody to Big Sky. Time estimates varied from 4-6 hours and there was no way we wanted arrive after dark. It did take us 4-1/2 hours of driving time to get to Big Sky.
Like all of our other rides throughout Wyoming and Montana the scenery was beautiful, although it did rain quite heavily at times.

We made a stop in Bozeman, MT for dinner at Mackenzie River Pizza Company. I knew about the place because the manager is my cousin Andrea Rossen’s cousin. Alisson Collins, is the manager of the place. She is a lovely person and came out to see us offering her assistance should we need it while visiting the area. She has lived out here for over 20 years.

After our pizza and salad, we wound along the raging Gallatin River. It is overflowing its banks due to a late snow thaw this year, along with heavy rains. We found the Adler’s cozy home without any problem and moved ourselves in. One problem though, I was ecstatic to finally be able to do a laundry. I tested the washer to make sure it was working and threw our clothes inside. The washer filled up with water and then stopped! So, first thing tomorrow is a trip to the laundromat. Stuff happens.

 

 

 

Thursday, May 31, 2018

Before entering our day’s activities, we’ll probably won’t be posting another blog until about June 4th. We will be staying at the home of my parent’s good friends Jesse and Fred Adler located in Big Sky, Montana. Sadly, Fred passed away, but Jesse is still enjoying her summer home and was kind enough to let us “borrow” it for a few days. It is a mountainous area and there is no internet access at their home, and even cell phone connections can be tricky.

As an aside, we made our usual morning gas station stop before heading out; and the squeegees at the local gas station were big, really BIG. We mentioned yesterday, it seemed like everyone drove pickup trucks or other large vehicles, so they have squeegees that fit the need for BIG.

Today after we left Gillette, Wyoming we headed towards the Little Bighorn National Monument in Montana. We passed through several small Western towns such as Buffalo, Sheridan Ranchester which are not major population centers. Why does any community put up a sign that shows that they have a population of 10?

We weren’t initially going to travel the extra 1-1/2 hour driving time to visit Little Bighorn, but we were too close to pass it by. Instead of just driving to the town of Cody, we ended up spending about 2-1/2 hours at the battlefield. The battle took place on June 25th, 1876 and both sides are memorialized at the Monument. The Lakota, Cheyenne and Arapaho Indians fought the U.S. Army in an attempt to preserve their traditional way of life and protect their women, children, and elderly. On the other side was the U.S. Army under the command of General George Custer, who was carrying out the Grant Administration’s instructions to remove the Indians to the great Sioux Reservation in what was then the Dakota Territory. Scattered throughout the grounds are markers indicating where many of the 262 soldiers, including Custer, and between 60 to 100 Indians fell in battle.

After leaving Little Bighorn we headed toward Cody, Wyoming. The ride through the Bighorn Canyon was extremely steep and spectacular. Rushing rivers, snow, deep canyons, and different colored rock formations surrounded us. It was such a steep incline that we had to shift into low gear in order to keep our breaks from burning. In fact, the breaks were giving off a burning smell which we only noticed because we stopped to take pictures.

The sky today was almost as interesting as the scenery. Clouds of all different variations of black, grey and white created an almost surrealistic vision. You sometimes couldn’t tell the difference between mountain and sky. Vast shadows crossed the landscape and one could see veils of rain pouring down in the distance.

We arrived in Cody at about 8:00 PM, too late for us to see the town. Our hope is to at least visit the Buffalo Bill Center of the West before heading to Big Sky tomorrow.  So far we have traveled a little over 2,400 miles.