Petroglyphs, dinosaurs and a funny ad campaign

We started the day in Vernal, Utah with a GREAT little hike at McConkie's Ranch to see petroglyphs made by the Freemont people likely in the first millenneum AD. Amazing in all kinds of ways. This family has set up  their own little self-serve attraction. They marked a trail, put up a list of rules, an (infrequently cleaned) porta-potty, and welcome center where you sign in and put two dollars in a slot in a locked ammo box. Seems hokey until you get up and see the petroglyphs. Amazing. And really generous on the McConkie family's part.

T Rex  (eating watermelon, of course) at west end of  Vernal

This area is all about dinosaurs. We saw dinosaurs all over Vernal, Utah. Vernal is the entrance to the Dinosaur National Monument. And US Highway 40 between Vernal and Dinosaur, Colorado is called Stegosaurus Freeway. Really. On our GPS.

Our hotel: Best Western Dinosaur Inn

Welcome dinosaur on the east end of Vernal

Our Nav map

The eastern end of Stegosaurus Freeway

One of 99 signs in Colorado for FM Light & Sons

The road between Dinosaur and Steamboat Springs has all kinds of beautiful scenery. But the most memorable features are about 30 homemade FM Light & Sons signs. Hilarious. Read here to get the skinny. 

We pulled into Steamboat Springs parched, butt-sore and looking for ice cream. Fuzziwigs' wall boasted 24 flavors. So we pulled in (amazed to see the actual FM Light & Sons across the street). When we went inside -- there were, in fact, only 8 flavors. Classic bait and switch? No -- just what happens when you travel off season. (Note -- the very helpful salesgirl went into the back room and found me another flavor.) 

FM Light & Sons. And an electronic horse.

To walk off our over-large ice cream portions, we had a lovely short hike to Fish Creek Falls. We reached Breckenridge at dinner time. More on that in the next blog.

Jan's moment of pride: Jan wins a round of name that tune by "remembering" who sang "Spooky." (That free three month subscription to Sirius Radio that came with the car is pretty handy on a 4 week road trip.)

On the trail to Fish Creek Falls near Steamboat Springs

Final note: We count it as a good day when we see llamas. This is our 3rd day in a row of llama sightings.

A hidden gem: Flaming Gorge Country

Warning sign on the open range

Today, which is day 14 (or is it 15?) -- our mid-way point;  we traveled much of the north to south length of Wyoming. It was like traveling through at least three different worlds. Wow! While the the area near Grand Teton has some high plains, the middle of Wyoming is, well, open range. I lack further descriptors.

We did spend some time on the Pony Express Trail, the Oregon Trail and others. (Even the ill fated Donner Party went this way. Eek!) Interesting fact: The Pony Express only ran for 19.5 months. They were replaced by the telegraph.

Remote and arid

Navajo Cliffs

So remember the guy from my last post who said the Flaming Gorge is just a recreational area? And that whether or not we liked it would depend on our "values." Not sure what "values" he was referring to, unless he is opposed to natural splendor. The drive we took through this area was magnificent. We saw spawning kokanee (look like salmon) swimming up river; geological formations that defy reason and gravity; all kinds of wildlife; vegetation growing in amazing places, and did I mention the terrifying cliffs? 

Flaming Gorge Reservoir: You can see where the name comes from

One brave tree overlooking Red Canyon

Jan stands near a rock that could tip over and crush him any minute

The vista on the 1500 foot cliff was across this "fissure" from what I consider to be solid ground.

Too scary!

Jan is not afraid. Which makes me even more so

A flag on the slopes

 And did I mention switchbacks? The road signs on the last descent counted them down for us. (There were 12 on that particular descent.) Jan is getting to be less and less of a flatlander as we go.

 The best sign on the road down was one that said, "Blasting area next 2.5 miles; do no leave the highway." Immediately after that was a sign with an image of a hairpin turn that said, "8% grade, 25mph, 5 more left."





Oh yeah, and this gorge got us to Utah. Vernal, Utah, to be exact. Where they really like dinosaurs. We are staying at the Best Western Dinosaur Inn, where our toiletries were presented with a sense of humor.

And here, of all places, we went to the Vernal Brewing Company for dinner. Menu: Deconstructed chicken pot pie with a cranberry balsamic reduction sauce. I really should have taken a picture. Yum.  It was not your banquet frozen meal.

We saw a moose but not a Teton!

10/3/2013 Note to friends: This is an attempt to recreate a blog I posted on 9/28. That post got lost, and so has my memory...but here goes...

After a few days in Yellowstone, our plans were to drive through the park right into Grand Teton National Park. Best laid plans: We booked a extra day in Yellowstone because the weather service was predicting 1 to 2 feet of snow, and we thought the extra day would let us get to Grand Teton safely. In the end, the snow waited until that extra night and closed all the passes in Yellowstone the day we tried to leave. 

We ended up driving through half of Idaho (okay -- maybe a little bit of an exaggeration). to get around the closed passes. On the positive side, Idaho was in full fall color. The reds and golds were impressive.

Jan in the very elkhorny Jackson town square

But we finally did reach Jackson, in all it's elkhorny glory. And we managed to have a great lunch at the Local before hitting the Park. My favorite story from the restaurant: I asked the waiter how the banh mi sandwich was, to which he replied, "well, it's...alternative." I ordered it anyway; it was wonderful!

We made it to Grand Teton National Park!

In case this is the only moose we see on our trip

Beautiful (and sneety) Jenny Lake

Grand Teton is such a beautiful park. We saw beautiful lakes, and high plains and marshes and trout streams and more elk and bison and lodges and all kinds of things. And snow. And sneet. The one thing we never saw was...the Tetons. The snow clouds stayed low on the mountains and blocked our view.

Unable to see the mountains, we went off in search of moose. It was one animal we had not yet been able to see. So I suggested we take a little "shortcut" to get to the Gros Ventre River. Jan's car needed to be broken in. It's fine.

Just a little "shortcut" helps break in Jan's new car

We waited an hour and a half in cold sneet, but eventually did see not one, but two moose. A bull and a cow were about 100 yards from us. I've never seen a moose in the wild before. So exciting! So we got up early the next day and went to look for them again. We were rewarded with seeing the cow just about 50 yards away. 

Female moose bedded down on the Gros Ventre

The National Museum of Wildlife Art is a great place to see more animalis!

Some whimsy at the Museum of Wildlife Art

We stayed at the Angler's Inn. Great little place right for a reasonable price near the town square. Funniest comment by a hotel guy: We said we had heard that the Flaming Gorge was a nice thing to see on our way to Colorado. He said, "That depends on what your "values" are. It's just a recreation area." "Values?" Read tomorrow's post to see how odd/funny that comment was.

Best business name: Jake's Midnight Taxidermy. 

Best vanity plate: FUNTIMZ. 

Further adventures around Yellowstone

We did a nice side trip today to Virginia City, once territorial capitol of Montana. Along the way we saw Quake Lake, Ennis, Idaho, a creepy survivalist fortress, a disguised cell tower, Beaver Ponds, snow and a golden eagle. Let's break this down...

A huge storm had been predicted. We didn't get the snowfall they thought we would, but the mountains got a beautiful coating.

The drive took us by Quake Lake, where a 1959 earthquake, followed immediately by a landslide and then a flood, created a lake over the course of a few days. Many people were killed, and very quickly. The lake and surrounding area remain an eerie landscape.

Can you find the cell phone tower in this picture?

We dropped into a wide river valley along yet another lovely trout stream. Sporadic houses could be seen on the bluff over the river -- some of them with ranch names out front. My favorite was the one named simply "Fort." An overturned car in the driveway said "no trespassing." Vehicles and junk filled the yard. The house and other buildings were surrounded by a fort-like fence with barricades at the openings.

Other houses were more picturesque, including one that had the best cell phone tower I have ever seen.

Thinking of our grandson!

We thought of our grandson





Virginia City was very quaint, with all its original buildings from the gold rush days of 1862. But it was completely shut down for the season. Meaning I couldn't find a bathroom. We did find bathrooms in the City Hall, and got examined carefully by the sheriff while we were at it. Which is funny, because the town was eventually protected by vigilantes who rid the town of the bad, corrupt guys -- including the sheriff.

In Ennis, we stopped for treats. Jan claims to have had the best cinnamon roll in the Rockies at the Ennis Cafe



On the way back we drove through IDAHO for a few miles. So I can tick that state off my bucket list, along with Montana. Sweet!









Since the park had not, in fact, gotten shut down due to snow, we headed back into the park in the afternoon to see the Final leg of the Grand Loop. We saw, walked through and photographed a Gibbon waterfall and more Geothermal features at Norris Geyser Basin  and Artists Paintpots.

As we were winding down our trip, we happened into a picnic area. And what did we find? Cousin Curt building a bridge. So in case there are any questions out there about the veracity of his claims to work in the park, we can verify that he does in fact do so.

 After a good soak in the hotel hot tub, we finished the day by having  dinner at the Beartooth BBQ with Cheryl and Curt, who was now out of his park employee gear, but without a coat. Ask Cheryl. Better yet, ask Cheryl about the time she strapped on cross country skis and harnessed up her dog. And then the dog saw a squirrel.

Let's just say we had some good laughs. And that we are delighted to have gotten reconnected. Many thanks to them both for all the great travel and route tips!

Yellowstone!

I have never been to Yellowstone before. How could I have gone 54 years without seeing this treasure? This stunning piece of beauty and eerie piece of moonscape ; the first national park in the world -- established in 1872?  Jan keeps reminding me that he went to Yellowstone on his first honeymoon. So he knew what I was missing. Hmmph.


We looked at the weather at dinner the night before we headed to Yellowstone and burst out laughing. "Winter Storm Warning: 12 to 24 inches of snow predicted at elevations above 7,000 feet." Good thing West Yellowstone (where we are staying) is only at 6,700 feet. Whew! Ducked that one.

We entered the park yesterday, and were told by the ranger to do as much as we could before the storm hit. So we got busy! Yesterday we went to Mammoth Hot Springs (herd of elk lounging in the town square, buffalo in the parking lot) ; Norris Geyser Basin; the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone (tested our lungs by climbing down to and then back up from the brink of the lower falls; and tested my fear of heights while standing on the brink); Old Faithful (30 minutes standing in the rain to make sure we saw it blow) and many quick stops so Jan could photograph every animal and every beautiful scene along the Grand Loop.

Today we did a long walk at Old Faithful (and saw the eruption from out on the trail); walked a bunch of other trails; saw a bunch of animals; froze our wet tails off and took more pictures. Jan's camera ran out of batteries, so the last leg of our trip went more quickly. :-)

We saw lots of people fly fishing in rivers along the park. It turns out there is an international fly fishing convention here this week. (That explains why it was so hard to find a room. And also why we saw a group of people practicing casting technique in a city park.) My favorite moment was when, on one of the many times that Jan got out of the car to take a picture, I started a conversation with a guy getting into waders. I asked him if the waders kept him warm. (Did I mention how cold it was?) He said, with a very cute accent, "No. They just kind of partially keep me dry." Further conversation told that he is here with two other Swedes, fly fishing all over the Rockies. And was not even here for the convention.

After a nice soak in the hot tub here at the Kelly Inn, we met up with my cousin Curt Loeffler and his wife Cheryl. So fun to catch up!

Note: The shrimp tacos at the Buffalo Bar are excellent. The cinnamon rolls (particularly the orange frosted ones) at the Woodside Bakery are pretty darn good too.

Note 2: Must either hike more or find fewer foods delicious over the next few weeks!



Fun term we learned today (actually learned it at the National Bison Range, but it came back today): Sequester. As in, "that bulk elk is sequestering his cows in the valley." Brings a whole new meaning to all the talk we've heard lately about sequestration.