Month: September 2014

Today we slept in ever so slighltly after our late-night desert driving adventure, but actually were awake at the same time thanks to the time change. We had a lovely breakfast of toast, nutella, sausage, egg & cheese bagel, juice, coffee, etc.
We hit the road around 10am and headed towards Sedona, land of the red rocks. While Lauren and Middleton were enroute from Las Vegas, we hiked up to Cathedral Rock, as per their reccommendation and were very impressed by the views (and the steep climb!) We then went into town and had a nice lunch with Lauren and Middleton at Cowboy Cafe and had some desert “specialities” including cactus fries, buffalo bites, cilantro flatbread, and fried shrimp (not desert-themed, but it was good)!
We then headed out to hike Devil’s bridge, which did not disappoint. The hike was about 4 miles round trip because our little Subaru couldn’t handle the access road, but it was a good time. We were able to stand atop the arch, which made for some awesome photos. Middleton had a nice surprise in the form of an excellent bottle of wine to celebrate (that may top the classy-factor of having crab salad atop Mt. Washburn). As we hiked down, we enjoyed the setting sun turning the red rocks a fiery orange.
We decided to head back to the hotel to freshen up and prepare for our Grand Canyon adventure (likely in the rain/storms) tomorrow!

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This morning we had a lovely breakfast at the hotel and drove an easy hour and a half to Arches NP. Arches is kind of out in the middle of nowhere (go look up Moab, Utah on a map), but it made for a really cool stopping over point en route to Arizona. The way in which the arches in this park formed over the course of millions of year is really fascinating and made us appreciate what we were looking at.

http://www.nps.gov/arch/naturescience/geologicformations.htm

We immediately drove all the way to the back of the park to do the Devil’s Garden loop hike. We were told it was popular and the parking lot could fill, so we wanted to get there ASAP. Altogether it was a 7 mile hike past 8 beautiful arches. Once we passed the 1 mile mark, the crowds disappeared. It was weird to be hiking in shorts (finally!). It was about 90 F and dry – we were glad that we heeded the signs warning us to bring plenty of water (we ran out about 0.5 miles from the end of the hike). The main trail we took out had us scrambling over some “slickrock” as it’s called and atop some high perches that afforded fantastic view of the red fins, distant mountains, and colorful canyons. We decided not to hike all the way out to Dark Angel arch and instead opted for the “primitive loop” on our return. (This was JD’s idea, not mine =) This trail was aptly named. There were some tiny little rock cairns to follow, but for the most part, it was a scramble through river washes (when it actually rains) and over some impossibly high boulders that required all four appendages to get up and down from. Doing the crab and using my butt and boots for braking traction was my favorite mode of transportation down the steep slopes. Thankfully there were a scant few brave souls who decided to take this route as well, so we weren’t totally alone in the desert; if it wasn’t for them, a mental breakdown and terrible thoughts about getting lost in the desert would have likely ensued. There was actually something really cool about trailblazing (or so it seemed) our way through the desert. When we finally hooked back up with the main trail, relief, tired legs and thirst really set in. Thankfully a water fountain awaited us at the end of the trail.

We followed the park road out of the park and pulled off at several lookout points. We stopped at the visitor center for a few postcards and then made the wonderful decision to have dinner at the Moab Diner. If you’re ever in Moab and want a LOT of food that isn’t fancy, but really tasty (especially if you’ve been hiking all day), then that’s your place to go. JD had a steak burrito with their green chili sauce and I had a green chili chicken dish with “sweetwater potatoes” (diced, sauteed potatoes with onion, pepper, bacon, seasoning) that was outstanding. We topped it off with a “bunny tracks: milkshake. We were very full and content as we hit the road to Flagstaff, AZ.

Even though we picked up an hour in time crossing over into AZ (no daylight savings time here), the sun still sets at the same time, so we ended up doing most of the 5 hour drive in the dark through largely Native American reservation land. We tried to avoid driving this seemingly vast expase of desert nothingness in the dark, but Arches was too much fun. The drive was very trying on the nerves and we had to take turns to stay fresh at the wheel. We made it to the hotel 11 pm and vowed to never do such a scary drive like that again (there were no closer hotels to be had) Thankfully the longest drive of the trip is over. We’re looking forward to meeting up with Middleton and Lauren tomorrow in Sedona, AZ and we’re hoping the weather forecast calling for 80% chance of storms for Grand Canyon on Monday and again for jet skiing on Lake Powell on Tuesday is simply not true. Either way, it’ll be new sights and good company =)

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After yesterday’s afternoon storms, we were glad to see a beautiful blue sky over the pond out back of our cabin. We had waffles again for breakfast and decided to try our luck at fishing. We were told that there were rainbow trout stocked in the pond, but we didn’t see any! We spotted one lonely, large, and very lazy fish that when bait was literally cast right upon his head, he didn’t even move.

At about noon, we packed up our stuff and headed into the park to check out Holzworth Historic Site – a former dude ranch that was set up in the park. Volunteers gave guided tours of the site and it was pretty hard to imagine surviving the harsh winters on the west side of the park 100 years ago. To illustrate the harshness, they had a replica buffalo coat that we got to try on that looked very much like a creepy pimp coat.

We went into town with the hopes of finding a couple of souvenirs when the skies opened up again (lightning and thunder). We wanted to do a little hike to Adams falls, but lightning at 10,000 feet of elevation is especially scary, so we decided to hit the road instead.

The trip from Grand Lake, CO to Grand Junction, CO was an adventure. We started driving into some of the darkest clouds we’ve seen in a while. We stopped at a Dollar Store to replace our non-function aux cable since driving for hours without music is a drag (no radio stations available either). At this point, we took a wrong turn when JD cracked a joke about a potentially inappropriately named gas station (we didn’t hear the GPS telling us to turn) and proceeded to drive about 40 miles in the wrong direction. We were headed in such a roundabout direction that it was quicker for us to backtrack. Google Maps then took us down a 40 mile dirt road, which was amazingly smooth but bizarre to think that this was the best route. At this point, we were not happy campers, but the sun decided to come out and the valley that opened up ahead of us was truly beautiful. Along the rocky slopes, we saw about 7 long horn sheep, which was a treat, since we had only spotted them from really far away previously. We finally made it out to the major highway but then got stuck in terrible construction traffic through a tunnel in a mountain pass in Glenwood Canyon.

We arrived in Grand Junction about 9:30 pm, but our mood soon improved when we saw how beautiful our hotel suite was. We feasted on ramen noodles and had a very good night’s sleep. Tomorrow we’re headed to Arches NP!

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We awoke this morning to a home-cooked breakfast. Everyone on Air BnB raved about our host Wendell’s waffles and they certainly did not disappoint.
We doubled back over Trail Ridge Road to the east side of the park to do the hike that everyone does – Bear, Nymph and Emerald Lakes. Despite being crowded, the hike was still enjoyable. The pristine lakes reflecting the mountains was truly a special sight. At 3.5 miles, it was an easy hike, but we’re all about bang for our hiking buck; why climb 1,000’s of feet at 10,000 feet elevation if we don’t need to? We would have hiked more, but dark storm clouds started rolling in and sure enough, it was sprinkling by the time we got back to our car.

We decided to head back “down” to Grand Lake (we hit 12,000+ feet elevation on Trail Ridge Road, Grand Lake sits at 8,800 or so) to go fishing in the pond behind our cabin. Unfortunately it was raining and cold, but this gave us a chance to do some laundry (we don’t own enough hiking gear for 2+ weeks), pick up dinner at Dairy King (not Dairy Queen), and spot a big bull moose on the way home. The neighbors also had a bear sighting, but we didn’t see him. (The best kind of bear sighting is one out your house or car window and not on the hiking trail.)

We hope the skies will clear tomorrow and we’ll go for another small hike on the west side of the park, fish in the pond out back and make our way to Grand Junction, CO to break up our drive to AZ (and give ourselves some time to see Arches NP along the way).

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Not too much to report other than Wyoming is a REALLY large state…especially when you drive from one corner to the other.

We awoke on our covered porch Air BnB accommodation when the sun came up over the mountains. It was a very nice way to start the day, albeit about an hour earlier than we would have liked. We hit the road around 8 am and drove pretty much nonstop for 6 hours until we reached Fort Collins, CO. Once we left the Cody area, things got really flat – lots of scrub, some weird rock formations, the occasional tumbleweed across the highway. We were very glad to stretch our legs and fill our bellies at a brew pub (Coopersmith’s) in Fort Collins. We went for the beer, but the food stole the show – JD had the bison burger and I had a corned beef sandwich with tomato mushroom bisque soup that was delicious!

We then were racing daylight to make it across Trail Ridge Road before nightfall. We just barely made it. Sunset over the highest paved road in North America seemed like a great idea, except for the fact that we were driving directly into the sunlight. No sun visor and sunglasses could help. This, combined with the precipitous drop-offs made for some harrowing times crossing some VERY large mountains.

We decided to stay at the south entrance to the park, as it’s much less of a zoo than the Estes Park entrance, plus we found an adorable Air BnB on a lake with self-proclaimed adopted “grandparents” that came highly reviewed. En route we had two elk buck sightings, one of which included us braking so he could mosey across the road and let out his high-pitched bugle to his lady friends.

We arrived in Grand Lake safe and sound and can’t wait to explore the park properly tomorrow!

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Today was yet another long day in the park. From the moment we were handed the park map at the entrance gate, we knew there was no way we could even scratch the surface of the park, but we certainly did want to see and do as much as possible.

We had pancakes and sausage with pineapple (surprisingly delicious combo) at our sweet little B&B in Gardner, MT and then hit the road for Mt. Washburn. We’re glad we waited until Day 3 to hike it – there was hardly a wispy cloud in the sky. Mt Washburn is a 10,300 foot peak that you can access via a fire road (there’s a fire tower atop the peak). We were promised 360 degree views and it did not disappoint. We were also told to pack hat, gloves, thermals, because of the extreme wind and temperature drop at such elevation. This was made obvious to us when we stepped out of our car in the parking lot. We proceeded to put on ever warm layer we brought with us on the trip.

The hike itself wasn’t as strenuous at one would imagine scaling a 10,000 foot peak might be. It was 2.5 miles one way with 1,400 feet of elevation gain. The fact that we were starting out at over 8,000 feet was what made it hard. Even if you are in shape, the lack of oxygen (and insufficient red blood cells on our part) resulted in a lot of huffing and puffing.

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Along the way, we saw a few marmot and some big horn sheep in the distance. At the top of the fire tower the winds must have been 80+ miles per hour. Thankfully there was a shelter area below where we enjoyed lunch. We were next to a group that had hired a guide to hike with them (not sure why walking a fire road would require a guide, but oh well) and he made them crab salad for lunch at the base of the fire tower. He insisted we help eat the leftovers otherwise they were going in the trash and it would be a sad thing to see crab salad go to waste. (We survive on PB&J – crab salad on the trail?…that’s champagne taste). Views were at least 75 miles – we could even see the Grant Teton, snow-capped in distance!

After our blustery but beautiful hike we made our way down to the canyon area of the park – it was a bit too crowded for our taste. The Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone was beautiful, no doubt, but I still think it pales in comparison to the actual Grand Canyon (which JD will soon discover). We then checked out Mud Volcano which was a cool boardwalk area with several features, including a cave that roared and spit out smoke like a dragon’s snout. Coolest feature yet.

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We drove past fishing bridge, only to find no fishing due to Cutthroat trout spawning. Our drive past Lake Yellowstone was amazing. One day 1 in the park, we didn’t get a feel for how incredibly HUGE the lake is!

The drive out of the east entrance of the park headed towards Cody, WY was spectacular. Giant mountains give way to red cliffs and rolling hills along river. We kept trying to spot deer, but we did manage to see a mamma moose with a calf. We were sure to keep our distance, but were excited to check another animal off our list.

We arrived at our Air BnB just as it was getting dark. We can’t wait to take pictures in the morning – it’s the coolest place we’ve found yet: we are on a lovely covered porch with a big queen sized bed and a seating area. I guess you could saw it’s “glamping”. We hope to see some awesome stars tonight and wake up to a nice sunrise and the sound of the river on the ranch.

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Today we went to the Moon Mars and back. Or at least that’s what it felt like…the sheer volume of geothermal features at this park are staggering. To put it in perspective – over half of all the world’s geysers are contained within Yellowstone. Another staggering fact: if you drove all roads in park (which most people don’t do), you would still only see less than 3% of the park. And perhaps the saddest statistic I’ve heard in a while (and also a PSA to get out hike or even go for a little nature walk): Locals tell us that 99% percent of visitors to Yellowstone don’t travel more than 300 feet from their vehicles when approaching points of interest.

Anyway, the sheer size and diversity of the park is mind blowing. I’m glad we have three days in the park, but wish we had more like 3 weeks. If you could only visit one national park in this country, let this one be it – you would surely not be disappointed.
We started our day with a filling home-cooked B&B breakfast. We the consulted our map and decided to head down to Norris area to check out the geothermal features we ran out of time to do yesterday. It’s weird how one feature ran into the other in our minds, although looking back at the pictures, each one is truly unique.

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We then made our way over Dunraven Pass en route to the Lamar Valley (aka the American Serengeti – the wildlife hot spot of the park). At over 8,000 feet in elevation, the pass was truly stunning and we caught glimpses of the snow-capped Araboska Mountains in the distance. The traffic diminished greatly in this northeast corner of the park. Instead of seeing solitary buffalo, we saw entire herds. We also saw pronghorns and possibly some mountain goats on the high cliffs of Baronette Peak. Driving along we saw a crowd gathered by the side of the road – apparently the ranger had spotted a dead buffalo and photographers we anxiously awaiting the arrival of a bear or pack of wolves to consume the remains. Unfortunately we didn’t catch any bear or wolf action, but they are a bit harder to spot.

On our way back to Mammoth Springs, we stopped at a petrified tree that is estimated to be 50 million years old! Back in Mammoth, we encountered male elk bugling to their harem of seemingly disinterested females. These elk apparently run the town, as they have park rangers informing gawkers that they needed to get back in their cars and sit tight because Mr. Buck wants to stand in the road. It was somewhat comical, but also serious; they are in rut at the moment and can be very dangerous.

Mammoth Springs did not disappoint. The limestone terraces were truly a sight to behold and the extensive boardwalk structure to allow viewing was really impressive. We returned back to our B&B in Gardiner, MT utterly exhausted. Although we hadn’t planned on hiking, we probably ended up doing 5-6 miles of nature walks to points of interest during the course of the day (and thus, we are not a sad statistic).

Tomorrow we hope to summit Mt. Washburn and check out the Canyon area, and will exit the park at east gate (we’ve hit 4 of the 5 total park gates) to spend the night in Cody, WY.

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After resting our tired bodies from our 11+ mile hike yesterday, we attempted to get up fairly early (7am doesn’t feel so bad when you’re programmed on east coast time). We packed the car (aka our traveling locker room), bid Carl (our super cool Air BnB host) farewell, stopped at a local bakery for a really delicious cinnamon bun, then hit the road to check out the rest of Grand Teton NP.

Unfortunately, mother nature didn’t feel like granting us a view of the grand mountains; 42 and rainy meant zero chance of seeing the mountains, as they were shrouded in clouds. We stopped at the visitor’s center and watched an informative video on the Park and made our way up the highway hoping for a break in the rain and perhaps a glimpse of sunshine. Oh well, at least our sweet rental car has seat warmers, which is totally making me want a Subaru again.

By about noon time we had entered Yellowstone NP. We were immediately greeted by views of a canyon off the side of the road as we made our way from the south entrance to West Thumb. We checked out the boardwalk and thermal features, listened to a ranger talk about the super volcano that last erupted in the park 640,000 years ago and how it could go again sometime soon (keeping in mind that soon by geologic years means we probably still have several thousand to go). I think the most unsettling fact was the the magma chamber underneath Yellowstone is only 3-8 miles under the surface (vs. 20 miles most other places and even 50 miles under the Himalayas)!

We carried on to the mots famous site in Yellowstone – Old Faithful. As we pulled up, we saw other people running, so we decided to run too (mass hysteria, yay!), only to discover that we had missed the eruption by 2 minutes. Luckily, as the name implies, we only had to wait another hour for the next eruption. JD set up camp so he’d have a clear shot for photographs, and during this time, the sun managed to peak out. The eruption was cool, not as high as you’d imagine (but they say every eruption is different from the last), but lasted longer than we would have thought (about 3 minutes).

After the big show, we headed inside the Old Faithful Inn to check out the cool timbering. The lodge was built over 100 years ago and is very impressive. Too bad booking 7 months in advance isn’t enough to snag a room there.

We then spent the next few hours walking the extensive boardwalk system that highlights the incredible number of thermal features in the park.

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We especially liked the names of some of the features…”Old Tardy Geyser” and “Spasmodic Geyer” were our favorite names, while “Sawmill Geyser” and “Grotto Geyser” were our favorite features to look at.

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Grotto was totally unique in shape and almost looked like a man’s face with a long nose, two eyes, and a hand clawing his way out of the mud puddle, while Sawmill bubbled so vigorously and periodically shot so high in the air that it sprayed the passersby on the boardwalk.

As we were making our way back to the car on the boardwalk, we saw a bison RIGHT next to the boardwalk.

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Signs all over the park warn of getting too close to these magnificent creatures (that look incredible docile but could certainly trample you in an instant), but were also warned to NEVER get off the boardwalk, risking burns or falling into a steam vent. We stuck to the boardwalk and attempted to be as still and quiet as possible while Mr. Buffalo had his fill of grass. It was very cool to be that up close and personal with a bison.
Our walk back to the car got a little brisk as the rain returned for the day. Thank goodness for the warm car seats! We stopped as fast as we could at Grand Prismatic Pool; it was hard to get a shot due to the massive amounts of steam rolling off the boiling water (198 F at this elevation). It was surreal walking through what felt like a sauna.

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We had to hustle as best we could, realizing that we would have to drive to our destination of Gardiner, MT in the dark. As our B&B host reminded us “buffalo blend in really well with the road”…eek! Thankfully, no buffalo on the roadway, but we did encounter a TON of elk in Mammoth Springs – they literally were just hanging out in the traffic circle in town – totally not caring about the cars all about them. Too bad it was getting dark and we missed some beautiful sights on the drive to our B&B, but we’ll be backtracking that way tomorrow. We’re planning on a full day in the Northern parts of the park tomorrow!

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