Smith-Kintanar summer 2003 vacation

Our 2003 summer vacation was once again long and extremely busy. 3500 miles, 10 National Parks, several commercial attractions, visits with friends and relatives, camping, hiking, caving and rafting, all in 19 days.

Day 1 (Sunday) Corrales to Castle Rock, CO: We didn't leave until 9 am because Gorbo needed one last Tour de France fix. The car had been mostly loaded the day before, so right at 9 we left. What can I say about the drive north up I-25? Been there, done that. We did start listening to the audio tapes (20 of them!) for Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Once we got to Castle Rock, the navigator (Gorbo) misread the directions and mis-remembered landmarks and we ended up on the wrong side of Castle Rock and had to call for directions. The kids enjoyed playing with their cousins Josh and Kris while the adults caught up with Karen's cousin Barbara and her husband Barry.

Day 2 (Monday) Castle Rock to Fort Collins, CO: We headed out of Castle Rock just before 9- hoping to be behind the morning rush hour traffic. We were wrong; we still hit lots of traffic. After arriving in Fort Collins, we shopped at REI (buying the kids polar fleece jackets that turned out to be very useful). We tried to go to the Children's Museum and the City Museum, but both are closed on Mondays. We spent the very hot afternoon in a movie theater watching "Finding Nemo". There had been record heat in Albuquerque the week before we left, and it followed us most of the trip. After the movie, we still had a little time to kill so we bought ice cream at a Dairy Queen and sat in the car in the parking lot eating ice cream and listening to the Harry Potter tape. We then met up with Gorbo's friends Joe & Sandy at their house. We went out for dinner at a restaurant called Avogadro's Number. Of course, being chemists Karen and Gorbo could not resist buying the restaurant's t-shirts, so we had out first souvenirs.

Day 3 (Tuesday) Fort Collins: In the morning we drove over to a nearby small airport and rented a small plane. Joe, a licensed pilot, took the guys up. Dylan was unsure about the plane, had planned not to go up, but changed his mind at the last minute. Both kids got to do some actual flying. After lunch we went up Poudre canyon and stopped by the river so the kids could play in the water.

Day 4 (Wednesday) Fort Collins to Black Hills, SD: Things were about to get busy. We left Fort Collins fairly early and headed to Ft. Laramie National Historic Site in Wyoming. Our old National Park Pass had expired, so we purchased a new one. For $50 you get free admission to all National Parks, Sites, Monuments, and Memorials for a year. What a deal! We arrived just after a ranger tour had started, so we just got the map/info sheet and the Junior Ranger books and did our own tour. The site is an interesting mix of ruins and rebuilt buildings. After 1.5 hours walking around (did I mention it was hot?), we returned to the visitor center and the kids turned in their workbooks and got their Junior Ranger badges. We also started our souvenir collection in earnest as we purchased the first of many refrigerator magnets and postcards. We found a shady spot in the picnic area to eat lunch (yes, it was hot) and then headed for Hot Springs, South Dakota.

There are indeed hot spring here- but we did not go to them. Instead, we went to the Mammoth Hot Spring site. This is a private organization excavating and studying what appears to be an old sinkhole that trapped dozens of mammoths and other animals and then filled up with dirt, protecting them. The entrance fee was a little steep, but well worth it. The entire site is inside a building to protect it. In places, paleontologists were doing excavations, in other places half- excavated bones were sticking out, and in other places no work had been done. It was quite fascinating (and air conditioned!). More t-shirts and other souvenirs were purchased at the gift shop.

By the time we left the site it was after 4 pm, so we traveled to our reserved campsite at Legion Lake in Custer State Park as quickly as possible. Being north of home, daylight lasted a bit longer, so we had plenty of time to set up camp, stroll by the lake, and cook and eat before dark.

Day 5 (Thursday) Black Hills, SD: We remained camped at Custer, but did a lot of driving around. We headed south on some interesting, scenic roads to Wind Cave National Park We had actually driven through part of it the night before, but didn't have time to stop. Wind Cave is famous for its boxwork- some 90% of the known formations are here. They are a honeycomb of deposited calcite rock. It formed when mineral-laden water filled cracks in the rock. This deposited material crystallized and became much harder than the surrounding rock. Later, water dissolved the rock away (forming the caves) but the crystallized material remained. We got to the cave just as the visitor center opened. We purchased our tickets for the 11 am Fairgrounds cave tour and picked up the Junior Ranger booklets. We drove over to the trailhead and walked the Mountain Nature Trail. This 1.2 mile trail traveled across riparian, meadow, and forest areas. It was an easy path and quite pretty. We did this quickly enough that we were able to drive over to Rankin Ridge and join the ranger-led 1.0 mile hike up the ridge. There were very nice views of the Black Hills from the top and Gorbo and Ryan climbed up the fire tower for even better views. Then it was time to head back to the visitor center, have a snack, put on our fleece jackets and do the Fairgrounds cave tour. This was a ranger-led group of about 30- entering and exiting the cave by elevator. The tour involved 450 stairs during the 0.5 mile path and we saw lots of boxwork, popcorn calcite and other cool cave features. After lunch in the parking lot, we walked over to the natural entrance to feel the strong breeze (Wind!) that arises from the different barometric pressure within the cave. Then it was back to the visitor center for Junior Ranger badges and souvenirs.

We then headed to Crazy Horse Memorial , which is a Mt. Rushmore type carving of Crazy Horse still in progress. You can see the mountain from the road and even from a distance it looked impressive. We saw the movie, and looked from the observation platform, but didn't do the bus ride up to the base. The kids were disappointed that there was no blasting the day we were there. We had a tiny bit of rain, which didn't really cool things down too much (record high temperatures). We bought souvenirs and snacks and Dylan purchased a piece of rock blasted off the mountain.

It was only 4 or 5 pm so we drove over to Mt. Rushmore National Memorial. This is not visible from the road, and is not even visible from the multilevel parking garage in front. The garage is private, so there is a parking fee. The monument itself, for some reason, was not as impressive as I thought it would be. It seemed overly commercial. We picked up the Junior Ranger books and did the walk to the base of the monument. Then we watched the movie, and turned in the Junior Ranger books. The kids did not get badges- but you could purchase patches in the bookstore. So we did. All afternoon we had seen what looked like storm clouds in the distance, but nothing had come too near us.

We headed back to camp via road 16A. In the morning the road had been scenic. It had some switchbacks and at least 2 270degree turns. The road home was beyond scenic. There were several corkscrew turns, and I have no idea how many switchbacks and 270s. The mileage was less than the morning's route, but it took 1.5 hours to get to camp- averaging about 10-20 miles an hour. When we got to camp we found where the storm had been. Our tent was fine and nothing had even gotten wet, but several other tents in the campground were collapsed. We did get dinner done before dark- but just barely. Sleeping that night was a little uncomfortable, as it was quite humid from the rain.

Day 6 (Friday) Black Hills, SD: We packed up the still-damp tent and headed out. This time we went west to Jewel Cave . We were able to get tickets to the first Scenic tour, but we still had 45 minutes to kill, so after getting our Junior Ranger booklets we looked around the visitor center and watched the film. The Scenic tour enters and leaves by an elevator, but there are 723 stairs on the 0.5 mile loop. Jewel is one of the longest caves in the world, and although we only walked a very small part of it, all those stairs made it seem pretty long. There is very little boxwork here, instead there is lots of popcorn and flowstone.

After the cave tour, we did the Roof Nature trail- only a half mile or so. After turning in our books and getting our badges, we drove over to the natural entrance and looked at the historic cabin (original ranger station) and walked about half a mile to the natural entrance where a Lantern group was getting ready to start a tour.

We drove over to Rapid City to find the Museum of Geology at South Dakota School of Mines and Technology . After finding the school, we ate lunch in the parking lot and walked across campus- following the dinosaur footprints. The museum is only a couple of rooms, but very nice. They had lots of minerals and fossils. We must have spent 2 hours there.

Our new campground was just up the road a few miles at the Mystery Mountain Resort . They put the RVs near the road, and the tent area is way in the back. Nice wooded sites. We put up the tent and spread things out to dry them. The guys took advantage of having a pool and we all took advantage of having showers.

Day 7 (Saturday) Black Hills, SD: We drove over to the town of Keystone to ride the 1880 Hill City train. It makes round trips between Hill City and Keystone and you can ride one way or round trip from either town. We got there quite early- which was lucky as there wasn't much parking. We walked around the town for a few minutes and then the station opened up and we got our reserved tickets. There are no assigned seats, but the 8:30 train was not very full. As this was the return for the 7:30 train from Hill City, there was not too much narration along the way. On our return from Hill City the train was very full, and we had the full narration. The Total time was about 2.5 hours. Dylan did fall asleep on the return trip (on the hard wooden bench!) The route is mostly in wooded hills, with some pretty views, and at one point a view of the highest peak in South Dakota.

We drove up to Lead (pronounced Leed) and visited the visitors' center for the Homestake Mine, a (now closed) very large surface gold mine. Then we drove over to Deadwood. We went into the visitor center, but didn't do anything else. It was over 100F and there was no parking anywhere (except 15 minute slots at the visitor center).

Then it was off to Reptile Gardens- a private zoo-ish thing. Dylan especially liked the display of the world's deadliest snakes. We watched a snake show, and alligator show, petted giant Tortoises, and endured a very stupid trained animal show.

Day 8 (Sunday) Black Hills, SD to Devils Tower, WY: We packed up the camp, ate the pancake breakfast that came with the campsite, and drove over to Devils Tower National Monument in Wyoming. You can see the tower from a fair distance away. We had planned to camp in the park campground, but they didn't take reservations, so our first stop was the campground which was pretty empty at 10:30 or so. After setting up our tent, we drove over to the visitor center and got our Junior Ranger books. We did the 1.3 mile walk around the base of the tower. All the published pictures are of one side, and the other sides look quite different. Did you know that the tower is an oval?

We ate lunch out of our coolers on some shaded benches to one side of the parking lot. Then we attended a short ranger talk on the cultural history of the area, and completed our ranger books. Back at the campground, we did a 1.5 mile loop hike (combining the south side trail and valley view trail) that went up the ridge for a while, then down by a prairie dog town, and around the river valley. At dinner we had mashed potatoes, which Ryan sculpted into a model of the tower (ala "Close Encounters of the Third Kind"), and then we attended another ranger talk on Native American legends of the tower origin.

Day 9 (Monday) Devils Tower to Cody, WY: This was to be one of our long driving days- all the way across the state of Wyoming. We got started pretty early, put in the Harry Potter 5 tape and headed west. We arrived in Cody in early afternoon, after only one gas/bathroom stop. We headed directly for the Buffalo Bill Historical Center , and spent a couple of hours looking at the exhibits. Then on to the motel, laundry, dinner at a "home style" restaurant, and a walk around town looking for ice cream (we found some).

Day 10 (Tuesday) Cody to Yellowstone National Park, WY: This was the start of 5 days in Yellowstone . We drove in the East entrance and stopped at the Fishing Bridge visitor center where we picked up our junior ranger books. We did the short Pelican Creek hike, about 1.0 mile in the marshes of Yellowstone Lake. We crossed the Fishing Bridge, and headed to the Canyon area of Yellowstone. On the way, we stopped at Mud Volcano and we walked the boardwalk to see our first geothermal features and up close look at bison. As we drove on toward Canyon through Hayden Valley we saw a large herd of bison (several hundred head) just off the road. Once we got to Canyon Village, we found our assigned campsite and set up camp. We then set out to explore the south rim of the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone.

We did a 3.5 mi hike that went along the rim from the Uncle Tom's trailhead for more than a mile (past Artist point) and featured one spectacular view after another. At Artist point, we tarried to eavesdrop on a ranger talk about the geology of the area before heading on and looping around by Clear Lake then back to our starting point.

Back at Canyon Village, we treated ourselves to ice cream, checked out the souvenirs and then went back to camp to prepare dinner. Unfortunately, we were over a half mile from the campground amphitheater, so we had to drive to the evening program. It was on Yellowstone wildlife and how to view it safely.

Day 11 (Wednesday) Yellowstone: Today we explored the Old Faithful area of Yellowstone. We drove straight to Old Faithful, and just missed an eruption by about 20 minutes so we waited about 45 minutes for the next one. After that, we walked most of the trails and paths in the area- about 4 plus miles and saw many pools and geysers including Morning Glory Pool, Grand Geyser, Castle Geyser, Grotto Geyser and Crested Pool. We were able to see one other major geyser eruption, we waited about half an hour for Daisy Geyser to erupt and it was well worth the wait.

On the way back to the campground we stopped at several other geothermal sites between Old Faithful and Madison including Fountain Paint pot and Grand Prismatic Spring. At one of them we ran into a friend we knew from graduate school who now lives in Kansas. Hi Dave! It sure is a small world.

Back in Canyon, we had dinner and decided to forego the Ranger talk. Good thing too because a thunderstorm came by and there was rain, thunder and lightning for about an hour. We waited out the lightning in the car but our tent stayed snug and dry.

Day 12 (Thursday) Yellowstone: We drove to the Mammoth Hot Springs area of Yellowstone by way of Tower Falls. We couldn?t hike down to the base of the falls because the trail was washed out but we did hike down a little ways to the Yellowstone River. We saw two deer near the top of the falls and again near the river.

We checked out Roosevelt Lodge and the Petrified Tree and then we hiked a little 0.5 mi nature trail through a burned out area that educated us about fire. This was followed by a short 1.0 mi hike to Wraith Falls.

Note that Ryan is wearing a t shirt he bought at the Mammoth site earlier in the trip.

We then moved on to Mammoth and checked out the visitor center, looked at Fort Yellowstone, had lunch, did the upper terrace drive, and walked around the lower terraces. Some of the geothermal features in this area had weakened just in the last few years but the remaining rock formations were still spectacular.

From Mammoth we went on to Norris. There we checked out the museum of the Park Ranger and the Norris Geyser Basin. Portions of the basin were closed because of increased geothermal activity. We still were able to see about half of the features including Steamboat Geyser and Emerald Spring. We waited for Echinus Geyser to erupt for nearly an hour but to no avail. This portion of Yellowstone gets "hotter" every summer, but 2003 was hotter than usual

Back in Canyon, we had dinner and went to another ranger talk on the effects of fire in Yellowstone.

Day 13 (Friday) Yellowstone: We drove south past West Thumb and almost to Old Faithful to see Kepler Cascade. On the way, we saw elk just outside of Canyon and a large herd of bison crossing the road as we went through Hayden Valley. After seeing the cascade, we drove to West Thumb by Lake Yellowstone and checked out the geyser basin there. We saw some kayakers on the lake; it looked like fun.

We headed back to camp to have lunch and then we explored more of the canyon area by visiting the overlooks along the north rim including Inspiration Point and the brink of the upper falls. The trail to the lower falls was closed so instead, we hiked Uncle Tom's Trail, from the south rim. The trail dropped 500 feet to a spot with a good close view of the falls. Much of the drop was via 300 steps on a pretty exposed metal staircase. Karen decided to stop about halfway down but the boys made it all the way to the bottom. The stairs were a little scary and it was pretty strenuous going back up but the view was pretty spectacular.

Then it was back to Canyon Village for laundry, showers, ice cream and then dinner.

Day 14 (Saturday) Yellowstone to Grand Teton National Park, WY: We broke camp this morning, left Yellowstone by the south gate and drove down to Grand Teton National Park . We stopped at the Colter Bay visitor center to get our Junior Ranger books, and did a 2.0 mile hike around the Bay.

Very nice except for the bicyclists riding on the foot-only path. We then walked through the (over- air-conditioned) museum of Native American artifacts.

After the hike, we headed down to Gros Ventre campground which was the only campground that did not fill by noon. We found a suitable site and set up camp and had lunch. Then we headed into the town of Jackson to check it out. It was pretty touristy but interesting nonetheless. In the town square, there was an arch in the park made entirely of antlers.

As part of the Junior Ranger program, the kids had to attend a ranger presentation. We went to the cabin at Menor's Ferry for a talk on the ferry. Instead, we were treated to a special presentation on the formation of Grand Teton National Park as it was the anniversary of the meeting between locals and others which led to the formation of the park. We had cookies and punch after- inside as it was pouring rain. The guys decided that we should run for the car (several hundred yards away) and we all got pretty wet.

We drove over to Jenny Lake, and there was no rain there. We hiked around the south side of Jenny Lake and then up a little ways to Hidden Falls with some real nice views of the mountains, the lake, Cascade Creek and the falls. Dylan, who is usually a reluctant hiker kept wanting to go on and we ended up hiking a little more than 5.0 mi roundtrip, a record for Dylan. Then we headed straight back to camp for a late dinner.

Day 15 (Sunday) Grand Teton: Today we went rafting down the Snake River south of Jackson with the Barker Ewing Company . The first 8 miles of the trip was very gentle and scenic with many sightings of bald eagles (about 12 total!). We then had a delicious breakfast off river before tackling the more exciting second 8 miles which featured several stretches of white water. Dylan insisted on riding right at the bow so he got all wet and was kind of hypothermic near the end. Ryan paddled the entire trip.

We got back to Jackson and ate lunch out of the coolers. Dylan and Ryan then went through a maze which was set up just across the street from the Barker-Ewing meeting place. Dylan had seen a maze earlier in the trip but we did not have time to do it. We could not put him off this time. Afterwards, we headed into Jackson to check out pictures taken of us rafting the white water and ended up buying a couple. We next stopped by the Moose visitor center followed by a scenic drive around the Jenny Lake area. We stuck around the Jenny Lake visitor center for another ranger talk on owls then we headed back to camp. It was nearly dark so we quickly had dinner and then turned in.

Day 16 (Monday) Grand Teton to Craters of the Moon, ID: We broke camp in the morning and made one little side trip. Our campground was just a few miles from the site of a major landslide that occurred in 1925. The slide formed an earth dam which held for nearly two years but then gave way resulting in a massive flood in the town of Kelly. The features of the landslide were still quite evident and dramatic and the views were beautiful .

The boys turned in their Junior Ranger books at Moose and we headed off to Craters of the Moon National Monument.

On the way, we stopped at Karen's birth place Idaho Falls, ID and checked out the falls. They were very wide but not very high.

We then headed to Craters of the Moon National Monument After checking in at the visitor center and procuring our Junior Ranger workbooks, we set up camp in the camp parkground and had lunch. We then did some of the auto tour stopping to do a couple of short hikes. We did the half-mile Devils Orchard nature trail that passed in and around some interesting lava flow features and then we joined a ranger for a hike along the 0.8 mi Cave trail. She took us into one of the lava tube caves which went back about 200 ft. The heat wave was still with us so it was good to get into the cool cave. `

Back at camp, we had dinner and then walked over to the North Crater Flow trail which was adjacent to the campground, about 0.8 mi total. Then we enjoyed an evening ranger program on the flora & fauna in the park.

Day 17 (Tuesday) Craters of the Moon, ID to Salt Lake City, UT: We broke camp early the next morning and decided on one last hike before heading toward Salt Lake City. We hiked part of the Tree Molds trail just to stretch our legs before the drive. On our way to Salt Lake City, we stopped near the Thiokol factory to see a cool rocket display. Then, it was on to Golden Spike National Historic Site. This was the site where they joined the two ends of the first transcontinental railroad. We heard a Ranger talk on the history, viewed a Steam engine demo, watched a movie, toured the museum and, of course, the kids completed the Junior Ranger program.

Afterwards we drove straight to our hotel south of Salt Lake City. There was a traffic jam in the city because of a rather large fire in the foothills. Also, we were nearly in an accident when a truck ahead of us dumped its load (a playground set) but fortunately, Gorbo was able to dodge all the big pieces.

Day 18 (Wednesday) Salt Lake City to Bluff, UT: We got up early and drove up into the Wasatch mountains to Timpanagos Cave National Monument . We were signed up for the 9:30 tour but first we had to hike 1.5 mile with 1100 ft elevation gain hike to get to the natural entrance. Once there, the ranger showed us 3 connected caves and we saw a new type of cave feature, helictites. After that, we got to hike back down which was thankfully much easier than going up. The crowds were much thicker on the way down so we just beat the rush. The kids picked up their Junior Ranger badges and we hit the road again.

We stopped for lunch in Green River, UT at a park we've stopped at several times before. Then it was on through Moab to Bluff, one of our favorite towns in the four corners area. We stayed at the Recapture Lodge for the 5th or 6th time, had dinner at the Twin Rocks Cafe and then went to the presentation which was on places to visit in the four corners.

Day 19 (Thursday) Bluff to Corrales, NM: We?ve done this drive so many times, the car knows the way home. And so, another epic vacation comes to an end. It was good to be home again to see the kitties.

Back to Karen Ann Smith's home page.