A Quick Wrap-up... What, No Pictures?!!!

Our final morning at Hayden Creek, we packed up and got moving.  Okay, so I took a few pictures before leaving, and on the road until the landscape went flat.  The ants were happy to see us go, as we had apparently been smothering their nest with our tent.  I imagine that, for them, it might have been similar to the movie Independence Day – when the alien spaceships hovered over major cities, causing mass panic and evacuation!

It looks like a muffin!

Colorado: Part 2

Departing from Dillon, a few hours of driving brought us through beautiful landscapes in the countryside of Colorado, up and down mountain passes and winding alongside rivers.

On Distractions and Colorado

Well, here I am way beyond the point of ridiculousness… far behind on my blog posts!  I hate to even think about it, so I try not to.  I thought it was difficult keeping this blog up to date while we were on the road, but it has proven even more challenging at home.  Home is where life starts happening all around you again, generating a multitude of demands for your time and attention.  There has certainly been no shortage of such things ever since we got back.  Add to that my propensity for getting distracted, and this is the result.  Sometimes it makes me want to carve out a shelter under a fallen tree on a mountainside somewhere.  I could subsist on nuts and berries… take my chances with the bears, you know?  Of course, that would be the end of my blog, and I’d have to take up whittling or basket weaving – which wouldn’t be entirely bad.  Since I’m not quite to that point, I’ll pick up where I left off on my last post.  I have lots of other exciting things to share, too, so let’s do this!

Moving on, we left the Badlands and made a beeline to Colorado, the last remaining “must see” place on our list for this trip.  We stayed over one night in a hotel, which had a prairie dog town right next to the parking lot!  It was a short drive the next day to Dillon.

The Badlands – Beautiful Dry Hotness

We got out of Yellowstone ahead of the storm, passing familiar scenery for a little while before entering new territory.

Yellowstone – Round 2

On the first half of our big adventure, we skipped a few planned stops due to weather and vehicle repairs, and other stops were shortened due to weather as well.  Yellowstone was one of those, and a place we wanted to return to.  This put us far ahead of our original schedule, and the resulting “surplus” of time prompted our decision to see Yellowstone again on our way south.  We went back to the campground near Gardiner which was quite full, but we found a site and set up.  The campground host recognized the Jeep and came over to chat for a bit, and let us know where he’d seen a couple of bears, as well as where to get free drinking water – very nice and helpful of him.  We finished situating things and headed off for the park.  After negotiating the elk-induced traffic jam at Mammoth Hot Springs, we took the road east.

Hot Spot Hopping: Mt. Rainier, Mt. St. Helens, Craters of the Moon, Yellowstone

The time had come for us to leave Mt. Rainier and set out for Mt. St. Helens.  While finishing packing the Jeep, we were graced with a brief visit from this Clark’s Nutcracker.

Mt. Rainier, or Mt. Ruh-neer, or Mt. Ray-neer

I’ve heard it all three ways, and that kind of thing bugs me!  I think it should be pronounced Mt. Ray-nee-ur, but I don’t live there, so I don’t get to decide what the rainy place gets called.  No matter how you say it, the roads leading to Mt. Rainier National Park were rich with the dense green foliage one expects to find in a rainforest, which is the climate we were venturing into.

Blasting Through Canada

We packed up our gear and departed Eagle Trail just south of Tok, Alaska, making our way toward the Canadian border.  We were sad to leave Alaska behind, but vowed to return to this beautiful, enchanting place someday.  Hopefully that will happen in the not too distant future, and I suspect we’ll start daydreaming and planning for that trip shortly after this one is finished!  For now, though, we are fully present in this adventure as the events unfold.

The first day’s drive got us across the border and started us back along the famously jarring Alaska Highway to Whitehorse.  Crossing into Canada was again smooth and pleasant, and the officer we dealt with was quite friendly and helpful.

In our quest to find the hot dry air sooner rather than later, we would again make good time getting through Canada.  Kluane Lake in the Yukon was one of our favorite locations on this part of the drive; the lake seems to go on forever, and the surrounding landscapes are endlessly beautiful.