Abbey's Road

They say the first step in fixing a problem is recognizing it. I now acknowledge that I am addicted to doing Habitat builds in Jackson, however, I have no intention of curbing this “habit”. It’s not the construction work I do while there that is a problem. It’s more the “active social schedule” that I am forced to keep while I’m there and the two weeks I need to recover and dry out afterwards that are the problem. But I figure I’m doing a good thing so I might as well have some extra fun in the process.

I arrived at the familiar confines of the fairgrounds on Sunday, the 16th, just in time for our group meeting. We had a new team leader this time. Bob signed up early to be the team lead, which worked out OK since Charlie, our previous fearless leader, wasn’t able to stick around for the build. He later mentioned something about missing his dog. It took a little while getting used to Bob’s leadership style. You see, he took the word “leader” literally, whereas Charlie took it to mean something more on the lines of “upfront organizer, but once on the jobsite let Trace do the leading.” Charlie’s modus operandi had been much to our liking so there was some adjustment for those of us used to his style, and even for some of us who hadn’t worked with Charlie. But we did manage to smooth things out for the most part (read this as we tolerated working with Bob when we had to, but poor Bill got stuck with him the most) and we accomplished quite a lot in the two weeks. And I have to say in defense of Bob, he did keep us moving and was a big reason why we got a lot done.

Bruce and Vina (pronounced like the end of Carolina – poor thing has to constantly correct people) were the only repeats from previous Jackson builds, but I finally convinced my RV’ing buddies, Doug and Liane, to join me on a build. They tried using a lame excuse that they already had plans to see the Buffalo Roundup (in my home state of South Dakota), but I finally convinced them when I said it wouldn’t be a problem if they left a tad early to catch the roundup anyways. Funny thing is that they left on Friday afternoon and the roundup didn’t happen until Monday. They somehow managed to omit that part when explaining why they HAD to leave early. Besides them, we also had another new couple from Indiana, the aforementioned Bill and his wife Barb. The only slacker in the bunch was Bruce (just kidding, Bruce!) who never failed to call out the exact time of morning and afternoon water breaks and lunch with amazing precision. Of course, I was always hungry long before lunch arrived so the warning was not necessary for me. Bruce was also good at giving Vina orders, but, true to form, after all those years of marriage, she had developed an acute sense of when to ignore him. (Bruce did admit to me in private that he is one lucky guy to have her for his wife, so it’s all just a façade.)

On my first two builds in Jackson you may recall that we did mostly roof work. There was rarely a picture of me, besides the ones at happy hour, where I wasn’t on the roof. Well, this time we were on the opposite end of the construction spectrum – foundations. We built forms, bent re-bar, shoveled gravel, poured footers and stem walls and the usual assortment of “move this over there, now move it back over here, take the garbage to the dump” kind of stuff that would make us feel lost if we didn’t have to do some of it now and then. We were actually working on the foundations for 2 different houses and we did odd jobs on 2 others.

On the final day we did manage to get the subfloor on one of the houses, but we never did have that barbecue and hoe-down that Trace promised us if we finished it. He’s still the slave driver! He did have a softer side this year, or I should say, Katie, his construction assistant, provided a “softer” side to Trace’s whip-cracking. (He’s also very forceful when it comes to my social schedule which explains the need for drying out afterwards.) Actually, she’s a great carpenter and is probably stronger than most of the guys that were there. Bruce is probably still talking about how she “just picked up the re-bar bender and threw it in the truck!” The only softness came in dealing with us. She was way too polite in the beginning, but by the second week she was learning to dole out the abuse pretty well.

This time I also was able to bring my RV to the job site so Abbey could come with me every day and she had company in the form of Max, Doug and Liane’s dog. They at least got to get out at lunchtime and beg for food from everyone and not just their owners. We had a few happy hours back at our beloved fairgrounds – the flies and the manure smell finally died down in the beginning of the second week – but the weather wasn’t as warm as last September so we had a few indoors. The middle weekend, are only days off, it rained both days, but we managed to get out still. On Sunday Doug, Liane and the dogs and I went to see Periodic Springs. It was a bit of a drive, but the leaves were quite colorful and the springs had quite an advanced billing by some of the others. It’s technically known as a cold-water geyser, but I have my doubts. If it’s true, it’s actually a pretty interesting phenomena. The spring comes out of the base of a cliff and the water cascades down this little side canyon and forms a creek. Every 20 or 30 minutes it stops flowing completely and the cascade dries up, and then, after another 20 minutes, it starts all over again. The funny thing though is that someone has put a concrete “cover” above the opening and there are flaps and a pipe under there. We thought it looked like something out of Disney World and were joking that there is a pump somewhere that cycles on and off every 20 minutes that pumps the water back up from the creek. In any case it was a nice little hike on an otherwise rainy day.

On Monday Trace asked me to do some recon with him on the Granite Hot Springs. It’s not that far from Jackson as the crow flies, but it was slow going for 10 miles on a dirt road. It was worth the drive though. We passed up the public “pool”, and $6 fee, and hiked down to some natural pools by the river. There was one that had a hot waterfall flowing into it. The scenery was incredible. The only downside was that I was with Trace and not Tracy. But the “work” paid off the following week when Tracy came up to meet me after the build was done. She and Trace and I also did a nice hike on one of the days she was there. And, I squeezed in a hike the Monday before we started with Mills and Trace up the nose of the Sleeping Indian, aka the Schnozz. That was a pretty grueling hike exacerbated by the wrong turn that someone took. We totaled about 4000ft. of elevation gain. Mills’ dog Bette made it the whole way with us and was a great companion. She rarely strayed far from us and always came back right away. And somehow she managed to ride in the bed of the pickup and not get thrown out while we drove on this very rough 4WD road to the trailhead and back. I’m sure she slept well that night.

As usual, Jackson was a great time and I saw some friends that I had made on previous stays. I’ll always love going there but I don’t know if I could live there. I definitely have a good time for 2 or 3 weeks though.

Posted by Ed at 9:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Two days after I got back from Guatemala I packed up the RV and drove up to Jackson, Wyoming. I had signed up for another 2 week build with Habitat. Unfortunately, there were only four of us that signed up, but all of us were repeat offenders from last year. The way I look at it, if I’m going to volunteer my time I might as well go to a good place and Jackson is one of the best. Not only is the scenery hard to beat, but so are the people – both the locals and the RVers. The house was in a different location this year and it was a simpler house, though we still timed it perfectly. We got to put another roof on! I think Trace, the construction supervisor, worked hard on getting it timed right with our arrival. Luckily, Jim, the other guy who worked on the roof a lot last year, also came back this year. And of course, his wife Patricia joined us as well. The only other returnee was our fearless leader Charlie who comes up all the way from Georgia with his safari trailer. (On a sad note, after Charlie left Jackson he got run off the road in Utah and flipped his Land Rover and trailer several times. Thankfully, Charlie escaped with only some bad bumps and bruises, but the same can’t be said for his trailer and Defender. He’s not sure if he’ll be able to join us again.) For the second week, another couple, Pete and Mary who used to live in Jackson, joined us. Just like last year, we had a great time though we didn’t have as many happy hours as last year. They set us up in a KOA a ways south of town, and as usual Trace worked us like dogs so we were often too tired to make the drive into town. We did manage to get out some though, including a tour of Rena’s finished house. Rena is the woman who owns the house we worked on last year. It was great to see the finished product, and man was that roof a thing of beauty! The inside was pretty nice, too.

The only one who didn’t fare as well this time around was Abbey. Since I have a car now I didn’t drive my RV to the site each day which meant she got left back in the KOA. It was about 5 miles away from the site so I usually didn’t go back at lunch to let her out. And since Trace was such a slave driver and worked us long hours, she was often holed up by herself for 8 hours or more. Of course, I still had to walk her when I got back, and she took me for a walk every morning so I was usually pretty tired by the end of the day. Somehow I managed to go out quite a bit, mostly thanks to Trace. Not only is he a construction supervisor, he was the consummate host. Rena also helped in the entertainment arena. On the first Saturday night, there was a fundraiser for Breast Cancer Awareness called Bras for the Cause. 25 different organizations sponsored a “designer” bra to be auctioned off. Rena had designed four of them so she made sure Trace and I were going to be there. As if I needed more incentive to go see women modeling some crazy bras, she kept telling me that her single friends were coming. After last year when she kept trying to set me up with everyone in the Cowboy Bar, I was a little leery. Rena even set us up with front row seats for the fashion show so I couldn’t complain. I’d have to say the fashion show was a rousing success and raised lots of money. Two bras actually went for $1000 a piece. Let’s just say that some of the models were quite animated and I think one of them has had experience dancing with a pole in the past. The bra Rena designed for Habitat didn’t bring in the most money, but it won the vote as the most popular design. (Actually the idea for it was Trace’s. Apparently, he has talent in the fashion arena as well.) It was adorned quite appropriately with roofing nails. Carin, one of the Americorps/Habitat interns was kind enough to model it at the job site one day for those who didn’t attend the show.

On Sunday, I only had enough energy left to float down the Snake River with Trace in his ducky – an inflatable two-man kayak. Unfortunately, we didn’t quite get it inflated enough, and the cold water managed to contract the air in it even more, so we were riding pretty low in the water. The rapids weren’t exactly class V, or even class II for that matter, but we did manage to “taco” in one rapid with me ending up in Trace’s lap in the back of the ducky with his paddle in the back of my head. Believe it or not, no alcohol was involved. The river was pretty high and moving real fast so the ride went pretty quick. After we pulled out we drove down into the canyon to witness a truly unique Wyoming experience. In a rapid called Lunch Counter (or Big Kahuna, I’m not sure which) for several weeks in the spring there is enough water to create a standing wave where surfers can actually surf the wave in the middle of the river. If I hadn’t seen it myself I’m not sure I would’ve believed it, though it has supposedly been written up in Surfer magazine a few different times. Several surfers tried to surf the wave, but it wasn’t easy judging by the looks of it. One guy was pretty amazing though and could stand up in the wave for quite a while. I was really disappointed not to have my camera with me, so you’ll have to take my word for it. It would’ve been a great picture to show Guchi, our surfing dude down in Costa Rica. If they had been selling “Surf Wyoming” T-shirts I definitely would’ve bought one. It was pretty crazy.

For a town of only 8,000 people Jackson has some pretty nice amenities including a brand new Center for the Arts. On Monday, Trace was able to get me an extra ticket to see John Prine. I wouldn’t call myself a big fan of his, though I’ve heard his music enough to know that I do like a lot of it. The theater is what I would call “cozy”, which I think is perfect for seeing a show because there really isn’t a bad seat in the house. Well, except maybe our seats because we had some nuts sitting in the aisle right next to us that felt the need to accompany John on some of his more popular acoustic songs. I guess they thought he wasn’t loud enough by himself. I was going to ask the guy what his name was so I could see if he was listed on the ticket as John’s special guest. Luckily someone finally told them to move to their seats. Anyways, it was a great concert. However, when Charlie found out we went he was quite perturbed that we had neglected to mention the concert to him. It turns out he IS a big fan and he didn’t soon let us forget this point. I think he forgave us by the time he left, though.

Midway through the second week a couple of friends that Trace had met on a train a few years ago showed up. I was thinking they were going to be a couple of young guys, but not so. Don and Art are in their 60s and 70s respectively, but they came out and worked 2 long days with us. I was happy to have them there, partly because Art took most of the ribbing that I usually get, but mostly because they are just a couple of great guys. We went out to dinner a couple of times and we were usually laughing most of the way through the meal. The funny thing is that they only knew Trace from a 1 ½ hour train ride from San Diego to LA, but after he sent them a postcard a while later, they somehow managed to track him down “on the ice” in Antarctica through the internet without even knowing his email or last name. I think Art sometimes questions the wisdom of that effort ;) On Saturday, we stayed a bit late and managed to finish the roof. It felt good, even though our bodies didn't. Well, all except the ridge vent, which Trace was kind enough to save for me the following week.

If you’re starting to get the idea that I went out a lot while I was there, you’d be right. I decided to stay an extra week, with the idea that I would only work a few days for Habitat and maybe catch up on my sleep. Well, that didn’t quite work out. I did stay for another week, and had a great time, but I didn’t really catch up on my sleep. I worked on the house a few more days and also did some work for Michael. I also managed to get Abbey out for a hike or a good walk most every day, but needless to say I think I went out every night so I didn’t catch up on my sleep too much. Not to mention that Abbey woke me up most morning by 6:00 so sleeping in was not an option. I had to leave the KOA but I was lucky enough to stay for free in a storage yard in town. The boyfriend of another Americoprs intern, Mills, found out I was looking for a place to stay so he said I could park in his lot. It was actually not a bad place and since it was in town and free, Abbey and I were just fine there. Believe it or not, I was there 3 weeks and I didn’t go for a hike, or even go into Grand Teton National Park until my last day there. Trace, Heather (a slightly crazy friend of Trace’s) and I went for a real nice hike in Death Canyon. The scenery is much nicer than the name suggests. And thanks to Trace and Heather talking pretty much nonstop we didn’t have to worry about bears or anything. On the way back Trace decided it was warm enough to take the first dip of the summer. Heather and I thought otherwise so we watched as he took a quick dip in a freezing cold stream. He kept telling us after that we’d feel much better if we had gone in with him, but I was feeling just fine. About 2 minutes after we got in the car I started falling asleep. I think the 3 weeks were finally catching up to me. Unfortunately, the next day I had to drive 9 hours to Colorado. I’m sure Heather and Trace were napping all day.

This trip was even better than the last one and I also met a whole bunch of new people thanks to Trace and Rena. I’m ready to sign up for the next build in the fall. I’m hoping that Trace will come on down to Boulder to visit me this summer, but I’m worried about it being able to live up to my time in Jackson. I’ll have a hard time trying to top his hospitality. I made it down to Loveland, to the Gibbons, Monday evening, picked up my apartment keys on Tuesday and Abbey and I moved into our new home for the summer on Wednesday. The first thing I wanted to do after putting things away, however, was to get some sleep.

The Beginning
Midway
After 2 Weeks. Check out that roof!
A typical pose

The Super

Posted by Ed at 1:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Parked at the fairgrounds in Jackson with all of our various rigs, someone asked us if we were part of a traveling show coming to town. In a way we were, but not the kind he was thinking of. There were 10 of us, 3 couples and 4 singles, coming from all different parts of the country as far away as Maryland and Georgia, for 2 weeks to help build a Habitat house for a single mom and her daughter. When people hear what we do they are kind of amazed. The future homeowners and local affiliate members are very grateful. But on both builds I’ve been on nearly all the RV Care-A-Vanner volunteers say the same thing. “This is more fun than you can imagine. We have a great time.” To me, it’s a blast. I’ve met great people, learned a lot about construction, felt like I was doing something productive, and got to practice/learn on someone else’s house (just kidding about the last part). What could be better than that?!

I’ve heard that some builds or groups are better than others, but I’ve been pretty lucky so far. My second experience was even better than my first, which was really good. We had one professional in the group, Jim, an electrician, but the rest were all very willing and able to help. Charlie, the team leader , was pretty laid back as far as team leaders go, but has been volunteering for Habitat for years with the Care-A-Vanners and at home. There were 2 construction managers because Trace, the new one, had just started a few weeks before we arrived. Ken, an Exum Mountain Guide and contractor, was the interim guy until Trace got there. Right away we could tell that Ken wasn’t real used to working with volunteers. The first day he started barking out orders to noone in particular as we stood around clueless as to what he wanted and who he wanted doing it. We were really surprised when he told us at 12:15, after lunch had just arrived, that we had to finish the lower roof because he had a crane coming at 1PM to put the trusses on the upper roof. I was working on the lower roof at the time, ready to pass out from hunger, but wasn’t about to quit working after he told us that. To his credit, his communication improved greatly after the first day and he loosened up quite a bit. Trace (a guy in case you’re wondering) had much less experience than Ken, but was far more communicative. Between the two of them it worked pretty well. Trace is also my new inspiration. Besides working for Habitat in Philly and Hawaii, he’s worked in a kitchen in New York City, done construction in Antarctica (“on the ice” as he calls it) and various other jobs. As unstable as that might seem, he actually owns 2 houses, one of which he rents and the other he lives in about 1 month out of the year. I do have to mention that the second one doesn’t have heat, electricity or hot water but they're just details. I also got the impression that he will take off at a moment’s notice to do another job as long as the money, or the location, is good enough. Oh yea, and he claims to be an introvert.

Most days after work we had an hour or so before the sun went down so we would pull out our chairs with the little energy we had left and had Happy Hour out on the lawn at the fairgrounds. We all laughed at Patricia who was snuggled under her blanket, but once the sun set and the temperature plummeted we were pretty jealous. The first week the weather was beautiful – highs in the upper 60s and blue sky every day. We even managed to have enough energy left on Friday to go to the brew pub for Happy Hour. Abbey got to come along, but she couldn’t go on the deck so Trace and a few others sat with us on the edge of the parking lot. The beer tastes just as good there.

Unfortunately the second week didn’t live up to the first weatherwise, but we got a lot done on the house and still had a good time. One cold, rainy morning we all piled into my RV and Trace bought us coffee at a local coffee shop. Abbey was a little taken aback with 10 people riding in her house, but she survived. I felt bad because we didn’t take morning breaks like last time, and our lunch breaks weren’t all that long so she didn’t get out much during the day. So I tried to take her to the river or on a walk most days after we finished working, but I didn’t go too far because I was usually pretty beat. I’m not used to doing so much manual labor. I spent the better part of the two weeks up on a ladder, the rafters, or the roof. I seem to gravitate to the high spots (a bit of an oxymoron?) naturally, but they also usually decide to leave the heights for the younger guys, like Jim and I, since a lot of the older guys would rather not go up too high. Put another way, we were the only ones dumb enough to enjoy it.

Rena, the future homeowner, came around many days and pitched in by working or giving us massages. One of her 3 jobs is as a massage therapist. I was wishing she was there every day, but I guess she did have to work too. She was also real outgoing and a lot of fun. She also raises money for building orphanages in other countries by getting people to donate artwork and auctioning it off. So we made a birdhouse for her next auction. Habitat has a saying, “Not a handout, but a hand up.” They carefully screen their applicants for people who are willing to work hard, put in 500 hours of their own time, and be able to pay the mortgage (0% interest) for the home they get. That’s one of the reasons I really like working with them. Rena also came out to dinner with us a couple of times including one of our last nights when we went to Jackson’s famous Million Dollar Cowboy Bar. It’s pretty tacky, but not to be missed if your in Jackson. They have saddles for bar stools and, lucky for us, they had country and western music most every night. Rena dragged me out on the dance floor, but only after she agreed to lead because I had no idea how to swing or do the two-step. Since I’m the editor of this blog I conveniently left out the pictures of me on the dance floor, but did include one of Rena and Trace. Rena also tried to fix me up with most every single woman who came by our table, including a waitress. I somehow managed to leave unscathed despite her best efforts.

I have to say that in my year and a half of traveling I’ve seen a lot of great places and done a lot of cool things, but the most fun I’ve had and most rewarded I’ve felt have been working on the Habitat houses.

Posted by Ed at 6:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

The Grand Tetons

I met Doug, Liane and their dog, Max, in Big Bend back in February and we followed the same path through parts of Texas and New Mexico for a short while. We’ve managed to keep track of each other’s wanderings throughout the year and we finally hooked up again in Gros Ventre campground outside of Jackson on Friday, 9/15. I owed them a dinner still, so I got there early enough to cook a nice meal and the 5 of us squeezed into my humble abode. There was plenty of room leftover for a few bottles of wine, too. It was much colder than the last time I saw them so we had our heaters running quite often. Liane is a Michigan alum so on Saturday, they had me over to watch the ND-Michigan game. We watched the game inside their much more spacious motorhome as the snow flakes were flying outside. If you didn’t hear already, Michigan pretty much embarrassed ND. Thankfully, they were gracious winners, and hosts. Max and Abbey really didn’t understand what all the fuss was about.

Sunday morning we woke up to 4 moose in the campground. Thankfully, Abbey didn’t get a good look at them, but the next morning we were walking in the woods near the campground and she started running all of a sudden. I stopped her right away with the leash, but when I looked up I saw a big bull moose running away. I was surprised, but real glad, that it ran away from her. The weather finally warmed up on Monday, just in time for Chris’ arrival.

Last year when Chris came out we spent most of our time in Yellowstone and only a few days in Grand Teton NP and Jackson Hole. So this year we decided to spend more time in Jackson and the Tetons. On Tuesday since it was a clear day we rode the old tram up to the top of the ski area and took a nice hike. October 1st is the last day to ride the tram because they are tearing it down and building a new one. When we got back down to the bottom, we hit another Jackson Hole landmark, the Mangy Moose, for lunch and a Moose Drool. It just seemed too good to pass up. On Wednesday we drove up to Yellowstone to check out Old Faithful and its nearby geysers again. Old Faithful didn’t seem quite as amazing the second time around, but it was still pretty cool seeing all the hot springs and some of the other geysers spouting off.

We got a surprise the next morning waking up to snow, though it was only an inch or two. It was cloudy and cold so we made our way back down to Jackson and spent the rest of our time there. We got more snow in Jackson, but by the weekend it finally warmed up again. I was happy I got a new propane heater because we couldn’t plug in at the campground and the blower of the furnace kept wearing down the batteries. The new heater doesn’t use any electricity at all and most nights were too cold to go without it. I don’t think they have a very long fall here. The leaves have started to change and the aspens are turning a golden yellow. It really is beautiful.

One day we drove over the Teton Pass into Idaho and checked out the up and coming boomtowns of Victor and Driggs. These towns are both less than a thousand people, but supposedly they are building homes like crazy there. I think they are mostly second homes for people who can’t afford, or don’t want to live in, Jackson. Victor is little more than a few blocks long but they have a high-end furniture store, an organic bakery and an market with lots of organic stuff. We couldn’t figure out where their customers were coming from, but apparently the town is growing like crazy. So you better hurry if you want to get in on the boom before it gets out of sight. We talked to one girl who has lived there for 10 years and had lived in Jackson for 10 years before that. She said she could never live in Jackson because “there are way too many people there.” I thought Chris was going to lose it.

People in this area are almost as crazy about fly fishing as they are in Montana. Driving through town you see drift boats (for floating down the rivers) in nearly everyone’s driveway. The high price of outfitters and guides, and the cold weather, deterred us from giving it a try. I’m sure my brother-in-law, Tim, will be dumbfounded when he finds out I didn’t fish at all in Montana or Wyoming. One of these days I’ll have to give it another try. We did get to check out a lot of Jackson’s restaurants. They weren’t that great but it sure beat cooking and they all seem to have a great selection of beer on tap. I even found one I like better than Moose Drool – Mighty Bison brewed in none other than Victor, ID. I guess Victor has that going for it too. On Monday morning Abbey and I dropped Chris off at the airport and got ready for my two week stint with Habitat. More on that next time.

Posted by Ed at 5:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

I was trying to get Abbey out on a hike every other day so we drove outside of the park a little ways into the national forest. After stopping at the ranger station and getting very little help from 2 women who looked like they had never been on a trail before, we decided on a trail to try. Unfortunately, it had rained a lot the night before and the trail we picked turned out to be somewhat of a horse trail. We slopped through mud for about a ' mile before we saw some people on horseback coming the other way. When they said that this was the good part of the trail we hoofed it back to the RV and went searching for a new trail. The parking lot at the next place we went looked like there was a horse show going on '? horse trailers everywhere. But the trail looked a little drier so we decided to give it a shot. We got a bit further this time but we gave up again when we hit a real narrow and muddy spot a mile or so down the trail. At least we tried to get Abbey out and she didn't seem to mind the mud at all. Our obligation to Abbey out of the way and it being still early Chris and I took a chance on a trail back inside the park. The trail turned out real nice with some nice views of some lakes and the Tetons. The aspen were really looking golden yellow now too.

We both thought that there was a dramatic change in just the 2 short days since we first entered the park. We drove to the north end of the park and finally stopped for the night at Flagg Ranch. I was shocked when I found out it was $47.50 for a site with full hookups and that is the only kind of site they have. Unfortunately, there were no off-season rates so full hookups it was '? my first ever. To make sure we got our money's worth we dumped the tanks and took long hot showers not only in the evening but the next morning too.

In the morning we headed back up through Yellowstone but on the east side of the park. We had planned to stop about halfway or more through the park but there didn't seem to be as much to see and it was rainy again. The scenery was beautiful but there wasn't a lot to really stop for. There were a couple of impressive waterfalls that we managed to see. We could've made it out of the park that night, but we decided to camp at Pebble Creek which is the last campground before you hit the northeast entrance. We wanted to go to the Lamar Valley, a prime wildlife spot, at dusk. After picking out a campsite and eating dinner we headed back to the valley and stopped at the first turnout where there were a bunch of people already. Someone had spotted a wolf way off in the distance. I managed to spot the top of its back through my binoculars before it went out of sight again, but Chris never saw it. We tried our luck at a few other spots to no avail, so before it got too dark we headed back to the original spot. Everyone else had left but we decided to give it one last shot. We had to wait for a few bison to make room to park the RV, and I was a little leery getting out with them staring at me but our effort paid off. In the same spot I saw the wolf before I saw another one walking across a grassy field. Then Chris picked out 1 or 2 more. We watched them through the binoculars until it got too dark to see. They were so far away that it was pretty hard to make them out, but we were positive they were wolves and there were at least 3. The only big animal we didn't see was a bear, so the trip was pretty successful from a wildlife standpoint. All in all I'd say that Yellowstone is a beautiful place with a wide variety of things to do and see. The scenery and wildlife really are spectacular and the geysers and hot springs really are like no other place I've been.
Lower Falls

Upper Falls
Tower Falls
Bison Jam

Posted by Ed at 12:20 PM | Permalink

On Tuesday morning we started off at the West Thumb Geyser Basin, real close to our campground. When we got to the parking lot we saw a huge bull elk and his cow not far from the cars. As usual, there were the typical idiots getting way too close in order to get the best picture. We stuck around to see if there would be any excitement, but luckily the people finally got wise and moved away.

I forgot to mention in my earlier post that the first night we could hear the elk bugling most of the night. It's their mating call. It's a very unique sound and one that is very hard to describe. It almost sounds like one of those toy plastic horns that we used to blow through when we were kids. The first time we heard it was a bit puzzling until I finally remembered it was mating season for the elk. After the West Thumb Geyser Basin, we made our way fairly quickly through the southern end of the park and into Grand Teton NP. The mountains in Grand Teton are much higher and more rugged than anything in Yellowstone.

The other thing we noticed was that the aspens were starting to turn a brilliant yellow.

Since Abbey had been relegated to taking short walks around the campground and on the roadways the last few days, we decided to take a hike just outside the NP in the national forest. The views of the mountains in the background weren't exactly blog material, but they were pretty scenic nonetheless. At least Abbey got out for a while and it was our first real hike. For the most part in Yellowstone we were just walking on the boardwalks and pathways, though it was still a lot of walking. Anyways, before calling it a day we stopped at a well-known moose hangout called Willow Flats. Some people there thought they saw a moose through their binoculars way out across the meadows by the lake, but we couldn't really see it. So Chris and I decided to set out across the meadow to get a closer look. We didn't make it very far before being turned back by too much brush and too many creeks. We found a nice campground at Signal Mountain to spend the night. While paying I saw a beautiful snowshoe rabbit. It was mostly grey but with big white feet, which I'm sure is where the name comes from. Abbey saw it too, but luckily I had her on a short leash at the time.

The next morning we woke up to rain and clouds so we decided to give Willow Flats another shot. Before we even got to the parking area we saw the paparazzi lining the roadway. We stopped and saw a cow moose about 30 feet from the road seemingly oblivious to the crowds of photographers trying to get the best shots.

On the other side of the road we saw another cow moose lying down in the brush. To top it off we finally saw the bull moose at Willow Flats, though not until after we had already gotten back in the RV and were about to pull away. I noticed someone had spotted something so we got out for another look. Despite the off-and-on rain we decided to take a hike up Cascade Canyon which starts with a cold, wet boat ride across Jenny Lake. The 5 minute ride to save 2 miles walking was well worth the price especially with the rain. The first mile was pretty steep but after that it flattened out quite a bit. Surprisingly, even with the weather there were a lot of people on the trail. After a short time we passed a couple going the other way who told us there was a moose family a little further up the canyon. We then ran into a young German couple who told us they saw a bear and turned back. We later figured out, along with some other people, that they mistook one of the moose for a bear (it was probably partly hidden in the brush). I felt bad for them because it was just amazing to see the family of 3 moose including a young baby only a few dozen yards away from us on the trail. We stood and watched for a long time before they noticed us. We debated a few times about moving further back but they didn't seem too bothered by us. They finally gave us some room to pass by on the trail. We ran into several other people who saw them so the family must have been there for a good part of the day. It was pretty spectacular, though my pictures just don't do it justice. That's when I really wished I had one of those mega-zoom lenses that most everyone else seemed to have. We hiked further up the trail, but we weren't done yet with moose.

In the middle of the stream we saw a cow moose all by herself. We were going to get out our cameras when she started moving towards us. When she saw no signs of stopping we decided it was time to move on. She came all the way up to the trail right where we were standing. She was either mad or very curious. Then again, it is mating season. Maybe she was lonely. It started raining again on the way back and we got pretty wet the last mile, but we didn't really care. All told we saw 7 moose for the day '? nearly twice as many as I had seen in my whole life. And they were the first moose that Chris had ever seen so it was a great hike.

We celebrated by heading to the town of Jackson, WY at the southern end of the park for a nice dinner. After Chris got some obligatory souvenir shopping done, we found a nice out-of-the-way local restaurant with real good Buffalo sirloin (sorry, Rachel!) and Moose Drool beer. It seemed the fitting end to a great day.
Cloudy Grand Tetons

Hidden Falls

Posted by Ed at 7:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Both of us had heard a lot about Yellowstone, but neither of us had been there before. We were anxious to see it for ourselves and to see if it lived up to all the hype. I have heard a few negative things about Yellowstone before, but I think it must have been from people who had been there in the summer when it is so crowded. I would definitely recommend September as a good time to go because the weather is still good, but the crowds are not bad at all.

Yellowstone is chalk full of various hydrothermal features including geysers, hot springs, mudpots, fumaroles, and more. I think we saw more than half of them on our first full day. I couldn't begin to describe them all (lucky for you). I'll just say that the geyser basins and other hydrothermal areas are truly amazing. You feel like you're on another planet sometimes as the landscape is so strange and steam seems to be rising from virtually everywhere. The colors of the water and the microorganisms living in the water were just spectacular. We hit several geyser basins and, surprisingly, they all seemed different from the previous ones. We did get a little a bit saturated though and towards the end of the day we started to get what I call the 'Oh, it's another cathedral in Europe' syndrome. We were starting to become geyser and hot spring snobs. If it didn't erupt, or look somewhat spectacular we blew on by. Despite that, we spent most of the day in awe. I must say that we both thought that we were going to be let down by Old Faithful. That it wouldn't hold up to the hype. But we weren't. Not only that, we were blown away by a number of other geysers that we were lucky enough to be around when they erupted. One of the other cool things we saw was the 'Artist Paintpots'. They were mudpots that shot mud into the air every few seconds sometimes going 10 or more feet. For some reason it reminded me of Jaba the Hut from Star Wars fame.

As if all that isn't enough, the wildlife in the park is pretty amazing as well. It is easy to spot. You just look for cars pulled off the road and the wildlife paparazzi with their mega-zoom lenses pointed off into the fields. Right off the bat we saw a bunch of elk and had to wait for a herd of bison to cross the road before we could drive on. One of the bison particularly unnerved Chris as he was about 10 ft. away from our stopped RV '? on his side of course. At least he got a great close-up (see below). By the end of the day we were exhausted but found a real nice campground with great hot showers I might add. Joyce, the person who waited on us at check-in, was particularly friendly and not just because I told her that that was also my mother's name. It seems like almost everyone who works in this park is very friendly and outgoing. I guess it comes from being in such beautiful surroundings.

Since I can't possibly post all of the pictures I took (over 70 this day alone!) I'll try to include as many different types of things we saw. And I'll try my best to remember the names of everything, but I'm sure I'll miss a lot.

Artist Paintpots
Bison Herd
A little too close!
Boiling Springs
Cool-looking Pool
Great Prismatic Spring
Grotto Geyser
Mammoth Hot Springs
Morning Glory Pool
Norris Geyser Basin
Old Faithfuls
Riverside Geyser
Steamboat Geyser
Travertine Terrace

Posted by Ed at 9:04 PM | Permalink