Work day done, on the road by 6pm. Thursday night in Casper, up early Friday & another 4 hours to Yellowstone – Ash & Tom’s first Park visit. geysers, Rocky Mtn peaks, travel ‘cross 4 U.S. states – Colorado, Wyoming, Montana & Idaho – what’s not to love?
Could’ve travelled the traditional 8-hour route [I-80 West to Rock Springs, 2 hours north to Jackson] – but added an extra hour crisscrossing Wyoming, in search for Sacajawea’s grave site. No regrets 🙂
- traditional story: in 1805, the 15-year-old Shoshone travelled with Lewis & Clark and her French fur-trapper husband & an infant son. She died in 1825. Her son, Jean-Baptiste Charbonneau, lived among Anglos, travelled Europe, led a group of Mormons to California & later settled in Montana.
- the myth: after the Lewis & Clark expedition, Sacajawea resettled to the Dakotas with two children, no husband – remarried & lived out her life with the Comanche. After her husband’s death [in 1860], she returned to her people, the Mountain Shoshone, and died near Fort Washakie, Wyoming.
Fuel fill-up & another bag of pork rinds later, back on the road. Drove thru a forest fire just outside of Dubois, before entering Grand Teton National Park – 45 minutes later, Yellowstone. Tagged front-row benches at Old Faithful & experienced a first rate show – hot water sprayed from the Earth a full 5 minutes. Sharing the moment with Ash & Tom, even better. GREAT memory.
Walked the Upper Geyser Basin, passing named geysers along a wooden boardwalk — like visiting a ‘geyser’ zoo. Morning Glory Pool, Castle Geyser, Rocket Geyser…each unique, each its own story – some erupt, others shake, simmer & boil. Caught a 2nd viewing of Old Faithful before car hopping further.
Fave place of the Park – Midway Geyser Basin – in particular, Grand Prismatic Spring. Reds, yellows, blues, greens & oranges – minerals rainbow-coloured the landscape. Steam from these geysers created a hot humid mist – like walking thru a steamy billowing fog.
No place else on Earth – gotta/hafta/MUST see.
Spent our remaining daylight exploring a family of geysers – Artists Paintpots – before exiting west into Montana & another hour north to Ennis, where our 2-day cabin digs awaited (lotta driving, thanks Tom).
No marathon tomorrow. historic Virginia City, Grizzly Discovery Center & a 2nd half-day in Yellowstone – still must see the Falls!
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- ever get that feeling someone’s looking over your shoulder?
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- Sacajawea Grave Site
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- 15-year-old Shoshone guided Lewis & Clark westward to the Pacific
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- fire on Hwy 26 – just east of the Tetons
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- road closed remainder of July
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- the Tetons
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- Old Faithful
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- never miss: erupts every 75-90 minutes
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- Morning Glory Pool
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- Grotto Geyser
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- Upper Geyser Basin
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- Castle Geyser
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- stayed long enough to catch a 2nd eruption — FAAANNNTASTIC!
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- Midway Geyser Basin
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- two of the largest hot springs in the world
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- Excelsior Geyser
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- vents boil & churn water within the crater, creating a dense layer of steam
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- Grand Prismatic Spring
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- WOW, WOW, WOW!
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- rainbow-coloured landscape
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- my favourite place in the Park
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- geyser basin sunset
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- an hour north of Yellowstone, our sleep digs for the next 2 days
Yellowstone: Part 1 – Great Geysers
Tent, backpack, will travel. Weekend plans.
Just like all camping treks, kicked off with a blood bath. Ash purchased $20 tickets to a way way way off-Broadway production of “Evil Dead the Musical”. Funny campy comedy where you wanna sit in the back row – to stay out of the SPLATTER zone. Cabin in the woods, college kids slaughtered one by one, audience blood spray – what’s not to like? HA!
Tickets are selling fast for the bloodiest, groovy-est show of the year…
“My wife and I came all the way from Memphis to see Evil Dead and it was worth every penny! We loved every minute of it! Amazing cast and gorgeous playhouse. Thank you for so much fun.” – Haywood E. via Facebook
Don’t get me wrong, it was a super fun night…but these nuts drove from Memphis? LOL>
Saturday a.m. start – destination: Vedauwoo, an hour west of Cheyenne. Goal: locate a camping spot early & get in a day hike. Super popular climbing spot. For us though, it was more – let’s go camping/how can we avoid west-bound traffic on Colorado’s east-west highway, I-70? one word: Vedauwoo.
Known to the Arapaho Indians as “Land of the Earthborn Spirit,” the rock formations of Vedauwoo (pronounced vee-da-voo) attract experienced climbers, campers and hikers. This area is conveniently located off Interstate 80 between Cheyenne and Laramie (exit 329) and for westbound travelers is their first introduction to the Medicine Bow-Routt National Forest and its more than two million acres of public lands.
I-25 North to Cheyenne, west on I-80 to Laramie. 28 camping spots – luckily, located an empty one…that would have never happened on a Saturday in Colorado.
The campground is composed of two loops, winding around the boulders, slabs and cliffs of the Vedauwoo rock formation which comprises 10 square miles of weathered Sherman granite. The vegetation is a variety of Limber pine, Engleman spruce, Douglas fir and Aspen. The general area was once used as a hideout for outlaws. Native Americans thought playful spirits piled up the boulders. All the tent sites are walk-ins and some of them are so secluded, one might feel the “outlaw’s spirit.”
big boulder terrain & wind – 2 biggest differences between Colorado & our northern neighbor. Scoped out a spot. Pitched our tents. Chucked 4 good sized rocks inside. Time for a day hike. Off-leash fun for the pups; easy 3 mile trek to Turtle Rock.
Green aspen-filled forest eventually gave way to rocky terrain. Pronghorn antelope & beaver, today’s wildlife count.
The rock making up Vedauwoo’s fantastic rock formations is the 1.4 billion year old Sherman Granite, which is some of the oldest rock in Wyoming. The uplift of the Laramie Mountains that began around 70 million years ago, exposed this rock. Younger and looser layers of rock and sediment have progressively eroded, and this continues today. The hard granite of Vedauwoo is made of large crystals of quartz, orthoclase, plagioclase, and some mica and is more erosion-resistant, resulting in unique, wind and water-sculpted forms.
Back at our campsite, restored Ash & Tom’s windblown digs…and the heavens opened. Piled into their 3-man & passed time with a deck of cards. Tick, tick, tick…hot dogs on the brain. Kept checking/rechecking, waiting ‘til we could evac & start a fire.
an old Nat Geo, twigs & 2-year old firewood – we have FIRE! Maintained a blaze, despite intermittent rain. SUCCESS!!
canned chili, not a huge fan…but fire-roasted hot dogs – FAAANNNTASTIC!
Better idea? Marshmallow s‘mores. Heck, YEAH! We should go camping EVERY weekend 🙂 Eventually abandoned our fire digs & tent-retreated from steady rain. Snug in my rug, held on to Ro ‘til he settled. Strong rain pelted outside. Nite fall.
6 a.m, clear skies & sunshine. Vedauwoo, pretty sweet spot (& only 2 hours away).
Evil Dead the Musical (The Bug Theatre)
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- Denver’s Bug Theatre
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- pre-camping slasher fun
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- luckily, stayed out of the SPLATTER zone
Vedauwoo WY (Medicine Bow Nat’l Forest)
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- road trippin’ with the pup
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- sunshine & smiles
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- Colorado Aspens…in Wyoming
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- dog model
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- happy hikers
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- water break
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- beaver dam
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- home away from home
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- cozy card game – campground rain delay
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- we have FIRE!
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- only way to eat a marshmallow
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- rain didn’t stop us — or these 2 climbers
Slept in ‘til 6am, didn’t leave resort lodging ‘til 6:30. Marathon morning? Perks of staying at The Coeur d’Alene, host hotel for today’s marathon. Small field of runners grouped near the Start, at McEuen Park. Perfect weather. Cool, sunny, upper 40’s. Beautiful country. Deep greens, huge pines, reminiscent of Oregon’s Crater Lake.
Gun pop; started out quick. No more than 2 miles of town, then spent the next 9 hugging the expansive lake perimeter – same Lake I cruised open water yesterday afternoon. Inclines at miles 4 & 7 but nothing noteworthy. Unfortunately, felt sluggish this day – no special reason, just no mojo.
Found out Saturday, today’s course was a double-loop trek. Mentally checked out at mile 12; toyed with the idea of only finishing a Half. Ultimately, indecision worked to my marathon advantage. The Half turn-off came & went – I circled out of town for a 2nd tour of the lake. Sun kicked up as did the temps. A long sleeve hoodie maybe wasn’t the best race attire decision I’ve made. LOL> Sure I was styling, but also heat-zapped by mile 18. Ho hum…live & learn. Scenery – still mighty amazing 🙂
Sub-2 first half, 3 hour 2nd lap – not ideal, but collected another medal, gained more experience & finished marathon #63. Generally don’t read runner reviews. Haters are gonna hate…first three comments however, fairly summarized my CdA marathon experience.
marathonguide.com
Small race (243 finishers) so not much company – During the last 15 miles, I passed 5 or 6 people and was passed by one person, and had no one with 300 meters at the end. Same story for my daughter. It’s a lot like a solitary training run.
The course – four trips over the same piece of pavement is about 2 too many. I realize it’s all about the half-marathon, but making the marathoners run 4 repeats over a significant hill was a bad idea.
Starting at 5:30 or 6:00 instead of 7:00 would’ve meant cooler temps and lots more shade. With temps over 70 and bright sun like this year, the last half of the race was a lot harder than it needed to be.
Aid stations should use bigger cups – Dixie cups that hold maybe 4 ounces before spillage during hand-off and drinking aren’t very useful. It would also be helpful to have water and sports drink in the same order from station to station, or not intermingled at the same station.
Post-race foodstuffs were nothing to get excited about – oranges, bananas, and 1 free beer if you were so inclined and had time to wait in line. We had to head to the airport so didn’t mind that the post-race stuff wasn’t anything special.
Coeur d’Alene Marathon • 2016-05-29
230 Participants • 105 Women • 125 Men
K R HAGA • Marathon • 4:58:36.4
Shower, fancy resort massage, lunch.
Spent the next 18 hours vacationing at a local B&B. Talk about exceeding one’s expectations. 20-minute drive in the woods. Relaxed in lush green forest amongst towering pine, sipping herbal tea, eating homemade pie. Why don’t I B&B more often? WOW, WOW, WOW!
Memorial Day Monday, back in Colorado. Who doesn’t love 3-day weekends?
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- my room: Chambre Rouge
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- post-marathon relaxation
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- outdoor MAGIC
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- across the lake, far in the distance, the Coeur d’Alene Resort (last night’s home)
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- spinach & artichoke omelette — breakfast’d like a King!
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- back home, relaxing with my pup; who doesn’t love a 3-day weekend?
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- Home, Sweet Colorado Home
Coeur de Lion B&B
