Documenting Our Escape

Our anniversary and Mark’s birthday are within a week of each other. So we typically celebrate them together over the weekend nearest.

This year we arranged a sunset kayak tour on Lake Yellowstone. We left from Grant Marina, where one of the coast guard (ranger?) boats was moored. It looked like she might have had a stove on board to warm up the crew, but maybe not. It gets pretty cold here but, fire on a ship never seems to be a good idea. The sand here was black sand and reminded me of the black sand beaches in Hawaii, where we started this whole journey 3 years ago. We paddled around to Thumb basin and watched the steam rise off the geysers in the sunset. There was several spots that geysers bubbled up through the lake. Like Mother Nature giving us her own version of a champagne toast. The water near shore at the geyser was as warm as bath water. The weather was fantastic. Lovely lady elks greeted us back to land as we left for home. We had a great time.

Our Anniversary dinner was at Yellowstone Playhouse. This is a local “dinner and a show” hangout. The food is really good and the show is always a tongue and cheek version of “real plays”. Our entertainment was “Phantom of the Grand Ole Opry”. You get the idea. It was hilarious and we really enjoyed the evening.

Thanks for checking in. The adventure continues through October the 15^th at West Yellowstone and the greater Yellowstone area. And then we move onto the next Adventure. See you next week.

 

Now that the Park has picked up in tourism, we look to our list of things to do outside the National Park. We took another “back-roads” trip. The Ashton/ Flagg Ranch road is about 50 miles of winding gravel road that cuts through from Ashton, Idaho to the backside of the Teton Mountain Range. It was original made to support the construction traffic during the building of the Grass Lake dam. We traveled with friends in hopes of seeing moose or bear, in this more remote area. Along the route we stopped to view Indian Lake and Grassy Lake; all were beautiful, remote, and free from West Yellowstone crowds. The animals were shy, but we did watch one mule deer who thought we were crazy to be out there in the middle of nowhere and a sand crane or two.

We stopped over and walked through Lawrence S. Rockefeller center. The Rockefeller family purchased and donated a huge amount of land between The Grand Teton and Yellowstone to connect the two parks. They kept “only” 3100 acres as a family retreat. The last piece was donated in 2001 as the Lawrence Rockefeller Preserve. This last part was donated with the stipulation that it be a place where visitors can experience a spiritual and emotional connection to the beauty of the area. They did an incredible job towards that goal. The beauty of the area is showcased by the preserve’s building. It has wide porches and open architecture, which truly entices you to pause, sit down, and contemplate. The wild flowers were incredible. There were several hikes from here but that will have to wait for another day. We all agreed that we could call the place our home, just add one luxurious bathroom and we would be all set.

Our path took us to Jackson Hole, Wyoming next. It was mine and Mark’s first trip there. It is, of course, a beautiful town and a play place for the rich and famous. It has a cohesive and well laid out city plan, unlike West Yellowstone, that kind of sprang up piece mill.  We’d been on the road about 10 hours by that time, so we turned back for home. Big thanks goes out to our friends who were willing to share their time and knowledge of the area to make this an awesome day.

Thanks for checking in on our adventures. We hope you are enjoying your summer. Take time is get off the beaten track and see new places in your ole neighborhood.

Our nearest ghost towns are Virginia City and Nevada City. Yep, we’re still in Montana. I guess the 1862 miners that traveled to the gold rushes of those days, were lonesome for home?!?

Virginia City has a year round population of just over 200 people. It does still have Hotels, restaurants and Bed & Breakfasts. So it’s not really a ghost town, in my book, as much as a place of well-preserved historical places.

Nevada City, on the other hand, is closer to a ghost town. There is no real population. There are no businesses of today. Because it was a mining town; when the easy veins ran out, the miner and their families moved on. They left behind stories and structures. Many of those structures were cannibalized by the next wave of pioneers. It was the Bovey family that searched out and brought in period correct builds and memorabilia, to create the ghost town of Nevada City. Many of the existing building are staged as they might have looked, at the height of their day. The entire town of Nevada is a living historical museum. We took the small mining train turned passenger coach between the towns.

We made it back to Virginia City for lunch before we headed back home to West Yellowstone.

Thanks for checking in on our adventures. Enjoy your summer.

I love Holidays in small towns. I have had the privilege to be in a small town for the 4^Th of July only three times.

The first was several years ago. We shared the 4^th with Aunt Nancy in Parks, Arizona. It was a small town back then, I’m not sure is it still is now. After the parade, complete with fire engine and cars, bicycles and a few horses, we had a water gun street fight shoot out. It was a blast. Small towns just seem to plan bigger or maybe everything is just closer together so you can get to more of the scheduled events. West is just 4 blocks by 8 blocks in size, and we still didn’t get to it all. Some of these photos were shared by friends that went a different direction than we did.

The town West Yellowstone has a year round population of around 1,200 and swells to somewhere around 12,000 at any given time during tourist season. The 4^th was a small town celebration on a wonderful scale.

Pie On the Porch was an hour wait. I know I’ve said I wouldn’t wait that long for food but, pie on the porch is the yearly fund raiser for the local museum and it was REALLY good pie.

Fun and good food with our work family.

Who doesn’t love a parade!

Thanks for check in on our semi-retirement adventures. We hope these pictures brought great memories for all y’all.

In last week’s post, I mentioned we had seen many more animals this year than last year. I promised animals and here you go.

We’ve seen all of these but I’m not as good as photographer as our friends, Lisa and Rob. I am printing several (actually lots), of their photos, with permission and our gratitude.

Without farther ado (and testing the limits of my WiFi and band width)

Thanks for checking in on our adventures. We hope you find fun and interesting things this summer, despite the heat, and share your adventures on Facebook. We still watch all y’all there. Safe roaming wherever you roam!!

But then most of you suspected as much. Well actually Yellowstone has limited entrance into the Park based on the odd and even numbers on your license plates. Odd plates go in on dates ending in odd numbers and even plates go in on dates ending in even numbers. So on our “even days”…

We hiked around the Hebgen Lake area. Our first adventure took us to Whitts’ Lake Trail. There was still snow here and there but Mother Nature had a grand display of greenery, and flowers, and wildlife for us to enjoy. AllTrails says this is a 45 minute walk. We made it in an hour and 33 minutes.  As a side note, my watch is driving me crazy on my “record walk” setting. If I don’t start it: it waits about 30 minutes and then chimes in. “Oh it looks like you’re walking. Do you want me to record this?”. All nice and friendly like. Once it starts recording, every time I pause to take a picture or admire a scene, . . . It’s “Oh, are you finished?”.  It’s like a 5 year old in the back seat “are we there yet?” every 2 minutes. If you happen to know a “sit there and shut up mode” on this thing, PLEASE, let me know.

We toured the Union Pacific Railroad museum here in West Yellowstone. Traveling to this remote location was quite difficult in the 1900’s. Initially, access took days and was by horseback, wagon, and stagecoach. This was followed by the train, which played an incredible role in getting people here. Everything has yellow paint because, duh.. Yellowstone. But I did have the intelligence to ask Mark why was everything yellow…so I had to point it out too. 🙂

This week we took advantage of places outside the Park. We took a hike to Refuge Point. This flood was, of course, not the first natural disaster to hit this area. In 1959, an earthquake dropped half a mountain in the Madison River, just past Hebgen Lake, and Earthquake Lake was born. Unfortunately, there were cabins and campgrounds along what was the river’s edge. This hike goes past some high ground that the survivors fled to and on to an overlook; where remnants of the cabins that flowed down the river still remain today. And of course, about 640,000 years ago there was a volcano, followed with its caldera collapsed to create the Yellowstone we know today.

The late spring seems to have really brought the wildlife out. We have seen many more animals so far than we did all of last year. I’ll send out pictures next week.

As a side note, Yellowstone National Park has reopened, 93% and dropped the alternate license plate system just 20 days after the devastating flood that ran through this area

Thanks for checking in. Stay cool and enjoy your summer.

On June 13, after weeks of intermittent snow and saturating rain, the North Yellowstone area experienced devastating floods. The News flashed images of the same isolated sections over and over.

Here is West Yellowstone, we were not affected. We did experience the rains but not the flooding or the damage. The National Park has done an incredible job cleaning and reopening the Park. News outlets and other “Pundits” have repeatedly stated that “the Park would not reopen this season”; that “the Park is done this season”, this is not true. Three of the 5 entrances were reopened in 9 days!! Unfortunately the public responded with the “knee jerk” response to cancel reservations all over the area. The lower or southern loop, (Yellowstone’s roadways are a figure 8) was unaffected by flooding. Most of the famous attractions to the Park are in the lower loop. The Upper loop opened July 2 making 93% of the National Park open to the public, but the whole area has suffered great economic lost because of misinformation. Between the flooding and high gas prices, the many businesses in the area are not likely to have a good season for the third year in a row.

We have been in the Park post-flood. It is beautiful. Yellowstone scenery and animal life never disappoint. We did the Storm Point hike in Yellowstone Park. It was outstanding. The views of Lake Yellowstone were incredible. The wildlife was plentiful. It was an incredible day.

Thanks for following up on our adventures. We are doing well and enjoying our second season in Yellowstone.

Our view from the front door has been snowy for some time. Mother Earth just didn’t want to give up her lacy white gown of snow. The first trip into the park was quick and cold but the park is beautiful no the matter the season.

Mark did some repairs on the “bus” and we hibernated through the colder days.

Spring blessed us with a few warm days sprinkled here and there. And we took full advantage of those days. We drove down to The Grand Tetons, rode the open air ferry boat across Jenny Lake and it decided to snow on us (just a little bit, for fun).  Thank goodness I was wearing about 5 layers of clothes (yes really). By the time boat docked and we got off the snow had quit and the sun was out. So we continued our plan to hike to hidden falls.  And, of course, half way through the hike it sleeted and then turned into snow.  Then on way back home the snow turned into rain. Still it was a fabulous day over all. I always thought Texas had the craziest weather, but no. Either every state has its own special brand of crazy weather or it’s following me across the country.

We had a few outings with all the work team. First a play at the Playmill here in town and then we saw the new “Top Gun” at the Imax. It was all Great fun.

Little did we know that a late spring, along with other crazy weather mood swings were just the beginning of what Mother Nature had in store for Yellowstone.

Thanks for checking in on our adventures.

We made a brief journey back to Texas. Family came in from across the “Big Water”. We haven’t seen them in years, with Covid and all that business happening. We left the “Bus” in Colorado, at our friends house and drove down in the car.

So we went and had an awesome time with family. Eating, drinking, and enjoying a last bit of Texas sunshine, before we headed back out for our summer home.

Montana here we come! The first stop was back to Colorado, to pick up the “Bus”; and then to Coalsville, Utah spending one more night in each place before moving on.

We hit our first snow in Leadville, CO, then worked our way though Eagle pass. NOT my favorite travel day, this trip, with it being all snowy and such. This is where the GPS lagging made us miss a turn and we had to U-turn on a narrow snowy road. : (

And arrived in West Yellowstone to be reunited with friends from last year and new friends. This will be our summer home again. We have new side trips planned for this year; different hikes, towns and ghost towns.

Thanks for checking in on our semi-retirement. We look forward to sharing our summer with you, and seeing some of y’alls summer, on Facebook. Keep sharing and please check on us too.

Because we had a change in travel plans, we had about 10 days to spare. And we have good friends that just moved to Colorado. What better way to welcome them to their new home, than to show up and crash their space. More on that to come.

We “Harvest Host”-ed across the country. Harvest Host is a network of business that let RV’ers like us park one night on their property in exchange for patronage of the business. For us it has been really fun, we have been “forced” to check out breweries, museums, wineries and farms all across the country ; ) .
Our first stop was a brewery in Arkansas,

Then a incredible museum in Oklahoma,

Finally a “Land in Trust” near Amarillo, Texas.

And our last over night was in Raton, New Mexico,

Then Colorado. Time with good friends. Painting, Sightseeing. And enjoying great food and companions. We had such a great time both us forgot pictures.

A must see stop, is Royal Gorge Bridge and Park, It was cold and windy but really worth the trip.

Then Denver.

We are glad you checked in on our adventure. Remember the Earth delights to feel your bare feet and the breezes long to play with your hair. Get out there and enjoy your summer.