As the landscape changes from Grand Teton National Park to Yellowstone National
Park, so does the type of visitor. In the Tetons you see serious hikers and backpackers.
There is talk about backcountry permits and days spent without seeing another soul.
Almost everybody is wearing Gore-Tex lined hiking boots and jackets. Hundreds of miles
of hiking trails take a visitor from one lake vista to the following waterfall. The entire
area is incredibly gorgeous and pristine.
Though Grand Teton Park is directly on Yellowstone's southern border, they don't share much else in common. The first thing that you notice is the type of visitor to Yellowstone. Here, everybody drives to an overlook, gets out of their car and ogles, and then gets back in and drives to the next attraction. There are millions of visitors to Yellowstone yearly, primarily in the short summer season. Many people simply park their car in the middle of the road if they spot a bison or elk that they desire to watch. Hiking is nearly nonexistent, though backcountry permits do exist. Seemingly, Yellowstone has become yet another tourist trap complete with liquor stores, hotels, and gas stations.
I did spend quite a bit of time touring the Fountain Paint Pots Hot Springs area on
Saturday as well as
Old Faithful.
There are countless geysers throughout the entire park
some spewing hundreds of feet into the air, others only causing a few bubbles on the
surface of a tiny pool. All, however, emit an acrid sulfur odor. The water in the
springs and pools is unbelievably clear and tempting. The landscape changes drastically
near the springs due to the acidic minerals that they bring to the surface. Sitting at
nearly 7000 feet, it is amazing to think of the tremendous power that nature shows
throughout the park.
I abated the hot weather with a long swim in the Yellowstone River. I found a place that had just enough current that I could either float downstream or latch onto some rocks and simply let the cool water slipstream over my body without getting washed away. The thirty minute swim was wonderful.
On Saturday morning I noticed that the front tire of the Winnebago was reflecting the early morning sunlight. Upon closer inspection I discovered that the tread had been worn completely away and all that remained was the steel belt. Unfortunately, Jesse spent most of the day in West Yellowstone, WY and another maintenance facility in Idaho having the front tires replaced.
Saturday morning also saw Kyle, Philip and myself head off to Hot Springs in the rental car. This area supplies the cover photography for most of Yellowstone's print advertisements aside from those picturing Old Faithful. Here, the water oozes out of the mountainsides depositing colorful minerals on its way down the slope. The white stone and bright orange deposits make for a great view; however, the water stopped flowing about five years ago and we were not told. The area is beautiful without the water and I can only imagine what it would be like with the sparkle of flowing water.
Two days is plenty to spend in Yellowstone as one finally tires of watching hot water and steam spew from the earth. Mostly, though, it will be nice to get back to real nature where the wild animals are not so used to onlookers stopped in the middle of the road.
A 5:00 AM drive out of the northern portion of Yellowstone to Jackson to retrieve
the airplane was gorgeous. There were few other motorists and numerous elk, moose,
and bison along the way with a spectacular sunrise. Again I am reminded of how wonderful
morning time is.
We made a flight in beautiful summer morning weather from Jackson, WY to West Yellowstone, MT for the view of the national park itself. It was good; however, nothing compared with the drastic landscape of the Tetons.
It was a much longer drive from Yellowstone to Missoula, MT than it was to fly, of course. To pass some time, Philip and I quickly assembled a couple of Giant Halfway folding bikes that he recently purchased and we brought along in the airplane and we pedaled into downtown Missoula. After one of the best lunches that I have had in a long time we visited an Internet café. Unfortunately, all of the computer terminals we occupied by early teenagers spending hours playing Internet death match games. It would be hours before we could touch a terminal so we headed out to another Internet café in town. Here we caught up on email, bill paying and miscellaneous other projects. It was a great break followed by a small bike ride through the campus of the University of Montana.
This evening Jesse decided that the group dynamics were not working out for him so he hitched a greyhound bus out of Missoula and began his trip home to Milwaukee, WI.
So far, this adventure has convinced me to never purchase a Winnebago, as it will only begin to fall apart as soon as it arrives. Moreover, I love traveling on the road and see so many on motorcycles. Now this may be the way to travel. Richard, who spent a few days with us about a week ago, owns a BMW 1150RT and we had great conversation about traveling on a bike and bike safety. I have made a point to talk to as many bikers along the way about their experiences and opinions. I see the possibility of a motorcycle safety course in my future when I return. I cannot wait. Just think, when I return in the fall, it might be a good time to purchase a used bike.
The IFR training with Philip is going well and we did some more honing of his skills this morning. I foresee a checkride in his future as soon as we get into Alaska. The remainder of the day was spent reorganizing, resting, and spending some slower quiet time at the Rattlesnake Recreation Area. It was here that I finally finished reading Main Street by Sinclair Lewis. All 521 pages! In the end Carol had resolved some of her issues with small towns; however, maintained a few reservations. This was an enjoyable read and I recommend it. Be forewarned though, it is long.
While on a bike ride on the Rattlesnake trail, Philip encountered Carlos and Laura. They took him on a tremendous and strenuous trek that returned him to the Winnebago where Kyle and I were waiting a bit later than planned. Later that evening, during the cool and vibrant period of sunset, Philip took them on a scenic flight. Prior to that, both Philip and I took another new friend, Brooks on a flight as well. This was the first opportunity for me to sit in the back seat of the DA-40 and I found it very comfortable and offering a great view. Brooks has just begun her private pilot's lessons and has about five hours logged at this point.
Inevitably flying makes one hungry. I don't really understand why; as you just sit on leather covered seats and watch the land go by below. Sometimes though, as in our case as of late, the mountaintops bass by on the top instead. Philip, Brooks, and I made a late night stop at Taco Bell. After discovering that the restaurant was closed and only the drive-through was open, we made our way through the drive-through on foot. Upon reaching the pickup window, we were severely scolded for not having a car. Must we burn fossil fuels and pollute to receive our dinner? The manager told us that he could loose his job for serving us. We finally got our food, but I still don't understand the rational behind this one. Again the scenario arises of, I have money, want to buy a product, and it is difficult, if not impossible to make this happen. Is this a result of the desensitization and stripping of decision-making tools and responsibility of the employee by the large corporations?
We decided to spend another day in Missoula to get the Winnebago repaired yet again. This time it was alignment, oil filler cap, and a center console readjustment. After seeing these manufactured at the plant, I am not surprised that we are continually having difficulties with this poorly crafted machine. I wonder what will fail next. Good thing that this vehicle does not get airborne.
Aside from flying mountain biking is another super fun activity. This afternoon we visited a bicycle shop in Missoula, MT and tried out the recumbent bikes. At first, they were very difficult to steer; however, once you build up some speed up they are really quite fun to ride. Furthermore, they are so much more comfortable to ride than a traditional bicycle. After trying out all of the models and making the necessary adjustments, Philip purchased a BikeE recumbent. I am anxious to take this out on a real ride on some back country paved roads, I think it is going to be a great way to see the countryside.
This morning we practiced some of the basic IFR airwork that we hadn't revisited since first introducing it a few weeks ago. All is progressing well and I am confident that Philip will be ready for his checkride as soon as we enter Alaska.
I spent some time this evening talking to the local flight instructor and found out more about firebombing as he washed his motorcycle. It turns out that Neptune Aviation operates a large fleet of retrofitted Navy airplanes as fire bombers. The pilots work about a six month season and have the remainder of the time off.
The evening terminated with a sunset airplane cruise from Missoula, MT to Kalispell, MT. The rolling mountains below were covered in grasses giving them the illusion of being enclosed in green velvet.
An early morning sightseeing flight over Glacier National Park provided the most spectacular scenery from the air that I have ever seen in my life. The view was so great that I could not believe that it was real. As we took-off and climbed over some local mountains I saw that the red and black rock were bathed in the crimson sunlight. We over flew GNP and kept an eye open for the proverbial mountain goat in the clouds, but fortunately found none. The sky was such a deep blue due to the high altitude, about 10,500', and the super clean air. As we returned to the airport after the best flight in the world, the mountains that were obstacles during takeoff were now mere hills after being so high.
We had intended on driving through the entire park; however, Logan Pass was still
blocked with snow and impeded the way. Earlier this morning, as we flew over the
pass, we could see the men below using snow cats to clear the pass. Dynamite and hard
work have been used over the past several weeks to open the road for the summer, but
the avalanches keep pushing the progress backwards. A bit of hiking in Glacier National
Park to Avalanche Pass rounded out the day.
The flight service stations in the United States are usually tremendous; however, they really let me down this morning. Typically, they have the most up to date information regarding temporarily created or enhanced restricted airspace. Such airspace would exist over Martha's Vineyard when the President of the United States goes on vacation for example. It so happens that the G8 Conference was taking place in Kananaskis, Alberta and resulted in a huge prohibited area somewhere in the southwestern part of Canada. The problem was that US Flight Service didn't have a clear idea as to where this airspace was created and we couldn't get through on the telephone to the Canadians for a more precise explanation. We did gather that it would be all right to depart from Kalispell, MT and make the flight to Cranbrook, Alberta to clear customs. After successfully completing this portion without seeing a fighter jet up close we had a chance to talk to Canadian Flight Service in person. It turns out that they closed all of the airspace from Calgary and West in a perfect semi-circle with a radius of 85 nautical miles. This is absolutely the largest flight restriction that I have ever seen in my life. It was closed for four consecutive days, 24 hours straight each day. This restriction prohibited us from landing at Fairmont Hot Springs. The closure did not however, prohibit cars, trucks, busses, and trains from entering the area. Go figure. It sure doesn't make any sense to me. It sounds like the knee-jerk reaction that the airports took towards passenger screening immediately after 9/11.
I did manage to fly from Cranbrook to Calgary; although it was via Lethbridge, adding over 100 miles to my route, again due to the outrageous flight restriction. Here I picked up Gwen, who didn't arrive until midnight due to abominable passenger loads going into Calgary. She had been waiting in the Los Angeles Airport since early in the morning for a flight to Calgary. She is such a dedicated girlfriend. This was also the first night that I got to sleep in a real bed in nearly a month. Either the hotel bed wasn't that great, or I am getting used to the ground, but the comfort wasn't that spectacular. Though the clean and hot shower was out of this world! Seeing Gwen was awesome too!
Sleeping in doesn't seem to happen much anymore as my body is so adjusted to waking up at the same time, regardless of the day. After all, I haven't any idea what day of the week it is anyway. Gwen and I toured around Calgary this morning and finished with Dim Sum in Chinatown. Calgary, like Toronto, is a very hip town, it seems. The people are extremely friendly, fashionable, and young. I can't really compare a US city to either one of these, as they both seem more alternative than any US counterpart that I can think of. I get the feeling that the people of Canadian metropolitan areas are more individualistic or freethinking than their southern counterparts.
Gwen and I made the beautiful drive under partly cloudy skies from downtown Calgary westward to the Rocky Mountains and Banff National Park. We took a great hike and heard some noises coming from the woods. All indications showed no bears, but we were a bit nervous nonetheless. I was prepared to attempt to outrun the bear or perhaps Gwen. Just kidding Gwen
Dinner in Banff this evening took us to a Greek restaurant in the downtown area. Knowing that we were in a national park, I was so surprised to see a Gap and many other well-known stores and several smaller shops. All this in an outdoor national park seems a bit extreme.
This morning Gwen, Philip, Kyle and I ventured out to Marble Canyon, just North of Banff, and hiked around in the rain for a while. The scenery was perfect. A wildly rushing river and waterfalls nearly drowned out any other sounds. The mountaintops towering overhead were obscured with clouds and rain. After our hike we ventured over to the Lake Louise Lodge for the most fantastic buffet that I have seen a long time. Philip attempted and finished 16 entire plates of food. Needless to say, nobody is going to be hungry for a long time to come. The selection of food was outrageous and the scenery unbeatable. After our gorging, we walked around the emerald colored lake with the mountains surrounding us. The lakes in the Canadian Rockies are much more green than those in the US due to the glacial grinding of rock.
To follow the fantastic meal and hike, Gwen and I stopped in the Banff Hot Springs for a two-hour soak. The water is naturally heated to about 104 degrees and contains pure spring water and a bit of chlorine to keep the bacteria down. After getting out of the pool, my legs felt like Jell-o and I was so relaxed.
This evening included a couple of hours in a Banff Internet café and finishing this entry. Since completing Main Street, I have undertaken Wind, Sand, and Stars by Antoine De Saint-Exupery. This novel is about life as an airline pilot in the infancy days of the industry in France. It is flowery but wonderful and fun reading.
Alex, the dog has had his picture taken over 25 times a day for the past couple of days by many of the tourists that we encounter. It seems that everybody thinks he is cute, cuddly, and loveable. The Asian tourists especially love to pet and photograph him. It is nonstop attention that this dog receives as I walk him down the street. Unreal!