Rocky Mtn National Park

Well time has flown by this last week. It was a week ago already since we picked Pat up at Denver International airport amidst HIGH security. In fact so much so that in the 45 minutes in took for me to run into the terminal and wait for her to come through customs Chris spent the whole time sat outside in the unloading zone in the RV without seeing a single person, getting hassled, getting moved on...never mind planting a bomb he'd have had time to build one!! Still it suited us - we'd already caused a commotion when we tried driving into the arrivals area that only had a 9ft 6" clearance. Not ideal if we wanted to hold onto our new roof paint job and the much needed aircon units!

Spent a couple of days in a State park right in the Denver metro area. Great place called Cherry Creek and gave Pat a chance to acclimatise since Denver is at 5500 feet and we were only planning on going higher in the coming 2 weeks, plus it was HOT (although I hear that 90-100 degrees is no big deal even for England of late!)

Now we are in Rocky Mountain National Park. A cooler 7500 feet, and giving Pat a whole 4 days to acclimatise we beasted her on a 3.5 hike up to just over 10,000 feet! Luckily the views were worth it! No peace for the wicked or our guests we've just done another 4 hour hike today. It's a greta place - rather predictable weather it seems - the storm clouds come in about 1-2pm and you have to watch out for lightening on higher ground. Still it's now 7pm and a beautiful evening - Chris better have that BBQ underway.......

Custer State Park & Jewel Cave

Have based ourselves out of Custer State Park www.sdgfp.info/parks/Regions/Custer/custersp.htm for the last 4 days - what a great place! Really huge park and so much to do! It's nestled in the Black Hills of South Dakota and there are heaps of trails and wildlife.

We had a super-busy day on Thursday. Got up just before dawn and rode out to a trailhead to hike up Harney Peak - at 7242ft it's the highest peak between the Rockies and the Pyrennes - amazing to think there's nothing in between as it's not really all that high is it?! Some gorgeous views though across the hills and the back side of the hill with Mt Rushmore on it. Sat there and ate some breakfast before heading back down - I think we must've been the first ones up there that morning - not really to beat the crowds but we were so concious of wanting to beat the heat! Were back at the trailhead by 9am!

Next stop was a drive out to Jewel Cave National Monument. The 2nd longest cave system in the world (alledgedly!) - Over 5 levels and 200 miles of passages - COOL Huh?! We were booked on a Spelunking tour at noon. Now I think this is what I'd previously called pot-holing. Perhaps it's called something different over here. To 'test' out ability we had to crawl through a 8.5 x 24 inch concrete block to make sure we wouldn't get stuck down the cave later! and off we went. It was only the 2 of us on the tour so we had out own private guide! The tour was supposed to last anything from 3-4 hours. Coz it was just us, and that we're so super fit(!?!!!?) we were done in 2.75 hours but I must say it's exhausting stuff! Great, great fun. Lots of crawling, climbing and we were completly covered in black mud (the quickest way to ruin a pair of jeans and t-shirt I know!) Awesome! Saw lots of really cool, rare rock features - balloons, boxwork and lots of other stuff that has complicated names! Cyrstal Caves is so named for all it's calcite deposits which are very crystal looking.

Finally that day we had tickets for a performance of 'Fiddler on the Roof' at the Black Hills Playhouse www.blackhillsplayhouse.com. What a show! I've never seen it before but of course recognised some of the music striaght away. It was hot! (old building and no aircon) but who cares. And it was only 10 minutes walk from our campsite so just a brilliant end to a brilliant busy day!

Had some lazy time at Custer too - lots of nice roads around. Not suitable for RV's (height restrictions of just 10ft in some tunnels that have been carved out of the rock and funky spiral bridges) so we've been out on the bike a lot. It's been incredibly hot so we've been doing some short hikes and all before 9am. The afternoons we just tend to flake out before the evening coolness comes round and perks us back up again! (it was 109 degrees yesterday!)

The Badlands

Just spent the last 2 days in the South Dakota Badlands - what a awesome and weird place! We drove via Wall Drug Store - this is 'famous' in SD mainly coz it's decided to put up about a zillion bill boards along the side of the main interstate advertising the shop for miles and miles. Quite touristy now but full of just everything! Including moose antlers!!

The Badlands themselves are served by a nicely located scenic loop road taking in many great sights and viewpoints. We took a slow drive along the road before stopping our first night in the park campground. We went out on a 'night prowl' with a ranger listening to all the critters and watching the stars. It was a full moon so it was really clear and bright and the moonshine on the rock formations was really cool and eerie.

Got up before dawn to ride out and take some photos of the sunrise. This early morning thing we've been doing quite a lot of lately. It was initially a shock to the system but now it's really the best time of the day. It's still cool then and there just isn't anyone else about. It's great in the national parks as it's so peaceful and empty and you actually have a chance to hear silence and appreciate your surroundings.

The day was simply too hot to do our planned 10 mile hike so without too much dissappintment(!) we rode out to the Minuteman II Missle site. It's one of America's newest National sites and the only one dedicated to the cold war era. We toured the bunker and missle launch control centre - very interesting stuff - we got our own personal tour since the standard tours were booked solid - we'd got chatting to a guy who volunteered there and he'd lived in Witney in UK! Chatted some more and he said he'd take us out to the site for our own tour - great guy and so much more interesting as he'd worked as a missle control person in SD in the 70's so had so much knowledge.

Last night we camped out in the wilderness. You can tent camp anywhere in the park so long as you're not visible from the road which is easy with all the rock formations. Another clear bright night we laid out and watched shooting stars and listened to all the critters nearby (and praying I didn't have a 'james bond' moment and wake up with a snake slithering across my body!) Got woken up by the heat of the sun about 5.30 this morning!! Another hot hot day ahead methinks! Had a great sight of the full moon this morning peaking out above some great coloured rocks being lit by the sun - shame my photography just doesn't convey the image we saw!!

Chillin' out & Mt Rushmore

Have spent the last week in the most fabulous campsite - Hart Ranch resort - this is our last night and we'll be sad to leave. A couple of days ago we got up before dawn and drove to Mt Rushmore for the early morning light - it was wonderful. So peaceful and serene and the view was great. There was only about 1/2 dozen other people there and 2 of them were cleaners! What a wonderful time of day to visit the monument. By 8am that morning we were climbing! Had an average day - the rock in the Rushmore area is so crystal like so hard on the fingers - both came away scuffed up!

Today we painted the RV roof! (can't get away from the DIY!). Now it looks all sparkly and clean! Spent the rest of the day lounging by the pool. I nursed my sore backside in the shade after over-doing it slightly yesterday! Chris was all out there in the sun doing his bronzed Adonis impression! Right now we're sat outside in the balmy evening breeze (sweating like pigs - its darn hot!) having a BBQ.

Mount Rushmore 4th July Fireworks

...which are actually on the evening of the 3rd July!! Have just got back from a spectacular 1/2 hour firework display held at Mount Rushmore at dusk - a very damatic setting it was just brilliant. Incredibly busy but being on the bike made parking pretty easy so we had a great spot to watch from. (Despite the woman in the local tourist info centre this afternoon who basically told us NOT to try getting to Rushmore today - roads would be closed etc - absolute rubbish - the road right to the monument area was free-flowing - the small issue was finding a parking spot but bikes were just filling the gaps between the cars so we were no more than 1/4 mile from the real parking area anyway! And we'd even told her we were on a bike and she'd still told us not to go) Anyway....the photo just doesn't do it justice!

Devil's Tower

We got to the area yesterday afternoon after driving a couple of hundred miles to get to the NE corner of Wyoming State (it's 100 degrees so it was as cool to be driving with the breeze than to be sat still somewhere!). Rode out on the bike last night at sunset to Devil's Tower - beautiful colourful sunset. Had a HUGE thunderstorm last night but this morning you wouldn't have realised - another gorgeous hot day and the roads were completely dry. Now we've moved campsites so we have a view of the Devil's Tower from our 'backyard' and will go into the park area now to the visitor centre and maybe take a little stroll around the base of the tower

Where has the week gone!?

If we're in National parks we just don't get an internet connection - pah! We spent a few more days back in Grand Teton last week. Enough time to do a big 14 mile hike up into the mountains. The last 1500ft and 2 miles of it being in thick snow (we were still wearing shorts and vest t-shirts mind!) Saw some enormous bull moose on the way back.

Also hiked out into the backcountry and spent a night under the stars. Shared our campsite with a family of pesky marmots who keep trying to steal our peanuts from our Pad Thai meal. Things were going great till the hike back to the trailhead and the RV the next morning - turned a corner and there was a black bear on the trail in front of us - ahhhh! OK so it was pretty scary stuff but the fact is I'm writing this now and that's all that matters. We did all we were supposed to do - talk calmly and loudly, clap, sing and back away slowly. Bears aren't supposed to like noise - this one just kept walking toward us! He was pretty interested in the trees and roots by the trail and lost interest soon enough giving us the chance to beat a hasty retreat (although we still had to get past him to finish the hike!) Gave it time and it all worked out - did see him again as we passed him about 15 yards from the track but he wasnt bothered with us - phew!

Did another days' climbing in Jackson and then moved about 100 miles east to Lander - BIG rock climbing area and we stayed in the Sinks Canyon state park where there's some particularly good climbs - it's getting hot now though. Today we were climbing in 90 degrees + which saps the energy right out of you but great all the same. Sinks canyon is so named coz the river running through the canyon dissapears down a 'sink hole' then reappears 1/4 mile downstream. Mystery is that it takes over 2 hours to get the 1/4 mile, more water comes up the rise that goes down the sink and it comes out several degrees warmer - weird! With all todays technology you'd have thought they could work this out but it's only recently they could confirm it was even the same water (using dyes) They think there's lots of subterraean passages but they really don't know!

Jackson, WY

Have spent the last 3 nights in Jackson - just on the south end of the Teton Nat Park. Wyoming is Cowboy country and there's plenty of evidence of that here in Jackson. Each night in the town sqaure there's a 'shoot-out' reenactment which is fun and there's lots of cowboy bars. Visited the Million Dollar Cowboy bar a couple nights ago with some great country music and lots of really serious couples dancing away. Just before we left we finally had enough drinks in us to get on the dancefloor ourselves - we were obviously really good and everyone else was rubbish coz everyone kept apologising for banging into us!!! Last night we went to a Comedy Improv show which was also great fun and fairly mild entertainment after the heavy night the day before! Today we've just spent the day rock climbing and are on our way back into the park for a few more nights.

Grand Teton Nat Park

We are now in Grand Teton National Park - it's just 8 miles south of Yellowstone but it is a separate park. There are 14 peaks above 10,000 feet in the range and they are all still snow covered at the moment making for very pretty views. The campsite we're staying at is lovely with the peaks just visible through the trees and jackson lake in the foreground. We've riden round the 40 mile loop here and enjoyed the views - we had a lovely lunch today sat in the sun out on a restaurant terrace with Grant Teton in the background - just great.

Have seen lots of Moose since we got to Teton - highlight today was a mummy moose with 2 babies - ahhhhh!

Lone Star Geyser

I'd actually heard about this particular geyser in a scrapbook mag! It wasn't that publicised in the park - probably because it was in the 'backcountry' - ie there was no road and they didn't predict its activity. It goes off every 3 hours or so and it's actually only 2.5 miles down an old service road so it's a pretty decent trail and one of the few that we could mountain bike on. We'd heard through the grapevine that it had erupted at 4pm so we took a picnic and our books and settled in expecting it to blow about 7 - bang on!! (well it was a minute late!) It lasted a good 10-15 minutes and then settled into it's steam phase for another 10 minutes and was gorgeous - the evening light caught it just right from where we were sat and we saw a rainbow in the water spout. And like I said about a lack of people away from the roads - there was just 2 other people there for the show! It might not spout as high but this was way more spectacular than Old Faithful - more so because of the lack of crowds, boardwalks and over-commercialisation we just loved it!

Mammoth Hot Springs

In yet another area of the park now. The Mammoth hot springs are really cool and like no other area of the park. Great travertine terraces of whites, oranges & browns - the colours depend on the temperatures of the water. When the springs dry up in an area they turn white and eventually grey - if there's water flowing then you'll get the pretty colours - caused by bateria that thrives in hot water.

Have based ourselves here for the last 3 days. Yesterday I got up at the crack of sparrows for a 'photo safari' basically a 5 hour guided tour of this part of the park by a photographer guide - pointing out good photo opps and tips and tricks on composition and lighting etc - good stuff but sadly she had her work cut out as the weather turned horrible after the first half hour or so. Still it was nice to be driven to enjoy the views and lots of interesting info about the park and it's history. We've also been to the evening 'campfire' programmes' - hour long talks given by the rangers - again SO interesting - so we are just full to bursting point with stuff we've learnt about the park!

Did another hike out today - a distinct lack of wildlife sightings on our hikes so far (but maybe we're being too effective with the noise levels!). We did drive out this afternoon and saw our first Pronghorn Antelope then went looking for wolves. Didn't see any BUT we did see 2 black bears close to the road - initially just feeding together but after a while they started play-fighting with each other. We watched for about 1/2 hour - they never really wandered out of sight it was amazing.

Grand Canyon of Yellowstone

Well I hadn't realised that Yellowstone had it's very own grand canyon although the image of the Lower Falls is pretty darn 'famous'. We carried on driving round the loop road yesterday and now are staying in the canyon area of the park - it's a much nicer campsite and village.

Did our first hike out yesterday morning before we left the last campsite - that area is 'the' area for grizzlies so we were shouting, singing and clapping our way along the river like lunatics for 7 miles (thankfully we didn't meet anyone on the trail to witness our behaviour!, nor did we meet any bears) The trails are shockingly empty as soon as you get more than a mile from a road - great for us but sad when Yellowstone is 2.2 million acres big - too many people are missing out on so much. (and really we didn't scratch the surface with our hikes out). As soon as we were back and the RV and driving off we got stuck in traffic - absolute carnage - more than the bison jam so we figured more than bison must be the cause and lo and behold - a grizzly bear foraging in the field no more than 50 yards from the road - so cool!

In the canyon area we've been on another hike today and cruising around on the bike visiting the view points for the canyon and the falls (300-odd foot tall and pretty wow) The view is spectacular and I just can't get enough of it - already been back to the viewpoint twice in varying light. Spent the evening in the lounge bar of the lodge - need I say more.....

Yellowstone at last!

At last - we're in Yellowstone. Somewhere that has always been on our intinery but so long in finally getting here! Arrived in the park yesterday morning and within minutes were stuck in a bison-jam! So cool these huge lumbering creatures just wandering down the road (with babies!) seemingly oblivious they were causing so much excitement from the passers-by.

The whole park basically has a big 140 mile loop road which takes in pretty much all the 'sights'. We started driving round this - seeing more Bison, lots of thermal features, waterfalls, deer, elk, bald eagle (usual stuff then!!!!) Got to Old Faithful and watched a quick 'performance' just as it started pouring with rain - made a dash to our campsite for the night via one of the visitor centres which had displays and films about the great Yellowstone fires they had in 1988 (just over a third of the park burned and driving along there is still so much burn damage visible)

Today has been a pretty grim day in terms of weather so it's been difficult getting out doing the things we want to do. We walked into the 'village' by the campsite and this afternoon went out on the bike getting soaked through to do a ranger-led walk around a nearby thermal area - lots of mud pots, fumaroles (steam vents) and hot springs. So interesting - the rangers are just so enthusiastic and knowledgeable we've always enjoyed ranger activities at the National parks.

Busy, busy, busy

Yesterday we visited the Smokejumpers visitor centre and museum. Cool. Although these guys are brave nutters. When someone spots a bush fire they parachute in and dig trenches. Work is punishing - digging for 14 hours a day breathing smoke and all. And talk about DZ's - it's just wherever! Most commonly trees so they have standard equipment that let's them rappel down to the ground after each jump. Ouch! Next up we went did another museum - of mountain flying. Lots of local stuff, and more on the smokejumpers. All interesting stuff. We did a quick round of retail therapy at the local shopping mall and wound up in the cinema early evening. Watched Poseiden. Pretty good, the old one was such a classic and this was a respectable remake I guess - certianly an easy going way to spent 1 hr 45 mins!

Today we went out for breakfast in a groovy cafe downtown called 'The Raven'. Missoula is a University town and this cafe was obviously quite a popular student hangout - grungy but great food. We had planned to get out about but there was a stonking rainstorm so the shops called instead! We actually wound up back at the cinema again. We'd had to toss a coin over yesterday's choice of movie so this time it was an easy choice - watched The Da Vinci Code. This was great - we'd both really enjoyed the book and both reckoned it was an honorable screen version (so often the movie are rubbish compared to the books but definately not the case here). Parked up at the local Walmart. Signs quite clearly state (to us anyway?!) that a city ordinance prevents RV's from parking overnight for camping purposes. Mmm - OK. Right now there are about 20 RV's and campers parked up. Most with their levelling jacks down, slide is out, curtains are drawn!!! What is with this?! So we join them. We did earlier in the week too - didn't get bothered then so we settle down for what we know will be an uninterrupted night!

Ghost towns, beer and Hot Springs

Have had a great couple of days in sunny big skied Montana. Yesterday we rode out on the bike to Garnet Ghost town - it's supposed to be one of the best preserved ghost towns in Montana. It enjoyed it's heyday between 1895 and 1912 due to the nearby Gold mines. At its peak it had about 1000 residents. About 20 odd building remain today. The most interesting were the old businesses - the saloon, general store and hotel - the hotel in particular had been really 'posh' - wallpaper and everything and it's still there, be it in strips hanging off the wall. It was in a fabulous area too - we had to ride 12 miles into the forests along a gravel logging track to the middle of nowhere - all around were fresh smelling pines and clear air - the old town was at just over 6000 feet!

Today we did another ride out. This time day tripping across the border to Idaho and to a great undeveloped hot spring called Jerry Johnson. By the side of a creek it was about a mile through the forest to get there and then it was just a big open clearing with a few stone lined pools dotted around. Temps were about 100-102 degrees so quite pleasant to soak in (apart from the seemingly obligatory fat naked man you tend to get in these places!) We also saw a moose calf wandering around about 50 yards away from us! Bonus was the road to the hot springs was along an awesome biking road so Chris was very happy.

Have enjoyed the last few days - have spent some quality time just sitting out by the RV and sunbathing - something that we really don't tend to do - we're always on the go! Oh, yeah and we found the local brewery and it's tap room and free samples - Big Sky Brewing make Moose Drool Brown Ale, Scape Goat pale ale and Summer Honey brew amongst others - of course we had to sample all of them and Chris came home with a 'growler' - a 64 oz bottle filled with the pale ale to go with the BBS that evening!

Montana

Have spent the last 4 days in Glacier National Park in Montana. Weather has been pretty grim for most of it so we haven't got out and about as much as we'd hoped. Had one great afternoon when we rode out on the bike, then hiked out to a lake surrounded by snow capped mountains and several hanging waterfalls. The park as a whole is still largely closed. The 'Going to the Sun' road which travels 50 miles across the park east to west and crosses the continental divide at 6600ft is still closed because of snow and even when it's open it's not suitable for RV's (Although we could have used the bike!). Instead we drove the long way round to the east side of the park. Landscapes in the east and west sides of the park are dramtically different - completely different ecosytems and scenery so it was good to see both (what we could see anyway between the blanket of mist, rain and low-lying cloud!). On our way round we saw our first Grizzly Bear! Very exciting stuff and since we were in the RV felt completely safe. He was walking alongside the road so after we stopped we had a good look (before some twits in a car pulled up and got out to get closer to him - are they stupid or what?!) Just brilliant! This evening we've just pulled into Whitefish - a small town on the edge of the Rockies, looking for something to eat...

Nelson, Ainsworth Hot Springs & Creston

Spent a couple of nights in Nelson in the Kootenays. It's a small town of about 9300 people but quite hippy-ish and trendy. Lots of good pubs and cafes. Friday night we got tickets for a great show called the Cherry Bomb Burlesque. Just brilliant and so difficult to describe. Half dozen girls singing and dancing a huge range of material. Quite saucy, cheeky and hilarious but definately not too rude.

Went out on the bike for another long ride-out around the area. The added bonus of this area is that it's got lots of Hot Springs! We visited Ainsworth Hot Springs. Main pool was about 98 degrees! It also had some wicked caves. Surprisingly large and horseshoe shaped, the water was quite shallow in places and most people tended to just walk round them. The walls were smooth from all the mineral deposits and there were some ledges that you could sit on. The water in there was about 104 degrees which was really really nice!

Moved onto Creston on Saturday afternoon. This is our planned border crossing. Firstly though this weekend they have their 'Blossom Festival' so we decided to see what was on. As we were ordering pizza Saturday night I noticed a 10km run advertised for the following morning. Foolishly I showed it to Chris. Less than 12 hours later we were up bright and early and registered to do the run (how daft am I - should've kept my mouth shut). Actually though we both were very pleased with our achivements. Chris easily beat his previous time and I must've been running on turbo-fuel - Still can't quite believe it but beat my Sun Run time (less than a month ago) by 6 minutes!! Annilated my previous Personal Best from Cyprus days by over 2.5 minutes. Walked around the rest of the day chuckling to myself!

That afternoon we went to a street fair in downtown Creston. They had an old car show and a Chilli cook-off. This is a big thing over here, lots of competitions all over the country and all taken very seriously! Got to sample all the green chillis - nothing like chilli we've had before but delicious all the same! http://www.chilicookoff.com/ has lots of recipies and stuff!

Time to bid our goodbyes to British Columbia, Canada for the time being. Crossed the border into Idaho this afternoon. No problems at all - passed through very quickly and stopped the night no more than 10 miles south of the border at a Forest Services campground. As we drove into the site spotted a Moose! Had a campfire and a few glasses of wine to celebrate a new 6 months of adventure in USA!

The Okanagan

It's hot, hot, hot here. Didn't really realise till we got to the area that it's so much warmer than Vancouver area. All week the temperatures have been in the 30's which is nice. Gorgeous weather and we've been out and about lots on the bike. Mostly visiting wineries - lots of them! And of course they all give tasters! Several have patio bistro/restaurants and we have tended to get suckered in to eating lunch while we're out which is great - wonderful food and of course the perfect wine to accompany it! And views to die for - overlooking the vineyards and the lake.

It's not all drinking (well, ok it pretty much is) Did do a long day's climbing at the Skaha Bluffs which were great - not too busy and again more great views of the lake. I have now pulled something in my shoulder so it did stop us going out for a second time. Yesterday we drove down south to near the border to a place called Osoyoos - it's desert country - in fact the most northerly part of the Sonora Desert and it's even hotter. I was out running this morning at 7.30 and was struggling - and I'm not getting up any earlier than that to avoid the heat - ooh good - any excuse to stop the exercise regime!!

We have had fun and games with a few on board stowaways - mice! Eaten us out of house and home (5 bags of nuts completely emptied out) We set a trap and heard the rustle but the bugger got away the first time, Chris got up to reset it and we sat in bed and waited - cheeky bugger just walked on by right in front of us! Still later that night we did awake to the sound of a snapping sound and - bam - one down...we're pretty sure there's at least another - either that Chris has taken to eating tortilla chips by delicately chewing through the packaging in the dead of night! Need to buy some more traps today...

On the road again

Finally we have left Cultus Lake for good. Sad to have left but very excited to be back on the road. The weather is glorious and everything is great. Today we have driven 200 miles east to the interior of BC to an area called The Okanagan. It's famous for being BC's premier wine region, it has some top class climbing bluffs, beautiful lakes and orchards. It's also much warmer here in the interior. Right now it's a hot summer breeze blowing outside and we're just off to find a campsite for the night (have stopped briefly at a tourist info and wine centre to stock up on useful info!)

Rock-climbing!

What a week this has been! We're just lovin' it (as McDonalds would say) The weather has been incredible all week and we've been so busy and done so much and have been surrounded by such outstanding scenery. Rather sad to be moving on. After a long winter in BC it seems such a shame to moving on just as it all gets good, but then there's so much more for us to see and do and we're looking forward to all that aswell.

We left Porteau Cove campground this morning and drove up the road to Murrin Lake Prov' park - site of some more top class Squamish rock climbing. The wall we climbed is right next to the park - check out Harvey in the background as Chris rappels down at the start of our day! Spent most of the day there which was great. Helped boost my confidence - the first time without an instructor at hand and actually I successfully climbed a higher graded pitch than before so I was rather pleased with myself.

Finished off the day at the cinema - new film out with Robin Williams called 'RV'. Bout him and his family taking an RV roadtrip - lots of disasters and mishaps. Very amusing but then we've become such spotters I can't neccessaily recommend it to all you 'normal people'!!