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As we were about to leave Crater Lake we talked about how the bus handled the long climb up the Siskiyous. We had to pull over several times and let the transmission cool. Not a big deal as the weather was mild, we would just have a snack and wait. But we did see the potential problem in warmer weather and higher summits. We discussed the problem with the kids and decided the best thing to do would be to head back 340 miles to Williams, CA and have Jim and 'Ted the Bus God' rebuild the transmission and lower the gears. Cindy and the kids went back to San Jose for a week and waited. With that finished we were really on our way. Next Stop... Ainsworth State Park in the beautiful Columbia River Gorge, Oregon
Oregon has it going on! Full hookup sites in a state park under $20?!? What planet were we on?
Planet Oregon,
was a strange...
amazing...
awe-inspiring...
wonderful place!!
We were humbled by the beauty of Nature.
A definite must do-again! We left Oregon with a mission...get to Glacier National Park before the summer crowds!! Before entering the park we camped at St Mary's KOA to do laundry and stock up on necessities.
MONTANA!
This was the view from our campsite, you could sit in the hot tubs and soak in the view. We camped at Many Glacier, we had our choice of spots...YES...we beat the crowds!
This was our home for week...there is a river on the left, it is 30ft outside the bus door. We had never been this far North, and were really amazed that it was still twilight at 10:30pm. The sun came up about 4:30am! People kept spotting Grizzlies way up on the mountainside above us. I hate to admit it, but looking through binoculars doesn't really do it for me, it's too removed, I can see better on TV! We kept waiting to see the bears, because signs of them were everywhere, and the rangers were militant about nothing being left outside at night, not even water bottles! We couldn't see much of the park at first because Going-to-the-Sun Road was closed. This was the main road connecting the our section (east side) to the southern entrance that contained most of the visitor info, attractions and tourists. We had plenty to do in our section of the park, fishing, hiking and horseback riding. We took a half day ride to a glacial lake and saw lots of prints of mama bears with cubs.
On the way back, we rounded a curve and stopped suddenly.
Now use your imagination and insert a HUGE Grizzly Bear in the circle! Our guide was surprised that the horses let us get that close without freaking out. He looked at us and kept eating plants for a a few seconds, even so, we were too amazed to get our camera out quick enough! Then he walked off into the forest on our left. Our guide said he wasn't that big, probably only two years old! Yeah right!! After that we understood why the rangers were so safety conscious. After seeing how easy it was to get too close to a bear, we bought some bear spray and went hiking
on this very cool trail
and found this incredible series of pools and waterfalls. Matthew protected us from any danger,
and thought he should be fairly compensated..."Mom, can I have it? It's sooo cool!"
After a few days, they opened up the road and we checked out the other side of the park.
The drive was spectacular,
the two lane road snaked past valleys, this weeping wall
and countless waterfalls.
Once we got into the other side of the park, we had lunch and toured the area that had been burned. The burned area was a different kind of beautiful.
It may have been the stark contrast of the miles of blackened tree with the green undergrowth. Even though it had been burned, it was recovering and supported a surprising amount of wildlife. It may also have been beautiful because it was the only place in the park where you could collect firewood!
Apparently the kids didn't think collecting firewood was very exciting....
so they found other ways to amuse themselves!
A ranger spotted Matthew and gave chase thinking us some kind of sickos!!!
So we fled to Canada.
Jim and Cindy were very happy to have escaped safely.
Even the kids were happy, well to be honest, Matthew was still a little shaken up.
Canada was pretty nice, eh? We figured the coast was clear and headed back the US. Cindy was mad because she didn't get a picture of a mounty.
On our last night in glacier we saw a performance by a guy named David Walburn. He performs every summer at the Many Glacier Hotel, and this was his first performance of the season. It was the story of Lewis & Clark told through narration, slides and original songs on the guitar and harmonica. It may sound lame, but it was NOT! Cindy had to threaten Jim and the kids to get them there, pulling the whole, "How often do I ask for anything?" bit.
Now we all learn about L & C in grade school right? So I'm sure everyone reading this can explain exactly what this expedition was about and why it was important? No? I vaguely remembered something about the Louisiana purchase and some...water passage...thingy. This guy was awesome, we learned so much about Lewis & Clark in 90 minutes and were completely enthralled! After the show we thanked him profusely and bought his CD. It is one of Matthew's favorites! Our newly acquired knowledge came in handy as we traveled south through Montana towards Yellowstone. We were ready to see some dinosaurs, so we headed to Bozeman, MT to the Museum of the Rockies.
Matthew was in heaven, it was a great museum.
Notice the similarities?
Bozeman was a terrific town...hmmm
On to Yellowstone...
America's first National Park
We set up in a primitive campground (no water, electricity, dumps or showers) close to the North entrance. We we just over the Wyoming border and near a sign that told us were at the 45th parallel (which means we were exactly halfway between the equator and the North Pole). We would explore the park in the morning and be back before the thunderstorms in the late afternoon. The lightning was cool and a little scary too!
We saw lots of coyotes, but no wolves.
Lots of buffalo too!! We kept waiting for someone to get to gored, because no matter how many signs warned against stopping traffic and approaching wildlife, people did it anyway! Pendejos!!
Same thing with staying on the boardwalk, there were signs everywhere that the ground surface around some of the geothermal features was only a thin crust with scalding water below. Still, you would see these idiots telling their kids to move off the boardwalk closer to the attraction for a better photo! Oy Vey!!
Maddie doing her Lara Croft thing...
she does that a lot.
It was a good thing we hadn't camped further into the park, since the jeep broke down. We apparently spun the front wheel bearing and we had to replace the spindle and the hub. It took about a week to fix since parts came in from different areas of Montana. We were glad Jim had the foresight to build the jeep mostly using parts off other types of 4wd vehicles instead of having them custom made. It could have been a nightmare! We still had one more thing to see though...
OooooooAaaaaaaa!! Cindy was seriously jonesing for an old fashioned 4th in Jackson, Wyoming. She was a woman on a mission...."yeah, yeah nice geyser - let's go we have to leave tomorrow!!" We couldn't leave Yellowstone fast enough.
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