Always great to read reports
Enjoying the tale Harry. Thanks for reporting and the photos.
Mark
Parks and Sparks - June 28
Today we drove across Nebraska on I-80 with several diversions to visit The Archway at Kearney, Nebraska's answer to The Gateway Arch in St. Louis, a genuine Pony Express Station and an equally authentic sod house, both in Gothenburg.
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The archway extends right across I-80, so you can't miss seeing it, whether you want to or not. The attraction wasn't open yet as it was Sunday Morning.
The Archway opened in 1999 and is a tribute to 185 years of transportation history, but it is presented in a way to interest all ages, so this is definitely a family attraction. There are also some walking trails and a Trailblaze Maze for the younger generation to have some fun alongside of the main structure. There is an admission fee, but be sure to check it out.
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It's hard to believe that this Pony Express Station is at least 150 years old
The Pony Express route followed the Platte River and is essentially parallel to where I-80 goes today through Nebraska. The station in Gothenburg is well preserved and serves as both museum and gift shop. It sits in a parklike setting in the town, and is a little difficult to find, but the effort to do so is rewarded with history you probably never knew about the first long distance mail service in America.
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The Sod House is only a replica, but it is built exactly like the original ones were built and is probably a pretty close double for the one that Laura Ingalls Wilder wrote about in her novels about her Little House on the Prairie. It is located just off the interstate Exit 211 at Gothenburg and is worth a visit to see how the pioneers lived.
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The Ames Brothers lived longer than the fame of their pyramid-shaped monument
Speaking of the prairie, the monument seen above stands out on a desolate spot outside of Cheyenne, Wyoming. It was erected next to the original bed of the Transcontinental Railroad to honor two brothers instrumental in building that mode of transport. However, over the years, the railroad was moved twice and is now nowhere near the monument, which requires a drive down a two-mile dirt track to visit it. It stands 60-feet high above the prairie
The second monument we visited was dedicated to Abe Lincoln. It is a huge stone wall with just the carved stone head of our 16th President atop it. The monument was in a rest area at the highest point, 8,600 feet ASL, on I-80. Old Abe has a birdseye view of the pass above and just east of Laramie, Wyoming, where we spent our third night — in Laramie, not the pass.
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The stone monument to Abe Lincoln is about 20 feet high
A little history here . . . Lincoln's Monument was erected to celebrate the Lincoln Highway Association, which oversaw the building of a continuous improved roadway across America from the Atlantic to the Pacific about a century ago. I don't know about you, but I have never heard of this until now. I only know about the Eisenhower Interstate System started when Ike was our president. I found it very interesting.
Tomorrow will be our first day of sightseeing at the first of six national parks. I hope that Grand Teton National Park is more visible than it was the last time I visited in 2012. So far, the air has been perfectly clear of any smoke haze, and the fires that are burning in the Northwest are up in Washington and Canada.
Mileage today - 500 Total - 1650
Parks and Sparks – June 29
Our destination for today was Driggs, Idaho. It is on the west side of the Grand Teton Mountains and requires a 16 mile drive over a mountain pass from Jackson Hole, Wyoming with lots of 10 percent grades and switchbacks. Of course, I knew this in advance because I stayed there 3 years ago on my Smoke! trip, but Judy had no idea about it until we actually got up into the pass. But that was at the end of our day; let me start from the beginning.
We left Laramie early in the morning and drove on I-80 to Rawlins. Then we took Route 287 up through Lander and the Wind River Reservation, a place we had both read about in many of Margaret Coel’s Vicky Holden and Father John books. It was also the setting of the television show, Longmire, which I sorely miss since they canceled it.
The first part of the trip up to Lander was a neat one, with lots of overlooks, hundred mile views and pronghorns galore. One thing we marveled at was the number of wind/snow fences along the highway. There were hundreds of them and the slat lumber in them looked very new, so some contractor must have made a killing on them.
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The 8-foot-high wind fences stretch across the prairie for miles
When we topped off the tank in Lander, I mentioned the neat scenery we had seen to the clerk in the gas station, and he asked where we were going. When I told him Grand Teton National Park, he said that if I thought the scenery between Rawlins and Lander was neat, mostly sagebrush, wait till I saw what was ahead of me.
After a detour to the gravesite of Sacajawea outside of Fort Washakie, we went through the Wind River Mountains. I thought for sure we had reached our goal and were in the Grand Tetons, but no, the Wind River Mountains are equally spectacular. We were in them for over 40 miles. Toward the end of the journey, the real Grand Tetons came into view in their entire splendor. For those of you who read my Smoke! Journals, I can tell you that I could see the mountains 100 times better on this trip. No wildfires are burning in this part of the Northwest this year.
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Many visitors have left tokens and mementos at the statue of Sacajawea
The Sacajawea picture has a back story. As we were driving through Fort Washakie, Judy saw a sign pointing down a local street to the Sacajawea Gravesite. She said she wanted to see it. Well, it took about an hour and a stop for better directions at the post office to finally find the cemetery out in the middle of nowhere completely outside of the town. There was a nice memorial and statue, pictured above, and the grave was elsewhere in the cemetery -- we never did find it.
I later learned that there is lots of controversy about where Sacajawea is buried and when she actually died. Some say she died in her 20's and is buried in North Dakota, while this site gives her age at death as 100 and her burial with her two children here at Fort Washakie. Who knows which is true, but you can visit her at either location. I prefer this one.
For our Aussie, N-Zed and Brit contributors, Sacajawea is the revered Shoshone maid who accompanied Lewis and Clark on their epic journey to the newly acquired Northwest Territory. She was instrumental in guiding them through hostile Native American lands.
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The Wind River Range is as impressive as Grand Teton National Park
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It was only mid-afternoon when we reached Moran Junction, the northern entry into the Grand Tetons, so we took a few hours and drove the 40 mile park road, stopping at every lookout and overlook. We had always driven Route 89 in past visits, which only skirts the park about 5 miles distant. The 12,000-foot peaks look so much more detailed from the one or two miles distance inside the park. They seem to be bending right over you!
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Such a fantastic view of Grand Teton NP from up close
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The famous Elk Antler Arches of Jackson Hole, Wyoming
One of the elk antler arches above stands at each of the four corners of the park in the center of Jackson. Not to worry; the elk shed their antlers every year, so none was harmed in the making of the arches. They just get picked up off the ground.
Upon leaving the park, we drove though Jackson, which was very crowded, and started into that aforementioned mountain pass across to Idaho. Our main reason for driving 70 miles round trip beyond Jackson is that the hotels in and around Driggs are about half the cost of the ones in Jackson. Of course, it is a neat drive, too.
If the rest of the trip goes as nicely as this part, the one word to describe it will be "Magnificent!”
Mileage today - 425 Total - 2075
Parks and Sparks - June 30
We arose nice and early to get a good start to a long day of sightseeing. But before we could leave the hotel, Judy noticed that a hot air balloon was being inflated in the field near our hotel. I got out the camera and snapped several shots of not one, but two balloons from inflation to launch. They were taking passengers over the Grand Tetons, a fun summer activity.
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This was fun to watch and was a successful launch
Next, we drove back over the mountain pass to Jackson and up Route 89 past Grand Teton and on to the south entrance to Yellowstone. On the way, we got some good photos of the Tetons from a distance and watched some cowboys herd about a dozen bison across the road in front of us.
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The view from the top of the pass was really promising a great day ahead
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In case you're wondering, that is my own panoramic photo
We arrived at Old Faithful just after the geyser eruption, so we had a 90-minute wait for the next one. We used most of the time walking around the loop trail and seeing the other geysers in the vicinity. Old Faithful did its thing at 12:30, and we spent the next half hour locating our car in the parking lot and exiting with the rest of the traffic.
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I never tire of watching geysers and Old Faithful is a neat one
One element I forgot to factor in when I did my trip planning was the huge number of tourists we would encounter with the resulting time delay. It added a lot of extra time to each stop. We have always traveled in the off-season before.
A quick lunch of PB&J was next, followed by a neat visit to the Grand Prismatic Spring, a deep blue pool with (believe it or not) blue steam rising from it. The geysers and springs of Yellowstone are just beyond belief!
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Then I made a return visit to the White Dome Geyser, the one that had given me a nice cool shower on my last visit to the park in 2012. While we waited for it to do its geyser thing, we were joined by over a dozen others. It took about a half hour before it erupted, but it didn't disappoint us.
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It was raining with thunder and lightning in the background — a good effect
Shortly after our geyser shower, we got another one in the form of a thunderstorm. It poured for less than an hour, but it washed all the road dust and bugs off the car. We had nice clean windows once again. The sun quickly came out again like the rain had never happened.
We spent the rest of the afternoon visiting several of the geothermal wonders in the park plus some really cool waterfalls. There are several rivers in Yellowstone Park, and all have several waterfalls. I love cascades, so Yellowstone is a dream come true for me.
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Gibbon Falls is a slide waterfall, but no swimming is allowed
Another unforeseen problem we encountered was road construction. About ten miles of the road we took up to the northern entrance at Mammoth Hot Springs was one lane dirt road, so you can imagine the slow and bumpy condition of the roadbed. Some of the sites we intended to visit were not open as a result of the construction, unfortunately.
We did visit the Mammoth Hot Springs terraces, a frosty wonderland of white. And then, as we approached the Hot Springs Lodge, there were a small herd of elk lounging on the lawn, a sight I had witnessed on my last trip to Yellowstone in 2012. What is great way to finish this day!
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Acres of white terrace and dead trees look other-worldly
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The buck is lying to the left and apparently has no challenger to fight off today
The short drive into Gardiner, Montana was uneventful, and we enjoyed a good meal at our hotel on Hellroaring Street,. Tomorrow we will revisit Yellowstone to complete the figure eight route and see even more sights.
Parks and Sparks - July 1
This was our second day in Yellowstone Park. The guide book recommends a minimum of 2 days to see enough of the features in the park, but suggests that 5 days will allow you to visit everything there is to see. Well, we don't have 5 days to spare and we don't do a lot of hiking, so the minimum seemed adequate, and we did see everything we planned.
We started at the North Gate and drove to Mammoth Hot Springs, where we turned east along the Rim Road toward Tower-Roosevelt. On that road we stopped at 2 waterfalls, Undine Falls and Tower Falls, and visited a high overlook of the Calcite Springs. Just past Tower Falls the road winds over Dunraven Pass, which has several areas where forest fires in 1988 burned thousands of acres of trees. Much of it has grown back, but the bare, burned trunks of the old forest are still standing, sentinels to the devastation.
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Undine Falls was still in shade, but a pretty cascade.
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Calcite Springs is that white slope and with field glasses you can see it actually boil
We did miss some good sights due to the heat, including some beaver dams and a lot of petrified trees. Both require long hikes out to them from the road, and we wanted to save our hiking for the coming attractions. At least it is more shady at the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone.
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Tower Falls is so named because of the stone spires at the brink
There are many waterfalls along the creeks and rivers of Yellowstone, and one of the most spectacular is the Lower Yellowstone Falls. You can see it from both the north and the south rims of the Yellowstone Canyon, but my preference is the view from Artist Point on the south rim. We did drive the North Rim Road to several overlooks, but one of the most disappointing ones was Inspiration Point. There used to be a long finger of rock out over the canyon that afforded a great long view of Lower Yellowstone Falls, but it has been eroding over the years, and is now so badly broken that you can just barely see the edge of the falls from it. It didn't seem worth the loop drive out to it.
There is another waterfall, Upper Yellowstone Falls, less than a mile above the famous lower cataract, which is equally neat, but it doesn't have the open canyon views. It is accessible from the South Rim Road, and we went to it and actually walked to the brink of the upper falls. There is also an overlook for the upper falls a short distance farther down the South Rim Road. For those who don't mind lots of stairs and elevation changes, there are trails down into the Yellowstone Canyon to some other views, but we aren't that adventurous or healthy. One such trail, called Uncle Tom's Trail, has hundreds of stairs.
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Uncle Tom's Trail is mostly Uncle Tom's Stairs. No thanks!
At the end of South Rim Road is my favorite overlook of both the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone and the Lower Yellowstone Falls. It is named Artist Point for good reason.
One really cool sight from the rim overlooks is the osprey nests situated on several of the tall spires of rock down in the canyon. They are easy to spot, and are best viewed through binoculars or a good telephoto camera.
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This Osprey nest has an adult and two juveniles, but they're difficult to see without binoculars or telephoto lens camera
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Upper Yellowstone Falls is lesser known, but is equally spectacular
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Lower Yellowstone Falls from Artist Point on the south rim
After having a picnic lunch, we drove to yet another cataract called Virginia Cascade. It is a slide falls, one that looks like you could slide down it from top to bottom. The problem is that it is nearly impossible to climb back out of the canyon into which it falls. Besides that, it isn't allowed by park rules.
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Virginia Cascade requires a drive down a rutted dirt road with no guard rails
Finally, having seen our fill of falls and geysers and hot springs, along with some elk, bison and deer. We left the park through the West Gate and took a very scenic route from West Yellowstone to Bozeman, our resting place for tonight.
Mileage - 270 Total 2530
Parks and Sparks - July 2
Neither of us slept well last night; consequently, we were awake and raring to go at 5AM. We were on the road by 6 with a rather long day ahead.
Our first destination was Butte, Montana, a city built on a mine. We went to the Berkeley Acid Pit, where we viewed the partly water-filled surface mine with a Ph reading of 2.4 and a depth of 1.600 feet. It is 7,000 feet long and 5,600 feet wide and was known in its heyday as the largest open pit mine in the world. The material removed from the mine between 1955 and 1982, its short operations span, gave Butte the nickname, "The Richest Hill on Earth." It was impressive, but more interesting was the fact that there are ten thousand miles of mine tunnels under the city drilled to a depth of 5,100 feet. You would think the town would collapse, but the bedrock is apparently very strong.
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Berkeley Acid Pit had a nice reflection off the still water in the mine
We were also able to see the tall statue high above Butte called "Our Lady of The Rockies." However, we once again encountered that nemesis that plagued my last trip, smoke! There are wildfires in Washington and British Columbia, and the smoke is drifting eastward. I hope that it will clear somewhat tomorrow when we plan to drive across Glacier National Park.
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Our Lady of the Rockies is a 90-foot statue of the Virgin Mary on the Continental Divide overlooking Butte, Montana and looks quite eerie up there
Leaving Butte in our rear view mirror, we headed north to Helena and a short distance beyond it, for a two hour boat trip through Gates of The Mountains, so named by the Lewis and Clark Expedition in 1805 when they went through the deep canyon on the Missouri River. The river wasn't dammed back then, so the canyon was hundreds of feet deeper when Lewis and Clark passed through it. Even today the scenery was stunning, with sheer cliffs and hills 800 to 1,000 feet over us on either side of the boat.
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Gates of the Mountains has wildlife, petroglyphs and rock formations
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Ancient people drew these petroglyphs on the canyon walls
(Use the magnifier on your device to see them closer)
Back on the road after our boat excursion, we continued up I-15, this time driving through several canyons and mountain passes of indescribable beauty. Then in the space of two minutes, the landscape changed from mountains to flat prairie reminiscent of Kansas and Nebraska.
Our guide on the boat had suggested that we stop at a small state park outside of the town of Ulm up near Great Falls. We took his advice and took a short side trip to First Peoples Buffalo Jump State Park. There was an indoor interpretive center and then a walking trail of several miles up onto a bluff with a sharp drop off. We went through the first half, but opted out of the walk in a blazing hot sun. It is the only park I've ever seen that doesn't have a single tree in it. We did learn what a buffalo jump was, though; something that I have heard of in the past, but never understood until now. (I leave it to you to look it up on your search engine)
Our day ended just outside of the small town of Shelby, but we also passed through a badlands just before we arrived there. We are just 50 miles east of the entrance to Glacier National Park, which we hope to drive through tomorrow on the scenic byway called "Going to the Sun Road." The smoky haze has either dissipated or never reached here in the first place, so we're looking forward to a clear day in the park.
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This cliff is the most significant part of First Peoples Buffalo Jump State Park
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A mini badlands in the middle of Montana near Shelby
Mileage - 325 Total - 2855
Parks and Sparks - July 3
Today was one of the days I feared had too much activity in it, and I was proved right. I had set a goal of nearly 400 miles of driving combined with four sites to visit. We were doomed from the start.
First, I read about road construction in Glacier National Park with delays and closure of some overlooks and trail heads. Then I missed a critical turn to reach the eastern entrance. We drove 40 miles before I realized my error and we turned around, only to find that we could get to the western entrance easier from there and not have to drive over the road construction after all. Of course, it ate up an hour to figure it all out and start back over that bypass road again.
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Though we drove the southern bypass for Glacier, we still saw some good scenery
My third miscalculation involved not planning on as many stops as we would make along the Going to the Sun Road. It was totally awesome, and we drove it from the West Glacier entrance up to Logan Pass and back, a distance of 64 miles. It took about three hours for that alone.
The Going to the Sun Road is a narrow two-lane road with low stone walls at some places and no guard rails or walls at all in others. It climbs to an altitude of 8,600 feet and has numerous waterfalls, snow bridges and hundred-mile views. The smoke we had encountered yesterday was not present, so everything was crisp and clear. There are adequate turnoffs and overlooks for some magnificent photo ops.
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Up there in the center of the picture was our destination, Logan Pass
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Now we're nearing the top of the park
Our next plan was to drive completely around Flathead Lake, the largest Clearwater lake in North America. It is also one of the clearest lakes; you can see all the way to the bottom in most of it. We were only able to take in the east side of the lake with the time we had lost. A bonus was the discovery that, besides tourism, (there are at least five state parks on the lake, including an island park that requires a boat ride to reach it) the east side has numerous cherry orchards. We bought two pounds of the sweet red ones called Flathead Cherries - what else?
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From the end of a pier, Flathead Lake is about 40-feet deep at this point
I had scheduled a drive through the National Bison Range south of Flathead Lake, too. It is administered by the Salish and Kootenai Tribes, whose land it occupies. However, it is a treeless prairie and the temperature today was 97 Degrees, so I was glad to forego that. We did see a lone bison on the edge of the range from a rest area along Highway 93 near the town of St. Ignatius.
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Yes, that is a lone bison out there in the distance on the National Buffalo Range
On our road down to Missoula we passed through a unique animal bridge. It enables wildlife to cross the busy and dangerous highway and is about 50 yards wide and covered in grass. It forms a tunnel for highway traffic. There are only four such animal bridges in North America.
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A unique sight: the Animals' Trail Bridge for wildlife along Highway 93
I included a few extra pictures in Glacier NP below to show you how neat it really was. There was a distinct lack of glaciers in the park, though you could see remnants of some and hollows where others had been. I have become a believer in global warming, but only as nature governs it, not man. We are far too inconsequential to control climate, and besides, now scientists are predicting a new ice age, so maybe the glaciers will return.
Our last stop was to be at the Smokejumpers Headquarters in Missoula. We arrived after closing at 5:30, so we took a few pictures of the buildings and training center and called it a day. Our hotel was in Missoula, so we had arrived at our home for the night.
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A snow bridge (hollow underneath)
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Towering peaks but not much glacial activity
Mileage - 370 Total - 3225
Parks and Sparks - July 4
One important lesson I've learned since I began road tripping 25 years ago is that you have to keep your options open. You can't plan for every activity or attraction along the road, so it's best to keep a little extra time and an open mind for the unexpected.
Today was one of those days. We started out toward Salt Lake City, but when we were approaching Butte, we were ready for a cup of coffee, so we passed the junction of I-90 and I-15 to find a McDonalds. Then one thing led to another, and we decided to go see the Museum of Mining at Montana Technical College. The school is located on a high hill, so when we got there we had a great view of the entire city. In fact, the museum wasn't open yet, so I started snapping pictures of the city instead.
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Once called "The Richest Hill on Earth", Butte is a quaint mining town with a big history
Now, if you like quaint Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century towns with lots of beautiful homes and businesses, Butte is a must see. A real eye popper is the many mining rigs throughout the city. (Remember that I related in an earlier journal log that there are 10,000 miles of underground mines below Butte) I could have spent the day there if we hadn't had to travel 500 miles.
I regret that I didn't have my camera ready for another sight we saw along the road. A creek was winding alongside the interstate, and at one bend in it there was a huge bald eagle perched on a protruding log. What a sight to see on Independence Day! Alas, I don't have a picture of the eagle.
When I first preplanned this trip, I considered a side trip over to Craters of the Moon National Memorial. It would have been a 120 mile detour and was going to cost at least 2 hours in the park. But I recalled from my trip along the same route 3 years ago that the volcanic lava beds extended across Idaho to I-15. There is even a rest area in the middle of the lava bed that the road builders named Hell's Half Acre and they were nice enough to make paved paths up through the lava so that people could enjoy their rest break. We accomplished in half an hour what could have taken 3 hours and a lot of gas otherwise.
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How can you beat a rest area with a paved lava trail for exercise!
For once, we arrived at our hotel before 5 o'clock, so I decided to go downtown to Temple Square and see the famous Mormon Tabernacle. It turned out to be a straight shot from the hotel to the square and back 5 minutes each way. I got good photos of all the buildings. I must say that I was impressed.
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The famous Mormon Tabernacle
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A smaller Mormon church in Temple Square
A little rain shower helped to cool things off, but I'm afraid we're still in for hot travel ahead. Tomorrow we're headed for Moab, and that is a desert climate indeed!
Mileage - 550 Total - 3775
Parks and Sparks - July 5
Tonight we are in Heaven; figuratively, not literally. On the map it is shown as Moab, Utah, but there must be a supreme being who shaped and sculpted the amazing and impossible rock formations in the two national parks just north and west of here as well as those same formations in the cliffs above the city. This is my fourth time here, and I am always overawed by the beauty.
We started out of Salt Lake City this morning in a light and cooling rain and drove a hugely scenic Route 6 down through Price and Helper. Along that road was a rest area like none I've ever seen before. It was a tiny replica of a train roundhouse, complete with engine, track and openings where other engines would be housed. But the openings were actually picnic shelters with tables in each one. It sat below a genuine railroad track and the restroom building, looking like a real station, had a sign on the front showing it to be Tie Fork.
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Tie Fork Station Rest Area
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A rest area with real class
The road all the way from Spanish Fork to Price went through a series of canyons and was parallel to that double railroad track. Lots of twists and turns and high walls made it a drive that kept us awake and alert.
Our first goal, Canyonlands National Park, was reached by 12:30, and we spent two hours there. It had rained there as well, so the temperature was pleasant enough for good hiking. We used the opportunity to hike the 1/2 mile loop trail to Mesa Arch. By the time we left the park for our next destination, Arches National Park, the sun was out and the temp had climbed about 20 degrees. Hiking was at an end for today. We did drive most of the park, but a lot of the pictures were taken either through the window or alongside the car.
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Monitor and Merrimac are two mesa formations near Canyonlands
Our hike out to the Mesa Arch in Canyonlands was hot and hilly, but it was worth the effort. We've been out there twice before, but the arch always amazes me. There are signs all through the park that climbing on arches is not allowed, but many people ignore the signs and take the risk. Mesa Arch has a dead drop of about a thousand feet right behind it, and those rocks are sometimes slippery, so I imagine there are some casualties.
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There's a guy standing atop the Mesa Arch with a huge drop behind him
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Mesa Arch is in Canyonlands and really is on the edge of a high mesa
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Double Arch in Arches NP is huge - that white dot at the bottom is a person
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People are hiking out to Delicate Arch, but I shot my photo from a viewpoint below
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Balanced Rock is not cemented in place but sits atop a lighter colored slab
Our hotel concierge (desk clerk) recommended a steak house for dinner. She said she could get us a window table with a fantastic view and even a shuttle ride from and back to the hotel. Needless to add, it is the priciest restaurant in Moab. We settled instead for a nice authentic Mexican restaurant and enjoyed the cuisine.
Tomorrow, we will visit a few more stand alone arches along the local roads and then take yet another scenic drive to Gunnison, Colorado with a stop at the Black Canyon near there.
Mileage - 315 Total - 4090
Next time: that steak house view!
I've eaten at that steak house and the view is pretty great.
Moab actually has a number of good restaurants now --
Mark
Parks and Sparks - July 6
At 3:13 this morning a huge bolt of lightning and a equally loud clap of thunder woke me up. Shortly after the rude awakening, the rain came, and I thought we might have to abandon our plans to see just two more arches before heading eastward to Colorado.
We left Moab heading south and went first to a formation called Looking Glass Rock, which was only accessible down a dirt road. The rain had wet the surface, but it was passable. Then we went a few miles further on the paved roadway to Wilson Arch. It was visible from the main road, so I snapped my pictures and we drove a southern scenic route over to Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park.
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Looking Glass Rock - The man standing on a rock to the right gives perspective
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Wilson Arch near Moab
On the way over to the Black Canyon, we drove over the lower half of the Unaweep-Tabeguache Scenic Byway. That gave us an excellent view of the San Juan Mountains to the south. I got another panoramic picture from an overlook near Ridgeway, Colorado.
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After a 3-1/2 hour stay at Black Canyon and walks out to nine of the thirteen overlooks, we started on the last leg of the journey to our hotel in Gunnison. On one of the overlook trails, we got a treat; a four-foot bull snake crossed our path and stayed long enough to get his picture taken.
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The 'Painted Wall' in Black Canyon - Do you see the two dragons?
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Black Canyon of the Gunnison has overlooks on both rims, but the ones on the north rim are more primitive, require a long 90-mile drive from the south rim to reach and are way more scary - there isn't much erosion on the north rim, so you look almost straight down 2,300 feet to the Gunnison River. The picture above is shows the difference
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This beauty is a harmless bull snake
Along the way to Gunnison we passed through two more canyons and the ever expanding Blue Mesa Lake in the Curecanti National Recreation Area. It is a man-made lake that continues to grow behind a dam. When we first saw it about twenty years ago, it was only a mile long, but now it seems to be more like five miles in length. We also passed a very strange huge rock formation of needle-like spires called the Dillon Pinnacles.
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Blue Mesa with Dillon Pinnacles at the front
Our cuisine for tonight was Italian, provided at a riverside restaurant, Garlic Mike's. The food was excellent! I would recommend it to anyone traveling through Gunnison. Our hotel was only about two miles from there.
Mileage - 300 Total - 4630
Parks and Sparks - July 7
We started our day in Gunnison under partly cloudy skies with occasional blue and cool temperatures, but by the time we got to the long climb up to Monarch Pass the sky was completely overcast and we were soon in fog.
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Not very 'scenic' today - But it is probably a great ride and view
The summit, at 11,312 feet, had limited visibility. It was enough to see that there is a nice ski area up there, but also a separate ski lift from the parking area to the actual summit of the mountain. I imagine the view from the top it very striking on a clear day.. There is even a gift shop adjacent to the parking area.
We descended to the town of Salida and soon afterwards were in yet another canyon, Big Horn Sheep Canyon, formed by the Arkansas River. It was raining steadily by this time, but that didn't stop the hundreds of people white water rafting on the Arkansas River. It has some great rapids. (Unlike the state, the 's' at the end of Arkansas is not pronounced like a 'w' and the accent is on the second syllable, more like "Are Kansas") The canyon was about twenty miles long, but it never stopped raining so I really couldn't get good pictures.
Fog followed us all the way to Colorado Springs, and then we drove in a haze to Limon, where we stopped for lunch. Shortly after leaving Limon on I-70 the sun came out, just in time for us to see the flat and featureless plains of western Kansas.
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The Arkansas River is a challenge for rafters
I was quite disappointed and cross about the missed opportunity to record our trip across the Rockies today, but Judy reminded me that we've been extremely fortunate on our trips in that weather has almost always been in our favor. I have to agree with her, we have indeed been blessed with plenty of sunshine on this trip.
One of the activities we planned for on the return trip involved going to Dismals Canyon in Alabama. Dismalites are a type of worm that exhibit phosphorescence, the ability to glow in the dark. That was the 'sparks' in the title of the trip. However, it must be completely dark in the canyon to be able to see the phenomenon. We were unable to get a tour on a Thursday night, so I was out of sorts about that, too. I even changed our itinerary and rebooked some hotels to skip Alabama altogether.
The 'sparks' remains in the title because yours truly caused dissent when he couldn't get his way, and had a little hissy fit over it. I must confess that I had to apologize to my dear wife for my unseemly behavior.
We arrived in Hays, Kansas at dinner time and I made the necessary itinerary and hotel changes to give us a direct and quicker route home.
Since there was little sight seeing today and changes in itinerary and hotels was necessary, this is a good time to provide a tip as to how we save lots of money on our road trips. We stay in hotels every night, because neither of us is willing to give up that comfort for the camping experience. It might be less expensive to camp, but I have used a different way to cut costs.
I joined two hotel rewards programs many years ago. Each one has about a dozen hotel brands in their family ranging in quality from high end to low. I have rarely used any hotel in the chain below the fourth level. Consequently, I have not been disappointed with my stay except on rare occasions.
One of the perks of staying at the better hotels is that they all provide a complimentary hot breakfast. That in itself saves us about $10 per day in meal expense. Another perk is that every second stay gives me bonus points, so that I really rack up points fast on a trip. And a third benefit is that I can redeem points for reward nights, either using points alone or a combination of points and a small amount of money. I can stay a "free" night, or pay as little as $30 for a first class hotel. And that free breakfast still comes with the room. If I change my mind after reserving, I can cancel just like any reservation and get my points back.
I'm not adverse to using supplies from the hotel breakfast buffet once in a while to make a PB&J sandwich, which I take away with me for my lunch later in the day. Otherwise, when I stop at McDonalds for my first coffee break, we buy two of their parfaits, which are always frozen when bought. By lunchtime they thaw out perfectly and make a nice lunch treat for less than $3. The only full meal we have on the road is dinner, so that is a savings of $20-per-day including breakfast and lunch.
Over the years, I've saved thousands of dollars in hotel and meal costs using the rewards points and staying with a limited number of choices in lodging. On this trip I saved about $700 using the rewards program. That's not bad for a 14-day roadtrip.
Mileage - 475 Total - 5105
Parks and Sparks - July 8
Today we had no specific sightseeing scheduled, so we put on lots of miles from Hays, Kansas to Mount Vernon, Illinois. While driving across Kansas, we went past a legendary wind farm that stretched all the way from Hays to Russell, nearly forty miles. From there, it was post rock country past Wilson and Lincoln. Then there was a long stretch of the Flint Hills from Junction City eastward. In fact, central and eastern Kansas has a very interesting landscape, and if you have time, there are some scenic byways.
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If you don't know what post rock is, you've never been to central Kansas
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Kansans even make sunflowers out of post rock
By the time we got to Kansas City, there was heavy rain, and from there all the way to St. Louis we went through some of the worst rain I've ever encountered. It was a steady downpour, and the sky looked as dark as night at 4 o'clock in the afternoon.
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This was taken at 4 in the afternoon near St Louis
While we were crossing Missouri we saw many of those traffic alert signs. They alternated two messages: "If wipers are on, turn headlights on. It's the law" and "Turn off cruise control." Both are driving tips that I have published in my weekly column.
When we crossed the Mississippi River into Illinois, the rain quit, and we had dry pavement all the way to Mount Vernon, where we spent the night. Our long and slow drive through the rain cost us at least an hour, so we didn't get to the hotel until after 6 o'clock, an eleven hour, nerve wracking trip.
Mileage - 615 Total 5720
Parks and Sparks - July 9
The last day was over familiar roads, but it was also a bad day for the GPS. It kept trying to take us on a routing that we knew was wrong. It was a good thing we know the road. We really took our time and made a ten hour drive into a twelve hour ordeal. I hate to have to admit it, but it felt good to be home.
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Flooding near Paducah, Kentucky from the rains
I hope you enjoyed the trip as much as we did. I had to download and caption over a thousand digital photos, and got it down to 528 plus several panoramic pictures. We were on the road for fourteen days, visited six national parks, and used some roads that we've never been over before just to get a change in scenery. Up until the rains came it was a great trip, but one positive is that I have some destinations for future trips that are not too far away. Maybe we'll do the Alabama trek as a day trip. (Which we did!)
Mileage - 575 Total - 6295
