30 May Rumor Has It They Have Rocks
Team Dixie Chickens has been on the road for more than two weeks now. Every day has been spent bouncing along in the bus viewing the beauty of British Columbia, the Yukon, Alberta, Montana, and Wyoming. Along the way we visited Yellowstone and Teton National parks where we have seen Grizzly Bears, Brown Bears, Bison, Elk, Llamas, and one Coyote. Along the way I have been instructed on the finer points of mining for bitcoins by Hans as well as several emergency procedures useful when your plane is crashing by Kara. If you can get Will to set up camp in the bus the rest of us can miss his snoring and get some sleep. Driving in national parks is uphill downhill right turn left turn, repeat one thousand times and then do it again. A mama bear and her two cubs playing in a field will shut down Grand Teton in about a minute. Old Faithful is worth the effort even with thousands of other tourist sitting around it like a rock concert. Met a Russian truck driver named Alexi who gave us a bottle of home made medicinal liquid with raisins in it that is supposed to help with something or other. No one was willing to test it out, though. The canyons of Flaming Gorge in Wyoming are amazing. We are the only people here watching the sunrise after a night of high gusty winds that tested the integrity of our $35 tent. Today we head to Arches and Canyonlands Parks near Moab UT, to look at more rocks.
Tuesday night we camped in Yellowstone at Bridgebay camp ground. I imagine it is beautiful when not flooded by two feet of melt water. We managed to find a slightly dry site and enjoyed a relatively warm evening until the sun went down. The temperature dropped quickly which should not have been a surprise since the lake had two feet of ice on it and we were at ten thousand feet elevation. I normally stay warm in my bag with my extra blanket however my blanket went missing so I spent the night rolling around fighting hypothermia. As the sun rose I couldn’t help but notice that our little Canadian came out of her tent wrapped in my blanket. After coffee we piled in the bus to get on the road. The bus really doesn’t like cold weather any more than I do. When I started her up I covered the whole park in diesel smoke so thick that you couldn’t see the other campers. On the way out I think we killed an old lady and her dog when I had to idle with the exhaust pointed in their direction. I hope they made it. We scurried on down the road before a hazmat team could be called and enjoyed ridding the area of Mosquitos.
Donski
Left the Flaming Gorges early to take the scenic trip over a 10 k mountain. Who knew that Utah had so many rocks. As we drove I saw really big rocks as well as really small ones. Some were red while others were yellow or black or even several that were cyan. Some were barely clinging to hills while others had already rolled to a lower station in the rock hierarchy. I even saw rocks that had been drowned by the building of a dam. Some rocks jumped from their perches onto the road where they were smashed by trucks. Others have found a niche for being called fossils and getting to live in glass cases. All in all it was an exciting drive through Utah seeing all the fabulous rocks. Tomorrow we plan to go to Canyon Lands and Arches where rumor has it they have rocks.
Donski
Monday we traveled through Montana to Bozeman, and all remarked on how much the scenery resembled Mongolia. But for the fences, roads, and people, it looked much the same as we all remembered Mongolia’s rugged terrain.
Spent the night in a motel for the first time on this trip, ending our (as Hans would say, epic) long run of tent camping nights. Felt oh so nice to have real beds and showers, plus a convenient spot for getting Tommy to the airport for his early Tuesday flight. Tommy’s quirky sense of humor and mechanical prowess will be missed, for sure.
The bus is awfully quiet as we head out today, as we last four will be the riders who will bring the bus the rest of the way home to Charleston.
Yellowstone is so beautiful this time of year–we were lucky that the Dunraven Pass was open as it is above the snow line. We got to see lots of buffalo and elk along the way. It was a steep climb with lots of switchbacks and few turnouts for letting the engine cool off. Snow was piled up as high as the bus in some places! The downhill was equally challenging on the old bus brakes for sure!
Grand Teton was much like Yellowstone in terms of terrain and scenery, but the tall spiky mountains and plateaus were stunning. We also got to see a mama grizzly and her two cubs playing at the edge of the forest.
Stopped in Jackson for a nice lunch overlooking the square and walked around a bit. Nice leisurely day without the time pressure we’ve had til now to get to the next campground.
Drove through what Will dubbed the “American steppe” in western Wyoming: thousands of acres of open grassland and low hills that reminded us of eastern Kazakhstan and Mongolia. Few people and lots of cows.
Stayed Wednesday night at a deserted US Forest campground at Flaming Gorge, which offered nice picnic shelters, a great high desert plateau view of the surrounding red rock formations and lake below, and gusting winds that rattled out tents all night long.
The bathrooms were full of spiders, including in the container that housed the TP rolls, which is how we learned about Will’s fear of them.
Also, the last thing Amber said to me before my shower is to watch out for bugs crawling up out of the drain. Made for a relaxing washing experience to say the least.
Woke early for a pretty sunrise over the res hills and headed south toward Moab and more desert views.
Stopped for lunch in Vernal at a little place with a salad bar- our first vegetables in forever! Had a long climb up to 9,000+ feet just south of Duchesne and then a steep grade down the other side on our way south. Don had a pretty harrowing time keeping the engine and brakes from overheating.
Green River campground for Thursday, and tomorrow to Moab.
Sarah
