June 8, 2022, Wednesday. Travel to Evergreen

 We leave the hotel in Dubois, Wyoming and stop at the Village Cafe for breakfast. When we walk in, the dining room is empty, but soon others come in. They serve an ample breakfast.

The drive to Evergreen is uneventful. We drive through forest, up and down hills, cross the continental divide twice, and pass many ranches with the gate erected over the entrance. We see grazing cattle and numerous prongo antelope, and as we come down the mountain approaching Evergreen we see two bighorn sheep.

We drive through mountain areas that have been burned by the forest fires of the past few years, but the scenery is beautiful.

We are greeted warmly by Judi and Ralph Nafziger and have a good evening together, sharing a tasty meal and visiting as the conversation shifts from one subject to another. Before the evening is over, I log on to the American Airlines website and check in for tomorrow’s flight. It says the flight is on time.

 

June 7, 2022, Tuesday. Grand Teton National Park

Teton Range at sunrise

The day begins with an early morning trek outside to where the mountains of the Teton Range are visible. It is already getting light, but the official sunrise, 5:42 am, is still a half hour away. The hope is to see the sun rise on the mountains, lighting up the peaks first, then move down to the base, perhaps with some sunrise color added. But the sky is overcast, not much hope of a spectacular sunrise.

As time goes on, there is an occasional speck of pink in the sky or on a mountain. The clouds are slowly giving way to a clear sky. Some peaks in the back of the range are now bright white, but not the big ones in front, the Grand Teton, Moran Peak, and others. After about an hour of standing there in the 40+ degree air, the big peaks are reasonably lit up as well.

Even though the sunrise does not meet our hopes, the mountains are still majestic. It is not long until the peaks are bright white against a bright blue sky highlighted by white clouds.

Hidden Falls, Grand Teton NP

We eat breakfast and depart for Jenny’s Lake, where we board a shuttle boat for a ten to fifteen minute ride across the lake to a trail that goes up the mountain to “Hidden Falls,” a waterfall fed by melting snow. It is about one-mile round trip, and soon we are back on the shuttle boat returning to the parking area.

As we drive through the park, we are repeatedly drawn to the beauty of the snow-covered peaks that continue to cast their spell over the park.

Our next destination is Mormon Row. Settlers, many of them members of the Mormon faith, responded to the Homesteading Act of 1862 and at least 27 families moved to area in the 1890’s. The Act promised anyone living on their 160 acres for five years would gain clear title to the land. The soil was fertile, but water remained a problem, and the settlers left the area by the mid-twentieth century. The area has been incorporated into the Grand Teton National Park and the National Park Service chose to preserve the remaining buildings because of their historical value.

We leave the park and begin our drive to Denver, where we will fly out in two days. We are lodged in a small hotel in the town of Dubois (pronounced “dew’-boys”) Wyoming, a town with population 971. It is a sleepy little town with the charm of cowboy culture. It is also the home of the National Big-horn Sheep Interpretive Center, dedicated to provide public information about the life and habitat of native big-horn sheep. We learn that the Dubois area claims to be home to the largest population of big-horn sheep in America. We visit the center and drive into the countryside to see of we can see any of the sheep, but to no avail.

June 6, 2022, Monday. Yellowstone NP, Day 2

Why is it a problem to find breakfast, if the hotel does not offer it? That is our experience again today. We finally locate a grill in a lodge in the park with food that can loosely be called a breakfast. Then it is off to begin the day’s adventures.

It is a rainy morning, and cool, temperatures in the 40’s, raising doubts about our activities for the day, since many of them are outside. But by mid-morning the rain lets up even though there are still dark clouds visible. By afternoon the sky is a beautiful blue with fluffy white clouds.

Our first stop is just inside the park at the Mammoth Hot Springs. The water and steam coming out of the ground contains minerals and the minerals eventually form large mounds of what looks like multi-colored rock.

We are told that much of Yellowstone National Park is a caldera, a former volcano that collapsed into itself after it erupted. The Yellowstone caldera is about 40 miles across, and within that area the molten lava is near the surface and heats ground water to boiling. When the pressure builds up, it sends up a geyser of water and steam, or in some cases emits steam steadily. There are bacteria and algae that live in the water and form the different colors.

From Mammoth we head to the Norris Geyser Basin, about 20 miles down the road. There again we see numerous steam vents and small geysers that “spout off” occasionally.

Finally we drive towards our destination for the evening, Grand Teton National Park. Along the way, we stop occasionally for pictures of the scenery, and encounter more geyser basins and steam vents. Bison are ever-present and we sighted our first wolves and a bald eagle. Our first views of  the Teton Range are stunningly beautiful against a deep blue sky with its white clouds.

We arrive at our hotel destination near Jackson Lake before normal check-in time, but the room is ready and we are given the key.

It is mid-afternoon, time for at least one activity in the area. We decide to drive up Signal Mountain, a nearly 8,000 foot “hill” that is believed to be volcanic material that was deposited by the eruption of the Yellowstone volcano. It is now a lookout point with amazing views of the surrounding area, including the snow-covered Tetons.

We return to our hotel, get dinner at the grill, and relax for the evening.

June 5, 2022, Sunday. Yellowstone NP, Day 1

We get breakfast at 6 am because we want to get to Old Faithful before the crowds. We do not try to sign in to our home church service by Zoom because previous attempts were not successful. So for today, our worship will be enjoying God’s creation.

On the way into the park, we see a lighted sign, “Animals in the road.” We come to the entry station, show our identification and prepaid lifetime senior pass, and continue in. Before we go far, we see ahead of us a line of cars, sometimes moving slowly, sometimes stopping. Then we see a herd of bison, mothers and babies, walking down the road and blocking traffic. After about 20-30 minutes, we are able to pass the herd and go on to our destination, the Old Faithful geyser.

We do not know the time of the eruption because the Visitors Center does not open until 9 am, and we arrive at 8. We soon learn the eruption is expected at 7:58 +/ – ten minutes, and it has not yet erupted. It is starting to gurgle, however, a sign that an eruption is immanent, and within five minutes, the eruption starts, much to our enjoyment. It lasts a few minutes, then slows to wispy steam. It is a cool morning in the 40’s, so the amount of steam there and other places is perhaps more than usual.

We walk around the area viewing the various steam jets, until the visitors center opens and we get some information. Then it is back in the car, stopping at several active “basins” of colored pools and active geysers and springs. They are quite remarkable.

We leave the area of geysers and steam pools and drive to Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. First the north rim with its view points of the lower falls and the Yellowstone River, then the south rim with its viewpoints of the upper falls and Artists Point. Not as big and grand as the Grand Canyon in Arizona, but no less beautiful.

The walls of the canyon are hues of yellow and red, giving the name Yellowstone to the river and the park. It comes from the native American name for the river meaning “yellow rock river.” The red and yellow hues are the result of sulfur and iron in the rocks and oxidation when the rocks are exposed.

From the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, we drive to the Lamar Valley, a plain where the Lamar River flows through and one can observe animals in their natural habitat. The area has been called the “Serengeti of Yellowstone.”

Most numerous are the bison, and it is calving season. We also see several grizzlies, a black bear, elk, and several prongo antelope.

By now it is time to check in to our hotel in Gardiner, Montana. After we check in, we begin looking for a place for dinner. The first place recommended to us was closed “due to staff shortage.” The second place we tried was to open at 5 pm, by now it is 5:15 and no one in sight. A place across the street does not have a good report by a couple who was there last night, so we do not go there. A hotel restaurant beside it is not open Sundays. So we end up at a place that serves mostly burgers, get our food, and sit outside to eat. We have elkburgers, and they are quite tasty.

June 4, 2022, Saturday. Travel day

 We leave the hotel early with a few things from the breakfast buffet. As we drive north towards Yellowstone National Park, we notice definite changes in the landscape. Arizona and southern Utah are highland desert, due to the lack of rain. Large portions of the land are unproductive and grow mostly sagebrush and cactus. That changes noticeably as we travel north. There are green fields and cattle grazing in large, fairly level meadows. Snow covered mountains are seen on all sides. We cruise up the interstate highway where the speed limit is 80, and cars still pass us.

As we near the town of West Yellowstone, there is some rain on the windshield, the first we have had on this trip. More rain is forecast for tomorrow.

We arrive at our hotel in West Yellowstone about 3:30 pm, do some laundry in the motel laundry, and go to find our evening meal.

June 3, 2022, Friday. Canyonlands and Arches

Canyonlands National Park

 We enter Canyonlands National Park about 9 am. As usual, we stop at the Visitors Center for any information that might be helpful and then drive through the park. As the name suggests, Canyonlands is a park with many canyons. Our first destination is the end of the twelve-mile scenic drive, Grand View Point. The road runs along a long, narrow plateau with the canyons on either side. We hike an additional 0.9 mile to the furthest point for better views.

It is difficult to imagine how the forces of nature could erode and carve out the vast areas that they have, even considering the length of time it has been. Freezing and thawing causes cracks, rain washes the loose material away, in addition to erosion is caused by running water, such as rivers and rain and runoff.

Canyonlands National Park

At the end of a side road is Upheaval Dome, a large crater whose origin is debatable. Some think it is a salt dome that collapsed, others think it is the result of a meteor that hit the earth.

Soon after we are in the park we meet a couple from St Louis and engage in conversation about where we have been, where we are going, etc. They say they were in Arches National Park yesterday, we say we are not going there because we visited Arches several years age, besides we have not pre-registered for timed entry. They say they went after 5 pm when the park officially closes, but the park never really closes. They say they went in without being stopped. And Arches is only a few miles from our way to Canyonlands.

Knowing that, we decide to visit Arches in the evening if we finish Canyonlands in time. So that is how we came to visit Arches National Park, even though we had not planned to. After leaving Canyonlands we drive to Moab. Our plan is to eat dinner in Moab, then go to Arches. But first we had another matter to take care of.

Canyonlands National Park

Arches National Park

Our rental vehicle began to display a message that maintenance is needed, and the message covers part of the dash information that we want to see. I google the task but do not understand the instructions. So I consult Google maps to find a garage. I walk in, it is about 4:30 pm. There are three men sitting in the front “office,” one with his feet up on a desk, just chatting. I greet them and tell them my problem. They don’t know either how to turn off the warning. Finally one of them comes out to the car with me and gets in the driver seat to see if he can find a solution. He is not getting very far. I step into the shade, because the temperature is in the mid 80’s, and I decide to google the problem again. There is a YouTube video about it so I bring it up, but I can’t get the sound to work. I watch the video for a short time without sound, then I walk over to the car to show the video to the mechanic, maybe it will be helpful to him. He says, “I think I got it.” I hear someone talking so I ask, “What is that voice?” He says, “It is from your phone, you just googled it.” It turns out, the audio is connected to the car radio by Bluetooth. I have the video, he has the audio and is already following the directions. Sure enough, the problem is solved.

Arches National Park

After a delicious dinner in Moab at a Thai restaurant, we head to Arches. The gate is open and no one is in the fee booth. The park is no exception with its interesting and impressive formations, all of them red sandstone. We note the difference with the parks we have visited that they tend to consist of huge canyons and cliffs whereas Arches seems to have more individual formations, and many of them have been giving names, such as Balanced Rock, Three Gossips, Garden of Eden, Parade of Elephants, etc. We drive through the park and return to the hotel as night was coming.

June 2, 2022, Thursday. Kodachrome Basin State Park, Capitol Reef National Park

This morning our first adventure is to find breakfast. We go back to the restaurant where we ate dinner last night, they said they open at 7 am. We walk across the street, try to open the door, it is locked. We wait a while for someone to come and open up, it does not happen, so we determine our best bet is to look for another restaurant. We go back to our room, finish putting our bags in the car, and begin to drive. Near the end of the town, there is a sign that says breakfast. We inquired and were directed to a Sinclair station next door that has coffee and has a breakfast menu. We wonder what it is about Sinclair gas stations that they also provide breakfast? We go it and find a limited menu but we find something we can be satisfied with, and soon we are eating.

Next stop is Kodachrome Basin State Park just a few miles down the road. We read that they have some unique formations and it is overall a beautiful spot. The unique formations are called sand pipes. There are also other sandstone formations that make a visit worthwhile. After about an hour and a half we move on.

The drive to Capitol Reef National Park takes about two and a half hours. We take route 12 and stop at the Kiva Koffee House for a coffee and a raspberry pastry. Route 12 has been described to us as scary because of the curves and ups and downs and occasional narrow roads as it crosses a 9.000 foot mountain. So we brace for the worst. In the end, it was not as bad as expected.

The area that is now Capitol Reef was formed by the convergence of two geologic plates, which pushed some parts of the land higher than others, and erosion by water and wind wore away the softer stone and left the harder parts, which is what we see. There are a couple unpaved roads for cars that go deeper into the formations than most roads go, so it was a treat to be able to go in among the rocks, which would normally only happen when hiking.

Again we are awed by the huge rock formations of many different sizes and shapes. When we have seen what we can see without hiking by foot, we leave the park and drive towards our hotel for the night, a drive of two and a half hours.