9-26-13 Update

Hello All.


We left Wyoming a bit early.  The rain kept the campers away.  Our next destination was Arkansas and when I received a call telling me that my grandparents needed some help, we didn't hesitate, we packed up and headed South.

Jon and I took a mini vacation while we were still in Wyoming.  We spent a weekend in Colorado.  We got in and out just prior to the rain and flooding.

It was a great weekend.  We stayed in a really nice hotel (the suite was bigger than the 5th wheel).   The main reason we went was to go into the Rocky Mountain National Park.

There are 58 National Parks and Jon and I would like to see all of them.

Following is the list of National Parks:

Acadia National Park - Maine
American Samoa NP - Samoa Territory -This will be difficult to see in the 5th Wheel ;)
Arches NP - Utah
Badlands NP - South Dakota
Big Bend NP - Texas
Biscayne NP - Florida
Black Canyon of the Gunnison NP - Colorado
Bryce Canyon NP - Utah
Canyonlands NP - Utah
Capitol Reef NP - Utah
Carlsbad Caverns NP - New Mexico
Channel Islands NP - California
Congaree NP - South Carolina
Crater Lake NP - Oregon
Cuyahoga Valley NP - Ohio
Death Valley NP - California & Nevada
Denali NP - Alaska
Dry Tortugas NP - Florida
Everglades NP - Florida
Gates of the Arctic NP - Alaska
Glacier NP - Alaska
Glacier Bay NP - Alaska
Grand Canyon NP - Arizona
Grand Teton NP - Wyoming
Great Basin NP - Nevada
Great Sand Dunes NP - Colorado
Great Smoky Mountains NP - North Carolina & Tennessee
Guadalupe Mountains NP - Texas
Haleakala NP - Hawaii (Another one that we will need to see using an alternate mode of transportation)
Hawaii Volcanoes NP - Hawaii
Hot Springs NP - Arkansas
Isle Royale NP - Michigan
Joshua Tree NP - California
Katmai NP - Alaska
Kenai Fjords NP - Alaska
Kings Canyon NP - California
Kobuk Valley NP - Alaska
Lake Clark NP - Alaska
Lassen Volcanic NP - California
Mammoth Cave NP - Kentucky
Mesa Verde NP - Colorado
Mount Rainier NP - Washington
North Cascades NP - Washington
Olympic NP - Washington
Petrified Forest NP - Arizona
Redwood NP - California
Rocky Mountain NP - Colorado
Saguaro NP - Arizona
Sequoia NP - California
Shenandoah NP - Virginia
Theodore Roosevelt NP - North Dakota
Virgin Islands NP - US Virgin Islands (We will save this one for when we really need a vacation from our vacation)
Voyageurs NP - Minnesota
Wind Cave NP - South Dakota
Wrangell-St. Elias NP - Alaska
Yellowstone NP - Wyoming, Idaho & Montana
Yosemite NP - California
Zion NP - Utah

* -  The ones in Blue are the parks that Jon and I have seen together.  We have visited some of the others separately, but our goal is to see them all together.  I hope that we can continue to travel until we have seen them all.  We have only seen 8 - 50 more to go.  Can't wait!

I was shocked to discover the most visited NP is the Great Smoky Mountain NP in North Carolina & Tennessee.  I would have thought Yellowstone, Yosemite or the Grand Canyon would be #1.

The Grand Canyon is #2, followed by Yosemite and then Yellowstone.  An interesting fact is that the Great Smoky Mountains NP receives over 9 million visitors annually that is more than twice as the #2 NP of the Grand Canyon receives.  The NP with the least visitors is the Kobuk Valley NP in Alaska.  This park averages just 3,000 visitors annually.

Back to Colorado and our mini vacation.

Rocky Mountain Park is beautiful and is the 9th most visited NP in the US.  The Park is located in the North Central Region of Colorado and it features varied climates and environments from wooded forests to mountain tundra.

We entered the Park through the small town of Estes Park.  It was really a quaint town.  When we arrived a scottish festival was going on.  We would have liked to have spent more time in the area and the park and had every intention of doing that, but the floods happened and we weren't able to go back into Colorado.  I hope we are able to return a some future point in our travels.

Colorado is a beautiful.  In our travels we stopped for pictures of these spots.

On Sunday we spent a portion of our day in Greeley at the Greeley Freight Station Museum.    This is a one-of-a-kind facility that features over 600 railroad related artifacts ranging from a Virginia and Truckee Railroad Switch Key to a full sized Colorado and Southern wooden Caboose.  But the main attraction has to be it's 5,500 sq. ft. operating miniature railroad.

It was fascinating.  I wouldn't have thought that I would find it interesting, but it really was.  The Museum operates with volunteers and the admission is nominal.  The miniature railroad scenes were of Oregon.  I told Jon as we were leaving the museum, it made me want to go to Oregon on a train.  Maybe that will be our next Mini Vacation.

9-08-13 Update

Hello All!

I miss writing my blog almost as much as I miss doing fun stuff!!!!

We have three more weeks left on our volunteer stint at Curt Gowdy State Park.  As I mentioned previously the park is located between Laramie and Cheyenne WY.   Cheyenne is the capital of Wyoming and at times is the most populous city, however Casper's population is close to or may surpass Cheyenne.  Both of the cities population is around 60,000.  But I find Laramie much more interesting.

Laramie takes his name from Jacques LaRamie, a French trapper who disappeared in the Laramie Mountains in the late 1810's and was never heard from again.  He was one of the first europeans in this area and his name was given to a river, mountain range, peak, a US Army fort, county and city.

In 1869, Wyoming was organized as Wyoming Territory,  the first legislature of which passed a bill granting equal political rights to the women of the territory.  In March of 1870, five Laramie residents became the first women in the world to serve on a jury.  Also, since Laramie was the first town in Wyoming to hold a municipal election, on September 6, 1870, a Laramie resident was the first women to cast a legal vote in the United States.  

In 1886, a bill was signed by Governor Warren that established the University of Wyoming, making it the only public university in Wyoming.  Laramie was chosen for the site and UW opened in 1887.

  

War Memorial Stadium

Some photos of Laramie valley and downtown Laramie

I have to give a shout out to Grand Avenue Pizza --- best pizza west of Italy  :)  Located on the corner of Grand Avenue and Third in downtown Laramie.  Yum!  It is a Friday Night Tradition for Jon and I.  Last week, we invited some new friends to enjoy with us. 

A few days ago Jon and I took a day off from our volunteer duties, and got on the motorcycle for a day in the sun.  We are staying 80 miles or so from portions of the Oregon Trail.

Our first stop was at the Oregon Ruts.  This is a preserved site of wagon ruts of the Oregon Trail on the North Platte River, approximately 1/2 mile from Guernsey WY.  The Oregon Trail here was winding up towards South Pass.  Wagon Wheels, draft animals, and people wore down the trail about two to six feet into a sandstone ridge, during its heavy usage from 1841-1869.  The half-mile stretch is the best preserved set of Oregon Trail Ruts anywhere.

Our next stop was at Register Cliff.  The cliff is a sandstone precipice rising one hundred feet from the valley floor of the North Platte River.   Travelers camped here along the river bank and inscribed their names into the cliff.  Many of the inscriptions were made during the peak years in the 1840's and 1850's, however some are as early as 1829.

Next stop Fort Laramie (originally founded as Fort William and then known as Fort John)

The fort was a significant 19th century trading post and diplomatic site.  The Fort was founded in the 1830's to service the overland fur trade during the middle 19th century.  The fort is located at the bottom of the long climb leading to the best and lowest crossing point at South Pass into the western descending valleys thus making it the primary stopping point along the Oregon Trail.  In 1849, the US Army took command of the fort with the primary responsibility to protect the wagon trails of migrant travelers on the Oregon Trail, as well as the subsidiary trails which split off farther west such as the California and the Mormon Trails.

This weekend Jon and I are on a "vacation from our vacation"................ Stayed tuned for the next chapter in our travels!

8-21-13 - Update

Hello friends it is time for another update.   I can tell you that I am enjoying the weather in Wyoming.  I spoke to my mom yesterday and she told me that it was 109 on Monday.  I looked at the current temperature and it is 70 degrees here now.  NICE!!!!

As I mentioned in my last post, Jon and I are volunteering at Curt Gowdy State Park.  We love it here.  The park employees are great to work with and we have enjoyed meeting other volunteers.  Curt Gowdy was a famous sportscaster from this area and the Park was named for him in 1972.  The park has a couple of reservoirs with good fishing.  But it is mostly known for it's mountain bike trails.  It is also becoming a popular destination for bouldering.

A Visitor Center is in the final stages of construction and I am hopeful that it will be open before Jon and I move on.  

We took a motorcycle ride last Saturday.  Here are some pictures.

The ride was great.  We left the park, went through Laramie and over the Snowy Range.  The highest mountain peak was just over 12000 feet.   

We have not done much traveling the last couple of weeks.  We are hoping to get in a couple of good rides in this weekend.  

8-05-13 - Update

Hello All!

I am very late in posting my weekly blog.  SORRY!!!!

We are now at Curt Gowdy State Park in Wyoming (near Cheyenne) and we do not have cell service or internet.  We have to drive about 14 miles into town to get service.  Also, Jon and I are volunteering until the end of September so until we leave this area - I am only going to blog every other week.

We had a great time in the Rapid City area.  Downtown Rapid is one of the nicest downtowns that I have been in.  Rapid City is the closest city to Mount Rushmore and one of its unofficial nicknames is the "City of Presidents."  On almost every corner in the old downtown area is a statue of one of the our previous presidents.

Jon and I had dinner and drinks at the Firehouse Brewery in Downtown Rapid.  Service was great and the place was packed.  Jon enjoyed the beer that he choose, mine was just OK.  The food was not great.  But the building and the furnishings were fantastic.

Here are some photos of Downtown Rapid City.

Last week, we also spent one afternoon at Mount Rushmore.  I was surprised that it was smaller than I had imaged.

Mount Rushmore doesn't have an admission fee, although you do have to pay to park.  They have a museum, amphitheatre, visitor center and an avenue of all the state flags.  It was very interesting to see and I enjoyed the museum.  They have two small movie theaters inside and they show a short film about the sculptor, (Gutzon Borglum), and how the mountain was transformed into the faces of these four presidents. From left to right, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Teddy Roosevelt, and Abe Lincoln.  It also talked about how this enormous undertaking started and why these four presidents were chosen.

The idea of Mount Rushmore started as an idea to attract visitors to the Black Hills.  Borglum chose Mount Rushmore as the site for the shrine.  The following text is from a brochure that I picked up on our visit: "Gutzon Borglum's vision for Mount Rushmore was no less than the formal rendering of the philosophy of our government into granite on a mountain peak.

George Washington was our first president, so he represents the birth of our nation.   Thomas Jefferson made the Louisiana Purchase, so he represents the expansion of our nation.  Teddy Roosevelt is credited with the Panama Canal, Trust Busting (the Sherman Anti-Trust Act) and finally the National Park Systems, so he represents the development of our nation.  And finally, Abe Lincoln, who was successful in saving the union during the civil war, so he represents the preservation of our nation.

Mount Rushmore has certainly done what it was intended to do, as tourism is the major source of economy in the area.

Custer State Park is very near Mount Rushmore and Jon and I took two day rides through the park and surrounding towns.

We also visited the Crazy Horse.   If you haven't heard of this, I am very happy to be the first to tell you about it.  It is another mountain being sculpted into a memorial.  But that is where the similarities end.

Crazy Horse Memorial was inspired by Mount Rushmore, and in 1929, Henry Standing Bear (a Lakota Elder) contacted the sculptor Korczak Ziolkowski.  Standing Bear told Korczak that he and the other chiefs would like the "white man to know that the red man has great heros too."

Korczak took on this project and stated that he was proud that this memorial will be his life's work.  They started the project in 1948 and it is still far from completion.  The entire project is being completed with private donations and by charging a very nominal admission fee as well as gift shop revenue.  

When completed, this sculpture will be the largest in the world.  Korczak died in 1982, however his wife Ruth and seven of their ten children still work on the memorial.  Korczak wrote a letter to his children in 1952, and his wife gave the letter to his children after he died.  The letter said that his children did not have to stay and continue the project if they didn't want to, but if they did decide to stay on, then he wanted them to stay for life.  One of Korczak and Ruth's daughter is a sculptor and has made a couple of modifications to her fathers original plans.  Ruth said that all of the children that stayed play an important role in the project. They all have individual talents that are crucial to the success of this extreme undertaking.

I am so impressed with this project and the dedication of the Ziolkowski family.  I can not say enough about them.  I could probably write a couple more blogs just on this subject.  If you are ever in the Black Hills, this is a must see.  We enjoyed our time here very much.  We are on to another adventure, but what I saw here will be with me forever.