On the road

8/23/07 through 8/31/07 Onward to West Yellowstone.
We arrive at the Grizzly RV Park in West Yellowstone and begin our whirlwind consumption of Yellowstone Park. We visited and hiked and absorbed almost all of the spectacle of Yellowstone. It is truly a gem of American pride. Fortunately, we were there at the tail end of the heavy tourist season. We did run into many Europeans on holiday. Yellowstone Park is an amazing piece of earth! I’ve never seen such sights as boiling mudpots, steaming pools of unbelievably gorgeous colors, Monument Geyser, and of course, Old Faithful. I think that I have seen enough bison to last me for the rest of my life, though.

8/25/07 Jim let me choose the activities for the day, so I booked a horseback ride. Our riding partners live in Austrailia, originally from Wales & Transylvania.

Our guide, Paul, was a real cutie. His dog was along for the ride. Cutest dog I’ve ever seen. A smiley beagle and shepherd mix. See all pics.

8/21/07 Grand Teton National Park
Spent one night at a Teton Village RV park. Had an extraordinary hike to Taggart Lake and back. I broke out in song at least three times “America! For spacious skies….God shed his grace on thee…”
We soaked our tired feet in the cool waters of Taggart Lake. See the pics.

Quenched our thirst at the lodge in Moose, within Teton Park. Excellent view of the Grand Tetons from their picture windows. I discovered Moose Drool! See pics.

Leaving Jackson Hole, we stopped at the National Museum of Wildlife Art. I want to have a house built by the same artisan that built this museum.

8/22/07 Next stop, Colter Bay Campground within the Grand Teton National Forest. Great, huge campground with a gorgeous lake. Spent one night there and sucked all the glory that we could from our short time there.

We tried to hike to Emma Matilda Lake but couldn’t find it, then on our way out the next day, we took a drive to Two Oceans Lake and saw grizzly bears, a sow and 3 cubs. Quite a site. We were all alone with them right next to our Jeep. See pics here.

8/19/07 On to Dubois, WY, KOA with the largest cast metal moose I’ve ever seen. Spent a couple of days at the park. The only venture out was to the one and only grocery store that had mostly bare shelves. We did participate in the chuck wagon dinner and cowboy show at the old log home on the KOA lot. The food was cowboy inspired and the entertainment was a cowboy singing cowboy songs.

Our friends Bill & Debbie, that we met at the Worland Bluegrass Fest, came out to visit us at the KOA in Dubois.

8/21/07 So we head on out the Togwetee Trail to Teton Village in Jackson Hole, WY. The trail had a personality of its own. There was major road reconstruction along the way and at one of the stops we were met by a cowboy that presented us with a music cd and history of the Togwetee Trail. The cd turned out to be a polished piece of art. It entertained us all the way to Jackson Hole, similar to an episode of Hee Haw!

Monday, August 13, 2007
One night in Estes Park, CO
Not to be missed. Major beauty, major charming cabins along the river. We would like to return at a later date to spend more time there. View all pics.

Tuesday, August 14, 2007
Drove through Loveland, CO, through Cheyenne, WY and settled in a Laramie, WY KOA for one night. Took a bike ride. Not much going on in Laramie. View all pics.

From Laramie to Casper, WY for one night. Again, not much going on in Casper.

Thursday, August 16, 2007
We arrive in Thermopolis, WY through Wind River Canyon. What a gorgeous drive through Boysen State Park. We would have loved to stay there in one of their numerous campgrounds on the lake, but had no cell service. Can’t go without that, ya know.

Thermopolis was a treat. We had never even heard of the city. They boast that they have the largest hot springs mineral baths in the world. We experienced the free municipal pool. You can stay for only 20 minutes. It soothed our aching muscles and joints (we’re old!)

8/17/07 We really lived it up while in the area. We went to a Bluegrass & barbecue festival in Worland. Met the nicest people there. Heard outstanding bluegrass from The Krüger Brothers (from Switzerland) and John Reischman and the Jaybirds. One of the barbecue contestants (from Denver) used a pink pig smoker using manufactured wood pellets. He said that he had competed in Tulsa at the Harwelden barbecue cook-off. I asked him if he knew our neighbor John Klein…
As we were leaving the festival we met one of the barbecue judges. Bill Guthrie and his lovely wife, Debbie, live in Dubois, WY. More on them later.

8/18/07 Another hoot event was the demolition derby in Thermopolis. That is THE event of the season for those folk. The whole town comes out to see and celebrate the demolition derby. We had a front row observation stance at the fence and we were pelted with large clods of earth from the frenetic cars smashing each other to a compacted piece of unresponsive metal. See demolition pics.

See all Thermopolis pics.