Wild West Day 13 October 3

Up early and out of pricey campground and in to Zion Park campground; lovely site with red cliffs in background for $16.

Took the shuttle up to Temple Of Sinawava. Excellent idea; large busses with open ceilings and big windows stopping at eight different beautiful spots, mostly trailheads. You can ride, ride and walk, walk up and ride back, or even ride up and bike back.

We took a couple of beautiful trails and many beautiful pictures. Here is flora we encountered:

Some fauna:

And some amazing landscapes:

On our walk back from the shuttle stop/Visitor's Centre, we encountered five muledeer:

We hung out at this beautiful campsite, then went for a bike ride where we encountered a tarantula (or some other giant, ugly, fuzzy spider. Alas, no camera.

BUT, here's the view from my chair.

Wild West Day 12 October 2

Good sleep (we think we heard owls). In the morning, we DID hear a lot of gunshots (amongst the sounds of cows and horses). You can't buy liquor on Sundays in this pious state, but you can hunt!

Went to a Walmart (even there, mountains in the distance) and headed further south on a rather bouncy Interstate being repaired. Lots of RVs heading south and Alberta plates on transports. A busy road. We stopped at a Flying J (truck stop) with a Petting Zoo (go figure).

The only wildlife we've seen this day are hawks soaring, perching on irrigation systems or dead on the sides of the highways. Lots of mesquite and sagebrush, reminding us of Texas.

Cute sign “Loose Slots in Virgin River”. Imagination people!

Uneventful drive until we hit the Kalob Canyon Visitors Center of Zion. Took the 5 mile ride through the breathtaking canyons. Like a little gift after hours of nothing.

And the icing was three turkeys wishing us farewell.

Highway 9 was a gorgeous road east. Got gassed up and headed to Springdale, at the entrance to Zion. Lots of tourist shops (and many tourists). Once again, no room at the cheap National Park campground, so at the Quality Inn RV Park (for $40...we're too cheap for this; AND the wifi is pooched). But we're surrounded by red cliffs, so it's beautiful.

We took the shuttle, scoped out tomorrow and settled in.

Here's the gorgeous view from my chair:

Wild West Day 11 October 1

Early start slowed down by the appearance of a bull moose and two cows “in our backyard”, within feet of our MH. Wow. Sad to leave this pretty place.

On our way out of Jackson Hole, we saw a corral of beautiful horses with a Taxidermy sign. Yewww...

We drove through the Star Valley with its horse ranches and log homes. Very picturesque especially with the Fall colours everywhere. The Silver Birches are bright orange!

We saw our first milk cows in days, and low and behold, there was a Cheese Factory right there (and we indulged!).

In the Salt River Pass, we saw a herd of domestic sheep with a proper cowboy (sheepboy?) on horseback. There were many horse trailers on the side of the road, so we knew many were riding these ranges.

At 12:22, we hit Idaho, Cassie's 19^th state. We took a very Continental drive on the Oregon Trail (Montpelier, Ovid, Paris). In Paris, we saw our first (of many?) Mormon Tabernacles, a beautiful 1888 building.

At 1:21, we hit Utah, Cassie's 20^th state!

We had lunch overlooking Bear Lake (beautiful colours), then continued on the windng, super scenic road full of bikers (Kirk, you would have loved this!).

In the valley, we drove with sheer cliffs on both sides of us and sped through the gently falling leaves of the cottonwoods everywhere. Really picturesque with people fly fishing.

Once we hit highway 15, it was just interstate and cities (like Farr West; funny, huh?). The mountains are only on the left and in the distance. We could see many more tabernacles in each town then the big one in Salt Lake City (from the highway of course).

Even though we're heading to Las Vegas (according to the roadsigns) I don't think we'll make it. Though we got to Provo and the Lakeview Campground. Lots of driving, but few pictures today.

But, here's the view from my chair.

Wild West Day 10 September 30

Up early with no grizzly attacks! Enjoyed the misty sunrise.

Headed back in to the park and were greeted by an elk (love those elks).

AND by a buffalo very close to the road. In fact, David had to yell at a guy walking ahead of the charging buffalo to get the hell out of the way. The buffalo showed his strength with a shaking off of water and a pee for the camera.

We saw beautiful waterfalls.

We stopped at a Geyser Basin and saw many, many small geysers bubbling away. Large birds turned out to be Sandhill Cranes.

We got to Old Faithful in time for the Ranger's talk, eavesdropping on two Vietnam War vets and front row seats. It was amazing to see the action, at 11:58 on the dot. Small bursts of steam and water building and building in to the big spout. It was so worth it!

On our way south out of the park, we crossed the Continental Divide three times! AND saw some Grey Jays.

We saw snow in the mountains (Grand Tetons) for the first time in Colter. Exciting. Our drive had the Grand Tetons on our right being paralleled by the Snake River and some beautiful ranches. We could see the plumes of a forest fire (planned according to the radio) near Jackson.

We got to the Gros Ventre (for the big bellies the Northwest Fur Company saw on the starving Native Americans they found living there).

An amazing campground on the Gros Ventre River across from an Elk Reserve. After setting up, we rode our bikes and came upon a crowd of people taking pictures of a bull and cow moose lying in a closed campsite. Great pics. Great day.

Here's the view from my chair (more grizzly-proof dumpsters!):

Wild West Day 9 September 29

Laundry done last night, so happy to set off for new adventures. After Walmart, we continued west towards Yellowstone.

It was a new, strange landscape, full of small mounds, almost like pyramids. At 9:00, we had our first view of the Bighorn Mountains, so exciting.

In Buffalo, we reached 4,500 feet. We hit the Powder River Pass (our PPPPP Pass for Powder, Pass, Puke, Poop and Pill-the final three for the cat!).

The mountains and our own climbs were breathtaking. We saw a herd of cattle strung out along a road at Leigh Creek.

There were signs everywhere telling us of the name of the rocks we were seeing. We DID stop in Ten Sleeps for bread, as recommended by Jerry from the Oreville campground-yum). THEN all of a sudden, we were through the mountains and the land was flat. Worland had acres of cattle corrals AND was a kitty litter producer (go Worland!).

We noticed “Junkvilles” everywhere. We thought they were mobile home “slums” then realized it was likely cheaper to keep your old cars, trucks and metal things than to transport them across this vast state.

At the Greybull Rest Area, we saw an air plane museum with “Royal Canadian Air Force” written on one. We saw “Cassie's Bar and Lounge” in Cody.

We entered Yellowstone at 4:10 with assurances that the campground had spaces. So we set off. We wanted to “hurry” so didn't take pics of the very accommodating buffalo, but did stop to see our first geyser.

We got to the campsite and were angry there were no spaces. So, on our way to Montana (cat's 18^th state) wwe DID stop for our first viewing of elk.

We found a good site, signed the waiver that we knew grizzlies were in the area, and settle for the night.

Here's the view from my chair (near the grizzly-proof dumpsters!):

Wild West Day 8 September 28

The theme today is “Avoiding Arses and Asses”!

Early start with the elk crying to awaken us!

Headed to Custer State Park. You may have noticed that our previous buffalo pics were of their “arses”, so we were thrilled to find many more on the road between Wind Cave and Custer FACE FIRST! First arses avoided:

THEN, as told through the literature, we were met with the Custer State Park donkeys (thus the Asses). Cute but demanding and we complied with no feeding despite their cute faces.

We headed to the Buffalo Corral to see the results of the CSP Buffalo Roundup from Monday (1,500 from the CSP herd were rounded into corral; we COULD have gone and will another year).

Met the Park Ranger who's responsible for the roundup and had a great talk. Took some pics of the corrals then were able to see the buffalo in the huge paddocks where they were awaiting sorting, branding, selling, etc. An amazing site.

We thought we might stay the night, but weren't too pleased with information and few spaces, so headed in to Wyoming.

Though we saw many Pronghorns, the buffalo became Angus cattle. We passed our first Holiday Rambler MH like ours (waving and smiling). We saw oil pumps, a huge cattle corral made of auto tires,  and coal mining in Newcastle (of course). At one pont, we were in the middle on highway with and airport on our left and a railway on our right. We started seeing fields of horses.

This was mostly a flat landscape with oil pumps as far as the eye could see.

Oh, just in case you didn't know, the West is full of casinos, EVERYWHERE!

It was a long drive, but we enjoyed the balance of nature and moving further West. We ended up in Gillette, at the Crazy Woman Campground. Say no more...

Here's the view from my chair (okay, they're not REAL eagles!):

Wild West Day 7 September 27

It was a cool morning in Oreville, but we loved the site. As we headed further south, we saw two turkeys to start our day.

We had heard about the George S. Mickelson Trail, a rail trail just made for biking.

We got on the trail about 5 miles from Custer State Park and enjoyed the easy ride. 

We went south, returned then headed north and were able to see the Crazy Horse Memorial in the sunlight. Not a lot seems done since we were here 15 or so years ago, but it was a lovely site.

After our 7 mile ride, we drove to Wind Cave National Park, below Custer SP. Prarie Dogs welcomed us and we decided to stay in the campground there ($12).

After lunch, we head out on the scenic drive. And it was. We saw buffalo near and far and more Pronghorns. It was easy to pull over and see the buffalo fairly closely. They were mostly bulls, so we were advised to keep some distance. Lots of great photos; here are  few:

Back at the campground, we met and chatted with a couple from Milwaukee then decided on a rare campfire. I walked up on the ridge and rousted some Muledeer who head down within feet of David at the site.

We enjoyed dinner and the fire and were serenaded all night by the Elk calling nearby.

Here's the view from my chair: