http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/Gandl/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Gandl en-us Wed, 06 Jan 2010 07:57:54 +0000 Wed, 06 Jan 2010 07:57:54 +0000 We drove from Northern CA to our house today and had pretty smooth sailing. However we realized that OSU was playing USC that night in football. Fortunately there is not a lot of traffic from Eugene to Covallis for OSU football games The traffic in the southbound lane looked pretty bad and we are glad that we're heading north. We got home and unloaded the car. Tomorrow is wash day and then http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Oregon/Portland/blog-333738.html AlcatrazI was so excited to head over to the island this morning We took the ferry out there the ride was quite smooth not like the ferry ride I took to Ellis Island in NY. The fog was really rolling in over the Golden Gate bridge so we could only see the very top of the bridge during clear moments. The island was fascinating I had no idea that there was an Indian occupation during the http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/California/San-Francisco/Alcatraz/blog-333735.html We woke up early in the morning packed up the campsite and headed out. After leaving Yosemite we headed down a very steep grade for about 30 minutes which brought us into the San Fernando valley. We stopped off at a Rite Aid because we had been unable to find a road map of California and we would need one for around San Francisco. Greg picked up a Thomas guide and a small laminated map that http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/California/San-Francisco/blog-333728.html Laura is back on the journal today. We woke up and the water faucet for the campsite was frozen solid. Cold cold cold I am in 4 layers up top and 2 layers on the bottom a wool hat and gloves. People are huddled over their fires and mugs of coffee this morning. We're huddling over our oatmeal. During breakfast we saw 5 mule deer wander along the river by our campsite. They didn't hear u http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/California/Yosemite-National-Park/Yosemite-Valley/blog-333715.html Laura didn't journal an entry for today so you know what that means... Greg took her on another death march. We left Carson City in the morning and enjoyed the drive down to Yosemite. The East entrance to the park is at 10000 feet elevation which is also the highest pass in the Sierra mountains that has a road. We booked our campsite the night before and reserved it for 3 days. Tuolome has http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/California/Yosemite-National-Park/Tuolumne-Meadows/blog-333694.html Laura went off to do some Laundry and Greg added some more journal entries. Today was a rest day and we took it easy. For dinner we went to a great steak place called Glen Eagles. We rolled in dirty and dressed like slobs and got put into the back room with some other 'interesting' guests people wearing their finest tractor pull Tshirts etc.. However the food was much better than Sizzler http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Nevada/Carson-City/blog-333361.html We left this morning packed up our perfect campsite sans showers sniff. We're heading toward Carson City NV for the night. We are again on NV50 the loneliest road in America. They aren't kidding... every 12 hours we passed through a small town of lt100 people. This is an issue if you have to pee because there are no 2ft high bushes around either. Luckily thousands of years ago s http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Nevada/Carson-City/blog-333358.html CampsiteLast night we looked around at the sites that had water and toilets and everything was pretty much full. There is an upper and lower loop campground but in between there is a somewhat hidden middle campsite only visible from one direction on a far access road. We grabbed that site and it was great. We had our own water pump and the bathrooms were a short walk through the woods. A bro http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Nevada/Great-Basin-NP/blog-328719.html Today we drove from Jackson WY over into Idaho and then south on I15 through Salt Lake City UT and across the dessert into Nevada. Right over the border is Great Basin National Park. The last 2.53 hours were spent on the Loneliest Road in America. We got the last campsite in the park only 45 sites or so total and crashed into bed on our new air mattresses. http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Nevada/Great-Basin-NP/blog-328361.html Laura is back to writing the blog posts today Greg is just typing them up. Jackson WYToday we took a morning to relax. The hotel booked a scenic float through the park for us later in the evening when the wildlife is out. Our first stop was Teton Mountaineering to resolve the air mattress problem. Greg was very impressed by all the gear that they carried... no low quality items. They had http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Wyoming/Grand-Teton-National-Park/blog-328357.html This blog entry is being written by Greg because Laura is too tired after I took her on a death march up Mt. Washburn . Mt. WashburnMt. Washburn is one of the higher peaks in Yellowstone and is 10243 feet high. The climb is about 1500 feet of vertical with a 5 mile roundtrip hike from the Chittenden parking area. The trail follows the service road up to the fire lookout station which is manned http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Wyoming/Grand-Teton-National-Park/blog-328348.html Jackasses found on the trip so far1 Eating ice cream cones yesterday at the canyon a guy approaches two college age guys about reckless driving. Another guy comes storming up and started screaming and ranting about remaining calm on the road. Evidently he needed some calming as well. The driving doesn't surprise me... there are a bunch of crazy drivers passing on blind corners and speeding http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Wyoming/Yellowstone-National-Park/blog-328336.html There was frost on the picnic table this morning I was certainly cold last night. Greg says that the campground is over 7000 feet in elevation. We got packed up quickly and headed to Mammoth Hot Springs which we drove through last night. We reserved a campground for tonight so we don't have to go through the same thing we did as last night... plus we get hot showers We did a little gift s http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Wyoming/Yellowstone-National-Park/blog-325783.html We stopped in Polson MT last night as it was getting dark and the road wasnrsquot safe with all the animals that could potentiall be crossing. It was a nice evening and we could finally hook up online to check email and could finally get cell reception which we never had in Glacier up to that point. We had passed Flathead Lakethe largest lake west of the Mississippi which was very coolit http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Montana/Gardiner/blog-325717.html We got moving slowly this morning. Boy was it windy Whitecaps were out on the lake and the stove had a hard time heating water. Greg used the other stove as a windbreak to let the flames hit the pot. We're back to oatmeal and hot chocolate after 2 days of cereal muffins and toast at the hotel. I packed up most of the camp and boy was I proud Greg reminded me how to help put the tent a http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Montana/Glacier-National-Park/blog-325714.html Well we used our inginuity to download photos to the web. Greg's inginuity really since my work laptop doesn't have the right drivers for my camera or enough disk space. So Greg wrote up the travel journal and we should be able to post it for friends and family.We drove out of Calgary AB this morning. Said goodbye to the rockies and hello to big sky farm country. You wouldn't believe t http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Montana/Glacier-National-Park/blog-325694.html We spent the day trying to get some sort of mechanism to pull pictures off of Laura's camera. Her laptop's USB ports do not function. After many fruitless hours at various electronics stores last night and today we bit the bullet and 'bought' a computer which we'll be returning tomorrow. Greg was able to upload everything to box.net and enter all my handwritten journal entries into this online http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Canada/Alberta/Calgary/blog-321820.html I think we're getting good at tearing down camp. It was well below freezing again last night and we didn't want to get out of bed this morning. Greg has been in full mummysack mode with long underwear and sometimes a cap. I have a warmer bag and can stay comfortable in PJs. Today we visited Lake Louise Johnson canyon Banff and then headed to Calgary. Lake Louise is one of the most pictur http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Canada/Alberta/Calgary/blog-321816.html Although we are staying in Banff NP we took a day trip to Yoho NP which is on the other side of the continental divide. The main attractions are the spiral rail tunnels Takakkawa Falls and Emerald Lake. The spiral tunnels are a bypass of the old railway grade that was ultra steep and very unsafe. With the spiral tunnels the trains actually go through two spiral tunnels in the mountain. You c http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Canada/British-Columbia/Yoho-National-Park/blog-321809.html We woke up in the morning and packed up our camp after multiple days in the same campground in Jasper NP. We did a canyon hike in Maligne canyone and then drove the entire icefield parkway down into Lake Louise in Banff NP. On the way to Maligne canyon we passed multiple elk and sheep but still no bear sitings grizzleys or black bears. The rivers are shallow so we were expecting to see bea http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Canada/Alberta/Lake-Louise/blog-321806.html