We had a nice day playing tourists in Golden, Colorado. We toured the Coors brewery - very interesting and lots of samples.

Tormorrow we head south to Texas then on to Florida.

On The Road Again...

We completed our "summer" jobs at Yellowstone today and are headed for warm Florida. It was an awesome season with lots of great hikes, backpacking, mountains, scenery, animals, and friends. We now remember why we winter in Florida - it was -4 degrees F and we had a foot of snow last week!

Snow!

We're in West Yellowstone again today - and it's snowing! The last week has been wild, with a big fire in the center of the park that closed our access to the east side of the park, and now there are two storms on their way, closing two of the passes as well. I'm glad it's our weekend and we don't have to keep explaining to the guests that they "cahn't get theyah from heeah . . ."

In contrast, Lenny had a split shift Sunday, and before I went to work at 2:30 I took this picture out our bedroom window.

Backpacking . . . finally!

Last week we finally went backpacking - - after carrying all the gear out here and back last year without using it. . . We went to the Northwest corner of the park to hike on the Specimen Creek trail, and stayed out only one night, but it was wonderful.

We hiked in just 2 miles and then set up camp. After that we walked another hour and a half to the next campsite, but had to turn back to make it back to camp for dinner before dark.

Next morning we slept in until 9:00 (when it had warmed up a little). While we were fixing breakfast Lenny spied a MOOSE! walking past our campsite! It was the first one we've seen in Yellowstone since we first arrived last year, and we were thrilled.

After breakfast we explored the hill behind the camp and found quite a few pieces of petrified wood. Lenny went over the hill and found a petrified log. He took pictures, but he'll have to publish them soon.

I made it up National Park Mountain on my second attempt. My first attempt was up the Three Brothers Mountains. I couldn't get to the Madison Plateau that way. So I swam across the Firehole River, hiked/climbed a ravine, and made my way through the downed trees and little lodgepole pines to the top. Yeah! The view was awesome. Here is a birds-eye view of the Madison ranger station.

We've been hiking in the North and East parts of Yellowstone while we could still get through to Norris (before they closed the road to rebuild it). I'll try to publish some pictures . . .

Specimen Ridge, with a guide from the Yellowstone Association. The specimens are petrified tree stumps near the top of a ridge along the Lamar valley.

Bunsen Peak and Osprey Falls - just South of Mammoth Hot Springs

Avalanche Peak is East of Fishing Bridge, North of the East Entrance road. The trail goes steadily up 2100 feet in 3 miles. Lenny went all the way up, but my legs gave out about 300 feet (in altitude) before the top.

Hiking in Yellowstone

We went to a reading by a local author, C. J. Box.

Check him out if you are interested in reading some stories about this area with an interesting twist.

I got him to sign one of his books for me - "Never trust a Fed.".

The snow is finally melting.

It looks like "summer" has finally arrived at Yellowstone. The last few days have been sunny and warm (in the 70s).

Here we are at Fairy Falls.

A Yellowstone steam bath...

This is springtime at Yellowstone?!?

And the herd keeps growing...

We've got a bumper crop of baby bison. There are a couple of hundred head of bison between West Yellowstone and Madison Campground. The bison jams are impressive. It can take an hour and a half to go the fourteen miles!

We've still got snow!

Here is a shot of our campsite.


Madison campground opened on Friday, May 1st. We've got five bathrooms and about a hundred campsites available for guests. We've had a couple of hundred guests so far, even a few hardy bicyclists. We've still got quite a bit of snow and temperatures below freezing at night.

We've still got snow.

Madison campground opened on Friday, May 1st. We've got five bathrooms and about a hundred campsites available for guests. We've had a couple of hundred guests so far, even a few hardy bicylists.

An awesome hike.

Went on an awesome hike today on the Rescue Creek trail. It's an eight mile trail through aspens, meadows, and the Rescue Creek gorge with a 1,400 foot decent. The first half of the trail was covered by a couple of feet of snow and the second half was nice and dry. We saw six elk carcasses. Looked like the bears, wolves, and coyotes had been eating well.

Cross-country skiing.

I got to do some cross-country skiing at a park near West Yellowstone today. Conditions where sort of klistery (mushy) but it was nice to get out anyway.

Give me a home where the buffalo roam...

While checking out Madison campground today, I came across our local herd of bison. They where originally hanging around the visitor center, then they ran (an impressive sight) past me down the river. I later saw them sauntering down the road as I was returning from West Yellowstone. Here's a shot of some of the handsome devils walking past my car while I sat in the bison jam.

And yup, we still have quite a bit of snow. I expect I'll be shoveling out the campground for the next few weeks.

Is This Spring??

The weather here has been about as much winter as we want to experience. For two days we had snow flurries off and on all day, and yesterday we woke up to about 6 or 8 inches of nice, soft snow. The temperature has barely gone above freezing, and right now the wind is ferocious.

Lenny walked into Gardiner with a new friend, and came back with a few groceries. Here he is starting down the hill into the RV park. Yesterday morning the whole hill was covered with snow.

Almost the End of the Journey

Sunday, April 12, 2009

I did get to see some of the statues and scuptures in Loveland. Here are a few of them.

We’re here! For the next week and a half we’ll be here at Yellowstone RV in Gardiner, MT. We don’t have to report for work until Friday, the 17th, but we’re glad to be here early since some really cold and probably wet weather is expected here by Tuesday. Besides, we can see the Yellowstone arch from just down the road – we’re that close!

After two nights at Johnson’s Corner we drove on up to Casper, WY – with a short detour in Cheyenne to Sierra Outdoors, where we bought a few things for cold weather (gloves and long underwear and another pair of Yak Trax).

As soon as we got into Wyoming, we saw more and more snow beside the road. I love driving through eaastern Wyoming. It’s totally open, and the top of each long hill reveals a whole new view of mountains beyond bare, rolling hills. This time of year the mountains were white, and the hills had patches of snow where it had drifted deepest during the winter. Luckily the day was mostly clear and there was no snow in the roads.

At Casper we planned to stay at the WalMart/Sam’s Club parking lot. I was gathering our cans, etc. to recycle when I looked out the window and saw Lou, one of the men I worked with at Madison last year! Amazingly, he and his wife, Jody, and two other couples we worked with last year were parked in their RVs behind Sam’s. He had run into Lenny in Sam’s. We moved our RV near theirs, and we traveled with them the rest of the way here.

This afternoon Lenny and I walked into town, across the Yellowstone River, and back down the river to take some pictures of our RVs from across the river. By the time we got back, I had about 17,000 steps on my pedometer, compared to 3,000 yesterday.

Still heading Northward.

Monday, April 5, 2009

We had a great visit with Lenny’s GRDA friends, and Saturday we started North and West again. The wind was behind us as we went North into Kansas, so Lenny decided to make it a long day and we finally stopped in Salina, Kansas.

The wind was strong coming North, and it got even stronger, so we decided to stay over 2 nights at the Sam’s Club in Salina. Sunday when we woke up it was 43 F inside the RV without any heat, so we ran the (propane) furnace and the (gasoline) gernerator off and on during the day. We also attended the tasting event in Sam’s to get some lunch and get warm.

Weather radio said the wind was in the thirties, and had gusts to around 45 mph – and I believe it. Walking in a straight line was NOT easy! Thank goodness Lenny had put some scotch tape on the window weep holes so there was no more Dante’s inferno noise.

Wed. April 8, 2009

From Salina we had a beautiful, if windy, day, and Lenny drove through to Limon, Colorado, where we stayed in a Flying J parking lot for the night. We were also able to top off our propane there – in case it gets cold again. :-)

Now we’re in a campground outside Loveland, CO. I was able to do the laundry this morning, and Lenny fixed the weep hole covers on the windows (NO MORE Dante’s Inferno!) and set up his computer to use the internet. I hope to get into Loveland to see and photograph some more of the bronze “sculptures” this afternoon.

The view is from our RV at Johnson’s Corner, a little north of Denver, Colorado, with the snow covered Rocky mountains in the background.

Still hiding from winter weather!

We are still hiding from winter weather by staying in the southern latitudes.

Spent a couple of extra days in Arkansas. Went to a beautiful forest/gardens (Garvan Gardens) near Hot Springs, AR. The tulips were awesome!

We are currently at Snowdale State Park, east of Tulsa, Oklahoma, enjoying a beautiful, sunny day and visiting with our GRDA friends.

Still hiding from winter weather!

We continue to hide from the winter weather!

Spent a few extra days in Arkansas. Went to a beautiful forest/gardens (Garvan Gardens) near Hot Springs, AR.

We are currently at Snowdale State Park, east of Tulsa, Oklahoma. Enjoying a beautiful, sunny day and visiting with our GRDA friends.

Little Rock, AR

We're in Little Rock, Arkansas, and staying at a Corps of Engineers campground SE of the city (Willow Beach). So far we've extended for two days - Lenny was tired and we wanted to go shopping (extension # 1) and now we want to visit Hot Springs tomorrow without moving the RV (extension # 2). Besides, we have a great site on the water, Little Rock has been a great place to visit, and we are trying to avoid getting into winter sooner than necessary.

Saturday, when we arrived, we went out to dinner with Lenny's friend Bill Burnham and his family and some friends. It was a small restaurant with great Cajun-oriented food, and we had a wonderful visit with everyone.

The night, however, was "a scream". The wind was blowing ferociously, and some fittings on the RV were screaming constantly. Lenny kept saying it sounded like a thousand screaming souls from Dante's Inferno - which of course didn't help ME sleep! Needless to say, the wind had calmed down by Sunday night.

Sunday we met Bill at his house and went into the city for brunch and to visit the Clinton Presidential Library. Brunch was good at Bosco's - especially for Lenny and Bill who each worked their way through the 8-beer sampler. We walked a few blocks to the library - a lovely day and a beautiful park. There were some teenagers sliding down a grassy hill on cardboard, and that looked like (dangerous) fun.

We really enjoyed the library. The 3rd floor had a replica of the Oval Office and many of the gifts the Clintons had received as president and 1st lady. The glass Cristmas tree was awesome, and the guys must have spent 45 minutes watching humorous videos made during the time Bill Clinton was president. We also saw lots of documents and pictures - all-in-all a well presented record of a presidency. A bonus was the display of work by Peter Max. I loved the bright, upbeat colors, and Lenny and Bill were reminded of their college years.

Tomorrow we plan to drive (in the van) down to Hot Springs for a soak and some sight-seeing. We've been told that there's a fantastic garden (Garvan Gardens) there. I'm looking forward to seeing more tulips and daffodils. The really pretty yards here in Little Rock around where the Burnhams live have made me homesick for Vermont, even though I know Spring hasn't arrived there yet.

Just About Packed

We're just about packed, so the plan is still to leave tomorrow (Tuesday). Tomorrow night we should be in Lake City, FL, and then we'll go on to Montgomery, AL and Tupelo, MS. . . . And ultimately, Old Faithful (above).

BTW, Our home phone is still connected because we'll have a house-sitter, but it will be easier to reach us by calling Lenny's cell phone (321-848-2791). Or send BRIEF messages to liebercampers@earthlink.net.

Another "summer" at Yellowstone

Welcome to our blog.

We've started this blog so we can easily post pictures with our "journal" entries.

Right now we're desperately trying to get ready to leave for 6 months at Madison Campground in Yellowstone National Park. The plan is to leave on Monday, but that's looking a little doubtful tonight. Probably Tuesday. . .

We'll be making a diagonal trip across the country. . . staying South as long as we can, and then following I25 from Denver to Billings, MT, I90 to Livingston, MT, and then down to Gardiner at the North Entrance April 17 for a week or so of training. We'll be opening Madison the first of May. And we've agreed to stay until just before Madison closes (late October).

I expect we'll be living in snow for a while. Good thing we've kept our ski clothes!