Posted by Sierra

Glacier National Park in Montana, our last BIG trip stop, is considered one of the major tourist destinations. It became popular because of its proximity to the railroad, and today we think of it as being in the same category as Yosemite and Yellowstone.

The first day we were there, we took the Red Bus Tour. These historic buses take you around the park. The various tours can last anywhere from 2.5-8.5 hours. We did the “Crown of the Continent” tour, which picked us up at the KOA (Kampgrounds Of America) and took us all the way up to Lake McDonald Lodge. The driver, called a “Jammer,” was very funny. He said things like, “The bears call bicyclists ‘Meals on Wheels,’” and “We call bear bells ‘dinner bells’ because they make the bear curious.”

The second day in Glacier, we took a shuttle up to Logan Pass and trekked through snow to get to Hidden Lake. We also did a ranger program called “Montana Jones and the Secrets of Red Eagle Valley” that involved a hike through a burned area of the forest.

The third day we were there was Mom’s birthday. We drove to Waterton Lakes National Park in Canada. Glacier and Waterton Lakes National Parks are the International Peace Parks. We did a strenuous 7 mile hike that took us across the border. We got to see the border line that was cut through the trees. I also had fun jumping form one country to the next (example: “I’m in Canada, I’m in the US, I’m in Canada, now I’m in the US, I’m in Canada, now …” and so on).

That night, we ate dinner at the Cattle Baron’s Supper Club in the town of Babb (back in Montana). There happened to be some kind of Corvette cross-country trip (I am not making this up) dining at the club. Seriously, there were, like, 10 Corvettes outside! The Corvette people ate up all the filet mignon and the New York Strip steaks.

Our final day in Glacier, we drove to Apgar Village. There we shopped around and had ice cream. We ended by taking a shuttle back up to Lake McDonald Lodge.

Thus ends my play-by-play of our time in Glacier National Park. So, if you’re ever planning a trip there, remember this: The number one cause of death in Glacier is drowning!

So have fun, and don’t forget to bring your life preserver!

Posted by Sierra

Wind Cave was our fourth and final cave of the trip. In case you have forgotten, our other caves were:

* Font de Gaume, Les Eyzies, France
* Skocjan Caves, Slovenia
* Mammoth Cave, Cave City, Kentucky

Located a few hours’ drive away from the Badlands, Wind Cave is the fourth-largest cave system in the world. It is most famous for its boxwork.

The cave used to be owned by a family called McDonald. They hoped to mine the cave, but when they couldn’t find anything mineable, they started giving tours.

Their son, Alvin McDonald, gave most of the tours. He was obsessed with the cave. Once, when he was giving a tour, he found a new passageway, and he left his tour to go explore. The group was down there overnight, in the total darkness. Luckily, Alvin remembered they were down there and went back.

We took the Candlelight Tour, which is the kind of tour they used to give in the olden days, before there was electricity. Our tour was led by “Ranger Max.”

You hold a bucket, in which there is a candle. The bucket spreads the light from the candle out, like a flashlight. For about half of the tour, you are using only the candles to see. On parts of the tour, you might take one wrong step and fall into an abyss. You get to see lots of boxwork, and you also get to experience total blackness like the kind Alvin McDonald left that tour in, in the exact same spot.

Fortunately, we all made it out alive, although there is a rather nasty bruise on my knee. No one got lost, and we didn’t have to resort to cannibalism. Yet.

Posted by Stan

Taken a bit north of Carhenge, which itself is quite cool. Photos from there will have to wait until we have a good Flickr connection. Like next month at home.

Posted by Stan

Early on Sierra learned we expect her to be able to hike her age.

Thus you see her on the right in Palo Duro Canyon in Texas on Memorial Day of 1999. Not long after I took the picture she insisted on being carried back to our tent, but the tradition had begun.

She’s smiling in the photo above, taken last week in Cascade Canyon in Grand Teton National Park, but she sometimes makes it clear she’s still not committed to this idea. I snapped this picture about six miles into a 13-mile jaunt (Sierra was 12 last December).

About this time Sierra declared her feet “burned like the fire of 10,000 suns.”

At least she was wise enough not ask to be carried back to the RV.

Yellowstone National Park is the oldest national park. It is 2.2 million acres, most of which is located in Wyoming. Established March 1, 1872, Yellowstone is one of the most visited parks, up there on the list with Yosemite, Grand Canyon, and Arches National Parks. I’m here today to tell you about some of the highlights.

* Old Faithful: This is the obvious place to start. Old Faithful is the largest attraction in the park, and unless you’ve been living in a cave, you’ve probably heard of it. Spewing water on a fairly predictable basis (see visitor center for predictions) the image of this geyser isn’t hard to find. Just peek into any gift shop, restaurant, or hotel. Keep in mind that, like the Mona Lisa, “Most Famous” doesn’t always mean “Best.”

* Grand Geyser: If you are willing to wait an hour and a half to have rolls “throwed” at you (see: Throwed, not Thrown), then you are probably willing to wait around for a few hours to watch a geyser erupt. Although Grand Geyser (above), the World’s Tallest Predictable Geyser, is um, predictable, there is a rather large time frame in which it might erupt. For example, when we saw it, the sign said “Eruption should be between 11:30 a.m. and 3:30 p.m.” It erupted at 3:00 p.m. This gets my vote for “Best Geyser.”

* Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone: Although this is not quite as big as that other Grand Canyon, it offers spectacular views. It seriously looks like a painting. And yes, it is called the Grand Canyon of THE Yellowstone, in reference to the river. The Grand Canyon of THE Yellowstone wins “Best Canyon.”

* General Stores: There is usually at least one of these in the vicinity. They sell everything from camping supplies to souvenir mugs to shirts that say, “Yellow(stone).”

* Other Hydrothermal Features: There are hot springs, geysers, fumaroles, and steam vents throughout the park. Some of the hot springs are Morning Glory Pool, Beauty Pool, and Chromatic Pool. Some of the other geysers include Spasmodic Geyser, Solitary Geyser, and Fountain Geyser.

Well, there you have it.  Yellow(stone) in a nut(shell).

Sierra will give you the words about Yellowstone National Park. A lot to see and take photos of, enough to merit a new category at Flickr . . . if we could find a good enough connection to post dozens of them. That might have to wait until August. Meanwhile here are a few chosen to illustrate the amazing range of colors throughout the park.

Raise your hand if you’ve ever gotten anything from Harry & David, be it online, as a gift, or from one of their stores. It may have been Moose Munch, Royal Riviera pears, Bing cherries, or a gift box with an assortment of goodies. We went to the flagship store in Medford, Oregon. There you can take a tour of the bakery and the packing plant for $5 (you also get a coupon that is good for $5 off a purchase of more than $35). At the end, you get free samples (more on that later)!

 
The first stop on our tour was the bakery, where you can see Moose Munch being made (the photo above). Some 8,000 pounds of Moose Munch are made per hour! You can tell what each worker does based on their hairnet/gloves. A green hairnet means you’re a supervisor, a blue hairnet means you’re a line leader, a yellow hairnet means you speak Spanish and English, and any other colors mean you’re just a worker. Also, purple gloves mean you work in a high-allergen environment and should be careful not to contaminate anything. Also in the bakery are Swedish ovens, which rotate the baking goods. Two giant vats can hold about 6,000 pounds of chocolate apiece. Then come the free samples. You get a cookie and a chocolate. The chocolate was good, but the cookie had jam in it. I hate jam. But Mom and Dad were happy to eat mine.

Next on the tour, you go to the packing plant. On the way there, you pass the orchards, where they grow 800 pounds of peaches and 19,000 tons of pears a year. At harvest time, it takes 400 workers 6 weeks to get all the pears off the trees!

You can see people packing fruits and other treats into baskets and boxes. The experienced packers can pack 300-400 boxes a day!

Finally, at the end of the tour, you end up back in the store. I recommend buying lots of Moose Munch. The chocolate kind is yummy, but (in my opinion) the fat-free toffee kind is even better. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to go sneak some. Don’t tell Mom!

Posted by Stan

One reason we’ve taken a curious route through Oregon, first heading north up the coast, then over to Portland before turning south, was so we could make Crater Lake National Park our last stop before driving to Yellowstone National Park.

That’s because it snows a lot at Crater Lake, and it takes a while to get rid of all of it. They aren’t even close. We knew we wouldn’t be able to travel the Rim Drive that circles the lake or take the boat ride to Wizard Island, but we wanted to camp in the park and hike where we could. Our patience was rewarded when they opened a campground last Friday.

And at least Cleetwood Cove Trail was open. That’s the only authorized route down to the water, the one you take to board a tour boat (when they are operating). It’s steep, descending about 700 feet during a mile hike, leading to incredibly blue water.

The kids will love the hike, Matt. Take them on the boat as well.