Welcome back to The Rival Rundown! If you’ve always wanted to give props to your school on CC, now’s your chance! Shoot us an email explaining what’s awesome and unique about your school (or what stinks about Rival U) atrivalrundown@collegecandy.com!

Travel to the Rocky Mountain state and you’ll find breathtaking scenery, mile-high stadiums (and all sorts of altitude-specific attractions), and the rivalry between the University of Colorado and Colorado State University. How do these schools stack up?

Quick Facts

Colorado: The University of Colorado-Boulder is a public research institution in Boulder, CO with 26,000 undergraduates.
Colorado State: Colorado State University, located in Fort Collins, CO, is a public research university with 21,000 undergraduates.

1. Rocky Mountain Showdown Record

Colorado: 59 wins, 20 losses
Colorado State: 20 wins, 59 losses (2 ties)

Three credits to: Colorado

2. Mascot Matchup

Colorado: It’s not uncommon to be fiercely proud of one’s mascot, but the folks at Colorado show extraordinary allegiance to Ralphie the Buffalo–and yes, she’s an actual buffalo (not some frat boy in a plushie get-up). Check out her extremely motivating highlights video here.
Colorado State: Fort Collins is home to CAM the Ram and all her Ram Fans. CAM is so named for the acronym of the former title of the university, Colorado Agricultural and Mechanical College.

Three credits to: Colorado. It takes GUTS to run with an animal that large!

3. Fun Facts

Colorado: Also noted for their prowess in cross-country running, the Colorado runners were the subject of the book Running with the Buffaloes, about the quest of their 1998 team to win the NCAA championship.
Colorado State: CSU fans have some rather unique ways to cheer on their Rams. Ever hear of Trombone Suicides? Me, neither, until I saw this fascinating little vid. And if band stunts aren’t enough, you can bet it’ll be fun to get hammered and chant this fight song.

Three credits to:  Colorado State. That trombone trick is FREAKY!

4. Ass-Kicking Alumni

Colorado: Adam and Kara Goucher, Kordell Stewart
Colorado State: Amy Van Dyken, Kim Ung-Yong (Guiness Book of World Records, Highest IQ)

Three credits to: Colorado State, if only for Kim Ung-Yong. The kid got his PhD at 15 (and began his bachelor’s at 3)!

5. Acceptance Rate Agony

Colorado: 78%
Colorado State: 85.5%

Three credits to:  Colorado

And the diploma goes to: Colorado by a nose! The Rams certainly have the spirit, but the Buffs have the stats!

With so many amazing national parks in the United States and Canada how are we supposed to decide which parks should take priority in the iFotoGuide development timeline?  Obviously Arches, Yosemite and Canyonlands were super high priority.  Why, you ask?  Simple –  I live in Moab.  Moab is smack in between Arches and Canyonlands, and I’ve spent the last 3 1/2 years exploring both parks with camera in hand.  Dan has been photographing Yosemite for many, many years and knows the park intimately.  It was just good old fashioned common sense that we launch iFotoGuide with coverage of the three parks for which we already have most of the images and data.  Our business plan calls for us to release 10 guides by the end of 2010.  That leaves 7 guides just itching to be developed.

Dan and I would like to ask all of you for help in deciding what parks to cover next.  We’ve compiled a list of parks we think should rank as high priority.  We hope you will take a moment to review the list and write your top 7 picks as a response to this post.

Your input is invaluable.  We’re not asking for your opinion just to pretend that we care.  We really, really, really do care and we appreciate your time.  Your answers will be taken seriously and we will use them to prioritize the parks within our development timeline.  Answers will be collected until Dec. 31.  Don’t be a slacker!

Note: I should have mentioned that the list below is in no particular order.  It was late and my eyes were so tired I was seeing doubles of everything.  Consequently, I threw this post together rather quickly.  Please choose 7 of the parks below and list them in order of importance.  If you’re REALLY bored at work you are welcome to order all the parks .

Our Parks List:

1. Grand Canyon
2. Grand Teton
3. Mt. Rainier
4. Death Valley
5. Glacier
6. Great Smoky Mountains
7. Rocky Mountain
8. Zion
9. Canadian Rockies
10. Bryce
11. Denali
12. Everglades
13. Acadia
14. Yellowstone

I know I failed to blog lately but its time to start getting on top of things now. Two weeks ago I finally photographed the wedding I have been looking forward to from the day I met with Andrea and her Mom. I am sitting in InDesign right now designing the album and can’t wait to get it in the mail and blog about it If you want to see the full album check out the Clients portion of the website.

1. Grant Village Campground

Nearby nature destination: Yellowstone National Park

Location: Wyoming

This is one exciting sight to see: the Grand Geyser, the largest predictable geyser at the Yellowstone National Park which spouts boiling water at over 150 feet in the air.

That’s just one of the many things to see when staying at the Grant Village campground within the Yellowstone National Park at the northwestern part of Wyoming.

2. Malibu Creek Campgrounds

Nearby nature destination: Malibu Creek Sate Park

Location: California

Those who live near Los Angeles in California have already probably spent a weekend or two at the Malibu Creek State Park campground. The park used to be owned by 20th Century Fox where several television shows and movies were filmed.

Aside from camping, you can also go horseback riding, mountain biking, fishing, swimming and bird watching. [California Camping]

3. Cumberland Campgrounds

Nearby nature destination: Cumberland Island National Seashore

Location: Camden County, Georgia

If you want to have a primitive camping experience, there is no better place to do it than at the campgrounds at the Cumberland Island National Seashore.

There are serene beaches on the barrier islands just off the Georgia coast and it’s yet another must-visit for campers from all across the nation. [Beach Camping]

4. Moraine Campground

Nearby nature destination: Rocky Mountain National Park

Location: Colorado

The Rocky Mountain National Park was established in 1915 and it offers five drive-in campgrounds. What makes this particular area unique is that there are about 200 back country campsites all across the park – just keep in mind that there are no hookups for electric, water or sewer systems for your motor homes.

5. Mather Campground

Nearby nature destination: Grand Canyon National Park

Location: Arizona

No outdoor camping experience will ever be complete without paying homage to the Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona, one of the best and greatest tourist attractions in the US. This UNESCO World Heritage Site has campgrounds which are open year-round. If you’re planning to go during summer, make sure to book for reservations six months in advance.

Photo Source: http://www.campingtourist.com/camping-spots.

I had sincerely hoped to like these when I first purchased it. On the website, the colors really make you think the diaper is soft. For the price, you assume you will get a high quality product. But for $18, I got a cheap looking diaper with no insert.

The outer PUL on this diaper is thin. If you purchase one of the lighter colors, you can see the insert through the diaper. I’m not sure what I was expecting, but the interior is colored suedecloth. The diaper color combinations are nice and sound so cute. (The diaper above is lemon lime!) But the quality isn’t the best.

This is a one size pocket diaper with an internal leg elastic adjustment. Some people really like these adjustments because you can set it and not worry about it again until your child moves up in the size. Well, when you have more than one in diapers, this feature is obnoxious. I must either set the leg elastic adjustments every time I use this diaper, or must set it aside for only one of the three kids. Since the elastic adjustment takes quiet some time, and I am the only person in our house capable of such a feat, I set it aside for the small one.

I had a horrible leaking experience with this diaper. I had an insert and a double in the diaper and the baby (3 months old) pooped. I’m sure moms who have had exclusively breastfed babies know how this poop looked. (For those that don’t, it was runny, yellow, and quite explosive!) The poop leaked out of this diaper! (I convey shock, because in my experience, you have far less blow outs with cloth diapers than the paper kind. You also rarely- if ever- have a poop leak!) It did not shoot out the back or down the legs. It leaked out of the seams! That’s right, the poop just oozed out of the seams of this doubled diaper on a 3 month old!

Now for the specifics on this diaper. As a one size diaper, this diaper claims to fit birth to potty training. This is one of the smallest one size diapers I have seen. Realistically, it would fit from about 6 lbs. to about 30. At 17 lbs, Emery now wears the elastic on the largest setting. And you should note, that I never really got it to work well on Emery until he was about 10 lbs. On the really small setting, there was so much excess around, I ended up with the occasional leak. BumGenius, Nicki’s Diapers, Fuzzi Bunz, and Happy Heiney inserts fit this diaper.

So when it is all said and done, do I recommend this diaper? No, I don’t. For the money you can get a much better diaper. Heck, for less money you can get a better diaper. But if you want a small one size diaper and just can’t resist the cutesy names for the color combinations (Lemon berry anyone?!), you will be able to USE the diaper. I just don’t find it worth the money. (If you find some on the super cheap- less than $12 a diaper – then by all means, go forth and work the deal. I doubt they’ll be your favorite diaper, but they’ll do.) I don’t recommend them as a night time diaper. The diaper is so small that once you double it up (or triple it up depending on the kid) it is not going to fit so well. I also don’t like to use them on trips because of their tendency to leak through the seams.

Posted November 8, 2009

(Day 2)

Note – See Day 1 here.

The next morning we got up to blue sky.  According to Will, it rained hard in the early morning.  I never heard it since I was dead asleep, but it was wet outside.  We packed up and hiked down the street to the Sagebrush, stuffed ourselves on a great breakfast, and then headed back to Bear Lake.

Today we would be going up the North Inlet trail.  In the photo above, Will is waiting for me at the trailhead.

OK.  Let me zoom in a little.

Before I go any further in the trip’s description, here is my standard comment. Please check my photo galleries here for all the larger and higher quality photos for this trip. The photos in the gallery are a quantum leap in size and quality compared to the little teaser photos I put in this site’s trip narrative.

In addition, I have two other links that will help locate the area if you are interested in making the hike yourself. A Google Earth map can be found here. Use the scale bar on the left side of the Google map to help zoom in or out to help locate the area based on where you live. (This link will direct you to a Google map that shows ALL my trips.) In order to help you with the actual trail itself, you can use this link to view a topo map (a low quality one, care of the great National Geographic TOPO program that one of my sons purchase for me : ) of the Bear Lake to Grand Lake trail. All links open a new browser window.

In addition to the Google map link above, below is a Microsoft Live map. The red tack shows the general location of the trail from Fort Collins, CO. You can click on the map to bring it up in a “live” mode and zoom in or out (move the map around) to get more detail.

This trail starts off following a dirt road that goes through private land.  You don’t have to worry about cars, but you do need to stay on the road.  That said, it’s still very pretty (and flat : )  Here is Will checking out some horses.  I spent a few minutes thinking about “borrowing” a couple to ride up the trail a ways.  But, they hang people for that, so it didn’t seem like a good thing to do : )

After approximately a mile, the road passes close to the North Inlet stream itself, and starts to enter an area called Summerland Park.

Summerland is an extensive series of large connected meadows that continue for another mile up the valley.  Just a touch of fall colors at this altitude.j

Shortly before you leave Summerland Park, the road ends up at a private residence and the actual trail begins.  And then you eventually start to go “uphill”.

But, the day was nice, the altitude was still low, and we were still powered up from our nice breakfast.  So, great hiking.

Zoom a little.

Three and a half miles up the trail you reach Cascade Falls.  Lots of people take this hike just for a day hike.  So, seven miles total.  This is taking a look down the falls.

Close up of some of the “bowls” that have been eroded into the rocks just up stream.

The trail goes through quite a variety of types of hiking and scenery.  I thoroughly enjoyed this section (obviously, it’s flat : )

It was difficult to keep myself going sometimes.  There was just “neat stuff” all along the trail.  Sometimes I just had to pass on by.  Other times I tried to quickly capture the scene.

This was what you see from the trail.  The reason I happened to look that way is that I thought I caught a glimmer of movement out of the corner of my vision.  More than likely, a hobbit.  They like these types of places.

And then Will spotted some deer in front of us along the trail.  He let me get in front and the deer (normal RMNP animals) were kind enough to allow me to take several photos.

They were a mom and a couple of yearlings.  The yearlings still had their spots.

They finally took off in a hurry.

But gave us one more look as they crossed the stream below us.

Passed a nice little lake along the way.

Will takes a break.

Zoom.

That was our last real break before we hit “switchbacks set 1″.  See, we’d been gaining altitude all this way.  But somewhere between seven and eight miles you hit a trail junction. One way (to the right) goes to Lake Nokoni.  The other way (our way : ) continues towards Bear Lake.  And, shortly after the trail junction you hit a “bunch” (as in, “lots”) of switchbacks.   One  good thing is, you do start to see some of the surrounding mountains as you quickly gain altitude.

And, the best thing is, you finally enter upper Hallett valley.  Which is just about worth the entire hike to visit.  I kid you not.  We took a long break there.

Will saying, “can we take a break?” (or, more likely, just waiting for  me : )

Will has just told me that we are NOT at Bear Lake yet.  That we have 10 more miles to go.  I’m wondering to myself “just how long would it take me to get back to Grand Lake and have Will come pick me up after he gets to the car?”

So, this is what a rather large number of switchbacks is going to take us  up and over during our next little phase of today’s, ummmm, walk.  Of course, it still keeps going “up” way past what can be seen here.  Luckily, I was not aware of that little detail at this point.

If we hadn’t been quite so tired, and attempting to conserve our energy for the switchbacks, we would have meandered over to this very nice little stream.  Great place to lie back on the rock and bask in the sun with the water rippling down for some background music.  Sigh.  Maybe next time.

I take one more look back down the trail and consider Grand Lake once more.  I mean, it’s all downhill.  Will says “no.”

So, we move on.  And really, this little valley was just amazingly pretty.

Will stopping to read the sign that says “Mountains don’t care………”  (if you die).  Or, something to that effect.  Something about being careful about storms above timberline.   Hmmmm.  But, it’s such a nice sunny day.  What storms?

Small stream that feeds that waterfall where we took our lunch break.

Little zoom on the waterfall itself.  I could have spent a lot of time here.  One small little remaining flower of summer can be seen down in the bottom left hand corner of the photo.

My dallying at the little waterfall has allowed Will to move quite a bit ahead of me as we move up the side of the valley.  Kinda a cool trail.  Just that it goes up.  A lot. And we’ve already hiked around 10 miles.  But it IS extremely pretty.  I attempted to keep my mind on that part.

Zoom in a little.  Yep.  Thar he goes : )  He actually does stop and let me catch up.

And then, the clouds came.  Just as we were getting up to treeline.  Of course.  Photo by Will.  He was doing some photo work along with the videos he was capturing.  And, uh, waiting for me to catch up : )

Zoom in a little on that.  Another photo by Will.  Cool clouds.

This is looking the other direction.  Actually, once we get “on top” (sorta), we headed that way.  The trail goes right around the head of the valley.  Another photo by Will.

Didn’t take a lot of photos for a while.  For several good reasons.  One, it was really windy so I was concerned with keeping my feet on the ground.  Two, I seemed to be getting a little slower the higher up the trail we went.  I think it may have been one of those time/space warpy thingies.  Third, it actually started spitting a little rain on us (yes, there was thunder also).  Here is what it looked like when I could get my camera out.  Will is up ahead.  Kinda distant.

Here, I’ll zoom in a mite.

So, this was rather a lengthy section.  Right around this time (as it was beginning to look like we might die : ) a couple things happened.  One was we actually had several hikers pass us.  Going “down” the trail and looking quite happy about it.  We had met one the other day when we were going down and he was going up.  Really nice guy.  Told us about the wolves he heard.  But, hey, really a nice guy (he made sure we knew about a big rock we could crawl under on top if the storm got too bad).
Of course, there was the motorcycle/hippy looking people we met on the trail also the day before.  And, they were nice people.  Just, you know, maybe not like the people you meet walking around in downtown Fort Collins.
Kinda off Topic:
Generally, almost always (fact, during all my hiking, I can’t think otherwise) the people you meet on the trail are not your, ummmm, normal type of people.  And, as time goes on, it seems that being in the back country is less and less normal.  Just a fact of society at this time .

(Way off topic – Well, ok, when I say “not normal”, no we aren’t talking about Alaska or the Canadian bush, that that’s a whole different world.  Or Universe.  Those people aren’t normal AT ALL.  And, whenever I say “not normal”,  I don’t mean that in a bad way.  Been there done that sort of stuff and people are a little different in the real bush.  But then, neither is the northern bush country your normal lower 48 hiking country.  So, you have to be a little, uh, “different” in the northern bush.  Or, you know, you wouldn’t be there.  Makes sense : )

Back to Kinda off topic – But, any ways, before you all sidetracked me, you generally always (as far as I can remember) meet pretty nice people.  There was that one guy I met with a couple of small kids up in the Zirkels that was packing a 44 magnum and, but, that’s another story……..  And, of course, you do hear about “bad things” happening back in the bush on CNN (although, not near as often as in some city).  So, sure, pays to be prepared.  But, in general, I meet really nice, and interesting, people in the bush (both tame bush country and wild bush country).
Back on Topic:
Where was I?  Oh yeah.  The second thing was, well, I was standing with Will (me gasping, he waiting) and happened to look out across the tundra to a bunch of sticks.  Only, when I looked a little closer, the sticks turned into a good sized bull elk.  Probably the highest I’ve ever seen an elk.  He was most likely just being happy at being able to look down on his little kingdom.  Probably figuring he was pretty safe up high and all.  During the summer, that location would also be pretty nice as far as having a wind to keep the flies off of him.

The trail actually ended up going around and above him.  So, after around 15-20 minutes, I was able to look down on him.

Little hard to see?  Yeah, this is one time I wished I had a longer zoom on my camera (Will had gone ahead with my other camera that had a much bigger zoom).  But, it was fun.

Will was moving fast.  Which was actually a good thing.  It kept ME moving (just not the “fast” part : ).  Which, eventually, meant that we got to our car before dark.

Zoom a little.

But, we lucked out.  The worst of the storm missed us.  It cleared up.  And we discovered that we were in an awesomely pretty area.  This is heading right past the upper lip of the valley where we had stopped for lunch.

Looking back down it.  Yeah, I should have walked out to the edge.  But, I believe my thinking was I’d lose altitude.  Bad thing.

Just great views any which way you looked.

I do mean, EVERYWHERE I looked.  I wished I could just go check it out instead of walking past.  But then, where I was walking was pretty nice : )

Zoom.  Yeah, looks good to me.  Wonder what’s over there?

Then, all of the sudden, I knew we were getting “close”.  Well, clos-er, at least.  I caught a glimpse of our buddy juusssst peeking up over the far horizon.

Yeah, not the way we were headed, but Longs Peak was over there.  Not too far away.  I reeeaaaalllllly felt like having a little stroll over that way.  It just looked very interesting.  Oh well.

Caught up to Will.  Again.

It was eerily beautiful on top.

Here is a good one by Will.

Another one by Will.

Have to say I was getting a little tired at this point.  Although it doesn’t look like it, the trail was still gaining altitude here.  Very slowly.  But, enough that I could feel it.  At just over 12,000 feet, and close to 15 miles or so, it didn’t take much effort to use up any energy I had.  But, I still enjoyed it.

The trail was in very good shape.  Except, of course, where they had tried to “fix” it.  For some reason, every so often they had pulverized rock into small pieces and then used that “gravel” to cover sections of the trail.  Unfortunately, those gravel pieces were all around the size of a tennis ball.  Sometimes a little smaller.  Sometimes a little larger.  And it “killed” our feet.  Here is one of the tools they used to do that (accidentally left behind, I think).  Had to have been carried by a pack animal (non-human) because it was around 6 feet in length and 50 lbs in weight.

Close up of the working end.

And here is an example of a section of trail that had been fixed.  Most of these sections seemed to be ignored by hikers who went to either side to keep from walking on the “gravel”.

So here is what I mean by still going uphill.  Will is up ahead.

Here.  I’ll zoom in a little.  He is still hard to see on these reduced resolution photos.  He is up at the 3rd set of cairns from where I am taking the photo.  If you aren’t familiar with this type of country, you might think that the number of those rock cairns are “overkill”.  But, if you’ve ever been on a trail like this in less than good conditions (dark, rainy, early snow has hidden the trail, whatever), then these cairns could be a life saver.

And here we are.  Very close to the top of Flattop Mtn.  Note that when I say “we”, I mean that loosely.  Will cut across the trail and shaved off half an hour or so.  There is actually a trail there to do that, but it’s old and I missed it.

So, when we got to the top, Will had me take some interesting photos.  There is actually a pretty big drop off behind him that looks down the Emerald Lake (and eventually Bear Lake) gorge.  But the cliff is really a little further away than it looks like in this photo.  But then, that’s the point : )

Here is one looking down the gorge behind Will.

Will took a photo of the old man staggering around the area : )

“Will, yell at me again.  I’m lost, dazed, and confused.  Where are you, Will?  Oh, look.  I’m on the trail.  Heh.  Nevermind.”  Another photo by Will.

Not sure what the name of that mountain is in the distance.  But it looks familiar.  Since the sun is headed down, the light is MUCH better now (just after 4pm) than yesterday when we were at this same point (at noon).

Zoom a little.

Even more.  This is actually a pretty good view of the final ascent section of Longs Peak.  I think you cross from the left flank (from that 90 degree section) and go straight up the ridge that is pointing at us in the photo.  I think.  Anyway, cool hike.  May need to do that next summer with Will.

As we started down the other side, we could see a forest fire back behind Lumpy Ridge.  They got it out pretty fast.  I think they called it the “Dunraven Fire.”  But, I could be wrong.

Zoom.

There is a coyote in this photo.  See if you can find him.  Not that hard.  But he/she does blend in pretty well.  Not that far off.  Just above the trail in the photo.  Obviously, you can see it a lot better on my Smugmug site.

Fall colors.

Sun’s last rays.

Heard a lot of pikas, but this is the first one I actually saw.  And it was within a foot of the trail : )  Packing away winter supplies.

It’s all downhill.  Although, after a while, that got to be pretty painful on the feet.  We need new boots.  There is a reason Will is off to the very edge of the trail.  That was where the smoothest surface was to walk on.

Emerald Lake and, in the distance below Longs, Glacier Gorge.

Zoom.

I didn’t take many photos after this point.  We did make one stop for a bite to eat after we got into the trees.  But otherwise we kept moving.

Will made one more video after we got back to the car.  You can see it at my Smugmug site.
All we could think about was getting our boots off and finding a place to EAT.  We did the boots immediately. But put off eating until we got back to Fort Collins.  We went to the Rio and it was very good.  We were both surprised they let us in because, as Will put it, we looked like a couple of bums. But, after all, it is Fort Collins. Will literally “breathed in” his burrito.  It was gone that fast.  Along with two bowls of chips.  And he was still hungry but too tired to really care : )

All I can say is, really truly an awesome trip.  Just about perfect in every way imaginable.  I think this photo (taken at the beginning of the trip) tells it all.

Really great hike.  Just make sure you start early (both days), and have good boots.  You don’t need to try and go fast, just a nice steady pace allowing for stops for eating, taking photos, etc.  I STRONGLY recommend that you “train” for the hike all summer.  Do at least 2-3 hikes of 10-15 miles (and lots of smaller ones).  Do one hike of at least 20 miles.  After all that, you should be good to go.

Also, you might want to try and do it early fall when the thunderstorm activity has diminished from the normal summertime routine (bugs are gone, too : ).  Otherwise, expect to get hit by a storm or two.  They could be quite, uh, exhilarating in nature above timberline.  There is always a danger of lightening strikes during the thunderstorms.  If it’s that bad, huddle under a rock or tree for a while.  At least for the first day, you can start early enough to be below timberline by the time the day’s thunderstorms usually hit.  Usually.

- Geoff Weatherford

 
Ski & Feel – Powder-Touren mit Nachfühl-Charakter

Der Retro-Flair der Ski & Feel Website fasziniert auf Anhieb: Mit Ski & Feel hat Bergzeit einen neuen Partner an der Seite, der für Freeriding, Tiefschnee-Schnorcheln, Powder-Reisen und einem durchweg Guide-geführten Programm steht, das Suchtpotenzial birgt.

Vom Vorspiel bis hin zum Nachfühlen verstehen sich die angebotenen Freeride Touren in Utah in den Hängen der Rocky Mountains als Erlebnis für passionierte Skifahrer und Boarder, die das Leben auch außerhalb der Pisten genießen wollen.

Bernd Schultheiss, Initiator und Head-Guide von Ski & Feel, hat dafür und für Sie 4 Jahre vor Ort full time gelebt, erkundet, gefühlt und erfahren und die anderen Guides vor Ort intensiv ausgebildet. Im Frühjahr 2009 – noch in den letzten Monaten seiner beruflichen Tätigkeit als Wirtschaftsingenieur in Salt Lake City – setzte Bernd Schultheiss in der Konzeption der Ski & Feel- Touren das um, was ihn, seine Familie und zahlreiche Besucher im Hause Schultheiss fasziniert hat: die Leidenschaft der Begegnung mit dem ‚greatest snow on earth‘, das Gefühl, willkommen zu sein und die Möglichkeit, Freeriding mit Mountainbike-Touren zu verbinden.

• Entdecken Sie mit unserem neuen Partner den rauhen Charme Utahs und damit den „greatest snow on earth“: Schlechtwetterfronten mit kalter Luft fegen vom Pazifik kommend über die Wüste Nevadas und Utahs, und saugen über dem großen Salzsee von Salt Lake City Feuchtigkeit auf, um sich schließlich an der unmittelbar an die Salzsee auftürmenden Bergen der Wasatch-Gebirgsfront zu stauen. Ein Stau-Schneefall lädt binnen weniger Stunden meterhohen Schnee ab. Ein Schnee, mit dem es unmöglich ist, Schneebälle zu formen, selbst im März und April!
• Kombinieren Sie in diesen Frühlings-Monaten die unvergesslichen Ski & Feel – Momente mit Bike-Touren, bei denen Sie bei Ski & Feel ebenfalls von Profi-Guides zu den richtigen hot spots begleitet werden.
• Genießen Sie auch außerhalb Ihrer sportlichen Aktivitäten die Möglichkeiten, die Ihnen die Ortskenntnisse und die Gastfreundschaft der Ski & Feel- Guides bieten: Barbecue-Abende auf der Terrasse, ausgewählte Restaurantbesuche, Shopping-Touren, Abstecher nach Las Vegas – Ski & Feel stimmt sowohl das Powder- als auch das Rahmen-Programm auf die Wünsche, Fähigkeiten und Bedürfnisse der Gruppenteilnehmer ab.

Gönnen Sie sich einen Ski & Feel-Trip zu den Rocky Mountains mit Bergzeit. Ski & Feel – die neuen Powder-Touren in den Rocky Mountains – zu buchen unter >> Freeride Powder Utah

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Penfield dropped a western style down coat not long ago now it’s ROCKY MOUNTAIN’S turn for a slice of the pie, Here they deliver a GORE-TEX rain jacket with a very similar look. We all know about gore-tex’s brilliant weatherproof breathable fabric and they have been killing that game for over 30 year’s now. But Rocky Mountain feather-bed have switched it to high fashion, Featuring Leather detailing over the shoulder’s , a high collar with hidden hood , faux pearl buttons and brass studs, coming in two colorway’s with a standard camel look and also a brilliant blue, Catch yours HERE

Hit the jump for a closer look,

We’ve already seen Penfield drop western-style design onto a down coat, and now Rocky Mountain delivers aGore-Tex rain jacket with a similar look.  You know all about Gore-Tex’s weatherproof, breathable fabric.  It’s been dominating that game for over 30 years now.  Now, Rocky Mountain Featherbed has flipped it into high fashion.  They’ve created a jacket with features like leather detailing over the yoke and shoulders, a high collar with a stow-away hood, hidden zippers, pearl buttons, and brass pressed studs, plus a flash royal blue colorway to go with a more standard camel look.  Available here.

View from Our Traveler's Rest Cabin

Waking early, Jim heard scratching at the door of our East Glacier Park cabin. It was Mike, the resident cat, her black back white with snow, content to come in from the cold and keep us company as we made breakfast.

Though we’d been warned of an approaching storm, snow on the last day of September was a shock. Winter had arrived on the eastern side of Glacier National Park.

A Montana Valley South of Kalispell

We said goodbye to Mike’s master, Bob, who told us about the cabins he built himself and the ranch he and his wife Diane own. He also showed us Diane’s exquisite engravings in metal and bone. Despite the snow falling, we reluctantly pulled away from our Traveler’s Rest cabin and headed west again for the first time in almost a week.

The snow turned to sleet and then rain as we drove toward the western side of the park. The weather on the two sides of Glacier is so different you can see it in the trees, which are much taller on the western side. The mountains keep the eastern side drier and colder.

Cinderella Pumpkins at Paradise, Montana

We wanted to explore some of West Glacier, but with the rain, now steady for the first time this trip, we stopped at a 50% off sale for Lane to buy a souvenir shirt and then get her parks Passport stamped. Then, we made for Spokane Valley, Washington. This would be a driving day.

Jim insisted on a detour to Kalispell for lunch, but after a week without being in a city, we were overwhelmed by the traffic. “Someone’s ALWAYS pushing me from behind!” We ate at Finnegans, a nice family-style restaurant and discussed today’s front-page Max Baucus—the manager and waitresses alike seemed to hate the guy, who had “done nothing for Montana.” With all the discussion, Jim forgot the tip, so we drove back five miles to leave one. The waitress said “Wow!” Apparently, most people don’t think tipping is this important.

Crossing eastern Montana under clearing weather, Lane said she finally understood why they call Montana “Big Sky Country.” The king-size vistas are unbroken and endless.

The Knife, with Pumpkin Patch

Near Paradise, Montana, we stopped to photograph a rock formation. A produce seller at the nearby farm said he called it “the knife.” We bought tomatoes and a jar of huckleberry jam, which he said had been made by his aunt.

Crossing into Idaho, we heard NPR for the first time in many days from a station in Spokane. Unfortunately, we also heard stories about nooses left on doors of Obama supporters and Obama/nazi posters appearing in the area. We had plenty of time to listen, as our progress was intermittently slowed by road construction, mostly funded by Obama’s stimulus bill.

Open Range Horse Beside Road

We started the day making ourselves breakfast in our Traveler’s Rest cabin. After two weeks on the road of hotel rooms and continental breakfasts, it felt great having a “house” and a full kitchen again, so we took our time getting going.

We finally left for the St. Mary entrance to Glacier National Park by 9:30, driving about twenty miles through the Blackfeet Indian Reservation. This in itself is almost like driving through a park, with mountain vistas and the occasional wildlife sighting. Most memorable for us will be the open range horses we saw grazing among a stand of birch trees.

Along the Road to Glacier National Park

At the St. Mary Visitor Center, we met the enthusiastic and knowledgeable Park Ranger Adrien Keables who suggested we download audio tour tracks to our laptop, which proved very helpful. Because of construction, the Going to the Sun Road was open only to Logan Pass, about half way. We knew this in advance, so it wasn’t a disappointment, but Adrien assured us we would still have plenty to see.

First View of St. Mary's Lake

It must be possible to drive the Going to the Sun Road without stopping, but normal humans are so struck by the sights, they use the pullouts time and time again. Our first stops were along St.Mary’s Lake, which on this sunny, windy fall day was sparkling. From high viewpoints, we could see the wind rippling the water around a point of land. From up close, the many colors of Glacier’s rocks, notably blue and red, shone through the waves on the shore. And, all around, rose the dramatic mountains of Glacier.

Glacier Rocks in a Stream

Shortly after passing the lake, we hiked down to Baring Falls. The stream feeding the falls starts with small rapids right under the highway bridge. As you descend the trail, a succession of minor falls reveal themselves, each more dramatic. Near a foot bridge at trail bottom, you finally view Baring Falls, a very pretty asymmetrical cascade. Though the water was low this time of year, it was still an impressive sight.

An advantage of traveling off season is the lack of crowds, very evident on this trail. It’s about a mile round trip to Baring Falls, but we never encountered another visitor until we got back to the highway. When visitors are sparse, though, you stop and talk with almost every one, if only to say hello. More often, you exchange picture-taking favors and talk about where you’re from, where you’ve been and where you’re going. Maybe this happens even more often when it’s crowded, but we doubt it.

St. Mary's Lake from an Overlook

We saw our first real glacier at the Jackson Glacier Overlook. Thanks to global warming, it’s a shadow of its former self. Lane was disappointed to the point of refusing to believe this was, indeed, a glacier, which she expected to be those magnificent mountains of moving ice you see in documentaries. Rather, the remaining 26 in GNP look like the remnants of last night’s snowfall   Looks are deceiving, though; these glaciers are over 8,000 feet above sea level and miles away from Lane’s eyes.

Wind Rounds a Point on St. Mary's Lake

Reaching Logan Pass, we tried to walk the boardwalk to Hidden Lake, but by then were tired. When descending hikers told us we were only a third of the way up, we gave up. Hidden Lake remains hidden to us.

After leaving the Going to the Sun Road with the sun not yet set, we went up to the Many Glaciers area and its namesake, the Many Glaciers Hotel. Though closed for the season, the view across the lake was worth the trip. It is probably the quintessential Glacier National Park postcard on a sunny day.

Baring Falls

However, clouds were gathering over the mountains by sunset and the winds picked up and turned colder. September was not yet over and an early winter storm was on the way, as we had been warned.

On the way from Many Glaciers, we saw our first ptarmigan crossing the road. If you’re not familiar with this quail-like bird, it changes color from mottled brown to white in the winter and has feathers on its toes to form snowshoes. Still in its summer brown, she walked reluctantly from in front of our car as though she had arthritis—too.

CLICK HERE FOR MORE DAY 14 PHOTOS

Jackson Glacier

St. Mary's Lake

A Montana Hillside

After shopping for supplies in Helena, Montana, we drove up I-15 and Route 287 through mountains and dramatic canyons, breaking out into some of the driest, most desolate grazing land we had seen. In some stretches, we drove for ten minutes at 70 mph without seeing a house, another car or a person. Except for a few towns, Montana is very empty.

On the Road in Montana

One small town was Augusta (pop. 272), where we paused for coffee at Latigo & Lace, a combo art gallery, gift store, bookstore and cappuccino bar. If this place is an example, Montana may be empty, but some of its people are very sophisticated. Lane used their Internet access to do banking. The store had great quality local arts and gifts; we bought small gifts for friends at home. Among the more fragile arts and crafts, a sign warned: “Unattended kids will be given a cup of expresso and a free puppy.”

Two Medicine River

We reached our cabin in East Glacier Park with time to explore before sunset. On the recommendation of Bob, the co-owner of our Traveler’s Rest cabin, we took a short drive to Two Medicine Lake just inside the park. Both it and the river feeding it were beautiful and a fitting introduction to Glacier National Park.

This late in the year, the water was low at Running Eagle Falls, which is also known as Trick Falls. The “trick” becomes evident in this season, as the upper falls dry up, revealing the lower falls, which seem to come out of a rock cave. It’s quite the trick.

Two Medicine Lake

Alongside the lake, we had met a couple from West Glacier Park with big black dog. We also kept bumping into them at the falls and every other stop along the way. Then, on the drive home, we noticed their car behind ours. We were unconcerned until we pulled off at a wide spot in the road and they pulled off in back of us. That got us a bit concerned. Were we being followed? However, they finally stopped at a store, less than a mile before our cabin. Can the wilderness make you paranoid?

BTW, the cabin was perfect—a small, modern version of a rustic post and beam structure, complete with huge ridge logs, a gas burning fireplace and an eat-in kitchenette. The six-cabin grouping was between railroad tracks and the highway, but the construction and insulation were so good we were unaware. Bob built these cabins himself and did a quality job. Can you tell? We highly recommend Traveler’s Rest in East Glacier Park.

Running Eagle (Trick) Falls

CLICK HERE FOR MORE DAY 13 PHOTOS

(And  then select the Slideshow when you get to Flickr to see them full size and automatically)

Mammoth Hot Springs from the Overlook

This was to be mostly a travel day, so we checked out of Canyon Lodge early and headed to the north entrance of Yellowstone to visit Mammoth Hot Springs and its otherworldly hot springs and terraces on our way out. Along the paths, we met a friendly couple from Denmark and shared Yellowstone moments with them.

We decided against our typical picnic this day, lingering a while at Mammoth’s Terrace Grill before saying goodbye to Yellowstone at the nearby Visitor Center (another cancellation stamp for Lane) and heading to our stopover at Helena, Montana.

A Set of Mammoth Terraces

Exiting Yellowstone, we took photos of the beautiful Gardiner River, just at the 45th parallel sign which marks the center point between the North Pole and the Equator. Leaving the park, the town of Gardiner gave us a dose of reality—its western-themed commercial strip facing directly into Yellowstone’s entrance gate. We’ve previously posted about this in a live blog, but it bears repeating. Gardiner’s purpose in life, we feel, is to serve as an example of how important it is to preserve our National Parks.

Dying Trees in a Mammoth Hot Spring

On our route to Helena, we crossed the Missouri River for the second time on this trip at Townsend, Montana, and headed due north.

A large billboard outside Helena welcomed us with the message, “I don’t question your existence. God.” Personally, I question the existence of a god who believes in billboard advertising.

In Helena, we posted a new blog entry. We also did laundry for the first time on the trip. Now that was a dose reality.

CLICK HERE FOR MORE DAY 12 PHOTOS FROM MAMMOTH HOT SPRINGS
(Be sure to launch the slideshow on Flickr to see the photos in all their glory and automatically.)

The Gardiner River Near the 45th Parallel

A Montana Farm

Dawn mist over Yellowstone Lake

We got up extra early to learn the Arnica Fire was still burning west of Yellowstone’s Grand Loop Road leading from our Canyon Lodge to the Old Faithful area. A park ranger said the road was safe and would remain open for a while, but there was no guarantee it wouldn’t close if the winds changed.

Bull bison makes his feelings known

Our choice at this point was not seeing Old Faithful and the other sights at the Upper Geyser Basin or taking a chance the road would close behind us. With the road closed, the only way back to our room would be driving to the south of Yellowstone, circling around to the north and driving back down again. Check a map and you’ll see that would take almost a full day. We decided to risk it.

Into the smoke

Driving down, we saw the ominous columns of smoke again in the distance, but first we were treated to a wondrous Yellowstone morning, with mist lifting off the river and lake. At one spot, we saw a herd of elk (our singing neighbors) crossing a meadow, mist all around them. Just a little further on in the other lane was a solitary bison resolutely walking right by us on the highway, properly committed to the right-hand lane, blasé about us and our car.

Old Faithful

When wildlife appear in Yellowstone, you almost always see the wildlife photographers first. A large herd of bison at one point had attracted an even larger herd of shutterbugs, some armed with huge camouflaged telephoto lenses. Despite the power of their lenses, it occurred to us that a few were getting too close. One bison, obviously the herd’s leader, grunted and snorted a cloud of steam in the cold morning air to let us know who was boss. We got back in the car.

The cold air also made the steam vents and hot springs along the road much more dramatic than they had been the afternoon before. Mud Volcano looked truly like a little volcano.

Bacterial mat on hot spring

We then drove through increasingly dense smoke from the fire and visibility decreased. At one point, we found ourselves in relatively thick smoke right in the middle of damage from a previous fire. As we made the westward turn on Grand Loop Road at West Thumb, the smoke cleared. It was as if someone opened a shade. It was now a sunny day with a clear blue sky.

Aspens in Grand Teton

We were lucky to reach Old Faithful only ten minutes before an eruption. Attendance was sparse early in the day, so we watched from the front row with just a few others. Old Faithful was — well, faithful, and looked exactly like the photos we had seen over the years.

We then walked the boardwalk trail through Upper Geyser Basin and were again lucky to be in the right spots; up close, we saw eruptions of both Sawmill and Castle geysers—Sawmill even sprayed us a bit.

Heading south to Grand Teton National Park, we picnicked at Lake Lewis and stopped afterwards for photos of Lewis Falls.

Approaching Grand Teton, we soon found fire there, too, creating a hazy shroud over those majestic mountains. The aspens along the road were brilliant in the sunshine, but the mountains, typically so brilliant beside the lake, were dominated by towering smoke.

Fire in Grand Teton National Park

We learned there were actually three fires burning in Grand Teton. Two were wildfires from natural causes which were being allowed to burn to help renew the forests. The other was a prescribed burn to reduce the influence of unhealthy growth. To the untrained eye, it all looked like a disaster in the making. We know the science says fire is good for the forest’s ecosystem, but it’s hard to watch this happening in such a pristine environment.

Over and over during our time in the National Parks, we’ve seen the results of similar fires. Great swaths of the forests have been devastated. There is recent growth among the burned ruins of millions of trees, and we know the forests will renew. Meanwhile, it is not something you want to see.

We headed back to our room at Canyon Lodge around 5 PM; but at the south entrance to Yellowstone, we learned the road to the lodge area had been closed during the afternoon. Luckily, the rangers allowed a few cars at a time to get past the fire by following a pilot car.

Yellowstone's Arnica Fire

While waiting for our turn, we had a front row seat to the progress of the fire and, now, the efforts to control it and keep it away from the road. We could actually see the front edge of the fire across an inlet of Yellowstone Lake, flames easily visible in spots. A lone helicopter was scooping water from the lake, dropping it on strategic spots.

At the end of another day of fire and water, we had dinner in the Canyon Lodge Dining Room on its last night of the season. The next day, its staff would start to move on and so would we.

CLICK HERE FOR MORE PHOTOS FROM DAY 11
(Once at the photos, click on the Slideshow option for a better view—full size and displayed automatically)

Lane at the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone

For us, Yellowstone National Park was a combination of beauty, wonder and drama.

Our first day in the park began with breakfast in our room, a time- and cost-saving measure we’re using often. This room in Cascade Lodge at Canyon Lodge Village was more than we expected. Internet reviews of some of these facilities had been brutal, but Cascade is newer and felt like a mid-range suite, with an excellent view of the pine forest behind and elk to sing us to sleep with their eerie, plaintive calls.

The Grand Canyon of Yellowstone is next door. Even the first view of its Upper Falls was spectacular just off the parking lot, but it improved as we hiked down to the lip of the Lower Falls. Besides this very special pair of falls, the canyon is remarkable for the colors in its walls, partly due to the activity of hot springs and fumaroles—essentially steam vents—along the Yellowstone River.

Lower Falls from Artist Point

We met and talked with a number of other visitors via the reciprocal custom of exchanging picture taking. One couple about our age is from Orange County New York, where Jim went to high school. He and Jim also have 95-year-old mothers in Florida living independently. They promised to follow our blog, so if they have tuned in, we hope they’ll give us a shout-out via a blog comment.

The trek back up to the canyon rim reminded us that 1) we’re out of shape and 2) the air is thinner than we’re used to at over 7700 feet elevation. We were huffing and puffing but, nonetheless, drove and then hiked at three more canyon overlooks. The final view, from Artist Point, is justly famous as one of the most perfect vistas in the world.

We caught our breath picnicking at the Wapiti Lake Trailhead.

Dragon's Mouth Belches Steam and Water

Our afternoon destination was Old Faithful and the Upper Geyser Basin, but along the way we stopped at Mud Volcano at roadside. A collection of small geysers and hot springs included the fascinating Dragon’s Mouth, a cave-like hot spring in the rocks which spews water and steam while rumbling and, yes, growling. These close encounters with Yellowstone’s sulfurous output also came with signs warning about scalding water, which has claimed twelve lives and badly burned many at this one spot.

The Arnica Fire at Yellowstone

Back on the road to Old Faithful we saw huge, distant clouds of what we thought was steam from geysers. Soon we realized it was smoke from a huge forest fire to the west. We later learned this had been named the Arnica Fire. Seeing two fire rangers, we stopped to inquire. Lane soon overheard the radio message, “Get that road closed now.” Realizing we’d be trapped, with no way back to our lodge, we turned around. About two miles heading away from Old Faithful, the road going to was now closed, restraining a long line of cars and disappointed people.

After regrouping at Canyon Lodge and consulting a park ranger, we headed for the now only alternative to Old Faithful, Norris Geyser Basin, an easy drive. We found it nearly deserted, probably due to road closures—part of the eastern Grand Loop had closed for maintenance. Most of the time at Norris, we were alone at one small geyser or hot spring after another. The earth is truly alive here, bringing forth water, steam, carbon dioxide, foul-smelling hydrogen sulfide, and sounds—all making you realize you are standing atop one of the world’s largest volcanos.

Hot Spring at Norris Geyser Basin

Most of Yellowstone is a supervolcano so large that it has caused mass species extinctions as recently at 640,000 years ago. It’s due to go off again soon, give or take a few hundred thousand years. Or a few days.

At first, we talked about how foolish it was for people to put themselves so close to danger. But then, we asked each other if we would rather Yellowstone kill us right here on top of it or back in West Chester, Pennsylvania. Either way, if it goes off, it will kill us; so, why not be right in the center of things. At least, we would be the first to know.

Trees Cooked White by Overheated Ground at Norris Geyser Basin

After hiking almost all the trails and boardwalks of Norris Basin, we drove back to Canyon Lodge and found the road south to Old Faithful had reopened at about 6:45 PM—seems fire dies back in colder air. Tired from too much hiking, steam, sulfur and fire, we just had dinner and got to sleep early, to the sounds of those elk singing in the forest.

CLICK HERE FOR MORE PHOTOS FROM DAY 10
(Once at the photos, click on the Slideshow option for a better view)

Approaching Devils Tower

After another great breakfast at Coyote Blues Village, this time featuring raspberry English muffin french toast, we said goodbye to our temporary housemates and hosts and headed to Yellowstone.

Our only planned stop today was Devils Tower National Monument, just over the Wyoming state line. When planning the trip, this wasn’t a big deal for us, but since we were going to be so close, it was worth a look especially since we both love Spielberg’s Close Encounters of the Third Kind.

And, that’s about all we gave it, stopping only to see it from different angles on the approach road and from the parking lot at the visitor center. Lane also got her first Regional stamp for her park passport book at the nation’s First National Monument.

The Classic View of Devils Tower

After the sights of The Badlands National Park and the Black Hills, Devils Tower was something of a disappointment. Though it is usually shown standing alone, as you approach it you can see peaks equally high almost beside it. Admittedly, it is an unusual shape and looks as if it were thrust up from the earth, with scored lines along all sides. Rather than being thrust up, it is actually harder rock which has been eroded from all sides and will eventually disappear.

There are legends about Devils Tower, such as a Native American story about a boy and his seven sisters who were saved from an attacking bear when the earth rose up beneath them. The score marks, in this story, came from the bear’s claws. The girls went on to become the stars of a constellation.

Wyoming Snow Fence

After the hour-long detour to the Tower, back on the Interstate, we almost immediately noticed we’d left the billboards and signs of South Dakota behind. The Wyoming landscape was relatively spare, but it was also almost free of billboards. What it did have was very long freight trains hauling coal. One BNSF train had to be at least two miles long. In another stretch, we counted three of these trains within ten minutes.

Gillette, Wyoming was our stop for grocery shopping and a picnic lunch. The picnic table was at a small town park, next to the soccer field.

Did I mention that most of Wyoming was empty? Population: Chester County, PA 491,489; the State of Wyoming: 532,668! There was so little to see along the way, other than semi-arid grazing lands, that Lane took to shooting photos of fences. She got one particularly nice picture of a snow fence (Jim is jealous and claims he took that one).

The Roving Rabbit Looks Back on the Wyoming Plains from the Bighorn Mountains

We took another daily photo of the Roving Rabbit at the Hogback Outlook from the first mountain on the eastern edge of the Bighorn National Forest. In back of us were the wide open plains. Ahead were more and more mountains.

We had been warned to expect construction on this section of the road, but weren’t really prepared for what was coming. Going over the Bighorn Mountains, Lane driving, we hit temporary dirt roads so rough we bottomed out at one spot. In some places, only one lane was open to Lane, waits approached a half hour, and driving into the setting sun coming down the far side of the mountains was painful. After then reaching an elevation of over 8300 feet, Lane said this gets a “holy shit!” entry in the blog.

Signs along the road through the Bighorn Mountains indicate the geologic period of  rock strata at different heights, such as Cambrian, Devonian and Pennsylvanian, and date the approximate age of the rocks in millions and hundreds of millions of years. There are a lot of these signs. Strict creationists must hate traveling this road.

Jim drove down the other side of the Bighorns, where we saw our first herd of open-range cattle flanking the road. We also sighted our first Smokey the Bear signs of the trip—a “warm, fuzzy.” His warning about forest fires would turn out to be prescient, but not about the Bighorns. The fire was coming in Yellowstone.

Because of  construction delays, we arrived in Yellowstone much later than planned. Our reward for being late was an orange-red crescent moon setting over and being reflected in Yellowstone Lake. This is an impossible photo to capture, but Lane insisted Jim give it a try. As we snapped the photos and found the Milky Way, which we hadn’t seen with the naked eye in decades, the expected scent of sulfur mixed with a whiff of smoke in the air. We thought that was normal for Yellowstone. Next morning, we would learn we were wrong. We reached Canyon Lodge in Yellowstone safe and sound around 10:45PM, very tired and happy our room was still there and looked just like the photos of it on the Internet.

Moonset Over Yellowstone Lake

Downtown Fort Collins, CO

Trout & Bear. Art in public square, downtown Ft. Collins.

Swinging. Art in public square, downtown Ft. Collins.

Cindy tips a guy & his horse over.

Some crazy bikes downtown.

Signage at Wagz, a boutique pet store.

New Belgium Brewery (NBB); Fort Collins, CO

NBB’s ubiquitous Fat Tire bike.

Cindy Lou hulu hoops at NBB

NBB: A testament to sustainability.

NBB’s tap room menu

NBB’s tap room

NBB’s beer shrine

Our tour guide, Miller, explains….

Artistic flair at the base of each kettle

NBB uses used wine casks to make special, limited edition brews.

Lips of Faith: La Folie Sour Brown Ale

Beer bottle artwork

The packaging room; 700 bottles per minute

Sunshine and Abbey

Dinner with friends at White Chocolate Grill

Rolling into Denver from Ft. Collins.

Liquid art … the bar at WCG

LtoR: Corey, Andrea, Diana, Cindy

Cindy Lou’s excited about . . .

DESSERT!

Sunrise from the Deck at Coyote Blues Village

The day started early, with Jim enjoying a Black Hills sunrise on the deck of the Coyote Blues Village B&B and meeting Larry, a fellow his own age from Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Despite differences, they found they had much in common—chiefly, Larry’s wife, Dee, is a cancer survivor like Lane.

The owners of Coyote Blues are from Switzerland and their breakfasts are international affairs, mixing American and Swiss influences. The cereal is muesli with fruit-laden yogurt followed by a cheese and meat tray, eggs, hearty breads, various snack fruits, juice and coffee. Great!

At our table were a middle-aged guy named Ed who was traveling alone, two gay guys from California, and Eric, a chef who was definitely a low talker. Conversation ranged from baseball to the merits of various methods of making sourdough bread. Eric says the secret to a nice, crunchy crust is to spray the loaves with a mist of water part way through baking. At least, I think he said water.

After breakfast, we took a stiff brush to the back porch to clean the mud off the shoes we wore at the infamous Sac & Fox Overlook incident (Day 6 blog post). Then, off to Mount Rushmore, an easy drive from the B&B.

Mountain Goat Number 70, Near Mount Rushmore

Mount Rushmore was more than just a stop on the way to Yellowstone. You see, Jim realized a few years ago he had visited or stayed at almost every location Alfred Hitchcock used in North by Northwest, including New York’s now-demolished CIT building, the Plaza Hotel, the United Nations, the Long Island mansion to which the movie spies abducted Cary Grant, the Twentieth-Century Limited train and the Ambassador East hotel in Chicago. The only locations missing were Mount Rushmore and the field where Grant was terrorized by a crop dusting plane.

So, today, Mount Rushmore was checked off Jim’s list leaving only the field. In the movie, it was in Indiana, but the actual field used is near Bakersfield, California, which is on our itinerary for Day 31. Stay tuned.

Mount Rushmore Monument from Avenue of Flags

Driving to Mount Rushmore, we were startled by a white mountain goat alongside the road. Whirling around with his camera (Lane was driving), Jim grabbed a number of shots, only to notice later this “wild” mountain goat carried an ear tag with the number 70. He seemed a little less wild after that, but we will always remember meeting Number 70.

Entering the Mount Rushmore complex, we obligatorily located our own state flag and inscription in the Walk of States—they’re alphabetical.

We hadn’t expected much from Mount Rushmore, but, once again, the people made all the difference. The first was a park ranger who, when told about Jim’s North by Northwest list, said the Visitor Center where we stood is the exact spot of the former cafeteria filmed by Hitchcock. She lamented losing the old building, a classic piece of Park architecture.

Park Ranger Christy Cox with Lane

Another park ranger we met on a tour lingered to talk with us at the monument’s base. Later, Park Ranger Christy Cox presented at the Sculptor’s Studio and then stayed to chat with us about her job, which includes assisting the resident sculptor. She carried a gift up to Grand View Terrace as we talked—the sculptor’s own work depicting her interpretation of having witnessed a squirrel dying of pesticide poisoning, a long, thin rectangle containing only grasping claws. Hmm.

In their talks, the rangers warn the walk from the monument to the Sculptor’s Studio includes “about 400 stair steps.” Lane, who had been counting the steps, lost count while walking with the ranger and excused herself to backtrack. Ranger Cox said she would wait up top to learn the final count since no one actually knew. She promised to use Lane’s 422 in future talks and to inform the others. If you go, check on ‘em.

After ice cream cones, we went to the Rushmore bookstore where we were lucky to meet Nick Clifford, the last living person who worked on the monument. As a young man, Nick carved parts of Teddy Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln (Abe’s collar, says Nick). Lane got him to autograph her new “Passport To Your National Parks” book; this “book” means she needs to hit every Visitor Center (some Parks have many) in every National Park to secure the official Cancellation seal. Since Yellowstone, the first NP 125 years ago, 390 sites were added. We only have 34 days left!

The "Eye of the Needle" on Needles Highway

Besides a patriotic monument to four of our greatest presidents, Rushmore is a tribute to its creator, Gutzon Borglum and shows what the dedication of one person can accomplish. We saw that again at our next destination, the Needles Highway through Custer State Park, which cuts its way through some of the most difficult, dramatic landscape we’ve seen. Needles wouldn’t be if not for the persistence of Peter Norbeck, the engineer who insisted it could be done, despite opposition and the label “needless highway” from contemporaries. Today it is the pride of the Black Hills and maybe more of an accomplishment than Rushmore.

Free Range Donkeys near The Needles Highway

Leaving Needles Highway, we encountered a herd of open range donkeys on the road and one lone buffalo at a campground. The donkeys were so friendly a few gently bumped our car. The buffalo, thankfully, was content to keep eating.

Dinner in Hill City was at the Bumpin’ Buffalo Grille, a place just yelling out, “We’re in the Black Hills!” Buffaloes on the wall. Cowboy and Indian stuff everywhere. Buffalo on the menu. Jim had a Buffalo Burger, Buffalo Chips (fried sweet potatoes) and Moosedrool beer. However, the Phillies were on the TV and Lane had a salad.

Our B&B room was off a common room and when we returned, the entrance was blocked by a new-age music performance with people lying on the floor leading to our door. Performing was a woman who affirmed no musical training—just a medium who “channeled” the music she played on crystal bowls, rain sticks and drums. To be kind, it was free-form. To be accurate, it sounded like kids making wine glasses shriek while shaking rattles and beating on pots. In a talk afterward, she claimed her music had healed people, including one woman who rose and walked from her wheel chair. Give us a break!

Lane was cornered by a woman claiming to be an ordained minister of holistic mumbo-jumbo but supports Obama, universal healthcare, and restoring the Constitution to its original concept of no barristers. She travels the Black Hills in a white van emblazoned with BlackHillsToday.com, now “number three on Google.”

The medium and the minister were still there the next morning. We sat at a different table.

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The Anchor Grille in Chamberlain, SD

Leaving Sioux Falls, we tried to tune in NPR, but instead found an Evangelical Christian talk show. If you’re an Evangelical, don’t take this personally, but the people on this show were plain crazy. The main discussion centered around whether Obama was the Anti-Christ or simply a secret Muslim terrorist—you know, a balanced look at the subject. A caller who quoted the Bible liberally (irony completely intended) was so far out of it that even the hosts had to ask if he had a point.

The people of South Dakota apparently apply the First Amendment to billboards, doing their best to propagate and protect them. Our loony audio track was augmented by highway signs warning, “The Wages of Sin is Death” and “Be sure your sin will find you out.” Although these religious proclamations sprinkled the state, they were outnumbered by a bazillion signs for Wall Drug (“Sheriff on Duty,” “Free Ice Water”), Black Hills Gold, and gun shops (this exit!).

Our First View of The Badlands National Park (note bus on road for scale)

Under an overcast day, the countryside peeking between the signs was attractive, with soybean and corn fields in the eastern part of the state gradually giving way to pastures and grazing land. Blissfully, that radio station dropped behind us with the soybeans.

We lunched at the Anchor Grille in Chamberlain (shown here), where we posted our first Live From blog entry (scroll down to read). At Chamberlain, we crossed the Missouri River for the first time. It is a beautiful spot.

Onward to Badlands National Park and a quick ride around its loop, so we thought; the badlands stopped us in our tracks even before the park entrance. Here are a few photos, sadly sunless (more on Flickr); but this is simply a place you need to experience.

Lane at "The Window"

Stunned by what the primordial seas had deposited and time had eroded and revealed, we stopped our drive to walk through one outlandish formation after another. The colors, even on a gray day, ranged from subtle combinations to dramatic juxtapositions. It was a landscape from another planet—the one the earth once was.

Although determined to reach our day’s goal near Rapid City before dark, the badlands would not let us go. Clearing skies in the west gave us hope they would reach us and brighten the cliffs, but they never approached the badlands; so we returned to the Interstate.

Again we were stopped, this time by the park’s wildlife. On the high grasslands, we saw big-eared mule deer scampering away and prairie dogs willing to let us get to within a few feet. Then, wonder of wonders, bighorn sheep grazing roadside. Jim got a few close-up shots of one, but hightailed it back to the car when that powerful-looking bighorn snorted and took a step in his direction.

I’ve posted more Badlands photos here than I should, but you’ll find even more on our Flickr site.

The park road exits near Wall, city of the ubiquitous-sign “drug store.” We didn’t have time to stop but drove through what appeared to be a western version of South of the Border, compressed into about a city block.

Visitors Explore the Badlands near the Window

As we approached Rapid City, the sky cleared and the sunset was brilliant, however a bit too brilliant when you’re driving into it. We were thankful for darkness and arrived at our B&B, Coyote Blues Village, well after the scheduled time. So late that our host had gone out to dinner with another guest, leaving the place open and placing notes so we could find our room and make ourselves at home.

One of Our Favorite Badlands Views

A Young Bighorn Intimidates Jim

Rapid City Sunset

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Pike’s Peak Cog Railway depot; Manitou, CO

Posing with an old steam engine.

View of Pike’s Peak through the Fall foliage on the way up.

Looking down the mountain as the train makes the 1-hour journey up.

A view from atop Pike’s Peak – simply breathtaking.

Another fantastic view from atop Pike’s Peak.

14,110 ft., several feet of snow, 28°F … I’m wearing shorts.

Cindy Lou doing Cindy Lou stuff.

Posing just outside/above Estes Park, Colorado

An Elk just inside Rock Mtn. Nat’l Park, CO

Beautiful scene inside Rock Mtn. Nat’l Park, CO

Cindy & Me at Alberta Falls; Rock Mtn. Nat’l Park, CO

Beautiful stand of Aspens inside Rock Mtn. Nat’l Park, CO

Cindy and Me at Bear Lake, Rock Mtn. Nat’l Park, CO

Diana and Cindy enjoying Bison at Ted’s Montana Grill, Denver

Downtown Denver at night.

Table: The Best States For Business – Forbes.com.

For those of us who are “data junkies” I suggest you chew on this for a while.

Here are a few quick observations:

1.  No states from the Northeast made the top 10
2.  The top 10 consists entirely of states from the eastern seaboard, southeast, southwest and Rocky Mountain states.
3.  Bottom 10 are a mix of states from the South and from pro-labor, industrial areas of the midwest and northeast.

I find this kind of study fascinating because you can make your results say just about whatever you want based on what you measure and how you measure it.