Webbpage Travel Blog
Gary & Lisa Webb travels and random thoughts
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Friday, June 14. 2024 Today was fun. We had nothing on our list for today, so it became a Google day. We found two things to do. First a visit to Pipestone. Remember petroglyphs? They're back. A guy in the 1800's "collected" petroglyphs from the area. Which translated to, "he carved out the rocks that the petroglyphs were on". The NPS collected the collectables and put them on display.
We were graced by the presence of a snapping turtle on our walk. It looked like she was trying to create a spot for her eggs.
But wait, there was a SECOND one twenty yards up the walkway.
The pipestone ares was (and still is) a sacred quarry for materials to make pipes (and ornaments). It's been used since at least the 1300s and is used today by members of qualified tribes. We watched 3 locals working with the stone making pipes.
Winniwessa Falls is on the sight. Not huge, but pretty.
And Lake Hiawatha! Not big at all, but the guy that "collected" the petroglyphs was enthralled by the Hiawatha story.
Lisa had her bird calling app on for the entire walk and heard an oriole, pheasant, indigo bunting, night hawk, yellow throat, flycatcher, yellow arbler, dickcissel and others. Quite the day. Second a visit to the Falls on the Big Sioux River. the falls were't tall but very dramatic. In the 1800s a mill was built next to the falls. it shunted water to a power generator. In 1956 in burned down. The city has done an excellent job creating a park around the falls and protecting the remnants of the mill. If I was a local, I could spend hours sitting in the park enjoying the sounds of the falls.
The mill.
The pwoer generator.
A shallow section of the falls.
Trying to caputre the total drop of the falls. My first picture was of the top section of this picture.
Remember descriptions of the Giants Causeway in Scotland, Devils Tower and Southern California??? the rock is pushed up due to volcanic actions, cracked into hexagonal shaped columns, and then broke or eroded into stepping stones. Here is another example of those rock formations. Once you've seen them, they're easy to pick out in other areas.
Thursday, June 13. 2024 Because we haven't done enough driving, we opted to drive through the Badlands today. While yesterday was a challenge for the numebr of shots of a stationary object, today was a challenge to take enough shots to capture the beauty without using up the battery. this place was spectacular, awesome and gorgeous. From a photographer standpoint, it was a challenge in capturing the panormaic aspect, the depth of colors, the variations in the rocks, and a ton of other stuff.
Well timeout. we got a couple of good shots and then looked at the map of the loop availble to us. And noted that if we took a 5 minute detour we could visit the Minuteman Missile National monument. We ran up there for a quick tour. They have done an excellent job capturing the intensity of the nuclear conflict. we now compare Los Alamos, the Atomic City, the Experimental Breeder reactor and the Silos on our trip. Our badges show we had no exposure. Back to the Badlands. This is Lisa (surprise) on top of a ridge on one of our walks. BTW, if you ever do this, bring water.
So Jim, here's the one tree that got in the way of the "perfect" shot.
Sigh, here she is again. While it looks like she's close to the edge, we discovered who has the wrose fear of heights.
Thursday, June 13. 2024 First, I'd like to apologize for not publishing Day 55. Too many buttons at this point of the trip. Today we visited Mount Rushmore. The first question would be how many pictures can you get of a single permanent structure? The answer - 31. we were told by a number of peeps that we needed to find the profile view, that most people miss it. Well, it happens that the profile view was on the way to our campground after passing the monument. So not only did we not miss it, we saw it 6 times... The view gives us a nice shot of Washington. Fun fact. this wasn't in the plan for the monument. Originally Jefferson was to be to the left of Washignton. But the rock was unstable and not suitable for sculpting, so they blew his face off (haha, i wanted to say that). removing that stone gave us a perfect view of Washington.
Here is the money shot. Grabbed this walking up the entryway.
There is a presedential trail that gives you a couple of up close views at a variety of angles. One stop on the trail was designated for Junior Rangers, so of course Lisa and I had to go there. The view was from inside a split rock.
Since Washington got a solo appearance, i had to grab a shot of Lincoln.
Jerfferson whined for a solo.... This made me remember that Crazy Horse has nostrils 60 feet long.
Getting Teddy was the hardest. It had to be at the perfect angle and high enough to get over the trees. It was amazing to see the resemblance between Teddy Rosevelt and Robin Williams.
And then the walk away shot. For those in the know, this monument was never completed. Due to the cost of WWII, the government cut funding. the completed monument was designed to go down to waist level.
Sunday, June 9. 2024 Today we visited the Crazy Horse memorial. While I had a general understanding about the memorial, there were a number of details I was not aware of. I can't type it all, so I would suggest that you go to crazyhorsememorial.org for more history and back stories. First, this is what you see when entering the park.
Second, the memorial is NOT the park. There have been grand plans for the total facility. Museums, school systems, medical facilities.... They have a school that has improved steadily over the years, and musemums that are very impressive. A section that encompasses the origal sculptures home, a section all about sculpting at this magnitude and another coverint the Indian legacy. Third, the first blast was in 1948. The memorial has Crazy Horse's face and part of his pointing hand. They need to complete his arm and sculpt his horse. No-one knows when this will be completed, but there is no estimate earlier than 2070. Fourth, twice the U. S. government has twice offered $10M grants but both times it was rejected. They didn't trust the government, with one point proven when the government pulled funding for Rushmore. Call me an engineer, but this is the original compresser used to power the sculpting tools.
Crazy Horse and Thunderhead mountain were both selected by the Lakota people. Korczak Ziolkowski was the selected sculptor. He made this project his lifetime quest. He passed before the face was finished. The hole you see is the start of the gap bewteen Crazy Horse's arm and his horse.
While we can't get that close, we were close enough to be awed by the ongoing work at this memorial.
Saturday, June 8. 2024 Today was (another) travel day. We got about 2/3 through the trip and discovered that the road was closed. Added half an hour to the trip but made it to the campground unscathed. Which reminded us that our trip to date has been spectacular in relation to traffic, routing, and road mishaps. Thank God. We saw a car get towed out this campground due to a breakdown. That family is stuck, but, thankfully we are in a KOA resort. They seem to have everything from food, horse trail rding, multiple pools, multiple playgrounds. After getting set up, we noticed that they were warming up.....
... for a RODEO. two rodeas in a week. Lisa was exstactic.
Cowboys (and girls) are as patriotic as ever. Young girl carrying the flag for the opening ceremonies.
And let the broncing begin.
They had barrel racing. We got to see the ladies...
...and the kids. I can see Noelle doing this.
And then back to the broncing. This was my favorite pic.
Foillowed by team roping. The lead guy ropes the horns, then the second guy ropes the rear feet.
And then, goodnight horse.
Friday, June 7. 2024 Ahhh, Devil's Tower. The answer to the Day 52 question: How many pictures can you take of the same object. Answer: 67 Next question: do you want to see them all? Ahhh, I hear a no. Good, because I don't want to configure them all for uploading to the internet. Devils Tower as we start our hike around the base.
Devil's Tower as the sun creeps over the top.
Same shot, with a different exposure.
To show you something different, this is called cracked window. A section of the rock broke off in almost a perfect rectangle.
Remember I showed you the shot of the Tower from the camper? Here's the camper from the Tower.
The opposing side of the Tower.
If you stay very still you can hear them. Charlie: Hey Bob can you see them? Bob: No, but I saw them just a minute ago. Charlie: Where could they have gone? Bob: Exactly, and they were driving that big blue truck!?!?!? Charlie: We're so going to get fired as watch dogs. Bob: Sigh.
Next to our campground, the red rock.
Oh and some tipi's.
in the afternoon, we took a second hike to see a different vantage point slightly further away. Lisa was awestruck (and tired).
Along the hike we saw this interesting carving in the (assumedly sandstone) proving that there was some significant water in this ravine some 10 to 1000 thousand years ago.
Ahh. goodnight Prairie Dogs. There were hundreds of them in the field as we left. This guy had no problem picking us out of the crowd. Poor Bob and Charlie.
Friday, June 7. 2024 Travel day to Devils Tower Not much to say, but we set a new standard for KOAs closest to a national park. We are two sites from the entracne of the KOA. The KOA entrance is 100 yards from the park entrance. Our view from the RV...
The only question for tomorrow. How many pictures can someone take of the same object? Thursday, June 6. 2024 Little Big Horn Battlefield was on my list of places to go. A National Monument and a designated battlefield. Up front, I'm not a big fan of Custer. But I have to appreciate what he did as a leader in military conflicts. I remember studying the last stand in the late 60's. there was an emphasis at the time of the masacre of the Custer infantry. Later I have studied and come to realize that this wasn't an attack by the Indians, but a defense. Sometime I'll get into the events leading up to this moment. Here is a generic shot that shows the white stones that mark all the know locations that a U. S. soldier died. It's amazing as you cover the battlefield that you can follow the battle by studying the white markers.
I memorial has been established by the Native Americans that commerate the heroics of the Indains at that time and the peace that was finally established in the area. In contrast to the white markers there are brown markers that designate the spot where known Indians fell. There are fewer markers for the Indians. One, there wer about 5 infantry deaths for every 1 Indian death. Two, the Indian participants are not all identified. Three, the U.S. forces that arrived after the battle only looked for infantry bodies. Fourth, The Indians came back after the battle and removed as many bodies as possible. There is a graveyard on-site. It is rather large. It includes the remians of some of those involved in this battle, but there is also remains for soldiers from the civil war, both world wars, the korean conflict and the vietnam conflict.
There is a cemetery dedicated to the horses recovered from the battle.
And a monumnet to all those that fell during the battle.
OUr added attraction was a visit to Pompey's Pillar. The Pillar is described as the only geographical landmark still visible that was documented by Lews and Clark. We started at the visitors center )makes sense) and admired the replica dugouts similar to those made during the L&C trek.
The flag on the premises is a replica of the flag carried by L&C on the trek. Note that there are 15 stars and 15 stripes. The next falg returned to the orignal 13 stripes.
Oh yeah, Pompey's Pillar.
And the steps to get to the top. 200 feet, 10 stories, 130 steps. And Lisa (the tropper) climbed to the top!
Before we got to the top the was a spot that had a couple of memorial plaques and a Lewis signature. Many persons had seen the petroglyphs scratched into the sandstone and added there names to the collection. Lewis opted to added his as well. in the early 20's a couple of local organizations decided to mount plaques in the area.
A close up of the protective glass installed to pretoed the Lewis signature.
And hidden in the collection of names is some of the few petroglyphs remianing on the wall.
Another view of the Pillar.
A view from the top. the plains shown in this view was a location of Custer's army prior to the last stand.
A view from the top of the Yellowstone River. The local ranger described the river as "angry" due to the melting of an abnormal high snow
Finally, for my farmer friends, they have this crop cutter on the site, built circa 1920. Should I make an offer???
Thursday, June 6. 2024 We started the day touring the local dam (yes this was my choice, not Lisa's). The Buffalo Bill dam created irrigation and flood control for the valley. Lisa ended up liking the tour.
The outlet of water flowing through a channel in the dam was from the hydro plant itself at the base of the dam. Pretty powerful.
Yes Lisa is afraid of heights, but she got out there to take pictures.
The beginning of the lake behind the dam.
The dam is located at the end of the Shoshone canyon. Our first introduction is the road behind the dam that was the first raod created in the pass. It's since been replaced by a "comfortable" two lane road that winds through the canyon and goes through a couple of tunnels. If you look closely at this picture, you will note that it's barely one lane. There is no way we could pull the RV through these bends this close to the edge. Well, I could, but Lisa would have a heart attack.
The canyon.
And the Shoshone River.
We played tourist during the day, leisurely walks through town. And a visit to the Buffalo Bill Museum. There are actually 5 museums in the facility, each one credible as a stand alone museum. I liked the gun and rifle museum, phenomenal collection. The Cody museum was good, providing a lot of insight into his background. And I was very impressed with the Plains Indian Museum. Well done with excellent historical and contemporary sections. We had dinner at Irma's. Irma's is a hotel actualy built by Cody (Buffalo Bill) himself. After dinner we stayed for a shoot out. Some locals put on a display of characters from the Wild West. It was their final dress rehearsal. Let's just say that it's going to be a long season for the tourists. The best line of the night was the emcee stating that he was proud of Wyoming, the first state to allow women to vote, the first state to elect a woman as governor, and the first state to hang a woman. They picked a young kid out of the audience and put him in the jail. Charge - real cowboys don't go by the name of Braxton. Our last stop was a show at the local rodeo, "the best in the world". It was amateur night so we didn't get the best of the best, but it was very entertaining. Upon entry, we were offered a chance to sit on the broncing bull. We passed, but I got Lisa close enough for a pic.
The star attraction was the host for the night. He was the ultimate professional, with everthing memorized (including in-show ads for about 40 sponsors, he knew them all and sold them with vigor). He had the main clown as a side kick that wandered in the arena, outside the fence, and amongst the crowd. The two of them played off each other very well. He also took up a dare and used his horse to rope a calf. Impressive. He also led us in prayer (multiple times).
The show started with a choreographed ride with 16 ladies on horses. Very well done. As a professional rider myself I only noticed one mistake.
The horse broncing had it's ups and downs (definitely more downs). None of the four contestants rode for the required 8 seconds in the first round. One made it through round two, for the win Two of the four horses actually fell.
Horse one that fell landed on the cowboy, and then immediately got back up, with the cowboy on his back, and started broncing again. It didn't count as a ride, but lisa and I gave the horse a 50 out of 50 for his performance.
There was calf roping. I caught a pic of the eventual winner as the lasso made connection.
I did say there were more downs than ups, right? This guy barely made it out of the chute when he went head first over the front of the horse.
Here's a picture of the eventual winner.
Sunday, June 2. 2024 Today was a travel day. In our original agenda this day was going to be awful. But with the thawing and plowing, the passage from the west to east entrances of Yellowstone were open, and we breezed through the park. Most of the trip on the west side was snow covered.
Sunday, June 2. 2024 Today was a down day. We took the liberty to get some postings done. Lisa did some laundry. Late afternoon we went back in the park to see if we could get some better shots of Prismatic Pool. And we did!
And idnetified some new wildlife for our collection. A sandhill crane.
Saturday, June 1. 2024 Today we attacked the Yellowstone Lower Loop. We started early in the morning. This was good becasue we wwere ahead of the crowds. This was bad because the morning temps (38 when we started) created a lot of surface steam that clouded a lot of the pictures. Firehole River runs through the Midway Geyser Basin. The runoff from the Basin entering the river created an enjoyable early view.
In the basin itself, a short walk provided a number of small geysers, pools and springs.
Even though there were hundreds of "dont walk here" signs, it apepars that the antelope either can't read or chose to ignore the warning.
Buscuit basin was actually more expansive and gave us some better picutres. Biscuit basin is the home of the Prismatic Pool. at ground level and with the steam we didn't get much of a shot.
We discovered that the park built a trail to an overlook to get a more photogenic shot of the Prismatic. On the way, this bison walked alongside me. I know, I'm supposed to keep a healthy distance form the bison, but he walked at my pace and kept looking at me, so....
Jim ran away from the bison on the other side. Not saying that he's faster than a bison.....
At the top the view was good. The steam downgraded the awesomeness but it was worth the hike.
The sediment buildup and chemical content killed a numebr of trees as it crept along the surface. This lonely tree marks its advance.
Jim's bison went further out to get a bite to eat.
My bson was exhasted from keeping pace with me and laid down for a nap.
More Biscuit pictures.
I called this one the Avocado Pool.
We got to Old Faithdful just as the show was shutting down. Grabbed a couple quick photos.
So we sat back and waited for the next show (hour and a half or so). Wondered if this would be a suitable retirement home (if I put a pool out back).
Old Faithful is reliable and relatively regular in its eruptions. Beside Old Faithful is the Beehive Geyser. It erupts twice a day. We were lucky enough to have it erupt just as Old Faithful started up again. I got a couple of pics that weren't that great only because I was in the middle of the OF crowd and quite a ways from Beehive.
We got the main show. And quite a show it was.
During the trip we crossed the Continental Divide.
Visited Isa Lake (it was small, this was the entire thing).
And then crossed the Continental Divide again.
Oh, and then we went to ANOTHER BASIN. This one was West Thumb Geyser basin. This was unique because it borders Yellowstone Lake.
Our treat for this walk was a lounging elk.
If you look REAL close you can see the male hiding in the trees.
Wildlife break over, back to lake, geyser, spring and holes.
Oops and one squirrel trying to survive in the basin.
Okay, so this hole is just off the beach (if you want to call it that). The story is that the native Americans would go out on the lake, catch fish, bring them back and cook them in the hole. Pretty efficient use of the environment I'd say.
Another wildlife break. We saw this antelope being extremely wary of the traffic. Lisa grabbed a couple of shots, noticing (in the second frame) that there was a baby in tow. I enlarged the pic for you peeps with poor eyes.
A couple miles north and we hit the Grand Canyon of the North. Have I overused "spectacular"?
I captured a tree living on the top of a rock on the top of the cliff.
And, Good Night Squirrel. He was sitting on rock within a foot of the edge of my last walkway.
Saturday, June 1. 2024 We exceeded 9000 miles on the drive today. And exceed 3000 pictures in the camera. Today was a visit to the Tetons. My primary goal was to capture the Tetons, and while they dominated the view, we did stop at some lakes along the way. Lisa is the queen of selfies, and it appears that her subjects were entirely cooperative.
We took a hike that started at Spring Lake
Then to Leigh Lake. (along the way we spotted some wildlife).
The hike then led to Jenny Lake.
Saturday, June 1. 2024 Today we did the Yellowstone Upper Loop. The Blooms joined us for this leg (and the next 2 days). We knew beforehand that this part of the trip was probably going to be overwhelming. We broke the stay into four parts. The upper loop, intro to the geothermal and a lot of waterfalls. The lower loop, more geothermal and more opps for wildlife. And then a loop of the Tetons, mostly grand scenery. Each loop would be 70-96 miles with 30 to 100 mile "get there" drives. (Day 4 is for recovery or a quick visit to something we missed ro wanted to see again) Our priorities: 1) see springs and geysers, 2) see wildlife we don't see on the east coast, 3) soak in as much of the scenery as possible. We had hardly entered the park when we almost ran into our first bison. Literally, on the road. We now know why there are holdups on the roads in Yellowstone due to gawkers that stop in the road to take pictures. This was a small group, we took some pics, pulled into a turnoff and got some more.
Not saying that we started early, but I got a nice pic of the moon over a small mountain.
Since we got an early taste for wildlife, junior got into search mode any chance he got.
Didn't take long to get a close shot of a baby bison. I could hear Cami going awww when I snapped the pics.
We finally got through the visitor center and got some early views of geothermal action.
And then a dramatic view of Gibbon Falls. Please understand that I'm giving you one shot of many.
A close up view of a mini-bubbler.
Grand view of a herd of antelope in the meadow.
And then a stop and short walk around the Artists Paint Pots. The colors are varied, our early morning visit probably didn't bring the colors out to full vibrancy.
This is a bigger bubbler.
This is a mud cone. The bubbling acuumulates minerals that solidify as they cool.
These are some mud pots. I have a video of them bubbling up. First thing I thought of was spa material facials. But, sadly, these guys are a bit toxic for that.
At a later spot we witnessed our first (mini) geysers. The one in the front was probably 4-10 feet high. The one in the back was a little taller but more spread out. I think the one in the back was called the whirlygig geyser.
This is all part of the Norris Geyser basin.
I caught a couple of colorful drainage views showing the vast array of colors.
we made a stop for ice cream and a veteran raven paid us a visit. Very photogenic.
But some of the locals weren't really interested in posing for pictures. This black back was probably 500-600 yards away. Fairly oblivious to us. We received numerous warnings about avoiding bears. Any walk off the roadway introduced the opportunity to meet up with a bear. The grizzlies were the highest risk, but since this was early in the season, any momma (bear, elk or bison) will do anything to protect her cubs.
So of course we took a 1 mile hike off the roadway to get a picture of one of the many waterfalls. My head was on a swivel, the rest of our group was comfortable with me in the lead. They figured it would take a while to eat me, giving them time to escape. So I rounded one curve of the path and came face to face with.... this deer. And when I say face to face, we were probably 4 feet away from each other. I politely asked if I could take a picture. She obliged. I proceeded on my hike knowing a) regardless of how attentive I was, the odds were high that wouldn't see anybody until too late, 2) if that deer was that comfortable, there probably weren't any bear in the area.
And then I got to the Undine falls.
Dawg maintained a watchful eye. He even got compliments from some of the other tourists.
Speaking of falls, this is a pic of the Wraith Falls.
We got to the Mammoth Hot Springs section later in the day. These views were spectacular. Haven't used that word much. Our opening shot was of the minerals forming a cascade of white and rust colors. There was a constant water flow mostly from the springs along the top.
A view from above captures the flow, both the current flow and the accumulated sediments from thousands of years of deposits.
The top veiw shows what appears to be an arctic wasteland, but that's all sulpher based deposits.
Leaving that site, we headed south in the loop and stopped at the Obsidian Cliffs. The rock from these cliffs were used for thousands of years by the natives, predominantly for arrowheads and knives. But in the last 20 years all paths that come close to the cliffs have been closed because of the damage done by tourists in climbing and collecting rock samples. Our path for the view was on the other side of the roadway.
And as we finished out loop, we were given a good night farewell from an elk munching on her dinner.
Saturday, June 1. 2024 Today was another travel day. But we are high in anticipation. the week ahead is full of Yellowstone and the Tetons. Along the way we say 1000s and 1000s of acres of farmland and ranchlands. Captured a sample for the farmers on-line.
And an anticipatory view of the Tetons.
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This is close to the end of our loop drive. brilliant colors!!!
And for the lake lovers, Horse Thief lake is just around the corner from the monument. Reminds me to count the number of lakes we've taken pictures of.
Sylvan Lake was still frozen over.
Finally drove to Jackson Lake. Hopefully you noticed the common background.
