Estes Park

We drove from Deadwood, SD to Estes Park, CO. This is one of the entrances to Rocky Mountain Nat'l Park and a very pretty town in and of itself. Small river running through town with a walk along it and the back patios of the stores and restaurants overlook the walkway and river. We needed a day off so we just spent time in a cool internet cafe and wandered around town etc. We really enjoyed kicking back and reading and resting - haha.

Okay - so much for lazing around - today we all four went up into the park and did a nice 5.6 mile hike up to an Alpine lake. It was beautiful. On the way back I got focused on the banana in a backpack ahead of me ( I was sooo hungry ) and just kept following them, thinking they were going back to the same trailhead we were. Well, Bill followed along and low and behold we ended up hiking an extra mile all seriously uphill and came out at a different trailhead. I have to say that extra uphill mile kicked my you know what! By the time we rode the shuttle back to our car there were Will and Heather relaxing and laughing at us. They have had alot of good laughs about this one. Oh well what can I say - maybe it was the universe telling me I needed some more exercise!

Today we decided to come to Boulder for the day. Bill and I remember this as one of our favorite stops in the past - we'll see how it has changed.

Hope the summer is going well for all of you. Take care and enjoy.

Carol - Sorry I missed your call - we were out of range.
Patti - Have you got that texting down?
Nancy - How is Katelyn?
Craig - Got your email - check is on the way - Thanks!!
Greta and Josh - Can't wait for Fiesta!
McCorkles and Geigers - Don't forget to sign up for Fantasy Football.
Beth - Any date set?
Megan and Chris - Thinking of you both and sending out all my best wishes - ENJOY!!!
Stephanie and Jim - Give Sophia a big hug and kiss for me.
LBI Gang - Hope the fishing is good and the eating is better!

Rushmore, Crazy Horse and Deadwood

Well we pulled out of the Badlands and headed for Mt Rushmore. You know....., we learned that the original idea, by Doane Robinson, a state historian, was to do various massive rock sculptures along this route depicting General Custer, Buffalo Bill Cody, Lewis and Clark, Chief Joseph and other legendary Sioux warriors marching along South Dakota's skyline. Then along came Gutzon Borglum, who in his wisdom decided that there should be one large sculpture of American presidents. He chose these four to symbolize the development of the U S. Personally, we liked the original idea better...... Mt Rushmore is indeed impressive, but the surrounding facilities made it look like just another tourist trap. We went on to see the Crazy Horse sculpture still under construction, but chose to view it from the road for similar reasons.

Deadwood was our next stop - you remember that - the place where Wild Bill Hickok was shot and killed. Some of you may know it from the HBO series. This was a fun stop. Many of it's buildings downtown are still standing from the 1800's. We did the tourist thing of watching the shootout depicted by the locals. It was fun. And of course we had to lose a little money in the small storefront casinos.

Trivia questions - 1. What is the deadman's hand?
2. Who is buried next to Wild Bill?

Devil's Tower and The Badlands

Devil's Tower - you remember that - from Close Encounters of the Third Kind - hehe. It is spectacular - a huge formation rising out of the prairie. It is a sacred place to many of the Indian Tribes in the area with several magical stories of how it was formed. Their name for it is "Bear Lodge", which we have chosen to call it. We have to admit that we were saddened to read that this sacred place was " renamed" Devil's Tower by some Cavalry soldier. How's that for disrespect. But I digress. We did a hike around Bear Lodge and it is most impressive. We will attach pictures, but they just don't seem to do it justice. As you hike around it you see many prayer clothes hung on the trees from those who still revere this as sacred ground. It is all very humbling.

Later that day we drove to "The Badlands", and they were amazing. Even the 114 degree heat couldn't dampen our enthusiasm. They are like a scaled down version of the Grand Canyon and you can walk and climb all through them - like a great maze. You may remember that this is a place that the western "bad guys" went to hide when "The Law" was after them. You could get lost in here forever and just die of dehydration. However, they are incredibly beautiful. We camped in a state site that evening right in the middle of that spectacular lanscape. Watching the sun set over these peaks was daunting. And the stars that night - wow!

Division of Labor…YNP Pictures

Division of labor is a good thing. In terms of this blog, we learned early on that Barb should do the writing (with my input after the draft was done) and me taking the pictures and keeping all the batteries charged, etc. My early attempt at blog writing clearly illustrated how much I tend to go on and on and get caught up in too many details (“…the wonderful rare piece of tuna in my salad at the Washington, PA, upscale pub called the “Union Grill”…). But many of you already know that about me (HIT THE QUARTER, BILL!).

This system worked fine until after I took 90 pictures in Yellowstone and Will took even more. My camera batteries had died toward the end of the second day so I was planning on using Will’s pictures of the big waterfall at Yellowstone canyon. I loaded the 200 plus combined pictures onto my laptop and we found a good WIFI spot at a coffee shop in Cody, WY. While Barb wrote, I set out to find some pictures to use from this huge collection. I had picked about 28 good ones and was maybe half way through the lot when Barb said…”give me three pictures from Yellowstone to use for the blog”. This caused a sort of meltdown on my part and I found myself unable to get this done. I ended up just throwing eight random pictures on her flash drive and somehow we got out of Cody after Barb suggested that we do a later blog entry with many more of the Yellowstone pictures. So that is what this entry is…pictures from several days ago. I also plan to do an entry soon with many pictures from the Missoula whitewater raft trip if I can get them emailed to me from the professional photographer who took them.

Digital cameras are great, but too many pictures create LOTS of work. I have to learn to take fewer shots or something! I’ll work on that. -Bill

Yellowstone

Wow - all I can say is that Yellowstone doesn't disappoint. The first day we camped outside the park in the late morning and spent the rest of the day in the park. We enjoyed the scenery and bear and elk and Old Faithful. That evening we found a great local Bar/Restaurant for Bill's birthday.
Second day in Yellowstone we went to Mammoth Hot Springs where we had reserved cabins. They were really great. Everywhere we drive, the scenery is just jaw dropping.
Okay - on the third day we spent the entire day driving and hiking the rest of the park. Waterfalls, fields of Bison, Elk in the main square as well as the fields, eagles,geysers, steam vents and it just goes on and on - amazing. We all really had a great day and lots of laughs and exercise. It was a little disconcerting when a Bison decided to walk on the road toward us in our lane but he got his act together and went over to the other lane so we could get by. Whew!

Sunday morning we pulled out of the Northeast exit and headed toward Cody Wyoming. We drove through some of the most impressive landscape of all. The Dead Indian Pass at 8000 ft was spectacular - it's the pass where the Nez Perce Indaians escaped the Cavalry the year after Custer's last stand. Just can't describe how big everything is here.

More pics to come later.

Missoula

Tuesday was a good day to chill. Will and Heather hiked to the big M on the hill above the University. Bill and I got some stuff done, did a lot of walking and just kicked back. We did find a sweet little local place "Taco del Sol" with the most amazing food yet.
Wednesday was for white water rafting! Sad to say the car needed some work so I had to throw myself on my sword and get that done while the others went rafting. The rafting was a rush!
Meanwhile, back at the ranch - success with the car!
I was also able to catch up with an old classmate from PHS who works as a guide for the "Lewis and Clark Trail", (the outfit that took the others rafting). That was great - later Jim showed up at the campsite for a visit and brought us some locally brewed beers " Moose Drool" and "Summer Honey".

We are seriously hoping to get back to Missoula later in the summer for some hiking and more rafting or canoeing. Great town.