Biking in the Tetons

An 8 mile bike trail follows the road going to Jenny Lake. What is even better is that this trail follows the base of the mountains! I now understand why these mountains are so grand. There are no foothills so they just rise up out of the ground in front of you. They are some of the most photographed mountains in the U.S. You should go to the visitor center when you visit a national park. You can get such good information. Today I bought 2 more books. One is on the wildflowers of Grand Teton and the other is about the history. Both topics to me are fascinating!

Moose and Pika

Grand Teton is that-grand! We took a ferry across Jenny Lake and then hiked down the Cascade Canyon Trail. Huge mountains were on either side of the trail. The trail follows Cascade Creek and there were many waterfalls. The bull moose was sitting under the tree on the hike out and the hike back. We also got to see our first pika in the rocks. They bleet and look like little bunny rabbits. You only find them in high mountains. I thought the pika was more amusing than the moose!

National Park #8-Grand Teton

This is a tremendous place! The growth of this park is due mainly to John D. Rockefeller, Jr.. Between 1927-1935 he bought 35,000 acres of farm and ranch land and donated it to the park. We spent the day at the Laurance S. Rockefeller Preserve. This 1,106 acre plot was donated to the park after the death of Laurence-John's son in 2001. This land had been the family retreat. We hiked around Phelp's Lake. I'm reading a new book-I Always Did Like Horses and Women a biography of Enoch Cal Carrington. He was a cowboy "character" who lived in Jackson during the early 1900s.

Elk Antler Arches

We are at Jackson, Wyoming and this place is as busy as Brainerd on the 4th of July! Jackson is 12 miles from Grand Teton National Park and 58 miles from Yellowstone National Park. Jackson Hole is the ski resort on the edge of town. The arches were erected in 1960 from shed antlers found at the National Elk Refuge near Jackson. 7,500 elk winter here each winter. The Boy Scouts are allowed to collect antlers at the Refuge and they sell them at public auction every May.

Travel Day

At 9:30 we left Kalispell to head south. On a travel day, we will usually cover about 250 miles and we travel for 6 hours. 4 lane roads are the safest for us. Rest areas are great to stop at for lunch. We just open the side slide on the trailer and make lunch. We arrived at 5:30 today at Idaho Falls-we are back in Idaho but tomorrow we will be in Wyoming and at the Grand Teton National Park. Idaho Falls is on the Snake River and they have a lovely bike/hike trail along the river.

Kayak and Hike

Two days have gone by. Friday we both rented kayaks and took them out on Whitefish Lake. It was a beautiful warm day and the kayaks skimmed wonderfully through the clear water. Today we took our final hike in Glacier and were greeted by this sign at the beginning of the trail. Making lots of noise, we walked the trail and took the turn to Snyder Lake. The trail was narrow with lots of new berries. Looking down, we saw a fresh print-so we turned around. We are not people who want to see a bear on our vacation!

Summer Theatre

All over Montana there is summer theater going on. Our choices were to go to Polson, Bigfork or Whitefish. Because of being a teacher, we chose the play at Whitefish and it was great fun. The story is about 6 young teens who are vying for the spelling championship of a lifetime. It was a musical so there was singing and dancing. The Alpine Theatre is a professional acting company. Adults acted the adolescent parts. We like to support theatre troops when we travel. Have you been to a good play lately?

Flathead Sweet Cherries

All along Flathead Lake you will see small orchards and roadside stands. We stopped at Barbara's stand and bought some cherries. I would call them bing cherries but the ones we bought were really Lambert Cherries. Huckleberry is also really big in Montana. They grow wild on tall bushes in the mountains so they are hand picked and expensive. They are just ripening now. You can get huckleberry ice cream, pancakes, muffins, smoothies, jam you name it!

National Park #7-Glacier Park

Another National Park for us to visit! Glacier is a favorite place for us and this is our third time here. This year we took a shuttle bus to Logan Pass to do our hike. Logan Pass is on the continental divide. (From this imaginary line, streams flow either west or east.) The Going- to- the- Sun Road is the main road through Glacier. The hike we took paralleled this road-but we were much higher! You can see the road in the middle of the photo. Here is some trivia for you. The entire name of the park is-Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park, and that is because we share this national park with Canada!

Flathead Lake

We have come west to Montana. Our campsite is on the Flathead River and today we motorcycled around Flathead Lake. It is the biggest freshwater lake west of the Mississippi. North of the lake is Glacier National Park. We stopped at Bigfork which has the prettiest flower baskets!

Rail to Trails

Biking down the Hiawatha Rail Trail was fun and beautiful. We biked the 15 mile section in Idaho and it was all downhill. A bus took us back to the top. There were 10 tunnels and seven high steel trestles. The St. Paul tunnel is 1.7 miles long and it is dark and cold. I made Al go first so I could follow him! The following web site has more photos and a video under media center.
www.ridethehiawatha.com

Idaho

This is the city of Coeur d'Alene . It was hot-92 degrees so many people were at the beach. This is a beautiful city with the Spokane River flowing into Lake Coeur d'Alene. There is a big resort to the right in the picture. We biked around town and then had fish for dinner at a floating restaurant!

Celebration

Today is my birthday so we had a special day. We hiked down the Cleetwood Trail which is the only legal way to get to Crater Lake. We boarded a boat and toured the west and the south part of the lake first. At Wizard Island, we got out of the boat and hiked to the peak of this volcano which is in Crater Lake. After 3 hours on the island we boarded the boat and toured the rest of the lake. Finally, we had to hike back up the Cleetwood Trail. This is a memorable birthday indeed!

Creeks, River, Waterfalls, Gorge

A sight seeing day today like many tourists have. You drive in the car, hike a few steps and see a beautiful waterfall or gorge. The Rogue River is a fast river and you can raft down it. Today we saw the river go into the ground and come out through another hole about 200 feet later . When underground, it traveled through a hollow lava tube! They call this a natural bridge and the Indians and early pioneers used the natural bridge to cross the river. Tomorrow will be a special day!

National Park #6-Crater Lake

WOW! Crater Lake National Park is really beautiful and the color of the lake is the most wonderful blue I have ever seen. We are glad to be back in the snowy mountains. The weather is perfect. I take the following comments from the park brochure. "Crater Lake rests in the shattered remnants of a volcano called Mount Mazama, which erupted and collapsed into itself 7,700 years ago. " We hiked to the top of Mount Scott, the highest point in the park, for exceptional views. We could even see Mt. Shasta in California. You must all see this park someday!

Crescent City, California

It is like being on the Northshore in the fall here in northern California. It is dreary and chilly and tomorrow it is supposed to rain. We will move inland to find better weather. We biked on Pebble Beach Drive which follows the coastline. We started at the Battery Point Lighthouse and ended at the Castle Rock National Wildlife Refuge. You could hear the seals barking for miles. There was a lone seal on the beach and we approached it but it did not swim away. We thought it was injured, but later it was gone!

National Park #5-Redwood

The tallest trees in the world are the Coastal Redwoods. We hiked to the tall trees today in this national park. The trees we saw were 350 feet tall-higher than the Statue of Liberty! We also could not resist going back and watching the ocean waves. I saw a seal swimming and also collected crab shells.

Northern most California

We are as far north in California as we can go. The weather has changed. It is now cloudy and chilly. There is a mist that comes rolling off of the ocean. We hiked on the beach and I kept looking for the deadly sneakers but we didn't see any! There were some surfers in wetsuits though. The sound of the waves hitting the beach is powerful!

Kayak the Sea Caves

After traveling 33 miles with 235 curves in the road, we get from our campsite to the ocean. Near Mendocino you can go out with a guide and about 10 people to kayak in the ocean. The sea caves are really fun to kayak in. I mostly enjoyed floating near the big breakers. We saw seals and kelp forests. I recommend it to all!

Pacific Ocean

We have reached the Pacific Ocean so that means our trip is 1/2 done. No longer can we go west. Mendocino is a wonderful, quaint city on the ocean. The flowers in the city are gorgeous! We walked the paths by the cliffs and the wildflowers there were pretty too. The rest of the day we spent visiting wine country. The road to the ocean is curvy and steep.

Wildflowers

Today we hiked across the Big Meadow to Scotts Lake. The meadow was alive with wildflowers and I love flowers! The meadows are important in keeping Lake Tahoe clean. The meadows filter water for the lake. We also had a great time watching the mountain bikers glide past us. It looked like so much fun!

Happy 4th of July!

A quiet day today. We hiked the rim trail with views of Lake Tahoe and Carson City. I thought I saw a dog on the trail and realized that it was a bear! We started clapping our hands and whistling at it so I didn't get a photo. Sorry! We zipped into Carson City to enjoy the shade at the capital buildings. Now we are having bbq and listening to Prairie Home Companion which is being broadcast from Avon!

Lake Tahoe

Lake Tahoe is a beautiful lake that is surrounded by mountains. About 1/2 of it is in California and the other part lies in Nevada. It also has 4 large casinos that are located in the south. Al wanted to come here because he skied at Heavenly last year which is near Tahoe. It is a big lake and deep! The average depth is 1,630 feet and the deepest part is 4,593 feet! There are some California State Parks on the west end. There we were able to do some biking on trails and also tour the Ehrman Mansion. With the 4th of July holiday here, it is crowded!

Water Issues

This is Mono Lake and the lake level used to be 50 feet higher. What happened to all the water? An aquaduct was built and water was transported for use in Los Angeles! We just came from Owens Valley and Owens Lake is almost totally dried up because of the aquaduct. It wasn't until the courts said it was not legal to do this that LA has cut back on the amount they drain away. It will take 20-50 years to bring Mono Lake up 25 feet. In Minnesota we take water for granted but that is not so in the thirsty Southwest!

Mt. Whitney Hike

The highest peak in California, and for that matter in the lower 48 states, is Mt. Whitney at 14,497 feet. We took a 5 hour round trip up to this beautiful lake called Lone Pine Lake. We were only about 1/5 of the way up to the summit. If you make it to the summit you are then in Sequoia National Park. We are on the wrong side of the mountains to enter this park or King's Canyon National Park. Those parks will have to wait to be seen another time. It is hot in the Owens Valley where we are camped but if you get up into the high country the temperature is delightful!