Yellowstone Day 3: Sightseeing, Gale-force Winds, Early Departure

Our third day at Yellowstone started out as beautiful and picturesque, although windy.  Mammoth Hot Springs is a center of activity with lodges, stores, campgrounds and hiking trails.  We decided to visit a spot with several geothermal features, which can be viewed on foot via a boardwalk, or in a vehicle on a paved loop.  We did a little of both, getting the best of both worlds.

Yellowstone Day 2 - Geothermals, Grizzlies & Wolves!

Day two at Yellowstone was a busy one!  The first bit of awesomeness was on our way out of the campground… we got to see a family of magpies!  The others took off before I could get the camera, though.

Yellowstone National Park Day 1

Our first day in Yellowstone did not disappoint!  We got stuck in two or three “buffalo jams” which are a very frequent occurrence, some of which can take an hour or more to get through, depending on how much traffic has been backed up.  It turns out that the buffalo – or bison – like to travel on the roads as much as we do, and a whole herd of them will just take their sweet time walking down the middle of the road, leaving it for the grass only when they’re good and ready!

Driving, Jeep Repairs and More Driving

We continued into Utah, another state with beautiful scenery, and landed in Provo where we spent a few days at a hotel while waiting for Jeep repairs at the dealer.

Grand Canyon Part 2 – North Rim

Upon waking in Kaibab National Forest at our wonderful, free and very primitive campsite, we set about our morning routine.

As I was brushing my teeth, some movement on the ground a few feet away caught my attention.  At first it looked like a toad, and when it moved it did so in a toad-like fashion.

Grand Canyon Part 1, South Rim

The Grand Canyon is a place neither of us has ever seen, and our first stop was the South Rim.  The view was absolutely breathtaking!  The massive expanse that lay before us was something words can’t do justice to.  It really felt dreamlike to me… surreal.  We stood staring down thousands of feet, out across the miles to distant plateaus, and down to the Colorado River, which appears as but a thread, delicately winding its way through the rock, though it is the very force which created this place.  To me, it felt like floating on a cloud.  To Ken, it felt like treachery.  Actually, it wasn’t quite that bad for him.  He was definitely in awe of the place and enjoyed it thoroughly, but scolded and glared at me several times when he thought I was too close to “the edge.”  Perhaps my definition of “the edge” is different than his!  Anyhow, I did maintain a safe distance from “the edge” and managed to take a ridiculous number of pictures.  I did suffer two disappointments – first, the air was very hazy, and second, I was unable to compensate for that with the camera.

Scenic Flagstaff, Family Time, and Altitude Woes

Let me start with a couple of pictures I forgot to include in my last post.  We saw tons of these oil wells driving through both Texas and New Mexico.

Three Rivers Campground in White Mountain Wilderness, NM (Elevation 6600 ft.)

After leaving Roswell, we continued to rack up the miles in the New Mexico desert.  It seemed to take forever to reach our intended destination, the primitive Three Rivers Campground.  We finally arrived after traveling about 10 or 12 miles on Three Rivers Road (which turns to gravel halfway in) off U.S. Highway 54.  It was getting late with little daylight remaining, so we got busy setting up camp, opting for the quick backpacking tent and the screen house.  Within 5 minutes of arriving at the campsite, we were visited by a hummingbird who was very interested in the red gas cans on the back of the Jeep.  He chirped and flitted about, trying to figure out where to drink from, but alas, there was no nectar to be found.  He returned a few more times, and my camera was, of course, sleeping on the job.

Carlsbad Caverns National Park, NM; Roswell, NM

Carlsbad Caverns National Park in New Mexico is an area offering diverse opportunities for exploration.  The 9 mile scenic loop drive within the park to view the landscape and wildlife allows access to backcountry camping when open.  We had planned to drive the loop, but unfortunately the road was closed for repair due to recent weather damage.  Other activities available include night sky viewing events, a nightly bat flight viewing program, Ranger-guided cave tours, and self-guided cave tours.  We opted for the hour-and-a-half self-guided tour, where we viewed “The Big Room” after taking an elevator down 750 feet.  The Big Room can also be accessed by the Natural Entrance, which adds about an hour to your tour.  Once you’re down in the cavern, it’s amazing to realize that these caves were formed by sulfuric acid dissolving the limestone.  The rooms are huge, and the different types of formations are beautiful and fascinating.  Also worth noting is the fact that the air temperature in the cave remains a pretty consistent 56° Fahrenheit year round.  Taking photographs in the low-light conditions is very challenging, especially for a novice like me.  Here are a few that came out the best:

Lake Talquin State Park (FL), Caprock Canyons State Park (TX)

Our trip to Alaska is well under way!  We spent the first night in Lake Talquin State Forest in the Florida panhandle.  It was kind of a strange place, seemingly an unlikely location for a campground.  It’s out in the country of course, but in order to get to it you drive through an area reminiscent of a ghetto in the city.  We dubbed it “Wilderness Ghetto.”  On the up side, we were the only ones there.