Went to church in the Broomfield Ward with the kids. Huge ward: attendance was just under 200. Elise met an old friend from her old ward in Idaho from many years ago, and Bryan struck up a friendship with some pilots. It was very nice to have the family singing together again.
Kids are happy to get back to civilization. They spent the afternoon at the complex's pool. Allen fixed stir-fry for dinner followed by another game of Catch-Phrase -- our favorite family game.
We enjoyed a Skype video call with Allen's friend Tamikka (who is working at the embassy in Africa), and another highlight of the day was a phone call with Cathryn. Super day, after a super week in the wild.
Sunday, July 31, 2011
Saturday, July 30, 2011
Trip 3 Day 14 -- Dubois Wyoming to Superior, Colorado
Up early to pack and drive from the cabin in Dubois to Allen's pad in Superior, Colorado, which is a suburb of Boulder, which itself is now a northwestern suburb of Denver. Girls in Dianna's car, boys in Allen's car, mom and dad in dad's car.
Upon leaving the cabin, mom and I quickly discovered that our car had a flat tire. Bummer. Fortunately, I had a portable air compressor, so we were able to pump it up, and keep moving. Dubois, Crowheart, Lander, Rawlins, Laramie, and Cheyenne, Wyoming. Fort Collins Colorado. We finally decided to stop in Loveland Colorado where we bought 2 new tires (the old ones had 53,000 miles on them, so I didn't see replacing one side without the other -- radials, you know).
Drove the back roads from Loveland through Longmont, to Louisville (pronounced Lewisville in Colorado), and met the kids at the Outback Steakhouse in Superior. Nice game of Catch-Phrase to end the long day.
Upon leaving the cabin, mom and I quickly discovered that our car had a flat tire. Bummer. Fortunately, I had a portable air compressor, so we were able to pump it up, and keep moving. Dubois, Crowheart, Lander, Rawlins, Laramie, and Cheyenne, Wyoming. Fort Collins Colorado. We finally decided to stop in Loveland Colorado where we bought 2 new tires (the old ones had 53,000 miles on them, so I didn't see replacing one side without the other -- radials, you know).
Drove the back roads from Loveland through Longmont, to Louisville (pronounced Lewisville in Colorado), and met the kids at the Outback Steakhouse in Superior. Nice game of Catch-Phrase to end the long day.
Friday, July 29, 2011
Trip 3 Day 13 -- Hiking, ATV'ing, Horseback Riding, and Rodeo
This morning, the family went hiking to Brooks Falls, across high alpine meadows, through dense pine forests... the falls were magnificent and very high and impressive, filling a full frame with the camera turned sideways. Sadly, Blogger won't post a sideways picture properly.
After lunch, the boys, mom, and dad went ATV 4-wheeling, way up atop Union Pass. Another gorgeous alpine meado with astounding views that take your breath away.
The wildflowers were amazing up on top of the alpine ridges.
There is a wildfire burning that has been burning for a week about 30 miles north of where this photo was taken. The fire covers 4000 acres. Fortunately, the wind is blowing away from our cabin. The forest service allows such lightning-started fires to burn freely unless they are threatening structures or otherwise causing problems. Since this fire is in the wilderness and miles from anything, including trails, roads. etc., there is no harm in letting nature run its course. While the smoke looks close, it is actually more than 30 miles to the north.
Pic 2:
Pic 3: again, Blogger won't properly orient the photo. Does anyone have any idea how to get Blogger to orient the photo correctly? I've already tried rotating it and then saving it rotated in both MS Picture Manager and Photoshop, and those programs (and others) correct orient the rotated photo, but the rotation is undone when Blogger displays the pic.
Pic 4:
We then drove up to Brooks Lake. What you can't see in this family portrait are the billion mosquitoes which drove us back into the cars seconds after this picture was taken. Kudos to everyone for putting up with the nasty critters for the 10 seconds it took the timer to snap this photo.
After lunch, the boys, mom, and dad went ATV 4-wheeling, way up atop Union Pass. Another gorgeous alpine meado with astounding views that take your breath away.
While the boys and parents were having fun off-roading on the trails atop Union Pass, the girls were busy horseback riding again.
The wildflowers were amazing up on top of the alpine ridges.
There is a wildfire burning that has been burning for a week about 30 miles north of where this photo was taken. The fire covers 4000 acres. Fortunately, the wind is blowing away from our cabin. The forest service allows such lightning-started fires to burn freely unless they are threatening structures or otherwise causing problems. Since this fire is in the wilderness and miles from anything, including trails, roads. etc., there is no harm in letting nature run its course. While the smoke looks close, it is actually more than 30 miles to the north.
After dinner, we rode into town and attended a real Wyoming cowboy rodeo, complete with bull riding, bronc busting, little tykes riding bighorn sheep, cowgirl shamrock racing, calf roping, etc.
Here are some more pics of the happy couple. Leave a comment about which picture you like best to help the couple decide which one is best.
Pic 1:
Pic 2:
Pic 3: again, Blogger won't properly orient the photo. Does anyone have any idea how to get Blogger to orient the photo correctly? I've already tried rotating it and then saving it rotated in both MS Picture Manager and Photoshop, and those programs (and others) correct orient the rotated photo, but the rotation is undone when Blogger displays the pic.
Pic 4:
Thursday, July 28, 2011
Trip 3 Day 12 -- Petroglyphs outside Dubois WY
Very relaxing day. Previous days' breakfasts have included bacon and eggs, pancakes, and even homemade waffles. Today, Debbie and DJ made crepes.
In researching Dubois Wyoming, we've come across numerous references to the ancient petroglyphs in the area. Some anthropologists and archaeologists claim these rock carvings date from up to 3000 years ago. The interesting thing is, although lots of locals have mentioned the petroglyphs as being a main Dubois attraction, no one would tell us exactly where to find them.
The internet is full of references, and even photographs of them. Do a Google search on "petroglyphs Dubois Wyoming" and you'll get over 16,000 webpages. There is even a wikipedia photo of them, but no directions on how to get to them.
The museum tells us they have tours of them, but when we started asking for details, the lady went to answer the phone and for 15 minutes left us standing at the counter, and seemed relieved when we finally just walked out. The lady at the Chamber of Commerce was much more polite, but even she said that she didn't want to tell us exactly where they were. She said the locals were very much afraid of vandalism. (A friend at church Sunday verified that the government recently took away a lot of land from local landowners to expand an indian reservation nearby and that has stirred up some anti-Indian sentiment in certain circles.)
However, from the internet, we learned that the petroglyphs were near Torrey Lake, which is technically on private property. However, a forest-service road easement allows access on its 9-mile route to a hiking trail and wilderness wildlife conservation area. So we drove the 9-mile gravel road, and when we got to Torrey Lake, we started exploring.
In researching Dubois Wyoming, we've come across numerous references to the ancient petroglyphs in the area. Some anthropologists and archaeologists claim these rock carvings date from up to 3000 years ago. The interesting thing is, although lots of locals have mentioned the petroglyphs as being a main Dubois attraction, no one would tell us exactly where to find them.
The internet is full of references, and even photographs of them. Do a Google search on "petroglyphs Dubois Wyoming" and you'll get over 16,000 webpages. There is even a wikipedia photo of them, but no directions on how to get to them.
The museum tells us they have tours of them, but when we started asking for details, the lady went to answer the phone and for 15 minutes left us standing at the counter, and seemed relieved when we finally just walked out. The lady at the Chamber of Commerce was much more polite, but even she said that she didn't want to tell us exactly where they were. She said the locals were very much afraid of vandalism. (A friend at church Sunday verified that the government recently took away a lot of land from local landowners to expand an indian reservation nearby and that has stirred up some anti-Indian sentiment in certain circles.)
However, from the internet, we learned that the petroglyphs were near Torrey Lake, which is technically on private property. However, a forest-service road easement allows access on its 9-mile route to a hiking trail and wilderness wildlife conservation area. So we drove the 9-mile gravel road, and when we got to Torrey Lake, we started exploring.
It took a while, but to our surprise, we were actually able to find them. They are protected under overhanging rocks, otherwise they would have eroded away, even though they are carved in really hard stone.
We even found the one that his pictured in the Wikipedia commons photo gallery:
There are no signs, no markers, or anything, but there are some slight paths worn in the underbrush which we followed further up the hill. After about a quarter hour, we figured we had seen enough, and although there are assuredly many more to see, since we were on private land, we figured we didn't want to wear out our welcome.
We got back in the car (along with a million hungry mosquitoes), and drove to the end of the 9-mile gravel road. The scenery was spectacular, as is all of the scenery out here. Maybe if I ever get back to this area, I'll take a couple of hours and hike the trail up to the glacier.
At the Chamber of Commerce, we found a postcard with the view from the end of the road looking up the gorge towards the glacier. Unfortunately, I hadn't taken a picture from there for comparison.
We did take a picture of the badlands. In this photo you can see the smoke from a wildfire which is about 30 miles away to the north of Dubois. It has consumed about 4000 acres so far, but the firefighters are simply watching it and monitoring it, letting it burn. It is in wilderness, and no structures are threatened, and Wyoming is so big, they can let thousands of acres burn without worry.
While Debbie and I were on the petroglyph exploration expedition, the kids had all gone target shooting again, then gone grocery shopping. We returned home to find them preparing to cook a very nice dinner: grilled steak, mashed potatoes, grilled buttered squash, green peas, and later, brownies. After dinner, the boys cleaned the guns at one table while the girls played Swap at the other.
Very relaxing vacation.
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
Trip 3 Day 11 -- Yellowstone National Park -- Post 2 of 2
Love Birds. Jackson Lake, with the Teton Range in the background.
Gibbon Falls, in Yellowstone National Park.
Yellowstone Canyon, view of the Lower Falls, from Artists' Point.
Trip 3 Day 10 -- Fun and Games
Stayed up last night until almost midnight playing Phase 10. With 6 players it takes forever, but is fun.
Today, went target shooting, courtesy of Big Al, who brought a 9mm, a 12-gauge shotgun, along with a .22 and a 30-06 rifles both with nice scopes. He also provided a large supply of paper targets, hundreds (thousands?) of rounds of ammunition, and a new box of clay pigeons. The forest ranger recommended a good spot on BLM land up north of Dubois, so we spent a couple of hours having fun punching holes in paper from 75 yards and shouting "pull" to disintegrate the little orange frisbees.
Lunch at a local restaurant, outdoors on the porch overlooking the Wind River, some of the best food (and best lemonade) of the trip.
Relaxing afternoon, some shopping at the local grocery, naps in the cool cabin, followed by daddy's famous grilled chicken out on the deck. We drove into town to gas up the cars, since tomorrow we'll be going to Yellowstone. We finished off the day with a game of Uno around the dining table. Another great day.
Today, went target shooting, courtesy of Big Al, who brought a 9mm, a 12-gauge shotgun, along with a .22 and a 30-06 rifles both with nice scopes. He also provided a large supply of paper targets, hundreds (thousands?) of rounds of ammunition, and a new box of clay pigeons. The forest ranger recommended a good spot on BLM land up north of Dubois, so we spent a couple of hours having fun punching holes in paper from 75 yards and shouting "pull" to disintegrate the little orange frisbees.
Lunch at a local restaurant, outdoors on the porch overlooking the Wind River, some of the best food (and best lemonade) of the trip.
Relaxing afternoon, some shopping at the local grocery, naps in the cool cabin, followed by daddy's famous grilled chicken out on the deck. We drove into town to gas up the cars, since tomorrow we'll be going to Yellowstone. We finished off the day with a game of Uno around the dining table. Another great day.
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