Well our great summer adventure of 2015 is over. It ended, not with a bang, but with a whimper.

Our RV, which we call Bam-Bam for reasons known only to Linda, went kaboom on a steep mountain grade while crossing the middle of Utah on I-70. Apparently Bam-Bam just had enough of climbing mountains and decided to quit.

Unfortunately she chose a spot in the absolute middle of nowhere to give up the ghost. The place where she chose to quit there is absolutely nothing. Nothing. Nada. Zilch. Zero. Not a tree; not a bunny rabbit; not a coyote. I actually took some photos while standing in the middle of the highway. Do you know any other Interstate where you can do that? 

We all know the expression, the middle of nowhere; now Linda and I have been there and know exactly where it is - it is in Utah along I-70.

We called our service and they found a towing company 67 miles away. After about five to six hours we were in bed at a GM dealership in Price, Utah.

So Bam-Bam is now sitting in the booming metropolis of Price waiting for an engine to be delivered to Tony Basso, the local GM dealer. 

Our trip is cut a bit short for now, and sowe are home thanks to our our trusty tow car. We'll try to pick up some of the last pieces of our adventure when we return to Utah to pick up our coach.

…or at 9th and 9th as Salt Lake City natives are likely to say. There’s absolutely nothing confusing about the street names in SLC if you believe our tour guide who spent many minutes explaining how sensible and easy it is. But when you are on West 2100 South instead of South 2100 West where you should be, then maybe it is not quite as straightforward as they would like you to believe.

Everything begins in center city at Temple Square. On the north side of the square is North Temple; on the south side is South Temple; on the west side is West Temple; and on the east side is, wait for it, Main Street! Apparently even the natives cried, “enough!”

Trying to explain the street system in Salt Lake City is like listening to the old Abbott and Costello “Who’s on First?” routine.

When you are traveling about, you are never quite sure what you are going to see. Sometimes things can be completely over the top as they were at the Wisconsin Dells when we visited a few years ago, or sometimes there are just little things that catch your eye. In Salt Lake City it was a few little things.

In front of a library branch we passed a rather unattractive sculpture of a vegetable. It turned out to be a sugar beet. It just lies there on the front lawn of the library as though it had fallen off a truck. I couldn't let that go, so I did a little research and found that sugar beets were an important part of the economy in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. 

There are no more sugar beet factories in Utah, but there is at least one sugar beet sculpture. By the way, in 2002 the sugar beet competed mightily with the Spanish sweet onion to be named the state vegetable. A compromise was reached, and the beet was granted the title of historic state vegetable. 

We went up to Promontory Summit north of the Great Salt Lake to see the weekly reenactment of the Golden Spike Ceremony, which was the symbolic last spike driven to fully connect the existing rail system in the east with the Pacific Coast at San Francisco. We had a delightful time. 

To my mind, the final connection of rail from the Atlantic to the Pacific is one of the most important events in our country's history. Travel from one side of the country to the other suddenly went from months by wagon to days by rail coach. As a country, we suddenly became a single entity. I don't think any moon walk accomplished that.

The two locomotives are precise replicas that were built for the National Park Service in the mid-1970s. Since there were no drawings for either of the engines, railroad historians studied the engine-building techniques of the time as well as photos of the two originals. These working replicas are absolutely magnificent, and yes, the bright and ornate color schemes are historically correct. The Jupiter (on the left) burns wood, while the No. 119 burns coal. The Jupiter's big funnel-shaped smokestack is designed to catch burning embers that were a concern with wood-burning engines.

On our last day in the Salt Lake area we headed out to Antelope Island, a state park in the middle of the Great Salt Lake. The island has fresh water springs, so it supports both plant and wildlife while the lake itself supports only brine shrimp. Remember those sea monkeys that were advertised in the backs of comic books? Yeah, brine shrimp. 

Along with the ever-popular free-ranging bison, there were purported to be bighorn sheep, pronghorn, and chukar, a game bird originally from Pakistan. Of course, the bison were everywhere, but the promised sheep, pronghorn and chukar were nowhere to be seen, even though I was assured they were plentiful. I began thinking I was back in Yellowstone and the Tetons.

Here a few photos of other things on the island.

At the very last moment luck was came my way. We were done our day and on the road to leave the island when Linda pulled over to allow some cars pass. As we were stopped, I look up on a hill and, wonder of wonders, there was one lone pronghorn grazing on the hillside. I grabbed my camera and headed for the hill. 

Now the pronghorn is fast - the fastest mammal in The Americas and second only to the cheetah in the world. So you know I had to use my stealth to get close. Only I didn't have to. The pronghorn could not have cared less about me. I was careful; I would move a little, take some snaps, move a little more. Finally I was close enough for some great photos without totally invading his space. He still just totally ignored me. I probably could have walked up and petted him. 

A Northern Harrier on the Hunt

The picture above is really special - not because of its quality, which is rather average - but because you are seeing a complete family of trumpeter swans. Here you see the pen (momma), four cygnets (the young'uns), and the cob (poppa) all in a row out for a jaunt across the pond. Trumpeter swans are our largest waterfowl and are indigenous to just a few scattered areas of North America, mostly in Alaska and Canada. They are year-round residents only along the Idaho-Wyoming border. So with so few places to see them, seeing this family all together was an absolute thrill for us.

After our visit to the wildlife refuge we went for a ride down the shoreline of Bear Lake heading south from Idaho into Utah. Along the way, in Fish Haven, close to the Utah border, we stopped at what can only be called a roadside joint for a sandwich. It is named Gladys' Place, and since Gladys was Linda's mother's name, we just had to try it. 

As we were going in we noticed a number of folks at the picnic tables scratching lottery cards. Inside, they were selling a lot of lottery cards. After we finished a very good lunch (in a room way in the back) we noticed a lot of the same people were still scratching lottery cards. It finally dawned on us that we were in Idaho and these folks had come across the border from Utah to buy lottery tickets. And by golly they were going to make the trip worthwhile!

Grand Teton refers to the highest peak of what is now called the Teton Range. Early French trappers used the name les trois tétons (the three breasts) to describe the three central peaks. So now you know that when you refer to Grand Teton, you are really talking about a big boob.

The Tetons are really striking. Because there are no foothills, they just rise up from the valley and are suddenly there in front of you. When you look at Grand Teton, you are right in front of it and have a view of the complete mountain from top to bottom.

You are looking at the absolute top of Grand Teton, the tallest peak of the Teton Range. As you can see, there just isn't much there but sky, rock and a little snow.

I took this picture with my longest lens (500mm) and then cropped it. I don't think any of us will get any closer to the pinnacle of the Grand Teton unless it is with the help of National Geographic.

Jackson Hole
The Jackson Hole is actually the floor of the valley that is bordered on the west by the Teton Range and on the east by the Gros Ventre Range. The Snake River wends through the valley. Apparently early trappers and "mountain men" referred to valleys as "holes" and somehow the name Jackson Hole stuck where others eventually became just valleys.

It is really an interesting land form as the valley is stepped into tiers rather than just gradually sloped. It looks as though it were man-made, but actually it is a result of the glaciers of the ice age which ended about 12,000 years ago.

We Were Really There! 

How do I write about Yellowstone? Yellowstone is probably considered the ultimate travel destination — the crown jewel our National Park System. 

Do I start with the scenery or the wildlife or the geysers or just the overall experience? Do I talk about the traffic jams and the incredible amount of people or all the bison I did see or the bears I never saw? Should I mention some of the negatives or just the good stuff?

Well, it seems to me that the best way might be to just write with a stream-of-conscious, and try to share with you the Yellowstone that Linda and I experienced in a way it stood out to us. 

Yellowstone is a big place with a lot to see, so this will be a big postcard with lots to talk about and lots of photos. So let’s get started.

Getting There
We finally pulled into Yellowstone after a beautiful ride from Cody on Monday, July 27. Just entering the park we began to appreciate the size and scope of the place. We came in through the East Entrance and were greeted by the ranger who told us that it would be a 27 mile ride from the gate to our campground - it was only 47 miles from Cody to the East Gate.

After our near-thirty mile drive, we registered at the campground (reservations made last November), got the RV all situated, hooked up the electric and water and adjusted the satellite dish (can you actually camp without satellite or cable TV?). Finally we were ready to go exploring.

One of the first things we learned is that Yellowstone is a busy place. I mean it is B.U.S.Y. There are cars and motorcycles everywhere. And this year the park is experiencing over a half a million more visitors than normal, meaning the number of visitors is expected to be over 4 million!

Circle of Fire Tour
On our second day we were off on our first bus tour of the park, an all-day affair that gave us a wonderful overview of the park and ended up a Old Faithful. Our tour guide was great, a retired policewoman from North Carolina who was in her 11th year as a Yellowstone Tour Guide. In spite of the 40 year old bus she had to drive (isn’t the concessionaire making enough money from its captive 3.5 million annual visitors?), she kept us constantly entertained with her interesting and informative commentary, and it made for an excellent tour. 

The tour took us past all the scenic high points of what is called the lower loop of the park. We learned about fire and how it clears the lodgepole pine forests. We saw beautiful canyons and waterfalls, and experienced the strange landscape of the geothermal features such as hot springs, mud pots, fumaroles, and, of course, Old Faithful.

Yellowstone Geyser Basins
Yellowstone lies on top of a giant volcano and as a result there are parts of the park that are just not very attractive, at least to us. I am referring to the geothermal areas which really look as though they could easily be from another planet or a toxic waste dump. And of course there is the lovely sulfuric (rotten eggs) smell around the geothermal features. While these places may be interesting or even wildly fascinating to some, they held little interest for Linda and me. 

Old Faithful was like Times Square on New Years Eve with everyone waiting for the ball to drop - or in this case, waiting for water to spurt high out of the ground. It's interesting, but once you have seen it, you have seen it. There is no need for a second visit. These two pictures are as attractive as it gets. The ones in the gallery below show a bit more reality.

Wildlife
Are there bears in Yellowstone? Oh yes! Did I see the bears and get pictures? Well, sorta.

Remember the bear photo from the zoo in Colorado Springs? That’s it. That’s my big bear photo. Boy, am I glad Linda talked me into going there. I actually saw three bears in the park - the first time was a grizzly while the bus was on the move with no place to pull over, and the second time it was two black bear cubs so far away that they were little more than black dots. Even with my big lens, you can barely see one of them.

But bears are around, and they are dangerous. About a week after we left the park a worker hiking on his day off was killed when he accidentally got between a mama and her two cubs - he was on the trail and they were on either side. It may have the news in your area; it definitely made the news out here.

There are an awful lot of bison in Yellowstone. They graze in the meadows, they cross the roads, and sometimes, like the guy you see here, they just lie on a hill and watch the world go by. He was there in the morning when our tour bus drove by, and he was still there late in the afternoon when Linda and I drove by in the car. It was his spot and he wasn't going to move.

Bison are simply a force of their own in Yellowstone. They cross the roads at will without looking both ways like you were taught by your mom. Sometimes they simply stand in the middle of the road for no apparent reason at all. Most of all they cause "bison jams," which can back up traffic for miles. One evening it took us 1-1/2 hours to go 16 miles back to our RV! 

We treated ourselves to a day on Yellowstone Lake, and it was wonderful. We were completely away from the crowds of cars, motorcycles, and people (you do not go to this park to "get away from it all"). We chartered a comfortable 23 ft. Grady-White boat with a very nice young pilot. He took us on a tour around the lake (over 50 miles) telling us stories of some of the unique sights along the way. Since he usually does fishing charters, this was an easy trip for him, and I think he enjoyed it as much as we did. 


Yellowstone Lake is over 90% snow melt and is just a beautiful blue, but at no more than about 50 degrees it is too cold, even in mid-July for swimming. 

Along the way we learned about the Lake Hotel which opened in 1891, the stage coaches that would bring people to the park, and the steam boats that at one time were both transportation and evening entertainment. One of these steamboat owners was a bit of con-man charging people to get back on his boat after a visit to an island. Eventually he was chased from the park and he left so fast he didn't have a chance to take his boat. The remains are still on the shore of an island. 

An interesting thing we learned was how the indigenous cutthroat trout has become threatened by lake trout that were introduced in the late 1980s. This is a lesson in eco-systems. Cutthroat trout live near the top of the water while lake trout live deep. As the cutthroat began to disappear, so did the osprey and eagles who preyed on them. Yellowstone soon found itself not only with a dwindling population of cutthroat in the lake, but because lake trout are too large and too deep for the these birds, the osprey and eagles dwindled to a population of only about 1/3 their historic levels. To combat this, the Park Service has commercial fisherman netting lake trout. And when fishing for sport you must throw back cutthroat and you must keep lake trout.

Some Photos from the Lake

Some Miscellaneous Photos
Here are a few photos that I sort of had left over and didn't want to leave them out. 

All in all, Yellowstone was a wonderful experience. If we go again, we will follow our tour guide's advice and come either before July 1 or after August 15. Things are slower and not as crowded then.

Our next stop is the Grand Tetons. We hope you join us.

Wind River Canyon
A wonderful piece of serendipity during this trip was our tour through Wind River Canyon. To us, this was really just a road on the Wyoming map with a one-night stop to get us from Casper to Cody. But it turned out to be so much more. The Wind River has cut a deep canyon through the mountains that is dramatic.

We stayed the night somewhere near midway through the canyon next to the Wind River with a railroad on the other side. 

Leaving our campsite, there were three tunnels we had to pass through. They did not look very big. While we knew the RV could fit, a little assurance goes a long way. So we watched a couple of semis go through to ease our minds. 

As expected, the tunnels were no problem, and we continued on through some spectacular scenery. Here are a couple windshield shots as we drove through the canyon on our way to Cody, Wyoming.

Cody, Wyoming
Wyoming is the least populated state in the country with less than 600,000 folks. Since it is also the 10th largest state in area, it means you can drive a long time without seeing much in the way of people.

Here we are in Cody, the town founded by, you guessed it, Buffalo Bill Cody. It lies at the base of the Absaroka mountain range with the Shoshone River flowing through it in a pretty deep canyon. It is this canyon formed by the Shoshone River that we will drive through on our route to Yellowstone.

Cody plays on its cowboy theme and its famous founder. There’s a Buffalo Bill this, a Buffalo Bill that, and a Buffalo Bill something else. Outside the Irma Hotel, built, of course, by Buffalo Bill and named for his daughter, there is a nightly “shootout” on the street. Although I tried the shootout and left pretty quickly (Linda was smart enough to stay in the car), we did enjoy a couple of meals in the Irma's restaurant.

 Rodeo
I love to watch rodeo, and Cody is a rodeo town - The Rodeo Capital of the World according to the claims. Not only do they have their big Cody Stampede at the beginning of July, but they also have a nightly rodeo throughout the summer. You just know we were there. 

My rodeo pictures were a bit limited by the available light, but some of them turned out okay. Here's a small gallery of some the action.

Motorcycles! 
Not only does Cody have cowboys and rodeos, it also has motorcycles. It is where we first experienced a large number of motorcycle tourists. Cycles were everywhere, usually traveling in groups of six to ten. We continued to see huge numbers of cycles in both Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks. In fact, I may not see as many cycles in a year in Houston as I have seen in the past two weeks in northwest Wyoming.

Heart Mountain
Every once in a while you visit a place that, while it is not happy or fun, it is a good thing to do. That is Heart Mountain.

Imagine living in Southern California and being told you are going to be moved and to bring only what you can carry. Now imagine you end up in a plywood barracks in the mountains of Wyoming. This happened to thousands of Americans in the 1940s.

Heart Mountain was one of the internment camps for West Coast Japanese-Americans during World War II. There is little left of this camp other than some foundations and the buildings in my photos, but the museum exhibit here is excellent, giving a real feeling of what life was like for these people.

Yes, that is a picture of a (reconstructed) guard tower. While these people were told by the government they were in a “Relocation Center,” it was a concentration camp, pure and simple.

There were ten of these concentration camps located in the interior of the country from the "West Coast Exclusion Zone" that held about 115,000 Japanese-Americans. Before it closed Heart Mountain peaked at a population of almost 11,000, making it Wyoming's third-largest city at the time.

While there I couldn’t help but think about the fact that East Coast German-Americans did not suffer the same fate. But we all know why — they were Western Europeans and did not “look different.” 

I taught in a very cosmopolitan school district and my students were of all cultures and races. Many times I was the minority in the classroom. But I didn’t care what ethnicities these kids were or how many letters were in their last names, I enjoyed every one of them, and I consider all of them not only my students but my friends.

We would all do well to remember these lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein from the musical South Pacific:

Finally we have a somewhat reliable and reasonable internet and I can post some more stuff. I have tried to write these posts as we have been going along so I can just pop in the website at some convenient wi-fi location. I have picked a few photos to go along with the commentary, but a lot of them will have to wait until we return home.

I must say the grizzly exhibit was wonderful with the main viewing area being a glass-fronted pond that allowed watching them in the water or out. It was great fun, and we truly were “up close and personal” with the bears.

One of the things that is neat about our road trips is I am never completely sure where we are going. Yes, I know our ultimate destinations are Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons, but I have little idea about what we will be doing along the way. Linda is the planner, and I am just the driver.

On this trip one of the wonderful surprises so far was Rocky Mountain National Park. What a magnificent place! We only scratched its surface with a one-day car trip that took us to the summit, but, oh my, it was just a “wow” ride. It seemed that at every turn there was a new “look at that” moment.

We entered the park through Estes Park, a tourist town at the base of the mountains that is at an elevation of about 7500 feet. The road through the park peaks at 12,183 feet - an increase of over 4,500 feet! Along the way the temperature drops by about 35 degrees from Estes Park to the summit. 

I took the photo of our GPS just a bit before we reached the peak. Another way to look at how high we were is to consider that it was more than two miles higher than where we live

Throughout our drive we saw beautiful sylvan valleys and awe-inspiring mountain peaks. Even the road was exciting with few guardrails. Here’s a neat windshield shot as we passed along a vertical wall on one side and a low wall and sheer drop on the other. 

One of the things about the mountains is how quickly the weather can change. At Pike's Peak we had a short hail storm. Here in Rocky Mountain N.P. we were in and out of blue skies and rain clouds throughout the day.

Along the way we saw some wildlife like the elk seen here. There was a small a group (called a gang) of bull elk grazing in a meadow at the top of the mountain.

This guy has lost a good portion of one antler. But it didn’t seem to be a bother as he was the apparent alpha male of the group. But the rut is still to come, and I don’t know whether he will maintain that status. 

I put some photos in the gallery at the end of the post to give you more of an idea of the marvelous scenery we experienced. 

By the way, you may have noticed the photo at the top is the third panorama photo during this road trip (see previous posts). This is actually six photos stitched together through the magic of software. I like this format for an opening picture and will probably use it a couple more times. Also, its fun to do.

I'll try to post again before I lose my internet. Thanks for visiting!

Heading West
I am sorry it has taken so long for the update. Internet has been sporadic and poor. 

We left Palo Duro and headed across the Texas Panhandle through the northeast corner of New Mexico. We stopped for the evening at Raton Pass, New Mexico just at the border to Colorado. The next day we headed on to Colorado Springs

Even though Colorado Springs is the state's second largest city with defense and high-tech as its major industries, it is still a tourist town, and a lot of stuff happens there and in its tourist-trap suburb, Manitou Springs. The towns are at the base of Pike's Peak and the Cog Railway to the mountaintop. 

Colorado Springs is home to the Air Force Academy, the world-famous Broadmoor Resort, a park of unique rock formations called Garden of the Gods, the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo, the U.S. Olympic Training Center and a variety of museums. There is a lot to see and do there, and a lot of people come to see and do it.

Pikes's Peak Cog Railway
It is sort of a rite of passage. If you head west and go through Colorado, you are expected to go to the top of Pike's Peak, either by driving a twisty road or riding the Cog Railway. Well, there are also some adventurous (crazy?) types who actually hike to the peak. We spend plenty of time driving and we're certainly not going to walk, so the Cog Railway was our choice.

Since the mountain is steep, a normal train would not be able to gain traction. To overcome the problem of steep grades, railways designed for steep slopes use a "rack and cog" system with a third rail that is a toothed-rack and a large gear on the train - the cog. This provides a positive, non-slip, drive for steep grades.

The ride up Pike's Peak was great fun and was the first time I had ever been at an altitude that is above the treeline. Pike's Peak is 14,115 feet above sea level while good old Houston measures out at about 35-50 feet.

My only complaint is that you travel in the same seat going both up and down the mountain. That means you see the same views both ways. The good news is that the scenery is pretty much spectacular. 

The ride up Pike's Peak climbs some 8,000 feet and the temperature drops about 35 degrees over the course of the ride. Girls who get on the train with spaghetti-strap tops were wearing their guys' hoodies by the time we reached the summit. We were there only about 15 minutes when a thunderstorm with HAIL chased us all back to the train.

When we reached the top of the mountain we could really feel the altitude. They tell you to drink plenty of water and we did, but it does not fully prepare you for the thin air. Linda and I both felt a bit shaky and lightheaded when we left the train car and began walking around.

A highlight of the trip for me was seeing the bighorn sheep. Last year, in Alaska, it seemed as though the bear, the elk, the eagle, the everything, was just there yesterday. Well this time the sheep were there today! In fact, our tour guide told me he generally sees them only about once every 10 days. So this time luck was with me. 

Rather than trying to describe everything, I have put together a small gallery of photos.

Right here in the middle of a city of over 400,000 people is this neat public park with unique red sandstone formations jutting up from the ground. When you are in the park you really have no idea you are also in a city.

There are two main driving loops through the park along with a number of short hiking trails that allow you to get up close and personal with the rock formations. It is spectacular, and it is also busy. We actually drove through the park on two different days and thoroughly enjoyed both visits.

There is so much more to tell and so many more photos to show, but it will all have to wait until later.