Day 21 – Back in Iowa

Day 21 – Back Home in Iowa

August 17, 2013

We arrived home at 2:30 am and carried our two sleeping boys up to their beds. They had tried valiantly to stay awake to see our house and cats when we arrived, but as bedtime came and went, each of them fell asleep.

4,030 miles. 3,286 photos (on my camera cards). Five people ready to sleep in our own beds and take real showers.

When we woke up this morning, I felt as if I had been on a boat for three weeks. I was off balance and kept expecting our bathroom to sway and tilt back and forth.  The boys and I walked out our back door and into our yard and I said “What a great campsite! We have our own waterfall, a big grassy area, a sandbox and two cats.” Peter said, “and our own swing!”

We unpacked the camper as we started, by putting everything into bins and placing them in our garage for later sorting and putting away. I started the first of about 20 loads of laundry and we all cleared out the RV. I feel grateful that the engine, brakes and tires all worked for the whole trip. Unfortunately, the rest of the features to support actually living in the RV were either broken or worn out. It felt good to say thank you and good bye to it.

Later in the day after we cleaned the RV, Ricardo left to return it, and I showered, I decided that we have the best shower in the world. It was nice to feel truly clean. It was also nice to setup my laptop, plug it in and have both power and an Internet connection. Both of those were hard to find during our three week road trip.

To start our next chapter, after Ricardo left with the RV and I showered, the kids and I left for the airport to pick up Luisa, one of Alle’s cousins who will be living with us for the next five months as an International exchange student from Germany at our high school. Tomorrow, we will all visit the Iowa State Fair (the biggest and the best in the world!) and start getting the girls ready to start school next week.

Thanks for your interest and reading. Safe travels and happy camping.

Self Portrait on Going-to-the-Sun Road, Glacier National Park

 

Day 20 – Custer State Park, South Dakota to Iowa

Day 20 – Custer State Park, South Dakota to Iowa

August 16-17, 2013

Today became our last day on the road. We had a big breakfast at our campsite; the kids woke up the way I remember from my childhood camping – by the sounds of pots and pans and the smell of eggs and bacon. We were trying to leave early, but it was 10:30 am once we finally packed up and left the Legion Lake campground of Custer State Park. The drive was beautiful to Rapid City, SD and then the landscape slowly became more flat and less varied as we headed across South Dakota.

South Dakota has done a good job of promoting quirky tourist stops. Mount Rushmore began as a project to bring tourists into the Black Hills area of SD.  As we drove, we started to see signs for another called Wall Drug. I have never stopped, but as far as I can tell, it is a large store with lots of facets and gimmicks to bring people into the town of Wall, SD. They begin advertising it in roadside signs and billboards about 100 miles from the actual location. We tried to glimpse it from the highway, but did not stop.

About four hours later, we did stop at another SD promotion, the Corn Palace in Mitchell, SD. The signs for it brought us in a big loop around the downtown area. The Corn Palace is an event center which has been decorated on its outside walls and some interior walls with ears of corn.

Each year the town decorates it differently, but the building essentially houses what looks like a basketball court. We took a few photos, bought some corn, and found a place for dinner. Our dinner place did turn out to be a find, a steak (and pasta for the boys) house called Chef Louie’s. Over our rather large dinners, we decided that we were up for the additional five hours it would take to reach home in Iowa.

So, we are still on the road at 1 am. The boys are asleep in the back of the RV. Ricardo and Alle are on their respective iPhones listening to music. Ricardo is driving and I’m trying to type on the bumpy road of Interstate 80 heading east. We were going to have one last night of camping at Niobrara or even a KOA on the border of South Dakota and Iowa, but we all want to get home.

Day 19 – Black Hills, Mount Rushmore and Custer State Park, South Dakota

Day 19 – Black Hills, Mount Rushmore and Custer State Park, South Dakota

August 16, 2013

I woke up today dry (after the thunderstorms last night) and without a headache (after a mind numbing and nauseating migraine) – wonderful! We all had showers this morning at this RV park, which is a great and rare addition to our morning. I showered with the boys, which is always exciting and fast paced. We made our way back to camp after watching the real excitement for the day – the garbage truck pick up the dumpster outside the bath house – and had breakfast. Everyone was in good spirits today and we set off for Mount Rushmore.

We were prepared for seeing the largest crowds yet on our trip and were pleasantly surprised. The drive to Mt Rushmore is very beautiful and winds through the Black Hills forests. We loved seeing all of the bison intimidating tourists on the roads

and the many stone bridges that our RV just managed to squeeze through.

The National Memorial of Mt Rushmore certainly has the most infrastructure of any national park we have been to with attendants directing each vehicle to vast amounts of parking, huge stone steps leading to a promenade of all of the US states' flags framing the mountainside with stone carved statues of four of our presidents. In 2010, the park service added an amphitheater and many more steps creating an all-day tourist handling machine.

We walked up and took the mandatory photos of the statues.

I was most interested in the park ranger talk at the sculpture studio. There, we saw the models for the carvings and heard about the process of carving. The sculptor, Gutzon Borglulm created the scale models and made the measurements. A huge group of men, mostly miners and construction workers who were able to handle air tools and explosives hung from trapezes to cut away the rock. They worked on the carvings for 17 years until the sculptor died; his son took over for a short time and the project ended in 1941, without some of the planned detail of clothing and surroundings being completed.

Here is a rarely seen profile view of Mt Rushmore.

From Mt. Rushmore, we made our way to Hill City, which is a quaint western style town with a mix of Indian art, back country stores selling packing gear, and biker shops with Sturgis merchandise on sale (the big biker rally in Sturgis, SD was last week). We found Keen sandals for the boys to replace their old and tattered ones, ate lunch and sampled the ice cream there. After Hill City, we drove by the Crazy Horse site, but only looked from afar at the partial statue. We felt a bit burned out of seeing huge stone carvings in hillsides. We returned to Legion Lake campground and went swimming. The lake became more and more calm into the evening.

After dinner of steak grilled on the campfire and more corn on the cob (boys’ favorite), we sat under the stars and tried to remember campfire songs to sing together. Alle brought her guitar and ukulele along. Tomorrow, we cross SD, visit the Corn Palace and camp our final night at Niobrara on the border of SD and NE. Iowa is not far away now.

Day 18 – Billings, MT to Devil’s Tower to Custer State Park, South Dakota

Day 18 – Billings, MT to Devil’s Tower to Custer State Park, South Dakota

August 14, 2013

After showers and a breakfast, we got back on the road in Billings, Montana. Our drive today was long and much of it was on Interstate 90 across Montana. I tried to help drive more today and managed to exit around Sheridan, MT. We drove down the Main Street to try to find a market or grocery store for fresh bread. It was one of the larger towns we saw, but we did not find any food stores. A man outside an antique sign shop gave us directions to an Albertsons. Albertsons was another exit east and in the middle of the ugly sign filled urban sprawl part of Sheridan. We had our lunch on the road, heading east.

I drove to Devil’s Tower with Alle riding shotgun and helping navigate. Ricardo sat in back, playing with the boys and ultimately taking a nap. Afterwards, he said that he got more of a taste for being in the RV as a passenger, and “it’s awful”. It can be quite nauseating in back, especially on hills when there is a gas smell coming in from the exhaust. Peter and Ricardo slept, while Ted built different magnetic cars with one of the new games I had brought for the trip.

We loved Devil’s Tower, a National Monument in the northeastern corner of Montana. It rises up from the land and we caught glimpses of it as we made turns in the small roads leading to it. There is nothing really around the huge monolithic tower of rock and it is not on the way to anywhere. One has to just want to see it and find it in the countryside. The tower is a sacred site for many of the Native America Indian groups from this area. One of the legends about it tells of a family of seven daughters and one son. The son turns into a large bear and hunts his sisters. The women go to the top of the land, which rises up to protect them. The bear scratches the sides of the tower, giving it large groves in the sides, which today aid the many rock climbers who try to scale it. The area around the tower is kept natural and it is a lovely site.

From Devil’s Tower, we took smaller roads heading south and east into South Dakota. Unfortunately, the migraine headache which had been chasing me for the past two nights came on with a vengeance. I ended the day, groaning in the back of the RV as Ricardo navigated in heavy rain to Custer State Park, a bit east of Custer City, SD. We are in the Legion Lake campground for the next two nights.  Here is Legion Lake of the Black Hills, SD.

I made dinner for the gang around 8 pm and went to bed. At about midnight, I woke from snoring around me and moved to sleep above the driving area with Alle. I woke up Alle because I thought she was sleeping downhill. So, we went outside to check and see the stars. Out here without much civilization around us, the stars are so vibrant and bright. We noticed that the RV was downhill on one side and went in and shifted our beds. About two hours later, another thunderstorm blew through and I felt a bit of rain. One of the other features of this dilapidated RV is that the sunlight above Alle’s space is stuck open.  It started to pour in on us and I lept up and woke up Alle again. We succeeded in taping plastic grocery bags over the opening and went back to sleep. The adventure continues.

Day 17 – Canyon Campground, Yellowstone Park through the Beartooth Scenic By-way to Billings, MT

Day 17 – Canyon Campground, Yellowstone Park through the Beartooth Scenic By-way to Billings, MT

August 13, 2013

Here is the view from our stop for road work in the Beartooth Valley just northeast of the northeast entrance, or in our case, exit from Yellowstone.

We left our campsite at Canyon Campground in Yellowstone Park this morning

and stopped at the large and too-commercial Canyon Valley center of shops and visitor center. It is one of the newer centers in the Park and it handles large crowds. We purchased a toy replica of the historic yellow Yellowstone buses (to complement the red bus we purchased in Glacier),

some hats, t-shirts and ice and were on our way. We have two reservations tonight; another night at Canyon or Buffalo Bill State Park in Cody, WY. We’ve decided to head towards Cody.

Our first stop was the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone. It is spectacular. We stayed on the north rim and the pull-outs along the separate one-way loop road include three inspiring vistas.  The first was of the falls of the Yellowstone River. It falls over 300 feet into the canyon.

The canyon itself is about 1400 feet deep, 24 miles long, and 2400 feet across. Here the “yellow stone” for which the park was named is more clearly visible. The Yellowstone River continues from the falls in a fast paced rush of white and deep green water. We enjoyed every walk and view of this area.

The boys were so excited about their new Yellowstone hats that even Ted was willing to pose for pictures.

At one point as we were looking back towards the river and falls, an osprey glided past us and into the canyon.

A storm blew up on our last vista stop, so we decided to stay for a quick lunch in our RV in the rain. Everyone is still enjoying lunches of random sandwiches with a variety of luncheon meats, left-over meats from dinners, and, of course, PB and J. Alle and Ricardo had PB and B or with banana. We still have about 20 pounds of the about 30 pounds of salt water taffy I brought along from home, so it was salt water taffy all around for dessert.

After lunch, we headed through Lamar Valley to the northeast corner of Yellowstone Park. It is known for wildlife sightings. Ricardo had heard wolves in this area last night, but we spotted mainly bison herds.  After exiting the park, we headed north to see the Beartooth Range and valley. It is a 65 mile rambling scenic route, winding into Montana and back to Wyoming.  The Beartooth Highway is a National "By-way" and has been called America's Most Beautiful Drive by Charles Kuralt. Parts of it were more breathtaking than the Going to the Sun Road in Glacier.

From here we planned to head south again to Cody, WY.  Instead, we spent so much time on the winding mountain roads of Beartooth, driving at over 10K feet, mostly above the tree line and through lingering snow,

we stopped for dinner in Red Lodge, MT and decided to stay the night near-by, outside of Billings, MT.

We are now officially on our way home –  to Devil's Tower, WY, Custer State Park in South Dakota and into Iowa over the next four days.

Day 16 – Northern Yellowstone National Park, Canyon Campground

Day 16 – Northern Yellowstone National Park, Canyon Campground

August 12, 2013

Today was an exhausting day; the boys were stroppy and difficult most of the day. On the bright side, we saw the beautiful sites of northern Yellowstone. From the hike around Tower Falls



(the rest of the family took the unofficial trail down to the river -- I took photos),

to the interesting white and orange travertine terraces of Mammoth Falls and River,

and finishing with huge open valleys around Norris,

where we spotted bison and elk.

We pulled into our new campsite in Canyon for a lovely fireside meal of rack of lamb grilled over the fire. It helps to eat really good food while camping!

Day 15 – East Glacier, Montana to Canyon Campground in Yellowstone, WY

Day 15 – East Glacier, Montana to Canyon Campground in Yellowstone, WY

August 11, 2013

The drive from East Glacier Park to northern Yellowstone Park is a bit of a crazy drive to attempt with two three year olds in an RV in one day, but we wanted to get back to Yellowstone to see the northern half and we had reserved a spot in Canyon for three nights. So, we decided to go for it.

Ricardo started his day very early at 6 am, driving in our rental car from East Glacier to the airport near Kalispell, MT to return our car and pick back up our RV. Glacier does not allow trucks and RVs over a certain length onto the park roads, so we’ve had a rental SUV for the past three days. It is about four hours round trip. The rest of us got us leisurely, said good-bye to the large stuffed bear in the teepee inside the lodge,

ate at the breakfast buffet at the Glacier Park Lodge, dipped our toes in the swimming pool outside, and visited the gift shop. The boys are enamored with the red jammer buses in Glacier Park, so we purchased a small toy version.

When Ricardo returned, we packed up the RV and were on our way again at around 11:45 am. Not early, but with enough time to complete the eight hour drive.

In hindsight, it probably would have been better to find a camping spot before Yellowstone, in Gallatin Canyon, for example, but we drove on. Luckily, it is a lovely drive. The first half is through completely open, ranch lands first on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation, then in central Montana. We drove on Montanta highway 89 and then 287, stopping briefly in the friendly town of Choteau. Both of these smaller highways go south all the way to Yellowstone. The shortest route includes some time on Interstates 15 and 90.

We also stopped for gas in Manhattan, MT when I realized today was the first day I could book individual tickets for the Metropolitan Opera in NYC for our visit with my Mum in October. While Ricardo filled the RV with gas and my family sat patiently, I got Internet access via Ricardo’s iPhone hotspot and tried to secure four tickets. It was one of those somewhat silly attempts to connect with a different reality in the middle of a holiday and in the middle of nowhere.  Somehow I did manage to select seats, enter my credit card information and purchase tickets while we bounced around on the highway after our stop.

We decided to take a bit of a longer route through the Gallatin Canyon and enter Yellowstone via West Yellowstone. The Gallatin River and Canyon are worth the extra time. Route 191 is a scenic and beautiful route, used for the river scenes in the movie “A River Runs Through It”.

We saw many fly fishermen on the river and even glimpsed the light filled snap of a fly cast as we looked back and took photos from the RV.

We drove up the mountain to see the Big Sky skiing areas, which we had not been to before.

We entered Yellowstone late in the day, a bit before 8 pm and were surprised by the commercial section of West Yellowstone. Suddenly, after seeing mostly cattle and horses and only a smattering of small towns during our drive, we were surrounded with lots of pedestrians eating ice cream, loud t-shirt shops and fast food signs. We haven’t seen a McDonalds or KFC sign for most of our trip. My inclination was to go through as quickly as possible and seek the quiet of Yellowstone.

It was another hour from the west entrance of Yellowstone past the Madison and Norris campsites to Canyon. Entering the park when the rest of sane campers are either eating or relaxing near their campfires has its benefits. We had empty roads and beautiful views of the sunset framed with mountains or river valleys. We also spotted many elk groups wandering in the stream valleys.  We enjoyed some local Windy River, WY sausages in Choteau, MT market buns for a very late but happy-to-get-here meal.

Day 14 – Glacier National Park, MT

Day 14 – Glacier National Park

August 10, 2013

I am glad that as I write these notes, Microsoft Word completes the date for me. I have no idea what day of the week it is and I could only guess at the date. We have been on the road for two weeks.

Today, we explored the small town of East Glacier for breakfast and dinner and in between drove through the Blackfeet Indian Reservation town of Browning to Many Glaciers part of the park. At the heart of Many Glaciers is the historic Many Glaciers Hotel. It is a similar wooden structure and age to the lodge we are staying in, but it sits at the shores of Swift Current Lake surrounded by mountains and some small glaciers. This morning, the lake was calm and had a mirror like surface.

We were lucky enough to get tickets for the two lake boat ride across first Swift Current Lake and then after a short hike between lakes, across Josephine Lake. There are only 49 seats on each boat and reservations are taken up to three days prior. We were not that organized and were glad to find that they set aside a few seats each trip for people on a waiting list. The boat ride is mellow and beautiful. The views are the most spectacular I think one can have without mountain climbing. The lakes at Many Glacier were my favorite spot of our trip.

After spending the whole afternoon there, we climbed back into our van and headed back towards East Glacier. Based on our experience last night, we were expecting about a two hour drive, which thankfully only took about an hour and 15 minutes. We multi-tasked before dinner with Ricardo doing laundry in the small town, the kids and I shopping for Christmas gifts in a wooden spoon shop, and all of us meeting for dinner at Luna’s. Alle was very excited to find that the wooden carvers made Harry Potter like wands. She selected one and heard the full story about its construction. She signed a special registry and received the numbered wand.

While we ate our second ice cream of the day after dinner, we had the treat of seeing the once-a-day Amtrak Empire Builder train arrive in East Glacier. Many people got off and many people got on the sleeper cars headed for Seattle. It was running a few hours late, but perhaps that is part of the charm. I sent an email to my Mum, who is a huge fan of train travel and Amtrak.  Ted was so terrified of how huge real trains are when they are arriving in front of you, he went with Alle to sit in our car to watch.

We are now gearing up to pick back up our RV, pack and leave Glacier National Park tomorrow morning. We have our longest day tomorrow if we are to reach Canyon Campgrounds in northern Yellowstone Park.

Day 13 – West Glacier, Montana to East Glacier, Montana and Glacier National Park

Day 13 – West Glacier, Montana to East Glacier, Montana and Glacier National Park

August 9, 2013

This is one of those days when I thank God that people have had the forethought to designate some lands as National Parks for everyone to experience and enjoy. Glacier National Park is a gem.

We got up early (for us) today, had a quick breakfast and left our campsite at Fish Creek in West Glacier. We loved this campsite, with its winding roads, many trees and location along the lake and creek. We could hear the water from our campsite and it felt very secluded for an RV site.

The only negative part of the day was that Ricardo had to drive our RV about an hour away, drop it off, rent a car and return to us inside the park. Alle, the boys and I had a nice morning at Apgar Village. We had fabulous views of Lake McDonald, which is a very long lake about 32 miles long. The morning light was peaceful and the lake stretched out in front of us at the docks there.

There is a Park Visitor’s Center, a few gift shops, and a grocery and restaurant in this village. So, while Ricardo did the hard work of driving all morning, we enjoyed time in the village. We took photos of the lake, shopped for souvenirs and Christmas presents, and visited the Visitor’s Center to get maps. I added a poster of Glacier to our collection of the national parks we’ve visited and we decided that having an early lunch was a good idea, followed by, of course, ice cream.

By 12:30, Ricardo was back with a black SUV. He felt raring to go based on being stuck behind the wheel all day and because he had just narrowly avoided a dog on the road on Highway 2. The dog wandered off, but all of our kitchen equipment in the RV landed up by the windshield and the TV had come down on his shoulders.  We left Apgar and entered the “Going to the Sun” Road, which is the 50 mile road winding through the park.

Once on the Going to the Sun Road, we drove along Lake McDonald and then McDonald Creek, which held the most clear water I’ve ever seen. We stopped near one of the tunnels so the boys could see the tunnel and the view, all the while getting sprayed with water at one of the many roadside waterfalls. The snow is still melting here. Our main stop was Logan Pass. After battling the other cars for someone leaving a parking space, we had a three hour hike here to see Hidden Lake. Even though the boys were loath to hike when we started, we all had a wonderful time. The path is board walk in some places and very well worn, but everyone is rewarded with fabulous wild flowers, amazing views of mountains, glaciers and snow patches, and many mountain goats wandering the hills and paths.

About four times, we had a mountain goat next to us in the path, happily munching on the grass and new growth on the pines. While our boys watched open mouthed, each walked across our path or posed framed in sunlight on a rock. It was breathtaking. It was 6 to 7 pm in the evening as we made our way back down and although it was getting late for dinner, we loved how empty the path became and the lovely light.

The other negative for the day came when we realized we had a very long drive to the historic Glacier Park Inn in East Glacier. We completed the Going to the Sun Road in St Mary, by the other very long lake of the park, but then had an hour drive out of the park on Blackfeet Indian Reservation land to find our lodge.  We were suddenly in East Glacier Village with civilization again and the huge wooden lodge looming before us.  

Red “Jammer” buses are one of the features of the Glacier National Park. They are a fleet of red historic buses built for the park. Because RVs and trucks of a certain length are not allowed on park roads, many people come here without their own transportation. They leave their RVs near the park entrance or take the train here. They see the parks with one of the modern park buses or one of the Red Jammers. The red buses were all restored by Ford Motor Company in 2002 and we saw them touring all over the park.

When we arrived at the lodge, there was a red bus picking up people with luggage. We also saw tons of people wandering over the front lawn with luggage. Everyone with luggage was heading across the front lawn to the Amtrak station directly across from the lodge.

The lodge land was purchased from the Blackfeet Indians and the lodge was built as an attraction on the expanding railway lines. It was opened in 1913; today everywhere around the grounds there are “100!” signs for its anniversary. The posts for the huge lobby are cedar logs which were each about 500 years old and weigh about 15 tons when they were hauled here and set-up to support the lodge.

We had separated our luggage from the rest of the RV “stuff” earlier in the day. We carried it all up the three flights of stairs to our room on the top floor. We are all in a “family room”, which has the roof lines for a ceiling and four beds in it. It is truly a summer camp type of room with only the minimal “mod cons”. We look out on the promenade of flowers which links the hotel to the East Glacier train station.

Tomorrow we have another day in the park to explore Many Glacier and perhaps Two Medicine hiking areas.

Day 12 – Sun Valley, ID to Elk Bend and Salmon, ID

Day 12 – Sun Valley, ID to Elk Bend and Salmon, ID

August 7, 2013

After one more breakfast buffet at the Sun Valley Inn and filling up on eggs and bacon and breads, we managed to pack up our things at our condo and drive into Ketchum to stock up on groceries. The boys and I enjoyed the mini-Whole-Foods style of the Atkinson’s Market in town. Shopping with the boys is always fun; the only challenge is not purchasing every cool item they find. We found lovely fresh salmon and various steaks to grill later in our trip. Ricardo and Alle picked us up with the RV without hitting anything and we were back on the road.

We headed north on Idaho-75 towards the Galena Pass and Redfish Lake. About an hour on the road, one by one we each sort of melted-down. I don’t know if it was being back in the RV, being back on the road with four hours of driving ahead of us, or just being the five of us again, but Alle expressed it first. She said, “I’m feeling yucky”. Then, the boys found each other and decided that beating on each other was the right thing to do. At first, I said to Alle, “I’ll just let them jostle for a while”. Ricardo continued calmly driving.

Well, the melt-down  concluded with a pull-out stop just over the Galena Pass, Ted standing without any diapers or anything for that matter on his bottom half, screaming by the side of the road, Ricardo negotiating with Ted, Peter claiming the back bed, and me and Alle photographing wildflowers by the side of the highway. We all finally piled back into the RV and the boys were both asleep in about two minutes. Ted slept for two hours and Peter for two and a half.

We drove along the Salmon River all day and were in awe of its meandering light and the beauty of the gorges. We made a quick stop at Redfish Lake to jump off the docks there and cool off.  Here's our view of the Sawtooth Mountains from Redfish Lake.

We found our RV park in a tiny, fairly deserted, quiet curve in the road and the Salmon River called Elk Bend, Idaho. We are surrounded by mountains and rocky cliffs here.

Ricardo and the boys set up the tent and fell asleep outside talking about the stars. Tomorrow we will enter Montana and make our way to Glacier National Park.

Days 9 – 11: Sun Valley, Idaho

Days 9 – 10: Sun Valley, Idaho

It is Wednesday morning, August 6^th and we are getting back on the road after three and a half luxurious days in Sun Valley, ID.

After a week in our RV with too few swimming opportunities or showers, being able to do laundry, float in the pool, eat too much food, and take regular showers has been a real treat. We spent the past two days here in Sun Valley trying to fit as much in as possible between sumptuous meals. As part of the meetings, we primarily enjoyed seeing everyone. Some of the other highlights were the Ice Show on Saturday night, riding around on rented bikes, hiking to Proctor and enjoying the views,

the rustic cabin evening two nights ago,

 

taking the gondola and chairs up to Baldy Mountain, and eating many meals in good company.

Here are two views of Sun Valley from on top of Baldy Mountain from yesterday.

Last night the usual discussion about our departure time came up. In a conversation over dinner, someone asked Ricardo and me what time we are leaving today. At about the same time, he said 8 am and I said 12 Noon!  As we stepped through the details later of having to pack up this condo, get the boys and Alle fed and ready to go, and navigating our RV to the grocery store to restock, I think we agreed that 12 Noon might be realistic. We’ll see how it goes. So far at 9 am, the kids are still asleep!

Thank you to everyone else here for a super three days. Our next stop is Red Lake and then Salmon, ID on route to Glacier National Park.

Day 8 – Arco, ID and Craters of the Moon to Sun Valley, ID

Day 8 – Arco, ID and Craters of the Moon to Sun Valley, ID

August 3, 2013

The KOA RV Campground in Arco, ID not only has fire rings and a laundry, but it has a small pool. After breakfast, the boys and I walked over and stuck our feet in. It felt wonderful. After a week on the road and only a few showers, we are all looking forward to swimming and/or taking a bath! We said good-bye to Arco and drove about 20 minutes away to the Craters of the Moon National Monument. What an unusual and exceptional place. It is a huge stretch of land covering lava flows from “fissures” in the Snake River thousands of years ago.

We spent a couple of hours along a seven mile loop road in the park, stopping at designated trails to walk around and see the old craters, solid lava fields, and monolithic piles of once molten lava and sides of craters. The whole landscape is black and barren, except in the older places where the forest and trees are once again settling in.

It’s a very unusual landscape and worthwhile to see and think about. The "youngest" lava flow was from about 2000 years ago, or around the time of Christ. The boys followed a bold chipmunk along one trail, we picked up a few lava rock samples, and I photographed the tiny and interesting alpine-like flowers which were somehow growing in the rock. Here is the Blazing Star, which typically only blooms at night. They are pollinated by moths. Its blooms close back up in the daytime. This bush was still in bloom in the morning, but the ones we saw later were closed. The flowers of this area have to be able to withstand 150 F heat. 
 

After our tour and short hikes, I threw all of our leftovers along with lots of cheese into quesadillas for lunch in an effort to clean out our RV fridge.

From the Craters of the Moon, we drove another hour and half to two hours to Sun Valley, Idaho. We immediately checked into our rooms at the lodge and then went swimming. Ahhh! It is so nice to have ready access to cold drinks, showers, and lovely beds. We will be here for about four days for meetings. I probably won’t attempt to write about all of our days here, but I will try to upload some photos.

From here, we will head north again to visit northern Yellowstone and then Glacier National Parks.

Day 7 – Grand Teton National Park to Jackson, WY to Arco, ID

Day 7 – Grand Teton National Park to Jackson, WY to Arco, ID

August 2, 2013

There was a small sign posted in the bathrooms at Yellowstone a few days ago that said something like “Gastronomic Virus – Extremely Contagious – Please keep hands washed, etc”. I think Alle and I both caught a small version of it during these past 24 hours. Not to get too specific, but everything we have been eating has been “going straight through”. Well, at least we won’t have to worry about gaining weight on this leg of the holiday.

That said, we launched ourselves from the Grand Teton Park this morning and headed down to Jackson on route to Arco, Idaho. Jackson is a “touristy town”, but it is a well done touristy town. The shops are more upscale, the tourists look a bit more well-to-do, and the main town square is rustic but hopping with activity. We parked our oversized RV a bit outside of town so we didn’t have to worry about hitting anything like street signs or unsuspecting tourists. We walked into the main square and the boys immediately spied an ice cream spot. So, being on holiday, we all had an early ice cream.

After successfully moving our RV to the local post office and getting lots of post card stamps, we headed out of town. We are still driving on US-20/US-26 West. We have been on this highway for much of our trip. It is a mostly quiet, scenic road and so much nicer than the interstates. On the interstates, every truck that passes us shakes the RV and Ricardo has to grip the steering wheel to keep from hitting the rumble strips along the side of the road. It is not the most relaxed drive. We took the scenic route out of Jackson which runs along the Snake River. The road (and the river) run through a beautiful canyon with white water rafting places dotting the road and their boats dotting the river.

 

 

Coming out of that set of canyons, we entered into Idaho.

The road slowly flattened out and for the next four hours we drove through open, barren country. There was hardly a cross road, let alone other traffic. Wheat and potato fields were on either side of us. Coming into Arco, ID we passed a large nuclear energy plant and campus. We found out later that Arco, ID was the first city in the US to be completely powered by nuclear energy in the 1950’s. Quite a claim to fame. The business is still going strong, although quietly.

We were very happy to pull into the KOA RV camp site in Arco, ID, which is surprisingly pastoral and welcoming. We had a very late dinner of burgers over the campfire. Everyone is exhausted. We are heading a few miles away in the morning to see the Craters of the Moon National Monument and then onto Sun Valley, ID.

 

Day 6 - Grand Teton National Park

Day 6 – Grand Teton National Park

August 1, 2013

We were supposed to get up earlier today and go to Jenny Lake for a boat ride and hike. Ricardo would like us to be able to leave early each morning, but some of us like to sleep in and the boys take their time in the morning. So, we did our laundry, took showers and found wi-fi instead.  I uploaded the last three days of blogs. The connectivity has been very slooow, so I have only uploaded one photo for each day. I have saved other highlights and hope to upload them soon.

Today is the first day we are staying in the same campsite for more than one night. We stayed in Colter Bay Campsite last night and will again tonight. From here this morning, we drove south along one of the park roads and pulled out at many overlooks and turn-outs. The Grand Teton National Park is exceptional in that Jackson Hole is a huge valley and the mountains rise directly from the valley. The road is along the valley and Snake River; there are no foothills or obstructions in front of the mountains. The Teton Range rises and stretches out fully from north to south. It is so open and majestic, it is very inspiring.

We made our way to South Jenny Lake and took the boat across to hike to see Hidden Falls and Inspiration Point. Hidden Falls are only a half mile in, but with the steepness of the path, they seem miles away. The boys did a fine job of paying attention to the rocky path and we didn’t have any falls.

After three hours hiking and seeing the views, we headed back across the lake. So, it seemed, did the rest of the people hiking in that area, and we had to wait for a boat. The hikers in front and behind us had both been on long hikes, so we heard about the places they had been.

The ferry boat driver had made a recommendation for us to eat what became an early dinner at Dormans in Moose, WY, which was a few miles away. We had a “cowboy style” buffet dinner of lots of “slop and glop” style foods (potatoes, beans, stew, etc). The boys did not like the food, but the view and surroundings were great. We made our way back via the Snake River Outlook, which is the site of the famous Ansell Adams photo of the Grand Teton. We got there late in the day and the light was fantastic. I think Alle and I each took about one hundred photos.

The boys were already planning what ice cream flavors they wanted to try at the General Store back at the campground, so we made our way there. After lots of hiking and running around at every outlook stop (and no naps), the boys have since passed out asleep for the night.

Tomorrow we will leave the park, visit Jackson, WY and make our way to Arco, Idaho and the “Craters of the Moon” National Monument.