Saturday, November 7, 2009 Home again

We had three lovely days at Zion National Park. It has been many years since we’ve been there because it’s a little bit out of the way for us – too far south for our usual route into Utah and too far north for getting into Arizona, and it’s difficult to find a campsite there. But it’s a beautiful park. We drove in from the east and I was struck by the amazing variety of rock formations contained within the park. I think that the east side of the park is more striking than the west, but overall, Zion matches Yosemite easily in the drama of its canyons.

We had to pay $15 to drive the Lazy Daze through the 1-mile-long tunnel in the center of the park. It was never made for big vehicles and when a big rig goes through, traffic must be stopped the other way. So it keeps several park employees busy doing vehicle control. At the end of the tunnel, the driver descends into the valley on several short switchbacks with incredible views. At the campground, there are two loops with electricity, and we got the very last site available, though we had to move the next day because it was reserved. The great thing about the Zion campgrounds is that in the morning and evening, the sun turns the surrounding cliffs an amazingly vibrant shade of orange.

We wanted to do a hike on Friday, and the ranger suggested one on the east side of the park. So we got to drive back through the long tunnel in our spry little Rav4, stopping often to photograph the rock formations. Though they are difficult to photograph, it’s fun to wander around, looking at everything. We took off on our hike under cloudy skies, and though it was a gradual ascent, it wasn’t an inspiring walk. We tired after a couple of miles and decided to turn back. The sun came out during our return and the same trail looked quite different under bright light.

Zion has two roads, accessed by leaving the park, that go into it from the west. On Saturday, We drove the Kolob Terrace Road, which took us past more great rock formations. On the way back, it was mid-afternoon light that lit up the Zion cliffs from a distance. The view, in my estimation, is more spectacular than the close up view from within the valley, because you aren’t looking straight up all the time. We also went down the Zion Canyon Scenic Drive, a road that has so much traffic that cars aren’t allowed on it most of the year. We walked the trail to The Narrows, to the point where the canyon closes in so much that there is no room for a trail, and you must wade through the Virgin River with the high canyon walls looming above. (No thanks!) In summer, waders must be careful of flash floods, because there are few places to scramble up to safety – the cliff walls go straight up. In winter, the water is cold and has some deep spots. A couple of wader-hikers walked out of The Narrows when we were there, and they wore full-body wetsuits with waterproof packs. (No thanks!)

On Monday, we regretfully left Zion and started the long trek across Nevada. After driving 315 miles, we spent the night at a nice rest stop, about 30 miles east of Tonopah, Nevada. The next day, it was a short 150-mile cruise to Lee Vining. We were pleased to be going across the Sierra Nevada on Tioga Pass in Yosemite. The pass is often not open this late in the year. After dropping the RV at a closed gas station, we drove up for a look at Tuolumne Meadows and Olmstead Point. Although dry and brown, it still looked beautiful to me. The next day it was up and over and we ended the day in Merced, with friends Jeff and Betty. They have a lovely home in Merced and the weather was balmy enough to enjoy some wine and goodies in their yard. They are now retired and Jeff spends a lot of time tending his fruit trees and vegetable garden. He then conserves a lot of it, along with other valley produce, making pomegranate juice, jelly and syrup, fig conserves and our favorite – limoncello. (What a heavenly use for lemons!) During breakfast (Jeff made popovers), we were entertained by Mac, their Cockatiel, a gorgeous bird who has a large vocabulary. It was a lovely way to end the trip.

Friday, October 30, 2009

From Needles, we headed south to Monument Valley, a spectacular area, with orange and crimson buttes all over the place. We spent a night in the town of Mexican Hat, a tiny hamlet named after the rock formation above town. We drove around the Valley of the Gods, a dirt-road circuit that meanders past dramatic rock outcroppings. We then ascended the Moki Dugway, a dirt road that switchbacks up a cliff about 1,000 feet in 1 or 2 miles. It was a good thing to do in the Rav4 (the Lazy Daze was safely in the campground). In the 1980’s, we had taken this road in our Chevy Van, although I remember it as being a scary occurrence.

The next day, we moved 30 miles south. On previous trips, we’ve always camped at the Navajo Tribal campground, a flat patch of gravel with few amenities, but absolutely beautiful views. This time, their campground was on the other side of their property, where the views were okay, but there were no facilities – just an uneven patch of dirt and rocks with no picnic tables. The thing is, they hadn’t done anything with the old camp area; it was just sitting there with a “No Camping” sign. Very disappointing. We camped across the highway, at Goulding’s, a guy who developed a small town to accommodate tourists and movie companies who filmed Westerns in the area. There is a museum with a lot of movie memorabilia and John Wayne’s movie cabin is somewhere on the property. We had never stayed there before and were not pleased to pay $42 for the privilege of camping one night, although the campsite was surrounded by beautiful cliffs and included a young black cat. She hung out there most of day, sleeping under a small tree, and climbing it once.

We took the Navajo scenic drive (17 miles of rough dirt roads) around the buttes in the late afternoon light. The clouds had interesting patterns, which enhanced photography. I pitied the tourists who were getting plastered with dust in the open cars that Tag-a-long Tours use. There were absolutely no Porta-potties anywhere (there used to be a couple) but almost every large pullout had natives selling jewelry. (Where do these people pee?) So, although the light became gorgeous as it got lower, my feelings were mixed about the way visitors are treated.

We took a road we had never taken before (there are not many roads in Utah that we’ve never been on) to get to Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park, a location we hadn’t been to for many, many years. When we first went there, it was a quiet, out-of-the-way place with wonderful dunes that aren’t extensive or high, but that are colored a warm orange tone and backed by dramatic multi-colored cliffs. Its camping highlight (to us sand-showered tent campers) was free solar-heated showers in the bathroom.  After some years, we visited and found that over half of the dunes had been set aside for use by off-roaders. Neither the dunes nor the campground was quiet, full of noisy ATV’s.

That wasn’t a problem on this visit. It was very chilly when we arrived, but we went for a solitary walk in the dunes anyway and caught some beautiful afternoon light. It was good that we took that walk, because the next day was gray and really cold. We huddled in our warm little abode all day and I did the Susie-homemaker thing and baked brownies (I thought of you, Don and Janet). The next morning was cold, but sunny, so we went out to the dunes again. It was a nice visit.

Saturday, October 24, 2009

Alamosa, 40 miles from Great Sand Dunes, was the destination for Sunday afternoon. They had a wildlife reserve and I wanted to see if there were any cranes there. I drove out to look and what a disappointment. Not only had the water been drained from most of the land I was driving around, but some areas had been burned. (Draining and burning different areas makes better habitats for various kinds of birds.) I saw about 3 little birds in the entire 6 miles. I declined the idea to make a 4-mile round-trip trek to the Rio Grande River on the hope of seeing more birds. So Alamosa was a bust.

Durango, CO was our next destination. We figured there wasn’t going to be much color left, but Durango, at 6,500 feet, had a lot of cottonwoods in glowing yellow. Unfortunately, Tuesday was not glowing yellow; it was gray with a chance of showers/snow. We drove up the “million dollar highway” (it cost a lot to build the highway through the mountains) to Silverton (9,300 feet high), one of our favorite small towns. Its claim to fame is the Durango-Silverton steam engine train that rises 2,800 feet up through the mountains. Twice a day the train comes in, filled with tourists, who have 60 or 90 minutes to rampage through town, looking for souvenirs and food. We hadn’t been there for years and wandered around town, looking for decrepit old buildings and cute little houses from previous visits. Aside from historical buildings, most of them were gone, either replaced by pre-fab houses or spruced up beyond recognition. The town was also larger, with many new houses.  But the cemetery hadn’t changed much. We splurged on lunch and had the best piece of chocolate cake on the trip (so far). The sun had come out for a while, but a light snow started to fall as we left that turned to rain as we descended towards Durango. We wrang the best we could out of a crummy weather day.

From Durango, we headed directly to our old favorite, the Needles District in Canyonlands. As in the past 2 or 3 trips, the campground was full by the time we got there, so we spent the night at the Needles Outpost, the nice campground right outside the park. On Thursday morning, we were at the Squaw Flats Campground by 9 a.m. and met a nice couple who were leaving. So we got a great campsite. We were feeling a little lethargic so we only went for a 2.5-mile walk in the late afternoon. It was pleasant, but not outstanding, visually.

Friday was going to be our big hike day – 11 miles to Peekaboo Campground and back. (Thank you, Mary P., for making me realize I can hike 11 miles and live.) We took off at 7:30 a.m. and everything looked so good in the morning light. There were glowy cottonwoods, scrub oak in green, russet and brown, and all the red, orange, white and purple rock. We bounced along through canyons and bounded up and down slick-rock formations. It got warm quickly, but it was cool in the shade and there was a lot of rock shadows. We descended into Peekaboo Canyon via a narrow crack between two boulders on a straight vertical ladder with long reaches between rungs. Below that, we had to step backwards down 4 enormous steep rock steps. After another quarter mile, we arrived at the campground. (It’s remote because it is only accessible via a 4-wheel-drive road or a long hike.)

The attraction there is petroglyphs – many handprints, some stylized in a strange way, as well as some oddly shaped figures. So we meandered around the area, envied the couple brought in on a Jeep tour who was going to ride out in comfort, ate lunch and prepared to return back the 5.5 miles to our campground. We hiked through 5 canyons and traversed 4 canyons (hiked around the canyon on slick rock ledges). It wasn’t super hot, but the rock reflects heat and the breeze tailed off to nothing here and there. Around 3:00, I had a meltdown, whining that my knee hurt and I didn’t want to do this anymore. After a sitdown in the shade and a quantity of chocolate, I trudged the last two miles back to campground. Oh, it was so good to sit in my camp chair, sipping on some ice tea, knowing I could take a shower in a few minutes. I love our motorhome.

Back to civilization in La Sal, Utah with Don and Janet Curley. Lucky for us, they had just returned from a trip to California the day we called from  Needles, and welcomed us to their home. It was a quick trip, but we finally got to see the “alleged” Jeep that they have had for a while, but is never around when we’re in town. It is, in fact, an attractive, very high clearance, green Jeep. We caught up with each other and reintroduced ourselves to the cats, Chewy and Spence, who were not particularly happy to see us. (They were still upset that Don and Janet had left them alone – with periodic visits from a neighbor – for a week.) But after dinner, Chewy chose to sit on my lap for a while, which, I was told, is an unprecedented honor. Janet made a fantastic dinner (it tastes so good when somebody else does the cooking) and the evening passed pleasantly. The next morning, we gathered around Franklin the Frog for a group shot in front of their wonderful view of the La Sal Mountains. Then we were on the road again.

Sunday, October 18, 2009

After languishing in Rapid City for another day, we finally made it out and headed south. The roads were mostly dry and not icy – lucky after so much snow and extremely low temperatures. We had a cold weather problem with the RV – the gray water tank was solidly frozen at the external end of the pipe. Dave tried the hair dryer and then chipping away at it, to no avail. Since the campground we stayed at had shut off the water in their showers, and our gray tank was full, there were no showers for us on Tuesday. On the way through Wyoming, we saw enough prairie to last us for a long time, even though it was beautiful covered with a thin layer of snow.

Periodically, plowing through fog and winter haze, we got to Fort Collins, CO in time to get a look at the Center for Fine Art Photography, at which Dave has had a print accepted in one of their shows. The next day, we arranged to meet Paula Sarlls for lunch in Denver. Paula and I met many times over the years while creating and teaching various Customs classes around the country. Retired from Customs and a former woman Marine, she now spends a great deal of time organizing events and fundraising for the Marines. It was nice to see her, if only for a couple of hours.

We continued our run south, spending a wonderful, warm afternoon (80 degrees – hurray!!) in Pueblo, CO and then went over the 9,000 foot La Veta Pass to reach Great Sand Dunes National Park. It is a spectacular place, nestled against the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, with wind patterns creating dunes up to 750 feet high. We walked out into the sand and found that Medano Creek, that usually runs right in front of the dunes, was totally dried out. Too bad, it adds a blue note to the beige and green hues of the dunes. Some of the aspen and cottenwood trees still have golden leaves, but many have already fallen. The color is well past its peak. Oh well.

We got up pre-dawn Friday morning and hiked about a mile from the campground up to some of the dunes. At 8,000 feet, it was cold, but there was almost no breeze at all, which makes slogging up dunes easier. Because the sun is already high in the sky before it rises above the eastern mountains, it seems to just pop up, creating harsh shadows immediately. But it’s still beautiful. We spent the rest of the day lazing about and went out again in the late afternoon. Dave hiked along the top of the dunes but the light wasn’t great. I drove over to nearby San Luis Lakes State Park to see if there were any sandhill cranes there. They are on their southern migration right now and we’d love to see them in numbers. We have been excited to see several flocks of them flying overhead in the past week. But bupkis at the State Park.

Friday night was very windy, so we decided to sleep in Saturday morning. Of course, the morning was not windy at all but we enjoyed the hanging out at the campground and did a part of the hike up Mosca Pass later that day. It was sunny and warm, so different from the last time we hiked up to the pass. What a difference sunlight makes; it elevates my mood so much. We celebrated the return of the sun by drinking the Limoncello, created by Jeff and Betty, given to us by Mary and Rick. Ah, warmth!!

This morning we got up at 6:15 again and headed for the dunes. It wasn’t as cold as Friday morning and we got up to a higher place by sunrise. As Dave puts it, we were “sucking wind”; it’s really hard sloshing up 300 or 400 feet of steep sand dunes. But it’s worth it to see the sun crest the Sangre de Cristo Mountains and progress over miles of dunes. When we got up high enough, we were surprised to see Medano Creek sparkling a little to the north. Usually this shallow but broad creek runs all along the base of the dunes, but a drought year may have dried up a portion of it. After getting back to the RV, we made coffee, and drove closer to where the stream was flowing. It wasn’t terribly photogenic, but it was fun wading around with our coffee cups in hand.

Sunday, October 11, 2009 (BRRRRRRR!!!!!)

O Lord, stuck in Rapid City, again. (Lodi scans better.) It’s snowing this morning and every road south has travel advisories. We’ve done the laundry and grocery shopping, so it’s read, blog, see a movie or hit the mall. Dave doesn’t seem too interested in a Backgammon tournament.

Our Thursday outing was a walk around the lake that is next door to our campground. There were (of course) Canadian Geese and two large white geese. They were probably mated, and they had a weird habit: they would face each other and stretch out their long necks past each other. They let us get pretty close before getting into a threatening mode (feathers ruffled and spread out). Friday was cold and grey; the highlight was seeing Matt Damon in “The Informant!”  It’s a clever little movie that has you going in one direction, then generates a few doubts about what’s really going on and finally turns things around in a big way. It’s worth seeing.

Yesterday, we went out to see Mt. Rushmore. We did manage to get there when the sun peeped out from the clouds, and got a few images recorded. I got cold quickly (it was about 25 degrees at 1:30 p.m.) and went into the cafeteria for some hot chocolate. Dave stayed out another half hour and proved that Washington does have nostrils carved into his face. By the time he came in, the sun had disappeared for the day. Since it was now a dull, gray, cold afternoon, we headed back to Rapid City and the Lazy Daze.

Wednesday, October 7, 2009 (Brrrr!)

We woke up to about an inch of snow on Monday. It was chilly and snowy with gray skies, but we took a 1.3-mile walk around the base of Devil’s Tower. It is an eerie place, with the 867-foot tower jutting out of the prairie landscape. There were many more Indian prayer flags and bundles (bits of bright cloth tied to trees) than we saw the last time we were here. After another chilly night and more snow, we woke up to some blue sky. We again circuited the tower. The snow was melting off the pines and oaks, mostly descending in pellety sprays, but sometimes plopping down in larger splotches. I love the ocean sound of the breeze in the pines. We had to be careful aiming the camera up because you could end up with snow on your lens. Unlike Monday, when nary a prairie dog showed its nose, we passed the prairie dog town near the park campground and the dogs were out in number, mostly eating whatever it is they eat. Some of them have burrows about 2 feet from the roadway, but it doesn’t seem to bother them.

Because another storm was coming in, we drove to Spearfish, South Dakota on Tuesday afternoon. Wednesday was supposed to be the warmest (58 degrees), clearest day of the week and we wanted to drive Spearfish Canyon, which is spectacular in autumn, with lots of deciduous trees that turn yellow and orange. The sun was out and it was pretty nice when we arrived and settled in. The campground owner told us that Mt. Rushmore had so much snow that the electricity had gone out and they closed the monument for part of the day. We were happy we would have a good day in between storms. Deciding that we deserved a treat, we went to the Spearfish Chophouse for dinner and watched a nice sunset while munching on great hamburgers. Wednesday morning, we woke up at 6:30 and found gray clouds obliterating the sun. We were disappointed but we went into Spearfish Canyon anyway, and photographed. Thank heavens we had brought all our cold-weather gear; it was freezing out. The car heater and some big hot chocolates kept us going. And we did catch a glimpse of what we think was a weasel. Dark creatures stand out against the snow.

We’re back in camp and a steady snow is falling. It’s already sticking at 4:30 in the afternoon. I guess we’ll move on to Rapid City tomorrow.  It’s a little lower in elevation and we might see some movies or go to a museum there. This isn’t quite the trip we envisioned, but c’est la vie.

Sunday, October 4, 2009 (Brrr!)

We did another drive of Yellowstone’s upper loop. It had snowed on top of the mountains which provided a different view of the park. The required place to stop was the Nature Trail, which contained our rock. Our rock is a large boulder with a bench directly in front of it. You can either face out and lean on the boulder or face in and contemplate the boulder. We have photographed the rock several times. It was too cold to do much contemplating. We had planned to go most of the way down the east side of the park, but the road was closed around Dunraven Pass because of the snow, so we ate our lunch in the car (it was snowing lightly) looking out at the great valley below us and turned back.

The plan was to go on a hike on Friday because it was going to be a nice day. But Dave wanted to get 4 new tires for the rear of the Lazy Daze and we could get it done Saturday morning and a storm was expected on Sunday, so we decided to get out of Dodge. We drove to Billings, MT and stayed at the first KOA in the country. It was a very nice park, but we were in stock-up mode, getting groceries, doing laundry and trying to fix leaky vents in the ceiling. Saturday, we got our new tires and drove to Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument, in Garryowen (?), Montana. We stayed at a Mom and Pop campground and they were pleased to take possession of the 5-liter box of Chardonnay that was languishing undrunk behind the passenger seat in the Lazy Daze. The monument is in the middle of the Crow Indian Reservation, which added a note of irony. We watched a video produced by the park service that was evenhanded in the way it described the battle, from both the cavalry and Indian viewpoints. There is a 5-mile road that stretches through the various battle sites. The weather was sunny, breezy and cool, but there’s something sad about the area. Lots of small, white gravestones are erected throughout the battlefields, placed where the soldiers and Indians fell.  I couldn’t help thinking that the USA might look really different today if all the immigrants had learned to live peacefully with the Native Americans. Maybe there wouldn’t be strip malls outside of every medium-size town. That would be nice. On the other hand, there was the Indian-run Little Bighorn Casino immediately outside the battlefield.

Today we drove to Devil’s Tower in Wyoming. The rain that was supposed to develop didn’t come in while we were driving, but it was a gray day.

Wednesday, September 30, 2009

On Saturday, we began the drive to Yellowstone. Lots of prairie – rolling hills covered in grass. We ended up in Helena for the night. There was smoke from a nearby fire; Montana has as many fires as California, many of them started by lightning. We continued south the next day and ended up at the Missouri Headwaters State Park. This is the point at which the Gallatin, Jefferson and Madison Rivers converge into the Missouri River. Lewis and Clark were looking for the beginning of the Missouri for quite a while and camped at this spot. We decided to camp there because I had a recommendation that it’s beautiful in low light. After setting up camp (during which I almost stepped on a pretty green and yellow garter snake), we drove around. It’s a narrow strip of a park, with a highway running through it and lots of electric wires strung around. Photographically, it is not magical. Then we found out that there was no water available at all. But we went out at sunset, and found a nice spot to photograph. We got up early the next morning to photograph, and found a chilly, heavy ground fog, creating a spooky, mystical effect.

In very warm weather, we made it down to Gardiner, the town adjacent to the northwest entrance to Yellowstone. We decided to stay in an RV park, which was lucky because the Mammoth Campground in Yellowstone was full. We visited the Mammoth Hot Springs Terraces, and were again surprised at how much things change in three years. Some of the terraces that were wet and beautifully colored are now completely dry and white. Some geysers that were throwing out hot water are now just dry blowholes, rumbling, but not spitting. It was Dave’s birthday dinner and we were enjoying a nice bottle of our favorite Karmere Zinfandel. There was a knock on our door. A campground neighbor said he had seen us “hoisting glasses of wine” and offered us a 5-liter box of Franzia Wine that he said they didn’t care for. Never one to turn down something free, I gladly accepted. After tasting it, I realized I had made a mistake. Since 5 liters is too much even for cooking wine, I will have to find a way to pawn it off on someone else.

Yesterday, on a warm, breezy day with lots of little clouds in the sky, we drove the upper loop of Yellowstone. It’s only 70 miles, but with the many stops we made, it took eight hours. We won’t see Old Faithful or anything in the lower loop. One west side road is closed for construction and one east side road is closed because of a fire that was caused by lightning. The fire isn’t threatening buildings but is large and casting a pall of smoke that drifts here and there depending on which way the wind blows. Driving south, we came up behind a bison, walking gingerly down the middle of the road, ignoring the cars stopping all around him. He looked like his hooves hurt. We stopped by a little stream, attracted by the emerald green grasses growing in the water. And after edging down the steep incline, careful not to get my feet wet, I decided to step on the grass so I could get a better image, and sank a foot into water. I fortunately didn’t lose my balance and get my camera wet. My jeans, shoe and sock all dried pretty quickly, but next time I’ll make sure a spare pair of socks is in the car. We walked around the Norris Geyser Basin, marveling at a small stream that was jello green. We went up to one of favorite spots at the top of Mt. Washburn, but the light wasn’t optimal, with smoke hanging over the valleys. Dave was looking for a grizzly bear, but no go. We did see another huge bison, limping down the middle of the road. He was almost as big as our Rav4.

Last night was balmy, but a big storm was coming in. After some showers last night, we woke up to rain this morning. It’s gotten progressively colder and there now is snow sprinkled on top of the mountains. We’re staying in today and hoping tomorrow is nicer.

Friday, September 25, 2009

On Monday, we drove to the east side of Glacier, about 100 miles away. St. Mary is a very small town next to very large St. Mary Lake. We stayed at the park campground; Mary and Rick stayed at a homey little cabin, “Flat Top”, where the furniture was built by the owners. To celebrate Dave’s upcoming birthday, Mary and Rick took us out to dinner at St. Mary Lodge, a very nice restaurant. We watched the sun go down on the surrounding mountains.

Tuesday was a long 11-mile hike. Mary wanted to see a glacier close up and that meant 5.5 miles out and 1,600 feet up to see Grinnell Glacier. We headed out and about 5 minutes down the trail, we ran into a moose and her calf. They were about 2 feet off the trail, stripping leaves off branches. It was utterly astounding; we are always looking for moose and hardly ever see any, much less two so nearby. After photographing them, we continued down the trail and saw a ptarmigan, a grouse-like bird. Then, 20 minutes later, another moose with a calf. Amazing. We followed the trail past two lakes, then it began to rise and we were in sub alpine country, with meadows of mostly dried flowers and grasses. A lot of the rock in the park is red and purple argillite, which adds color to the landscape. Mary and I mostly trailed behind the guys, and stopped to talk to a ranger, who pointed out some bighorn sheep grazing above the trail. Then, looking down at a series of ledges, we all saw 2 mountain goats, pure white with long serious looking faces. It was a hot day, but when we got to the crest of the ridge and headed down to the glacial lake beneath Grinnell Glacier, it got about 25 degrees cooler with a 35-mile-per-hour stiff wind. After taking the requisite pictures, we got out of there pretty quickly.

The hike back was beautiful, and the light got better as the afternoon progressed, but it was a long slog back. We eventually made it, gratefully got in the car, and headed out of Many Glacier s Valley. We got about 2 miles down the road and saw cars stopped in the road, almost always a sign of nearby critters. A man told us he had just seen a large, brown bear cross the road in front of him. We could see the big bear heading through the bushes near the road, and Dave was pretty sure it was a grizzly. After marveling at that for a while, we saw more cars stopped in the road. We peered around for what they were looking at and discovered a black bear in the middle of a berry covered bush, about 10 feet from the road. It was just thrashing around, eating berries, and looking up once in a while to see what else was going on. It didn’t pay any attention to the 5 or 6 cars all around it. Wow! It was unbelievable to see that much wildlife in one day. And all so close up. We got back to Mary and Rick’s rustic cabin and found it full of flies. A lot of flies. So they killed flies for a while and later joined Dave and me at the Lounge at St. Mary Lodge. I dislike beer, but it sounded good after our long hike, and went well with fish and chips.

Knowing we’d be tired from the hike, Wednesday was designated as the day to drive up Waterton National Park, the Canadian side of Glacier. We went through Canadian Customs and were interviewed by a no-nonsense man. None of us tried to joke with him. Waterton Township is a small town that sits in the park. Its highlight is the Prince of Wales Hotel, a prepossessing structure that sits on a tall hill overlooking Waterton Lake. The Hotel had closed a week or two before, so no high tea for us, just a few pictures of the outside. There are two 10-mile roads going through the park and we took both of them, but were too tired to do much walking. One road ends up at Cameron Lake, another pretty blue lake. Two docks ran out from the shore, establishing a small area of water where people could swim. As we approached, the docks were covered with people with cameras. We looked around to see what was so photogenic, and there, in the middle of the shallow water, was a moose, dipping her head repeatedly into the water to pull up delicious weeds from the lake bottom. Another moose! We also visited the Bison Paddock, a large, fenced area where the bison roam. Fortunately for us, they weren’t roaming. They were all camped right by the road.

We headed back to Waterton Township for ice cream, cold drinks, milk and tomatoes. The grocery stores in these tiny towns are shutting down for the season and have almost no fresh produce and little in the way of dairy products. I don’t know how far the inhabitants have to go for fresh vegetables in winter. Mary was looking for a bookstore and saw the Book Nook in town, but that proved to have little besides tourist guidebooks about Waterton.

We were cooking dinner at the RV, so Mary and Rick dropped us off and went back to their cabin to clean up a little. They were late in returning and when they showed up, told us they had been delayed because they had changed lodging. When they opened the door to their cabin, a couple hundred flies were buzzing around the room. (We had quite a few flies in the RV, but nothing like that.) Yuk! Rather than go on a killing spree, they went to the manager, who said they were having an unusual problem with flies for the season, and offered to move them to another cabin or a room above the café. After looking at the room, Rick said it was creepy, with a doll on the bed “…that looked like Chucky, and might strangle us during the night.” So they changed from their rustic cabin to the St. Mary Lodge, with a television, internet access and coffee in the room. After dinner, we said farewell and saw them off. They will be spending Thursday in East Glacier and will fly home on Friday.

Thursday was a very quiet day. We sat around most of the day, enjoying the heat and reading. We drove up the east side of the Going-to-the-Sun Road. We stopped at Sun Point and walked out to Baring Falls, a pretty waterfall in a shady glade. We didn’t see any critters (other than a squirrel) on our walk, but we did see two far-off bears at two different spots from the road. They are in serious eat mode, not paying much attention to anything else. It is a little nerve-wracking to realize how many bears are out there.

This morning, we rose well before dawn and went to Sun Point, which is on a promontory over St. Mary Lake. The sunrise was beautiful, but quite chilly. Later in the afternoon, we went looking for bears or moose, but came up empty. It appears as if Mary and Rick are the key to seeing large mammals close up. It’s too bad they are not here with us.

Sunday, September 20, 2009

Glacier National Park is spectacular. It’s like a bigger version of Yosemite, with 3,000-foot mountains all around. We went halfway through the park on Friday on Going-to-the-Sun Road. As you drive along the river, you look up and see this little line cutting across a mountain, 2,000 feet up from where you are. That’s the road. It gets exceedingly windy and narrow and people are trying to pull over so they can take pictures. They have apparently been repaving the road for a couple of years. There were 3 or 4 spots where it became a one-lane road and each side waits for cars that are going the other way, to pass. The good part of this is that you get to wait at a place where you ordinarily couldn’t pull over and are treated to long looks at the amazing scenery.

We chose the Highline Trail to walk. It takes off from Logan Pass, which is about halfway along the Going-to-the-Sun Road. The trail is cut right out of the cliff. It’s about 2 feet wide in most places and the drop-off is straight down about 1,000 feet. But it’s beautiful and covered with plants. We progressed easily along the flat walk. About 2 miles out, you see the one, humongous switchback that will take you up about 100 feet to the saddle between a mountain and another 1,000-foot cliff. We reached the saddle, sat down on a big rock and gazed into another spectacular valley. A family was there with a small girl and a baby. On the way back down, the little girl offered us each the tiniest wild strawberries we’ve ever seen. Wonderful. When we began the walk, there were places in deep shadow, but the sunny parts were pleasant. On the return, the shadows were all gone and the sun was in our face. It was hot! One anomaly about the sun here is that it seems to be incredibly bright. Maybe it’s the clear air or the time of year or just my perception, but the light is intense. We brought enough water for the hike, but had drunk almost all of it and planned to get more at Logan Pass Visitor Center when we returned. Nope. The Center closed 15 minutes before we got back, and they had turned off the water for the season, so nothing, not even a vending machine. Kind of silly, we thought, to plan for frozen pipes when the weather was so hot. Little did we know…

Saturday was another beautiful day. We took a shorter hike to Avalanche Lake. There was a vivacious little stream and we walked on a shady, forested trail. Avalanche Lake was spectacular, with three long, long waterfalls cascading into it.  The lake was placid; barely a ripple on the water’s surface. We ate lunch and then, as if somebody turned on a fan, the wind began and waves began to hit the shore. A quick change.

We headed back to camp to meet up with our friends, Mary and Rick. They flew in for a week and we’re going to see Glacier together. Their rental was a really nice Kia Sorento, a big car that accommodated the four of us nicely. We drove to Kalispell for pizza at a place with sawdust and peanut shells on the floor. (I’ve forgotten the name.) Beer is an important facet of Montana culture; there’s Moose Drool, Wheatfish and Trout Slayer, among others.

It began clouding up on Saturday and Sunday was very cloudy. At the Glacier entrance station, they told us that Logan Pass was closed because snow had fallen the night before. This was disappointing to Rick and Mary because Logan Pass was closing for the year on Sunday night and they wouldn’t be able to drive over the entire road to the east side of the park. We headed up towards Logan Pass anyway. It began to sprinkle intermittently, but the variable combinations of clouds, sky and sun were spectacular. We took a short walk at The Loop, a hairpin turn in the road, and the colors of everything were rich and saturated. Photography-wise, bad weather can be better than good. Since it was chilly and rainy, we stopped at the Lake McDonald Lodge, a great old building, and had some drinks. Rick and Mary rented a nice cabin in Hungry Horse, with a big refrigerator and stove, so we ate dinner at their place. The kitchen was missing bowls, glasses or a frying pan; when they asked the owner why, she said they were new at this; i.e. renting their cabin. I guess it never occurred to them that people might want to eat cereal or fry an egg.