We’re off again! This time we are going to retrace the path of the Oregon Trail, from Missouri to Oregon. To do this we must, again, drive through the California desert, drive through the Arizona desert, through the New Mexico desert, and on through a corner of the Texas desert, through a corner of the Oklahoma desert, then on into Kansas, and finally into Missouri. We will be retracing some of the same roads and places that we have been through before…
But first, here is an update of our grandchildren…
Roisin got to ride the big school bus to go off to beach and surf camp…
Ian visited The La Brea Tar Pits and stuck his finger into the tar…
George got a little dirty when he had a minor fall during a family hike…
Evelyn has found her calling as “Super Woman”…
They have enjoyed their summer, doing the many things that have been off limits over the past 15 months…
But back to out trip…
We had an uneventful day driving across California and Arizona…
Not the first time we have been in Arizona, but it is always fun to take a photo of the sign…
Arizona looks like this along this route…
We had a little rain, but nothing that delayed our trip. We headed north at Phoenix, and continuing to Camp Verde, located about one hour south of Sedona. Camp Verde is a sleepy little town that has the best restaurant in this part of Arizona. People drive the hour from Sedona because it is better than anything there…
Camp Verde looks like this… We are at about 3,200′ elevation…
We found the RV park. We are in, connected, and paid for…
So, after checking in to the RV park, we freshened up and headed to Moscato Italian Restaurant. We had a fabulous meal, with courses that were way too large – we brought home over half the food. (We drank all the wine…)
Next to our table was a group of six men, about our age, who were celebrating a birthday. They were having a great time, and on occasion we could hear someone mention their Airstream. Several times. We were not sure which man it was, so as we were leaving we stopped at their table and asked, “Which one owns an Airstream?” It turns out that four of them own Airstreams! They were all from Sedona, and, like I said, they drive the hour to Camp Verde to eat at Moscato. We had a fine discussion about Airstreams, diesel trucks, and the finer things of life, and we then left them to continue their celebrations.
We returned to The Villa. An enjoyable time was had by all…
We had a leisurely morning with time to walk around the park. It is a huge park, with a variety of types of sites and amenities…
We left Las Vegas about 9:30 and headed south through Nevada…
We continues south through Nevada…
Outside Las Vegas there were these very impressive solar farms…
We are headed down through the tiny southern point of Nevada. We stopped in Searchlight to stretch our legs…
And we continued south through Nevada…
We briefly re-entered California at the 40, as we continued on to Needles…
And we continued southeast through California…
There is an exit at Needles to drive along the historic Route 66…
And then we crossed the Colorado River once again and entered Arizona…
California and Arizona have plenty of interesting mountains…
As we headed south on AZ 95 towards Parker we saw smoke ahead…
We never figured out what this was – how does the desert burn like this? But we did hear later that Arizona did close all their State-owned public lands due to the many fires…
We eventually found the Colorado River again…
We found this nice little enclave of vacation homes in the middle of nowhere…
We suffered through the traffic that is Lake Havasu City, and finally arrived at the Pirates Den RV Resort. This place has seen better days… as have all the “resorts” and trailer parks and campgrounds along the river…
When we tried to check in to our site the manager told us that it was not yet available. The current occupants had truck trouble, and were just now started to pack up. We went into the restaurant to wait – it was 110 degrees outside – and, since we finally had internet access we could check our phones…
The resort has many waterfront sites, with private beach cabanas. We didn’t have one of these…
But it is great fun to watch the boat traffic in the river…
We wanted to beat the traffic entering Yellowstone, so we pulled out at 6:45 am. We headed from the RV Park in Montana, into Wyoming, and through the Roosevelt Arch…
The early morning drive through Yellowstone was beautiful, but, other than the elk that was standing in the Roosevelt Arch, which delayed our drive for a few minutes, we saw no wildlife…
That isn’t to say that there was no excitement today… Back in Burbank our two older grandchildren boarded the big yellow school bus for the first time… They are heading to Beach Camp! We expect them to return tired, sandy, and sunburned (just a little…).
So we continued through the park. Believe it or not, this is the fastest route from Gardiner, MT to California…
We came upon some geothermal activity. This was bigger than any similar sulfur-smelling steam venting we had seen in all our time here…
But we continued on, traveling south, then heading west, exiting the park at the west entrance…
It took about one hour to travel the park. As we left we saw the lines of cars trying to get into the park. This line of traffic is still 3-4 miles from the park entrance…
So we passed on out of Wyoming, back into Montana, and on through to Idaho.
Somewhere in Idaho we stopped to stretch our legs and eat a snack. We pulled off an anonymous offramp and parked between the Potato Growers of Idaho Association and a FedEx Distribution center…
Back on the freeway we continued south…
We ate lunch at a nice rest stop somewhere in southern Idaho…
We passed over into Utah, and on the Tremonton, where we found a very nice RV Resort…
Aspen Grove RV Resort, Tremonton, Utah. Large sites, concrete pads, full hook-ups. Come back in 5 years – they have planted a tree at each site – in five years we won’t be able to use our satellite TV…
There was another Airstream in the park – pulled by a Porsche Cayenne… We had an interesting chat about tow-vehicles, hithes, and Airstreams in general…
Another interesting feature of the RV Park is that several sites have Electric Vehicle charging stations…!
For our 47th wedding anniversary dinner we selected the finest restaurant in Tremonton… It is a diner at the bowling alley…
We tried to have a toast, but this being Utah, there was no wine…
After a fairly unremarkable dinner we returned to the Villa…
Today is the last full day of the Caravan. We head for home tomorrow…
We had a quiet morning, with a rare breakfast of bacon and eggs… We headed for the Final Banquet (lunch) at 10:30 – if you show up on time you are late!
We walked about the town of Gardiner. By the way, the town is named after a 19th century fur-trapper named Johnson Gardner. Oh! The Ironing!
We walked over to the original entrance to Yellowstone, the Roosevelt Arch…
We also found out we were in the Gallatin Custer National Forest… Lots of Federally owned land around here…
From the town we could see the Airstreams parked in the adjacent RV Park. (Due to a variety of mix-ups, the Villa is parked at another RV Park seven miles out of town…
We like watching rivers. Here the Yellowstone River flows right through the town… and it continues down past our RV Park…
The Yellowstone River is a tributary of the Missouri River, approximately 692 miles long. It drains an area stretching from the Rocky Mountains in the vicinity of Yellowstone National Park, across the mountains and high plains of southern Montana and northern Wyoming. It eventually joins the Missouri and then the Mississippi Rivers.
We also saw a lot of the Snake River, in Yellowstone as well as in Grand Tetons NP. At 1,078 miles long, it is the largest tributary of the Columbia River, in turn the largest North American river that empties into the Pacific Ocean. The Snake River rises in western Wyoming, then flows through the Snake River Plain of southern Idaho, the rugged Hells Canyon on the Oregon–Idaho border and the rolling Palouse Hills of Washington, emptying into the Columbia River at the Tri-Cities, Washington.
So the Yellowstone River is on the east side of the Continental Divide, and the Snake River is on the west side… And they are both here in Yellowstone…!
We returned to the Cowboy, on their upper open-air deck. Caravans don’t usually repeat locations like this, but the restaurant that was planned for the final Banquet burned down last winter…
We all gathered for a social time together…
Lunch was served. This time it was baked Montana trout. (I would have preferred the fried chicken that we had last time…)
After lunch we had presentations, accolades, and door prizes…
So we bid farewell to the Grand Tetons! It was the prettiest park we have seen on this trip. On to Yellowstone!
We left about 8:00 am to avoid traffic in the park. We’ve been told traffic can be terrible in Yellowstone.
The drive was short – only 112 miles. We drove directly through Grand Teton National Park, through the John D. Rockefeller, Jr. Memorial Parkway, and on into Yellowstone National Park…
Yellowstone National Park is located in the in the northwest corner of Wyoming, with some areas extending into Montana and Idaho. It was established by the U.S. Congress and signed into law by President Ulysses S. Grant on March 1, 1872. Yellowstone was the first national park in the U.S. and is also widely held to be the first national park in the world. The park is known for its wildlife and its many geothermal features, especially Old Faithful geyser.
We loved the Grand Tetons NP. In comparison, Grand Tetons covers 485 square miles, while Yellowstone covers 3,500 square miles. However, Grand Tetons is much more scenic, while Yellowstone features geothermal natural wonders and much more wildlife…
The views along the road are nice…
We soon stopped to see Old Faithful. First we hassled the very busy and crowded parking area. We only needed to jack-knife the Villa into 6 parking stalls, and we were set!
We entered the Old Faithful Lodge. Interiors were nice…
But the exterior was less than impressive…
We walked out to the viewing area where people were already waiting to see Old Faithful; they will wait another 45 minutes…
We wandered over to the Old Faithful Inn. It is much more impressive…!
The lobby is this giant 3-4 story high space, all done up in National Park architecture…
The dining room is also very grand… Unfortunately, it is closed…
We ignored the sign and walked up the stairs.
Very nice upper level lounge areas…
Near the top is what they call “the Crow’s Nest”. It is a room at the top of these stairs where orchestras would play in the evening. The top is 76′ tall! Unfortunately, in 1959 an earthquake damaged the structural integrity of the Crow’s Nest, so it is no longer habitable.
These writing desks are all over these upper floors… Beautiful!
Unfortunately, there are no dining or lounge areas that are open. Only fast food is available, and only for take-out… Gift shops have such a restricted capacity that there lines hundreds of people long just to get inside. Yellowstone is much more shut down for Covid than Grand Tetons was…
So we moved on to a modern Visitors Center. Again, capacity is restricted… But the views are grand…
We returned to the Old Faithful viewing are. The crowd has tripled…
Old Faithful is a cone geyser. It was named in 1870 during the Washburn–Langford–Doane Expedition and was the first geyser in the park to be named. It is a highly predictable geothermal feature and has erupted every 44 minutes to two hours since 2000. The geyser and the nearby Old Faithful Inn are part of the Old Faithful Historic District.
So thousands of people are standing around looking at this for the past hour. The next scheduled eruption is due at 11:06 am.
About ten minutes before the scheduled time the geyser spouts briefly…
Finally, at 11:07 am Old Faithful earns her name…
And it goes on and on…!
Finally the eruptions start to fade…
Eruptions can shoot 3,700 to 8,400 gallons of boiling water to a height of 106 to 185 feet, lasting from 11⁄2 to 5 minutes.
We continued to drive north. We found some Bison…
We found some Fumaroles at Roaring Mountain: (Fumaroles are similar to geysers, except that they do not have enough pressure to erupt; they just emit steam…)
We had some fine views
The traffic is bad and the roads are rough, slow, narrow, and curvy…
More green valleys…
We saw this female elk hanging out along the side of the road…
More Pronghorn Antelope… But they are far away…
We continued out of the park and into Gardiner, Montana…
The town of Gardiner is just outside the park; it was the original entrance to the park, and at the time all guests would arrive by train, so there was a large train station here…
Today Gardiner has mostly tour companies, gift shops, lodges, motels, and RV parks. We met with the club for dinner at this recently-constructed dining terrace… (Construction workers were still working when we arrived…)
Airstreamers started arriving (early, as usual)
We enjoyed a very good fried chicken dinner buffet…
After dinner, we returned to the RV park and walked around. We are right next to the Yellowstone River, but only tent sites are adjacent to the river.
The park is dry and dusty, but there is a small grill for dinner and other amenities…
There are extensive hot spring pools…
After checking out the hot spring pools we returned to the Villa. We have an early morning tomorrow.
We were up early today and were on the road to Jenny Lake by 5:45 am. We will take a shuttle boat across the lake and hike Cascade Canyon.
At this early morning hour the reflections on the lake were perfect!
We started our hike up the canyon…
We came to Cascade Creek, cascading down Cascade Canyon…
We reached Hidden Falls…
The hike got steeper and rockier as we continued up and up…
We finally reached Inspiration Point. Great views, and we were all alone!
This is about the halfway point on our hike… As we continued up the canyon we found a natural dam forming a beautiful lake…
We finally reached the end of our upward hike, at about 2 1/2 miles and 750 feet of elevation gain… You know you have reached the end when you say, “This is the end. Let’s turn back…”
By the time we returned to Inspiration point it was crowded like a discotheque…!
We hiked down and down and down, dodging people coming up all the way…
We returned by boat, and drove back to the Villa. While I napped, Lynda met some new friends just across the street from our site…
These are Mule Deer…
After Lynda woke me up to see the deer I went in search of Internet… She went to the beach…
That evening we went to dinner with friends to the Jackson Lake Lodge… It is a fine old National Park Lodge…
Dinner was wonderful, and it is always nice to share with friends…
We returned to the Villa; an enjoyable time was had by all…
Today we visited the National Museum of Wildlife Art, just outside Jackson…
The museum, as its name suggests, if chock full of wildlife art, including paintings, sculptures, videos, etc. The museum’s best feature, however, is that it has great cellular service; I brought along my laptop and updated a few things in the parking lot before our visit began…
Wildlife art is not something to which I am particularly attracted . However, there was one video display that had three screens. The wall on which the videos were projected is black, and the videos, all of wild animals caught on camera, were shown in black and white, except reversed. It was quite ethereal and captivating… I could have spent much more time watching.
But it’s lunch time. We drove into Jackson and found a great French Bistro…
We dined on Buffalo Steak Tartare, Moules Frites, and Duck Croque Monsieur… And a very nice Vacqueyras wine…
After lunch we walked around Jackson. Crammed with tourists. The central park square has one of these corny antler arches at each corner… tourists swarm to get their pictures taken in front of one of the arches…
Back at the RV Park, we took a walk out a small peninsula in Jackson Lake adjacent to the Marina…
Back at the Villa we had the sandwiches that were given the first day here, and another nice bottle of wine…
Exciting Day Today! Our four grandchildren are all starting “school” today! Roisin and Ian go to Spanish Camp; George and Evelyn go to all day preschool! After dropping them off, our daughter, Erin, will do nothing. Or something. Or whatever she wants…!
Back at the caravan, we started the day with a Ranger talk at the amphitheater adjacent to Jackson Lake…
We heard a brief history of the Park:
In the late 1920′ s John D. Rockefeller, Jr., with his family, visited Yellowstone National Park. They met with Horace Albright, the Superintendent of Yellowstone. He took the Rockefeller family through Yellowstone, and south into the Grand Tetons area. Albright was trying to get the Grand Tetons National Park expanded to include the valley. The mountain range had become a National Park in 1929, but the valley to the east, known as Jackson Hole, was cluttered with billboards, honky-tonks, and hotdog stands. JDR, Jr. took the bait. He formed the Snake River Land Company, and anonymously purchased 35,000 acres of land; he subsequently offered the land to the National Park Service. Due to various political reasons, the donation was denied. Finally, many years later, against public opinion, and with repeated Congressional efforts to repeal the measures, much of Jackson Hole was set aside for protection as Jackson Hole National Monument in 1943. The monument was abolished in 1950 and most of the monument land was added to Grand Teton National Park.
After we heard about the various sight-seeing options, we headed south… We stopped at the Jackson Lake Dam…
From the roadway atop the Dam we have a great view…
We continued south…
We stopped in to check out the Jenny Lake Lodge… Their dining room is not open except for guests…
We considered stopping at Jenny Lake, but the parking lots were packed, and people were parking on the highway, walking 1/2 mile to the lake Visitor Center. We continued on…
We were able to catch sight of some Pronghorn Antelope…
We continued south to the Moose-Wilson Rd. We drove south some more and were rewarded with our first sighting of a moose!
Just a bit further down the road we found his mate and their offspring, but they were moving quickly into the woods…
Our destination this morning is the Laurance S. Rockefeller Preserve…
The parking lot was again packed, and we waited 25 minutes for a space. Luckily, most cars belonged to hikers heading out to Phelps Lake…
We walked across the meadow towards the Visitors Center…
The Laurance S. Rockefeller (LSR) Preserve is a 1,106 acres refuge within Grand Teton National Park on the southern end of Phelps Lake. The site was originally known as the JY Ranch, a dude ranch. In 1927, when John D. Rockefeller, Jr. purchased much of the land in Jackson Hole for the creation of Jackson Hole National Monument and the expansion of Grand Teton National Park, he retained the 3,100-acre JY Ranch as a family retreat. The Rockefeller family used the J-Y Ranch for over 70 years; over the years the family gave most of the ranch land to the national park. Upon his death in 1960, JDR, Jr. left the J-Y Ranch to his son, Laurance. Finally, Laurance S. Rockefeller donated the final parcel to the Park Service in 2001, effective in 2008. The donation came with special preservation and maintenance restrictions, with the vision that the preserve remain a place where visitors can experience a spiritual and emotional connection to the beauty of the lake and the Teton Range.
When the family took over the J-Y Ranch there were 48 various dude ranch buildings on the property. The family had 28 buildings removed or demolished, and the remaining 20 buildings were remodeled and updated for use as a family retreat.
Over the years, the camp was modernized and updated, and a few new cabins were added. However, the rustic camp experience was always retained. Finally the family decided to donate the property to the Park Service, and to move their retreat to another location a few miles south, just outside the boundaries of the National Park, on the Moose-Wilson Rd. They wanted the land to be returned to its natural state.
Laurance Rockefeller hoped that his project would serve as a model for the National Parks. The overall plan for the preserve was developed by D. R. Horne & Company with advice regarding user experience from Kevin Coffee Museum Planning. Prerequisite to creating the LSR Preserve, the cabins, stables, utilities, roads, and other built environment that had been part of the Rockefeller family’s presence at the JY Ranch were removed; about half of the buildings were moved to the new Rockefeller Retreat, and the other half were donated to the Park Service to be relocated and re-purposed for their use.
The land was carefully bio-remediated with seeds or plantings collected from nearby locations within the site. A nine-mile system of hiking trails lead through sub-alpine and wetland habitat, with vistas along the southern edge of Phelps Lake. The visitor experience is prompted via the 7,573 square -foot visitor center situated at the lowest elevation of the Preserve.
The visitor center building was designed by Carney Architects of Jackson, Wyoming with the Rocky Mountain Institute consulting on energy and daylighting analysis. Hershberger Design prepared the landscape design plan for the visitor center site and trails. A team of designers, cinematographers, photographers, sound recordists, writers and others contributed to the displays inside the visitors center and those efforts are noted on a plaque in the center, which was dedicated on June 21, 2008. The visitor center was the first Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certified property in Wyoming and only the fifty-second Platinum rating in the LEED program. Featuring composting toilets and a 10 kW photovoltaic system, the facility earned all 17 LEED energy points.
We entered the Visitor Center. (Lynda wasn’t really angry…)
Inside it was like a church. We were the only people there. There were marvelous displays: topographic maps, Photos, audio and video exhibits, and a meditation space. I loved it. I could have sat for hours enjoying the architecture and the displays of nature… But Lynda wasn’t that patient…
I threatened to take a nap in these really cool chairs, custom designed for the Rockefellers for their retreat…
We walked around, taking in the building. This massive fireplace is part of the staff lounge…!
The paths led to the creek flowing out of Phelps Lake…
After this contemplative experience we needed lunch. We drove to Dornan’s, a pretty mediocre restaurant…
We returned to the RV Park and walked along the lake…
I spent a little time in the “village” looking for internet. After dinner we walked to the swimming beach and enjoyed the sunset…
We returned to the Villa and an enjoyable time was had by all…
This morning, since we had not had a group dinner upon our arrival, we shared a lovely breakfast at the Flaming Gorge Resort…
After breakfast we drove towards Red Canyon. This is beautiful, but we still don’t know anything about Flaming Gorge…
We arrived at Red Canyon, and peered over the rim…
Flaming Gorge Reservoir is the largest reservoir in Wyoming, on the Green River, impounded behind the Flaming Gorge Dam. Construction on the dam began in 1958 and was completed in 1964. The reservoir stores 3,788,900 acre-feet of water when measured at an elevation of 6,040 feet above sea-level (its maximum).
The reservoir is mainly in southwest Wyoming and partially in northeastern Utah. The northern tip of the reservoir is 10 miles southeast of Green River, Wyoming (not to be confused with the town of Green River, Utah), 14 miles southwest of Rock Springs, Wyoming, and the Southern tip is approximately 40 miles north of Vernal, Utah. The lake straddles the Utah-Wyoming border. The nearby town of Dutch John, Utah, was built to serve as a base camp during construction of the dam, and as an administrative site afterwards.
We were spellbound at the views from here… especially since the land (rocks) we were standing on were clearly separated from the “mainland”…
After being amaized by the views from Red Rock Canyon rim, we drove a short distance to the Swett Ranch…
Swett Ranch, southwest of Dutch John, has buildings dating from 1909. A 14.1 acres section of the ranch was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979. It included nine contributing buildings and three contributing structures.
There were three houses on the ranch. An original log cabin, originally elsewhere, was disassembled and reassembled here on this site. This was the original house, and later it became a bunkhouse for the family’s sons.
This is the second house, added a few years later.
This contained a Kitchen-Living area, a primary bedroom, and a loft for the family’s daughters…
The third house was the family home from the 1940s to the 1960s. While it is quite modern in appearance, it took them until the 1960s to finally add a fully functional bathroom… and even then, they had to walk outside to get to it…
This is the stable; beyond it is the schoolhouse…
Inside the stable…
The Spring House…
The root cellar… It has a long passage, with three doors, which extends into the hill beyond. Being an underground room, it is at a constant 55 degrees – it would make a perfect wine cellar…!
The Swett family live here from 1909 into the late 1960… living without electricity until the late 1950s… All farm equipment was horse-powered; they never had a gasoline or diesel powered tractor…
The countryside is beautiful here. After the ranch we drove towards Dutch John…
There is a great bridge we drove over…
And then we found the dam…
We returned to the RV Park…
This evening we were treated to a wonderful dinner at the Red Canyon Lodge by Patricio and Essy Donoso, new Airstream friends from Florida.
It is their 45th wedding anniversary today…
This is the finest restaurant in the area… I, of course, brought the wine… They had the audacity of charging $8.00 corkage fee! What are they thinking? I haven’t seen $8.00 corkage since the 1980s…
We had a lovely dinner, and the grounds were lovely in the twilight after dinner…
We returned to the Villa. An enjoyable time was had by all…
Adventures in the Villa 