On the road again

After a 2 week stop in Oregon is was time to hit the road again, just the two of us and Kona.  So after a hearty breakfast at the Off the Waffle and goodbyes to Nick and Amanda we headed up I-5, first stop Mt St Helens.  Rick had visited Mt St Helens a few years after the eruption and we had visited as a family in the mid 90's.  We found a campsite at the state park near the entrance to the park and then headed up to the Johnson Ridge Observatory.  Our hope was to do a little hiking, but as always we seem to arrive later then we plan.  We did hear an interesting ranger talk about the difference between the volcano on Hawaii as opposed to Mt St Helens. And it was interesting to see the changes in the mountain since our last visit.

Rick and I seem to always be setting up and breaking camp to move on to the next place.  In hind sight we should have built in more time to travel.  I was always under estimating how long it would take to get to the next place.  Thinking we would have time to hike etc when we arrived, but by the time you make stops for gas, dog walks. food breaks and so forth the 4 −5 hour drive becomes 7 or 8.  Going across the border took 30 plus minutes, taking a wrong turn and going through Vancouver took longer then we expected.  The scenery from Oregon to Grande Prairie, Alberta was beautiful, but we encountered smoke from forest fires in British Columbia that obscured the valley and mountains, then we hit rain.  However, you can't control the weather and we put ourselves on a time line so it is our own fault if we felt rushed at times. But we are still having fun!

Mt St Helens in Washington

Noble Fir trees that have been replanted.  They created a weird optical illusion since the trees are all the same age. It almost made me dizzy trying to look at them.  This was on the road up to Mt St Helens.

Whistler campground.  We had planned to stay in a provincial park near Pemberton, but found out there was huge music festival so we opted to stay at a rv park. The view was nice, but we only slept here, we spent the evening in the Whistler village.  We did see 2 black bears on the road back to our campsite, but the light was too poor to take photos.

The drive from Whistler to Mt Robson, BC was beautiful.  Notice our Wyoming tags on the camper...

We never figured out the name of this glacier.  The road was windy and narrow but absolutely breathtaking.  Once we got over to the other valley the smoke from the BC and Washington forest fires obscured the view of the mountains.  As we traveled north toward Mt Robson, BC there were fewer towns and services.  We did see an interesting sign for a river safari, showing a big bear.  We were wondering what it was, however, it was raining at the time so we didn't stop.  But right passed the entrance we see a black bear near the road.  At first we thought it was fake and then the cynical self is wondering if the business had a "pet" bear out by the road.  Told my brother about it and he said unlikely, bears inhabit the area, it is pretty remote.

This is our campsite in Mt Robson, BC.  Got Rick to build me a fire even though it was raining.  I was determined!  Mt Robson is suppose to be breathtaking, but it was covered in clouds.

Our vacation continues in Grande Prairie, Albeta where Jerry and Jean live.  We had an enjoyable time at their house, playing golf, visiting the art gallery and street fair.  They have a nice deck that we could for sitting and sipping wine.  We even had a fire one evening after dinner.  Then we headed to the mountains, camping one night in Jasper and 2 nights in Banff.  We had hoped to hike in Jasper, but rain and cool weather only allowed us to go to Maligne Canyon and have a drink at Jasper Park Lodge.  We did manage to get a hike in at Banff with the family.  Robin and Kari and their girls joined us for the weekend.  

Road sign on the way to GP, we had hoped to see a caribou, but did not.

Sitting around the campfire at Jerry and Jean's place with their friends

Jerry and Jean have a beautiful rock garden

Overlooking the golf course at Jasper Park Lodge

Maligne Canyon walk in Jasper National Park

Athabasca Falls in Jasper.  Kona could not understand why she could not get in the water.

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I always love driving the Columbia Icefields Road from Jasper to Banff.  The mountains are so beautiful and today it was somewhat cloudy which added another dimension to the views.  We made several stops along the way and finally reached our campground just south of Lake Louise.  First thing is a fire, it was rather chilly and it got into the mid 30's overnight.  Robin, Kari and the girls joined up in the morning and we took a nice 5 mile hike up to Saddleback Pass near Lake Louise.  

 Kona is just hoping one of those sausages hops out of the pan into her mouth

My great nieces Kaiya and Betty hiking with us.  They did great!

 Lake Louise, Jasper National Park

 Robin, Kari, Kaiya, Jerry, Rick and me.  Betty wanted to take the pic

 Kaiya, Betty, Kona and me

On Sunday we said goodbye to the family and headed back to the USA.  Our hope was to stop at the hot springs in Radium.  I was sore from the hike and long days in the car, plus I had injured my ribs playing golf.   However, the sun finally decided to come out that day and without finding a shady place to stop we could not take a soak.  We decided to press on and camp outside of Whitefish, MT.   Hoping for a state park, we ended up at a private campground and I finally had my melt down for the trip.  I was grumpy and tired, Rick was tired and while putting up the camper he accidentally snapped a cable in the lift mechanism.  Fortunately the camper is small and we were able to manually lift the roof and figure out a way to make it stay up.  We had hoped to get it repaired the following morning, but found out we would have to wait and do it in Cheyenne.  Pressing on we decided to head to Yellowstone, camp just outside the park and go in first thing Tuesday morning to grab a site before touring the park.  

Rick and Kona at Firehole River Falls in YNP

 We are now in Yellowstone.  Rick and I honeymooned in YNP 37 years ago, canoeing across Lewis Lake, up the Lewis River to Shoshone Lake.  We camped for 5 or 6 nights, before coming out and touring the park.  This time we are camping at Norris Campground and taking a quick tour of some of our favorite sites and then looking for wildlife in the evening and next morning before heading to Big Piney.  Too quick of a trip, but we have decided to comeback in 2016, without the dog.

 We arrived at Old Faithful, just in time to see it erupt.  We both thought it was not as big as previous eruptions we had seen over the years.

 Prismatic Pool

Gibbon Falls. One of my favorite spots

 Another favorite spot in YNP is the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone and the upper and lower falls.  We only had time to hike down to the brink of the lower falls.  It started raining and we had other places to see.

The lower falls of the Yellowstone River

 Traffic jam in Lamar Valley of Yellowstone.  We saw so many bison in the Lamar Valley.  We were hoping to see some bears or perhaps a wolf.  We had seen wolves in this valley the last time we had visited the park.  We stopped at one critter jam and some people had seen a wolf cross the road and were hoping they would spot it again.

 Bison crossing the river in the Lamar Valley

 As we were heading back to our campground we came across another critter jam.  This time a young black bear was trying to figure out how to get across the road.  I felt sorry for him/her.  Later as we headed up over the pass from Tower to Canyon we saw another jam and this time it was for a grizzly bear digging around a log looking for grubs.  We watch him for awhile (from some distance and with binoculars).  It was the 2nd grizzly we had seen.  Earlier we had stopped between Norris and Canyon when we saw another car stopped and looking across the meadow at something.  They told us it was a bear.  As we were watching him through our binoculars gnawing on a bone (I made some comment about I hope someone wasn't missing a guy name Joe), we looked up and there were about 25 cars parked along the road and a huge traffic jam!  We had helped create a critter jam....always wanted to do that!

 End of a lovely day in Yellowstone

 Morning drive from Norris to the south entrance via Hayden Valley.  I just love this valley.

 Yellowstone Lake.  I know Rick was itching to fish.  Then finally, what Rick is always looking for, the bull elk.  Both were big, but the one was huge.  They still have their velvet, later in the summer and early fall they will shed the velvet.

 Rick and I both marveled at the growth of the trees in the park since the big fires in the late 80's,  Many of the locations where we could spot elk previously were now thick with young trees.  This area where we saw the elk had a more recent fire and it was very open.

Now we were in the Grand Tetons.  I never tire of taking photos of these beauties.

 So on this trip we had seen bears, elk, deer, bison, ospreys, hawks, and of course beavers, chipmunks, rabbits etc, We had even heard the coyotes during the night,  but we had not seen a moose.  How ironic that we saw a moose in Moose, Wyoming in Grand Teton NP.  Timing is everything.  So so long Grand Teton and Yellowstone, until 2016!

So now it was time to go to Big Piney.  Rick had grown up in Big Piney and he wanted to visit the cemetery where his father is buried and where his mother's ashes had been taken by his siblings earlier in the week.  The cemetery is lovely as cemeteries go, so after a brief stop we were headed to Pinedale.  We had camped for 6 days only had showered twice, so it was time to take a break from camping.  We found a lodge on Lake Fremont outside of Pinedale and had nice cabin right on the lake.  We were able to take Kona for a nice long walk, let her swim and have dinner with a beautiful view in the restaurant.  It was a nice way to finish the day.

View from our cabin.

We are now in southern Wyoming. We spent the weekend with Lisa and Darren.  Rick was able to fix the cable on the camper,  I was able to get a massage and we camped Friday and Saturday night at Crystal Lake.   We had a nice time with my niece and nephew, Katelyn and Ethan.  Camping along a lake, cooking over a fire, glimpsing a few falling stars, making s'mores.  Life is good. Unfortunately my camera batteries died after taking a few photos.  I do have a few with my phone and will get them on the blog asap.   This week we are at the cabin, Rick will get some fishing in, I will get to visit with my sister, Carol and hopefully hike and maybe fish a day or two.  We will head to Steamboat Springs on Sunday for a few days and then come back to the cabin for another few days before heading back East.