Jackson Hole Wyoming

View of wheat fields while driving through Idaho. We saw miles and miles of Wheat fields, along with a few Potato fields and corn fields.

We stopped at a roadside rest in Idaho, and this is what we saw at the scenic view part of the rest area.

In Montana, at Bannack State Park we found this Ghost Town being preserved but not restored. This is Nancy walking up to the building to see if she could find any ghosts in the Hotel. Luckily she didn't find any! This was a gold mining town in the 1800's, and when the gold ran out, the town of 3000 was abandoned.

More buildings in the Ghost town. We tried very hard to find Ghosts, but unsuccessful. We are glad we stopped here to take the tour.

We started this morning in Wyoming, then drove through a portion of Idaho, then into Montana. The scenery has been fabulous and we now understand why Montana is called "Big Sky Country".

Tomorrow we plan to tour a Silver mine in Wallace Idaho, then a lot more driving toward Seattle.

Jackson Hole Wyoming

We decided to take a day off driving, and stay In Jackson Hole where we took a Tram ride to the (top of the world). It is the 2nd longest tram in the U.S. It took about 10 minutes to get to the top.

This is a sample of the views from the top of the world. The mountain we are on is Mt. Rendevous. They did not have guard rails around the top, but they did have ropes. Here we were approx. 11,000 Ft high.

Here we are at the top of Mt. Rendevous with Grand Teton mountain in the background.

This is Nancy para-sailing off Mt. Rendevous. (Not)

This is a memorial to the Veterans of Desert Storm. It also listed all the servicemen who served from the Jackson Hole area. This is found on the square in Jackson Hole.

This is a Stagecoach which we rode around Jackson Hole. It was a fun ride and we met two other riders from Ohio who were with a tour group.

Tomorrow we will start for Seattle Washington.

Madison MT to Jackson Hole WY

A great waterfall in Yellowstone. There were many of these along the way, but we thought this was the better of them.

Looking at the Grand Tetons across Jackson Lake. Note the reflections in the water.

The Teton Mountains, which are approx. 13,771 feet high. Although this was the smallest National Park we have been in, we thought it was the best.

After leaving the Grand Teton National Park, we went to Jackson Hole. This is a street shootout in Jackson Hole Wyoming. They perform this every evening at 6:00 on the square of Jackson Hole. It was a fun event to watch.

Cody Wy to Madison Idaho

This is bison that reside in Yellowstone. There are thousands in the park and they cross the road anywhere and anytime they like. They even walk right down the center of the road. Of course traffic stops and everyone takes pictures.

Here is one of the many rapids on the Yellowstone River. This river and many streams flow through Yellowstone. There must be a lot of trout in these waters, because we saw quite a few fishermen with their waders on in the middle of the streams.

Here are some elk that were grazing in the yard at a lodge in Mammoth, Wyoming. They don't pay any attention to all the cars or tourists.

Sulpher hot springs are found near Mammoth at the north end of the park. Here is just one of them showing the white residue left behind.

Of course, a visit to Yellowstone is not complet without viewing Old Faithful. There were hundreds of people there waiting to see this.

Yellowstone had forest fires some years ago and we could still see the burnt trees and other scars from the fire, but we also saw the new growth that resulted after these fires. It will take many years for the park to come back to prefire standards.

Yellowstone is huge and has many types of topography from mountains, to valleys, to thick forests. And, of course, the areas that have the gysers. It took us all day to go through the park. If we would have taken all of the little side roads or if we were hikers, it would take two to three days to see it all.

On to the Grand Tetons tomorrow and then to Jackson Hole. Maybe we will see some movie stars.

Sundance WY to Cody WY

Devils Tower, a rock formation found outside Sundance Wyoming.Sundance is where the Kid got his name. This is a formation that is all by itself. It was the first National Memorial in the US.

Another view of Devil's Tower. This is in the Black Hills which are sacred ground for the indians.

This is where we ate lunch on Monday. Not everyone can say they ate lunch at the Crazy Woman Cafe in Ten Sleeps, Wyoming. The indians measured distance in the number of nights it took to get from place to place. The area was 10 nights or sleeps from each of their primary camps. Thus the name Ten Sleeps.

Monday night we attended a real Wyoming rodeo in Cody. It was a little chilly in the eveining, but the rodeo was fun to watch.

This was a bull rider that could not hang on.

Wyoming is a very diverse state. We started out from Sundance which is on the east side of Wyoming and located in the Black Hills. We went from mountainous to beautiful farm land to desolate rough countryside and back to mountains. This is definitely cattle country and we saw a cowboy on the range working his cattle.

Wall SD to Sundance WY

This is one of the many Big Horn Sheep we saw, and was the closest. We saw several large herds throughout the Badlands National Park along with Deer, and lots of Prairie Dogs.

View of the Badlands, which is a very beutiful place in it's own way. There were so many beautiful places we saw, but don't have the space for in this Blog.

This was one of the many Bison we saw in the Badlands. We saw several large herds of these roaming the grasslands just outside a large cattle ranch.

This is Mount Rushmore, which is awesome. We've seen it on TV many times, but to see it in real life, is too much for words.

This is Chief Crazy Horse which is still under construction, and will take many more years to complete. Just to put it in perspective, the faces on Mount Rushmore would fit into the head area, and the hole you see is 10 stories high. This project is being done with no government funds, as they don't believe the government would ever finish the project correctly.

As we travel this great country, we are convinced the USA is the most diverse and beautiful country in the whole world.

Cheyenne Wy to Badlands SD

This was Chimney Rock located in Nebraska. The Chimney is on the left with another rock in the background.

Ths was a field of Longhorn Steers we found in a pasture along the way looking for Chimney Rock.

This is called Carhenge located near Alliance, Nebraska. This is similar to Stonehenge in England

Who says Nebraska people don't have a sense of humor? You have to remember to bring your own toilet paper, though. There's also a lounge chair available after the strenuous exercise.

We found this jail in Interior, South Dakota on our way to the badlands.

We pretty much drove all day, from Cheyenne Wyoming, through Nebraska, into South Dakota Badlands National Park. We only got partially through the Badlands today before stopping for the night. We will finish the Badlands tomorrow, then head for Mt. Rusmore.

The sights we saw in Nebraska and South Dakota are too beutiful for words.

Grand Lake to Cheyenne WY

We started out early today, and wound our way back across Rocky Mountain National Park. On our way, we saw a herd of several hundred Elk, some large deer with great racks. Our drive through the Park was extremely beautiful, with many awesome sights, that words cannot describe.

We also drove through Roosevelt National Forest, which was very impressive.

Then we drove to Cheyenne Wyoming, and saw the Terry Bison Ranch, which was very dissappointing. We did not do the tour, and kept going to Cheyenne.

In Cheyenne, we took the Trolley Tour the City, which was very interesting. It would have been better, but the air conditioner on the Trolley was broken and blowing hot air. The temperature outside was over 80 degrees, so you can imagine the temperature inside.

Hope you enjoy the pictures.

Cripple Creek to Grand Lake

Left Cripple Creek this morning, and drove to Rocky Mountain National Park. The only incident was at an Information Center, where Pat tried to get into another vehicle. Luckily the family had grandkids, so she finally decided to continue with us, instead of getting in their car.

Our drive through Rocky Mountain National Park provided beautiful views of the mountains, and we saw a herd of Elk. Later on we saw a single Bull Elk with a full rack. We also saw one Deer along the way.

We holed up in a town called Grand Lake, which is very picturesque.

Tomorrow we will drive back through Rocky Mountain National Park to see another part of the park and head for Cheyenne Wyoming. We are having a grand time.

Colorado Springs to Cripple Creek

Starting at Colorado Springs, we went to Pikes Peak, 14,110 feet high. We rode the Cog Railway to the top, where it was 33 degrees with a wind chill of 24. It was very windy at the top. The ride is 1-1/4 hours long each way with 30 minute stop at the top. Arriving back down, it was in the mid 70's.

We then went to see Garden of the Gods, also in Colorado Springs. This is where we saw the balancing rocks and beautiful rock formations.

We then left for Cripple Creek, where we did another train ride, this time on a narrow gauge train back through lots of Gold Mines.

We then took a tour of a Gold mine, taking us 1000 Ft into the earth then walked about a half mile in the mine with a great tour guide. We even got samples to take home.

We ended the day at a Casino, where I promptly lost 60 cents. Cripple Creek is full of Casinos.

Oakley Kansas to Colorado Springs

We had a great day for driving. We saw lots of straight roads, Wheatfields, Cornfields, Sunflower fields as well as Sorghum fields. We found out the farms are being sold out to the Conglomerate farms, and the average farm is now 3,000 acres plus throughout Kansas and Colorado.

On the way, we stopped at Burlington Old Town Museum which has farming equipment from the early 1800's. They also have a village depicting the early settlers, including a sod house, which was prevelant on the early west, Including a church, barber shop, blacksmith shop, bank, mercantile, etc.

The second picture today is of a statue of Buffalo Bill.

The weather has been great so far. We had severe storms after we arrived in Colorado, and even a tornado touched down. It was raining when we arrived at Colorado Springs, so we called it an early day and holed up in the hotel.

We are now in Colorado Springs, and tomorrow we hope to see Pikes Peak, and Cripple Creek. The weather is supposed to be much better.

Kansas City to Oakley Kansas

Arrived in Kansas City on Friday after lunch. Spent the rest of the day and Saturday chilling out and had a great Prime Rib dinner at one of the finest restaurants in KC. Sunday, our friends gave us a several hour tour of KC and we saw the Agricultural Hall of Fame. It was a great time and saw many things only available in this area. We then went to have KC BBQ. We all had a Ribs. A full slab would feed 3 large eaters, and it fell off the bones. Delicious!!

On Monday, we started out early for Oakley, and we could not get satellite communication for the GPS. We had to resort to maps until we could get coverage again. We missed the exit to I-70 and ended up in a town called Edinger, KS. We found a Fire Dept and got directions back to I-70, then within minutes, we got satellites, then we were fine, except when we entered I-7o West, it is a Kansas Turnpike. Arriving at the ticket gate, there was a sign to pull forward to get a ticket, but we went too far forward and had to back up to get a ticket, and it was raining profusely. A long line of cars were beind us, but we inched our way back, but you could see the other drivers cursing us, and the air was blue. We finally got on our way through the rain. It finally quit raining and we arrived in Oakley Kansas mid afternoon.

We went to see Monument Rocks, which is in the middle of a cow pasture (We had to dodge cows which were trying to hitch-hike a ride) about 5 miles on a dirt road off the highway. It was grand.

We then went to see Prairie Dog town, which is full of Prairie Dogs. I have never seen this in real life before, and there were hundreds of Prairie Dogs in less than half an acre. You had to watch you didn't step on one, or in their hole. We saw Coyote, Badger, Reacoon, Fox and a 6-legged cow and a five legged cow. How yummy!