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The creek from nowhere
We stumbled upon this in Utah on hwy 89 past Logan. I think it's called Rick's Spring. It's a creek that came up from underground. Here, it looks like it comes from inside a cave.For our vacation in 2005, Jeremy and I decided on a road trip. Our trip was about 12 days long, but we tried to cram as much into it as possible...as we always do! To start off, there are alot of pictures in this blog as I had eight rolls of film from this trip! Although I didn't put all the pictures on here, there are still quite a few. I'm not going to go into too much detail in the blog portion, but I'll add captions to the pictures to dig in a little deeper. So here we go!
We started off leaving Utah headed to Jackson, WY (or Jackson Hole if it suits you), which was where we were to spend our first two nights. It was still fairly early when we got to Jackson, so we decided to go ahead into Grand Teton National Park that day. Now even though Grand Teton is absolutely gorgeous, there really isn't a whole lot to do there...besides hike. It is a fairly small park. So, we saw most of Teton on our first day. We stopped at Jenny Lake and took the short mile-and-a-half hike up to Hidden Falls and
Creek from nowhere
Looking inside the cave...you can see, no creek. Just bubbles from underground. Wierd! Inspiration Point. Hidden Falls was definatly worth the hike! It was surrounded by forest so you couldn't see it until you were right up on it...and it was spectacular! We finished our hike just before sundown, so we decided to call it a day and head to the hotel. The next day, we drove completely through Grand Teton to see the rest of it on our way to Yellowstone National Park. There is only about eight miles between the Teton and Yellowstone borders, so it wasn't exactly a trek. Yellowstone is a park that you need to spend a week in to see it all, but we didn't have a week. We had the better part of two days, so we just hit the can't-miss things. Our trip was in early May and the north loop was closed, so our sites were focused on the south loop. Our first stop was the West Thumb and Geyser Basin. Here we took the walk around the small boardwalk before continuing on up to Upper Geyer Basin and Old Faithful. When we got there we had quite a while before the next scheduled eruption of Old Faithful, so we took off on the
board walk rather than wait. We were about 1/4 mile from the end when Old Faithful erupted...early. We saw if from a distance, but not close enough to get good pictures. We weren't too bummed though because we were right there to see the Daisy geyser erupt, which is far more difficult to whitness than Old Faithful is! We continued up the south loop, stopping at the geyser basins, and paint pots along the way. We got up to Lower Falls and decided to take the Uncle Tom's Trail hike. This trail is not for the weak of heart...or guts! It really is not even a trail at all. It's metal-mesh stairs that are bolted to the side of a shear rock cliff face. Walking down the stairs you can look down and see the tops of the trees that are below you. The stairs are bolted into the side of the canyon wall just below Lower Falls. Lower falls is a 308-foot waterfall plunging into the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone...and the vantage point on these stairs is so close that you can't fit the whole waterfall into the view finder of your camera! So naturally, the stairs are
wet and the air is misty, plus all you can hear is the roar of the waterfall! It was an amazing view, but terrifying! I made it about three-fourths the way down before chicken got the best of me, so Jeremy took the camera down the rest of the way to snap the photo. Maybe next time I'll go all the way. The climb back up is literally walking up 10 flights of stairs...metal stairs that are wet...and you are at an elevation of 7500 feet. So, if you aren't accustomed to altitude, I would suggest you just go to the viewing point and call it good! By the time we were done with the hike, it was getting late so we headed back to Jackson. We got to Teton at dusk and just in time to snap off a few photos.
So, I am only on day 3 and this is already getting pretty long. I'll try to speed it up! The next day we were leaving Jackson for good. We skipped the drive through Teton to save some time, and just went strait to Yellowstone. We drove the other half of the lower loop before heading out
the east gate. There wasn't much to see that day...mostly just elk and Bison, which are a staple along the roads of Yellowstone! We took the scenic route through Wyoming, stopping to see Devil's Tower National Monument and staying a night in Sheridan before making it to Rapid City, South Dakota, where we spent the next three nights. There is so much to see and do in Rapid City! I was completely surprised! We were there for two full days, and that still wasn't enough time to do everything! We went to Bear Country USA, which is just one of those drive through parks, and to The Cosmos Mystery House. That house was crazy! I'm a skeptic, but I couldn't explain it! It was so disorienting that it made me nauseous. We then went up to Mount Rushmore National Monument and finished the day at the Sitting Bull monument. It was still in production, and probably still is now. Then next day stared off with the Presidental Wax Museum in Keystone. We saw the museum on the way to Rushmore so decided to stop the next day. It was pretty cool...and so realistic! After stopping at the cafe across the
street that boasts to have the largest cinnamon rolls in the country (and I believe it! They were the size of a large plate!), we continued on to Crystal Caverns cave and Jewel Cave National Monument. They both were amazing! Crystal Caverns was a short tour, about 30 minutes, and the cave was covered in crystals. Jewel Cave was longer, at about 90 minutes, and had an impressive array of stalagmites, stalactites, and other geologic formations. We went to see an underground waterfall, which was just an old mine shaft that water was coming out of, and to Wind Cave National Park, which was completely boring since we had just seen Jewel cave. The next day we left Rapid City to continue on to Iowa and Jeremy's family. We stopped at the Badlands National Park on the way and ended up in Iowa that evening. This was my first trip to Iowa...ever...so I wasn't sure what to expect. Being a Montana girl, I thought it was going to be flat, boring, and I wouldn't like it. But actually I thought it was quite beautiful....and not near as flat as I was expecting! We spent two nights there then headed for
Colorado and the great Rocky Mountains! For the next three nights we stayed in Estes Park, Colorado, just outside the entrance to Rocky Mountain National Park. As previously stated, I grew up around mountains...big mountains at that! But I was not prepared for what Rocky Mountain National Park had in store. I was blown away at the size of those mountains! It was like Montana on steroids! So majestic and absolutely breathtaking! Trail Ridge road was still closed from the winter. We could go up to the top, but not down the other side. We made it up to the Alpine visitors center, which also happens to be the highest point on the entire road at a whopping 12,183 feet! We found a trail that had four lakes in a chain going up to Hallett Peak and Flattop Mountain. We had planned on going all the way up to the fourth lake, but when we got to the third lake, the ground was almost entirely covered in snow and we couldn't see the trail. So, rather than guess at it and get lost, we just took our picture and turned around. You'll notice in the pictures, I took a picture
of Flattop Mountain from every lake we got to. So you can see the difference in distance by the size of the mountain. Estes Park is pretty much centered around tourism, so they had a lot of little shops and rustic stores that we spent some time...and money in! Estes Park is also home to the Stanley Hotel, which is the hotel Stephen King based the movie "The Shining" on. The movie wasn't filmed there, but Stephen King stayed there, encountered the hauntings, and wrote the book about it. They offered a "Ghost Tour" so of course we had to go! We didn't see anything, but it was very spooky standing at the end of that long hallway! We spent our last night in Estes Park and headed out the next day for home. It was only about a six hour drive, so, naturally, we took the scenic route! We didn't make any unexpected stops on the way home, but we took the back highways and just soaked up the experience!
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Kelly
non-member comment
Wow
I haven't been to Yellowstone in so long and after reading the blog and looking at the pics, I feel like I was there. Awesome pics and sounds like you guys had a great trip!!!