Yellowstone

Nothing terribly exciting on Saturday except for the sandstorm outside of Salt Lake City. We made it to Ogden, Utah for the night and on Sunday morning we went to church at Calvary Baptist Church. This was my father's first church after seminary - and he was pastor 1974-1976. We had a GREAT time there - Pastor Willie Martin and his wife Louise made us feel right at home. Walking around the church - much of it looks the same - although they've really done a nice renovation of the downstairs fellowship hall and nursery. Everything looks smaller than I remember - but I guess I'm a lot bigger now! They treated us to lunch at the 'Chuck-A-Rama' which was terrific.

We didn't hit the road until after 4:00 p.m. as we stopped by our old house on Ben Lomond Drive in Ogden. I didn't spot it the first drive down the block but there it was - a little brick house with a nice backyard. We made it to Jackson on Sunday night and finally found a room at the Wagon Wheel Inn.

On Monday we drove through the Teton National Park and then into Yellowstone. That's four National Parks - so we've already paid for our annual pass! We spent that night camping at Lake Lewis which is just a few miles into the park.

One side note: in case you didn't know, the 67th Annual Sturgis Rally is taking place this week in South Dakota. This is a HUGE gathering of motorcycle folks who flock here from all over the country (like tens of thousands). So Yellowstone was packed with Harley's. I mention this only because the sound of the un-muffled motorcycle is everywhere.

Early on Tuesday (well around 11:00) we lucked into a fabulous campsite on Yellowstone Lake - literally overlooking the water. We built a fire at night to roast marshmallows - YUM! We took in Old Faithful which erupts with some consistency - the rangers predict the next blast based upon the previous pattern.

[Myths: Old Faithful erupts every hour on the hour; the Rangers can turn it on / off; you can set your clock by it]

During our trek through Yellowstone we saw bison/buffalo, elk, squirrels, chipmunks, and ravens. They have both black bear and grizzly bear in the park - but we didn't see any which was okay with me.

We spent Wednesday driving across the big sky country of Wyoming and spent the night in Cheyenne. Lots of cowboys out here - real ones that wear spurs. Thursday we hit Nebraska - CORN CORN CORN - literally miles of corn growing in fields. We arrived in Lincoln last night and it really looks like a neat city. We're staying right downtown and plan to check out the beautiful capitol building.

More later

Friday in Glen Canyon and Zion

We spent Thursday night in Tuba City, AZ - on the Navajo Trail in the Painted Desert. We even got to hear a little of the Navajo language.

Then we headed up to Glen Canyon which is on the border with Utah along the Colorado river. The scenery is very dramatic - with jagged sandstone mountains and breathtaking views across the valleys. We took a tour of the Glen Canyon dam which was completed in 1964 by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. The tour included a walk on the top of the dam (600+ feet above the river) from which you can see both sides and then a trip down the elevator into the depths of the dam (500+ feet below) - where you can see the giant turbines generating power for use across the southwest. More details at the Bureau's website.

Well Zion National Park in Utah is my favorite so far on the trip - spectacular and yet amazingly uncrowded and quiet. Visitors drive down through the park through all the twisty switchbacks and tunnels through the mountains until you reach the bottom and the Visitor's Center. Then you take a one of the shuttle buses and get off at various spots. They run until 11:00 p.m. which we thought quite cool. Many of the rock formations have names and the "Patriarchs" (Abraham, Isaac and Jacob) are particularly beautiful.

Zion would be a fabulous place to camp - at the bottom of the canyon - so we will definitely have to come back some day.

We made it to Hurricane, UT for the night.

We're Off

On Saturday, Sunday and Monday evenings evenings we said some of our last goodbyes - to Rob and Joy Sage, to Ken & Fureya Walicki and Jason & Maria Teven (and Julian and Magdalena of course) and then to Pete & Kathy LeNoache and John Dunne. Even Dave shed a couple of tears at leaving such dear friends. Dave hurt his back on Saturday (not actually moving furniture but swinging Linden around) so that has put a damper on some of our activities.

So we finally hit the road on Wednesday afternoon about 5:15 p.m. (it took a little bit longer than I thought to clean out my office!) But we made it to Needles, CA on Wednesday night.


On Thursday afternoon we arrived at the South rim of the Grand Canyon. Quite spectacular - just like the photos;-> We spent some time looking over the edges and at the visitor's center. Linden was seemingly more impressed with the rock edges on the pathways - great for balancing and jumping.

One of the photos here shows an unusual flying creature - it seemed like a cross between a moth and a hummingbird - as it hovered like a hummingbird to suck nectar out of the butterfly bush - but it was clearly not a bird. So hopefully one of the wildlife biologists in the group can provide an answer here.

Friday is Zion National Park.


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