Big sky country and going south

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Back once again in the States we stayed overnight in a little hick town called High
River where we had to access the internet to book Lani a shuttle from LA to Irvine. At Calgary airport it was going to cost her $25 to use the internet but she only had 15 mins to use it…so instead decided to use her parents….what would we do without mobile phones and internet??? On to Ft McLeod to see the Mountie Museum, then to Head Smashed in Buffalo Jump where there is an excellent museum that details the history of the Indians and the demise of the buffalo. We actually stood under the cliffs where the buffalo stampeded …it’s hard to imagine that we could be standing on thousands of buffalo bones.

The places we stop at are of no particular importance, they just happen to be places that are about a day's drive apart, consequently the next place we stopped was Livingstone which is the gateway to Yellowstone. About all I can remember of Livingstone is the good rib dinner. Malcolm and I shared one entrée and one main and we were full.

Yellowstone…now this is a day that I remember. I wanted to see bear, bison, elk and Old Faithful and I managed to see everything, in fact it was a grizzly bear....even the rangers were out taking photos (the bear was a quite a distance away and I did 'suspect' that the rangers had him on remote control just for the tourists!) That night we were going to splurge and stay at Old Faithful Inn which is a huge imposing 4 story wooden log building but we were saved the expense as they were completely booked out. Instead, we ended up camping at the edge of Yellowstone at Lewis Lake. We got in late, pitched our tent, had a quick dinner and into bed. This site had no power, no showers (hot or otherwise), no running water and only pit toilets. Morning found us with dusting of ice on the tent and the windscreen covered in ice. We were up and away early..no rangers working at this time....so ended up paying nothing.

From Yellowstone it was onto the Grand Tetons where we went looking for moose (supposedly to be found along Wilson-Moose Rd) but not a one was to be sighted but we did manage to see a majestic stag elk standing in the middle of the road ... we were so carried away with the sight of him we forgot to take a photo. Also managed to see America’s national symbol, the Bald Eagle.

Another place I had heard much about is Jackson, Wyoming…the home of the biggest arch of elk horn also the place to ski. I am sure it would have had a much different feel if there were snow, the runs just don't have the same feel about them without the snow.

After leaving Jackson , the road took us to Salt Lake City. Now a trip is not a trip if you don’t lose something….. it could be something simple like your glasses or even your wallet but no, it had to be the entire back pack with all our money, passports, airline tickets, telephone and camera. We had been shopping for some supplies at Whole Foods in Salt Lake City where we stopped to have a coffee and thinking that the back pack was in the trolley, we went to the car and it wasn’t til we stopped at the Tabernacle that we realized the pack wasn’t in the car. We high tailed it back to Whole Foods, raced to where we had sat…nothing there, into the shop and to our relief some kind, wonderful person had handed it into the shop assistant. (I don't know whether this had to do with the fact that we were in Salt Lake City with the majority of people being of the Mormon faith or whether it would have occurred in other cities of the States) We were so overcome with relief that we gave the beggar at the end of the car park $20. Upon looking through my wallet I realized that a folded $20 note was missing but thought that was OK since the rest of the money (and I mean rest as in all our cash) hadn’t been touched and I was happy that they had only taken the $20 then I couldn’t find the telephone and I rationalized that away as well…it could have been all our cash and passports etc but it was only a telephone…and I had already worked out what I would get on insurance and blow me down….I found it right at the bottom of the pack, then also found the folded $20 at the bottom of the pack….so all is well. With enough excitement for one day, we decided to take advantage of it being Thursday and go and listen to the Tabernacle Choir practice.

Leaving Salt Lake City it was onto Dinosaur National Monument. Unfortunately we were unable to go to the museum as it’s under repair and will be for another couple of years (closed for 5years) but still we were able to do a walk along one of the trails and managed to see dinosaur bones still embedded in the rocks. Stopped for the night in a little place called Craig...another place that just happens to be a convenient days's drive and nothing to write home about except for the fact that it was full of hunters. It just so happened that the next day was the beginning of hunting season.

Since crossing the border the weather has been getting colder and colder and today looking at the weather forecast we find that we are just before a cold front and that the states we have just driven through, Montana and Wyoming, are now getting an unseasonable dump of snow and for the weekend that we arrive in Denver they are expecting snow as well. Mmmm it looks as though there will be no more camping.


The drive to Denver was pretty horrendous. While the snow didn’t quite eventuate, we did however get very foggy conditions with limited visibility. All the wonderful fall scenery that we were supposed to be seeing was completely covered in fog which is also a good time to point out the driving that we have come across since being here. We have covered a lot of miles in the past 2 ½ months (I swear it feels a lot longer than that) and whilst they have freeways everywhere and the speed limit is 65miles/hour (I am sure they can’t read) we have never seen anything so scary as cars tailgating while the visibility is only about 3-4 car lengths ahead.

All’s good…we arrived in one piece and the GPS works even if it’s foggy and the driver can’t see where they are going. Found our way to Heidi’s place then onto her mum’s condo which was kindly made available to us. It was great catching up with Heidi and Scott. I first met Heidi 30 years when we were footloose and fancy free backpacking around Europe. That many moons ago it was hit and miss with the post and being very upwardly mobile young ladies we moved around so it’s a wonder that we have managed to stay in touch. Now that we have internet and Skype there is no excuse.

Another friend we caught up with was Paul Docktor who we first met in 1999 whilst we were in Denver doing a chiro seminar. He helped us track down another friend who used to live in Colorado but has since moved to the Detroit area, so don’t know whether we will be able to catch up with her but will try. Paul was a great source of information of what to see and where to go, not to mention that he had a digital SLR camera, which was just what Malcolm was looking to buy, and an old MAC for sale ....so now the Ritchies are the proud owners of both of these items. Malcolm can now play his work DVDs without interruption, can go online whenever he wants and just generally pass the time.

So that we can make this trip as tax deductible as we can, we are seeking out chiropractors and chiropractic seminars as we travel around and it just so happened that there was a seminar being held just outside of Denver the weekend that we were there. Managed to catch up with a chiropractor that we met when we were in Lima, Peru...I just love how mobile everyone is!

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Photos

Triple Divide Peak
...the rain and snow melt from here travels to three major river systems and enters the Pacific Ocean, Gulf of Mexico and Hudson Bay

Grizzly bear
we wondered if the rangers had him on remote control just for the tourists but found that they were actually taking photos as well.

Old Faithful Lodge
it was a case of ...'hang the expense, we will stay here the night' but they were booked out so had to revert to Plan A...and camp

Malcolm standing in front of Old Faithful
waiting for it to blow

Comments

[Sue Treadie]

I love the Grand Tetons!
Staying at the moment with a long term travel friend whom I met 30 years ago on a ferrry to the Greek Islands. It was she who took me on a wonderful trip through Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons way back in 1985! I'd forgotten about the Elk Arch! Had any snow yet?

[Vicki]

Found you
Hi RovingRitchies - finally found your travelblog and have spent the afternoon travelling with you; can't wait for the next instalment and lots more photos. xoxo

[Paul Docktor]

Hi, just stumbled upon this. How are you, Leslie and your Olympus?

[RovingRitchies]

Hi Paul, lovely to hear from you. I hardly ever look at the blog site anymore, it's been almost 2 years since I have updated it. Once I got behind on the blogging it just snowballed from there. Now that it's that time of the year, I thought I might think about doing a xmas blog giving an update of the past year. We are still in possession of the Mac and Olympus although I must admit the Mac gets a bigger work out than the Olympus. As for me I am still using the point and shoot Canon. Hope all is going well for you. I have seen some of your updates via FB.