Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming

Grand Teton again lived up to its expectations. We stayed here 3 days last Summer and wanted to come back and spend a little more time here this year. This park is Irene's favorite national park; she loves the Teton mountain range and thinks there is nothing else like it. We stayed a week in the Colter Bay tent cabins where we were joined mid-week by Irene's sister Betsy and her family.

Even though it is peak season, this park is much more laid-back than its sister park, Yellowstone up the road. It really feels like wilderness.

Wilderness definitely bit back this season, though: while we were here two hikers were lost in separate groups and a fisherman drowned. With all the amenities and conveniences today, it's easy to forget this is still wilderness until you get these very sad reminders.

While at the park we saw quite a bit of wildlife, including several moose, which we never seem to see in any other park but this one! Also some bald eagle, elks and various smaller wildlife. (Not to mention some cuttthroat trout Gracie caught while learning to flyfish. She put them all back).

Dubois,Wyoming

We really lucked out on this pitstop. Dubois is one of the gateway towns to Yellowstone/Grand Teton. It is one of the smaller ones- only 1,000 people live here- and it has a small town feel; not a tourist mecca like Jackson Hole or Cody. We booked three nights at a KOA here sight unseen. We started to have tiny doubts when, five miles out of Dubois, we were still surrounded by really dry, badland-y hill country. (Not the best place to tent camp in mid-Summer!). But, the KOA is green and tree-lined, and right on the Wind River! Mike and the girls can fish right from the campsite. KOAs can be hit-or-miss; the kids really like them because of the pools and playgrounds, but usually the sites are small, close together and not tent-friendly. This campground lived up to its advertising, though. Better than average KOA, with really nice owners and workers, great sites along he river and nice activities for the kids: in addition to a great indoor pool, the girls went on a little horseride (free) the first night and on our second night, attended a chuckwagon cookout with cowboy music.

Dubois is a really neat little town, with a two block downtown with wooden sidewalks, plenty of restaurants and little Western shops. Despite, the Old West theme (done with less kitsch than usual), Dubois is actually authentic cowboy country, surrounded by hills and ranches.

There are plenty of things to do here: trail rides, fishing, a town museum and the National Bighorn Sheep Center.

Weather is great, too. Hot and sunny during the day, cool at night. I think the elevation is about 6500 feet.

Thermopolis, Wyoming

We spent two nights in Thermopolis, on the Bighorn River in Wyoming. Thermopolis has one of the largest mineral hotsprings in the United States; these mineral baths are free to the public thanks to the Wind River Indians. The land where the hot springs are located were originally owned by the Shoshone & Arapaho Indians of the area. About 100 years ago, the tribes sold the land to the US government, but conditioned the sale on the requirement that the hot springs always be free and available to all the people. Above is a picture of the girls in front of one of the mineral fountains (the rocky-looking material is the mineral build up over the years). Mike soaked in the therapeutic baths each day while we were there and we also took the girls to a privately operated splash pool that had water slides and multiple pools, vapor caves, steam rooms, etc.

We also visited the Wyoming Dinosaur Center where we saw tons of dinosaur bones and visited a dig site out in the hills.

Local notables have included Butch Cassidy & the Hole in the Wall Gang (the town museum has the original bar from the saloon where they hung out). Also, Sacajawea is supposedly buried nearby on the Wind River Indian reservation next to the town.

A high point for us, though, was the A&W Root beer restaurant and bowling alley in town. In addition to greta root beer floats and burgers (that you order via telephone at your table0, they also have 3 statues of the A&W family out front. Photo above.

But the big news of our stay here is that Mike caught the biggest trout of his life right in the Bighorn River. He caught it using worms, and is very excited about this.

Thanks to Steven Flax for recommending we visit Thermopolis.

Fort Collins, Colorado & Douglas, Wyoming

After a terrific week in Rocky Mountain National Park, we're taking our time meandering up to Grand Teton & Yellowstone. On our trip last Summer, we tried to see as much as possible; while we fit in a lot of sights, the pace was a little breakneck; this Summer is a bit slower.

Fort Collins is a college town East of the Rockies. I'm not very good at geography, but I think it is on the high plains (same as Douglas). Because of the altitude, and the fact that it is close to the mountains, the weather can be a little dramatic. In both towns, we saw afternoon thunderstorms that were short but fierce, and it can be very windy and a little hot. Nice and cool at night and in the morning, though.

We stopped in Douglas for one night last year; we thought there might be a little more to it than a quick drive-through would show, so we stayed two nights this Summer. Douglas was voted one of the best small towns in America, but it still feels cowboy-like. It was along the Oregon and a couple of other pioneer trails, so there is a lot of history around that. It also had a POW camp during World War II. We didn't check out the museum, but apparently it has memorabilia related to Butch Cassidy and Sundance as well as props from Dances With Wolves.

There are a lot of jobs in energy around here: wind, gas and oil. There is not enough housing to accomodate the energy workers; quite a few seem to be living in trailers thrown up around the area. (Including some in the campground where we stayed).

Above is a picture of a playground in state park outside Douglas. (Isn't the bottom of a redrock canyon a nice place for a swingset?) The real draw to the park is a natural stone bridge and a stone wall with names etched on it of people who passed there through the decades. We saw names going back to the 1920s, but I believe there were even older names, going back to pioneer days.

A little bit of kitsch: Douglas is also the birthplace of the Jackalope, first sighted in the 1890s and then patented in the 1930s. There are statues all around town.

More on Rocky Mountain: The People

One of the best things about camping is that you meet the nicest people! Grace & Lucy met two little girls from Boulder, Colorado, (Delaney & Teagan) who they quickly became firm friends with. Here's a photo of the girls together.

While hiking early on in our trip, Grace lost her camera (she left it on a rock after taking some pictures of some ducks). We filled out a lost and found form at the ranger station, where we were told to keep checking in each day; it might be returned. We seriously doubted that, but on our last day in the park, our camera was brought in! The men who found it left their photo on the camera (see above). What a great way to end our camping trip; thank you, fellows.

When talking abut the nice people of the park, we can't forget the people who work there; the volunteers and the park rangers. Grace and Lucy became junior rangers and attended a ranger program at least once a day while we were there. The rangers give talks and guided walks, and their enthusiasm really shines through. They also work really hard on their various presentations; our campsite was next to the campground amphitheatre; the rangers always arrived an hour to an hour-and-a-half early to prepare for their nightly presentations.

Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado

Where to Start? Mike says his favorite national park is the one he happens to be in when asked the question. This is true for us right now about Rocky Mountain National Park; after camping there for a week, it's definitely one of our favorite parks at this point.

We camped for a week at Moraine Park campground on the East side of the Park. Above is a picture of the view from our campsite. The weather was terrific: sunny and in the 60s and 70s most days; cool at night (down to the low 40s, high 30s). Wildflowers were blooming all over the place and we saw lots of wildlife: elk, coyote, marmots and mule deer.

What struck us most about the park is how accessible it is. The Park Service takes its mandate very seriously to both preserve our wild and historic places and to make them accessible to the people and to the generations that come after us This is almost an impossible charge when you think about it: to preserve and to make accessible! The Park Service does a good job of it, though. We were in Rocky Mountain 4th of July weekend; the park was packed with people, but we were able to get to places that still felt like wilderness.

In addition to plenty of back country hikes, there are also a number of nature trails in the Park for people who are mobility impaired. We took our girls for a walk on a handicap accessible trail around a beautiful mountain lake. A couple of hundred yards off the lake, was a handicap accessible back country campsite! Photo above.

Kearney, Nebraska

After a night in Hastings, Nebraska, the birthplace of Kool Aid, we visited a major Nebraska Roadside attraction: The Great Platte River Road Archway Monument in Kearney. (Though it's technically not roadside, since it is built over I-80.) This interactive exhibit is a tribute to westward mobility: starting with the pioneers along the various trails that converge at the Platte River (Mormon, Oregon, California), on to the transcontinental railroad, followed by the Lincoln Highway, and culminating in the current day I-80. It sounds hokey, but it works; we all really enjoyed it. This attraction is mentioned, usually with affection, in Roadside America, Roadtrip USA and other guidebooks. If that's not enough to reel you in, a scene from "About Schmidt" starring Jack Nicholson was filmed here.

We then headed on to Colorado, where we're spending the night in Brush. Brush is in the Eastern Plains, not too far from Yuma, the town which served as the inspiration for Plainsong by Kent Haruf. (If you haven't alreadyread the book, do! Or rent the movie by the same name). The weather here is pretty brutal: hot (97 today) with high winds and often fierce storms: tornadoes, hailstorms, you name it. It will be good to go into the mountain tomorrow.