Yellowstone! old faithful area

Yellowstone was by far the place i enjoyed the most, everything about it, from the geology to the wildlife and the amazing mountains, it was simply incredible and i urge anyone who can to check it out with at least a week.

Our Yellowstone experience started with us getting to the town of Gardiner Montana at about 3 in the afternoon, as august is the busiest month for Yellowstone all the campsites were full so we drove 2.5 miles up a shit dirt road to camp at this national forest site called Eagle Creek for 7 dollars.

Eagle Creek was quite nice, it had everything a good campsite should, smelly pit toilets and running water, but really it had a nice view and we met some bikers from Michigan who shared their fire with us as well as their rum and stories of craziness at strugis bike rally which is where they were headed.

Our campsite at Eagle Creek.

The morning after we hung out with the bikers we got up ridiculously early, 5 am, to try and drive into Yellowstone and get a campsite at Norris campground.

We wanted to camp at Norris because it is located close to most of the stuff we wanted to check out and it has flush toilets.

So we got to Norris fairly early, around 8 am and there is already a line up of cars waiting for sites, we were waiting in line behind a group from Texas and we start chatting and i decide to leave steph with them and drive back to a different campsite and try to get some sites.

I drove back up the road away from Norris and stop at this campground Indian Creek and there is a longer line there and i wait for about 2 hours and don't get a site so i drive back to Norris and find out steph got a site, but then sold it to a family for 100 dollars, but the Texans said we could tent on their site.

So we set up our tent, and drive down to the Old Faithful geyser to check out the area and eat a nice lunch at the Old Faithful lodge with our new cash.

Below are our photos of the geysers around Old Faithful and a few other randoms from ours first day.

This is Sheepeater Cliff, named after a native tribe in the area, it is a very awesome case of columnar jointing.

Same cliff with steph for size.

Roaring Mountain, a mountain that has gas hissing out of fumaroles all day, a fumarole is a vent in the earth over an active geothermal area that has gas escaping.

Steph posing in front of a very colorful hot spring, the different colors are from different kinds of bacteria living in the different temperatures of water.

Me with Castle Geyser, it only blows every 14 or so hours, we waited about 2 hours for it to go.

Steph with Castle Geyser.

Castle Geyser again.

Pretty hot spring with pretty girl.

Geyser i forget the name of with steph.

Hot spring with the trees reflected in it.

Thumbs up for hot pools of water that smell like sulphur.

Old Faithful blowing its top.

Some mule deer eating grass in the Mammoth Village area early in the morning.

Road to glacier/glacier

On the drive from the redwoods to glacier we noticed the price of gas drop about 30 cents a gallon once we crossed into oregon which was nice, however because of state law, all gas is self serve, which was sort of weird.

Shortly after we crossed the border we also got a snapshot of a landmark...

That means we have gone over 8000 miles so far, yikes.

The next strange thing we saw was a truck full of watermelons, not tied down at all.

Also the truck turned out to be an old school bus with the top/back cut off.

Then we ran into a truck driving the wrong way on the highway...

Not really, its one truck pulling two cabs.

Glacier was amazing, the huge snow capped mountains were nothing like i had ever seen in the east before, driving the going to the sun road in glacier national park you drive up right into the mountains and at times are surrounded by the mountains, its one of the most scenic drives i have ever driven. It can get very hard to drive on a narrow windy mountain road while staring at the towering peaks.

Steph posing with some snowy mountains in the background.

More mountains, more poses.

Steph with more mountains.

This black bear caused about twenty minutes of traffic jam by eating berries off the side of the road.

The Jackson glacier in glacier national park, its going to be gone by 2030 says the park staff so see it while its still around.

Hanging out on the going to the sun road.

Steph and i posing for a photo at st mary's lake in glacier NP.

The view along the same lake as above.

Strange little island called wild goose island, supposedly one of the most photographed places in america.

That is the last photo from our first day at glacier, we stayed in a nice cabin on the east side of glacier NP and went for about an 8.5 mile there and back hike to see a closer look at a cool glacier.

The start of our hike up and around the going to the sun mountain, a different hike then we planned but our first trail was closed due to grizzly sightings.

A shrinking glacier around the side of the going to the sun mountain.

Steph posing in front of the way back down the mountain.

A timed photo of us, the camera was balanced on a rock.

A strange and beautiful wildflower called beargrass, it was all over some of the hillsides.

redwood national forest photos

The redwoods were amazing, after being around trees so huge, every tree i have seen after seems sort of small. these are just a few of the photos we took, i sort of wanted to take a picture of every tree i saw and i only half resisted.

its really hard to show how huge the redwoods were, standing in a grove of them, seeing them tower over us and knowing some of them are over 2000 years old really made me realize how powerful nature really is.

The first redwoods we saw on the drive down the coast.

Looking up some twisted redwood trees.

Scary looking sign on the beach behind the visitors center.

Steph standing infront of a huge tree.

Chillin like a villain.

Driving howland hill road, this tiny road that is so narrow and the trees are so close that you can reach out and touch them on both sides of your car.

Steph staring at some rather large trees.

Giving a tree a big hug.

I want to see moose!

As a quick update(we found internet in a national parks visitors center) we have been enjoying Yellowstone National Park and the Grand Tetons for 7 days now and will stay 1-2 more days. After arriving at Glacier/ Yellowstone we fell into a groove and haven't wanted to get out of it. We've been hiking almost every day which has been great and have spotted tons of cool wildlife. The parks are very relaxing and a wonderful contrast to the cities that we were trying to escape. The weather is a bit crazy as it has thundered at least once a day and gets into the low 40's F, 5-10C every night, but the views and fresh air certainly make up for it. I really love it here.

Starting in Glacier we stayed in Kalispell and Browning Montana and were awed by the mountainous area and the glacial valleys. Beautiful wildflowers seemed to pop up everywhere and fresh glacial runoff rushed through streams and over falls. A park ranger informed us that they would probably lose all of their glaciers within 10 years so if you want to check it out you better hurry up. We hiked around Sun Point to a few falls and around the going-to-the-sun mountain to see a glacier whose rapid melting was made obvious by how small it sat in the huge valley it carved out for itself years ago. We intended to hike to the grinnell glacier but the area was closed due to bears. I hope we can get back before it melts!

After glacier we headed to Yellowstone which it packed in August. On the first day we camped out of the park and spent time with three bikers heading to Sturgis who told us of the craziness of the festival "You will see all that you ever wanted to see in two days", one said.

We then awoke early to get a site in the park. Noah and I split up and he waited at another campsite. I got a site at the Norris Campground but not before I sold it for $100 to some one who got shut out thinking Noah for sure would have a site at the other place. Not 10 minutes after I got the cash in hand Noah showed up hoping I had got something. Luckily I met Anna Tommy and Jack in line who generously let us share with them for the night. We spent the rest of the week hiking looking for wildlife and spending time with our newfound friends. We saw some pretty amazing things such as heard of hundreds of bison, 10 bears 3 black and 7 grizzly, elk, mule dear, wolves, marmots and more. But I still Haven't seen a bull moose so we are in search of one today and tomorrow in the tetons.

Photos will follow as we have tons of them (Noah loves to take bison photos).

After this we plan to head eastward through Minneapolis, Upper Peninsula, Sudbury, Ont. and then home. But I will be reluctant to leave as there is a wonderful force that is pulling me to this corner of the country and I will have trouble breaking free.

Driving is Tiring

We are now beginning the long haul out east. We are in Portland Oregon and have decided to skip Vancouver, Jasper and the rest of Western Canada on account of exhaustion. I never thought I'd want to sleep so much while in such cool and faraway places. But alas while in the Majesty of the redwood forest I yearned for the comfort of my own bed and an ice cream cone from Four Seas. So we have decided to head back, stopping at Glacier and Yellowstone on the way. Western Canada will have to be another trip another time. Despite my current wave of exhaustion and the trip shortening I am quite happy to say I've found a new favorite place for driving, Howling Hill Road in the northern part of the redwood forest. It is simply an amazing place to be. My favorite thing about the redwoods was how good it smelt walking through the groves of the giants and how I felt so dwarfed by the massive trees. Photos will follow but there is nothing so good as seeing it for oneself and I recommend to anyone reading this who may get such a chance to do so.

Pacific Coast Highway

These photos aren't the best (note the visible smudges on the windshield, fingers and glare) but show our day long encounter with the Pacific Coast Highway from San Simon area to Monterey Bay. Not pictured is the lovely beach in Carmel-by-the-sea that we stopped at which warned "never turn your back to the ocean" and "you are in a danger zone" (high waves have swept people out to sea there and left on diver dead). Also Not pictured are the tons of elephant seals that go to the coastal beaches to Molt and Mate. Currently the males are on the beaches molting a yearly process that takes about one month. This website of a non-profit seal protection group has more information on this. http://www.elephantseal.org/

Santa Barbara

We had so much fun relaxing in Santa Barbara. Thanks so much to the Zandonas we went avocado and orange picking. We Hiked, Climbed and ate so much good and new food like tri-tip and Freebirds...

Us at the beach in Santa Barbara


Above the cloud cover of Santa Barbara
The wharf/pier had great views of the city and the ocean



Climbing on the Sandstone at Lizards Mouth was soooo much fun!

We will surely be returning to SB sooner rather than later!