The day started sort of okay. I still didn’t have much appetite, Robert’s knee was still stiff, but we got packed up and set off for Poia Lake by about 10 AM.
Day 7 – Terrible (and Terrified) Together
Category: Lara’s Words
Day 6 – Lara is Slow and Glacier is Excruciatingly Gorgeous
We are in the backcountry, woo! What a ridiculously long day: 11 miles, 7.5 hours, 2480 feet up, 2518 feet down. The morning was frustrating because it was cold, I wanted to get up and see sunrise, the tent was wet, and we had to repack our backpacks before setting out for the trail. We still decided to stop at Johnson’s Cafe for a nice hot breakfast before setting off for the trail head to Elizabeth Lake via Ptarmigan Tunnel.
Continue reading “Day 6 – Lara is Slow and Glacier is Excruciatingly Gorgeous”Day 5 – Lara Needs To Catch Up On Her Blog Posts
Today was nice and relaxed. I wanted to get going somewhat early, but as we’ve mentioned, we’re bad at mornings. So we eventually got packed up, picked up some groceries and gas and got out of Helena to head up to Glacier NP. We checked the weather last night, so we knew we were in for a bit of wet, but we also were pleased to discover that the peaks had a new dusting of snow. Continue reading “Day 5 – Lara Needs To Catch Up On Her Blog Posts”
Day 4 – When Will We Get Out of This Park?
I had been determined to get up for sunrise on the day we left Grand Teton NP, but then there was sleep to be had so I went with that. We had a warm breakfast of oatmeal and coffee, packed up camp, and set off north to take all the pictures ever:
Once we got into Yellowstone, I was on duty to have the camera ready for any sudden vistas or wildlife. There were quite a few:
It took us almost six hours to get through Yellowstone. We stopped at most of the things along our route northward along the western route, and they were all pretty, but by the time we got about halfway, we were ready to be out of the park. We stopped at the falls and the grand canyon of Yellowstone and went down the 328 steps on Uncle Tom’s Trail, because, well, we punished ourselves yesterday, why not do it again today? It was worth it, but my legs didn’t love me afterward and the heights were making me a little woozy (heights make me a little anxious…). We headed to Artist Point after that, despite Robert’s initial misgivings: he decided it was worth it once we got there. After Artist’s Point, our last stop was the petrified tree, which was pretty cool, if you think about how it’s now rock and used to be wood.
The rest of Yellowstone was pretty, but we ran out of battery and space on the cameras so I just enjoyed the view while Robert drove. In the Mammoth Springs area there is a nice little village area (with touristy stuff) and there was a herd of elk just hanging out around town. There was even a little one chewing on a sign, which I thoroughly enjoyed but only got one picture from afar.
After that, it was smooth sailing to Helena, MT where I passed out as soon as Robert would let me after we went through some of the pictures from the day.
Day 3 – Let’s Try to Kill Ourselves!
I eventually dragged myself out of my sleeping bag into the cold morning. It got down to 25 degrees F in the night, so I was not really excited to get out of my cozy cocoon.
After moving our camp to another site (since we had to take one of the ADA accessible sites the night before, and without an access pass, you’re only allowed one night) we loaded up our backpacks with water, clothing, and food for a hardcore training hike to prepare for backpacking in Glacier NP and North Cascades NP. Our packs were probably around 40-50 lbs so that we could find out if we could hack it, which is a great idea and important to do, but it sucked.
Day 2 – Dinosaur to Grand Teton NP
Another day full of driving! We left our little motel in Dinosaur and crossed into Utah. Much of Utah is flat and desolate, but eastern Utah and the canyonlands in the south are amazing (unfortunately we won’t make it down to the canyons on this trip, but we might be able to go into Arches briefly). Continue reading “Day 2 – Dinosaur to Grand Teton NP”
Day 1: Golden to Dinosaur, CO
If you don’t already know us, you may not know how bad we are at keeping to a plan, but we are mainly not good at mornings. So we didn’t get on the road until 1.5 hours after we had planned to. Once we did, it was pretty smooth sailing up until we got past Boulder, CO…
So, it’s labor day weekend. Not sure if anyone else remembers that it’s the weekend when everyone and their mothers go out to enjoy the outdoors. We had a “nice” reminder on our way out to Rocky Mountain National Park (RMNP), it was reminiscent of Yellowstone. So. Many. People. And about half of them don’t know how to deal with a road.
For example, there was a herd of elk hanging out near the road. Now, it makes sense that people would be interested, but about 20 people were risking life and limb, walking on the edge of the road where there’s maybe a foot from where they’re standing to where cars are supposed to be. To avoid further ranting, the punchline is that I don’t like most people (I’m going to make an effort to not turn this blog into a series of misanthropic rants).
Anyway, RMNP is beautiful, the weather was just right with some clouds that made the lighting change every now and then.
While it would have been nice to do some hiking, we got such a late start in the morning that we had to truck on through, only stopping at the visitor station before entering the park and at one pullout that was miraculously empty. Plus, with all the people, parking was insane at most places, particularly on the eastern side.
When we passed through Granby, CO and the surrounding area, we tentatively decided that she should retire somewhere around there or Grand Lake, CO. It’s so beautiful with the lake and a glorious backdrop of the Rockies (we didn’t grab a picture, but I’m sure there’s some nice pictures someone else took somewhere on the Internet). Plus, it’s not in the middle of a forest, so wildfires are slightly less of a concern.
We also found out that a) Sotheby has a realty division in Steamboat Springs, and b) Steamboat Springs is very pretty.
We’re still figuring out this whole blogging thing, unfortunately it was a fairly uneventful day, but hopefully we’ll be able to write interesting things even on days such as today. If you have any tips, leave us a comment below!
P.S. Sorry for any weird formatting, we had to post via phone.