Category Archives: national park

bikes, GPS, history, MTB, national park, roadtrip, snow, travel, USA

Scottsbluff, first ride & Rocky Mtn NP (more snow)

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We got away from Alliance nice & early & headed for Scottsbluff, as I’d heard there was some biking nearby.  Previously, I couldn’t work out the references to Alliance being the heart of the Sand Hills as everything was flat.  Quickly we found the big sand dunes, they were covered in beach grasses & I was sure we should have been on the coast, not thousands of miles inland.  I saw something I haven’t seen for many months – a dairy farm with real dairy cows!  They still looked to be wintering & feeding close to the shed, nonetheless I’m claiming it.  With time to spare, we could afford to stop & look at random abandoned things.  The old motel is a steal – it’s got new-fangled electric heating after all.

Bypassing the town unintentionally, we headed for Scottsbluff National Monument – having no idea what it was, apart from some impressive looking bluffs.  As it turned out, this area was an important part of the Oregon Trail (not the computer game, the real deal).  Scottsbluff & the Mitchell Pass through it were about a third of the way into the trail from Missouri & marked the end of the so-called Great American Desert.  It must have been quite something to make it there after two or three months & realise there was still so much further to go.  We spent a little time in the Visitor Center learning a bit, then walked on the trail a while (it was muddy enough in places to walk over, must’ve been awful out of summer with a wagon) & then drove to the top for some good views.

The trailhead was not much of a drive from the Oregon Trail (although I’m not sure that those are related, I can’t imagine pioneers heading up into the Wildcat Hills to hit some singletrack). I’d only read brief details of this ride on a forum & knew it wasn’t that long & was on our path – perfect for my first ride of the summer (without a trace of snow, that is). It was still quite cool, but dry – my lungs didn’t appreciate the chill, but we got up the hill eventually. There wasn’t a lot of signage so I just went all over the place exploring – it was so good to be back on the bike. Most of the climbing wasn’t too steep & the trail was mostly wide, although there was this nasty bridge.

I did find this substantial picnic shelter that seemed over-designed for the number of people that visit it (I didn’t see a soul on my whole ride – on a Saturday afternoon).

Occasionally, I popped out of the trees & could see where I’d come from & get my bearings again.

It was another couple of hours to drive to Fort Collins – in our fifth state, Colorado. Although grey night last night, it’s a very nice town – lots of lovely old houses & big old trees. I would have been tempted to stay more than one night if we were not getting so sick of rain & cold after ten days. So this morning, we headed up to Rocky Mountain National Park (a little west) to see some wildlife & drive through to Grand Junction (west CO). The drive out took us through a great skinny canyon & by the time we got to the park it was very foggy. It turned out that the road through was still closed for the season, but we went as far as we could (about 2800m) & looked at the snow, thought it was cold & turned around.

Bits of the park were nice, it was a pity we couldn’t see the great views; we didn’t see any moose or anything else interesting, just more lupins (actually didn’t see any bloody lupins), elk & bighorn sheep. Thankfully we didn’t have to backtrack much due to the road closure, just head south to I-70. The road was tortuous & still pretty high up, it was evident that they (there were lots of scattered houses forming a nice mountain community) had had quite a few inches of snow in the last day or two.

Just before the interstate we went through some very western & old looking mining towns – Black Hawk (founded during the Pikes Peak gold rush) was the most impressive (I’d be more impressed if they hadn’t banned bikes from the streets).

We were soon on I-70 & climbed steadily to cross the Continental Divide. The tunnels through the divide sit at 3400m above sea level & are 2.7km long – it was quite a tunnel that we went through. From there it was mostly downhill (& quite steeply at times too) to Grand Junction at 1400m. The scenery changed dramatically from snow covered trees, to trees & the large ski-resort town of Vail (reminded me a bit of Canmore – lots of new housing that looks like it sits empty most of the year) & then we crossed the Colorado River for the first time. For a while, we were through open valley-bottom plains & then plunged in to tight twisty canyons with very impressive rock – even saw a few climbers on crags right next to the road. By now it was getting hot & the clothes we had on for the morning’s snow & fog were too much. When we rolled in to Grand Junction almost 600km later, we realised we’d gone from close to zero to thirty degrees Celsius in five hours. It sure is nice to be in shorts, T-shirt & flip-flops/jandals.

engineering, history, national park, roadtrip, travel, USA, vehicles

Wall Drug & Badlands

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With the weather still uninspiring, actually downright dreary, we reversed our intended loop & headed for the South Dakota Air & Space Museum. That would have been worth of pinning a tail on if most of the planes hadn’t been outside. Next door to Ellsworth Air Force Base, there was a very interesting exhibit on the Berlin Airlift there – SD seems proud of the role they played in it as half of the B29s came from Ellsworth. The museum was OK, in fact it was pretty good considering it was free. Outside in the rain there were plenty of planes. The best examples were the B-29 Superfortress & the B1-B. Despite getting damp & cold, it was neat that none of the planes were roped off, so you could wander right under them & have a good look – well, as good a look you could get before getting sick of the rain. Like all good air force museums there was a Huey – this always amuses me as the RNZAF is still flying these.

The signs to Wall Drug Store had started some hundreds of miles away in Billings, MT, & now they were increasing in regularity alongside I-90. Apparently the signs to this tourist attraction start even further east of Wall than they do west. The signs are now a bit of an institution & they sure do liven up the side of the interstate, after fifty miles I couldn’t wait to see what was there. I may have heard of this phenomenon somewhere, possible from one of Bill Bryson’s wonderful books, as the anticipation that was building seemed to be what should have been happening. From one drug store in the ‘30s, Wall Drug is now its own little mall of more than twenty stores (western wear, outdoor gear, jewelry, books, a huge café, shooting galleries & so on). There was quite a bit of local history displayed around the place – especially in delightfully pointless dead-end corridors. Although much of the wares were tat, we spent a good while there out of the rain – I was especially amused by the large T-Rex head that would come to life every twelve minutes at very high volume & send toddlers into hysterics.

On a side note of strange things you see on the back of semis on the interstate – how’s this for the dinkiest & most mobile bucket wheel you’ve ever seen?

We took a slight detour to go & check out a Minuteman site. This one was decommissioned, which is hardly a shock – there’s not much chance of tourist wandering in & checking out a live ICBM (inter-continental ballistic missile) underground site. There wasn’t a lot to see (a deep hole in the ground with a missile body in it), but at least we didn’t get shot for entering through the gate.

Finally, we made it to the national park of the day – Badlands. Driving across the prairie grassland, I had some idea what to expect having been to the Canadian Badlands a few months ago. But not covered in snow, these were so much more beautiful with the ground just disappearing from the edge of the grassland all of a sudden where it has eroded over many years. In many places it was easy to identify numerous different strata.

First the drive through was above the spectacle, then we dropped down & drove through the bottom for a while before rising again to follow the north rim. There were some quite pointy spires just sticking up from the top of various buttes. The sights would be even more spectacular in decent light or a clear twilight; alas, these are the only photos I have to show you.

In other exciting news, as we got back close to Rapid City it stopped raining! The sun even made an appearance this evening, so hopefully there is less dodging precipitation tomorrow. That ends the first week of the trip, it’s rained, it’s snowed, we’ve done a shade over three-thousand kilometers & three states & one province (plus four National Parks). I’m still undecided whether having company, not having to eat at restaurants alone, having someone to talk to or share companionable silence with (something I’m good at) is better or not than independence, doing what you want when you want, not waiting or have someone waiting for you & being forced to talk to strangers more. Time will tell I suppose.

family, national park, roadtrip, snow, travel, USA

Yellowstone & Inescapable Winter

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Our last two days have been spent in Yellowstone National Park.  The drive up the Yellowstone River valley from the interstate to the park was quite interesting with plenty of snowy mountains to look at on the edge of a wide valley floor with still more irrigation.  As the valley narrowed closer to the park there were some interesting, sheer rock faces.  We got our annual park pass, which is a steal at $80 when one considers how many parks we are going to visit in the next three months.

With the weather forecasters warning of a lot of snow to fall (about a foot), we were pleased with just a little light drizzle in Mammoth Hot Springs (near the northern entrance).  There was a little geothermal activity here, so we pottered around the boardwalks for an hour.  Having spent so much time in Rotorua (NZ), I wasn’t overly impressed by most of it – but there were some pretty cool little features.

At least the slight whiffs of hydrogen sulphide reminded me of home.  This was the best of the area.

After noon we took the drive east towards the northeast entrance, as that was supposed to be the best route to take for spotting wildlife.  Bison (buffalo – same thing, with bison being the more scientific name apparently) were exceedingly easy to find.  With their big shaggy coats & rather small horns, Valerie seems to have decided that they look cuddly.  I’m not so sure about that – they can run pretty fast, jump higher than you’d expect & have been known to gore humans that aggravate them.

Still, we saw a lot of them.  Elk weren’t quite as plentiful, but having lived in Canmore I wasn’t so fussed (same goes for the bighorn sheep).  Best sighting of the afternoon was three wolves around a carcass – we watched for quite some time as two of them fought the other, the howls were impressive & intriguing to hear close up.  After crossing the river, they proceeded to walk along the other side of the road – so we continued to get a good look at them.  We saw a few grizzlies as we got further up the valley.  The first pair we got a good look at from about a hundred metres away as they meandered their way to the valley floor eating as they went.  We never quite made it to the NE gate, because as we climbed it got snowier & snowier & there was less chance of spotting any animals.

We took a different route to the park today, this time driving up the Gallatin River valley to West Yellowstone.  This valley was a lot closer in than yesterday’s, with more traffic coming from somewhere.  It was a beautiful drive, despite (or perhaps, because of) the cloud & drizzle.  Entering the park, we headed straight for Old Faithful.  About halfway there, the rain started to turn to snain (snow-rain) & then it was puking snow on us – big, wet heavy flakes.  This continued as we went in to the comprehensive & grand new Visitor Center & then quickly went back outside to the wet as Old Faithful was due to go off again in ten minutes.  We waited patiently, getting snowed on more & more, & finally the geyser blew.

Perhaps it was the general gloom of the day, but it didn’t seem overly impressive – I’d back Pohutu in Rotorua in a fight.  Still, it was neat to see it & it’s quite incredible that it is such a regular occurrence.  I would have like to stayed up that way a bit longer to wander around some of other activity, but the snow & icy walkways were prohibitive.  We did manage to lunch opposite another small, but still interesting, geyser a little way from the masses.  Dropping altitude, we left the snow behind & went & walked around the Norris Geyser Basin.  Although we had to climb over a lot of snow where the boardwalks were too far from the warm ground, it was nice to stretch the legs.  Some of the pools were brilliant colours & this little detour was well worthwhile.

Heading east & then south we made for Yellowstone Lake.  As we climbed & went through various meadows beside the river, it was astonishing how much snow there still was.  I though it was pretty bad around the Canadian Rockies, but this was something else.  It’ll be well in to the summer before this all melts.   The highlight of this little bit was seeing two otters playing in the river & then in the snow on the bank – they were frolicking around & having a great time.  The lake is much bigger than I expected – one big white blanket.

Returning towards Canyon Village, we snuck a quick look at the Lower Falls – these & the soft looking rock on the side of the canyon (running out of adjectives now – how can I keep this up for three months?) were also impressive (what a cop out).

Some of the canyon wall crumbled while we watched & fell in to the river (which I suppose is better than having your castle walls burning down & falling in to a swamp).

Distance travelled: 1100 km (two days – 419 + 681)
Best road sign (caution):  ROUGH SPOT AHEAD (now road signs give life prophecies?)

Canada, history, national park, roadtrip, snow, travel, USA, vehicles

They let us in!

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It didn’t dawn much brighter in Waterton Lakes on Friday, unfortunately.  That place must look stunning in the summer.

Heading out looking for a small hike, we met Dan driving the other way on the Red Rock Parkway.  Valerie was not amused by his warnings to watch for bears – “we’ve got a grizzly in a trap up in the campground, but the campground is closed; watch for others – they’re waking up & they’re hungry”.


In the end, we didn’t get much of a hike in as everything was still covered in snow, & quite deeply too.

Consequently, we started our run to the border.  In the town of Carsford we got distracted by a large carriage museum.  We were told that it’s the second largest collection of carriages in the world – the biggest is in Lisbon.  It sure seemed big – I’ve never seen so many bleeding aerials, I mean carriages; there were all sorts: working wagons, cabooses, sleighs, society, fire engines, dump wagons, chuck wagons, stage coaches, sulkies & more I can’t remember the name of.

The history was fascinating – especially as a lot of it related to the settlement & pioneering of the West.  I resisted the chance for a photo in the carriage Jackie Chan used in Shanghai Noon (it was comparatively boring).  There was a restoration workshop attached & one of the old guys who worked there (reminds me of the Kauri Museum north of Auckland) delighted in showing me how they make those big wagon wheels.

A contrast showing restoration work improvement (of the carriage, I haven’t had any restoration work done).

Lunch done with, it was a short hop to the 49th Parallel & the border crossing.  We did rather a lot better than the couple before who were turned around & with no hassles we filled our forms out & paid our six dollars & we were in Montana.  I had hoped to have a look around Glacier National Park, but it was just more frozen lakes & I’ve been seeing them all winter so we continued south.  The Road to the Sun, when it opens for summer, sounds amazing.  Highway 89 continued south through stunted & sparse forest climbing & winding up & through some of the largest snow banks I’ve seen all winter.  There was a noticeable change in prosperity from Alberta – it seemed that to live in NW Montana you had to have a hodgepodge of trailers littered with at least half a dozen old cars & pickups in various states of disrepair.

Gassed up (somehow managed to have someone else pay for a few gallons) we decided to push on to Helena for the night.  As we left it, we realized we’d been in a reservation & once out of it, the farmland started to look more intensive.  I was surprised to see a lot of irrigators, particularly large centre pivots.  We definitely were in the Big Sky State as we chewed up the miles (yes, I’ve had to start reading the inside dial on the speedometer).

Just before the Interstate (I-15) we went through a neat canyon, with the sun shining on the foreground & an ominous black clouding the horizon it was spectacular.

I think I’m on to my tenth state now & I’m pretty sure Helena is the first state capital I’ve been to.  We haven’t seen much so far except the inside of a motel room & a diner.  Hopefully we can have a little look around this morning before pushing on towards Yellowstone.  The diner last night was very much a Ma & Pa operation – it was packed & the food was simple with large portions.  To borrow a unit from Megan, flaginess was at a very high level – you couldn’t find a square metre of wall without some representation of red, white & blue (& those colours weren’t arranged in the way of the rather boring New Zealand flag).

On a side note, Montana has some great county names:  Fergus, Petroleum, Musselshell, Carbon, Treasure, Lewis & Clark, Rosebud (my ol’ son), Sweet Grass, & Beaverhead are noteworthy.

Distance Traveled: 492 km
Gas Price: 377.9
Best Meal: Finger Steaks (turned out to be wiener schnitzel)