Moab/Arches National Park and Dead Horse State Park

Moab, Utah is situated between two national parks, Arches and Canyonland. We are in the middle of red rock country. The mesas, canyons, slabs, balanced rocks and arches are all made from weathered and eroded sandstone. Sometimes the rocks are so red/brown that they look like artist's clay. The Colorado River carved a lot of this region over millions of years.

Yesterday we visited Arches National Park. Your car climbs red rock cliffs of different size and variation. There are a lot of hiking and biking trails, some of them short and easy. Even the dirt is red. It gets all over your car, your shoes, and your clothes. Around every corner you are amazed at the next sight, each one more beautiful than the next. I've taken hundreds of pictures and you could take one every 10 feet.

Today we drove along the Colorado river for @ 15 miles. The road continued, but we turned around because of imminent rainfall. Instead we went to Dead Horse State Park. This park rises 2000 feet above the Colorado and gives you amazing vistas of the River and the surrounding canyon. Just as we got to the point lookout it started to pour. In spite of the weather I took tons of photos and plan to return in a few days when the sun is shining to see the difference in the photos.

Dead Horse gets its name from a cowboy legend. According to the legend, the cowboys used to force the wild horses up onto the point and then form a natural corral by closing off the open end with  sagebrush and trees. They selected the horses they wanted and left the remainder up on the cliff to die of hunger and thirst. Sort of a gruesome story for a beautiful spot.

We've been having some electrical problems with the RV. Slowly, some of the lights in the living room have been fading and extinguishing. We can't fix them by replacing the bulbs or fuses so tomorrow morning we have to take the RV to a dealer.

Balanced Rock in Arches

trail in Arches

North Window in Arches

Landscape Arch

Close up of balanced rock

View of Colorado from Dead Horse Park

Canyon View from Dead Horse

Arco Idaho, Craters of the Moon

We are now in the tiny town of Arco in the Southeastern part of Idaho. It's pretty desolate; nothing but sage brush, dirt, and brown, barren mountains. In order for anything to grow around here the farmers must constantly irrigate their crops, which, I think, are mostly potatoes.

When we checked into the campsite the woman in the office told me that if I wanted fresh produce to go down the road to "the Mountain Man." It turns out that the Mountain Man is a combination trading post, junk store, pizza place and produce store. When I walked in the man making pizzas instructed me to walk into the refrigerator. I had never seen so much rotten and moldy veggies! Needless to say, I hightailed it out of there. I really miss Whole Foods and Wegmans!

Today we drove 20 more miles in 80+ heat to see the National Monument, Craters of the Moon. It is comprised of acres of lava flows from fissures and volcanic eruptions that took place between 15,000 and 2,000 years ago.  I have never been to Hawaii, but I imagine that it must resemble some of the lava flows on the Big Island. It is quite an eerie landscape. I'm posting pictures, but they really don't do it justice.

Basalt lava flows

craters 

volcanic plug-at least 36 feet high

cinder cone 

Helena/Glacier National Park, Montana

As every one says, Montana is beautiful. Lots of wide open spaces, mountains, sage brush and/or huge pine trees, cattle and cowboys.

We spent two days in Helena, the capital, with parents of a colleague and good friend. Her parents were incredibly hospitable and warm. They showed us around town, took us to some excellent restaurants and drove us to see the surrounding countryside.

We then headed north to Glacier National Park. Glacier is a land of very large mountains, glacial streams and lakes, glaciers and incredible vistas. The first day we took a red bus tour on the Going to the Sun Road. This road, built into the cliffs of the mountains, traverses the entire park from west to east. We were fortunate to take the tour one day prior to the closing of the east side of the road for necessary construction. Words and pictures don't do it justice, but I will try to post a few of the 200+ that I took.

That trip, which was well worth the price, took 8 hours. The red bus is a relic. It was built in the 1930s and renovated in the late 1990s. It has a canvas roof that can be rolled back with bungy cords so passengers can stand up (while it is stopped) to see the scenery. It is rather narrow, with 4 passengers seated in bench seats across the vehicle and approximately 4-5 rows deep. It is painted red to match the berries that grow on the vegetation in the fall.

We had glorious weather all three days with temperatures in the high 70s and clear skys. The second day we took a 1/2 hour helicopter ride into the mountains and drove to a little town called Polebridge along the west side of the park. Actually, Polebridge only has a few buildings with the most famous called the mercantile. Inside you can find canned goods, clothing, a pot bellied stove, and the most delicious home-made pastries.

Today was a bit different. Stephen has been experiencing a pinched nerve in his neck radiating down to his right arm and hand. So...we visited a local hospital today. Xrays revealed arthritis, nothing else. Now he is armed with cortisone, pain killers and muscle relaxers and hopefully they will help.

We leave for Missoula, MT tomorrow and then on to Idaho.

Lake McDonald

Red bus tour

Glacier Park in the fall

View from helicopter

St Mary's Lake

One of the few remaining glaciers

Livingston, Montana

Since I last wrote on the blog we have had several adventures. The last 2 nights were spent in Sheridan, Wyoming. The day before we drove to Sheridan we visited Devil's Tower in Sundance Wyoming. The name Sundance may be familiar to you from the movie Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Apparently Sundance  got his name from the town where he was incarcerated for 18 months for theft. Devil's Tower, the first national monument, is a large 800 ft. mountain of igneous rock. Visitors can walk around it and adventurous souls can climb the parallel, vertical cracks that extend from the top to the bottom. We did neither. By the way, there is a KOA campground at the base of the monument that plays Close Encounters of the 3rd Kind on a nightly basis. (Have I said this already??)

After visiting the monument we drove to a town of 300 plus souls called Hulett, Wy. I had read about a gallery/museum called Rogue's Gallery that I wanted to investigate. When we arrived, it was closed. As we stood in front of the gallery, a young man started talking to us and we quickly learned that he was the owner. We convinced him to open it for 5 minutes. It was an amazing shop  full of western and native American lore from the 1800s as well as rodeo posters and paintings done by the owner. We quickly bought a rodeo poster before we could be ushered out of the store. As we were leaving we learned that the proprietor was on the way to Sheridan to observe the first National Indian Relays. Since the relays were continuing the next day we decided to go after we drove to Sheridan.

The Relays were held in the fairgrounds. We sat in the stands and watched individual Native Americans from various tribes compete in relay races with their horses. Each rider had three horses and rode bareback. He had to race around a track, jump off the first horse and jump onto the 2nd and eventually the 3rd horse while competing with 4 other individuals. It was pretty manic. Some riders fell off horses, horses ran without riders, collided with other horses, and some of the horses even fell down on the dirt track. It was a great event that we learned about by happenstance.

Yesterday we drove to MN to the Little Bighorn Battlefield. 263 whites died while attacking an Indian village that had @8,000 Sioux and Cheyenne residents and approximately 2000 warriors. The soldiers were on a mission to force the native Americans to reservations. This happened several years after the white citizens of the US invaded the Black Hills in search of gold. This was negotiated Indian land, but needless to say, they were evicted from their own land without any reparations. These Indians wanted to live in freedom, but were eventually forced into reservations within 2 years after their victory at the Little Bighorn.

We spent most of the day driving through Montanna to Livingston. We are camped along the Yellowstone River with mountains surrounding us. Tomorrow we leave for Helena and new adventures.

Indian Relay race

Devil's Tower

Rogue's Gallery

Indian Relay

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FREEZING

Last night we received 6 inches of snow! We had no boots, hats, gloves...or shovels! I was trapped in the RV and did Salus work. We are still in the Black Hills, but leave for WY tomorrow and Devil's Tower.

In the last two days we visited Wind Cave and an archaeological dig. Wind cave is, I believe, the 6th longest cave in the world. Although not beautiful, it consists of many long pathways, each sandwiched next to the other. The walls encroach on each other and when navigating it, you have to squeeze into a chamber and duck your head.

Mammoth is an archaelogical dig all under cover. It was discovered in 1974 and since then, people have been digging each year. So far, 64 Columbian and Wooly Mammoth fossils/bones have been discovered. The Columbian Mammoth is extremely huge (several stories high) while the Wooly Mammoth is smaller, but still huge. It is believed that 30,000 years ago a sink hole trapped these mammals and they were unable to crawl out. Many of the bones are still in place, as I hope you will see in my pictures.

It seems that people in SD still like their pies. I ordered a slice today after I decided to brave the cold, that was bumbleberry, a mixture of strawberry, blueberry, blackberry, raspberry,

apple and rhubarb. Very delicious!

I am having a difficult time uploading photos, so if anyone has a magic trick, please let me know. I also am trying to figure out how you can comment on the blog. I will try today and hopefully, I will soon be able to read your comments. Please keep trying. I  miss hearing from you and I miss...Philadelphia.

We have been in the Black Hills area for the past 4 days. When we arrived the weather was warm, even hot, but by Thursday it is supposed to drop to 16 degrees with a high of 35 and snow showers!

This area of South Dakota is amazing; I recommend it highly. While the badlands look like the surface of the moon with peaked sandstone mountains and grasslands, the black hills are lush with ponderosa pine and wildlife. Custer State Park is a breathtaking area with rock monoliths, canyons, lush forests, lakes and mountains. One of the highlights of Custer State Park are herds of bison, deer, wild turkey, burros and pronghorn.  Mt. Rushmore can be seen from various points throughout the park as can the huge carving of Sitting Bull, which is still under development. If you enjoy camping, biking, and mountain climbing, this is a fantastic area.

Last night we went to a Chuck Wagon dinner, complete with a staged cowboy "shoot-out" and cowboy music. Some of the attractions have already shut down for the season, so if you plan to come here, make it earlier in the summer. We still plan to go to Deadwood to see the haunts of Wild Bill Hickock and Calamity Jane, Wind Cave, and the Wooly Mammouth digs in Hot Springs. When we leave on Friday we will head towards Devil's Tower in Wyoming and then on to Montanna.

Badlands

Buffalo herd in Custer State Park

Black Hills

Burro in Black Hills

Badlands

Mt. Rushmore

Chamberlain, South Dakota

We our on our way to the Black Hills and the Badlands. While in Madison we obtained our SD driver 's license, got new license plates, and even got a library card. We had a set back with the RV when one of our jacks refused to raise. We were fortunate to find a good RV shop and had it fixed this morning in Sioux Falls.

When we stopped in Chamberlain this afternoon one of our slides wouldn't open. Stephen was able to manually crank it open. It looks like we 'll have to find another RV shop in the near future.

Today was our first hot day. It reached 91 degrees but is supposed to
Reach a high tomorrow in the seventies. More later.