Yellowstone

At night, in the wet forest where the ferns grow and the full firs stand tall, we hear elk bugling, calling to each other as they bed down. Wolves howl in reply. Joanie hit it on the head one night as we looked into the fire. This has been a Jupiter summer. Ever since we first saw Jupiter in the eastern sky in May, it's dominated the night sky, slowly working it's way west. Before summer ends in Yellowstone, we get a beach day on the lake. Different from Jackson Lake, this portion of Yellowstone has a black sand beach. While wading in the lake I find an Obsidian flake about 2 inches long. We swim again, very briefly, in Yellowstone Lake. Joanie finds yellow pond lilies in a small lake on the continental divide. When viewing the geysers, I'm struck by the balance they represent between the four elemental forces of fire, water, rock and air. Now, what are the odds that we'll get assigned a camp spot in Yellowstone next to the guy with the nosiest generator in camp? And that both batteries are dead? That he'll pull them out, take them to get them charged and run his generator all day to keep his fridge cold. Stranger things have happened but I guess the odds of this one are pretty good because it happened to us. And this is the guy who introduced himself with the words "We're good neighbors." As far as I know he never did get his battery problem fixed. Our compromise was that I'd charge his system for him when we ran our generator.

Yellowstone

Yellowstone had a Disney Land feel to it. Even though we hit the park after the high season had ended, it's still full of wacky tourists. We do our best to not fall into that category, though sometimes I'm sure we fail! Buffalo crowd the roads, using them as convenient trails to move within the park. This creates traffic jams and ample opportunity for people to do dumb things like walk up to the buffalo. When talking with a young ranger about the buffalo jams, he told us a story of a bull that got stressed in a jam, then turned without warning and rammed the front end of a small sedan several times. The power of his impact sent the sedan backwards several feet. Radiator was punctured. Had to call a tow truck to move the vehicle. I wonder if the insurance they had on the rental covered buffalo damage ... ? After I heard this story, I was darn glad to be driving through the park in a diesel pickup truck, and not a motorcycle!

We did see one grizzly bear, and, again, this caused a traffic jam. The bear was dark chocolate brown below, fading to golden brown on his shoulder hump. He was just minding his business, digging up an old stump. There was no shoulder on the road, but this didn't stop people from pulling over and watching in the middle of the road. In your car maybe. But the fellow who was walking towards the bear, maybe twenty yards from him, with his young son in tow, all for the purpose of getting a picture, that guy needs to have his head examined. I figured out what a friend's 50 caliber hand gun is for now. Bear. The little 9mm that I have would just get 'em real mad. Instead of buying larger hand gun I opt for bear spray.

Grand Teton

The beach on the east side of Jackson Lake is gravel, no sand. Driftwood, smooth from all the storm waves is scattered up and down the beach. We found a path down, setup two chairs and enjoyed the afternoon sun on the day we arrived. Swam a bit in the lake. Briefly. Nippy! Snow fields and small glaciers remain in late August. West Yellowstone hit 28 degrees last night. Have not heard of global warming up here. Four guys camped in a tent next to us had a bear nosing around their spot last night. They didn't stick around today to find out what the bear had in mind for tonight. I've heard that's probably a good idea. Makes me feel good we're in a hard sided trailer. We'll be in bear country, more or less, from this part of Wyoming into Montana and across into Idaho, so we start to get used to keeping a real clean camp. The Tetons change more when viewed along a north-south route than any range I've ever seen, probably due to the fact that they erupt right out of the valley floor, no foothills. The Cunningham cabin still stands in the park, one of the original area homesteads. Joanie gets a picture of the Tetons looking through a window inside the cabin. They tell a story of two suspected horse thieves who wintered there one year, only to be killed by a man claiming to be a US Marshall and a posse of towns people. Now, whether or not this guy was a marshall, if he had it in for these guys and they knew it, they couldn't surrender whether they stole the horses or not. Justice relies on the honesty and integrity of those that enforce it ...

Legend Rock

Between Cody and Thermopolis Wyoming there exists what must be the finest panel of petroglyphs in the state, perhaps in the entire northern Rocky Mountain region. This place is called Legend Rock. We picked up a key to a gate that guards the road in to the panel at a Visitor Center in Meeteetse. The panel itself is at least 100 yards long. It faces south towards Cottonwood Creek which runs shallow, cool and clear, about 12 feet wide and one foot deep. I've included a few of the pictures I really liked. If you have a chance to see it some time, I really recommend it.

Medicine Wheel and Red Gulch

Medicine Wheel, on the north east edge of the Big Horn Mountains, is a
sacred site to several Indian tribes. None of them claim to have constructed the site. Instead, they believe it predated them. Some have legends describing it's creation. When we visited the site twenty or thirty years ago, there was a fence around it to keep stock out. You could drive darn near right up to it. I could feel the spiritual energy pervading the place. Today, they've a ranger station
1.5 miles down below where the road now ends, and they allow Native
Americans ONLY to place flags and offerings at the site. This results in alot of what I view as junk being left at the place. It's truly changed it's character. On the one hand, I understand that since so much has been taken from them, this is a small thing to allow. On the other, I'm a Native American, too, of Celtic/Teutonic origin and I'm not allowed to leave something there ... When we dropped down off the mountain through Shell Canyon, we saw the dinosaur tracks at Red Gulch. Faint though they are, their presence on beach ripple rock is enough to cause geologists to re-envision the history of the region.

Hunt Mountain

Joanie and I were lucky enough to spend one week in the Big Horn Mountains camped at about 9600 feet on the divide between Grouse Creek and Hidden Teepee Creek. The rocks to our west shielded us from the West Wind, the trailer handled the East Wind and I positioned the truck to block the North wind. That worked real well until the wind shifted to the South ... We spent two nights under the stars observing the Perseid meteor shower, satellite flashes at dawn were icing on the cake. After these two great nights, the wind shifted and the weather changed, bring snow on August 15th. Luckily the heater in the trailer kept all systems above freezing. When the weather cleared, the full moon rose over the Big Horn peaks to the north. Finally, while hiking into Hidden Teepee, we came across two horses staked out by a sheperd further down the valley. He passed us silently with one of his dogs. Below, we found his flock tucked into the timber, guarded by three very large white dogs. We met a father and daughter team one morning at camp, they were surveying teepee rings. Turns out the Indians liked our spot as much as we did - our fire ring was at the western edge of one of three tepee rings at our camp. When time came to pull the trailer out of camp, I did a few road repairs, warmed up the truck, ran it back and forth a bit, then over the ridge on my desired line. Hooked up to the trailer and pulled it out no problem. Which was a good thing, because I was sweating it a bit ...

Lake DeSmet

We met up with Ken Reid's family (and Mark's too) at Lake DeSmet, between Buffalo and Sheridan. Spent a beautifull day on the lake with them. Ken has a jet powered river boat that must be darn near unsinkable. I hear he likes to head out onto the lake when the weather comes up ... Both of the teen age girls enjoyed tubing behind the boat. Try as he might, Ken just couldn't throw them off!

Sheridan

Sheridan had a frenetic boom town feel, due primarily, I figure, to the folks who've come to town to work in the coal bed methane fields to the east. Some things don't change - the Mint Bar is still as it has been for years. Sheridan still has an artistic influence. The Dance scuplture outside the Sheridan Inn is a striking example. And, while over in the Big Horn Basin visiting the Medicine Lodge Archeological Site, we did find another Eat Beef sign.

Sheridan

We really enjoyed our time in the Sheridan area. Best part of the visit was seeing old friends. I'm getting better at backing the trailer - got it in next to Mark and Kim's house without taking off the front porch! Darnest thing, one night while Kim cooked dinner, Joanie entertained 5 year old Jentry by hunting Sphinx Moths with headlamps. Much to Joanie's surprise, Jentry was able to feed the moths from a hand held flower. Later in our stay in the area, we visited the Nickersons in Big Horn. We parked the trailer in their field and enjoyed good meals, company, the opening ceremony of the Olympics (our first TV in months). Joanie and Anne even dusted off their recorders and played together.

Devils Tower

On leaving the Black Hills, we took our chances on Devils Tower - it's a popular spot with the Sturgis crowd, but we were able to squeak in before they got there in force. It's a sacred place to certain American Indians, so they've left prayer flags and other offerings tied in trees all over the place. More on this later ...

Black Hills

On our way north from Fort Laramie, we passed through the Black Hills and took part in what a good friend calls "The Rubber Tomahawk Circuit". We began at Hot Springs, where we soaked the road dust off us in a warm stream. Visiting The Mammoth Site next day, we found that ancient peoples really DID build houses out of Mammoth bones. Also, as it turns out, they only found male mammoths trapped in the site. Hmmm.... We followed that up with trip down the historic entrance of Jewel Cave - too dark for pictures! The Sturgis bike rally was happening, so Joanie did her best to fit in.