Two Week Highlights Part I

Wow, has it really been a week since our last post?  Time is flying as we are back to California from our Round I North American trip, and preparing to leave for another month, this time covering Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Iowa, Minnesota, South Dakota, Colorado, Utah, and Nevada.  That is quite a mouthful there.

But let's rewind to our previous adventure, where we left off in Alberta, Canada.  Shortly after a dash through Banff National Park (not nearly as impressive at Mt. Robson Provincal Park), we crossed the U.S. border and headed south for Glacier National Park.  We camped in a snow covered, fogged in campground with lows in the 20s...brrrrrr.  Hot tea and a gazillion layers of clothes kept us warm, and the next day we explored pristine bit of the Rockies that is incredibly beautiful.

We drove along the 'Highway to the Sun,' soaking in views of vast snow capped mountains and a beautiful lake.  Feeling active, we hit the trails for waterfalls, and saw three incredible ones along a six mile or so hike.  I tested fate in climbing wet rocks near the waterfalls, and finally paid the price by slipping into the third waterfall and getting my feet and shoes soaked.  We dried the shoes on our warm engine (which worked really well in a pinch) and spent another cold night in Glacier.  That morning we packed up and hit the road for Yellowstone National Park, making a stop at REI to make a well needed tent upgrade (Bruce at that Bozeman REI was awesome; we have always had extremely positive experiences with REI staff and products).  Passing by school children gaping at the huge stone arch marking our country's first national park, we dived into the adventures that Yellowstone had for us.

Initially we weren't too impressed.  On a hunt to see incredible wildlife, we spoke to the backcountry ranger and got all set up for an overnight hike/camp in 'America Sarangetti.'  While we did have three separate moose sightings, and a backcountry campground all to our selves (and our REI tent held up wonderfully to rain, not a drop of condensation inside), we left tired and emptied handed of the bear, wolf and bison up close experiences we were hoping for (I had the bear spray handy just in case).  One plus side of the hike was that Kindra taught me the words to Pocahontas' 'Colors of the Wind' and 'Just Around the Riverbend,' which singing also conveniently kept us from startling any bears hanging out near the trail.

Wildlife sightings went wayyyy up after that hike.  We were 'accosted' multiple times bison highway crossings, with the 600 pound wild beasts stepping withing incheso of our car at point.  We saw bucket loads of elk in Mammoth Hot Springs town, which was a real treat.  The town is so full of elk that signs are posted everywhere warning families toting cameras to not approach elk as they can get very aggressive unpredicably.

And one of my favs of the whole entire trip to date, we got to soak in a hot springs.  Boiling creek, not shown on any Yellowstone park maps, is a mixing point of thermal and cold waters, and makes for jacuzzi temp pools that are amazzzing, especially if you hadn't showered in 9 days like us.  We sat for hours, with big smiles and silky smooth skin.  So relaxing, we highly recommend it.

Off to a wedding rehearsal now for our friends Katrina and Toby, more to come on our journeys :)