Jason Hansen

tigger3370

Jason Hansen

We three are travelling our way around the country!




We finally had to pack everything up and prepare to leave Yellowstone. No one wanted to go, but it was time to return to the real world, not to mention, it was time to get back to a place where our cell phone and internet connection would work. We left before 9 in the morning so we could see some wildlife on our way out of the park. We took it easy and were able to spot some elk on the shore of Yellowstone Lake. We made a couple stops to get pictures of some wildflowers that we hadn’t seen except from the window of a moving tour bus. After a leisurely drive down the twisty mountain roads, we finally left Yellowstone behind, but we will never forget that sights and sounds we experienced. We headed ... read more
Fire Weed
Indain Paintbrush or Monkey Flower?
Rock formation


Our last full day in Yellowstone started out with a very interesting morning. Carrie suggested that the gang head down to Fishing Bridge to watch wildlife early in the morning. As we approached the area, we saw about 30 people watching something. It wasn’t long before we saw it was a grizzly bear! He was on the beach, apparently contemplating going for a swim. He walked back and forth a few times, and then walked into the Yellowstone River. It took him a few minutes, but he swam across! It really did look like Balto when we took him swimming a few years ago. The bear was only 2 or 3 years old according to the rangers that were trying to keep the ever-growing crowd safe. After that, nothing could top seeing a bear swim across ... read more
Bear Print
Pelican
Bear


We got up really early today to go on our last tour while in Yellowstone. It started at 8:15AM and was called The Washburn Expedition Tour. It covered the upper circle of the “figure eight” of the park road system and we traveled 102 miles. Our tour guide, Dave, was new to the job and was probably our least favorite tour guide of the trip. We started up the east side of the lower circle before getting the to the upper circle. We traveled counterclockwise around the upper circle. The theme of the day was bison, bison, and more bison! By the road, in the road, away from the road, they were everywhere! After winding our way through the bison, we made our first stop at Tower Falls. Although we’d stopped at Tower Falls before, this ... read more
Norris Geyser Basin
Baby Bison
Sam


We had no official tours for the day, so we biked up to the Lake City. On the way, we saw a bison about 20 yards from the road, so we got some great close-ups! Once there, we hiked a narrow trail to the shore of Yellowstone Lake. The view was extremely beautiful and we were able to get some great photos. We got a little hungry, so we went to the Lake Hotel for lunch. Jason and Sam had bison burgers (They were delicious!). Carrie had lobster stuffed ravioli-another fine choice! Our server was named Marcin and he was from Poland. He was very nice and suggested a couple places to visit if we ever go to Europe again. After eating, we biked back to our RV. Since we had nothing else planned for the ... read more
Beach
Wierd People
Beach

North America » United States August 6th 2009

We were able to sleep in today, as our tour, the Lamar Valley Wildlife Tour, did not start until 4:45PM. We mostly just relaxed, went to the store, biked around, and were basically lazy until we had to be down for our tour. Unfortunately, we left about 5 minutes too late for our tour and got rained on as we biked to the pick-up point. We spent half the day on a bus with Larry, our tour guide, as he drove us about 120 miles around the park. The route started at FBRP, went up the whole east of the “figure eight”, before heading towards the northeast entrance. Larry was a great guide. He was very knowledgeable and told a lot of funny stories during the trip back when it was dark and there was nothing ... read more
Grizzly Bear
Sunset
Sunset


We got an early start today since we had a tour staring at around 9:15AM. As you can tell from the title, it was the Circle of Fire Tour with our guide Eric. This tour covered the 96 miles of the bottom loop of the main “figure eight” road system in Yellowstone. When I post the map, the tour route will be highlighted in pink. We left the FVRP and headed around the circle in a clockwise direction. Our first stop was at Lake Village to pick up additional tour group members. We also had some time to check out the Lake Hotel, Yellowstone Lake, and the woods. We happened to see a couple of mule deer in this area and some people violated the most violated rule in YNP: they got too close to the ... read more
Yellowstone
Yellowstone
Yellowstone


Some quick Yellowstone facts: 2.2 million acres within an 18 million acres ecosystem 67 species 322 types of birds 36% of the park burned to the ground during all the fires in 1988 1,000 miles of trails 400 plus miles of roads (310 paved) After all the driving the day before, we slept in and relaxed. For some reason, they charge to take a shower at Yellowstone. After seeing that they charged $3.25 for just one shower, we decided to use our small, but free shower in the RV (we saved over $68 this way!). Our site was back in the G-Loop, which was about as far from the RV park entrance as you could get. The nice thing was that it was downhill all they way to the gate. The bad thing: it was all ... read more
Flower
Duck
Deer


We headed out early to get to our farthest destination, Yellowstone National Park. Jason started the day driving, but Carrie took over as Jason received some bad news. Grandma Stanley had passed that morning. Luckily, we had just seen her about a month ago at Mandy’s graduation party. She seemed so happy that day and she was talking our ears off. Glad we had the opportunity to see her and spend time with her so recently. We will miss you Grandma Stanley. We then continued our trip westward because Jason’s Mom said Grandma would want us to finish our trip. Jason also knew Grandma would want us to go on. So, with our hearts heavy, we continued west. Jason took the wheel in Sheridan, WY. Good thing too. The mountains are beautiful, but those switchbacks and ... read more
Nice view
YNP
All Full Up


Jason and Carrie finally realized their dream of visiting Mt. Rushmore on this day. Sam didn’t think much of it other than there were no cute boys in the area. We learned at the visitor’s center that the most scenic way to get there was on Iron Mountain Road. The road had many curving areas that went up and down hills, switchbacks, pigtails, low clearance bridges and tunnels, and one lane tunnels. For the tunnels, you had to stop, honk your horn to warn people you’re coming through, and then get through as quick as possible so that you wouldn’t meet anyone in the middle. It was quite a ride to get there. Thankfully, we rented a car to drive to Mt. Rushmore from our campsite. Yeah, the RV would be at least ten inches shorter ... read more
Mt. Rushmore
Mt. Rushmore
Mt. Rushmore

North America » United States » South Dakota » Rapid City August 1st 2009

Jason spent most of the day behind the wheel. He drove all six and a half hours to Rapid City-what a machine he is! Many more bikers! Getting closer to that bike rally in Sturgis, SD. Jason drove 6 and a half hours and covered 343 miles. ... read more
Wall Drug 3
Crazy Jason
ZZZZZ




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