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.

13) Badlands National Park, September 10 - September 16, 2009

On the way from Voyageurs to Badlands, we had several other adventures; we visited the headwaters of the Mississippi, strolled down memory lane in some of JEK’s old stomping grounds in South Dakota, and visited some other places of interest along our route.

Our first night out from Voyageurs we stopped at Itasca State Park near Park Rapids, Minnesota. This state park is the home of the headwaters of the Mississippi River. They don’t follow or select one of the feeder streams into Lake Itasca, but the outflow of the lake is designated as the beginning of our great national treasure of a river, the Mighty Mississippi. Here, you can easily walk across the Mississippi on a log and clearly see the bottom. Neither of those feats is easily accomplished down in our area of the country. We got to the park too late in the evening to get into the Mary Gibb Mississippi Headwater Center, but the grounds and trails to the headwaters were open, and we were the only vehicle in the parking lot and the only people on the trails. There were some outdoor exhibits at the Center, some of which we were able to peruse before it was too dark.

The Beginning of the Mississippi River

Next, it was on to South Dakota. Not only home of the Badlands National Park, but JEK’s birthplace and the location of most of his summer vacations during his early years. From Itasca, we went through Fargo, ND (Now JEK has been to all of the lower 48 states. Funny that the last one is adjacent to his birth state.) for normal maintenance on the truck, then on toward Garretson, SD where JEK spent so many summers visiting cousins and grandparents. It’s a long ways from Fargo to Garretson, so we decided to stop for the night in Watertown, SD, where JEK and his younger brother were born. We set up camp at Pelican Lake State Recreational Area, just outside of town and went to see if we could find the hospital where JEK was born and the house where his family lived. Of course, we hadn’t done the necessary research before leaving home, so we did not have addresses. We were pretty sure that we were in the correct area, finding an elementary school not too far from the hospital and other features that seemed familiar. We called Barry, JEK’s brother and by early the next morning he had found the address of the house—aren’t cell phones great? We went back to town and had no trouble finding the house. Sure enough, it was across the street from the elementary school that we had gone to the day before. Both the hospital and the elementary school are younger looking than either Barry or JEK, so we think they rebuilt on the same land.

Johnny's First Home

After a bit more touring around Watertown, we headed out for tiny Garretson (population about 800 back in the day, now about 1200). When we pulled into Palisades State Park just on the edge of Garretson, we found that it was FULL!! This was our first “no room in the inn experience” since we started on this trip and it was in Garretson, SD. Go figure. There was never any tourism in Garretson. The other nearby state park was also full. We found a spot in the city park campground and set up. We then drove into town to see if we could locate JEK’s aunt and uncle’s old house. Neighbors across the street confirmed the house Johnny seemed to remember as his aunt and uncle’s and said that JEK’s cousin, Bruce, was just three doors down the street. We had a nice visit with Bruce and his grandsons that evening.

The next day, we toured through Devil’s Gulch and found the house that JEK’s grandparents retired to in Garretson upon leaving the farm just across the state line in MN. We failed to find the farm, however. Oh well, next time. After breaking camp, we headed to Mitchell, SD for the famous Corn Palace. Coincidently, Mitchell is where Barry and JEK’s older brother was born. Very interesting to see the murals both inside and outside of the building made entirely of ears corn of many colors and a few grasses and grains of SD. The theme, this year, for the outside murals was “America’s Destinations”.

The Corn Palace, Mitchell, South Dakota

After seeing the Corn Palace, it was a short drive to Badlands National Park. We set up camp at the Cedar Pass Campground in the park and went out to do some hiking. We hiked Cliff Shelf Trail, Notch Trail (see picture of ladder you must climb on Notch Trail below), Window Trail, and Door Trail - all together about 2.5 miles - and still had time to drive up to world famous Wall Drugs. We took part of the park loop drive on the way back from Wall Drugs and made several of the stops and overlooks along the way before it got too dark. The campground evening program was on astronomy, and the very dark skies of the Badlands provided a clear view of the Milky Way and even the Andromeda galaxy with the naked eye. Telescopes were also available for some closer views.

View from Burns Basin Overlook on Loop Drive

I Can't Believe I Climbed the Whole Thing!

Notch Trail

Yellow Mounds on Loop Drive

The next day, we finished the loop road and took one of the “high-clearance vehicle only” dirt roads out to some wonderful scenery at Sheep Mountain Table. The Indian-run White River Visitor Center was closed when we got there, a day earlier than the literature indicated. We got to see some buffalo (I know, they’re really bison) and prairie dogs along the way. We also got in two ranger talks, one on park geology and the other on fossils. The evening campground program provided some insight on the cultural history of the park and surrounding area.

The Pinnacles as Seen from Sheep Mountain Table

The next day it was on to the southwest corner of South Dakota and what turned out to be a surprising array of interesting things to see and do, including our next national park; Wind Cave.

12) Voyageurs National Park, September 6, - September 10, 2009

I’m starting to write this on the 99th day of our trip, and the date is 9/9/09—any omen here?

The first night out from Grand Portage, we stopped just past Ely, MN, at Bear Head Lake State Park to make camp. After setting up and having lunch, we took a rented canoe and paddled about 3 miles around the lake. Not all the way around the lake, because as we got into the “big” water, there was enough fetch, with a stiff breeze, to make it a little uncomfortable. We stayed in the relatively protected areas and had plenty to explore. That evening, we drove back to Ely to have dinner at the local brew pub, called Boathouse. It’s funny that a restaurant with that name would be decorated with a logging theme. Hmmm. We shared a walleye fillet dinner. Man, that’s some good eatin’.

From Ely, to Voyageurs National Park, there are several options; there’s three Visitor Centers and a fourth entrance with a ranger station. Two of the Visitor Centers are near the center of the park and one of them, Kabetogama, had boat tours available, so we headed in that direction. We stopped at Orr, MN at the local visitor information center, got some information, and did their Mickey Elverum Bog Walk. That was quite interesting to see swamp and bog way up north like that. (It’s kind of funny to hear people talking about going “down” to Minneapolis. We’re a ways north of that.) We headed to Woodenfrog State Forest Campground. All campgrounds in the NP are boat-accessible only. This small state forest borders right along the national park.

After setting up camp, we headed to the Kabetogama VC for the first Q&A session with the ranger. The volunteers there were heading back home to San Antonio the next morning, letting us know that the season up there was almost over. In fact, we signed up for the only boat tour that the park was still running. Luckily, it was the one that we most wanted to do; Kettle Falls. Kettle Falls is the only hotel in the park and has been in operation since 1913. We also went to the Ash River Visitor Center, which is not too far south of the Kabetogama center. While there, we did some more ranger grilling and hiked the Blind Ash Bay Trail. Got some really nice views of the lake and walked through some beautiful forest and fern glades.

JEK on Blind Ash Bay Trail

We had learned from the visitor centers that some of the local lodges have water taxis and that the Ellsworth Rock Garden is a must-see. The park service had ended their tours for the season to the gardens, and we wanted to see it. They suggested Arrowhead Lodge, because it is close to Woodenfrog and is a straight shot out to the rock garden on the Kabetogama Peninsula. We arranged for that trip on our way back to camp for the night. The next morning, promptly at “…8:30 or 9:00 or whenever”, we got over to Arrowhead. We were the only two on the boat besides the lodge owner/tour guide. On the way out, he filled us in on some of the park information and wheeled us by “Jack’s Cabin” right off Cutover Island. Jack was one of the land owners who were displaced by the park’s land acquisitions and one of the few very much in favor of the park. He donated all of Cutover Island, one of the larger islands in the park, with the stipulation that he have a life-time lease on his cabin on a little island just off Cutover. He is now 86 years old, and they think he and some family were visiting the cabin during the time that we were at Voyageurs. Our tour guide hopes that the park keeps the cabin even after Jack’s death, because of its historic value (not to mention tourist draw). Also on the way out to the rock garden, we saw one adult and one juvenile bald eagle perched in trees. There is a very healthy bald eagle population of over 150 in the park, and most mating pairs are able to raise all their chicks to fledge. When we arrived at the garden we found it to be quite amazing. While there were only a few flowers left blooming the rock work was impressive. No one knows, for sure, why Ellsworth built his rock garden over a period of 20 years, moving and balancing huge rocks all by hand with no helpers or mechanized tools. Jack Ellsworth estimated he put in between 14,000 to 15,000 hours in creating the garden, and he wanted it to appear to be a waterfall of flowers. It is a very inspiring and interesting place. “Nuff words, here’s some pictures:

Jack's Cabin Hidden in the Trees

Ellsworth Gardens Rockwork - flower season is over for this year

BYK and JEK at Arrowhead Sculpture in Ellsworth Gardens

It was quite windy and rough on the lake for our trip out to Ellsworth’s and back, which was fine on the large pontoon boat. But we decided to defer the canoe trip that we planned to take out to some of the closer islands until the winds died a little. They didn’t that day. Those winds were a front that brought a thunderstorm that evening providing the wonderful pitter patter of rain on the roof that lulls you to sleep. We decided that maybe we’d get out on a canoe after the Kettle Falls trip. Instead of the canoeing, we decided on a hike. We took the Echo Bay Trail, which is part of the NP but is encircled by the state forest where our campground was located. This trail was interesting as it went through various forest environments and from 2nd or 3rd growth into some first growth white pines.

Echo Bay Trail

The next morning was our Kettle Falls trip. The storm the night before had blown a dead tree across the campground road during the night, but Johnny was able to easily move it out of the way. We were on a nearly full (actually it would have been full, but one couple didn’t show up) tour boat. The trip to Kettle Falls was about 28 miles and was done on a national park pontoon boat even larger than the one we took out to Ellsworth. Even though there was a prediction of a 30% chance of rain, the weather turned out to be fabulous; warm by northern MN standards with clear blue skies and calm water. There were two rangers on our boat, the captain and our tour guide. On the 2-hour trip to Kettle Falls, we learned more about the history of the park and some of the eccentric early inhabitants of some of the islands. We saw at least five bald eagles and several of their huge, dishelved looking nests. We spent about 3 hours at Kettle Falls, touring the hotel, having lunch in the hotel restaurant, hiking, and touring the dam. You get tipsy in the bar of the hotel without drinking a drop of alcohol, because the floor has a HUGE hump in it (note the wedge-shaped support under the pool table in the picture below). The hotel was restored in 1986, because the original was built in 1913 without a foundation. The outer walls sank as much as 5 feet following the contour of the rock, and the hardwood floors all had large bows in them. The hallway upstairs was called “the ridgeback” because of the hump, and the hotel acquired the nickname “The Tiltin’ Hilton.” The bar floor was kept in the original shape, but other floors were leveled. Way back when, the lumber company owner on the island thought that the falls were the most beautiful that he’d seen, so he built a dam over them to provide hydroelectric power for his lumber mill. What was he thinking? Think the old greenbacks were influencing his decision? The trip back was uneventful and quiet; there were only one or two sights to see that we hadn’t already. The weather, wind, and water were all conducive to a nice canoe ride, but we were just too tired. And we’re here to have fun, so, maybe tomorrow before we leave for northern visitor center.

Bald Eagle Nest

Kettle Falls Hotel

Ketle Falls Bar - check the wedge under the pool table

Looking Downstream from Kettle Falls Dam

The Rainy Visitor Center is at the western end of the park by International Falls, and we decided to head on up there without doing the canoe trip. He VC offers beautiful views of Rainy Lake. Being late in the season all of their programs had ended for the year. We watched a video about the life of the voyageurs and then took a short hike around the waterfront. Beautiful, serene vistas of deep blue water, green forests and soft blue sky accented with puffy white clouds. Can’t get much better.

After a delicious lunch at the Chocolate Moose (don’t you just love that name?) in International Falls we were ready to head for our next destination; Badlands National Park in South Dakota.

11) Isle Royale National Park, August 29, - September 6, 2009

After solving most of our issues and waiting interminably for a home refrigerator repair, we finally got on the road from Huntsville, headed for Isle Royale National Park. This park is an island at the northwest corner of Lake Superior and is really designed for backpackers. It is accessible only by boat or sea plane. Commercial boats go from Copper Harbor, MI and Grand Portage, MN. A National Park boat leaves from Houghton, MI where the park headquarters is located. After studying various possibilities and talking to the folks at Grand Portage, we decided to do two day trips; one from Copper Harbor and one from Grand Portage. So we set the GPS for Copper Harbor and headed out (it’s over 1,000 miles).

There is nothing especially exciting about the trip up to Copper Harbor; the scenery is nice, but very similar to Tennessee and Alabama. We camped the first night at Edinburgh, IN and the second night at Kohler-Andrea State Park, just south on Sheboygan, WI. The only “fun” that we had on the way up to this point was during the second day, we detoured a little bit when we passed Chicago and headed over to Great Lakes/North Chicago/Waukegan, IL, where we lived during most of our Navy years. It had been about 34 years since we left there, so, as you might have guessed, things have changed dramatically. The on-base house that we lived in for the last 3 years is now behind a 10-foot fence that is covered with green netting, making it difficult to see. What we could see was a lot of tall weeds and houses that are obviously abandoned. The rest of the “Village” is still in use, so we don’t know if they plan to update our house (and the others on the three or so quarantined streets) or tear it down. We didn’t recognize the other two places that we lived, or our favorite Chinese Restaurant (Ho Wah’s where Barbara forced down the last couple of bites of Shrimps in Lobster Sauce while going into labor with our first child), but we’re sure that we passed directly by their locations. Kohler-Andrea State Park is nice, and we strolled the beach of Lake Michigan, watching waves larger than we normally see on the Gul Coast—but it’s August and 55 degrees, also not what we’d see on the Gulf.

Lake Michigan at Sunset

Copper Harbor is a picturesque little village near the tip of a peninsula off the north shore of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. We drove right through town and set up camp at Fort Wilkins Historic State Park, about a mile from the center of town. The park is between lakes Superior and Fanny Hooe (not who, but hoe). Fanny Hooe Lake drains into Lake Superior by way of Fanny Hooe Creek, a raging creek filled with very cold water that flows through the park. We went to the evening program, presented by Rich Jamsen, who grew up in town as part of a commercial fishing family of Finnish descent. His pictures and stories of Copper Harbor and the surrounding area were very interesting. We also strolled over the creek and then drove over to the Copper Harbor Lighthouse overlook. It’s like a post card.

Fanny Hooe Creek

Moon Over Lake Fanny Hooe

The Isle Royale Queen IV, from Copper Harbor to Isle Royale -the locals pronounce it royal -leaves early in the morning. There were lots of backpackers on the boat, and the trip took about three hours. This was a good day, for this time of year, because the wind was only 10 to 15 knots, and the seas were only 2 to 3 feet. We were taking the seas broadside, so there was some roll, but not too bad. It’s about 54 miles from Copper Harbor to Rock Harbor on Isle Royale, so there was a long stretch when we were out of sight of land; pretty boring for this period but relaxing with the roll of the boat. As we neared the island, the view was great with the small bay at Rock Harbor coming closer and closer. There are over 400 smaller islands around the main island, and there are rocks and cliffs and the clear, Gitchee Gumee all around, making for a beautiful scene.

Arriving at Rock Harbor - The Water Was That Blue

On the island, after a short ranger orientation (don’t pet the moose), we did our normal ranger grilling to be sure that we did the best trail that we could in the short (about 3 hours) time that we had. The way the boats run, we could either go for the day as we did, stay overnight in at the lodge (we don’t backpack), or stay several days. If we stayed overnight, we would only get a couple of more hours to explore, because the boat leaves at oh-dark-thirty the next morning. Anyway, we selected the Stoll Memorial Trail with an extension all the way out to Scoville Point. This trail follows along Tobin Bay and provides several good vistas and affords a good sampling of the terrain and flora of the east end of island.

On the Stoll Memorial Trail

Lake Superior from the Stoll Memorial Trail

Walking the Plank on the Stoll Memorial Trail

Scoville Point, Isle Royale National Park

The next morning, we had time to do a tour of the Copper Harbor Lighthouse and have lunch before checkout time at the campground. The lighthouse tour was really well worth the time. A 20-minute ride in a small boat took us most of the length of Copper Harbor (the harbor is much larger than the town of the same name) out to the point where the lighthouse is situated. There is a new, blah, metal tower light that sits in front of the lovely, restored, historical lighthouse. The nice boatman also served as our tour guide for the hour or so that we were on site. We also had time to take a hike from the lighthouse, along the shoreline, past one of the old copper mine shafts, and back to the boat dock. This was a very pleasant morning; we even took time to have lunch at the local, Harbor Haus Restaurant before breaking camp. It was about 6 or 8 minutes after checkout, but we didn’t get busted as we headed out of Copper Harbor.

Copper Harbor Lighthouse

But wait. There’s more.

We pretty much hugged the shore of Lake Superior all the way from Copper Harbor, around the western tip of the lake, then up all the way to the Canadian border (almost). We took two days to make the approximately 400-mile trip, stopping at Pattison State Park, about 14 miles south of Superior, WI (across the river from Duluth, MN) for the night. On the way from Pattison to Grand Portage, MN, we stopped at Two Harbors, MN to take a tour of their lighthouse. This is a small lighthouse, still in operation, dating from the time when steel was king, and Minnesota had more shipping tonnage than any other area in the world. And they were doing that during an 8-month shipping season. This tour was interesting, but the best part of the lighthouse was off limits, because the light keeper’s residence is now a B&B. Just up the road a little farther was Split Rock Lighthouse, so we stopped there, too. This is a much more “up-scale” operation, with a large, modern visitor center, guides, and period-dressed enactors in the well-restored lighthouse and keeper’s house. This light is no longer in operation but during its time was a very important guide for shipping. So important, in fact, that there were three large, nice houses; one for the keeper and one each for two assistant keepers. The setting for this light is really beautiful at the crest of a 130-foot cliff over the water.

Split Rock Lighthouse

We’ll tell you the story about the camping situation at Grand Portage another time. Suffice it to say that we were wrong when we thought that this might be a remote, isolated area; it’s REALLY remote and isolated. So we wound up camping at Judge J C Magney State Park, about 20 miles south of the Grand Portage boat dock. We had to get up early, again, to catch the Wenonah out to Windigo on Isle Royale’s west end. This commercially-run boat made two stops on the way to the island: one at Hat Point where an old commercial fishing shack is still located (but not in operation); the second one was over the wreck of the cruise ship America, just at the mouth of Washington Harbor. This 20-or-so-mile trip took about 3 hours, with the stops. Washington Harbor is fjord-like, in that it’s less than ½ mile wide and about 4 miles long, ending at the Windigo Ranger Station.

Washington Harbor Going into Windigo

Rangers Awaiting our Arrival at Windigo

We got another ranger orientation (don’t pet the moose), and grilled them, too. We selected the Feldtman Lake Trail to Grace Creek Overlook. The trail goes on, but we didn’t have time for that. Along this about 3.6 miles of trail, we were able to find and munch on some delicious, wild blueberries, thimbleberries, and raspberries—yum. We got back to the dock/ranger station just in time for a short ranger program about the moose, wolves, and the longest running predator-prey study in the country. The return trip was very foggy as we left the protected harbor, so we didn’t get to make the normal stop at Rock of Ages Lighthouse—next time.

White Birch Along the Feldtmman Trail

Approaching the Fog

We spent one more night at Judge J C Magney so that we could tour the Grand Portage National Monument. Before heading back to Grand Portage from the campsite, we took the Devil’s Kettle Trail in the state park. This trail takes you up to a point where the Bruel River splits in half, and one half of the water goes down a big hole, seemingly to disappear forever. They say that there is no explanation as to where the water goes; there are no underground tunnels (it’s not limestone like down home). But, it seemed to us that just below the kettle, the river is as large as it is above, so… The National Monument includes, besides the preserved, 8.5-mile grand portage trail, a reconstructed stockade where the Voyageurs from the northwest met up with the pork eaters from Montreal to exchange furs and trade goods as part of the Northwest Company. Also provided at the monument, were information and exhibits, including a small village, of the history of the Ojibwe Indians, who were instrumental in the running of the trade routes. In fact, the Ojibwe were treated better by the NWco than were the voyageurs and pork eaters, who were rough and tumble canoe men, forced to camp outside of the stockade to do their fighting and raucous dealings. Our next stop was at Grand Portage State Park on the US/Canadian border. We hiked to High Falls which at 130 feet is the highest waterfall in Minnesota. Very pretty!

Devil's Kettle, Judge C. R. Magney State Park

Great Hall, Grand Portage National Monument

High Falls, Grand Portage State Park

Thus enlightened, we headed back to the campsite to plan the path to our next adventure and to get a good night’s sleep. We wanted to be ready to head out in the morning for Ely, MN, about half way to Voyageurs National Park.