Days 14 and 15 - From “Best Western” to the best of the west-

We’ve managed to experience the best of both worlds in the last couple of days. Arriving at Best Western Sundridge Inn Baker City after outrunning the tornado we found great rooms, a good pub, beautiful gardens and a low price - amazing.

The next day we visited the Oregon Trail Interpretive Center which highlights the trials on the trail in fabulous dioramas with voice-over excerpts from emigrant diaries. We have been looking forward to this center and it did not disappoint. Also it was basically free since we purchased an annual pass for all national sites in Yellowstone.

The views from the center, which is perched on top of a local hill,

 are astounding even in the poorer weather. And we saw the trail as it exists today - still showing the paths and ruts from 150 years ago.

Oregon is awash in azaleas, rhododendrons, lilacs and flowering crab trees. The wildflowers are just as beautiful. As we travelled towards the coast, we started seeing a yellow flowering bush on most rocky mountain sides and roadsides. I believe it is the wild flower “broom ( check reference) which grew wild around our home in Vancouver. It was always one of my mother’s favourite flowers and as a kid there were many bouquets delivered from the vacant and building lots around our place. It was wonderful to see it again.

We arrived in Fort Stevens State Park on the tip top north west coast of Oregon around 4:00 pm after an 8 hour drive .  While not the most stunning vistas we did see this dog, 

who was travelling in the back of a pickup doing bout 100 kph running from side to side of the pickup with the wind blowing his hair tight against his face. His owner was pulling an even larger trailer with a saddled horse in it. I guess he and the dog and the horse were going somewhere to do cowboy things. Paul was very impressed.

We also had our first sights of the Columbia river and that was great.

Arriving finally at the park, we were tired and cranky but quickly revived when we saw this amazing campsite.

Finally we’re camping not “kamping”.

We had another great dinner with ingredients from the local food coop we found in Baker City (see reference) - local naturally raised beef in our spaghetti sauce made from the garden last year (we brought several cans to use up on the trip), plus local asparagus and greens for a salad. We also cooked some rice to have tomorrow night with local seafood and the rest of the asparagus in a stirfry.

This park is dedicated to civil war history, as well as hiking , biking, ocean kayaking (F&J take note), fishing etc. There is an old war lookout tower from which one can see whales apparently - we’ll let you know if we get lucky!

We heard about the park from other kampers at the last KOA  and this is one of the perks of living cheek by jowl in these places - if you have good neighbours, you can learn a ton about the best places to visit. Another kamper introduced us to the huckleberry and honey wine sold at Yellowstone - not something I’d want again but an interesting first. We actually managed to get a good bottle of Beringer Estate Collection Cab Sauve for $8 at a local liquor store so were quite happy to give up the huckleberry mead for it.

Tomorrow we explore the park.  We may be out of range of phones for a bit but will post the blog in the local internet café every so often.

Day 13 Just 15 minutes before arriving at our campsite...

Driving through southern Idaho , potato country, we experienced a prairie storm. We watched it for about 100 miles, and as it got darker, we wondered just how much longer we would have till our luck ran out.

Luckily, a rest stop appeared just as I said to Paul, “When is it dangerous to be out in these winds? And he said, “When you see a parking lot full of trucks like those, it’s not good - let’s get off”.

5 minutes later, it hit, with gusts of 70 mph gusts (about 130 kph?) and the rains came about 20 minutes later.

Someone else in the rest stop had access to the net and found the cells on radar that showed we had about ½ hour before they passed safely - (and people laugh at the techies!)

We waited out the storm then headed to our campground at Three Islands Crossing State Park only to find out that the area was under a tornado warning.

So we headed to Oregon, and are in Baker City a day early, safe and sound in a Best Western.

The Oregon Trail Interpretive Center awaits us tomorrow.

Day 12 - "No one puts baby in a corner".

Our last day in Yellowstone and we headed to Mammoth Hot Springs in the north. However we first sampled the wares of the "Kamping Kookhouse" of this KOA.  It was a "kamping" breakfast and while hot and massive, left a whole lot to be desired - except we didn't have to "kook" it.

The day was beautiful and warm. Full sun to the point of needing sunscreen. The trip to Mammoth was as everything is in YNP, spectacular. Brand new highway for most of the journey - and it is a journey between visitor centres. We typically travel 1 1/2 - 2 hours to get to the next centre.

Coming up to Mammoth, the landscapes change and you come down from the heights of 6700 feet to just over 5000.

Spring appears again with no snow and what trees and shrubs there are, are in leaf.
However, these are few and far between and it looks a lot like I remember Kamloops on the trip west in 1984 - dry, arid with sagebrush everywhere.

Mammoth village is beautiful and the first thing we noticed is that there are elk everywhere - I mean everywhere.

 On the Visitor Centre's lawn, near the houses that face the main street, dashing across streets littered with people and cars. The rule is - 25 yards or 2 school buses away from wild animals, except for bears and wolves and then it's 100 yards. But when they walk in front of you, you'd better stand still or back away slowly because they apparently get pissed off with the papparazi and charge. Right now the females are calving and we got to see lots of babies.

One brave mama led her little one into traffic only to have the baby decide she wasn't going anywhere Mom said. She (mom) became quite upset and as the ranger tried to corral the little one to get her off the street, mom charged him.

It could have been a fascinating episode from "Nature" and there it was happening 50 yards from us. Eventually we all moved away so the rangers could get the two together again.

There was also a terrific ranger-led talk on the hot springs in Mammoth and how they make travertine - just like folks have on their counters.

There were more newborns on the way home - baby mountain goats - way up -  seemingly unaware of their precarious rocky perches. They fade into their surroundings so well it is hard to get a picture.

But now we have to say farewell to YNP and travel on to Idaho and parts west. It has been a blast so far...

Day 11 - Happy Birthday to you..

Today's Paul's turned another year older and he received a very special present - the sun was out for the whole day and the temperature went up to 68 degrees - hurray (although last night it went down to 25 degrees - the coldest night yet! can you see the frost on the van?)

The day in Yellowstone was again wonderful with the morning spent at the Grand  Canyon of Yellowstone  and Canyon Falls. This view has been painted innumerable times and it warrants all the attention.

Another terrific ranger-led hike and presentation - with some new information for identifying trees.

·      pines have needles in packages or clusters from 2-5 needles in a package

·      spruce have single needles and are spiky when clutched as a bunch

·      firs also have single needles but are friendly (soft) when clutched

So you cannot say this blog does not add to your general knowledge.


We also drove to the Grand Tetons but unfortunately their services have yet to kick in for the summer. Great vistas though.

So all in all a great birthday for Grandpa, 

But the icing on the cake was to drive into Yellowstone through a herd of bison and their babies. They literally streamed around us, huge males, shaggy females, yearlings and babies. 

Day 10 - Yellowstone - worth all the crappy weather!

We have complained about the weather and today wasn't a whole lot better but the park is truly worth it. We travelled the lower loop today which took us to Old Faithful Visitor's Center - a brand new facility with outstanding exhibits including a kids' science room with a manmade geyser. Wish we had A. and H. here with us to see this.

Each of the Visitor Centers (and there are 5 in Yellowstone) has a different theme - with this one's focus being on the hydrothermal activity related to geysers and hot springs - many of which we passed coming into the park. The park lies over an active volcano and so the various eruptions (both smelly and non) are ways for the earth to release the pressure before the whole thing blows up (which apparently did happen 640,000 years ago)

We also learned that the word geyser comes from Icelandic verb "geysa" - to gush. There are only about 4 other geysers in the world which are the size/magnitude of Old Faithful and it really was exciting ( as you tell from my expressions on the video) to see it go up.(better if viewed in large screen size).

Our next stop was the Old Faithful lodge built at the turn of the century. It was spared in the fire of 1988 when most of the rest of the area was burned out. It is an absolutely gorgeous building with a fireplace that rises through about 5 stories. For sister-in-law J. niece M., and granddaughter A., this is the lodge that was used as a model for the Disney Wilderness Lodge where we spent New Year's Eve, 2007!

The rest of the day was spent travelling to other Visitor Centers to hear about  the great fire of '88 and regeneration in the park following (amazing how it has come back - different but just as beautiful).; as well as hearing about the ravens in the park, how they mate for life, live 25 years, and are just as smart as you might think.

Oh - and we got to see lots of these little guys.

We returned to our campsite in time to have a great meal which we could actually eat outside given that the weather had cleared. Tomorrow - SUN they say and we will head to the rest of the Visitors Centers thhn check out the highway to the Grand Tetons.

Day 9 Oh! Give me a home..(all together now)

Yellowstone National Park, 


"Established in 1872, Yellowstone National Park is America's first national park. Located in Wyoming, Montana and Idaho, it is home to a large variety of wildlife including grizzly bears, wolves, bison, and elk. Preserved within Yellowstone National Park are Old Faithful and a collection of the world's most extraordinary geysers and hot springs, and the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone." National Park Service website.


Our first day in the park - and we get to see some wildlife up close and personal. The rangers were returning herds of bison to the park after they had wandered out over the winter. As a result they were meandering down the main thoroughfare into the west park entrance.

It was good to get some positive reinforcement for this  journey because today, we’ve had some of the crappiest weather to date.

We’ve had snow showers, incredible winds (to the point where we thought we might actually have to vacate the trailer), and wind chills. 

Mighty cold making lunch and dinner on the camp stove so we absconded to the little town of West Yellowstone for bbq and a local brew, Headstrong Pale Ale produced by Big Hole, Montana brewers (couldn't find the website), and that lightened the mood.

We also checked out the History of Yellowstone museum which captures some of the transportation routes into the park over the years including the Union Pacific railroad, the local station of which now houses the museum. There were also videos on the the earthquake in 1959 and the fires of 1988 (we're starring in the video of the spring of 2011!)

So tomorrow we will head back into the park ( our campground is about 6 k away) for the day checking out the Old Faithful geyser along with ranger talks at that Visitor Center. The weather is NOT looking hopeful but Saturday is forecasted to be sunny and 70 degrees - hurray.

Snow on June 1st? No.....

We travelled today from Sheridan Wyoming up to Billings Montana and then down again to West Yellowstone, about 10 miles outside Yellowstone Park.

The views on the drive were jaw-dropping and these pics don't even come close to seeing the rocky mountains rise up before you like a movie. It hardly looks real.

Along the way, we took in the Battle of the Little Bighorn national monument which is smack dab in the heart of the Crow reservation and is staffed by Native Americans. The site itself does a great job of presenting the battle from both sides and the interpretive program runs all day every day. One particularly interesting thing they do is bring in the descendants of the warriors who fought at the battle. These folks have been the recipients of the oral history of the battle and have been instrumental in helping forensic archeologists reconstruct what actually happened hour by hour.

Stopping for lunch at a beautiful lookout spot near Billings Montana,

we found that we were again following the Lewis and Clark trail, this one being part of their trek home after mapping a trail to the Pacific. One of their guides Sacajawea has always fascinated me - so looked her up tonight for your history lesson of the day ;-) and had to add this playbill from the 1955 movie -The Far Horizons because I didn't believe Paul when he said Donna Reed played Sacajawea in the movie! Not quite as politically correct as the National Park Service!

Arriving in Yellowstone we see - yes - oh my GOD - snow. Lots of it in the higher elevations.

But only a bit in the campsite and it is much milder - so hopefully we stay in late spring rather than late winter while here.

More from Yellowstone itself over the next few days.