2015 - Bryce and Stats

August 14, Friday

 900AM 
               Woke up at our leisure, had breakfast and headed into Bryce Canyon.  We picked up the tram and stopped/hiked to various view sites.   At 1200PM, we headed down into Bryce Canyon on the Navajo Trail (1.3 mile loop, 600 ft. drop in elevation).  It  was an awesome hike (2 hours) and we all enjoyed our visit down into the canyon.   It was hard to find the best picture to capture, as there was so many beautiful spots to choose from.

               Late afternoon we headed out for a motorcycle ride.  First we headed towards the Grand Staircase-Escalante and then headed back for a final spin into Bryce Canyon.  We wanted to head for Rainbow Point.   Our absolute favorite overlook was the Natural Bridge. With the sun going down we  headed  back to our campground around 830PM for a campfire and  late dinner  (as  usual).  

              

Another full day!

August 15, Saturday

730AM
               We headed out from Bryce Canyon to Zion National Park (approximately 78 miles).   We arrived at Zion to realize that with an RV we really came into the back side of the park and it was not the most suggested way to go.  We had to go through 2 tunnels (1  being 1 mile long and we had to shut down traffic and go right down the middle), as well   as narrow winding roads with numerous switchbacks (13 miles – a long 13 miles).  We were all glad to reach the bottom and the Zion visitor center!

                 We did 3 hikes within the park –

• Weeping Rock - .4 mile                                                                                           ­­
• The River Walk – 2.2 miles
• The Lower Emerald Pool – 1.2 miles
• The temperate was around 100 degrees – HOT..HOT..HOT!

               Around 4PM we left Zion National Park and headed toward St. George Utah (passing through the town of Hurricane).  Jim/Mary will end their journey tomorrow am and head home to Minnesota.  Joe/Joanne will have another 2 weeks of meandering around the country (hopefully, they will choose cooler climates).

Trip Stats:

Motorhome Miles – 1,888 miles

Car Rental Miles – 640 miles

Motorcycle  Miles – 300 miles

Walking/Hiking Miles (steps taken)

August 6 – 10, 294 steps, August 7 – 10,465 steps, August 8 – 11,778 steps, August 9 – 13,477 steps, August 10 – 16,314 steps, August 11 – 10,947 steps, August 12 – 10,508 steps, August 13 – 4,098 steps,

August 14 – 16,707 steps, August 15 – 15,867 steps  ---- Total Steps – 120,455  or miles walked:  55

RV Parks: 4

Animals Seen:

Bald Eagle
Bighorn Sheep
Buffalo
Chipmunk
Condor
Coyote
Crow
Deer – mule, white-tail
Elk
Geese
Ground Squirrel
Moose
Prairie Dog
Pronghorn
Rabbit
Swan

Ice Cream Cones: 4

 

Yellowstone

 

 

August 12, Wednesday

 
930AM

              Today is our down day ­ - slow down, relax and take our time. We walked down the street and went to the Bear & Wolf Discovery Center.  This center had rescue bears, wolves, eagles and hawks.  We were able to see the bears    at feeding times.  They hid fruit/berries and the bears would have to locate it throughout their habitat.

 

 

              In the afternoon, we took a motorcycle drive to Earthquake Lake.   Earthquake Lake was created by an earthquake back in 1959.  A part of the mountain broke off and slid down the mountain and made a river into a lake.   Well, there was a campground and home s located along the lake that were destroyed and 28 people were killed.   A sad story and it  happened in a matter of seconds.

                         
We then took a short spin into Yellowstone and  was able to capture one last picture (a close up of an elk).

 

               We then went back to our motor home for dinner and then a stroll in to town – one last ice cream cone!  We polished off  the night with  games of dice and then prepare for our departure from Yellowstone tomorrow.

 

August 13, Thursday

700AM
               Depart Yellowstone and head off to Bryce Canyon in Utah.  It was a full day of travel with an arrival at 700PM at Bryce Canyon Pines RV Campground.

 

                           

    

   Utah’s new slogan is “Life Elevated”.
 

2015 Yellowstone

August 10, Monday

730AM                  We walked into town to pick-up our Budget rental car, as we wanted to get an early start into Yellowstone National Park.  Our first stop was at Fountain Paint Pot (or Lower Geyser Basin).   We were enjoying the sights, but it quickly became crowded with bus tours. We headed to Old Faithful to try and get ahead of the crowds and the anticipated eruption time was 1117AM.   We walked around the area while Joe held our spots to watch the eruption.  Old Faithful kept teasing us (Joanne had 11 failed video attempts) and it finally erupted at 1130AM. 

   

Fountain mud pots

Star Geyser

Old Faithful

Upper Geyser Basin

Old Faithful

Coyote on hunt

We then proceeded south to go through the Grand Teton National Park.  We stopped at Coulter Bay Visitor Center and drove along the Snake River and headed to the Craig Thomas Discovery & Visitor Center with a final stop at the Jenny Lake Visitor Center. We thought we would see animals in the Grand Teton National Park, but were not successful; however, we enjoyed the fabulous views of the mountains.

Grand Teton's

Grand Teton

                                We then head north to go back through Yellowstone National Park and hoped to

                                possibly see Old Faithful one more time.    Jim, the tour guide successfully got us back just

                                in the nick of time (700PM) and Old Faithful went off at 704PM (no waiting time there)!

                                Then it was off to see the Midway Geyser Basin and we were so impressed with this

                                amazing geyser area.    We made a quick photo stop at the Firehole Falls and it was time

                                to head home.  We had just given up hope of seeing animals and then we spotted a lone

                                buffalo, followed by a deer, then we saw 2 herds of elk.   We arrived home at 9PM and

                                grabbed a quick bite to eat.  It was a long….long day (250 miles), but we were pleased

                                with all the scenery and animals that we saw.

August 11, Tuesday

815AM                    We headed into the park with our rental car for another day of sightseeing.   We

                          saw a  herd of elk (15-20) near Madison junction (same location as yesterday).  We

                          stopped along the way for a photo stop at the Gibbon Falls (located on the Gibbon River.

                          Our next stop was Norris to see the Norris Geyser Basin and the opportunity to see

                          Steamboat Geyser (the world’s tallest active geyser – up to 300 ft.), with its last major

                          eruption in September 2014.   The sulphur smell is incredibly strong near the geyser

                          areas. We also saw the Emerald Geyser (looked like a Caribbean blue) – so beautiful.
  

Jim & Joe

Steamboat Geyser

Emerald Geyser

                      
                                We drove past  the Roaring Mountain with emitted steam everywhere.

                                Our next area that we chose to tour was the Mammoth Hot Springs with stops at the

                                Upper Terrace Area and the Lower Terrace Area.    These geyser areas were incredibly

                                different from anything we had seen before.   They created a tremendous waterfall and

                                displayed various colors.

Mamoth Hot Springs

Mule deer

                    

 Next we headed out for Lamar Valley, as the park ranger told us we would see buffalo  in this area.   Yes, we saw Buffalo by themselves, in herds, close by the road and far into  the distance.  Several times the cars were stopped by the Buffalo crossing road.   The park ranger did not steer us wrong!

Big Ben

                                Our last stop of the day was to see the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone located in the

                                Canyon Village area of  the park.  We stopped at the Upper and Lower Falls located

                                on the Yellowstone River showing us spectacular rock formations, depth and impressive

                                waterfalls.   It was another  amazing day at Yellowstone!

Upper Yellowstone Falls

 

Lower Yellowstone Falls

                                At 615PM we arrived back at the Grizzly RV Park, just in time to turn in our car rental

                                (by 7PM) and relax and enjoy an earlier dinner and make plans for tomorrow.

Swan

Bison

Bison calf