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Published: September 23rd 2009
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Rushmore
My favortie - Lincoln Trials of camper traveling and Yellowstone continued...
When camper traveling there are always problems that come up. This year has not been as bad as when our transmission went out in Texarkana on New Year's weekend. Our biggest concern, although Ron says not to worry, is the camper overheating on long grades. Ron has figured out ways to overcome the problem one of which is to turn the heater on full blast, this works out well except for the second problem we have. The automatic window doesn’t work! Ron has fixed it twice, but it won't stay fixed. The first time it locked when the windows were down - a real problem with Dave in the camper and the second time it locked when the heat was on full blast. This made for a very hot ride. Right now we are in remove and replace mode. If that doesn't work it will eventually be take it to a shop time.
Today we also discovered we have a mouse!!! Although Ron says he is sure he has vacated the premises. We should have known something was up when Dave acted so strangely last night. Today we found chewed up
Crater's of the moon
here is Ron at our campsite paper towels and a hole in Dave's bag of food. We'll see what happens tonight.
We spent 4 nights in Yellowstone total and were able to see many of the best known areas and also many of the critters that the park is known for. We drove 300 miles within the park alone - it is immense! The evidence of fires in the park is extensive and so sad, but many burned areas are coming back and showing signs of recovery.
The Old Faithful Geyser basin was great, not just because of the main attraction, but there were so many other geysers going off within easy walking distance. It is such a foreign landscape. The Mud Volcano area was just as strange. In some spots the ground sounds just like an enormous pot of boiling water. I can't imagine what the first people who saw this must have thought.. Some of the hillsides have downed trees that were cooked by the steam or when the ground heated up to 200 degrees. There has been major activity in some of these areas as recently as 2000.
On our way to Mammoth Springs one
Lava field at Crater's
Hard to belive this happened 2000 years ago
This flow is 18 miles long. morning we noticed some elk along the road - 2-3 females and some young ones. of course we stopped and got out to get a better look. Then a huge antlered male rushed in and chased them out of sight. He turned to look at us as if to say 'You want a piece of me'!
We have been at Crater's of The Moon National Monument in southern Idaho for 2 nights now. The volcanic activity in this area occurred over 2000 years ago and it looks like it just happened yesterday. Our campsite is right in the middle of a huge clinker field. Dave is having a great time climbing the rocks.
This is one of the 10 darkest parks in the US and many folks come here to stargaze. On a walk back from a ranger program at night we could easily see the Milky Way and a star filled sky. We have walked through lava tubes and around cinder cone volcanoes - quite an area! AND since Ron is old we get to stay in the campground for $5 with his senior park pass!
We are going to be following the Oregon Trail for the
Crater's
Grasses, lava field and mountains in the background, an incredible place next few days that part of our history has always fascinated us.
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Richard
non-member comment
Elk
Apparently you didn't watch the animal safety video in the visitor's center at Yellowstone. They had some scenes of elk attacking cars and people and also buffalo attempting to gore people. One person got tossed around like a rag doll. Be careful. I too have experienced the joys of having a vehicle overheat in the mountains of the west. Not fun. Richard