Meeting Old Friends

Colin has very fond memories of the time when, as an ingenuous young Englishman, he first visited and lived in Northern California in the early ’70s. We stayed with Davey and Morag Paterson, with whom Colin worked at Measurex, in Cupertino. The Paterson’s live in a beautiful community in the Santa Cruz Mountains with views of the Bay Area to the East, and the Pacific to the West (pictured in the banner). While hosting us for a few days, they were gracious enough to invite some additional ex-Measurex people to meet us and, all of a sudden, we had a lovely party going, relating old stories, remembering old friends and fun times. Renewing friendships is one of the best presents life has to offer, especially when traveling.
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Humming Birds

Whether it was the mountain air or the ‘special sugar’, the Paterson’s humming bird feeders were very well attended. It was great entertainment watching them vie for the best spots and having their fill of nectar. Pictured are two types of hummingbirds that we don’t have in the East, these are strictly West Coast hummers: Anna’s and Allen’s.
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We hope you enjoy Cheryl’s ‘shadow-movie’ of all the activity.

Las Cumbres

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Las Cumbres Community, nr Skyline Drive, Los Gatos, California

Crater Lake National Park

We planned to spend a day or two at Crater Lake National Park on the way South to California and entered the Park at the North end. It was a cloudy day but we were not prepared for the weather we encountered as we drove the West Rim to the top. Temperatures dropped below 40 (snow forecast), visibility 10 yards, and we couldn’t see much further than the precipice edge. At the top we encountered road resurfacing / rebuilding, and hardly saw the flagman enforcing one way traffic. Lake views were not likely so we carried on to Mazama village and were happy to get a ‘first come first served’ campsite there.

Crater Lake is an amazing geological formation. Like Yellowstone, it was formed as a ‘Caldera’ after a volcanic eruption emptied a huge void underground and the earth’s surface collapsed into it. It is a much smaller Caldera (6 miles in diameter compared with 40 miles) than Yellowstone. The Yellowstone Caldera was formed from three ‘super volcano’ eruptions, the most recent 630,000 years ago. However, the Crater Lake Caldera was formed only about 7,000 years ago when Mount Mazama erupted over several days and the earth collapsed into the void over only several hours. It’s very possible that the Klamath Native American tribe witnessed this phenomenon as there are tales of a cataclysmic event in their cultural history.

The crater cooled and has filled with rain and snowfall over several hundred years to the current depth of about 2,000 feet, containing some of the purest natural water in the world. This explains the amazing deep blue color of the lake with its aquamarine edges. There is no water outfall from the Lake. The lake bottom is still active volcanically and future eruptions are very possible.

We ended up spending 4 nights, waiting for the storm to pass and eventually experienced a beautiful day when we drove the East Rim in two sections as the middle was closed for avalanche damage repair. Colin took one of the trails down from the rim to the lake shore and back and we visited Vidae Falls in the early evening.
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Crater Lake

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Mazama Village, Crater Lake National Park, OR

We decided to stop at Bend, Oregon on our way Southwest to California and spent most of our time at the High Desert Museum followed by a scenic tour over to the West side of the Cascade Mountains and back.

High Desert Museum

This is a privately run non-profit, well-appointed and maintained museum covering the wildlife and history of this area. We enjoyed meeting the Birds of Prey, Otters, and Cheryl particularly enjoyed the Indian Nations of the Columbia River Plateau exhibit.

Birds of Prey

The birds of prey are not caged but are free to roam. All of them have a reason to be there, whether because of an injury or having been born in captivity. An easy source of food keeps them in the area and the demonstration we saw showed how they can be trained to show off their hunting skills.
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Otters

We found a pair of Otters living in a pool and waterfall area simulating the environment they would experience in the wild.
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From Cheryl: My Love of Indian Art

The traditional clothing and jewelry were magnificent and amazing in detail. I just loved what the art represented, both the practical and the ornate. To think of the hours spent creating these pieces is mind boggling. But then, winter was an opportunity to create and tell family stories, passing along skills and history to the next generation.
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Cascade Mountains

We took a ‘scenic tour’ in our van over the top of the Cascade Range NW of Bend via the town of Sisters to the West side of the mountains where we found Tumalo Falls. We then traveled back via the tortuous and narrow Old McKenzie Highway over the summit back to Sisters. The extent of (historically) recent volcanic remains we found as we traveled over the summit surprised us and it was interesting to see the trees and vegetation gradually reclaiming their environment.
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Bend, Oregon

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Museum of the Hight Desert, Bend, Oregon

Alternative Routes 

Leaving the Tetons with a date to spend July 4th weekend with Martha and Doug (Lane) Peterson in McCall, Idaho, we had only a couple of days to explore Southern Idaho. The Snake River Canyon and Shoshone Falls at Twin Falls was our planned stopover. As usual, we ignored our van’s GPS ‘fastest route’ and went for a longer, more interesting journey. We climbed out of Jackson Hole through the Teton Pass and dropped down to a cross country route through part of Idaho’s ‘High Desert’. We met a couple of surprises on the way. The route was straight and deserted for many miles until we started to see signs for ‘INL’ and ‘EBR1’. Our map was no help but we did notice a signpost to ‘Atomic City’ just to our left and a lot of power lines going towards ‘INL’ on our right. We pulled in to the ‘EBR1’ National Historical Landmark not knowing what to expect. It turned out to be the site of America’s first installation to produce electricity from Atomic Energy, known as Experimental Breeder Reactor 1. We had a fascinating tour of the installation, learning how this research installation first produced 200KW of electrical power in 1951. It is now a part of the Idaho National Laboratory – ‘INL’ (previously Argonne National Labs, which I would have recognized).
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Craters

Not far down the road, we took a side trip to visit Craters of the Moon National Monument and were fascinated by the unusual black rocky landscape and the extent of the remains of over 60 solidified lava flows and 25 volcanic cones, most recently active only 2,000 years ago. It was very interesting to see how the area was gradually turning back to nature with trees and vegetation seeming to sprout out of the rocky areas. There is a campground there but Cheryl was a bit spooked by the odd-looking black rocky campsites so we traveled on to Twin Falls.
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Twin Falls 

By far the most dramatic feature in Twin Falls is the Snake River Canyon that threads its way through the center of town with many accessible walking trails. At the head of this section, east of town, are the Shoshone Falls. The falls are 45 feet higher than Niagara Falls, flow is now restricted by the Idaho Power’s Shoshone Falls Dam. At its full flow, water spills over the whole horseshoe rock cliff. At reduced flows (see photos below and movie at the bottom) the flow splits into several waterfalls. In addition to generating power at the dam, water is also diverted upstream to irrigate ‘Magic Valley’.
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Twin Falls

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Shoshone Falls, Snake River Canyon at Twin Falls, ID

McCall, Idaho July 4th 

Following our usual practice, instead of the quickest route via Boise, we took a longer route to McCall, traveling North to Ketchum (near Sun Valley), North-West to Stanley and then followed the South Fork of the Payette River, a popular rafting area, to join the Boise-McCall road at Banks. We were rewarded with some magnificent mountain and valley scenery as we passed through the Sawtooth and Boise National Forests. We enjoyed our stay in McCall, watching fireworks over the lake on the 4th, and visiting ‘Charlie’s Garden’ (see next section below).
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Charlie’s Garden

Our friend Martha gave us a real treat by taking us to see ‘Charlie’s Garden’ in McCall, a beautifully designed hillside garden by the lake just outside McCall. It took a while to find it, a very well kept secret now that the sign is no longer visible. Created by the famous landscape designer and plantsman, Charlie Davidson, it is maintained by his heirs and is ‘a quiet, tranquil perennial paradise in the mountains of Idaho’. As Colin wasn’t ‘carrying’ that morning, the pictures are all from Cheryl’s iPhone. Before taking off for Oregon the next morning, we returned to Boise on the 5th and met the rest of the family, including grandson Harrison.
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McCall, Idaho

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McCall, Idaho

Shoshone Falls Movie

The Teton Mountains

Driving from Yellowstone South to Grand Teton National Park, we were unprepared for the dramatic views of the Teton Range coming into view. As we drove into the park, the view was even more beautiful as the mountains appeared behind Jackson Lake. Grand Teton, at 13,775 feet, is the highest point of the 40 mile long Teton Range, and the second highest peak in Wyoming. The mountain is entirely within the Snake River drainage basin, which is feed by the several local creeks and the mountain’s glaciers. Grand Teton’s name is surrounded by controversy. It was first recorded as Mount Hayden in 1870 and then named by either a French-Canadian / Iroquois expedition as “large breast” (in French) or named after the Teton Sioux tribe of Native Americans. The snow-capped spiky mountains are visible from all areas of the park including the valley (Jackson Hole) and provide breathtaking views.

Exploring the Park

We stayed in Coulter Bay Campground which we used as a base for touring and trying to capture the beauty of the Park. Of note were: Jenny Lake; a tortuous climb up to the top of Signal Mountain for views across the valley and back to Jackson Lake; Snake River Overlook, site of Ansel Adams famous photograph from 1942, and many views over Jackson Hole with the Tetons as a backdrop.

As a rare treat, we spent an evening dining at Jackson Lodge where we had a spectacular view and a fun waitress from Jamaica. It seems that so many ‘interns’ are from other countries, making their way through the summer months by working the national parks. Adrianna had an amazing head of hair, which Cheryl fell in love with, dyed purple in part. Not that Cheryl is going to start her hair off in dreadlocks anytime soon. At the lodge, everything had a moose or bear theme (see below).

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Inspiration Point and Cascade Canyon

From Cheryl: The Grand Teton has a razor’s edge. But then all of the mountain range is nothing but sharp edges. The glaciers and snow caps in the middle of summer are impressive. One day, I had organized a surprise for Colin. I booked a boat ride for him across Jenny Lake to the trailhead accessing the Cascade Canyon trail, rising up the side of Grand Teton, for a photo and hike opportunity. After seeing Colin off early the next morning, I spent it mostly worrying that I had made a mistake given all the bear warnings about hiking alone in this area. In my mind’s eye, I kept hearing the inquest questioner: Why did you encourage him to take such a risk? However, he returned safely after hiking up to Hidden Falls, Inspiration Point and some way up Cascade Canyon, returning via an alternate trail back to the Lake. To ease my mind, taking advantage of the cell coverage improved by his elevation, he even sent back 2 ‘selfies’, one from Inspiration Point, the other in the returning boat. See photos below.

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Jackson, Wyoming

We spent a day in Jackson, famous access point for the Jackson Hole ski areas and the Park. Colin stopped for a haircut at a barbers which was also a bar (members only bottle club) which was something different. We visited the National Museum of Wildlife Art, just out of town, which was having two exhibitions. First an Ansel Adams exhibit showing photographs he took when on a trip to explore the Teton’s with two of the Roosevelt family, and his good friend, Georgia O’Keefe. He had given each of them a photo book, and these pages were displayed with his personal notes about the photos and the circumstances that surrounded his memory of the trip. Exquisite. Secondly, of particular interest to Colin, an exhibition ‘Yellowstone Then and Now’ showing photographs taken in 1871 by William Henry Jackson alongside photos taken in 2011-2014 by Bradley Boner, attempting to reproduce the exact same view with the latest camera equipment. The museum was built of stone into the hillside and surrounded by flowers and wildlife sculptures.

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A Bison Traffic Jam

On our way home from Jackson Hole to our campground in the Teton’s, we were luck enough to be in the front of a traffic jam created by a herd of bison crossing the road.
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Grand Teton

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Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming

America’s first National park was created in 1872 and covers 3,500 square miles. The Yellowstone basin surrounded by mountains is really a Volcanic Crater or ‘Caldera’ created 640,000 years ago in an eruption when the land dropped 3,000 feet towards the magma chamber of molten rock below. The result is a an area of magnificent scenery with high peaks, canyons, waterfalls surrounding the central basin where herds of bison and elk roam freely around the 136 square mile Yellowstone Lake. The area is volcanically active with many Geysers, Hot Springs, etc. Eruptions have occurred 2.1 million years ago, 1.3 million years ago and 640,000 years ago. There will be a next one but geologists are unable to predict when. This doesn’t seem to bother the over 4 million visitors who explore the Park every year.

Scenery

There is so much to see here, our four day visit was only enough to explore the easily accessible areas of the Park. No wonder everyone we know, every television show, every magazine article describes Yellowstone as a must see on everyone’s bucket list! The vastness of the area with mountains, rivers, lakes and canyons provide many amazing and much photographed views.

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Wildlife

Wildlife is free to move through the park and so opportunities to see Bison and Elk abound. More rarely, Grizzly and Black Bears, Bighorn Sheep and Grey Wolves. Sport in Yellowstone consists of driving round the Park with binoculars and stopping when we spotted something. More frequently, stopping when we spotted a few other cars pulled over, particularly when tripods, telescopes and cameras were out. We optimized our opportunities by getting up early and staying out late when traffic was less and wildlife more active. In addition to seeing an abundance of Bison, we found a herd of Elk with their young feeding in the forest, a Grizzly, a Black Bear giving her cub tree-climbing instruction and some distant views of Bighorn Sheep and and even a Grey Wolf lair with pups (too far away to photograph). We loved the 30 minutes + spent in a traffic jam where a large herd of Bison crossed the main Park road from one grassy valley to another. Some were hesitant to join the traffic, between cars and trucks; others went across, threading through the stopped cars with aplomb. Since Bison are the largest mammals in North America, often weighing over 2,000 pounds, drivers were (usually) happy to stop and give way.

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Geysers, Hot Springs, Mudpots and more

Throughout the Park, evidence of volcanic activity abounded. Okay they’re smelly, the air is ripe with sulfur. But the colors of the pools and fungus, the plop-plop of the mudpots spouting (see video at the end of this blog), and the steam coming from the earth all help to make this experience other-worldly. You really get the feeling you are on another planet. But no, it’s mother earth burping, farting, and expelling steam to show off all kinds of things that are happening below the surface.

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Mudpots

Hot Spring

Old Faithful movie

Bull Elk walking through Yellowstone Falls parking lot

Yellowstone

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Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming

Cody Wyoming

We left the Black Hills and traveled North West to the Bighorn Mountains climbed the over 9,000 ft pass and, despite all the warnings of steep grades, overheated brakes, etc. we took Rte14Alt down to the Bighorn River Basin – what a beautiful ride! Then West to Cody, the Eastern gateway town to Yellowstone National Park. Cody is named after William F Cody (better known as Buffalo Bill), who founded the town after seeing the Bighorn River Basin from the top of the Bighorn Mountain Pass. He realized its potential as a ranching center and was instrumental in irrigating the land from the Shoshone River flowing down from Yellowstone.

We stayed a few miles West of Cody in Buffalo Bill State Park by the side of the lake in the beautiful Shoshone River Valley with mountains towering over us on three sides. The mountains were breathtaking, particularly at sunrise with the sun hitting the top of the mountains while the moon was setting behind the Rocky Mountains in the distance. We used this as a base for exploring the town which had lots of entertainment, most with a Buffalo Bill theme. We enjoyed the many old buildings, bars, and the buffalo statues painted differently on each corner which reminded us of the chickens in Annapolis. We spent an afternoon at the Buffalo Bill Center of the West which houses 5 museums and surprised us with its extensiveness and quality (see below).
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Rodeo!

Cody calls itself the ‘Rodeo Capital of the World’. Neither of had experienced this type of entertainment before so, despite misgivings about the treatment of the animals, we signed up for the evening show. We loved the horsemanship, enjoyed the atmosphere and excitement, but came away thinking it would be our one and only, considering particularly the treatment of the bulls and calves. See the video located at the end of this blog which contains part of the opening horse and rider display.
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Buffalo Bill Center of the West

This is a ‘must see’. The center contains 5 museums covering Buffalo Bill; Natural History and the Greater Yellowstone area; Plains Indians; Firearms; and Western Art. The amount of history documented and artifacts was overwhelming, well worth a few hours exploring!

The story of Buffalo Bill is truly the story of the American entrepreneur; he did it all. Pony Express rider, fur and artifact trader, language interpreter, guide to covered wagon trains, guide for the US Army to bring in and feed troops by buffalo hunting, created a theatrical troupe of over 500 individuals of many nations, animals and costumes, traveling throughout the US and Europe.

It took us 3 hours to go through most of the halls at the museums. One thing, however, that struck both of us as missing, was any coverage of the destruction of the tribes and culture by the early settlers.
Cheryl was so impressed with the multiple statues by Remington (such exquisite detail) textiles and clothing created by the women, that it seemed she was snapping pictures ever few seconds! The evidence below.

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Rodeo Opening Equine Display

Cody Wyoming

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Cody, Wyoming