Grand Teton National Park - Les Trois Tetons

First full day in Grand Teton National Park ... a full measure of life!

Movies and magnets - We first went to the Craig Thomas Discovery and Visitor Center at the southern or Moose Entrance of the Grand Teton National Park.  It has become my ritual (and Paul humors me) to see the orientation movie for any national park and to pick up a magnet to memorialize our visit to the park.  Yes, there are criteria for purchasing the magnet - we must visit the park ourselves (no gift magnets); we must visit the visitor's center and see the orientation movie/film (if there is one); and, we must take a hike within the park.  Life can be tough traveling with me, but Paul seems to bear up well under the pressure.

We then decided to take a hike to Taggert Lake, had lunch, and then over a lateral moraine to another lake, Bradley Lake, a bit higher in elevation.  There truly are no words to describe the majesty of the mountain vistas as we rose higher and higher ... clear skies with only wispy clouds blowing over the peaks, spring flowers in yellow, purple, red, white, and cream dotted the way, breezes blowing off of the glacial meltwater lakes cooling us down, and around each bend in the trail another magnificent vista of the surrounding mountain peaks.  And, at the end of each hike ... Paul and his GPS provide the data.

One of the interesting geologic features is that there are no foothills.  The Tetons rise above the river valley abruptly due to the tectonic plates along the Teton Fault which are pushing the mountains up and the valley down.  The mountains have been pushed up so far that some of the earth's oldest layers of rocks constitute the craggy peaks yet the Teton mountain range is one of the geologically newer ranges.

Bambi is tucked neatly under some spruce trees as we are camped at the Headwaters Lodge and RV Park at the northern end of the Grand Teton National Park (actually closer to Yellowstone than to the central area of Grand Teton).  We have found our cool (70s during the day and 40s during the evening).  We are on the headwaters of the Snake River ... Bambi is quite happy ... as are we.

Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to all fathers and to all who care for fathers!

As we prepare to leave Park City, we celebrated Father's Day with a breakfast of warm La Mesa tortillas, with Chris's fresh roasted green chilis and fried eggs with a sprinkling of a Mexican four cheese mixtures to brighten the dish.

How do we know when we've been away from Tucson for a week?  We have used up the last of our La Mesa tortillas and are down to our last couple of fresh roasted green chilis from Chris's roasted chile and vegetable stand at the Trail Dust Town farmer's market.

As a Father's Day gift, I asked Toyo of Dark Star Leathers to make a new belt for Paul for his old Kenneth Reid belt buckle.  Toyo immediately recognized the belt buckle as being made by Kenneth Reid and guessed (accurately) that it was about 40 years old.  He said that the Zuni-style metal sun rays were something that Kenneth was experimenting with at that time and that the piece of turquoise was large and well-veined.  Toyo made a perfect belt to compliment the old belt buckle and commented that Kenneth Reid might be interested in buying back a piece of his old body of work and that we should contact him.

I explained that we could never part with the buckle because it had a story.  About 40 years ago, for a Christmas present, I bought the belt buckle from an artisan's stand in the Park Place Mall from Kenneth Reed.  I spent more than I had at the time, but thought that it was a perfect gift for a very special guy.  I was excited from having finally found what I had hoped would be a fine gift for Paul and was returning to the over-crowded parking lot filled with hectic Christmas shoppers in the dark of the evening when a young man approached me and told me to give him my purse and my package.  At that moment I was so enraged that someone would ruin my Christmas aspirations that I began yelling at him that "No f---ing way" was he going to take my purse and my present and continued my outraged torrent.  Clearly I wasn't thinking about my safety, just this young man's total lack of consideration for my work at finding the perfect gift.  Fortunately, he just ran off (as I was still yelling at him) ... my adrenaline began to decrease ... and I realized that it was likely a dumb stance to have taken, but it worked for me at that time.  (Probably in this day of everyone being armed, he would have had a gun and that would have complicated things a bit).

So, this belt buckle is going nowhere except on Paul's new belt in celebration of his role as a father to our sons.  Bambi agrees.  Happy Father's Day, Paul!

Exploring Park City ... This town is a "keeper"

Laundry Day!  Thanks to our friend, Jim McDougal, we have plenty of quarters for the laundromat.  We went downtown on the streetcar with Jim and Kathy ... Jim brought $8 in quarters for the streetcar tickets.  I gratefully purchased them from him for our stash of coin-operated laundry money. Thanks, Jim!

We are continuing our exploration of the Park City area ... this morning we walked along the Historic Union Pacific Rail Trail, part of the Rails-to-Trails movement that has taken old rail line right-of-ways and made them into community rail trails for walking, running, biking, cross-country skiing, and snowshoeing.   The right-of-way is then protected should there ever be a need for that rail transport, but the communities get to benefit by having an activity corridor (usually with a modest grade making it an easy walk/run/cycle path).  We were walking in the midst of a Ragnar Rally (extreme fitness in teams) ... fun to watch all of the participants running along the path (a few walking) and stopped to view of pair of teal-wing ducks hanging out in a pond along the side of the trail.

We went over to the Utah Olympic Park in Park City, one of the sites of the 2002 Winter Olympic Games, and now an Olympic Training Site and a tourist park with various activities scattered across the grounds.  There was an incredible amount of construction underway, poor signage to the various locations, and a feeling of chaos.  We decided not to try any of the activities ... it was enough to visit the museum, read a bit about Alf Engen (early Utah skiing athlete and enthusiast), see some of the facilities and head back to Bambi.

We did have one last dinner in Park City at Cena's Restaurant in the Silver Lake Village (near the Stein Erickson Lodge) and enjoyed the cool of the higher altitude  (8,100 feet) and the opportunity to eat out.  We were not able to eat in downtown Park City because there was the annual Park City dining event.  Folks purchase their tickets to this event from their favorite downtown restaurant months in advance ... tables are arranged in a single line running down the Main Street ... people sit in areas designated by the restaurant of their choice and participate in a huge community feast.  That is something we hope to try some year ...

Tomorrow is Father's Day ... heading off to Grand Teton National Park (where the temperatures are even cooler) ... Bambi approves.

When Searching for Cool ... Try a Ski Resort - Park City, UT

Kanab proved too warm to hang around ... we abandoned the notion of trying to win the lottery for a permit to hike to The Wave.  A win would mean a deadly hot hike ... we chose life (a woman had died on the trail the day before)!

Off to cooler country ... we thought that we'd try a ski resort and decided to look into Park City.  We can't say much for our RV "Resort" ... it is close to Park City (has a Park City address and advertises itself as the only RV park in Park City), but it isn't in the pulsing heart of the historic downtown area. In fact, it is on a frontage road just off of I-80.  We're meeting our neighbors and have found a new form of mobile workforce that lives in RVs and travels to find work ... and right now there is a lot of new construction work in Park City as it grows and in preparation for the winter season. This is a park of itinerant professional craftsmen, laborers, management traveling to wherever the jobs may be and using the RV as a truly mobile home.

Historic downtown Park City has a western, historic, yet modern and casual vibe.  Park City appears to be a more complete town than some of the other ski resort towns that we have visited.   It has more of the services of a functional town, a town in which people live and raise families, a town with businesses beyond the usual tourist-oriented locations.  Don't get me wrong ... it would still cost a fortune to live here ... and the economy is driven by tourism ... it  just has functions that reflect real life, not just resort life.

And, speaking of resorts, we went to Deer Valley Ski Area today ... opening day of their summer season.  We rode two ski lifts to the top of the mountain and hiked down ... the mountain was alive with downhill mountain bikers ... as hikers, we are beginning to feel as obselete as dial telephones.  Fortunately the resort keeps the hikers and bikers on separate trail systems ... so, we could watch the action without feeling the rush of air as the bikers sail by (or over) obstacles.  Lunch, on the patio in the shade, while watching the action down the mountain was simply a delight!  We cherish the ability to simply share in such a lovely, lively environment ... 

Spring is present in the high country ...wildflowers were still blooming ... cooler temperatures at high altitude with wildflowers ... and exciting rides on ski lifts ... hiking in beauty.

Kanab, Utah - The Wave and Little Hollywood

Next stop on Bambi's northern trek is Kanab, Utah ... unfortunately not far enough north nor high enough in altitude to achieve cooler temperatures.  We've found an RV park with electrical connection (important for running the absolutely necessary air conditoning) in Kanab.

We checked out the Grand Staircase Escalante BLM Visitor's Center this morning to find about the lottery for hiking permits to The Wave ... an apparently amazing sandstone structure that is a photographer's delight.  Only 20 people are allowed in each day, 10 by an online application process and 10 by a lottery held each day.  Odds are better in-person because the online process is a lottery drawn from applicants from around the world (four months in advance) and the in-person lottery process is drawn from people who are actually present at the Visitor's Center in the early morning when the lottery is drawn at 9:00 a.m.  We decided to not even try the lottery as the temperatures are brutally hot and would be even hotter on the rocky trail with no shade, but it was interesting to see the process ... 80 applicants entered the lottery today for 10 spots for a permit to hike tomorrow (when the temperature in town will exceed 100 and 10 degrees hotter on the trail ... likely hottest day of the year in Utah).  We hope to try out the online application for cooler temperatures later in the year.

Then, off for a scenic tour of Kanab.  Paul stayed in Kanab 46 years ago with his first wife, Janice, at the Parry Motor Lodge ... and, the Parry Lodge is still in operation (as the pictures demonstrate) and we had lunch at the Parry and saw the pictures of the Hollywood stars who stayed at the Parry while filming.  Part of our scenic tour of Kanab was a trip to Little Hollywood, a location for old movie sets that have been used in old western movies and television shows.  The sidewalks of the street are lined with plaques commemorating past stars of movie and television who have filmed on movie sets in and around Kanab.

The town appears to be on the brink of new tourist money as at least three new chain hotels are under construction ... perhaps being at the nexus to three national parks (Bryce, Zion and Grand Canyon) is driving the tourist-oriented expansion.   The town could benefit from a new RV park that has some space and natural terrain for the campers ... our current RV park, while having all of the amenities (electric, water and sewer ... along with a pool, laundry and showers), is as crowded as the Metro at rush hour ...

All of the touring of Kanab has made us eager to see an old Western ... perhaps an episode of Gunsmoke or The Lone Ranger is in our future.

All Bambi wants is to head further north so that his air conditioner doesn't have to work so hard ...

Searching for cool in Arizona

We have determined that preparing an RV or travel trailer for a trip is a task demonstrating the strength of mutually shared memories and the power of the division of labor.  It took both of us working fast and furiously for two intense days to complete the process of preparing Bambi for his next great adventures.  And, it took both of our memories to remember what to bring and how everything works.  We left Tucson on Monday, June 15 and the temperatures were rising (the ice had already broken on the Santa Cruz) and the temperatures were heading into the 108 and higher range (some historical high temperature readings may be broken this coming weekend).

Our first stop in our search for cooler temperatures was Bonito Campground within the Sunset Crater Volcano National Monument about 22 miles north of Flagstaff at an altitude of approximately 7,000 feet.  After a short walk to the Visitor's Center, we returned to find another Airstream parked at the next campsite and received an invitation to come over to talk. Our fellow Airstream owners had a 1969 vintage Airstream polished to a eye-straining glare in preparation for a national Airstream rally being held in Farmington, NM.  The man of the couple turned out to be the president of the Arizona Airstream branch of the national Airstream organization and we were encouraged to become part of the greater Airstream family.  Perhaps we will someday dip our toes in that water and introduce Bambi to all of his national brethern and sistern, but for now, we'll remain blissfully independent.  Our fellow Airstream owner took our demurred rejection of joining well, but offered his card and encouraged us to just try one and he guarantees that we'll like it.

The next day we hiked a few of the trails ... short ones ... A'a Loop Trail and Lava Flow Loop Trail ... to experience some of the volcanic activity that occurred when Sunset Crater Volcano exploded approximately 900 years ago (erupting sometime between 1040 and 1100) creating a 1,000 foot high volcanic crater and covering 800 square miles of northern Arizona with ash.  There were two significant lava flows, Kana-a and the Bonito.  The pictures do not capture well the magnitude of the lava flows, but the evidence of volcanic activity is everywhere from the tall volcanic cinder cones like Sunset Crater, to spatter cones, magma flows, rocks, pumice and ash.  Sunset Crater was saved to become a national monument when a movie studio wanted to blow up the side of the mountain to create a landslide for a movie and some citizen activists petitioned to have Sunset Crater established as a national monument.

The second stop was the Wupatki National Monument.  The Ancestral Puebloans who escaped the eruption of Sunset Crater moved to lower lands and used the beneficial ash (which allows water to penetrate the soil but serves to reduce evaporation) and created a community of approximately 2,000 persons at the intersection of the Sinaqua, Cohonina and Kayenta cultural traditions.  The Wupatki Pueblo had a large community gathering place (not thought to be a Kiva, but a round amphitheater like gathering place) and a ball court (not thought to be a traditional part of their culture but likely reflecting some cultural exchange with the Hohokam, further south, who did have ball courts as part of their culture).  Other Pueblos are nearby and suggest a fairly large community of villages that were eventually abandoned.  There was a rather touching story in the Visitor's Center about the first national park ranger and his wife who had to live in the Wupatki Pueblo when they first arrived and  their enduring friendship and support from the local Navajos who had moved into the area and were sheep farmers (and a not so touching story about how the Navajos lost their land because they could prove no title to the land when the national park boundaries and other ranching rights were established).

The flowers pictured below are:  Apache Plume (white) and a form of Pink Penstemon found in volcanic soils in northern Arizona.

Bambi is happy "to be on the road again" (with apologies to Willy Nelson)!

Correcting Dates - February 21, 2015

The last post was dated June 11, making it sound as if we had just brought Bambi down from Colorado in a harrowing weather adventure.  In reality, we brought Bambi to the desert Southwest in February ... February 18 through 20 ... and held our Meet and Greet Bambi get together on Saturday, February 21.  Those dates help explain the "window in the weather" that allowed us to gather up Bambi and bring him home to Tucson.  It took me until just recently, with the help of Paul, to resolve a incompatibility between Google (blogging site) and Apple (location of my photos) to permit the use of my pictures in the blog narrative.

Now, Bambi has taken off for new adventures and new blog postings will be posted shortly!