Six Weeks/14 Parks
2008
We don’t care what gas costs!
Fly to Denver, July 1
South to Mesa Verde, July 4
West to Grand Canyon, July 7
Yosemite to San Francisco, July 12
North through Redwoods
to Crater Lake, July 17
North to Olympic NP, July 20
East to Seattle, July 22
East to North Cascades NP, July 24
East to Glacier NP, July 27
South to Yellowstone, July 31
East to Black Hills SP, August 6
South to Denver, August 10
Fly to New Jersey, August 11
8/11/08
Here’s our list of bests and worsts and every other kind of thing, in no particular order:
Scariest moment – Being surprised by a buffalo while standing on the side of the road, although climbing the 30’ ladder at Mesa Verde comes close for me and Aislinn
Best Night Sky – Mesa Verde
Warmest temperature – 115º at Las Vegas
Coldest temperature – 38º without wind chill at Glacier NP
Highest peak – Mt. Washburn, 10,423’ , Yellowstone NP
Deepest descent – 2,200’, Grand Canyon
Most wildlife sighted –...
8/10/08
You can tell we’re ready to come home. We only took four photos today! We’ve been averaging around 100 per day. We left Cheyenne so early that we needed to kill some time in Denver before we could check in at the motel (the same motel we stayed in on our first night six long weeks ago). It’s nice enough little museum, with an IMAX theater, but we were mostly interested in eating lunch. Merry found a cool looking bug, a cicada, I think, outside on the sidewalk. From the second floor sitting area,...
Another road day, not much to take pictures of. We left the campsite and headed south, passing through Wind Cave NP again on our way to eastern Wyoming. Whoa, look at all the prairie dogs! Aren’t they cute?
Good thing, too, because after the prairie dogs, there wasn’t much else to see. Eastern Wyoming is very flat, wide-open prairie. There’s the Union Pacific railroad, but, pretty much, it’s a whole lot of nothing. Real wide open spaces.
8/9/08
Merry, Sean and Ciaran got up really early again to drive the nearby Wildlife Loop. They were rewarded with sightings of elk, wild donkey, antelope, mule deer, white-tailed deer and buffalo (of course). They got some great shots. Here are just a few.
