Last night we stayed in Vernal, UT. It is 20 miles outside Dinosaur National Monument. But you'd never know it. Nearly half the businesses in town didn't even mention dino, dinosaur, fossil, or bones in their business name. Some businesses didn't even have dinosaur statues out front, or on their signs. In a gift shop attached to the restaurant where we had breakfast, they had t-shirts, figurines, glasses, and stuffed animals that were NOT dinosaur related. But you had to look for them.
What they had, were flowers. The city plants flowers all along every business street, every 30-50 feet or so. Beautiful. It looks like spring. Huh. What do you suppose Vernal means in, say, Latin?
Okay. Dinosaur National Monument. WOW! WOWSA! WOW!
Over 400 individual dinosaurs were buried in mud along about 400 yards of ancient river bed, 149 million years ago. Exactly. About 50 yards of the mudstone and fossils are on display in a big glass building. They are partially exposed. The mudstone is now at a 60 degree angle, having been uplifted 50 million years ago, along with the rest of the Rockies. I tried to imagine how excited the discoverer must have been when he realized what he had found. Besides a lifetime of job security. Here it is more than 100 years later, and people (note the use of the plural form) are still spending careers working with these fossils. And semi-bored park rangers are just glad to have jobs. To be fair, they did perk up if you asked interested, intelligent questions. Or, I think they would have, if I had come up with one.
Then we headed south. Deer and antelope play here, but no buffaloes (bison) that we saw. Magpies, ravens, and a variety of hawks and falcons fly hither and yon.
Tonight we are in Clifton, near Grand Junction. We will make it to Cortez tomorrow. Unless we don't.
Monday, September 30, 2013
Sunday, September 29, 2013
Lava Mountain Resort
Just a quick note, as we are ready to leave.
Detoured through Grand Teton NP yesterday. Large bison herd, many scattered antelope, finally saw some deer by the road at dusk, convinced us it is time to stop before we run over one. Voila, an RV park. Sort of.
Jackson and Jackson Hole deserve a more extensive return visit. As does Glacier/Waterton NP, Grand Teton, and Yellowstone. We love this area. Very pretty. Prosperous towns.
They have a summer season 'til mid Oct. Close. Reopen for winter sports Dec.-Mar. Close. Reopen May for summer tourists. Interesting.
Going south into western Colorado. May stop at Dinosaur NP. Red roads all the way.
Detoured through Grand Teton NP yesterday. Large bison herd, many scattered antelope, finally saw some deer by the road at dusk, convinced us it is time to stop before we run over one. Voila, an RV park. Sort of.
Jackson and Jackson Hole deserve a more extensive return visit. As does Glacier/Waterton NP, Grand Teton, and Yellowstone. We love this area. Very pretty. Prosperous towns.
They have a summer season 'til mid Oct. Close. Reopen for winter sports Dec.-Mar. Close. Reopen May for summer tourists. Interesting.
Going south into western Colorado. May stop at Dinosaur NP. Red roads all the way.
Friday, September 27, 2013
Fog Blodder, and other random thoughts.
Driving leaves lots of time for random thoughts
You know the whole "glass half empty/half full" debate? It is supposed to indicate pessimism or optimism. Malarkey. I have always contended that it depends on whether you are filling it or emptying it. Either way, you are half way to completing the task. A random glass on a table with water at the half way mark is half of a glass of water. No gloom and doom, no rainbows and sunshine involved.
But, that came up today in Montana. Twice, people remarked to us that it "is getting too cool." Once, we were sitting at a sidewalk table having a snack and drinks, and once we were at a scenic overlook. Both times we chuckled and replied that for us "it is getting warmer" since we are returning from Alaska.
So, just like the glass, it depends on which way you are going. We are anticipating reaching the point when we can stop wearing three shirts and the occasional jacket, and the Montanans are just starting to wear more.
We actually counted the wood bison. Eighty four of them were in one bunch on both sides of the road. We had to drive veeerry slowly between the two for fear they would behave like cattle and cross in front of us. The other thirteen were all bulls alone or in pairs scattered along 20 or so miles of road. The bison hang out in the right of way where the trees have been cleared so the grass grows well. Lots of warning signs.
Today we had two negative experiences. Breakfast was the worst we can remember having. Both the food and the service. Then we were informed that the "Going to the sun" road was closed for the winter already. So no Glacier National Park. Some (pessimists) would see the half empty glass. But after some driving on US 89 to the interstate, then some interstate (until one of the above referenced Montanans pointed out a two lane alternate) for a while, we altered our plans and took red roads the rest of the day. So now we are looking for more red roads. Today, for instance, we saw more deer than we could count. Literally. The best I could estimate would be 150, give or take 25. Both mule and white-tails. They were belly deep in some fields. They were not all together. But often there was no shoulder, so we couldn't stop to count. We also saw a flock of large white water birds we have yet to identify. They were lying down, so we couldn't see legs, but the beaks looked like pelicans or cranes. We also saw antelope a few times. Also hard to count at highway speed.
And fishermen! The alternate we took followed the Missouri for miles. Fishermen in boats, fishermen in waders, fishermen on the banks. Sometimes with deer on the opposite bank.
And scenery!!! The Rockies always in view, sometimes distant, sometimes near, sometimes all around us. Snow covered down to 4000'. I know because we went higher than that at one point and the snow was 4-5 inches deep. Beside the road, not on it. We enjoyed the small towns (above referenced sidewalk snack) and farms and ranches and mountains and trees and rivers and wildlife and the Big Sky.
I forgot the bear! Last night I went to use the park restroom. It was dark out. On the way back to the trailer I stopped to chat with our neighbors who had a fire going. They are also returning from Alaska, but I digress. While chatting with them, at their site, next to ours on one side and the aforementioned restroom on the other, an excited Chinese man hurried from the bushes near the restroom shouting, "Bear, bear." We all replied, "Where?" "There, I have picture." And he pointed at the bushes next to the restroom I had just vacated minutes before. I ran to the truck to get my spotlight. When I returned, the man was showing his picture of the bear running away from the restroom building. I used my spot, but apparently the bear had left the area. Thank you very much. Now I wonder, "What if I had walked left around the building, instead of right?" Answer: bear. In my path. In the dark. Ahhhhh!!! I much prefer my bears to be outside my nice safe bus, than outside my dark restroom. With me on foot.
As we were driving along the Missouri, I realized that Lewis and Clark traveled that exact stretch of river only 209 years ago. We practically waved at each other.
You know the whole "glass half empty/half full" debate? It is supposed to indicate pessimism or optimism. Malarkey. I have always contended that it depends on whether you are filling it or emptying it. Either way, you are half way to completing the task. A random glass on a table with water at the half way mark is half of a glass of water. No gloom and doom, no rainbows and sunshine involved.
But, that came up today in Montana. Twice, people remarked to us that it "is getting too cool." Once, we were sitting at a sidewalk table having a snack and drinks, and once we were at a scenic overlook. Both times we chuckled and replied that for us "it is getting warmer" since we are returning from Alaska.
So, just like the glass, it depends on which way you are going. We are anticipating reaching the point when we can stop wearing three shirts and the occasional jacket, and the Montanans are just starting to wear more.
We actually counted the wood bison. Eighty four of them were in one bunch on both sides of the road. We had to drive veeerry slowly between the two for fear they would behave like cattle and cross in front of us. The other thirteen were all bulls alone or in pairs scattered along 20 or so miles of road. The bison hang out in the right of way where the trees have been cleared so the grass grows well. Lots of warning signs.
Today we had two negative experiences. Breakfast was the worst we can remember having. Both the food and the service. Then we were informed that the "Going to the sun" road was closed for the winter already. So no Glacier National Park. Some (pessimists) would see the half empty glass. But after some driving on US 89 to the interstate, then some interstate (until one of the above referenced Montanans pointed out a two lane alternate) for a while, we altered our plans and took red roads the rest of the day. So now we are looking for more red roads. Today, for instance, we saw more deer than we could count. Literally. The best I could estimate would be 150, give or take 25. Both mule and white-tails. They were belly deep in some fields. They were not all together. But often there was no shoulder, so we couldn't stop to count. We also saw a flock of large white water birds we have yet to identify. They were lying down, so we couldn't see legs, but the beaks looked like pelicans or cranes. We also saw antelope a few times. Also hard to count at highway speed.
And fishermen! The alternate we took followed the Missouri for miles. Fishermen in boats, fishermen in waders, fishermen on the banks. Sometimes with deer on the opposite bank.
And scenery!!! The Rockies always in view, sometimes distant, sometimes near, sometimes all around us. Snow covered down to 4000'. I know because we went higher than that at one point and the snow was 4-5 inches deep. Beside the road, not on it. We enjoyed the small towns (above referenced sidewalk snack) and farms and ranches and mountains and trees and rivers and wildlife and the Big Sky.
I forgot the bear! Last night I went to use the park restroom. It was dark out. On the way back to the trailer I stopped to chat with our neighbors who had a fire going. They are also returning from Alaska, but I digress. While chatting with them, at their site, next to ours on one side and the aforementioned restroom on the other, an excited Chinese man hurried from the bushes near the restroom shouting, "Bear, bear." We all replied, "Where?" "There, I have picture." And he pointed at the bushes next to the restroom I had just vacated minutes before. I ran to the truck to get my spotlight. When I returned, the man was showing his picture of the bear running away from the restroom building. I used my spot, but apparently the bear had left the area. Thank you very much. Now I wonder, "What if I had walked left around the building, instead of right?" Answer: bear. In my path. In the dark. Ahhhhh!!! I much prefer my bears to be outside my nice safe bus, than outside my dark restroom. With me on foot.
As we were driving along the Missouri, I realized that Lewis and Clark traveled that exact stretch of river only 209 years ago. We practically waved at each other.
Thursday, September 26, 2013
Back in the USA, lower portion
Apparently, somebody failed to mention in an earlier post that Peggie "helped" deliver a baby goat at Caribou Crossing in August. She noticed a goat in obvious distress, correctly diagnosed the distress as kid delivery and ran to notify responsible employees. Then she watched as two young ladies helped the goat deliver what was the first for all three (two girls and a goat) of them. Then a second one, which, unfortunately only lived a few days. The first born, Peggie later got to name Sammy. He is very cute (for a goat). When it was time for the season to end, they teased (half seriously) that Peggie should take Sammy home. Luckily, we have HOA restrictions on farm animals. Not to mention whatever red tape is involved in importing foreign animals.
We are now in Montana, outside Glacier National Park, which we will tour tomorrow. We visited Jasper and Banff National Parks over the last two days. We were snowed on in Jasper, but the road stayed clear. On our way through Canada we saw Wood Bison (97), deer (12), Bighorn Sheep (17), elk (1) caribou (2), mountain goats (6) and lots and lots of beautiful landscapes. We encountered three gas stations in a row that were out of gas (why you always top off when you can), spent a night cold camped at a pull-out, and enjoyed a restful dip in Liard Hotsprings.
Crossing the border into Montana was a breeze, they didn't even act like we might be smuggling. Pulling away from the inspection station we counted a dozen deer grazing on the hill, and didn't count a herd of bison just down the road a ways. The Rocky Mountains on both sides of the border have new snow down to 5000 feet, and lower in some places.
Have I mentioned that gas is expensive in Canada? We paid as much as 1.69 per liter. And we were glad to get it. Nearer the border it dropped to 1.12, and here in Montana it is 4.20 per gallon. Yikes!
We are now in Montana, outside Glacier National Park, which we will tour tomorrow. We visited Jasper and Banff National Parks over the last two days. We were snowed on in Jasper, but the road stayed clear. On our way through Canada we saw Wood Bison (97), deer (12), Bighorn Sheep (17), elk (1) caribou (2), mountain goats (6) and lots and lots of beautiful landscapes. We encountered three gas stations in a row that were out of gas (why you always top off when you can), spent a night cold camped at a pull-out, and enjoyed a restful dip in Liard Hotsprings.
Crossing the border into Montana was a breeze, they didn't even act like we might be smuggling. Pulling away from the inspection station we counted a dozen deer grazing on the hill, and didn't count a herd of bison just down the road a ways. The Rocky Mountains on both sides of the border have new snow down to 5000 feet, and lower in some places.
Have I mentioned that gas is expensive in Canada? We paid as much as 1.69 per liter. And we were glad to get it. Nearer the border it dropped to 1.12, and here in Montana it is 4.20 per gallon. Yikes!
Thursday, September 19, 2013
Alarming news.
We set the alarm last night, and it went off this morning........for the last time.
Tomorrow we will wake up naturally, hook up, and pull out.
Ahhhh. Retirement.
But first, one final tour. Will we see bears?
Tomorrow we will wake up naturally, hook up, and pull out.
Ahhhh. Retirement.
But first, one final tour. Will we see bears?
Friday, September 13, 2013
The Dark Ages
Last night we were out listening to live music fairly late. 10:00PM.
When we got home we looked up and saw......STARS!!
Yep, first ones this fall. It is the combination of darkness, and staying up (sorta) late, and no cloud cover. Which, this time of year is unusual. We are hoping for some open sky tonight, because we will be out kind of late again, and the Aurora Borealis is forecast to be active. So, if we see stars we will know there are no clouds and we can go up the pass to see the full display of northern lights. And that will mean staying up really late. Luckily, no work Sat. or Sun. Gotta love the end of the season.
Speaking of which, we will be leaving a week early. The last three ship days are so lightly booked that we were given the option to leave sooner. We will depart on 9/20 instead of 9/26. We still want to see Jasper and Banff National Parks and Glacier National Park. And we hope to beat winter to the draw and get out before snow hits the roads. So far, when driving south, we have always encountered snow. I like that. Always. Both times.
So we will see you all sooner than we thought.
Peggie just told me we do have to work a little tomorrow. But no driving. So we can be tired.
When we got home we looked up and saw......STARS!!
Yep, first ones this fall. It is the combination of darkness, and staying up (sorta) late, and no cloud cover. Which, this time of year is unusual. We are hoping for some open sky tonight, because we will be out kind of late again, and the Aurora Borealis is forecast to be active. So, if we see stars we will know there are no clouds and we can go up the pass to see the full display of northern lights. And that will mean staying up really late. Luckily, no work Sat. or Sun. Gotta love the end of the season.
Speaking of which, we will be leaving a week early. The last three ship days are so lightly booked that we were given the option to leave sooner. We will depart on 9/20 instead of 9/26. We still want to see Jasper and Banff National Parks and Glacier National Park. And we hope to beat winter to the draw and get out before snow hits the roads. So far, when driving south, we have always encountered snow. I like that. Always. Both times.
So we will see you all sooner than we thought.
Peggie just told me we do have to work a little tomorrow. But no driving. So we can be tired.
Sunday, September 8, 2013
Skagwindy
The rain comes and goes, but the wind comes and blows.
The wind began to blow in earnest last Monday. It hasn't stopped.
It isn't too cold, though. Yet.
Peggie went horseback riding today with our friend Heidi. They went to Dyea and rode on the beach at Long Bay. They had a good time. Heidi gave instruction on proper riding technique, so Peggie felt comfortable in the saddle. You all remember what happens when I ride, so I stayed home to clean house. I did not get thrown by the vacuum cleaner. And I was home to skype with Gaj. T was at the store.
Tonight we took Heidi out for burger madness as a thank you, then she gave us a tour of the historic building her mother is renovating. We had had the tour two years ago, but more work has been done. They are using hundred year old wood salvaged from other local buildings, so it is going to look great. We want to move in.
The wind began to blow in earnest last Monday. It hasn't stopped.
It isn't too cold, though. Yet.
Peggie went horseback riding today with our friend Heidi. They went to Dyea and rode on the beach at Long Bay. They had a good time. Heidi gave instruction on proper riding technique, so Peggie felt comfortable in the saddle. You all remember what happens when I ride, so I stayed home to clean house. I did not get thrown by the vacuum cleaner. And I was home to skype with Gaj. T was at the store.
Tonight we took Heidi out for burger madness as a thank you, then she gave us a tour of the historic building her mother is renovating. We had had the tour two years ago, but more work has been done. They are using hundred year old wood salvaged from other local buildings, so it is going to look great. We want to move in.
Wednesday, September 4, 2013
Things must be dull here.
It has been a week, and I haven't written anything.
Could things be that dull?
Well, we are both still fighting that cold that laid us low, and won't go away, so we aren't taking any exciting trips.
But, on my last day off I drove up to see what the scavengers have done to the road-kill moose. It is gone but for a few bones and some hair. So the scavengers had a feast. Then I took a short hike into the forest to find a lake I saw on a map. It is tiny, and surprisingly, it is man made. I decided it must have been created as a water source for the former eagle rehab center that used to be there. It looked like moose habitat, and I saw plenty of moose tracks in the mud. But I have never seen a moose very near there. So go figure.
Today while looking for moose at Moose Flats I saw a pair of swans instead. So it must be time for them to be migrating back south. I wonder how long they will hang around before moving on.
Last Sunday was typical Skagway. The manager of the grocery store was marrying one of the cashiers, so the store was closed all day, and the entire town was invited to the reception at the Elks. Which included free food. Only a few hundred attended. That is nearly the entire town.
In just three weeks, we head for home. Huh. Another summer shot. Wish he had done something interesting.
Could things be that dull?
Well, we are both still fighting that cold that laid us low, and won't go away, so we aren't taking any exciting trips.
But, on my last day off I drove up to see what the scavengers have done to the road-kill moose. It is gone but for a few bones and some hair. So the scavengers had a feast. Then I took a short hike into the forest to find a lake I saw on a map. It is tiny, and surprisingly, it is man made. I decided it must have been created as a water source for the former eagle rehab center that used to be there. It looked like moose habitat, and I saw plenty of moose tracks in the mud. But I have never seen a moose very near there. So go figure.
Today while looking for moose at Moose Flats I saw a pair of swans instead. So it must be time for them to be migrating back south. I wonder how long they will hang around before moving on.
Last Sunday was typical Skagway. The manager of the grocery store was marrying one of the cashiers, so the store was closed all day, and the entire town was invited to the reception at the Elks. Which included free food. Only a few hundred attended. That is nearly the entire town.
In just three weeks, we head for home. Huh. Another summer shot. Wish he had done something interesting.
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