Category: Travel (Page 6 of 7)

Postcards from Yellowstone

September 20, 2012 / Steve

Park service gift stores no longer stock film and flashbulbs or prephotographed slides or View Master reels of scenic wonders, and their postcard collection is hidden in a corner. How long has it been since you have sent or received one? I think I still have a lot of 20 cent postcard stamps somewhere (it now costs 32 cents to mail one, which is just about what they cost to buy). So in lieu of postcards, here are some pictures we took a couple of days ago at Yellowstone National Park. You have seen thousands of photos like these before, and so have we; we’ve even seen some of this in an Imax theater; but it doesn’t compare to the real thing.

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The park suffered from a devastating fire in 1988 which burned a good portion of the pine trees. In keeping with their spirit, the Park Service pretty much let it burn, and has taken no steps to alter the course of nature; and nature has responded with a good growth of new forest where the old trees were. Sometimes the trees are the same species, sometimes they’re different. Towering over the new forest are occasional reminders of what was there 24 years ago; in some cases, there are tiny spots of green growth high up an otherwise dead tree. It’s weird.

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The viewing gallery around the Old Faithful geyser can probably hold over a thousand ogling visitors; the next eruption was scheduled for 3:59 p.m. The crowd assembled, and when nothing had happened by 3:05, several people started grumbling and looking at their watches. “Hey, you’re on vacation,” I wanted to say. After a couple of false starts, the geyser geysed, but because of the wind blowing the water and steam away from us it wasn’t quite as awesome as some of the ViewMaster reels I remember. We followed in the middle of post-eruption bumper to bumper traffic all the way back to Jackson.

Tetons

September 19, 2012 / Steve

A dangreous forest fire near Jackson has brought lots of firefighters to the area, and depending on the prevailing winds, your view of the Grand Tetons can be obscured by smoke.

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We drove from our condo in Wilson (west of Jackson and on the way to the Jackson Hole ski area) on the back road to Jackson Lake Lodge. Along the way, we were stopped: gridlock on the dirt road. It seems that several people were ignoring the copious Park Service warnings about wild animals, and were chasing a good sized bear with their digital cameras and zoom lenses ready. I wouldn’t have blamed the bear if he’d turned around and attacked them!

Jenny Lake is spectacular and the aspen trees are at the height of their color. It’s been as dry here as in Colorado.

Halfway up the narrow road to Signal Mountain, we were stopped by a young bird – it looked like a falcon – in the middle of the road. I stopped. He didn’t go away; instead, he jumped on the car and glared at us. When I started to drive, the bird hung on and rode with us around a hairpin turn to a scenic turnout where several other tourists saw our stowaway and started snapping pictures. Perhaps they found the falcon perched on a green Honda CRV with LT WORF license plates a little unusual. I cracked the window a bit and handed my camera to one of the bemused tourists (afraid that if I opened it any more the damned bird would jump inside) who took our picture.

The falcon then glared at Georgia, pooped on the hood, and jumped off, to the amusement of everyone.

Ken Burns was right. The national parks are one of America’s best ideas. And their $10 lifetime senior pass is the deal of the century.

Pueblo

July 28, 2012 / Steve

We visited Georgia’s cousin Dan, and his wife (and Georgia’s BFF from high school) Tess in Pueblo, Colorado, late in July. It’s always a relaxing trip, and both of us thoroughly enjoy their company. Dan and I had lunch at the iconic Gray’s Coors Tavern, which in our expert opinion and based upon several comparison tests, is the home of the best Pueblo Slopper. In addition we had a chance to visit Bishop Castle, a seriously weird building and testament to the owner’s independent streak, located SW of Pueblo; we also went to see Bent’s Fort, another great national monument, and Trinidad, the entire downtown area of which is on the National Register of Historic Places. We also took an afternoon trip to Canon City, home of the Colorado State Penitentiary museum. Nobody wanted to visit the museum, so only I saw the gas chamber, which is in its own little kiosk with a helpful warning sign that it’s no longer bolted down and may tip over if you try to sit in it for pictures! Finally, we had dinner in the diner on the Royal Gorge Railroad, a stub of the former Rio Grande Tennessee Pass line. Probably the most scenic 12 miles of American railroading, it’s one of those touristy things that none of us had ever done before, but plan to do again.

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Glade Park

May 15, 2012 / Steve

The Colorado National Monument is spectacular, but if you take another route up and back, you can find some really interesting scenery in a place called Glade Park. It’s a favorite of Terry’s, who discovered the place when he was working as a surveyor for Drexel Barell. He has hidden several Geocaches in the vicinity, and given the quality of cell service, should be able to deploy a Munzee or two.

Stu and I rode there today. Click on any picture to enlarge it; click again and it will shrink back to its original size.

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The Glade Park Store has been in the same crossroads location for 100 years; it’s the real thing, with soft drinks, snacks, and everything the neighbors might need.

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Craig 50 Years Later

April 23, 2012 / Steve

I was a 16 year old junior at Boulder High School during Spring Break, 1962. This is me, Cathy and our dogs:

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There were a few other railroad geeks in high school that year; three of us decided to take one of the last trips on the Rio Grande Railroad’s Yampa Valley a three car train that ran from Denver to Craig every day. As you look at the timetable, remember that this was back when railroads welcomed passengers… [singlepic id=66 w=320 h=240 float=center]

The train waiting to depart at Union Station in Denver: [singlepic id=62 w=320 h=240 float=center] This particular locomotive, which was built in 1947, was retired and scrapped in 1967.

The Yampa Valley took all day to reach Craig, and stopped every few miles to pick up passengers (a very few) and large metal milk cans left by the tracks by the farmers to transport to the dairy. It also transported mail, and was known as the Yampa Valley Mail; but lost the mail contract in the early 1960’s.

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The train, the conductor, and the three passengers arrived in Craig late in the day [singlepic id=59 w=320 h=240 float=center]

The Craig train station was pretty imposing for a small town; it was the end of the line for David Moffat’s dream of a standard gauge railroad from Denver to Salt Lake City, which went bankrupt when it reached Craig.

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We stayed a local motel and enjoyed the sights. Questions:

How many motels would rent a room to three high school kids these days?
How many of today’s overprotective helicopter parents would let their kids take such a trip?
How did we handle it without a cell phone?

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The West Theater is at the same location in Craig, and the marquee hasn’t changed a bit, but instead of Elvis Presley, they were showing “Mirror Mirror.” You won’t find Standard Oil or Texaco filling stations, either.

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Flash forward 50 years

Friends Stu Mall, Jeff McNulty and I took a motorcycle trip on April 22, just about 50 years to the day after my excursion on the Yampa Valley Mail. My goal was to deploy Munzees (a hide and seek game using smartphones) in Northwest Colorado. We managed to cover over 300 miles.

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My moto in the front, Jeff and Stu in back, in Meeker.

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The old depot was hidden behind a string of coal cars, near an old gas station. Anybody else remember this oil company, which later became Enco / Esso / Exxon?

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Walking along the tracks:

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The formerly imposing depot is now a crumbling wreck, one of many forgotten structures in Union Pacific’s vast property inventory:

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That’s me holding up the roof. I’ve aged a bit too.

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… and that’s the end of the ride report. We had lunch and left heading west for Rangely, then Jeff peeled off at Douglas Pass to head back to his home in Grand Junction, and Stu and I meandered slowly back home via the Piceance Creek road, which us normally filled with industrial traffic for the many oil, gas and other extractive mineral ventures located there, but which was empty and beautiful on a Sunday afternoon.

Thanks, guys. The trip was a lot of fun. The memories: priceless.

Santa Fe and Los Alamos

March 26, 2012 / Steve

After spending a day marveling at the galleries and enjoying the mellow ambiance of Santa Fe, I wanted something different, so we decided to visit nearby Bandelier National Monument and Los Alamos. The National Monument has a huge number of Native American sites, but it was also the site of a devastating fire last year which closed most of the visitor’s areas. When we got there, a sign at the entrance station warned that there would be at least a 20 minute wait for parking. We drove down to the bottom of the canyon and they were right – so we came back. Now if I’d been riding my moto, there would have been ample parking. Oh well.
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