Cheyennee grave
Custers last stand
Wednesday 27 June 2012
CODY and CUSTER'S LAST STAND
Custers last stand
Tuesday 26 June 2012
Remember to click on pictures to enlarge
SALT LAKE CITY
First church on site around 1880
Inside conference centre for Sunday Broadcast of choir
rare picture crossing road with saftey flag roads all 130ft wide
Inside first church
Tabernacle only open to mormons for weddings christenings
and instruction in their faith, no ordinary services.
Rockies through to Monument
SUNDAY 17th June
Left rather abruptly as we found a library where we could connect up and send off everything!
Anyway tortuous driving with heavy Sunday traffic, escapes from Denver, saw us passing along many gorges, no valleys, with individual houses many rather nice, until we reached an overwhelmingly tripperish town of Estes Park just outside the boundary of the national park. Camped in the Park at Morraine Campground approached via a bone shaking 1.5 mile road which was being reconstruted and was down to bare rock at the time of our visit. Lovely site great views and sited at 8250 ft.
Now I mention Estes Park for a particular reason. I have commented on forest fires earlier, we read today 25th June in the local paper that a fire has been raging around Estes Park, 1400 people have been evacuated, 21 homes lost to date and the whole area closed off. we would not have been able to do that route or we could alternatively have been involved with the fire!
Having driven all over the place i had thought heights were perhaps behind us, what an idiot. Monday 18th saw us off around the north western perimeter of the Park and statred with a two hour slow climb., magnificant mountain scenery quite outstanding and a hieght gain to 12450 ft on the road with a coffee stop at the visitors centre at 12145 ft.
Where are you from, England, oh please send us some of your rain is a automatic response by just about everyone now. Here at the Visitors centre the ranger said in June last year when we opened up ther was 12ft of snow covering areas of the building, this year no snow and no rain too, things are bad the opposite way to the UK.
A good run down the rockies to Granby past a large an pretty lake onto the 40 and thence across a back road to interstate 70 for the run to Glenwood Springs. We've now picked up the Colorado River again and where this meets mountains it means canyons big huge ones quite narrow with the road at the base and mountains towering thosands of feet above you. A variety of scenery therefore and mostly pastoral.
A complete no sequeter, way back in Wyoming I spoke of the pastoral agrarian landscape helped by the irrigation started by Buffalo Bill which extended for some 30 to40 miles and covered an area of some 1500 sq miles. Towards its NE corner the Yellowstone River was the source for water, a full and fast flowing river. The whole valley was prosperous and looked a dream for agriculture. At the border with Momtana the valley and river continued for 30 miles but one yard inside montana was desert, useless scrub land and nothing, green and fertile to zilch in one stride.
Back again at Glenwood Springs which is really a ski resort we stayed in a rundown mainly residential site called The Hideout, it sufficed just, the town itself did nothing to excite us.
19th to 21st JUNE
Form Glenwood Springs we took the 70 past naval shale oil reserves miles of them whatever they are and decided to take a route cutting a corner off to Moab via the 128 which was described at the start as a narrow winding road with 20mph hairpins, an obvious challenge and seemingly a bleak one from the desert start in considerable heat. One moment we were twisting and turning when suddenly round a corner was scenery the like of which we had never seen before in fact quite the best road scenery to date. Broad valley and canyons, all the pinacles and odd rock formations plus individual monoliths standing up all over the place in fact like monument valley of cowboy fame with mountains closer by which had been sculpted by a god somehow. Although in the same area as CanyonLand the basic valley and gorge bottom was gentler and not quite so demonic.
Moab and a campsite Canyonlands CG for two
nights. Moab a reasonable town which sells itself on outdoor activity such as white water rafting, off road trips etc. Actually I would be disapointwd with the rafting as we saw on our back road in twenty or more rafts, 12 people in an inflateable, paddling hot and aimlessly down th Colorado River and more or less struggling to get over the rapids as the river is very low for the time of year.
There is a superb Indian Atrifacts shop in town.
Our stop was to visit Canyonland and The Arches National Parks. Canyonland is a series of canyons viewed from above and the area is vast and that is an understatement. From above you look down from various view points to a rim about 1000 ft below which is the top of another canyon which falls again down hundreds of feet and this in turn becomes the rim of yet another gorge below that. It is possible to drive round the second rim on an old trail used by the uranium miners, it takes two days to complete. I said vast, just looking out over one section one could drop the Isle of Whight into it and still have water around it, I suppose a 360 degree view around would pobably take in the whole of Ireland with some to spare.
This land is virtually inaccessible, totally barren, bare fractured land high up at 7000ft and one of the most inhospitable place I have seen. Worth a visit just to see one of natures facades.
Arches National Park was a dissapointment, far too busy, arches in rocks are not particularly interesting and in general the worst park we have been to.
JUNE 21 st saw us I suppose at my wish taking a day to visit Lake Powell a monster Lake some 200 odd miles long formed when the Colorado River was dammed by the Hoover Dam. Glen Canyon with a ferry across the lake sounded good and i hoped for a rather greener setting with the tree lined lake etc. Nothing could be further from reality, the lake was there no access to the shore line it is mostly mountain straaight into water, no greenery just desert mountain and rock. Ferry every 2 hours to same thing on other side, campsite 50 dollars, we turned round and came back to Blanding for the night a round trip of 180 mile for nothing. Idilic settings are non existent in this neck of the woods. Oh temperature was 93F.
JUNE 22 onward to the Messa Verde National Park where we stayed at the parks Maresfield site. The Messa Verde Park states it is the only national park to focus on preseving the buildings and dwellings of the former inhabitants of the area. The buildings mainly consist of dwellings built within caves or overhangs in the cliff faces of the various gorges. Dated to around 850 60 1300 AD, curiously the Americans call these people pre historic separated by a common language or what! The dwellings are difficult to get to and some are downright impossible they were approached when in use by use of handholds in the cliff face. Quite why they came from townships on the measa above where they grew crops and hunted no one knows and why they were abandoned by 1300 no on can say though obviously there are many theories.. We had a group guided tour round one "township" called pueblo in these areas which was fascinating though the ladder access and egress was a little challenging. High high up place yet again, will we ever get back down.
Large forest fire to the east blotted out the sky for the evening and was still growing in the morning when we left fanned by a strong wind again we later read evacuations and property loss had occurred and the fir e was still in control,
JUNE 23rd to Monument Valley a longish drive through some of the most desolate areas yet we both thought about the same time that we had been travelling for the last 50 miles though a very nasty looking slag heap. I keep harping back to this but desolation hardly describes some of these areas, hell might be more appropriate. Then suddenly up a slope and everything changes from desert yellow and nasty to deep red and over the brow and into Monument Valley. Another world of endless flatland with thes monumental shapes sticking up everywhere many so familiar from cowboy and many other films. Great w shaped rock patterns and colours which put the Isle of White colours to shame, the wavey shape is incorporated in much of the Indian craftwork. The whole are is controlled by the Naverro Indians.
The Valley was great to see and is again immense. We stayed inGoldings Camp Park right opposite some of the well known monoliths and went to a showing of Stage Coach 1939 John Wayne film which was filmed in the Valley. Good fun .
Left rather abruptly as we found a library where we could connect up and send off everything!
Anyway tortuous driving with heavy Sunday traffic, escapes from Denver, saw us passing along many gorges, no valleys, with individual houses many rather nice, until we reached an overwhelmingly tripperish town of Estes Park just outside the boundary of the national park. Camped in the Park at Morraine Campground approached via a bone shaking 1.5 mile road which was being reconstruted and was down to bare rock at the time of our visit. Lovely site great views and sited at 8250 ft.
Now I mention Estes Park for a particular reason. I have commented on forest fires earlier, we read today 25th June in the local paper that a fire has been raging around Estes Park, 1400 people have been evacuated, 21 homes lost to date and the whole area closed off. we would not have been able to do that route or we could alternatively have been involved with the fire!
Having driven all over the place i had thought heights were perhaps behind us, what an idiot. Monday 18th saw us off around the north western perimeter of the Park and statred with a two hour slow climb., magnificant mountain scenery quite outstanding and a hieght gain to 12450 ft on the road with a coffee stop at the visitors centre at 12145 ft.
Where are you from, England, oh please send us some of your rain is a automatic response by just about everyone now. Here at the Visitors centre the ranger said in June last year when we opened up ther was 12ft of snow covering areas of the building, this year no snow and no rain too, things are bad the opposite way to the UK.
A good run down the rockies to Granby past a large an pretty lake onto the 40 and thence across a back road to interstate 70 for the run to Glenwood Springs. We've now picked up the Colorado River again and where this meets mountains it means canyons big huge ones quite narrow with the road at the base and mountains towering thosands of feet above you. A variety of scenery therefore and mostly pastoral.
A complete no sequeter, way back in Wyoming I spoke of the pastoral agrarian landscape helped by the irrigation started by Buffalo Bill which extended for some 30 to40 miles and covered an area of some 1500 sq miles. Towards its NE corner the Yellowstone River was the source for water, a full and fast flowing river. The whole valley was prosperous and looked a dream for agriculture. At the border with Momtana the valley and river continued for 30 miles but one yard inside montana was desert, useless scrub land and nothing, green and fertile to zilch in one stride.
Back again at Glenwood Springs which is really a ski resort we stayed in a rundown mainly residential site called The Hideout, it sufficed just, the town itself did nothing to excite us.
19th to 21st JUNE
Form Glenwood Springs we took the 70 past naval shale oil reserves miles of them whatever they are and decided to take a route cutting a corner off to Moab via the 128 which was described at the start as a narrow winding road with 20mph hairpins, an obvious challenge and seemingly a bleak one from the desert start in considerable heat. One moment we were twisting and turning when suddenly round a corner was scenery the like of which we had never seen before in fact quite the best road scenery to date. Broad valley and canyons, all the pinacles and odd rock formations plus individual monoliths standing up all over the place in fact like monument valley of cowboy fame with mountains closer by which had been sculpted by a god somehow. Although in the same area as CanyonLand the basic valley and gorge bottom was gentler and not quite so demonic.
Moab and a campsite Canyonlands CG for two
nights. Moab a reasonable town which sells itself on outdoor activity such as white water rafting, off road trips etc. Actually I would be disapointwd with the rafting as we saw on our back road in twenty or more rafts, 12 people in an inflateable, paddling hot and aimlessly down th Colorado River and more or less struggling to get over the rapids as the river is very low for the time of year.
There is a superb Indian Atrifacts shop in town.
Our stop was to visit Canyonland and The Arches National Parks. Canyonland is a series of canyons viewed from above and the area is vast and that is an understatement. From above you look down from various view points to a rim about 1000 ft below which is the top of another canyon which falls again down hundreds of feet and this in turn becomes the rim of yet another gorge below that. It is possible to drive round the second rim on an old trail used by the uranium miners, it takes two days to complete. I said vast, just looking out over one section one could drop the Isle of Whight into it and still have water around it, I suppose a 360 degree view around would pobably take in the whole of Ireland with some to spare.
This land is virtually inaccessible, totally barren, bare fractured land high up at 7000ft and one of the most inhospitable place I have seen. Worth a visit just to see one of natures facades.
Arches National Park was a dissapointment, far too busy, arches in rocks are not particularly interesting and in general the worst park we have been to.
JUNE 21 st saw us I suppose at my wish taking a day to visit Lake Powell a monster Lake some 200 odd miles long formed when the Colorado River was dammed by the Hoover Dam. Glen Canyon with a ferry across the lake sounded good and i hoped for a rather greener setting with the tree lined lake etc. Nothing could be further from reality, the lake was there no access to the shore line it is mostly mountain straaight into water, no greenery just desert mountain and rock. Ferry every 2 hours to same thing on other side, campsite 50 dollars, we turned round and came back to Blanding for the night a round trip of 180 mile for nothing. Idilic settings are non existent in this neck of the woods. Oh temperature was 93F.
JUNE 22 onward to the Messa Verde National Park where we stayed at the parks Maresfield site. The Messa Verde Park states it is the only national park to focus on preseving the buildings and dwellings of the former inhabitants of the area. The buildings mainly consist of dwellings built within caves or overhangs in the cliff faces of the various gorges. Dated to around 850 60 1300 AD, curiously the Americans call these people pre historic separated by a common language or what! The dwellings are difficult to get to and some are downright impossible they were approached when in use by use of handholds in the cliff face. Quite why they came from townships on the measa above where they grew crops and hunted no one knows and why they were abandoned by 1300 no on can say though obviously there are many theories.. We had a group guided tour round one "township" called pueblo in these areas which was fascinating though the ladder access and egress was a little challenging. High high up place yet again, will we ever get back down.
Large forest fire to the east blotted out the sky for the evening and was still growing in the morning when we left fanned by a strong wind again we later read evacuations and property loss had occurred and the fir e was still in control,
JUNE 23rd to Monument Valley a longish drive through some of the most desolate areas yet we both thought about the same time that we had been travelling for the last 50 miles though a very nasty looking slag heap. I keep harping back to this but desolation hardly describes some of these areas, hell might be more appropriate. Then suddenly up a slope and everything changes from desert yellow and nasty to deep red and over the brow and into Monument Valley. Another world of endless flatland with thes monumental shapes sticking up everywhere many so familiar from cowboy and many other films. Great w shaped rock patterns and colours which put the Isle of White colours to shame, the wavey shape is incorporated in much of the Indian craftwork. The whole are is controlled by the Naverro Indians.
The Valley was great to see and is again immense. We stayed inGoldings Camp Park right opposite some of the well known monoliths and went to a showing of Stage Coach 1939 John Wayne film which was filmed in the Valley. Good fun .
Monday 25 June 2012
CODY and BEYOND. (change of direction by mutual consent now swinging east then down south in a circle back to LA) Sorry spell check did not work!
Slipped up with the blog over the last few hundered miles.
CODY stayed for three nights on Ponderosa camp ground and liked the town. As I said earlier it takes it's name form Buffalo Bill, William Cody, who was aresident in the area and who apart from being a showman with his world renowned Wild West Show was also a Government tracker in the Indian wars, a top class backwoodsman and friend of Wild Biill Hitchock, Kit Carson etc. Cody set up the original town of Cody and was the inspiration behind the irrigation project which dug a 30 mile canal through the region and which now, expanded somewhat irrigates an area of some 1500sq miles giving the best agriculture in Wyoming. He was also instrumental in getting the government to build a dam, now named Buffalo Bill dam which houses enough water to irrigate the entire region. Not just a Cowboy.
We went to a country singing show which was good and were introduced as the only English people in the audience of 27.
A nightly rodeo is held for the likes of us and to all intents it is similar to a proper rodeo without perhaps the partisan support of the riders. Dangerous and rough it is riders were hurt, a bull gored his rider before it left its' pen and all riders were tossed off their steeds eventually, tacky but fun.
Buffalo Bill Museum sounds a bit iffy but is infact five museums in one, all built within the last five years and run by the Smithsonium Museum the premier USA museum on par with the British Museum. A day or more could be spent here and it was all of an exceptional standard.
Various mini walks into town and some almost passable meals later we set of for:-
Montana June 13th to a place called Hardin going on a wide loop on the 310 and then the 90 to the little town.
En route we stopped at a camp a few miles outside Cody on the Alt14A, not a camp but a visitors centre on the site, where 14000 West Coast Japeneese were interned after Pearl Harbour and kept there for the duration of the war. Very interesting and moving, 95% were American citizens and were dispossesd of everything in the four years and had to start from scratch when the were released with next to nothing. Trueman and elenor Rosvelt the presidents wife were vehemently opposed to the action but it went ahead, justified on defense grounds but actually caused more by racism than anything else.
Hardin close to the battlefield, area, of Custers Last stand. An interesting visit, I had envisaged vast mountains and sweeping valleys but no large areas yes but mor Downland like scenery with many gullies sweeping down to flat river areas.
In brief Custer was searching ,with others, for Indians to destroy and force them onto reservations which the Indians did not recognise. He came across a camp and fearing that he had been seen, which he had, he dcided to attack straight away and he did in a three pronged effort. He had 275 men, the camp he saw was huge 6000 people with at least 2000 warrior Indians. A curious decision to attack, perhaps an arrogent one as well when he could have withdrawn and waited for reinforcements which were in the area. He did not wait and we know the result. We stood on the site of Custers last stand wher he and the final 30 of his men were killed.
Difficult facts but there is no doubt that the Indian tribes and people were treated very badly indeed but how do you put together two totally different ways of life, probably impossible the Indians a nomadic hunter gather moving with the bison heards over vast stretches of land areas bigger than the UK and holding most of that land sacred with the famers, ranchers miners who create townships and railroads to connect. All present day stuff require limited individual space, profit and food, onlt food relates to the Indian and the buffalo 30 million of them were virtually wiped out in ten years by the profiteers for their skins so no food for the Indians. It all gets so mixed up and impossible to sort out America has not, Australia has not and Canada has its' own similar problem. Today we drive through huge Indian reservations, the land though sacred is of no use to them, their villages are shambolic and sparse being rude there seem to be a aweful lot of car breakers yard around many of the shake like dwellings, this is not integration into modern society nor is it the " Indian way of LIfe" complete no mans land ---I think!!!
Enough enough enough
Oh yes a conversation overheard between a local and an outsider with the local rancher type saying there was nothing typical about the hot weather 88F at the time he had been snowed in for at least two days in every month of the year except August so nothing was typical.
14th JUNE
From Hardin Grandview camp (no view) we continued eastward to Mount Rushmore to view the Presidents carved in the mountain face rock. The carvings are impressive and though a pilgramage of too many Americans they are worth a visit. Following this we went to see the carving in progress of Crazy Horse a carving asked for by Indian chiefs to show that Indians honoured their people as well. Facts I forget but this was envisaged and started some 50-60 years ago, a polish American sculptor was chosen and he designed and worked on it the whole of his life some 40 years or so. To start with for years on his own and then with his children as they grew up. A video presentation showed all this and decribed in detail what the project was and it includes a big university and medical college for the north west American Indians. We were shown the now massive visitors complex and told how all monies for the carving and everything else was funded by donation and visitor entries as the ethos of the whole thing was for and by the people. Huge national and state funding has been repeatedly refused. Not once in this presentation were the Indians mentioned it was all about the Polish American Family. The visitirs centre is the largest and most impressive we have seen but it housed a craft fair of hundreds of Indian stalls, the carving which is the be all and end all of the project is going very slowly and may be completed in 50 years time if they are lucky. Where were the Indians apart from stall holders.
Stayed the night at a KOA site Devils Tower closeish Mount Rushmore area. Devils Tower is a huge piece of rock sticking out of the ground all on its own. The tower was a major feature of the film Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
15th JUNE
Off again to and I've got it wrong now. We reached Devils Tower the night before we saw the Presidents so after that visit we ended up at Custer a decent sized town where we stayed in a rustic site calledBig Pine Campground on the route 16.
16th JUNE
A days slog of a drive down to Cheyenne capital city of Wyoming but down in the south east corner of the state within a mile or two of Colorado and Nebraska. Went via the 85 vrtually to the town a longish trip through nonderscript scenery, very hot. Stopped for coffee as one does at a wayside town with a Stage Coach museum went in and got caught by an enthusiastic lady! still we learned quite a lot and saw the last stagecoach to run on the deadwood trail between Cheyenne and Deadwood. Gosh the coach was cramped and would today take about six people max. It is said it took up to eighteen people and 5 days to get between destinations. Driver , armed, and shotgun rider with each coach and often a horse rider guard too. I seem to have missed out that we called in at Deadwood, a small town with a big and wid history, it still has lots of cassinos and bars etc.
Why Cheyenne, sounded nice but was average and had a huge railyard which appeared to have a control tower in the middle. Campsite KOA again sais by someone to be the beat KOA ever and quiet. LIAR. Set 150 yards off the interstate 80 I counted an average of 300 lories per hour at 7pm on a Saturday evening same through the night and on Sunday when we left.
SUNDAY 17th JUNE
Left on a windy day down the 85 towards Denver but turned off at Greeley into the Rocky Mountain National Park Colorado, Rockies actualy run Mexico to Alaska 3000odd miles so this was a Southern section. Passed one Forest fire before Greeley. Up narrow gorges with lots of traffic into the national Park
Slipped up with the blog over the last few hundered miles.
CODY stayed for three nights on Ponderosa camp ground and liked the town. As I said earlier it takes it's name form Buffalo Bill, William Cody, who was aresident in the area and who apart from being a showman with his world renowned Wild West Show was also a Government tracker in the Indian wars, a top class backwoodsman and friend of Wild Biill Hitchock, Kit Carson etc. Cody set up the original town of Cody and was the inspiration behind the irrigation project which dug a 30 mile canal through the region and which now, expanded somewhat irrigates an area of some 1500sq miles giving the best agriculture in Wyoming. He was also instrumental in getting the government to build a dam, now named Buffalo Bill dam which houses enough water to irrigate the entire region. Not just a Cowboy.
We went to a country singing show which was good and were introduced as the only English people in the audience of 27.
A nightly rodeo is held for the likes of us and to all intents it is similar to a proper rodeo without perhaps the partisan support of the riders. Dangerous and rough it is riders were hurt, a bull gored his rider before it left its' pen and all riders were tossed off their steeds eventually, tacky but fun.
Buffalo Bill Museum sounds a bit iffy but is infact five museums in one, all built within the last five years and run by the Smithsonium Museum the premier USA museum on par with the British Museum. A day or more could be spent here and it was all of an exceptional standard.
Various mini walks into town and some almost passable meals later we set of for:-
Montana June 13th to a place called Hardin going on a wide loop on the 310 and then the 90 to the little town.
En route we stopped at a camp a few miles outside Cody on the Alt14A, not a camp but a visitors centre on the site, where 14000 West Coast Japeneese were interned after Pearl Harbour and kept there for the duration of the war. Very interesting and moving, 95% were American citizens and were dispossesd of everything in the four years and had to start from scratch when the were released with next to nothing. Trueman and elenor Rosvelt the presidents wife were vehemently opposed to the action but it went ahead, justified on defense grounds but actually caused more by racism than anything else.
Hardin close to the battlefield, area, of Custers Last stand. An interesting visit, I had envisaged vast mountains and sweeping valleys but no large areas yes but mor Downland like scenery with many gullies sweeping down to flat river areas.
In brief Custer was searching ,with others, for Indians to destroy and force them onto reservations which the Indians did not recognise. He came across a camp and fearing that he had been seen, which he had, he dcided to attack straight away and he did in a three pronged effort. He had 275 men, the camp he saw was huge 6000 people with at least 2000 warrior Indians. A curious decision to attack, perhaps an arrogent one as well when he could have withdrawn and waited for reinforcements which were in the area. He did not wait and we know the result. We stood on the site of Custers last stand wher he and the final 30 of his men were killed.
Difficult facts but there is no doubt that the Indian tribes and people were treated very badly indeed but how do you put together two totally different ways of life, probably impossible the Indians a nomadic hunter gather moving with the bison heards over vast stretches of land areas bigger than the UK and holding most of that land sacred with the famers, ranchers miners who create townships and railroads to connect. All present day stuff require limited individual space, profit and food, onlt food relates to the Indian and the buffalo 30 million of them were virtually wiped out in ten years by the profiteers for their skins so no food for the Indians. It all gets so mixed up and impossible to sort out America has not, Australia has not and Canada has its' own similar problem. Today we drive through huge Indian reservations, the land though sacred is of no use to them, their villages are shambolic and sparse being rude there seem to be a aweful lot of car breakers yard around many of the shake like dwellings, this is not integration into modern society nor is it the " Indian way of LIfe" complete no mans land ---I think!!!
Enough enough enough
Oh yes a conversation overheard between a local and an outsider with the local rancher type saying there was nothing typical about the hot weather 88F at the time he had been snowed in for at least two days in every month of the year except August so nothing was typical.
14th JUNE
From Hardin Grandview camp (no view) we continued eastward to Mount Rushmore to view the Presidents carved in the mountain face rock. The carvings are impressive and though a pilgramage of too many Americans they are worth a visit. Following this we went to see the carving in progress of Crazy Horse a carving asked for by Indian chiefs to show that Indians honoured their people as well. Facts I forget but this was envisaged and started some 50-60 years ago, a polish American sculptor was chosen and he designed and worked on it the whole of his life some 40 years or so. To start with for years on his own and then with his children as they grew up. A video presentation showed all this and decribed in detail what the project was and it includes a big university and medical college for the north west American Indians. We were shown the now massive visitors complex and told how all monies for the carving and everything else was funded by donation and visitor entries as the ethos of the whole thing was for and by the people. Huge national and state funding has been repeatedly refused. Not once in this presentation were the Indians mentioned it was all about the Polish American Family. The visitirs centre is the largest and most impressive we have seen but it housed a craft fair of hundreds of Indian stalls, the carving which is the be all and end all of the project is going very slowly and may be completed in 50 years time if they are lucky. Where were the Indians apart from stall holders.
Stayed the night at a KOA site Devils Tower closeish Mount Rushmore area. Devils Tower is a huge piece of rock sticking out of the ground all on its own. The tower was a major feature of the film Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
15th JUNE
Off again to and I've got it wrong now. We reached Devils Tower the night before we saw the Presidents so after that visit we ended up at Custer a decent sized town where we stayed in a rustic site calledBig Pine Campground on the route 16.
16th JUNE
A days slog of a drive down to Cheyenne capital city of Wyoming but down in the south east corner of the state within a mile or two of Colorado and Nebraska. Went via the 85 vrtually to the town a longish trip through nonderscript scenery, very hot. Stopped for coffee as one does at a wayside town with a Stage Coach museum went in and got caught by an enthusiastic lady! still we learned quite a lot and saw the last stagecoach to run on the deadwood trail between Cheyenne and Deadwood. Gosh the coach was cramped and would today take about six people max. It is said it took up to eighteen people and 5 days to get between destinations. Driver , armed, and shotgun rider with each coach and often a horse rider guard too. I seem to have missed out that we called in at Deadwood, a small town with a big and wid history, it still has lots of cassinos and bars etc.
Why Cheyenne, sounded nice but was average and had a huge railyard which appeared to have a control tower in the middle. Campsite KOA again sais by someone to be the beat KOA ever and quiet. LIAR. Set 150 yards off the interstate 80 I counted an average of 300 lories per hour at 7pm on a Saturday evening same through the night and on Sunday when we left.
SUNDAY 17th JUNE
Left on a windy day down the 85 towards Denver but turned off at Greeley into the Rocky Mountain National Park Colorado, Rockies actualy run Mexico to Alaska 3000odd miles so this was a Southern section. Passed one Forest fire before Greeley. Up narrow gorges with lots of traffic into the national Park
Wednesday 20 June 2012
Friday 15 June 2012
Yellowstone
YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK
A longish drive now to Yellowstone mostly up route 89 after turning on to it at Brigham Young City. Small towns many Mormon churches with their distinctive spires a lot of scenery which was mostly broad valleys well watered and farmed surrounded by mountains, the valleys all at between 4500ft to 6000ft. Everyone lives up in the air here.
Stopped the first night at Alpine Junction at the Grey River Cove rv park, a mistake really, quite basic and expensive which infuriated Judith.
Trundled on on the 5th June and liked Jackson Hole , funny name for a town, or we liked the centre of the town when we finally reached it after passing at least three or more large shopping malls and typical American mis match of businesses as you approach a town. The centre is old and was pleasing to our eyes.
Onward to Grand Teton National Park, water, lakes , mountains and good scenery where we stayed the night at the Signal Mountain Campground 200 yards from a good evening meal in the local lodge where we had buffalo steak, I think.
6th June found us in Yellowstone National Park at the Bridge Bay site for two nights. A large site poorly laid out with staff who had not much idea of there pitches as we could not get on the first one given and we noticed other people with the same problems. Basically the pitches were designed many years ago for smaller units and now ours at 30ft is really on the small side compared to many up to 50ft plus car towed at the rear. This park should really be redeveloped.
Drove round that day and saw Yellowstone canyon, good but not mind boggling.
Yellowstone is huge and has many varied landscapes all in keeping with major mountain scenery, valleys etc and all superb. Yellowstone is,however, about geysers in one form or another. The hot centre of the earth exposing itself through the various geysers,springs, mud spouts and so on.
The most apt description of these areas is Kipling ' the tide has gone out on desolation',
Desolation is the word, geysers are fun, Old Faithful spouting every 90 minute to 60ft is watched by hundreds every time and the formations and pools made over an immense area are unworldly but essentially are part of our creation. Many geysers erupt 150 to 200ft but sporadically or every 7 hours so you are lucky to see a lot of action. We spent three days in the area walking around boardwalks, climbing steps and descending slopes looking at desolation. Essentially how the world was and is still being created is a distinctly hot and messy business.
The active part of Yellowstone is an old caldera (rim of a past Volcano} which is something like 40 miles diameter, still active hence all the geysers and measured to have risen since 1925 over 2 feet. The horrifying thought is when this erupts, and apparently it will at some stage, it would probably change the whole earths climate to a nuclear winter for countless years. The fall out from the eruption would be 40,000 as great as St Helena and would cover half the USA in 10ft of ash. Not bad eh!!! Not a horror story but fact some time in the future. The earth continues to mutate we occupy a fraction of a second in its time span.
We stayed one night in Madison Camp ground and two night s in Indian Springs Camp ground, both good sites we enjoyed Indian Springs best though we did get 12 hours of snow there and cold weather for our walks on the boardwalk. Dressed up for winter days we were.
We even managed a shower at the hotel at Mammoth Springs after basic sites for many days..
Animals seen during our Yellowstone time include 3 Grizzly bears, two black bears though one was a cinnamon colour., hundreds of byson, dear, proghorn dear that can run faster than cheeters, elks and many birds including osprey.
A very different Park to the others we have seen exhibiting unique areas extending back beyond primeval to creation.
We left the park by the North east entrance in quite heavy snow which closed one road which we might have taken, a pass over 10000ft but we had already decided to go to Cody a township of Buffalo Bill fame. Spectacular scenery en route much of it now with snow covering the peaks and many areas lower down. Forecast is now for warmer weather as this was unusual, no doubt like the floods back in the UK being unusual. Nature is unusual and certainly tracing it back over the millions of years in this area man has had nothing to do with it.
I'm riding hobby horses or getting profound but perhaps we think rather too much of ourselves against eternity.
A longish drive now to Yellowstone mostly up route 89 after turning on to it at Brigham Young City. Small towns many Mormon churches with their distinctive spires a lot of scenery which was mostly broad valleys well watered and farmed surrounded by mountains, the valleys all at between 4500ft to 6000ft. Everyone lives up in the air here.
Stopped the first night at Alpine Junction at the Grey River Cove rv park, a mistake really, quite basic and expensive which infuriated Judith.
Trundled on on the 5th June and liked Jackson Hole , funny name for a town, or we liked the centre of the town when we finally reached it after passing at least three or more large shopping malls and typical American mis match of businesses as you approach a town. The centre is old and was pleasing to our eyes.
Onward to Grand Teton National Park, water, lakes , mountains and good scenery where we stayed the night at the Signal Mountain Campground 200 yards from a good evening meal in the local lodge where we had buffalo steak, I think.
6th June found us in Yellowstone National Park at the Bridge Bay site for two nights. A large site poorly laid out with staff who had not much idea of there pitches as we could not get on the first one given and we noticed other people with the same problems. Basically the pitches were designed many years ago for smaller units and now ours at 30ft is really on the small side compared to many up to 50ft plus car towed at the rear. This park should really be redeveloped.
Drove round that day and saw Yellowstone canyon, good but not mind boggling.
Yellowstone is huge and has many varied landscapes all in keeping with major mountain scenery, valleys etc and all superb. Yellowstone is,however, about geysers in one form or another. The hot centre of the earth exposing itself through the various geysers,springs, mud spouts and so on.
The most apt description of these areas is Kipling ' the tide has gone out on desolation',
Desolation is the word, geysers are fun, Old Faithful spouting every 90 minute to 60ft is watched by hundreds every time and the formations and pools made over an immense area are unworldly but essentially are part of our creation. Many geysers erupt 150 to 200ft but sporadically or every 7 hours so you are lucky to see a lot of action. We spent three days in the area walking around boardwalks, climbing steps and descending slopes looking at desolation. Essentially how the world was and is still being created is a distinctly hot and messy business.
The active part of Yellowstone is an old caldera (rim of a past Volcano} which is something like 40 miles diameter, still active hence all the geysers and measured to have risen since 1925 over 2 feet. The horrifying thought is when this erupts, and apparently it will at some stage, it would probably change the whole earths climate to a nuclear winter for countless years. The fall out from the eruption would be 40,000 as great as St Helena and would cover half the USA in 10ft of ash. Not bad eh!!! Not a horror story but fact some time in the future. The earth continues to mutate we occupy a fraction of a second in its time span.
We stayed one night in Madison Camp ground and two night s in Indian Springs Camp ground, both good sites we enjoyed Indian Springs best though we did get 12 hours of snow there and cold weather for our walks on the boardwalk. Dressed up for winter days we were.
We even managed a shower at the hotel at Mammoth Springs after basic sites for many days..
Animals seen during our Yellowstone time include 3 Grizzly bears, two black bears though one was a cinnamon colour., hundreds of byson, dear, proghorn dear that can run faster than cheeters, elks and many birds including osprey.
A very different Park to the others we have seen exhibiting unique areas extending back beyond primeval to creation.
We left the park by the North east entrance in quite heavy snow which closed one road which we might have taken, a pass over 10000ft but we had already decided to go to Cody a township of Buffalo Bill fame. Spectacular scenery en route much of it now with snow covering the peaks and many areas lower down. Forecast is now for warmer weather as this was unusual, no doubt like the floods back in the UK being unusual. Nature is unusual and certainly tracing it back over the millions of years in this area man has had nothing to do with it.
I'm riding hobby horses or getting profound but perhaps we think rather too much of ourselves against eternity.
Salt Lake City
SALT LAKE CITY proper
The city founded by the Mormons and still claiming 35% of the population.
THE MORMONS I'm no authority on the Mormon sect but they hold sway in this part of America, at least that is what appears though whether it is more token than actual I know not.
We had a mini guided tour round the Mormon Temple Complex by two young, about 20 ish, girls who along with many others of similar pairs of female missionaries. They call themselves missionaries and it appears they devote 18 months of their time at this sort of age to their allegiance to their faith. No proselytising, some direct questions such as have you felt god in your life as I have etc which take a bit of answering or evading, they are not afraid to talk of their personal faith which at this level is really indistinguishable from Christianity.
Their church is very family orientated, men and women have distinct roles in the family and the emphasis is on keeping and bringing up the family in accordance with Gods' laws. OK but some of our problems can start here as Gods laws are as laid down both in the bible or as stated by the book of Mormon a testament revealed to Joseph Smith in the early 19C. Mormons believe he was a prophet who received Gods word direct and who translated tablets, seen only by him, which form the basis of the faith,
Other major problems occur with their views of priesthood, men only, The view that God is three person each an individual and each a man elevated to the position of god. Any man can with a good life become a god. I stop as I cannot keep going on as the more I write the less I know.
The Temple grounds are large, exquisite and the buildings are ? to the glory of their God or to Mormonism or to the egos of the 12 leaders of the church. Huge admin tower building about 25 odd floors and amazing visitor/explanation centres time 2. I know I am being cynical and the Mormons do appear to do a lot of work worldwide as do other churches, faiths, oxfam etc. I suppose I find it hard to accept multi million expenditure within the past 40 years as a way of promulgating ones faith. In reality our cathedrals no doubt cost the same or more in real terms when they were constructed so i am treading a sticky wicket of humbug here.
The city itself has been hugely enhanced by a new shopping centre bang in the middle by the Temple, well designed and open to the sky with streams trees many water features etc. it opened in March this year after 8 years of planning and is and has obviously made a huge difference . Built by and paid for to the tune of 2 billion dollars by the Mormon Church. A secular area but closed on Sunday, there are also no buses on Sunday which was a bit of a nuisance.
We went to a big band evening in the Brigham Young memorial Park on the Friday, a free evening and there are many such freebies organised by the Mormons. I do not particularly like the big band sound and this was no exception though largely because the band was small and the wide section of trumpets, trombones etc was very poor to useless.
Attended the broadcast half hour of the Tabernacle Choir on Sunday morning at 9.30am. A good occasion where the choir sing about half a dozen pieces, some religious some secular, their hymns are in the main our hymns. there is a two minute homily this time on the family.
The 350 strong choir is world renowned and good. This 30 minute broadcast has been done every Sunday at 9.30 for the last 84 years so they know what they are up to. Rehearsals on Thursday night can be watch if you wish.
I had my hair cut at a barbers who very one on the internet raved about, good cut by his brother as he had had an emergency quadruple heart bypass the day before!
Enjoyable stay here and worth it to gain little more knowledge of this and that.
The city founded by the Mormons and still claiming 35% of the population.
THE MORMONS I'm no authority on the Mormon sect but they hold sway in this part of America, at least that is what appears though whether it is more token than actual I know not.
We had a mini guided tour round the Mormon Temple Complex by two young, about 20 ish, girls who along with many others of similar pairs of female missionaries. They call themselves missionaries and it appears they devote 18 months of their time at this sort of age to their allegiance to their faith. No proselytising, some direct questions such as have you felt god in your life as I have etc which take a bit of answering or evading, they are not afraid to talk of their personal faith which at this level is really indistinguishable from Christianity.
Their church is very family orientated, men and women have distinct roles in the family and the emphasis is on keeping and bringing up the family in accordance with Gods' laws. OK but some of our problems can start here as Gods laws are as laid down both in the bible or as stated by the book of Mormon a testament revealed to Joseph Smith in the early 19C. Mormons believe he was a prophet who received Gods word direct and who translated tablets, seen only by him, which form the basis of the faith,
Other major problems occur with their views of priesthood, men only, The view that God is three person each an individual and each a man elevated to the position of god. Any man can with a good life become a god. I stop as I cannot keep going on as the more I write the less I know.
The Temple grounds are large, exquisite and the buildings are ? to the glory of their God or to Mormonism or to the egos of the 12 leaders of the church. Huge admin tower building about 25 odd floors and amazing visitor/explanation centres time 2. I know I am being cynical and the Mormons do appear to do a lot of work worldwide as do other churches, faiths, oxfam etc. I suppose I find it hard to accept multi million expenditure within the past 40 years as a way of promulgating ones faith. In reality our cathedrals no doubt cost the same or more in real terms when they were constructed so i am treading a sticky wicket of humbug here.
The city itself has been hugely enhanced by a new shopping centre bang in the middle by the Temple, well designed and open to the sky with streams trees many water features etc. it opened in March this year after 8 years of planning and is and has obviously made a huge difference . Built by and paid for to the tune of 2 billion dollars by the Mormon Church. A secular area but closed on Sunday, there are also no buses on Sunday which was a bit of a nuisance.
We went to a big band evening in the Brigham Young memorial Park on the Friday, a free evening and there are many such freebies organised by the Mormons. I do not particularly like the big band sound and this was no exception though largely because the band was small and the wide section of trumpets, trombones etc was very poor to useless.
Attended the broadcast half hour of the Tabernacle Choir on Sunday morning at 9.30am. A good occasion where the choir sing about half a dozen pieces, some religious some secular, their hymns are in the main our hymns. there is a two minute homily this time on the family.
The 350 strong choir is world renowned and good. This 30 minute broadcast has been done every Sunday at 9.30 for the last 84 years so they know what they are up to. Rehearsals on Thursday night can be watch if you wish.
I had my hair cut at a barbers who very one on the internet raved about, good cut by his brother as he had had an emergency quadruple heart bypass the day before!
Enjoyable stay here and worth it to gain little more knowledge of this and that.
Sunday 10 June 2012
Sunday 3 June 2012
Bryce Canyon
PHOTOS I HAVE HUNDEREDS MANY READY TO PUT ON THE BLOG OR INSERT SO TEXT IS NOT SO BORING IN BIG CHUNKS. WI FI RECEPTION IS TERRIBLE AND PHOTOS ARE JUST NOT LOADING BEFORE CONNECTION BREAKS (the most advanced country in the world I seriously doubt that, even the mobile phone has no signal in the outlying places in these areas, Salt Lake gity being one of them,,,outlying!!!) ONE DAY I WILL MANAGE IT. SORRY
Driving to Bryce was through long high altitude valleys all green and virtually farmed the whole 130 odd mile, lots of water hundreds of watering systems for the fields and just when you think you have come to the end of the farmed areas you go up over and down into another valley.
I could not help thinking back to the dried out valleys we saw where Los Angeles had diverted all waters to these areas where water was in abundance from the surrounding mountains.
Having not altogether sorted the first come first served campsites we stayed outside Bryce for two nights at Hatch Riverside Resort and had one day off doing washing etc and wasting hours with bad wi fi reception which if I am not careful can drive me wild, I could quite easily throw the laptop through the window instead we finally stood in the laundry at 9pm sorting a few computer thing out. A fairly basic site but in wide open prairie land with great long distant views. Evening meal in their" best eatery this side of somewhere" was appalling with the worst steak ever Judith left over half!!!!!!!!
Bryce, not a canyon but a series of amphitheatres seen from above. Pictures of it abound and it is really quite extraordinary. Altitudes of 7700ft for the campground and up to 8200ft for the rim walks meant one had to go carefully. Here again it was hotter than average in the mid 70sF but down to 28F at night quite a drop.
We walked the rim , well 3miles of it one day and a smaller section the next day and took an escorted trip to the far end on our second morning in the park. We had sussed the first come system and were now in the park for two nights.
The park grows on you and because of its weird formations changes shape and size virtually every footstep you take and certainly if you took a photo at a particular spot one hour apart they would look totally different due to the shadows caused by the earth moving round the sun.
Again like all the parks very little commercialism within the park though adjacent to Bryce is a hotchpotch of commercial activity all owned by one family who were way back the first people to realise the potential of the area for tourism.
We have found the Visitor centres poor. big and elegant places but little information and next to no leaflets. You have to queue to ask rangers questions if you want to know anything though fairly good information is within the monthly news sheet handed out at park entrance but you cannot read this until after you have passed the information centre. I suppose everyone should sit in the car park and read before going in it might save a lot of time.
Anyway Brice is good, can be seen easily though a few steep walks from car parks are necessary to get to the edge. Again shuttlebuses operate and are a great way of getting around. We stayed in the North Campground.
The weird shapes are called hoodoos.
Again a must to see on any trip and if necessary can be seen in one day though it would be a shame to rush. There are walks for the fit and healthy that go down among the hoodoo's that is fine it is getting back up the 600 to 1500 ft that is the trouble and at 8000ft we as they said knew our own limitations.
To and round Zion National Park
I have been coming to terms with the Colorado Plateau or trying to as it is an enormous area in four states with incredible diversity of landscape.
It appears about 60 million years ago the sea which covered the whole area finally retreated after being around fro 80 odd million years leaving behind vast deposits of sediment thousands of feet thick and left as rock. Following this a gigantic fresh water lake formed depositing other minerals which over time 20 million years formed more rock of different types.
All lay happily side by side and on top of each other.
10 million years ago, bingo, the earth moved apart and thrust the plateau upwards and displaced everything vertically by several thousand feet. It all rose in the form of a staircase. The top rocks of the grand canyon are the base rocks of Zion and top of Zion are the base rocks of Bryce.
All a load of gobbledygook but it explains why each park is so very different being formed off totally different rocks
Oh I vaguely understand it all. We drove from the north rim of The Grand Canyon to Zion National Park over the plateau at various altitudes but mostly between 6000 and 7500 feet. Some extremely fertile areas and others high plain desert land.
Suddenly you come upon Zion and everything changes even the colour of the road surface which turns to red asphalt all the way through the park.
Zion is formed more or less entirely of sandstone, huge pre historic sand dunes laid down after the seas disappeared and solidified by time, water and I think calcium carbonate to form the rock sandstone. Huge mountains of sandstone all around all of different shapes and sizes surfaces and colouring though predominantly sand, white or dyed by iron oxide red.
A six mile valley, shuttlebus only followed by a 1 mile walk to the valley end, well almost, you can river walk wade and swim further up than this if you are brave, younger and fit.
A truly magnificent place and I think the superb description of " beyond the horizons of ones imagination " really sums it up.
Water is the main catalyst in these areas and has been for multi millions of years. The rivers, the Colorado being a main one have eroded the canyons slowly but surely until they are thousands of feet deep and as wide as the Grand Canyon or much narrower like Zion. The river at Zion in which we could paddle or swim or walk quietly up stream if we dared flows at about 3000cubic feet per second after rain or in flood this can go up to 35000cubic feet per second. 1/2" of rain in the mountains around or at some distance away not raining in Zion can produce flash flooding with a wall of water 10ft high appearing in seconds in the canyon described above. People have been and are killed here, warnings and alert are given and all sorts of advice is available but everywhere it is stressed your safety is your responsibility.
We stayed at Watchmans campground in the Park on two different pitches and liked the campground. We even managed three quite good walks of the many available in the area, some quite hairy ones totally beyond us!
A great park and a must on anyone list. I think to date no 1 on ours but so different to the Grand Canyon. I'm afraid Yosemite lovely though it is is losing ground.
Two nights and best part of three days, probably not enough if your into big walks, saw us off towards Bryce Canyon where we expected cooler weather as Zion had been hot though cooler for sleeping with altitude around 6000ft
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