Periodic Springs

Stopped at a scenic overlook in Wyoming off of US89 and found this cool piece of information about a neat natural spring called Periodic Spring. You can read the details on the board behind me.

Jenny Lake/Cascade Canyon

Here we are on the east bank of Jenny Lake. Across the lake you can see Cascade Canyon, the big canyon that runs to the north of the Tetons, including Mount Owen that is to the left in the photo. There is a boat dock by the canyon that people can take to cut off the three mile hike to the beginning of the canyon. I like this lake!

Pack Mules

Here I an next to the bridge between String Lake and Jenny Lake again. Right after we took the last picture, a cowboy with about five pack mules crossed the creek, stopping for a moment to take a refreshing drink. They had all kinds of supplies on their backs and really seemed to like their job of transporting things. The cowboy was very good in leading them and also seemed to like his job, too.

Bridge @ String Lake

Here I am at the bridge crossing Cottonwood Creek between String Lake to the north and Jenny Lake to the south. You can also see the Grand Teton Peak behind me in the clouds. Joe and Anne were running this morning and stopped about 1/4 mile short of the bridge and ran back down the trail to the shores of Jenny Lake because they thought they missed the trail and/or bridge that crossed over Cottonwood Creek. They ended up crossing the creek by jumping on the rocks and trees in the creekbed, instead. They said it made for a fun adventure. I'm glad they took me here so I could see it, too!

Covered Wagon

Just got done eating at the Bunnery and decided to walk around town to try to understand why all the people vacation here for just the art and shopping. As we left the town square with the cool elk antler arches, we spotted a covered wagon taxi going down the main drag. We got the camera out quickly and snapped a picture of the horses as they rounded the corner. I like the horses, but don't like shopping very much.

Bunnery!

Here we are on Monday afternoon @ a place called the Bunnery - a bakery/cafe in downtown Jackson. We eyed it on our first day here, but it was too busy on Sat/Sun to go there. Today, Joe and Anne went to the Teton park and ran 6.6 miles around Lake Jenny before we came here. I understand it was an awesome trail! The Bunnery was pretty good, but they need more bunnies around if they are going to be called the Bunnery!

Lunch - Signal Mountain Lodge

Here we are looking out on Jackson lake from the restaurant at the Signal Mountain lodge. Had an unexpectedly awesome meal and now off to go up Signal Mountain and check out the view.

Disco Center again

This time, I am on the east side of the discovery center - so you can see the building and the mountains behind it. If you look carefully, you can see Joe under the flagpole taking a picture. Gotta love the good old American flag with a nice breeze making it unfurl above the mountain peaks. What a nice day!

South Teton

Another shot of the cool, metal, directional markers - this time
outside on the observation deck of the discovery center. I am right
next to South Teton's arrow. You can see some of the other arrows in
the background. Another cool feature is the poured concrete foot wall
- the top is sloped just a little bit and there are small drainage
holes here and there. Too bad the green construction fence is still
up... Cool deck!

Do you know the way to Grand Teton?

I do! Here I am in the discovery center. There are cool metal
directional markers in the floor inside the museum and out that line
you up with the various mountain peaks. I am very small in this shot,
sitting on the window sill, just to the right of the directional
arrow. When you are outside, there are interesting facts about each
peak written on the metal arrow - when they were first climbed, who
they are named after, etc. This is one cool place!

Outside of the Discovery Center

Another shot of me at the Discovery Center, just outside on the viewing deck on the east side of the building. Lots of cool features like: glue-lam beams, tall glass windows, and a fireplace built out of cast concrete "logs". The pieces of concrete are about the side of railroad ties. They look supercool because you can see the wood texture from the formwork on each piece. What a nice place to be!

Craig Thomas Discovery and Visitor Center

Day #2 of sight-seeing and here I am at the entrance of the Craig Thomas Discovery and Visitor Center on the south end of the Teton National Park. Joe, Anne, and I really enjoyed this brand new place! It is names after Craig Thomas, a US senator from the state of Wyoming.

Double Rainbow & Waterfall!

Here I am with the Undine Falls in the background AND a double rainbow - wow! Joe got some great pictures. Can't wait to see how they turn out!

Tall bridge

We are leaving the Mammoth Hot Springs are of yellowstone and heading east now. A few miles out of town we came upon this tall bridge and did some exploring around it. As you drive over it, you have no clue how deep the canyon is - it must be at least 300' deep! I like bridges.

Elk

Here I am in Mammoth Hot Springs just down from a church that let out and a bunch of elk decided to cruise through town. It is a little hard to make them out, but one of the is lit up by the sun in the other side of the picture from me. They are like cool deer, only larger.

Mammoth Hot Spring Terraces - Palette Spring

Here we are in the far northern end of the park at Mammoth Hot Springs. Almost all of the springs are dormant right now except for the Palette Spring, which I am standing in front of. If you look right above my head, you will see some stream and a dark "cup" that the water is spilling out of. On the lower portions of the terrace across from me are neat the way they formed, too. Pretty cool, but not as cool as expected.

Grand Prismatic Spring

Probably the coolest spot so far - Grand Prismatic Spring. The blue and orange colors are spectacular! There is a wooden walkway that goes around the area so you really get an idea of how awesome the geothermal features are. As you walk along the boardwalk, hot steam rises up and you can feel the moisture and heat - and smell some sulfur.

There is a dormant geyser downstream of this beautiful area called Excelsior Geyser. It used to erupt up until 1885-ish, with hot water and stream up to 300' high! For some reason, it erupted again in 1985 for a few days, then shut down again - very strange and interesting! I love this place!

Midway Geyser Basin

Another cool spot. There is a HUGE pool way behind me with very hot water. The pool spills over to form the cascade behind me draining into the Firehole River. The cascade is steaming and the rock beneath it is bright orange/red and so it looks like it is on fire! You can also see Joe behind me, going down to take a picture. Cool! Or should I say HOT!

Black sand basin

Another cool stop - this time at black sand basin. There are neat geysers and pools bubbling up everywhere and they drain into the creek behind me. You can see the steam from one of the pools way behind me. It is cool how the runoff from the geysers has eroded the earth and colored the earth with the iron minerals. We are standing on a bridge for this shot.

Continental Divide - 8,262'

Here we are driving through yellowstone - we crossed the continental divide three times and we stopped for this shot after the third one. It is crazy to think this area divides up the watershed for the whole western US! I like watersheds.

Tetons!

Here we pulled out on a scenic overlook in Teton national park. Got down low to take this cool picture of me, a neat bush with purple flowers, and the Tetons all in one picture! If you look carefully to the right side of the bush, you will also see an orange colored butterfly, too. It is a very beautiful day today. This is one of the only other places in our awesome country that I'd want to build a house other than HWY 54, but I don't think building here is possible...maybe we will stop back tomorrow to take an early morning picture with Joe's cool camera.

Antlers

Here we are in downtown Jackson by the tourist/park area. Caught a picture of the antler archway as we were cruising though town. Got our McDonalds big breakfast and we are on our way to yellowstone!

Teton Village

We made it to Jackson! Here I am outside of the hotel with a cool pine tree that reminds me of Christmas. It is about 40 degrees outside - what a nice change from riverside!

St. George & Target

Here I am with some cool red rocks in the background. Just stopped at Target in St. George and Joe did a store visit with the pharmacy and store team. The pharmacy is doing really awesome in that store...very hot here today. Nice people all around. Pictures just don't do the landscape justice - the red rocks and blue sky are really brilliant!

Virgin river gorge

Here I am again in a favorite spot we travel through quite often on our road trips - virgin river gorge in the extreme NW corner of Arizona. This shot is just after entering the gorge and you can see tall walls of rock where the builders blasted out rock to build the road. I often wonder while doing all my observing how the guys back in the day decided where to put the road...

Car-BQ

Here I am on I-15 just north of Victorville. We are on our way to Jackson,WY to visit Teton national park and go back to explore Yellowstone a bit more. As we are driving along, all of a sudden there is a brand new escalade (we think) engulfed in flames. Not sure how good the picture will end up looking as it was an extremely quick shot into the sun...

What a wild way to start our adventure. It seems like there is always something crazy going on between Victorville and Las Vegas!

Sunny Morning

Hi everyone - here I an in the tent looking out on our campsite. Joe stayed up very late last night and put all of the telescope stuff away already! If you look closely, you can see him in the background. You can also see the H2. We positioned our tent so there would be shade by a tree for when the sun came up. There is cool filtered sunlight coming into the tent now. I love camping!

Road trip!

Here we go to use the telescope at cottonwood springs. It is the first trip in the hummer with the new petco doggie cage. It's 89 degrees here in riverside right now - definitely hotter in Joshua tree! Probably won't need heated snowboard pants tonight! I love going to use the telescope with the whole family!

Sun City Library

Went down to San Diego today to find Anne some new trail running shoes. Stopped at McDonalds on the way back in Sun City. Joe drove us by the cool, new, modern library. Here I am outside of it. I like all the windows, stone siding, and tile. The cool architectural letters out front are neat, too!

Bug wash

Here we are in a carwash in Riverside - we made it! If you look closely, you can see Joe is scrubbing all the bugs and dirt off of the car before they bake on in the Southern California heat. Another adventure successfully completed. Can't wait to go back and spend time in the Teton National Park! I love to travel and observe with our awesome family!

108

Hey everyone! Here I am about 40 mikes north of Las Vegas with the dashboard - 108 degrees and 1,883 miles so far. It is so very hot here! And windy on I-15. Quite a contrast from when I went to Wisconsin last December. Good thing we have good air conditioning! I much prefer the hot, thunderstormy weather in the mid-west.

80 mph, part II

Got it! LT is going to love this blog entry! Go like hell...

Safely, of course.

80 mph

Hi everyone! Stayed in Provo, UT last night. Got there at 2:30 am local (mountain) time or 1:30 PST. Traffic really slowed us down. Didn't drive through Teton National Park like we wanted to. Will have to go back for a special trip for that. As you can see from the picture, the speed limit is 75, but it was 80 mph for a stretch as a test. I missed getting a good shot of the 80 mph sign, but it sure looked awesome! I like making good time.

Fountain Paint Pots

Here I am at the Fountain Paint Pots stop in Yellowstone. We walked the boardwalk around and checked all the features out. Here are a few features all in one picture, including a cool geyser. This is my favorite part of the park!

Beryl Springs, part II

Thought I'd send a still picture of Beryl Springs, too. Awesome!

Beryl Spring

Here I am at a little turn off for Beryl Springs. It is such a neat thing, we took a video to capture the movement of the water and steam. I like this place.

Buffalo

Here I am on the northeast portion of the main loop road going around Yellowstone. Traffic has been stopped/slow for hours in this place. Half the time, it is due to road construction, but the other half of the time, it is due to drivers slowing/stopping to look at creatures. This is an instance of drivers looking at creatures, in this case a buffalo. Since we were going so slow, we snapped this picture. He reminds me of the creature up on the hill off the 60 freeway just past riverside. I like him.

Mud pots

Here I am with some cool mud pots in the background. What a blogable place this is!

Road construction

Here I am, within a mile of the eastern entrance of yellowstone. We have been stopped for road construction for quite some time now - we really are getting anxious and want to get in the park! We are moving now and behind a big dust cloud from the bus in front of us. I do not like road construction when it is not very organized.

Buffalo Bill Dam

Here I am at the Buffalo Bill Dam! This is sure a cool one...it is 340' high and was completed in January 1910. It was fifteen below zero when the last load of concrete was placed. At the time, it was the highest dam in the world. It is a very narrow canyon, perfect for a dam, 70' wide at the bottom and 200' wide at the top. 25% of the dam is made with the nearby local pink granite as there wasn't a lot of sand and gravel around the site. There is a cool walkway that you can walk across the top of the dam. Joe thinks the Hungry Horse Dam is a bit cooler, but Anne thinks it is tied for coolness. I love dams!

Descent

Here we are on the descent on the west side if the Bighorns. So interesting how the sides of the steep canyon come together. Awesome colors and shapes in the rock. I love rocks!

Dead Swede

In the middle of the bighorns now. There is a campground down this road named Dead Swede. I wonder how that got it's name?

Bighorn mountains

Here I am on the exit ramp from I-90 to US-14 just outside of Sheridan. About to cross over the Bighorn Mountains and head to Yellowstone and Teton parks. I am really looking forward to today's adventure!

Welcome to Wyoming

Need I say more? It is me and the welcome sign. The sun is in the southwest, so the picture is a bit dark, but it captures the big blue sky.

Devils Tower

Here I am at Devils Tower. It is super cool! It is like Devils
Postpile, only a big mountain of it's own. If you look carefully, you
will see Joe in a blue shirt taking another picture. Devils Tower
rules!

Sturgis

Back on I-90, passing through Sturgis now. Behind me on the bluff is the name of the town. If you zoom in, you can read it. Unfortunately, the sun went behind the clouds when we snapped this one. On the way to Devil's Tower now.

Mt. Rushmore

Here I am at Mt. Rushmore! You can see the mountain behind me and the cool entryway with all the state flags. Blue sky and a nice breeze here - around 90 degrees. Took some nice photos. If you look closely, you can see Joe in a blue shirt to my left taking a picture with his awesome camera. I can't believe this was created - very awesome!

Rest area

Just a bit outside of Rapid City and saw this cool tee pee rest stop. Misses the westbound, but got the eastbound out Joe's window just in time! A small area with bathrooms and a cool, simple sculpture outside - now that's a rest stop! Even grandpa Al would agree...

Missouri river

Here I am in Chamberlain, South Dakota going over the Missouri River. Stayed in Worthington, Minnesota last night. Had planned to stay in Sioux City, but all the hotels within about 100 miles were full! We got the last room! There are no doggie hotels in Coty, so we are planning to stay in Sheridan, WY tonight. Hopefully, we will stop by Mt. Rushmore and Devil's Tower today. I love road trips!

Goodbye for now!

Here I am on the top of the hill one last time on our way out of town. After all the rain over the last few days, the sun is out and the beautiful blue sky and white puffy clouds are in the sky again. I will sure miss this place as we head back to brown and hot California.

Rustic Mill

Here I am at the Rustic Mill, a restaurant about four miles from our property near Black River Falls. As you can see, the building is in both the floodway and the floodplain. I wonder what the Village of Merrillan would say about that? This restaurant just opened back up again on July 1st. The food was very good but the service was not great. Seemed like a lot of servers that hadn't done that sort of work before. We will have to stop back after that get the service dialed in. I still like mill buildings.