f - Grand Tetons to Glacier Park

 

On Thursday we drove from Yellowstone to the Grand Teton National Park....... Again, it was a lovely drive and the camera happily clicked us all the way down there.  Right after we left the campground, we drove over a bridge that is called Fishing Bridge - well, there are big signs on there that no fishing is allowed....Hmmm.. Ok then.  Then we drove along the shores of the Yellowstone Lake again - this place just fascinated me - its enormous, has waves like the ocean and then there are those steam vents, thermal vent thingys right up against the shoreline, making mounds with bubbling water and stinky sulphur.  Wherever these things are, the ground is covered with the stuff that comes up from the ground, giving everything a pure white covering that looks like snow.  At times there are shades of pinks and oranges and other interesting colors too.  The trees try  very hard to survive, but mostly there are just dry, sulphur whitened sticks left standing where the bubbling has taken their hope away.  Its quite amazing how one second we are looking at a dense forest and the next a sort of barren fairytale, moonscape scene.

Anyway - we drove to The Grand Tetons - and they are really beautiful.  We passed a lake that was beautifully smooth and glass-like and which threw the camera some really lovely reflections.  Jenny Lake had a beautiful trail around it and apparently there is a lovely waterfall, but we had the doglets with us and were not allowed to take them on the hiking trail.  We did not want to leave them in the bakkie either, so we passed on that one, just savoring the peace and the quiet.  Many times along the way we stopped at the many pull offs along the road - its really quite amazing at the quiet thats there, well, when the cars don't keep on keepin on!  There was not much wildlife to see at all and (I really hate to say this) we both feel the Yellowstone got the best of the countryside.  I know we missed out again on much of the park by not walking or hiking its trails, but just generally - Yellowstone appears to have much more to offer for this way of seeing things.

It was a wonderful drive and gave us yet another opportunity to see some more wonders.  One the way home (to our Wheelie House) we saw a coyote stalking something in the grass - yup, there were many cars parked and plenty camera's pointed his way.  Did he give a hoot?  Nope, went right on with his hunting..... that tail was stiffened, the paw lifted and then he pounced and got whatever it was he was after.  I had to laugh - for one moment it looked as if he was headed towards all the people watching him and you should have seen the scramble to get back in the cars!!  Kids seemed to grow wings and fly to shoulders and doors opened and closed at lightening speed!  I know, I know - I should not laugh - but I could almost imagine Coyote grinning at the scuffle.  

We had to stop a number of times for bison in the road - they are really big animals that sound kinda serious when they snort and they really look as if they have an attitude and there was one very scared Oriental guy in a van that very obviously did not like having these animals so close to him!  Poor man.  But worse was the mom and dad that took their kids up close to the bison.  I just shut my eyes and Frank drove on - I really hate when people are so stupid like that.  Allie smelled the Bison and was leaning out of the window, her nose twitching, trying to smell as much as she could.  Sophie slept.

And so we packed up the rv and headed out of Yellowstone on Friday morning fairly early.   We don't rush at all, just when the time feels right and we are ready to go.  Allie senses what is happening even before I get up and starts her shaky moves and her tongue seems to droop futher and further out of her mouth as the minutes go by.  Poor little thing.  Sophie still could not give a hoot and seems to like balancing herself while standing with the movement of the rv as we drive.  As long as she has food - she's fine!

So we headed out of the West entrance of Yellowstone and directly north, driving up the edge of the park. It was a lovely drive, through forests and open fields as beautiful as inside the park.  Blondie the GPS had a hissy fit for some reason and kept on chanting 'turn left, now turn right.  Turn left, now turn right"  And then she gave up and just asked us to turn around where possible.  Sigh.  I reset her and she was fine until today when she was insistant about us turning up the tiniest dirt road that led nowhere at all..........  She really has a mean streak in her - I wonder what got her goat?

There is an area called Earthquake Lake where it really looks as if something not so nice happened.  The trees are still standing neck deep in the water, but they are all dead and it really looks as if ...........well, I guess the name says it all.  I will have to look it up when we get home. There is even a very interesting building there called the Earthquake Park Information center, or something like that.  We should have stopped, I guess.  There are a tremendous number of people fly-fishing around here.  I love to watch as that nylon string whips through the air and hope I caught some with the camera...  They fish from the side of the streams and rivers, from the middle and from boats - anywhere they can.  I love the shape of most of the little boats they use - sort of uppity at both the front and back.

I was surprised to see how much of the countryside is farmlands around here.  I am not sure what I expected, but it was not these miles and miles of rolling farmlands.  This is the sort of place that I would have to move to if I had to raise kids again - nothing for as far as the eye can see.  No internet, no cell phone signal and nowhere for them to run to!  Many of the 'towns' are literally just shells with broken buildings and sagging barns.  Sometimes there is a beautiful and well kept house at the edge of these dying towns and it really makes me wonder and they all seem to have a well kept post office.  In Butte there is a humongeous white robed statue standing at the top of the mountain.  Yes, I took a good many photos but still cannot make out exactly who it is meant to be - I will post those pics when I can and maybe one of you can tell me more.

Oh, I almost forgot!  We nearly had a really bad moment when we were leaving Yellowstone.  Frank had been unhooking the electric and water outside and came in, I was pulling in the side in the bedroom part when we realized that Allie was nowhere to be found!  What a horrible few minutes that was.  We could hear the tinkling of a bell, but they both have a bell, so I tried to get Sophie to be still so we could hear - that was not madly successful!  We called outside, we called inside. we threatened with a deeeep voice, I cajoled with the promise of a walk, and still we could hear a bell - but ever so faintly.  Finally we found her in the bathroom!  Don't know how or when she got in there, but we were mightily relieved to see her.  That did not improved her day either.......

Last night we stayed...............somewhere.  Laughing - I really don't remember the name of the town. Helena!  Helena, Montana.   It was a good campground, level-ish (our eyes were puffy this morning so we must have been a little downhill)  and quiet with internet in the office. We went shopping for a new heater - the last one just quit on us for no reason at all.  Also found that we needed some groceries and evidently we 'needed' chocolates, nuts and a good few other things too!  Ah well.  Now we should be all stocked up for the road north.

Today we drove for a way on the Lewis and Clark Trail, right along the Rockies which is so amazingly beautiful.  What is sort of surprising is that everything is fenced in.  I mean everything.  There is no land that is just open or available to get out and walk out in.  Mostly the cows are kept in, but occasionally we found one or two that had got through the fence somewhere and were walking the fence trying to get back in.  Then there were the 'free range' areas where the cows share the road, but there were still fences.  Or rather, where the cows have the road and let us share it at times.  There was a tremendous amount of forest burned, but not recently and the pine beetle has also laid much of the forest down and left it either dead and brown or looking like ten million toothpicks either standing or littering the hillsides.  They are actually quite pretty, especially when the sunlight catches those that have been there for a while and are all bleached out and white.  

We saw an old fashioned cowboy - one that rides his hoss still and the new fangled type too - he was hearding the cows with a fourwheeler looking as if he was having a total blast.

For tonight we are parked in St Mary which is just north of the East entrance to Glacier National Park.  We are not going there this year but will go up onto the Icefield Parkway tomorrow.  Hopefully we will find a good pull off and spend the night up on the mountain.  We have plenty of propane for the gas heater so it's ok if it gets really cold - its just so lovely up there, and quiet and dark and wild.  We are not worried about being alone and not in a campground as we carry a big can of bear spray and I just dare anyone to fight with that!

Right now I am sitting in the motor home with all the lights off, the screen of the laptop dimmed as far as it will go, Frank and the doglets gently asleep.  I am waiting for the northern lights to fly!  I know, there is not much hope tonight - even the 'prediction web site' says so............ but one can hope, right?  There are campers parked all around us and their lights look like eyes shining in the darkness.  It's perfectly quiet now and deep dark, apart from those lights which all seem to be rather muted.  Maybe I am not the only one waiting for the lights.

Earlier today the park was teeming with people going in all directions - pool, hot tub, shop, other campers, down to the river........... the kids were all screaming in loud delight at life itself while they trundled very noisy bikes with very noisy plastic bike wheels endlessly up and down the dirt roads all over the place.  Then the sun started going down and it was as if there were threads attached to everyone, gently pulling them towards their own wheelie houses.  The doors and windows sighed closed, gentle lights came on and it was as if the night started with a deep and gentle breath.  Way in the distance at the other end of the campground there is a campfire still glowing........but it's all quiet out.  Peace.

Now - let the lights fly!

Love and light

Annie

http://livingwithcml.blogspot.com

http://livingwithcml.blogspot.com