THE DAY OF WINE AND CHOCOLATE OR WHY NONE OF THESE PHOTOS ARE MINE/ MONTROSE, CO TO SANTA FE, NM

9/27

Bill told me that he had decided in the middle of the night that I would be doing the majority of the driving today. He was tired! Really only fair, since he does most of the driving anyway. I agreed as long as I didn't have to do any of the kind of driving he did yesterday. We got going fairly early, as this was to be another long day. I felt a little stressed for some reason, probably because I had not driven for more than an hour or two each day.  But the day was sunny and beautiful, the road straight and flat. How bad could this be?

     Hmmmm, seems okay to me!  Until we got to Ouray, CO.

     Ouray is an incredible town nestled at the foot of steep and majestic mountains. Its main street is lined with businesses sporting late 19^th century facades. Quite charming.

Truly a town in which to linger, but not today. Outside of town, at the bottom of one of those majestic mountains, there was a delay for construction. Not long, but long enough to spot the road going up. ( Oh NO!)

   But, OH YES!! Up we started to climb; the road seemed narrow. (Bill says there is a standard width for roads, but this seemed narrower than most. ) Maybe because we seemed to achieve a great height without going a great distance. Maybe because there were no guard rails most of the way.

Bill was having a blast snapping photos down into the plunge-- if I looked down I felt dizzy. The road was serpentine, and some of the curves had to be taken at 10 mph. Many of the curves were steep, and the engine was overheating again.

And some of the curves were very sharp-- when you're going around a curve and can see the back of your camper from the side window, you know it's a sharp one. We'd take a curve slowly and just begin to straighten out when along came another sharp curve. My hands were glued to the steering wheel ( Gorilla Glued!) I wanted to hug the center line but had to remember there was traffic coming from the other direction! My heart pounded, and my face was grim; I sat up straight, my mouth took on a closed scream shape, if you can imagine that one! I looked only at the yellow line.....

Bill asked if I wanted to turn the wheel over to him at the next turnout. The real answer was “yes”, but I determined to keep going. Mrs. Intrepid.

  Then came the construction. One lane road ahead.

 The construction equipment was hanging on the edge, for god's sake, and every worker had to be on a line! No lines for the camper. If we slipped off, we were crumbled toast! Somehow can't imagine 2 tons of truck and camper hanging on belay anyway......

    Turns out that this was better for us, because the single lane was on the inside, and there was no oncoming traffic. A breather! Not for long, however,because soon we were back to our sinuous road with oncoming traffic. Jeez, this seemed to go on and on-- into a tunnel, out of a tunnel.

 Just as I was beginning to have visions of truck and camper plunging off the side, I sensed that we were going down. ( on the road, not off the side.) Ah, how sweet it was! Seemingly it took no time at all until we were coming out into a flat road bounded on one side with mountains with those flaming aspens spilling down its side.

 I was actually able to take my eyes off the yellow line; I could enjoy the gorgeous view with my favorite trees! Hallelujah!! Yee haw!!

   Relief lasted too short at time as we began to climb again. It was a bit better this time, although I still had my heart in my mouth. Xian enjoyed the scenery...................................

Bill enjoyed the scenery. Sometimes I could even enjoy the scenery! As they say, this, too shall pass. Eventually we passed out of the pass ( yuk yuk!), and my heart slipped back into place. Whew! Not bad! Would I do this again? Yes. But not today.

    Around lunchtime one of the delightful surprises of the day was to be found in Durango at a little park by the Animas River. A lovely young gal, Tasha and her dog Guiness entertained Xian and us while we ate our sandwiches out on the rocks in the river. Guiness loves balls even more than Xian and practically turns himself inside out to get one that's tossed. When he leaps for the ball, he twists in the air, kicks out his back legs and lands with ball in his mouth. Incredible. He and Xian became fast friends, and as a goodbye gift, Xian presented Guiness with his tennis ball.  The pics tell it all-- no need for more story.

  After lunch we really needed to make time, so Bill drove a good bit of the remaining distance. We made Santa Fe, NM in the very late afternoon, and at day's end, I could well appreciate all the driving Bill had been doing-- especially the Douglas Pass. I was tired, he was tired. Son Doug met us at the campground, and it was a grand reunion. And now, it was time for wine... and chocolate! ( and steaks!)  I surmise you can see why none of these photos are mine. Thank you , Bill!

WE ARE HOT! HOT! HOT! / VERNAL, UT TO MONTROSE, CO

9/26
We loved our campground at Vernal. The sites were spacious, the surroundings pretty with a HUGE dog run area, no leashes needed. Nice people, a relaxing ambiance. A place we could have stayed for a few days. However, time to move on to Montrose, CO.

Vernal is a trip in itself.

 Lovely town with wide main street with baskets and planters of flowers everywhere, city pennants and interesting shops. We stopped later at Dinosaur National Monument to have a quick look-see at the quarry, and soon thereafter met a Danish father-son team of motorbikers who have been sponsored by Canon. Their trip is called Cross Americas-- from NYC to Buenos Ares. They have been gone about a month and expect to end their trip sometime in March 2011. They had their bikes shipped across while they flew from Copenhagen. Such interesting people we meet!

     As we drove, we passed by many small state recreational areas with nifty names. Waving Hands, Kokopelli, White Birds. Lunch was at 4-mile Draw, on a rock.

 This was surrounded by interesting rock formations with lots of cavities formed by erosion.

We had a most unique lunch with plenty of food left over to put into the freezer for later! Xian was especially fond of this meal!! We truly left very little behind!

Then we drove over the Douglas Pass.  This is a mountain pass at 8240 feet above sea level, ( 10- count 'em- -switch backs ) with some incredible views, one especially great one that gave us a view of the Grand Valley of the Colorado River, about 25 miles away.

 On this pass we ran into trouble again, as the engine began to overheat once more, and we had to be quite careful. This problem has just begun to occur, and we're looking forward to getting it diagnosed. We took advantage of a pull-out to let the engine cool ( at 8,000 ft.) where our two Danish friends, Chris and Jay, also happened to be stopped to enjoy the view. We took photos, they took photos, we exchanged emails.

They have a website detailing their trip. (alas in Danish!!) Later on, as we were pulled over-- letting the engine cool of course!-- they pulled in for some directions. There we said our final goodbyes and wished them lots of luck, especially in South America!

   When we finally got to the campground we were glad to say the journey had ended for the day!!

VERNALLY YOURS... WHATEVER THAT MEANS....../ JACKSON, WY TO VERNAL UT

9/25

One of our more interesting days. We left our lovely Jackson campground by about 8:15-- practically unheard of for us! We really wanted to put a lot of miles between us and that campground as fast as we could!! But it was a day of glorious landscapes and silly foibles. Like when we almost ran out of oil. The smell told us something was wrong-- whoops, not enough oil. What to do? Drive back 25 miles to get some more. Not a better stop to do this than Flaming Gorge!! It's beginning to look a lot like Utah here!

After our oil stop and run-back, we were inundated with wonderful landscapes all the way to Vernal. We stopped again because the breaks were beginning to smell hot. Bill had forgotten to engage the camper brakes, and the  pickup was taking on the hill by itself.  On that particular stop, one of the storage doors got left open, and when we arrived at our campground, our large water jug was missing!! Later on, I continued this trend by bumping my head for the 100^th time on a cupboard door I had left open ---AGAIN, and catching my toe on yet another cupboard door. Like I said once before, we are a pair truly meant for each other!!

What a klutz!!

Here are a couple of my favorite views on the way down to Vernal:

IT WAS A ONE COYOTE DAY

9/24

    We didn't get as far as we wanted to today but perhaps that's because we really didn't want to leave Yellowstone. We were on our way down to Vernal, WY, but we got as far as Jackson, WY. First of all, we drove south through the park-- otherwise we'd have to go around, and that is definitely the long way. However, this way is NOT a fast way, because we had to deal with all of the other people and vehicles, turnouts, photo ops, etc. Oh, and construction, that will hold one up for about 30 minutes. No matter, it was a nice drive. I got to see more geothermals, and the one I liked best was the Roaring Mountain-- as long as the wind wasn't blowing and the cars coming along on the road, we could hear the vents "roaring". ( faintly).  

The drive past the Grand Tetons was also most glorious. Too bad it was just a glimpse.

And, for wildlife, we saw one kinda mangey coyote slinking across the road-- so we called it a One Coyote Day.

   We landed in Jackson, WY in the late afternoon, a fair distance from Vernal, so we decided to stay right there.

Jackson is probably a wonderful town, but we didn't see its good parts, because we weren't walking. We chose the truck route through, mostly because the other route was so jammed up. When we emerged from the other side, we chose a KOA campground, because we've had good luck in the past. Koa supposedly monitors their campgrounds, but we think they missed this one. It is the most expensive KOA so far, and also the worst one – bar none- that we have stayed in.

MAMMOTH HOT SPRINGS :WHERE'S THE WATER?

9/23

   The last time we were in Yellowstone, we saw Old Faithful and the Norris Geyser Basin which I loved. However, I somehow lost all of my Yellowstone photos-- seems to be my thing-- and they were some of my favorites. So it was with great anticipation that I entered the Mammoth Hot Springs area in the hopes of getting some more pics of geothermal activity, which fascinates me.

   No elk in the village today and no Xian in the car-- I'm sure he was glad to stay “home” and sleep on the bed! The hot springs area is just outside the village, and it covers a lot of ground. The upper and lower terraces are joined by a series of  boardwalks and many steps.

   It's too dangerous to walk on the ground, even though it looks plenty safe. People have been known to fall through the thin crust and plunge into scalding hot water below. And more than a few larger animals, I'm betting. We saw some tracks. 

   It probably takes a minimum of 2 hours to see it all; we spent the time but didn't cover all of the ground, I'm certain.  The first stop was the Minerva Terrace formation.

 Maybe you've seen it or the famous pictures of it, steaming water flowing over beautiful rocks of varied oranges and rusts. About ten years ago you could still see this, but a couple of years ago there was an earthquake, which sent the water into different places. This is a characteristic of the hot springs anyway, and the water may appear here again and it may not. There's plenty of it on the other side now! Some is now starting to come up in the village. Anyway, the water stopped flowing over Minerva Terrace which turned white and is so bright as to blind the eyes! Actually, it didn't just "turn" white. That's the color of the travertine, of which these formations consist. The color comes from the microorganisms living in the water, so if there's no water flowing over the travertine, there's no color. In this photo, there is a small amount of water streaming down, and hence the colors.

   I'm sure we spent over two hours at Mammoth. My favorite place was over on the other side near the Canary Hot Spring. I absolutely love the textures on the bottom of the shallow “lake” and could have spent hours photographing it. I'LL BET some wonderful abstract paintings, pastels and pottery could come out of this. I think I'll just post a bunch of my favorite pics and let them speak for themselves. By the way,the patterns and textures are formed by the minerals in the water. As the water cools, minerals drop down, and the action of the water over the minerals causes the most beautiful of patterns. Organic matter-- like the pine branches- also fall in and are coated with the minerals.

   Leaving the hot springs area, we headed back, stopping along the way to photograph some elk in the river. Once down on flat land we stopped into the Association building where Bill just happened to run into the executive director, who took us on a tour of the renovated building. Bill had some ideas to exchange with her regarding Native American participation in the park, and she seemed quite glad for the exchange. A really neat lady.

  We aren't happy to be leaving the park tomorrow- even a week isn't long enough, but two days? We envy the couple we met who are staying for a month!!! The screaming face below says it all! WAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!!!

YELLOWSTONE/BLACKTAIL

9/22

A later start to the day than we had planned, but a nice day  nonetheless. We stopped that the Yellowstone Association park store before beginning our trip into the park. It's a newly renovated building, which once was a mercantile store built in 1904. It's situated just before going through the Roosevelt Arch ( north entrance ) into the park, and at that time, it carried just about everything you can imagine. Now, it houses offices for the association, serves as an information center and has a very nice gift store. The staff is extremely knowledgeable and friendly. We got the skinny on where to find wildlife. Oh, to see wolves-- that's our hope!

  The weather is wonderful out here, and the park still has many visitors, so traffic can be a bit snarly. Our first glimpse of wildlife was in the little town of mammoth hot springs, where elk grazed everywhere from the town hall, to the lawns. They were oblivious to the traffic that was jamming up, and some of them simply lounged on the lawns.

   Of course, this got Xian going, and we were rapidly closing the windows and pulling away from the crowds as a ranger came over, probably to tell us to move the Voice Box on!

    The day was spent mainly in the area called Black Tail, and though we didn't see a lot of wildlife, we did see some gorgeous country, stopping many times for photos, and to give Xian some play time. What fascinated me most was the sun shining behind the aspen trees and setting them afire.

   Sometimes appearing in an entire stand, sometime contrasting with the deep green of the pines, the aspens shimmered and trembled in flaming gold-- took my breath away. I kept taking pictures and more pictures, but the camera simply did not capture what I saw in the way that I saw it. Look at the photos and then pump up the gold about ten times!! (I think  Bill has some better photos which I can show you later.)

We saw plumes of smoke from a lightning fire in an area called Antelope-- the road has been closed there for almost a week.

   It's always sad to see the burned areas in a forest, but I have to remember that what comes up as a result of more sunlight provides food for animals who will return to that area. again. Trees reseed quickly. Lodgepole pines in particular germinate quickly after a fire. Lodgepoles are thick in this area from a fire in 1988. There's also a stark beauty to what's left behind.

   And these bare poles, a lot having fallen, provide food for insects and a habitat for small mammals and birds. In the life of a forest, fire is a regular visitor, and a new Phoenix arises from the ashes every time

     On the way down the mountain, we came upon a sheep jam, so we jammed in and took a few pictures ourselves.

The sheep, a few buffalo plus the elk were the extent of our wildlife for the day. No wolves. ( Sigh)

Ooops, I was wrong! Look at the wildlife I found in the sagebrush!!