18) Canyonlands National Park, October 10 - October 17, 2009

Arches and Canyonlands are so close together, that we started Canyonlands before we “left” Arches. Canyonlands is divided into 4 districts; Island in the Sky, The Needles, The Maze, and Horseshoe Canyon. Each is very different, and none is fully explored by road (some not at all—more on that later).

Island in the Sky is the district that is relatively close to Arches, so that’s where we started. Our first trip was to “reconnoiter” and learn about visiting the various districts. Our maps (including AAA and National Geographic) indicate that all of the roads are unimproved. Not so. In fact when we mentioned to the ranger about our National Geological Survey-based maps, thinking maybe the roads had been paved since the last survey, he said, “the roads were paved about 1974, or so.” Hmmm. He also said that both AAA and NGS personnel had been to the park last year and driven all of the roads, including the 4x4 trails, GPSing them all. Hmmm. Oh well, that’s not the first or last time that our printed material have been less than accurate. All of the districts are really tailored for backcountry camping, either by hiking, by biking, or by 4x4, but one can see a lot by driving and even more by day hiking. The entrances to each of the distrticts are over 80 miles apart, so it’s better to treat each as a separate “park”. The Maze is only accessible by 4x4 or hiking (even the road to the entrance). Horseshoe Canyon is reachable by dirt road, then there is only one, 6.5-mile roundtrip hike. This trail is all sand and, at the time of our visit, was very dry, deep, and loose, which would make for a very long, tiring hike. The rangers did not recommend trying to hike it at this time. Most people 4x4 to the backcountry campground just outside the district, spend the night there, and hike in and out. We did neither of those two districts on this trip. To really see all of Island in the Sky, one should drive or bike the White Rim Trail Road, which is about a four-day trek. The driving needs to be done in a 4x4 vehicle. However, the park road and the “short” hikes in this district provide wonderful views from way above the canyons (hence the name). The Needles district is visited in a similar way as the Island in the Sky, except there are multiple 4x4 roads rather than one very long one. Again, the park road and “short” hikes provide a lot of interesting excursions.

After our reconnoitering, we still had time to drive part of the Island in the Sky park road to where one branch ends at the Upheaval Dome overlook and trailhead. Along the way, we stopped at all of the other overlooks and hiked Mesa Arch, Whale Rock, and the short Upheaval Dome Trail. We also decided to take the Shafer Trail Road back to Moab. This is another dirt road that follows the steep switchbacks that started as an early cattle trail. We, of course, had checked with the ranger, and he said that it’s about 18 miles of unimproved road, and if we made it through Pucker Pass, should be no problem for us, at least going downhill, so we headed down. The road looked MUCH smoother through the binoculars from the canyon rim, but later, it got rougher. Some parts were pretty hairy, others pretty rough, and others both. But there were amazing views, and no “challenges” quite as bad as Pucker Pass. The 18 miles took over 2 ½ hours, including a few stops for views, photos, or road (rock) inspection. After hitting pavement at the end of Potash Road, we still had about 30 miles to go to get back to camp. Whew.

A Few of the Switchbacks on Shafer Trail Road

Mesa Arch

On Top of Whale Rock

The next day, we were back in Arches, but the day after, we returned to Island in the Sky to finish the park road and its overlooks. We also hiked Neck Spring Loop Trail, which is an about 5.8-mile loop, going through a variety of terrain, including an arch on the cliff edge. We, also, hiked Grand View Rim Trail, which is about 2 miles with many panoramic views along the cliff edge.

Buck Canyon

Monument Basin from Grand View Point

Shafer Canyon from Neck Spring Loop Trail

The next day, we left Moab, after camping there for 6 nights, and got to the Needles District in time to get one of the very few remaining campsites. Even before setting up camp, we headed to the visitor center and grilled the ranger. Four-wheel roads in this district are really that. None are suitable for our little truck. This is not because of the roughness or rockiness, but the fact that they cross many washes with deep, soft, loose sand. Most of the trails are very long. She marked all of the “short” ones and a couple of the long ones. Then we drove parts of the main road, hiked Slickrock Foot Trail and Pothole Point. A short dirt road took us down to the trailhead for Cave Spring Loop. This trail took us by rock outcroppings that have been used by humans for 1000s of years. There is still evidence in the form of ancient rock art and cowboy artifacts.

Lower Little Spring Canyon, Slickrock Foot Trail

Interesting Rocks at Pothole Point

Wooden Shoe Arch

Cowboy Camp at Cave Spring

The next day, we took advantage of our campsite location and took a trip to Natural Bridges National Monument, stopping at Newspaper Rock to view an outstanding display of ancient rock art. At Natural Bridges, we drove the Bridge View Drive and stopped at all of the stops, seeing three of the world’s largest natural stone bridges. We hiked the trail to the Owachomo Bridge Trail and got another perspective of the bridge from underneath it.

Sipapu Bridge

Owachomo Bridge

The next day, back at The Needles, we spent just about the whole day hiking to the confluence overlook. This trail traversed several small canyons, allowing for a lot of rock climbing up and down the sides of the canyons. It also crossed dry, open meadow-like flats, ending at a cliff edge 1,000 feet over the junction of the Green and Colorado Rivers. What a magnificent view. But this trail is 11 or 12 miles round trip, and took us almost 7 hours, including our lunch at the overlook. So we didn’t get much else done that day, except attending the evening ranger program. Still, a very satisfying day.

On the Confluence Trail

Confluence of Green, left, and Colorado Rivers

Our last day at The Needles, we decided to do another long hike. This time, we drove a 3-mile dirt road out to Elephant Hill Trailhead. From there, we hiked Chesler Point Overlook Trail to Chesler Park Loop and Joint Trail. The Joint Trail is so named for its pass through a very tight section between deep, narrow fractures in the rock. This hike brought us really up close and personal with the Needles as well as other terrain, and it was another 11 or 12-mile hike, taking us about 7 ½ hours. Whew.

Chesler Park

Entering "The Joint"

In the Distance, the Needles

Tired but happy from all of the hiking, we were ready, the next day, to head on to our next adventure, not too far down the road at Capitol Reef National Park.

17) Arches National Park, October 3 - October 11, 2009

After we finished our hike at Black Canyon, we broke camp and headed out towards Arches, continuing our southerly trek to stay ahead of winter. While driving along, BYK was reading about Arches and things along the path to Arches. It turns out that Arches’ campground fills early in the day, even this late in the year. She also read the description of Colorado National Monument, which happened to be right along our path. It sounded great, so we decided to stop there. We got there early enough to do a quick camp setup and get to the VC before it closed. We talked with the ranger and saw two good orientation movies; geology of CNM and photo ops of CNM. Then we drove part of the Rim Rock Drive hitting all of the overlooks and hiking Otto’s Trail and the Coke Oven Trail before it got too dark. After all of this, we decided we would probably need to camp two nights so that we’d have one more full day to see the rest of the Monument. The next day, we finished driving the Rim Rock Drive and hiked Window Rock Trail and the Devil’s Kitchen Trail. CNM is one of those hidden gems that we have stumbled across all along our trip. The scenery was really great.

Monument Canyon , Colorado National Monument

The next day, we got up early and headed to Arches to get there before all of the camp sites were gone. However, the process at this park is to show up at about 7:00 a.m., line up, and see if there’s still a camp site when you get to the front of the line. About 6:00 p.m. the day before they post how many sites will be available for the next morning. We went on down to Moab, had lunch at the Moab Brewery (Yay! Utah has brew pubs.) and headed to the KOA with full hookups and no 7:00 a.m. line-up. It’s not far from the park, and we got back to the park in time to drive part of the park drive, stop at the Moab Fault overlook and the Park Avenue Trailhead. We hiked this trail to the courthouse Towers Viewpoint and back. On the way out of the park, we noted that there would be just a few sites available in the morning—we decided to re-up at KOA for 3 more nights.

Three Gossips, Park Avenue Trail

The next day was a really full one. We drove back to the park and started driving the park road, stopping at all of the overlooks on the way to a ranger-led hike in the Windows area. At the Windows, we saw several arches and learned about park geology and plants. We also stopped at the La Sal Mountain viewpoint, hiked to Double Arch, went to the Garden of Eden, Ham Rock, Panorama Point, and Wolf Ranch, where the trailhead for Delicate Arch is located. We hiked up to Delicate Arch (3-mile round trip with 480 feet of elevation gain), which is featured on the new Utah license plates. It’s a pretty strenuous hike across slickrock, but the views at the top are great. You can “walk” right up to and through Delicate Arch, looking down into the valley below. We also went down below to the two viewpoints for Delicate Arch, both of which also involved hikes, but not quite so long or strenuous. We went to Salt Valley overlook, and hiked to Sand Dune Arch, Broken Arch, and Skyline Arch (whew). On the way back to camp, we stopped and signed up for a jet boat tour of the Colorado River for the next morning, then had dinner at Pasta Jay’s, recommended by the jet boat lady. Very good.

North and South Windows

Double Arch

Delicate Arch

The next day, we got up early to get down to the river (between camp and the park) and get on the boat. It was really cold, and everyone (even the macho guys) wrapped up in the blankets that Captain Rory provided. Captain Rory had arctic gear on and was still hunkered down as we zoomed along at about 40 mph, skimming over the relatively shallow river. We went down river about 32 miles and back. This took us down to below Dead Horse Point, which is in a state park just outside of the northern district of Canyonlands National Park. We stopped and floated several times while Captain Rory explained some things along the river or just talked about life in a small, Utah town. He admitted that he likes to hear himself talk, but he was quite entertaining and informative. We also stopped and got off of the boat a couple of times to see petrified wood, petroglyphs, etc. This was a fun tour, but would be even better in slightly warmer weather.

Red Rock Cliffs, Colorado River

Jug Handle Arch, Colorado River

The boat trip only took about half a day, so we had time for some other adventures. We drove three scenic Utah state highways; 128, 313, and 279 (Potash Road). Highway 313 took us into Dead Horse Point State Park, where we could look down from Dead Horse Point about 1,000 feet to the river where we had just been a few hours before. Each of these highways had their own character and each provided a lot of great scenery, including an amazing collection of “rock art” (petroglyphs) on 279, by the river. On the way back from Dead Horse Point SP, we decided we needed a little more adventure and a shortcut to highway 279, so we took the unpaved “connector” road from 313 to 279. This turned out to be more of an adventure than we bargained for. Always check locally for road conditions for unpaved, unimproved roads before heading out. We found out later that part of this road is known as “Pucker Pass” and with good reason, with several “4x4 challenges” (we were not in a 4x4). Three times, we were sure that we’d have to walk out and get someone to come back to rescue the truck, if they could get a tow truck in there. But we finally made it. We didn’t even get any pictures of the worst parts, because we were concentrating on how to get out of, around, or over them. WOW! It was really fun, after we were safely back on pavement. We treated ourselves to dinner at the Desert Bistro, a really good restaurant.

Will the Truck Fit? Going through Pucker Pass

The next day, we went back to Arches to do some more of the park. There’s a lot to see and do in this little park. We drove the park road some more, stopping at Balanced Rock viewpoint and Petrified Dunes overlooks on the way to catch our pre-paid, ranger-led tour of Fiery (sic) Furnace. One must have a ranger guide for this section of the park, or have experience and get a special permit to go alone. We never remembered to ask why they spell “Fiery” that way.

Firey Furnace

Butt Scooting through Firey Furnace

This was taking us longer than we expected, so the next day, we re-upped at KOA for another two nights and headed back into the park. This time, we hiked Devil’s Garden for a total of 8.36 miles, seeing at least 9 arches—Tunnel, Pine Tree, Landscape, Partition, Navajo, Black, Double-O, Shadow Box, and Private. The next day, we drove over to Canyonlands National Park, because it’s not too far from our KOA in Moab, but we’ll tell you about in our next installment.

Landscape Arch

Navajo Arch

Double O Arch

Submarine Fin (we made up this name) in Devil's Garden

On our last day in Arches, we drove the park road out to another dirt road (checked with the VC as to road conditions) and drove out about 8 miles through Salt Valley to the Tower Arch trailhead in the Klondike Bluffs. Our ranger guide for the Fiery Furnace hike said that Tower Arch was her favorite, so we had to have a look, and it was only about 3 ½ miles of moderately difficult trail. Very nice. We finished this day with boring utility items but were ready to tackle the districts of Canyonlands next.

Tower Arch

16) Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park, September 28, - October 3, 2009

On our way to Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park, there were a couple of other things we wanted to see and do while in that part of Colorado. We wanted to see Pike’s Peak, and we wanted to see the Coors Brewery in Golden, since Coors had such a “mystique” in the early 70s. We headed to Mueller State Park, which is close to Pike’s Peak and set up camp there. This is a really nice state park with lovely views right out our “kitchen” window onto the Rocky Mountains. The aspens were turning their golden color and we could watch them “quaking” while having breakfast. So relaxing.

But Golden was first. We were a little disappointed in the Coors tour and tasting, after having been at Anheuser. Of course they had no Clydesdales, but the tour was much more formalized, with arm bands, driver license check-in, etc., and there were very few styles of beer to try. None that we weren’t already familiar with. Also, the tour was self-guided, with an audio head piece—not nearly as nice as our Anheuser guide. And, as part of the tour, they take the “family picture” as a momento, then want you to pay $20 for it. Oh well. We had a nice lunch at the Old Capital Grill (notice, not a brew pub), which is located, as the name implies, in the old building used as the capitol while Golden was the state capital. The building served in several other functions in the years following.

Coors Brew Kettles

The next morning, we headed to Manitou Springs, CO to catch the Cog Railway to the top of Pike’s Peak. We had made reservations the day before, so we just had to pick up our tickets and wait for boarding. This is a really interesting railway, using, as you might expect, a center rail that looks like the rack of a rack-and-pinion steering system. Matching gears under the engine engage the center rail and the cog acts as the locomotion and braking function. The incline is steep, as much as 25%, so the old steam engine that is no longer used was actually tilted so that it would be more nearly level on the incline and the boiler would be happy. This is not a problem for the modern, diesel engine used today. On the way up, the conductor provided commentary, “jokes”, and descriptions of some of the scenery. We passed marmots, big horn sheep, as well as the tree line, on the way up the mountain. The whole trip was 3 ½ hours, with less than an hour at the top. But this was enough time to get some great views, fudge-covered doughnuts and hot chocolate. It was quite breezy and chilly.

Pike's Peak Cog Railway Train at the Top of the Peak

One View from the Top of Pike's Peak (Yes, that's snow!)

Back down at Colorado Springs (sort of merges with Manitou Springs), we had lunch at the Phantom Canyon Brewery. JEK had sampled their goods on a business trip a few years ago, and thought they were pretty good. We were not disappointed: the shrimp and lobster spaghetti was wonderful, and the beers were great. While in Colorado Springs, we decided to head to a city park that BYK had read about: Garden of the Gods. The sign there called it a National Natural Landmark, which is a park system category that we had not heard of. We drove the park road, hiked a few of the short, easy hikes, and watched some novice rock climbers learning the sport. One was in a big hurry for her family to finish taking pictures so that she could come down. There are lots of very interesting rock formations in this beautiful little park.

Balanced Rock, Garden of the Gods

The next day, we headed for BCGNP, but the entire way the winds, we later learned, were howling at 25-30 mph and gusting at over 50 mph--a real challenge pulling a trailer up and down the steep hills and around the curves. The winds were predicted to last through most of the night, and, because of a previous experience of a windy, sleepless night, we decided to head for the nearest Hampton Inn in Montrose, just outside of the park. We could give the winds a day or two to calm down , if necessary, before camping again.

Our first day at Gunnison, we, of course, went the to the visitor center and checked with the ranger for the best things to do in the park. We also watched their very good orientation film. Then we headed to the East Portal of the park, which is down a long 16% grade to the bottom of the canyon. This is the only place in the park to get to the canyon bottom without backpacking down with a back-country, overnight pass. Also at the East Portal, is the diversion dam and the opening to the Gunnison Tunnel which still carries water from the Gunnison River down to the Uncompaghre Valley and Montrose. The dam and the tunnel were built in 1905, are still functional, and are a National Civil Engineering Landmark. Just up-river a mile or two is the Crystal Dam, which is outside of the park and was closed off, but partially visible. This dam joins several others to form part of the Colorado River Water Conservation District. Then we went back UP to the south rim and did the rim drive, stopping at all of the overlooks, many of which have short hikes to the edge, including Warner Point Trail which was about ¾ of a mile. This is an amazing “little” canyon with a lot of inspiring scenery. That night, we headed back down to Montrose and the motel for one more night, and we had dinner at Smugglers Brewpub.

Gunnison Rver at East Portal

View of Uncompaghre Valley from Warner's Point

The next morning, we pulled the trailer up to the park and set up camp in the south rim campground. Then, we drove around the park about 80 miles to the north rim. The north rim is much less developed than the south, and they have only unpaved roads. There were no services and no water available at this time of year. Still, we drove the whole rim road and made all of the overlooks, seeing some new sights and some of the same parts of the canyon from a different perspective; very interesting. Upon leaving the north rim section, we headed around the park, continuing in a clockwise fashion to get back to our camp, about 90 miles in that direction, completing a circle around the park. This whole circuit is shown on the maps as a scenic by-way and has very beautiful scenery. The aspens were turning their golden to fire orange colors here, also, and there were literally hillsides of them. So pretty.

A Tenacious Juniper along the North Rim

Gunnison River from the North Rim

Before leaving the next morning we hiked the Oak Flat Trail to the Upland Trail and then to the Rim Rock Nature Trail out to Gunnison Point. This three and a half mile trip allowed us to see all of the different forms of landscape in the park, more canyon vistas, wildlife, including mule deer, gambel oak, aspen, and Douglas fir. Quite beautiful and a good way to start the day.

Gambel Oak at Black Canyon along Rim Rock Trail

Black Canyon of the Gunnison is a relatively small national park, but they pack a lot of scenery in a small space, and we packed in a lot of sightseeing in a short time. It is now on to new adventures, heading toward Arches National Park and leaving Colorado (and the beer) for Utah.

15) Rocky Mountain National Park, September 22, - September 27, 2009

It was hard leaving Custer State Park after six nights in a place surrounded by so many things to see and do, but we were starting to think about the cold. We were going to go to Theodore Rosevelt National Park in North Dakota and then meet Eric at Yellowstone. But nighttime temperatures were being predicted in the 20s. Our little trailer is equipped with a furnace, so we’d be pretty toasty, but we weren’t too sure about the plumbing in below freezing temperatures. (That’s our story, and we’re sticking to it.) Work prevented Eric from being able to meet us, so we decided to head “south”- “south” being to Colorado and Utah. The first stop, going in that direction, would be Rocky Mountain National Park. The weather there was going to be below freezing for a day or so, with a possibility of snow. So, we decided to stop at Loveland, CO. It’s only about 30 miles from the park, but it’s elevation is low enough that it would be about 20 degrees warmer. The plan was that we’d stay at Boyd Lake State Park at Loveland for a night or two while the weather warmed back up and go up to the park to the Visitor Center and do some of the driving in the nice, warm truck.

Colorado is a beer-lover’s paradise of micro breweries, brew pubs, and LARGE breweries, so we’ll try to keep the level of detail down on all of the brew pubs, brewery/restaurants, and brewery tours that we did. They even have a chain brewery/restaurant called Rock Bottom Brewery, which was pretty good.

Our first morning at Loveland, we spent some time getting the camping registration figured out and agreed to with the ranger. Normally (if you don’t have reservations) they want you to re-register each day at noon. Man, we had things to do and places to be and wouldn’t be anywhere near the state park at noon every day. He completely understood and let us register for two more nights at once, before noon. Then we were off to the national park!

Big Thompson River Along Road to Estes Park

We were expecting to see some snow in the grassy areas of the park, and we knew that the main road (Trail Ridge Road) was closed due to snow. There was no snow visible, except at, maybe, 1,000 feet or so above the entrance and Visitor Center. It turned out to not be too cold, but it had been frigid over night. First stop, Beaver Meadows Visitor Center. It’s an interesting VC, because it was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright’s Taliesin Architects. Even though the design was done after FLW’s death, his influence is clear. We browsed the exhibits, saw the very good orientation film, and talked with the ranger, getting some good ideas on what to do. Part of our mission this day was to check out the campground so that we could move up there when the nighttime weather warmed a bit. That turned out to be a bust, because unlike the literature that we had, the Moraine Park Campground has sites by reservation only, and none were available for the next few days.

But we did accomplish the rest of our mission: we did our VC orientation, we did some driving around, and even saw some elk, which we had not expected to be able to do that early in the day. We watched three good sized harems and, this being rut season, listened to the bulls bugling their eerie calls—so strange a sound coming from such a large animal. We even got to a second VC in the Moraine Park area, which had a pretty good museum with some of the geological history of the park. For example, “park” as in Moraine Park (or Estes Park or Many Parks Curve) is the term for a valley cut by glacier action.

Bull Elk Bugling

Then we headed to Estes Park Brewing for a late lunch. Estes Park is a small town, just outside of the NP, sort of like Gatlinburg, but not quite so touristy. While there, we stopped by the Estes Park KOA and decided to sign up for three nights after our Boyd Lake stay was completed (read, after the weather warmed up).

Estes Park Brewery

During the next day, our last at Loveland, we did some touring around in the lowlands and did some of our boring maintenance items. We even went on the Anheuser Busch Brewery tour, because they have some of the Clydesdale horses there. It turned out to be pretty interesting—those horses are amazing animals to stand beside, and the volume of beer zooming past was incredible. And to prove that we’re not beer snobs, we sampled several of their beers, discovering some that we’d never heard of. They even had a porter, a pale ale, and a surprisingly good wild blueberry lager, appropriately named Wild Blue. They printed out the locations where these would be available in our home area. There were only 5 people on our early-morning tour, and we were the only two who wanted samples, so we had an interesting conversation with the bartender. Then we headed down to Old Town Fort Collins. This is a really neat, artsy place with a convivial street atmosphere. We stopped and talked with an artist painting some panels that will form a special street exhibit when completed—three panels at an angle so that the scene changes as one drives or walks past. We had lunch at Coopersmith Brewery and Pub then stopped in at a hole-in-the-wall toy store run by an eccentric street performer. All of his toys are science-based, and he was so enthusiastic in his explanation of several of the items. Turns out, he used to be a teacher. On older, artist-looking guy was standing around talking with the toy store owner when we got there; it turns out that he was one of the original founders of Coopersmith and had some other interesting stories to tell.

Budweiser Wagons

Finally, the next day, up to the mountains we went. We headed up to Estes Park and set up camp at the KOA not too far from RMNP and then headed back up to the Moraine Park Visitor Center for more ranger/volunteer questioning. As we walked in, they said that Trail Ridge Road opened “five minutes ago”. So we quickly completed our questioning and headed out to do the drive. Then we realized, “It’s 50 miles, one way, with MANY good stops and overlooks. We don’t have time today.” So we headed to the park and ride lot where we could catch the shuttles to the various trailheads to reduce pollution and not have to worry about parking, which could be bad that day. The parking lots were not full, but almost, the shuttle was convenient, and the driver was talkative with some good knowledge of the trails, etc. We passed the Glacier Gorge Trailhead and got off at Bear Lake. Then we hiked from Bear Lake to Alberta Falls on the driver’s recommendation, because there would be less uphill hiking. Then down from Alberta Falls to the Glacier Gorge trailhead shuttle point. We met several people along this trail that had started at Glacier Gorge. They were telling us to “enjoy the downhill, it’s bad going up”. He he, we didn’t tell them the secret, because it was too late for them. Then we took the shuttle back to Bear Lake and hiked all the way around the lake. The sign warned of steep inclines of up to 16%. When we were done, we wondered where they had been. We figured that they were very short inclines, because our total elevation gain, per the GPS, was 16 feet. It’s a beautiful lake, the trail winds around the lake, through the soothing sub-alpine forest (at 9,550 feet, hence the complainers going uphill with no oxygen—whine, whine), and the scenery around the lake is post-card Rocky Mountains.

On the Road to Estes Park

Aspens Along Trail to Alberta Falls

BYK at Alberta Falls

Bear Lake

The weather for the next day had been predicted to be beautiful, so we got up and out early to beat the crowds to the Trail Ridge Road, for its first day open in about a week or so. The unimproved Old Fall River Road, which we had been told was a must-see, was closed for the season, because they don’t plow it like they do the Trail Ridge Road. That’s another thing we have to come back for. We drove the entire Trail Ridge Road and stopped at every overlook and pull-off, including the Alpine Visitor Center—not arbitrarily named. But that VC didn’t open until 10:30. We passed through the highest point in the park (12, 183 feet) and the stops near that were VERY cold and VERY windy. We were glad that we had multiple layers and a wind-proof outer layer and gloves. The snow, in places, where they had plowed, towered more than 10 feet over the roadside. We stopped at Milner Pass where the Continental Divide crosses the road (or vice versa) and at Poudre Lake, which is very near the head waters of the Colorado River (but unlike the Mississippi, they trace the feeder streams up to the “real” head waters). At the Far View Overlook, a couple coming the other way through the Trail Ridge Road said that they had seen a moose at the Timber Creek Campground. We stopped there and kept our eyes peeled all through the Kawuneeche Valley, which is prime moose country. Never saw one. Still on our must-see animal list (after all the moose country we’ve been in). There was some commotion at the Harbison Meadows Picnic area, so we stopped. Some Rangers were moving a dead bull elk from the middle of the meadow up into the tree line, out of sight. He, apparently, was on the losing side of turf (harem) battle. These battles are usually not fatal, but the word we got was that his skull had been split by the force of the collisions. So sad, but part of nature.

View from Trail Ridge Road

Tundra on Top of Mountain on Trail Ridge Road

A Little Snow on the Mountain

At the west side of the park, at the end of the Trail Ridge Road, is the Kawuneeche Visitor Center. We did some more ranger questioning, learning some of the details of the unfortunate elk and some other places to look for moose. She also said that it was worth a trip just outside of the park to the little town of Grand Lake and hike from there up to Adams Falls. Which we did. And, since this is Colorado, and there are more that 10 people in Grand Lake, we were able to stop and have lunch at the Grand Lake Brewery. Good pizza and beer both made fresh, on-site.

JEK at Adams Falls

On the return trip through the TRR, we looked carefully for moose, but we saw none. This time, when we stopped at the Alpine VC, the large parking lot that had 3 cars in it when we came through the first time, now had, maybe, 3 empty spots. We took one and checked it out. The weather was a lot warmer than when we came through before, and not nearly so windy, but the snow was melting only very slowly and only in the sunny spots. Back at the other end of the TRR, we stopped at the Alluvial Fan to hike to the falls. The parking was getting unreasonable, we were out of water (even in the cold it’s easy to dehydrate up there), and we were both tired (I think we were dehydrated more than we realized), so we passed it up until the next day and headed to the Fall River VC before heading back to camp. We drank tons of water at the VC and at camp.

We got little sleep that night, because heavy winds came up and bounced the tent trailer around all night. Somehow we managed to wake up much more refreshed than we ended the previous day (the water intake?) and had a great hike to the falls above the Alluvial Fan. We also hiked the Upper Beaver Meadow, Copeland Falls, and Calypso Cascade trails. Each was an interesting hike in its own way. That night, we ate out and JEK tried some elk medallions. They were good, but the sauce was a little over-powering, and the meat was tougher than the equivalent cut of beef.

We got a little bit better night’s sleep that night, and were ready to head out to our next adventure the next morning. On to the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park.

14) Wind Cave National Park, September 16-September 22, 2009

The drive from Badlands National Park to the Black Hills, where Wind Cave is located, is just over a hundred miles. We decided to stay at Custer State Park because it was more centrally located to all the many sights in the area that we wanted to see. Just a warning you MUST have a camping reservation before they will even let you in the gate. Our literature said reservations were available not necessary, so we stood at the gate and called the park office for a reservation. The park is the largest state park in the nation and quite gorgeous. It is also teeming with wildlife. Between the gate and our campground we saw bison, bighorn sheep, pronghorn antelope, and two kinds of deer-whitetail and mule. We thought we were in heaven.

Pronghorn Antelope grazing by Road

After setting up camp, we decided to drive the South Wildlife Loop drive because we just hadn’t seen enough wildlife yet. We saw more pronghorn and literally herds of bison, everywhere. It was glorious. We had seen one or two bison before, but never in large groups. While they can be dangerous these were contentedly grazing and wandering back and forth across the roads as if the hoards of people watching them were just not there. They seemed so contented and peaceful and were fun to watch going about their daily business. We also came upon the park’s wild donkeys, also known as the “Begging Burros.” They are a leftover from the time when donkeys took park visitors to the top of Harney Peak, the highest point in South Dakota. They are not bashful and will stick their head into your car if the window is open, begging for anything to eat.

Bison Herd at Custer State Park

Custer State Park "Begging Burros"

We then drove to Mount Rushmore by way of Iron Mountain Road, a must drive because of the beautiful woodland scenery and the road is thought to be an engineering marvel. This drive has three pigtail bridges and three tunnels, each framing some part of the Rushmore sculpture. How they managed that I will never understand but it was stunning. Along the road we also stopped at the Norbeck Memorial with its gorgeous views of Mount Rushmore. Peter Norbeck was the one who laid out the Iron Mountain Road even though everyone told him it couldn’t be done. I guess he showed the naysayers. At Mount Rushmore we hiked the half mile Presidential Trail down to the Sculptor’s Studio and sat in on the Ranger program, “Unusual Times, Unusual Men.” He covered some of the natural and cultural history of the area and how the sculptor chose the four presidents on the monument. It was very interesting and it was evident the ranger loved his topic. We went through the museum and watched two videos: one on the carving of Mt. Rushmore and the other on the plant and animal life of the area. We had dinner at the café and headed back to camp, encountering several bison on the road once we got back into the park.

Mt. Rushmore

The next day we went to Jewel Cave National Monument. Jewel Cave is the second longest cave in the world. We took the Scenic Tour. The cave is known for its gypsum and calcite crystals and it is from these crystals the cave got its name. These crystals created formations called popcorn, draperies, flowstone, soda straws and frostwork- really pretty. The 723 stairs are a whole other story.

After Jewel Cave we went to the Crazy Horse Memorial and were blown away by the scope of this project. We were able to watch men hanging off the face of the mountain chiseling away at the granite. These men looked like tiny dots against the face of the cliff; this project will definitely will not be finished in our lifetime. They have been working on the carving for 61 years and are not yet ¼ of the way finished. Just the feather on top of Crazy Horse’s head will be 44 feet tall, and all of the Mount Rushmore sculpture could fit within the space of the horse’s mane. There is quite a large development at the base of the mountain that includes a visitor center, museum, restaurant, and a 1/34th scale model of the sculpture that weighs 16 tons. Are you getting an idea of the scope of this project yet?

Crazy Horse Memorial

The next day was our day to tour Wind Cave National Park. The cave is only a small part of this park, but is very interesting. The currently-discovered passageways make this the fifth longest cave in the world. There are two very interesting points about this fact: 1. All of these passageways are included within one square mile (stacked layer upon layer). 2. Barometric wind studies indicate that only about 5% of the volume of the cave has been discovered within the first 100 years of exploration. We took the Natural Entrance tour (the only tour running this late in the year). The natural entrance to the cave is about 18 inches in diameter, and wind has been clocked coming out of that opening at over 70 mph. On the day of our tour, the wind exiting the opening was only about 9 or 10 mph. The wind through the opening will either exit or enter the opening, depending on the change in barometric pressure outside of the cave. We won’t spoil the surprise by telling you how we entered the cave. The most interesting feature of the cave, to us, was the very delicate formation called boxwork found throughout the tour. It turns out that 95% of this type of formation found in the world is found in Wind Cave.

Historic Entrance to Wind Cave

Boxwork on Ceiling in Wind Cave

But the national park includes 28,295 acres, so the cave is just part of the experience. There is a main, paved loop drive and several unpaved roads leading through the park, not to mention many miles of hiking trails. On our first day, after the cave tour, we drove the loop down to the south entrance of the park, hoping to see some elk, as our ranger-grilling indicated that we might. We did not, but we did see lots of other animals; many buffalo, prong horn, lots and lots of prairie dogs, and deer. For hiking, the ranger suggested taking the Lookout Point Trail out to the intersection with the Centennial Trail, which loops back to the trailhead. We wound up starting this hike a couple of days later, but did not finish due to some really nasty weather that cropped up. On the way back to camp, we stopped at the Bluebell Lodge in Custer State Park and signed up for the Chuckwagon Dinner that was scheduled for two days later.

The next day we planned to do things in the Hot Springs area: the Mammoth Site, the Black Hills Wild Horse Sanctuary, and Evan’s Plunge in Hot Springs. At the Mammoth Site, they are continuing to unearth mammoth bones from an ancient sink hole that trapped the unwary animals trying to get some water. No one is sure why all of the mammoth bones found so far are male (“Here, hold my beer and watch this.”) These are actual, in-situ bones, not fossils, and they estimate, by core sample that they have at least 70 more feet to dig to hit the bottom of the sink hole. We then took the two-hour tour of the Wild Horse Sanctuary, covering a lot of the 13,000 acres of the ranch. There are about 700 horses on the property, and we got up close and personal with several of the herds. The driver said that since we could drive right through the herd in our old, dilapidated, short school bus and get out without causing the horses to stampede we might think that they’re not really wild. “Just try putting a bridle on one”, he said. They were in the process of implementing birth control, because the ranch is at capacity, and people are not buying many horses in the current economy. Also included in the ranch tour were an overlook on a reproduction of Fort Robinson used in Ted Turner’s production of the movie “Crazy Horse” and a section of the old stagecoach trail that passes by some petroglyphs and the old building used as a mail drop in those days. As we came back to Hot Springs, SD and Evan’s Plunge, we decided that we were both too tired to do that. It didn’t look too exciting from the outside, anyway.

Mammoth Backbone and Ribs

Spanish Mare and Foal

Another “must-do” item in the area of Custer State Park is to drive the Needles Highway. This road goes around the state park and passes by some very interesting rock formations, including Needle’s Eye. It also includes two VERY narrow tunnels (one is 8’ 4”). This drive brought us to the north end of the park at Sylvan Lake. This lake is really pretty, set among large boulders. We hiked down one side of the lake and back, taking in the scenery as we went. This was the same day that we attempted the hike at Wind Cave but got rained out.

Needle's Eye on Needles Highway

The next day, we were going to hike to Harney Peak, the highest point in South Dakota before coming back to camp and getting ready for our chuckwagon dinner. However, it was still rainy and cold and windy, so we wimped out on that hike, too (besides, it’s about 7.5 miles long with a long climb). We just chilled at camp, and any of you who know BYK know that this is pretty rare (having fun is hard work). Because of the crummy weather, the wagons for the hayride part of the chuckwagon dinner were covered and had “clear” plastic curtains on the sides and ends. Also, the weather seemed to keep the animals in hiding, so we didn’t see very many along the way. But it was still fun; Cowboy Keith kept us entertained for the whole trip. The wagons brought us back to Bluebell Lodge and their banquet room for dinner, instead of the outside feast normally provided. Cowboy Keith was joined by some others and provided good entertainment during the delicious steak dinner. All-in-all, it was a fun time, and we met some people from Columbus, GA who we could talk with and share some Columbus memories.

Cowboy Keith Entertains on Hayride

There was still more to do in the area around Custer State Park (we picked a good place to plant ourselves for six nights), but we needed to move on to Rocky Mountain National Park and new adventures.