The OTHER Side of the Grand Canyon!

For as far back as I can remember, I've wanted to visit the North Rim of the Grand Canyon.  Like most people who have traveled much, Jack and I have been to the South Rim (for me, more than once), but at our ripe ages...never have gotten to the North Rim!  Due to it's limited "open time" because of the weather, it's always been a challenge.  Because "we don't do snow" we tend to use a lot of our summer time visiting areas that we can't get to in the winter, thus, it limits us.

This year, because we came back west for a wedding, we were in this area that we usually are not at this time of the year, soooo, yea, we finally had the opportunity to check a couple of places off our bucket list...this one being "the big one"!  ;-)

So, luckily we were able to find a campsite not to very far, in Kanab UT as our home base and booked it for 5 days.  Weather is clear and in the high 80's, low 90's, not bad!  Yea!

Well, off we went to spend the whole day at the North Rim!  Wow, it was wonderful!  I really didn't know what to expect, I knew it would be different, but hadn't really spent any time researching it, and I was glad, as I like to just take it all in.  It was an hour and half drive to get to, but the drive itself was beautiful as well.  I took a dozen pictures before we even got to the gate!  Changing scenery every few miles.

Not even feet from the gate, we were greeted with one of the largest herds of bison we've seen thus far in our travels.  At least one that was all together in one spot!  Hundreds all grazing, enjoying the fresh green grass with their young calves.  Sweet.  Of course there is always the crazy tourist that ignores the ranger's statement not to stop in the road and not to get out of your car and walk towards the bison...jeez...

By the time we made it into the park itself, it was lunch time, so what better place to take a break, than at the Grand Canyon Lodge?  We lucked out and got a beautiful table right at the window with a wonderful view of the canyon, our first real view of it!  What a great way to really start our adventure!

After lunch we walked the short trail to Bright Angel Point and got a really beautiful view.  A nice couple took our picture and we headed on our journey.

Each stop was more beautiful than the next.  As the ad's say, it's not crowed like the South Rim, every stop had plenty of parking spots, the people there were friendly and never got in the way to take pictures.  There never was any "traffic" to speak of, it always seemed like a leisurely drive with plenty of time to get from one place to the other.  The only gift shops, food, etc is at the beginning where the Lodge and Visitor's Center is.  All much smaller than at the South Rim.  There is a shuttle service from rim-to-rim as well.  But that's it.  As you can imagine, I took many, many pictures...I'll spare you here and just give you a small sample...the rest, if you want are in my flickr account!  ;-)

I'm so glad we finally made it, if you haven't been...do put it on your list, you won't regret it!  As you will see in the pictures, it's very different from the South Rim, and so lovely in it's own right.  I'm just so sorry it took us so long to get here...but sometimes good things just take a while to happen...

We have one more adventure to check off our bucket list, and that's happening tomorrow!  Look for more beautiful pictures from this fabulous place!

...kicking back in Kanab,  Marie

If you wish to view the rest of the photos from this trip, you can at my Flickr account at:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/74905158@N04/

A horse of a different color

Ever notice how various towns "adopt" an animal to represent it?  Traveling from town to town, we've seen a whole variety of these adopted animals, painted in all sorts of different motifs.  I'm not sure who was the first to come up with the idea of "painting an animal for  special purposes", but it's sure popular!  Typically, a company, organization or even the local military base will sponsor these, paying the artist or contributing to a fund-raiser.

It's been fun to see the various animals that the towns come up with.  Horses seem to be the most common, with bison falling closely behind.   Some of the towns just have the animals in basic color (copper, or just painted black & white).  Some of the towns, tho, really go all out - or perhaps some towns just have better artists involved.   A few towns adopt a "symbol" of something to represent them, like the caskets of New Orleans.

When a town goes "all out", I love seeking out the statues, and taking pictures of course.  We are currently in Ogden Utah, and I can say that this town had the most participation than any I've seen thus far.  They chose the "horse" as their symbol and have 80 of them in their downtown area.  They are up and down all the streets, some with their heads down, some (most) standing, looking forward and few reared up on their back legs.  All beautifully done, all very different from each other.  Quite a show.  Theirs were done to celebrate the town's 75th anniversary of Ogden's Pioneer Days. 

Here are some pictures of Ogden's horses, along with a sample of some of the other "special art" we've found...

  Ogden Pioneer Days 75th Celebration Horses

 Antelope Island, Utah

 Custer, South Dakota

 Jacksonville Florida

 Lexington, Kentucky

 Pensacola, Florida

Georgetown, Kentucky

 Vero Beach, Florida

 Salt Lake, Utah

 Colorado

 Bennington, New Hampshire

                                                                                    New Orleans, Louisiana

 Winchester, Virginia

 Berea, Kentucky

 Hollywood, California

 Memphis, Tennessee

 New Orleans, Louisiana

I'm sure there are a lot more out there...I'll just keep on looking!

...on the road in Utah,  Marie

Let's just do nothing...

After several weeks with friends and non-stop sight-seeing, I was ready for some "down-time".  When we looked to see where we wanted to head to after Missoula, I suggested someplace that really didn't offer much, just a place to park ourselves for a few days.  "Let's just do nothing for awhile" I said.  Ft Benton MT seemed to fit the bill.  Our friends assured us there wasn't really anything there 'to see'.  I found a small campground in Ft Benton (the only one) that had a space left - they were pretty full with harvesters.  Perfect.

Well, that was the plan anyway.  We ended up staying 8 days in this charming town.  Our campground host/owner gave us the choicest spot, the largest one right next to a big lovely tree that gave us great shade that we parked our chairs and pulled out our books and sat ourselves right down!  That lasted a couple of days...until the rain came.

We decided this would be a good time to go into town and see what there was to see and pick up a couple of groceries.  As we drove around (all of a couple of dozen blocks of it) we realized it was steeped in Lewis & Clark history and agriculture.  It had a big museum that housed both of those as well as a replica of the old Fort Benton.  You could get a two-day ticket to see all of them, so that's what we did.  Dashing in and out of the rain drops we began our two-day adventure.  What a surprise we had in store for us!  Here in this little out of the way town, housed some of the best replicas and museum treasures we had seen so far!  It took two full days to see it all too!  Of course lots of Lewis & Clark (Montana is steeped in that) and bison  & Native American history, but what I found most interesting, and educational, was the agricultural part.  Having driven all through these plains areas, seeing fields and fields of wheat, canola, vegetables, etc. various farm equipment, different sizes of bales, this place helped me to better understand it all.  I even got to climb aboard a combine!  Both Jack and I are pretty much "city folk" so all this farming "stuff" has to be explained to us, and we actually find it all quite fascinating.  What would we do without farmers?  Starve, that's for sure.  It sure takes a special breed of people to do what they do, and I for one am glad they do!

They also had a great display of life in general through the early 1900s and the war years.  (I took some pictures of some great quilts for my special quilting friends).  They did a nice job of replicating a small town including just about every kind of building you would likely find, including a homesteader's house.  Jack, of course did a thorough check of the Blacksmith's Shop and found a rather large anvil he'd not seen before. 

In our 8 days, we managed to see quite a few things in and around Ft Benton.  Lewis & Clark"s Decision Point where they had to figure out which body of water was the Missouri and which, what they ended up naming Maria's River.  We went into Great Falls and visited one of my favorite artist's works, CM Russell.  He made his home there and that along with his studio, a large museum and grave site are all in Great Falls.  That city also had an extensive museum on Lewis & Clark, the Lewis & Clark National Historic Trail Interpretive Center.

All this is to say...there just doesn't seem to be any place that doesn't have "something to see"!

 Fort Benton MT

Me on a small combine at the Museum of the Great Northern Plains, Ft Benton MT

"1900's Town" at the  Museum of the Great Northern Plains, Ft Benton MT

"Decision Point" for Lewis & Clark - Missouri? or Maria's River, Ft Benton MT

 CR Russell's Grave site, Heartland Cemetery Great Falls MT

 "Portage", Lewis & Clark National Historic Trail Interpretive Center, Great Falls MT

...on the road in Montana,  Marie

If you wish to view the rest of the photos from this trip, you can at my Flickr account at:http://www.flickr.com/photos/74905158@N04/   

Yellowstone, day two...

Today we ventured out to see some of the beautiful valleys here.  This is where many of the animal sightings are suppose to happen as well.  We weren’t disappointed.  Hayden Valley is a former lake bed that is now only  marshy and impenetrable to most trees, supporting only rich shrubs and grasses favored by bison, elk and springtime grizzlies along with a variety of birds.  The Yellowstone River meanders gently through it in a zig zag sort of way that’s very picturesque.  It’s named after the expedition leader whose 1871 survey led to the establishment of the park the following year (see, I told you this place was steeped in history). 

Our first encounter was with bison, of course, but just beyond them were a gaggle of Canadian geese.  Not to much further were some bachelor elk stirring up quite a fuss with the tourists.  Cameras, telephoto lens with tripods, cars parked every which way, all spread out in a real “critter jam” waiting on these two guys to get up and prance around for the “perfect picture”.  One obeyed, the other...sat, and sat, and sat.  I moved on.  Not long after a bison decided to hog the road.  He wasn’t sure which way he wanted to go, but he wasn’t deciding anytime soon.  He just moseyed up and down, back and forth and all around the traffic that also wasn’t sure what to do!  It was actually quite funny to watch and be a part of!  We finally got to turn a corner and leave the rest to deal with him, while we went in search of waterfalls.

There is an area in the park called Canyon Country that contains the Upper Falls, Lower Falls, along with a South Rim, and a North Rim, etc.  There are different loops to drive and pull outs to park in, with  walkways to see the various views of the waterfalls and canyons surrounding them.  This is the prettiest part of the park in my opinion.  I’m really not sure which was prettier, the falls or the canyon.  The canyon walls looked as if someone painted them with all the colors of autumn.  One spot is even named “Artist Point” by the park photographer FJ Haynes for its superlative scenic views.  Our luck continued as we were leaving one of the pull outs, across the other way, we spotted a beautiful wolf!  All alone, just prancing across the grasses with no one noticing but us!  I still had my telephoto lens on, so snap snap, I was so thrilled!

We made an afternoon stop at the Roosevelt Lodge (c1906) to check it out and grab a quick soda.  It started out as a tent camp for President Theodor Roosevelt then in 1919 was built up to the log-style it is today - which is to say, is still pretty basic.  It’s the least “fancy” of the lodges in the park.   They feature chuck wagon cookouts and horse rides here too.

From here we drove through Lamar Valley which is supposed to be one of the park’s premier wildlife viewing areas...but we saw nothing but mixed sage and grasslands, pretty, but no animals.  Drove on to see the 132’ Tower Falls, lovely, then onto the small town of Mammoth Village, quite an unusual place it turned out to be.  First off, there are elk everywhere.  Cows, some with calves, all munching on grass or just laying about.  It was quite obvious this was their town, to go where they wanted and no one (was allowed) to bother them.  After one gets over that surprise, then there is the hotel.  You feel like you’ve just stepped back in time to the turn of the century with the antique touring cars, soft yellow Mammoth Hot Springs (grand) Hotel and even the town park surrounding it all.  It’s a campus-like historic and administrative heart of the park and the Albright Visitor Center (Horace Albright was park superintendent between 1919-1929 and director to 1933). 

A little further on you pass the 45th parallel of latitude - halfway between the equator and the north pole, pretty cool.  (There are several times you pass over the continental divide in the park as well.) We were just a few miles from the North Entrance at Gardiner Montana, so decided to go through it and see that tiny town, and it was, and check out the 1903 Roosevelt Arch.  Nice arch and a nice way to end this day’s excursions.

 ...on the road in Wyoming,  Marie

If you wish to view the rest of the photos from this trip, you can at my Flickr account at:http://www.flickr.com/photos/74905158@N04/