Colorado National Monument

We're working our way down toward Albuquerque and the October Balloon Fiesta, and we're taking the opportunity to check out parts of the Rocky Mountains and Colorado Plateau that we haven't seen yet.  On Friday, September 16, 2016, we arrived in Grand Junction, Colorado, which puts us in position to see some attractions in western Colorado and eastern Utah.

On Saturday, September 17, we drove over to Colorado National Monument, which lies just a few miles west of our campground.  Here, we had to take the obligatory selfie with one of the rock formations guarding the entrance to the monument:

We drove up to the Visitor Center and pumped the park ranger for information about hikes.  Leaving the Visitor Center, we got this great view down through one of the canyons of the monument toward Fruita and Grand Junction:

We took a hike out onto a promontory, on what is called Otto's Trail.  While it is a short hike, it was a good introduction to what the Monument is all about.  The following quotation from the National Park Service website for Colorado National Monument explains why this trail is named after John Otto:

"When John Otto first saw the rugged redrock canyons south of Grand Junction in 1906, it was love at first sight. The following year he wrote, "I came here last year and found these canyons, and they feel like the heart of the world to me. I'm going to stay and build trails and promote this place, because it should be a national park."  Otto spearheaded fundraising campaigns, collected signatures for petitions, and penned newspaper editorials and endless letters to Washington politicians in support of national recognition for the ancient canyons and towering monoliths of his adopted home.  Otto lived alone in the canyons and used a pick and shovel to carve out the trails. Always the patriot, he named the rock formations he encountered after great heroes and historic events. Some of the formations, such as Independence Monument and Liberty Cap, still bear the names he gave them. Gradually, through his single-minded pursuit and his Herculean physical efforts, the scenic treasures hidden in the canyons were made accessible to the public.  Otto sought neither personal recognition nor wealth. He was seen as an eccentric and a recluse. But we he would happily abandon his solitude for an opportunity to publicize his beloved canyons. He spoke to reporters and photographers and public representatives, and conducted tours of the area. Some came out of curiosity but were converted into avid supporters. His enthusiasm was contagious. Many joined him in his efforts and deluged Washington politicians with letters of support. Finally on May 24, 1911, President Taft signed the proclamation that established Colorado National Monument."

Here is a view of Independence Monument, which John Otto climbed, and in front of which he was married:

The rock formations in the Monument are breathtaking.  Here is a view of one --

-- and of the canyon cliffs behind it:

Kathy was intrigued by this depression that was undoubtedly carved in the sandstone in ancient times when small rocks tumbled over it down a rushing mountain stream:

After our short hike, we drove the length of Rimrock Drive, Colorado National Monument's signature experience, catching glimpses of Grand Junction in the distance below:

This rock formation looks suspiciously like the Sphinx, although we are betting it wasn't carved by the Egyptians:

At the Visitor Center, we got information on hikes for later in out stay, and as we continued our motoring on Rimrock Drive, we scouted out the trailheads for possible hikes when we return in the future.

This stay is frustratingly short, and is only giving us a chance to introduce ourselves to some of these natural playgrounds, but we hope dearly to return in a year or so to get out more deeply into these natural wonders.  In the meantime, we hope to do a hike up one of the main canyons to Independence Monument this coming Monday.

Eddie and George Wake Up at Colorado National Monument

Little Hole Hike - Flaming Gorge - Utah

Hi Blog!

We are in Rock Springs, Wyoming working our way south to Albuquerque, New Mexico for the annual Balloon Fiesta. We're still recovering from our trip up north. We put a number of logistical items off while traveling through Canada, including getting our truck serviced. While Great White is getting its inspection and oil change, we've been busy cleaning out our closets in anticipation of downsizing to a small motorhome. However, all work and no play makes us cranky, so we finished our chores and went off to explore the Flaming Gorge National Recreation Area.  We've heard of Flaming Gorge, but we hadn't focused on it much until our friends, Alan and Beverly Tackman, raved about it on Facebook posts.  We were not disappointed.

On Tuesday, September 13, 2016, we started our adventure with a 60 mile drive down US 191, a National Scenic Byway, to the Flaming Gorge Visitor's Center. The National Recreation area was established in 1968 to protect and manage the watershed created by the building of the Flaming Gorge Dam and Reservoir. The dam impounds waters of the Green River and extends almost 91 river miles with over 300 miles of shoreline. Here's our first look at the dam.

After watching a couple documentaries on the building of the dam and history of the area, we were eager to put boots on the ground. The Little Hole Trail is seven miles one way and follows the Green River starting just below the dam. Since the water coming out of the dam is regulated to keep the temperature a constant 52F-55F, the Green River has become a blue ribbon trout stream. We were curious to see if we would run into any fisherman along the trail.

Here's Dave at the trailhead.

Our trail started high above the Green River. From this vantage point the river looks more blue than green as it reflects the clear blue sky above. Back in 1869, Major John Wesley Powell explored the Green River and named Flaming Gorge after he and his men saw the sun reflecting off the red rocks.

We hiked through high desert terrain filled with sage brush and juniper. The red rock sentinels looked down on us as we began our hike.

After switchbacking down the canyon wall, we found ourselves on the banks of the swift moving Green River.

The shade from the Ponderosa pine trees was a welcome relief. Kathy took a moment to show her appreciation.

There were several areas along the trail that were either washed out by the river or taken out by rock fall from above. In each of these locations, a boardwalk was constructed.

An island in the making.

While we only ran into one fisherman on the banks, we did see a number of float fishing boats working their way downstream.

We were just a little envious. Had we know about the great trout fishing on the Green River, we might have brought our fishing rods instead of our hiking boots.

We took this photo to capture the fall foliage, but discovered a rock monster coming out of the river!

This photo captures the green of the Green River.

This lizard tried his best to hide from us by blending into the red rocks.

We hiked about three miles downstream before heading back. We picked this rapid as our turnaround point.

We watched several kayakers shoot the rapid. When one of the fishing boats approached, we shot this
video of float fishers shooting some rapids on the Green River.

The return hike was spent looking for little trouties hiding along the river bank, commenting on the casting techniques of the various fisherman and complaining about the heat. In order to get back to the parking lot, we had to hike up the Flaming Gorge!

As a final note, we give our thanks to Alan and Beverly.  Keep on scouting great locations for us, you two!

Eddie and George Wake Up with Friends in Rock Springs, Wyoming

4 Bear Trail - Cody BLM - Shoshone National Forest

Today was our last day in Cody, Wyoming, and we wanted to find a hike that would acquaint us with the spectacular mountain scenery along the Shoshone River Valley east of Yellowstone and west of Cody.

After some research, we picked the 10-mile (out and back) Four Bear Trail, which provides access to Four Bear Mountain climbing north, from BLM lands at the trailhead, approximately four miles to the Shoshone National Forest boundary where it connects to many trails in the forest. The elevation gain is about 2,000 feet, ranging from 5,600 feet to 7,600 feet. Spectacular views are offered of the North Fork Shoshone River valley and fascinating volcanic spires, turrets and banded rock formations. Wildlife such as deer, elk, grizzly and black bear, and numerous bird species such as golden eagles and mountain bluebirds are often found in the trail area.  After the first 2 miles, the trail is very steep and rugged with multiple switchbacks.

We were very glad we made this choice.  We found limited information about the trail on the internet, but, as it turned out, the trail rewarded us at virtually every step of the way.  We've seldom hiked a trail that had so much to offer in terms of scenery, geology an wildlife.  The BLM recently carved this trail out of public lands through an area where a patchwork of private properties make it difficult to find a route up to the border of the Shoshone National Forest.  A great deal of rock and trail work was necessary to construct switchbacks across the cliffs and through the cols to weave our way up to our destination.

Here's a photo of David at the trailhead.  Our weather was nearly perfect:  warm to 85F, with a stiff breeze blowing the whole day to keep us cool:

As we worked our way up past the ranches, we passed this skeleton, which hinted at some story of an animal that eventually succumbed to either the bears or other predators in the area, or to the cold winters:

It wasn't long before we had our quarry in our sights:  Four Bear Mountain!

Within a mile or so, we were tailed by this cheeky bird that kept flying from post to rock, and rock to post, keeping track of us as we invaded its territory:

Starting to climb, we began to get a hint of the stark beauty of this volcanic landscape:

We began to follow a stream bed up-gradient.  The water had worn a minor canyon in the soft rock, and willows and other opportunistic green plants found footholds near the moisture, among the eccentric rock formations:

Perhaps halfway up, we looked back and began to get a sense of the country spreading out below us:

From the beginning of our hike, David obsessed over this chimney-like rock formation.  It seemed our trail was heading straight for it the whole way - until - suddenly - we passed it without even a suggestion that we had done so.  A little disappointing, but we have the photos to remember it by.

One of our favorite rock formations was this duo which stood side-by-side on a knife-edge ridge that we had to traverse to get up to the col leading to Four Bear Mountain:

Near the top, we stumbled on this amazing, gigantic geode, just protruding as natural as you please from the volcanic rock in which it was caught:

We realized, "Holy Nodule!  We've come upon a vein of geodes, nodules and other quartzy rocks!" Kathy was beside herself.  We found the drainage that seemed to have washed these beautiful rocks off the top of the mountain and felt like children playing in a field of dreams.  We agreed to first rest and have lunch, and then we would return on our way down to take some time and hunt for geodes.

Here was our view looking north into the Shoshone National Forest from the ridge leading to Four Bear Mountain.  Kathy especially liked these two circular clouds, floating benignly above the landscape:

And then there's the obligatory selfie looking south across the Shoshone River Valley behind us:

It was extremely windy up on the ridge, to the point where we had to hold onto everything to avoid it blowing away.  The following 360 degree view from our perch high on the col of Four Bear Mountain will give you a sense of how windy it was.  The camera was almost blown out of David's hand as he made his rotation.

But let us return to Kathy's favorite part of the story.  We finished our lunch and began a half hour or so of geode hunting.  We found a desiccated juniper tree where other, unknown rock hunters had placed some of their favorite finds for our enjoyment.  Kathy added her favorite geodes to the collection and we took this photo (remember not to take anything but photos...):

Beginning our return after leaving Nodule Heaven, we encountered this doughty boy, who seemed to be a two-faced god looking both directions at once across the igneous landscape:

Kathy just had to find a rocky friend to play with, and here, finally, she did, standing on a dizzy precipice overlooking the bottom of the valley:

As we hiked further back down the trail, we realized that much of the lower ground we hiked across had been formed geothermally, much as parts of Yellowstone within the caldera.  Here are piles of spewed minerals and limestone, clearly formed from hot springs flowing and building tuffy hills in polychromatic ecstasy:

We found one last surprise before we hit the trailhead, which was this shiny vine of yellow-green leaves and white, fluffy seed pods, crawling all over a generous host juniper tree:

We tried to identify what the fluffy vine might be, but failed, so you will just have to enjoy it for what it looks like, without knowing its etymology.

By the time we returned to the trailhead, we had logged nearly 10 miles, with 2,000 feet of elevation gain and loss.  Our little dogs were barking.  We climbed in the truck, broke out our celebratory Gatorade, and drove the short way back to our campground, ready to pack up to move south tomorrow.

Eddie and George Wake Up in Cody, Wyoming

Yellowstone NP - Storm Point Hike

Hi Blog!

After finishing our hike to Avalanche Peak, we drove further into Yellowstone National Park to the trailhead for Storm Point on the shores of Yellowstone Lake. After seeing the lake from high above on Avalanche Peak, we wanted to take a closer look.

We started our hike on the Storm Point Trail alongside Indian Pond. The trail guide said, "this is a good, short, early or late day stroll to a vantage point overlooking Yellowstone Lake. Mornings and evenings generally are calmer, as mid-afternoon winds from the southwest race across the lake unabated, producing choppy water with frothy white caps." No kidding.  Undaunted, we continued our trek out to the point.

Yellowstone Lake is the largest lake in Yellowstone National Park, covering 136 square miles and boasting 110 miles of shoreline. For its elevation, it is the second largest freshwater lake in the world. The region south of Yellowstone Lake constitutes one of the largest roadless wilderness areas outside of Alaska and Canada.

After reaching the shore of Yellowstone Lake, the trail heads through the woods toward Storm Point. As Kathy went ahead to cross a small wooden bridge over a drainage, she noticed a number of footprints in the wet mud. Dave scampered down to investigate. They were bison hoof prints, not grizzly bear paw prints.

As we left the woods, we began to feel the gale force winds that the trail guide warned us about.

As we approached the point, we get a 180 degree view of Yellowstone Lake. It's hard to believe that this beautiful lake was once part of the world's larges volcano. After the magma chamber under the Yellowstone area collapsed 640,000 years ago, it formed a large caldera that was later partially filled by subsequent lava flows. Part of this caldera is the basin of Yellowstone Lake. The original lake was 200 feet higher than the present-day lake, extending northward across Hayden Valley to the base of Mount Washburn.

Evidence of thermal activity and lava formations are all around us.

As you can see from our selfie, we were bundled up against the wind.

The high winds pushed waves into the coastline, making for very dramatic scenery.

As we hiked along the shoreline, we noticed another point. The waves were crashing over the rocks. It called for further exploration.

If you want to get a feel for what it was like on the windy point with waves crashing at your feet, just click the link to the YouTube video - waves at Storm Point.

As we retreated from the point, we noticed some really cool red rocks on the beach. Unfortunately, they were too big to bring home.  The rocks were fascinating.  It appeared that they were soft sandstone which had been impregnated either with yellow, orange and red colored minerals, or else filled with minerals and then colored red with algae or bacteria.  Kathy, loving rocks as she does, had to get up close and personal and investigate:

The loop trail soon left the beach and headed back into the woods toward the trailhead. It felt good to be out of the wind.

We enjoyed our visit to the east side of Yellowstone. We have only one entrance road left to explore:  the Northeast Entrance. However, this will require more time and a Jeep that can easily climb the pass at that entrance.

Next time we visit Yellowstone, we'll come in via the Northeast Entrance. Until then, stay thirsty my friends.