Bear Lodge a.k.a. Devil's Tower

We woke up to our last day here in Sundance, WY with heavy dense fog. We were going to stay home all day but then decided to head over to Spearfish. Sparky needed a haircut and some groceries, so off we went. We remember Spearfish from last year, when we did the Spearfish Canyon Scenic drive, and Sparky went to see the coolest art gallery ever--The Termesphere Gallery, by artist Dick Termes. The drive back on a rural road to his gallery is well worth it. If you are ever in Spearfish, S.D., go see this marvelous gallery that is like being in another galaxy! A very talented artist...And Spearfish is a beautiful town. There is a fantastic scenic drive through Spearfish Canyon that is a must see, also.

After we returned from getting what we needed, we headed out to Devil's Tower, also known as Bear Lodge, one of the most popular native American names for this special place. On our way there, we checked out the Vore Buffalo Jump. This is a natural sinkhole used as a bison trap by native Americans from 1500-1800. You can't see any bones or anything when you look at the site from above, but it's still one of the most important archeological sites dating to the Late Prehistoric Plains Indians. There is a building at the bottom of the site to protect it from vandalism and to expand future excavations. Estimates are that the bones of more than 15,000 bison are in this pit, along with tons of artifacts and tools.....The tiny visitor's center was not open, so we just looked into the huge pit, saw the building at the bottom (built to protect and expand the excavation site) and left.....

Devil's Tower or Bear Lodge

Here's what we really hoped to see today (photo above)....Bear Lodge or Devil's Tower, named by the white man....

This is the nation's first historical monument. It is a sacred place to many Indian tribes, and unfortunately, we haven't done much to protect the heritage of this amazing geological formation....It's considered a premier rock climbing and crack climbing site. No, it's not a "hot spot" for smoking stuff that's really bad for you...Crack climbing afficionados climb without ropes, using their body to jam themselves or parts of themselves into just the cracks to make their way to the top. We have discarded the native American's wishes to keep this place a sacred place for them, despite signs otherwise....After seeing the importance of this site, and the evidence of prayer bundles and gifts left in the forest surrounding the base, it sort of made me feel like anyone who climbs this would be sort of like defacing a church or a cathedral. That might sound a little extreme, after all, it's just a piece of huge rock, but the history and legends and feelings of a people who were here long before we were, deserve a little more respect. Why isn't it called Bear Lodge, it's most common original name, for example? Just another sad piece of American history and the treatment of its early peoples, in my humble opinion.

Here is an explanation of how important this area is to the native people that lived here...I feel it is better said than I could say in my own words.....

I love the native legends and stories that have been handed down from generation to generation about how the earth was formed. Here's one about the red rock formations that you see coming up to the tower on the drive in....

It was a VERY dreary, cold, dark day, but the red rock canyons and the Bear Lodge formation were really something to see....

By the time we walked the one trail around the base of the tower, it was getting dark and time to head home. We were glad to see a lot of deer in the nearby woods and campground as we were coming back out the drive. There were THREE bucks in the woods and one with a really huge rack--Eldy said possibly a 14 pointer, but it was too hard to catch a photo of them..I did manage to get one photo of some does...I never get tired of seeing wildlife the way nature intended us to see them.....

We are at the Broken Arrow Campground, 4 miles from the city of Custer and very close to Custer State Park...we're excited to get back to this area again. The park is 21.50 a night for full hookups and free wi-fi. There are a LOT of horses here, it's known for its equestrian friendly atmosphere, but smells and flies are not a problem!  Of course, it's only 37 degrees here right now, but reviews have stated they do a terrific job of keeping the area clean and hospitable to non-horse owners. The sites are pull thrus, roomy and spacious.  We'll be here for three more days, and can't wait to get started exploring Custer State Park. This is a jumping off point for the Needles (more amazing geological formations), some terrific scenic drives, Mt. Rushmore, and lots lots more......See you later......Sparky and Eldo

A White Knuckled Drive From Cody to Sundance, WY?

Not for my Eldy....(Heh, heh, heh....she wasn't looking at the steering wheel or she would have seen otherwise! confesses E.) Actually, I was busy making stuff for the craft sale at the rally coming up at the end of the month. I have such supreme confidence in Eldy's driving abilities that I don't worry unless I smell something burning...Which I did...

"What's that smell?" I sweetly asked my honey on the drive today...."It must be the brakes, I've had to lean on them pretty hard driving through this pass just this last stretch." "Oh--I wondered what that was!" And I'm also wondering, do we have any brakes left? Is there any smoke coming out of the Honda being towed in the back? Did I forget to release the parking brake? Is there smoke coming out of the wheels on the motorhome? No, no, and I never put the parking brake on the CRV in the first place so I WON'T forget to release it, and-- no. Whew! But I did keep checking the rear camera for a few more minutes looking for smoke! However, the brake smell went away quickly, and I went back to my crafting....

We had stopped in Cody at the visitor's center to ask what's the best way over the Bighorn Mountains to Sundance? There are two major passes of over 9,000 feet plus, and we thought about avoiding them all together by heading north up to Billings, Montana, then coming east, then back south. But the visitor's center asked a few questions about what we were driving, what we were towing, then recommended highway 14/16/20 from Cody to Greybull, then 789/16/20 south, then 16 east all the way as being the easiest of all three choices over the mountains, AND it was supposed to be a great scenic drive---it was! Eldy says if that was the easiest, he'd hate to see the other two. What was interesting is we crossed the highest pass, (9,666 feet) but yet the road had less switchbacks than the other choices, they said. Eldo was in third gear most of the time-- Gearheads (ladies included)  will know what that means...I'm not sure, I just know that he had to use his brakes hard on top of the exhaust brake to keep his speed under control. He did a great job, I had no idea what a challenge it was. Had we had the old Challenger gasser, I would have been the one with white knuckles and we probably would have had to pull off the side of the road so I could use the bathroom, or go hide my head under the covers in the back. That RV would have been so engine challenged to get over the mountains! It would make a very loud whining sound when the engine was pushed to the limits, so we're glad we have the more capable diesel pusher now. We got 'er done, and Eldy feels that was a valid recommendation as to the route to take for the size motorhome we are (40 ft. diesel and with a tow).  Spectacular views for a majority of the way....(But not for the driver, Eldo wants you to know. You are too busy watching your gauges and the road!) It was not one of those routes where the cliff drops right off the edge of the road like the Going to the Sun Road in Glacier, it was just lots of climbing and steep grades downward--some were 10% grades.

We made it safely to Sundance, WY...And NOT the Sundance Robert Redford is famous for, just so you ladies know...Boy, is that showing my age! Robert Redford is getting OLD and you don't hear much about him any more....We are at the Mountain View RV Park and Campground in Sundance, WY. The rate for this park is 16.00+ a night (Passport America). And we just happened to get a site right next to our friends, Sherry and David Boyd! (In the Direction of Our Dreams) We'll be here a total of two days. This park is a no frills park as far as sites. Fairly close together...They have a very small swimming pool which was still open (!), laundry, game room, hot showers, propane fill, wireless internet which was very speedy, 30/50 amp sites and some pull thrus. Our Verizon air card worked very well, AT & T phones were full bars and no problems.

There are lots of attractions here in the area--Devil's Tower, for one (the famous rock/cliff that was in the sci-fi movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind.  Other points of interest are the Vore Buffalo Jump, (where native Americas herded the buffalo into a deep pit to slay the buffalo) Warren Peak fire tower, Deadwood (old historical western town), and Spearfish Canyon. We are only going to be here one more day, so won't be able to see much. We mainly stopped by to see Sherry and David. Sherry is behaving herself and staying off her ankle as much as possible. David is doing a good job of attending to her needs and she is managing to do some activities despite the ankle. 

Today is a very foggy day, we're socked in....looks like a "take it easy" day. Tomorrow we leave for Custer!

Sparky and Eldo Ride

I did it! I got Eldo out on the bike trail for our last day here in Tetonia, ID, and boy, did he ride! He went 11.1 miles round trip on the same bike trail I went on yesterday, the one from the Teton Transit Center down to Teton Village...and we saw some more pretty views....Above is a little creek rest stop on the way to Teton Village...They have a couple of really nice places to stop and take a breather along the trail.

Yesterday we left Tetonia for the route to Cody/Wapiti--....It was an amazing drive! We decided to avoid Teton Pass and instead drive the motorhome and tow through Yellowstone--all the way through the park to the east entrance and on to highway 14/16/20 straight to Cody.....It was wonderful sitting up high in the motorhome and seeing herds of bison that we hadn't seen in our many trips through the park. The herds are back in Hayden Valley causing several traffic jams. One was for bison right by the side of the road, I mean just a few feet from the motorhome window. Sparky wanted to hop out the front door of the motorhome to get a shot just inches away from this big guy, but Eldo wanted to keep rollin' in the MH so the bull wouldn't get any ideas about butting the side of it! Sparky got a photo out the rain spotted window, but it doesn't look as close as he really was! We were looking eye to eye! (Glad I kept moving! exclaims Eldo). Yeah, especially since he turned and started coming toward the window after I snapped the shot, then crossed the road behind us!

There was another traffic jam of at least 40 cars. We think it was a bear jam because there were no bison in sight by the time we passed through the clog, and there were steep hills on both sides of the road. Sparky was so disappointed that she didn't get to see a bear! (Not me! says E., with relief! I didn't have to buy that 50.00 can of bear spray to protect my impulsive Sparky!)

charred trees but beautiful undergrowth in fall colors

The drive through Yellowstone towards the east side had downhill switchbacks which required total concentration by awesome Eldo! Sparky was in the living room of the motorhome with both windows open on both sides of the coach, screens and all. The wind was whistling through the coach, and Sparky was flip flopping back and forth between the sides of the coach taking photos and exclaiming how fantastic the views were! If Eldo hadn't been negotiating curve after curve, he would have sworn the coach was rockin' there was so much movement in the back! She couldn't make up her mind which side to stay on to take photos. She was sticking her head so far out the window, people were laughing to see this crazy woman poppin' in and out of the windows with the camera sticking out. (It's a good thing you didn't get smacked by another big RV passing us by! says E.) Back and forth, back and forth she went and here's what she saw.....charred trees with new undergrowth changing to fall colors, making a stark contrast to the black trees (we saw forest fires in the distance and saw and smelled the smoke even closer....)

 Another pretty view.....

Buffalo Bill State Park-North Fork Campground

We made it to Yellowstone Inn and RV in Cody/Wapiti...supposedly a Passport America Park, BUT--it's not any longer! We didn't want to pay 31.00 a night, even with a Good Sam's discount, so on we pressed a little further.  We decided to stop at Buffalo Bill's State Park....We officially boondocked! Yay! Seventeen dollars a night, no hookups, but water was available and there was a dump. If you are a Wyoming resident, it's 10.00 a night, a little more reasonable...But the views---WOW! (See above photo)

We had a nice long pull through site...nice separate picnic area, there's a great playground in the middle of a huge field for families with children, and there is a campground section along the river that runs by the state park into the Buffalo Bill Reservoir. The campground was far enough away from the highway, so it was a very peaceful overnight stay. I rode my bike around the park for about six miles before calling it a day......Tomorrow is a big driving day, 300+ miles to Sundance, WY. We're going to catch up with Sherry and David, In the Direction of Our Dreams, to see how Sherry is doing with her broken ankle, and how David's holding up with Sherry, lol!

Another view from Buffalo Bill State Park, Wyoming

See you tomorrow...on the road through the Bighorn Mountains.....(Uh-oh! There are some 9,000+ foot passes on two out of three possible routes, worries E.) We'll see what Eldo decides to do!

Tetonia, Idaho

Where the heck is Tetonia? (population 200+) Why, it's in Idaho on the border right here where we are staying! Here's a map...

You can see why Eldy picked the RV park in Tetonia as it is relatively close to the Grand Teton National Park. You just have to know that to get to the park involves going over the Teton Pass. It seems to be the only way to get there from this direction.

We were very well treated by the office staff at Mountain View Lodge and RV Resort where we stayed..they gave us the Passport America discount for the entire six days we were here, first we got it for the first three days, then they extended it thru the weekend for us as well. Very nice and friendly staff....the wi-fi is really fast, but that depends where you are in the park of course, or how close you are to the tower, or how many people are using it, I suppose. The Verizon air card worked fine, but again, that depended where we were using it in the park.  Much of the time it was slower than molasses!

Although they are lacking in shade, the Mountain View Resort and RV Park really was a great place to stay for our time here, while we were exploring Grand Teton National Park. This park also has a motel for travelers besides the RV Park, and the RV park is open all year, a rarity in this part of the country. Sites are level and gravel. Six days for about 93.00--terrific! Several complaints--the sewer connect is high up off the ground, making your hose have to go uphill to dump.  Another concern that might bother some is that the sites have shared pedestals so each site alternates direction with the pull ins--if you had a neighbor, their slides would be VERY close to yours, closer than if each site had its individual pedestal for electric. This park seems to be run much more informally, there were people sleeping in their cars off site several nights. Dogs ran loose and pooped wherever they felt like it. There was supposed to be a tent camping area but several people didn't use it.  There were hunters who slept in their trucks as well.

The "activity" building houses a nice laundromat, a nice "living room" for people to gather and there are a couple of game machines and a treadmill in there. All that being said, it's a nice facility for the money we paid. The owners  are extremely nice...we would definitely stay here again despite the negatives.

We really like our location even though it's about 40 miles from the park. It's an enjoyable drive in, except for the current road construction that causes some significant delays on your way to Grand Teton National Park. You pass really cute little towns like Driggs, and Victor...These are growing little towns..nice houses and subdivisions are springing up along the highway, and there are some great little restaurants of varying ethnicities like Thai and Mexican in the towns of Victor and Driggs....There's even a little restaurant here in Tetonia that has excellent food--The North End Bar and Grill. There's a terrific, huge grocery store in Driggs, (population 1439) called Broulims that has all kinds of specialty items and great food selection, although a little on the pricey side. Between Driggs and Victor is a drive in movie theater that's still operating!

We've really enjoyed our stay here in the Grand Tetons area...Jackson Hole is a very cool town. We didn't sample very many restaurants, but I'm sure there are many good ones. The only one we tried was the Tavern on the Square Bar and Grill and it was great! The national park itself was wonderful, the view of the Teton Range is fantastic. We actually liked the surrounding area outside the park better than the park...The park is so wide open unless you are venturing into the mountains to hike and about all you see is sagebrush meadows with the mountains as a backdrop....We didn't get to see much wildlife other than one moose and lots of elk who showed up for about two days in a meadow and then left town. We'll definitely come back to the area to see more of this beautiful area.....

We are leaving the park tomorrow for points east of here. We've decided NOT to tow the car over Teton Pass. It's enough of a drive to get the motorhome over the 8400+ foot pass. Eldy is working out the drive back to Indiana. We are going to boondock a lot on the way home to save money. Flying J here we come!

Ride, Sparky, Ride!

It's football weekend....and it's Notre Dame football...Eldy's favorite team has switched to a channel called Versus, so Eldy can no longer watch as we don't have satellite or cable in the motorhome. BUT---the clubhouse has ESPN, so guess where Eldy plunked himself down for the afternoon to watch LOTS of football? Sparky decided to check out the Jackson Hole bike trail down by Teton Village while Eldy watched football. Eldy has had VERY little TV lately at the last few campgrounds so he's a very happy camper, and a very deserving one....

I never get tired of seeing this beautiful view coming over the Teton pass

I drove myself over the pass--no sheep around today (see "Sheep Jam" blog) and it gets a little easier each time you do it....With a 4 cylinder engine, you can really hear that baby whine, which makes me fret that the car is overworking itself...but the Honda CRV does just fine, you just gotta floor it to keep it going, (not really, but it's a hard push on the gas pedal all the same)...all the way down 20 m.p.h. curves down to the Teton Village Transit Center where you can park your car in the vicinity of the transit area. Then take off on a beautiful bike ride of about 6 miles one way if you go to Teton Village, which I did...One of the first things you see on the trail is this sign:

No worries, mate! There's lots of residential development around, a golf course, a boutique shopping mall, and fields across the street and it was middle of the afternoon, so I wasn't worried. There are so many "BE BEAR AWARE" signs around, it's a wonder that you don't see any bears. We haven't seen them in the national parks, we haven't seen them in the national forests, and I sure didn't see any on the bike trail today. That doesn't mean they aren't around, I know, I know....

There was a big bike race today and so the highway going into Jackson Hole was clogged with cars and and "sag wagons" (the extra bikes/parts/supply vans that follow the race and the riders). It was interesting to see the pace--I was going about 14 m.p.h. on the bike path and they were zipping by twice as fast in their colorful racing bike outfits and expensive bikes. Some of them had colorful matching shoes to match their outfits. Too chic!  Some were in teams, some were in tandems, and some were struggling behind the pack. Not sure how long the bike race was, but it was still cool to see so many participating!

I did 12 miles round trip today, and it felt great! Nice path, highly recommend it--paved all the way, and I'm sure it continued well beyond Teton Village. There are miles and miles of paved bike/hiking paths in the Grand Teton National Park, and they are building more, but they are just about all in the open. I really enjoyed the bike path along the Teton range today because it was shady, it passed by fields and forests, and there were little brooks and beautful rest stops along the way to sit and admire God's handiwork.... I think Eldy should see this bike path and try it out tomorrow, it's gorgeous and rather flat, not hard at all!...(Oh, boy, I knew I was going to get into trouble for watching football all afternoon! laments E.)

You can see all kinds of things on this trail...maybe wildlife, maybe not! Maybe interesting things to look at?--you bet! How about this garage mural?

Great ride today, fantastic view of the Tetons....Hopefully, Eldo will get to see the trail, too! (He's off watching the close score and the last few minutes of the Notre Dame game or he'd have a comment, lol!) He's a good sport, I bet I can get him out on the trail with a reward at the end...like a Kokanee beer at the local tavern in downtown Jackson Hole)....See you later!   Sparky and Eldo

September 11, 2011

Today is Sunday, September 11, 2011...We decided that for this day we would not post anything about our daily life today....We've been reading and remembering the day, September 11, 2001....There are so many things that we did not know about that are being brought to our attention..more individual stories, more heroism, more details, and more information. We thought it would be appropriate to take this day to remember and honor the day and the sacrifices that were made to save others and to say a prayer of thanks to those who defend our country and protect our freedoms.....It's important to never forget and we won't......take care, and we will see you tomorrow.....

SHEEP Jam

Well, it wasn't enough to finally find a moose...Sparky now needs to find a BULL moose. (Oh, good grief! says E.) ..and some elk goin' at it so she can hear some more elk bugling! THAT was really cool to hear the other night! So off we go, headed towards the Grand Teton National Park.

Here they come!

On our way to Teton Pass, (8400 feet with switchbacks and 20 mph. curves) which we have to go over every time we want to go to the park, Sparky saw something out of the corner of her eye--it looked like a ton of cement sacks off on the roadside stacked up, but they were doing what looked like "The Wave!"   HUNH?   "STOP THE CAR!" comes the command...Actually, it wasn't a command, Sparky said, "OH, MY GOSH! I think there's something going on over there, it looks like cement bags, but they are moving! Let's go check it out!" And Eldy is so agreeable to that, he's retired, he's got nothing better to do than drive Sparky around so she can get her photos, so we did a 360 turn (a safe one!) and back we went. We parked at the entrance to a campground road, and what do we see, but a TON of sheep coming down the hillside with two cowboys on horseback pushing them downwards towards us. It was comical to watch the sheep...They came cascading down the hillside, at a little trot and then a walk, and when they got to the bottom, they stopped and just milled around.

"Uh, which way do we go? Which way do we go? Do you know? Ba-a-a-a-ah!"

They didn't know where they were supposed to go next. They stopped and looked at us, like looking to us for directions. Then they proceeded to mill around in circles till the cowboys and some extra ranch hands starting pushing them towards the parking lot where we were sitting in the car. We didn't know it, but 2500 (!) sheep were about to be herded out the exit driveway, ACROSS the busy highway, and into the next field. We had to get out of the way!

The owner of the 2500 sheep calmly watching his workers push/prod/urge the sheep across the highway...

There is no leader in a herd of sheep, they all follow the one next to each other, hence all the quotations about sheep and their lack of sense of direction (!), people acting like sheep, etc., etc. The sheep herding dogs were fun to watch. The dogs bite the sheep in the butts to get them to go where they want them to go. It was kind of like watching a revolving door full of sheep, watching them move. They moved in gradually widening circles,  then the cowboys on horses and ranch hands on foot smack branches on the ground while the dogs work the herd to move them ever forwards in this revolving circle.  We saw the owner standing off by himself waiting for his ranch hands to get the sheep moving towards the highway and overseeing the whole procedure.  Eldy and I talked to him for a few minutes, and we asked him, incredulously, "You mean you are going to take these sheep across the highway????" (watching the semis and cars roll by)..."How are you going to get them to stop?" And he says with absolute certainty, "Oh, they'll stop." I will say the semis weren't rolling very fast as they were approaching the high Teton Pass. With their branches smacking the ground and the help of the sheep herding dogs, the farm hands pushed the sheep in the direction of the highway. Once the truckers saw the herd starting to cross, they came to a stop, traffic backed up in both directions and people came pouring out of their cars to get photos.  Here's how it went.....and rather smoothly at that...It was an amazing to see!

And 2500 sheep passed across the highway without a mishap......The things you see when you travel!

To the park, onward, Eldy! We went to the park yesterday to look for moose AND to do a 2.7mile hike in the Jedediah Smith Wilderness. And yes, we got our ranger maps first....The road back to the hike was ridiculous! A ten mile drive back into the forest with potholes after pothole, big rocks, washed out areas, but it is one of the hikes recommended on a big list the ranger gave us, and one of the more popular ones at that, so we kept driving. We found out later, that road conditions sounded about normal to the ranger we talked to after the hike. Anyway, we came to the unmarked parking lot and there was the trail. It started out pretty enough with a creek running along the trail. The creek was loaded with butterflies.. The trail was loaded with horse poop and flies! I guess most of the trails in this wilderness are shared with horses, but the smell and the flies were a big turn off to us on this particular hike. That's one reason we didn't go to the end of the hike.

Nice view, but it was quickly buried as we went back into the forest

The end of the hike has a large wind cave, but we didn't find that out until AFTER we came back down. Supposedly, there are waterfalls along the way. We didn't see a single one, maybe they were all dried out. The trail description says "easy hike" so we thought we'd try it.  HA! Not so easy, good ascent all the way....We got our hearts a pumpin'--(the hike was at about an 8,000 foot elevation)..but it was BORING! Scrub brush, dead pines, brambles along both sides crowding the narrow path, nothing really interesting geologically speaking, no birds visible, no cool rock formations, no water. Ah, we missed the wind cave! That was probably interesting, but we didn't enjoy the hike after about 1 1/2 miles of the same landscape, so back down the hillside we came. The coolest part of the hike was all the butterflies flitting about the stream at the beginning....

One of many different varieties

Love these little blue ones!

A little disappointed in our hike for the day, we headed back to Grand Teton National Park to head towards the Moose-Wilson Road to look for moose again....no luck! On the way back from Moose-Wilson Road, we looked for our elk friends again just south of Teton Village. No luck there, either! The bull elk has maybe chased the females into the woods? Maybe he didn't like the audience he's had the last two nights at the field!

It was still a beautiful drive back home......We think we are going on a bike ride on a beautiful bike trail over by Teton Village tomorrow.....The trail says watch for moose along that bike path..great! MAYBE we'll see one, but it's doubtful. The trail passes by residential areas. You wonder sometimes how old those "watch for wildlife" signs are...maybe it's been years and they were put up before developers showed up! At any rate, we'll let you know what we do tomorrow like we always do! Thanks for reading us today.....   Sparky and Eldo