Road Trip - Kelly, Kaiden & Grandma 10th - 24th June 2008

This post is actually written by my 1st guest blogger who happens to be my Mother. It took me so long to catch up on May (yes I know I still need to finish but I was waiting on some pictures of our rafting trip & now they seem to have vanished mysteriously, I guess I will get on with it regardless) . . . . . So as I was saying . . . . . I thought I would take advantage & let Mum do the story telling for this one. Just a little catch up . . . .

Rob & Mollie left at the end of May. It was sad saying good bye. We had such a wonderful time visiting new places & showing them some of the places that we had already been & loved. We had 6 days to catch our breath & then Mum flew into town . . . . . . take it away Mum . . . . . Oh wait . . . . . I feel it my responsibility to warn all who wish to proceed that . . . . . how can I put this . . . . . Mum tends to babble, well, just take a long time to tell a story really. Now you know where I get it from. So think of this as your official warning . . . . proceed only if you have the time . . . . make yourself a drink, put your feet up, come back when the kids are in bed or

just come back 3 or maybe 4 times to get it all read. See, I told you . . . . babbling really is a family thing. Okay, that isn't fare to Dad or Coll. It is Mum's & my thing. Go Mum . . . . . Oh, wait.

The first weekend Mum was in town we headed to one of our favourite places in Colorado. Rocky Mountain National Park and Estes Park. It is really beautiful and only just over an hour away from home. We camped at Moraine Camp grounds and explored the NP the next day.

Okay, now go Mum . . . . . really, go ahead . . . . . I will just add the pictures . . . . .

Hi Everyone,Kelly, Kaiden and I have returned to Denver safely from our 10 day, which extended to a 14 day road trip.

We traveled to Salt Lake City through Wyoming which was lovely. We stayed there a night, had lunch with Jerry Updyke and met one of Kelly's mission companions, Kristin Lloyd down town.

We headed off late in the afternoon tracelling through Idaho and into Montana where we stayed the night. The next day we continued North, North West and eventually arrived at Bonners Ferry, Idaho. BF is 30 miles south of the Canadian border. While we were there we took a day trip into Canada along the Kooteney Lake/River area which was a really nice and relaxing day. One of the highlights was looking through a Glass House made totally from embalming bottles; fascinating. We had a lovely lunch in a little artist/eclectic town and nice chats to some locals.

We spent another day in BF with Tiffany, Terry & Jim before heading off to Canada after deciding it would be an opportunity lost not to venture up to Lake Louise, Banff and Calgary for an extended trip. Kelly and I smiled at each other and said "why not?" So we did.It's odd, but a nice odd; when you cross into Canada although the landscape is similar, it seems instantly relaxing and of course the reality is that the country is different and just absolutely beautiful. The people are just so....like us really, very friendly and helpful!

Having said that though, the U.S has been wonderful too and mostly everyone is very helpful, welcoming and friendly with perhaps only the occasional person in authority being a little short sometimes. But Canada certainly has a different feel and we had a lovely time just meandering up the highway. When we got to Radium Hot Springs we stopped for a look around and as we were leaving, just around the corner really, we came across our first bear. A young black bear was having a lovely time eating the daisies near the side of the road. Not perturbed by the human visitors (from a safe position in the car of course), it happily continued eating the flowers and we were so excited to see our first bear of the trip.

The drive up north continued to be one of snow capped mountains, long winding roads; lakes etc. We came across four Bald Eagles high above a lake; so wonderful to watch just floating and flying on the winds. Getting closer to Lake Louise we came across some elk and were pretty happy with that, but then we saw another black bear on the edge of some forest; again pretty happy with that....then, suddenly we saw another that just took off running into the forest and straight up a tree. We were just gobsmacked and thrilled to see the speed and agility of the bear and how it just literally took off and leapt up the tree. A good lesson on the dangers and raw power of a bear we thought! We couldn't stop smiling and believing what we'd seen. We loved Lake Louise which was spectacular to say the least. Did a little splurge and stayed at the famous Chateau Lake Louise with a spectacular lake view. What a fabulous hotel it is! But, the stunner is the lake surrounded by the mountains. When Geoff and Heather visited in May, the lake was still frozen, so in the space of about five weeks it was a totally different view for us.

We wandered around late in the day and were just in awe of the views, however nothing prepared us for the view early after sunrise in the morning...the lake was like glass with the absolute perfect reflection of the snow capped mountains in the rich turquoise coloured lake...awesome! It was worth the early rise to see it as it soon changes when people start canoeing and the wind comes up.

We really didn't want to leave and eventually left mid afternoon for Banff.
Banff is very beautiful and the mountains are so in your face. We took the Gondola to the top of the mountain to view the surrounds there and watched a storm come in across and through the mountains and pass over us, all very quickly really. We were a bit worried on the way down tin the gondola, but we only had a few windy bumps for a minute of so and was then smooth again....thank you!

Next stop was Calgary and we went from mountains to open spaces. The next day we did a tour of the Calgary Olympic Park, which I just loved and spent a lot of time there looking over the history not only of the '88 Winter Games, but they also have some on all the summer and winter games too. Kaiden was kept amused with lying in the skeleton, luge and bobsledge on display etc., they have things that you can interact with and to keep the children occupied which is great for the kids and the not so little; no I didn't!

We ventured further east and then crossed down through Cardston which seemed in the middle of nowhere really . . . .

Mum I need to interupt. We were umming and arhhing about which way to go when we got to Cardston. We headed west and turned around then turned back around again. Something we found our car knew how to do automatically (make a U-turn). Anyway we notice a huge pyramid like looking building and we both said Ha, wonder what that building is. Well turning around about 3 times as we were about to drive off I looked over at it and said to Mum, I have to know what the building it and to we went off to investigate. It turned out to be the Alberta Temple. In the middle of no where. I couldn't believe it. I think I was drawn to it because we could have just as easily have driven on by with out a second thought. Anyway we had a lovely visit and honestly it lifted my spirits. Not that they were down but I guess it was like being refrehed. I know that will seem sound silly but that is how I felt. The Temple will do that to you. Beautiful !! Okay Mum, continue . . . . . .

. . . . and there was this huge Mormon Temple, which seemed so out of place, but just beautiful. We stayed awhile and looked around and had a very interesting chat to the volunteers there. The history of the building of the Temple in 1890 and the relatively recent renovation really is quite extraordinary and was especially nice for Kelly to find all this in the middle of the never-never. We crossed back into the U.S. at the Port of Carway and stayed in St.Mary next to Glacier National Park; in the top west of Montana with the Glacier N.Pk in Blackfeet Indian Reservation country.

We had intended to do the west side of the Glacier N.Pk as well but the road through was closed so only did the east side. Again, just wonderful country and we did a short hike of about 2-3 miles up to see St.Mary's Falls, plus further up to the Virginia Falls which was well worth the walk (climb), plus it was great to get some exercise.

We sang mostly 'made up' bear songs and had a lovely time along the track. Kaiden just loved climbing over the rocks in the most precarious of places and giving me near heart attacks!

Kaiden is holding bear fur and pointing to the scratch marks on the tree.

We stayed at the St.Mary Lodge which was very nice, such wonderfully comfy beds. We actually got our room upgraded there because of plumbing noise in our initial room which was really unbearable, although the beds there were great too, but the noise was ridiculous.

We travelled south and across the border into Wyoming and into Yellowstone National Park. Our stays in hotels over for the trip, we camped at Mammoth Hot Springs in Yellowstone. A fabulous camping spot and we settled in early then took off to explore some of the park.

Had dinner in the local Village and later watched the elk and deer wander through the main street of the Village too. We went to a talk given by a Park Ranger on some of the wildlife found in the Park, particularly the wolves and their history and preservation; also the do's and don'ts on bear safety etc. Up at the crack of dawn in the morning at 5am. we went bear hunting!! We covered the top loop of the park and saw lots of elk then we came across a black bear not far off the road, which we were happy about. A little further on, we met a couple who have been coming to the park every year for 2 weeks for the last 24 years to watch the bears particularly, but also all the wildlife; anyway, they were so generous and shared their personal telescopes and information with us and we got to see one of the absolute highlights of our trip. We got to see five Grizzly bears across on a far hill, 2 males and 3 females. We would never have seen them with the naked eye at first glance. Once you knew they were there you could just spot them, but with the telescope it was amazing and you could actually see the coat on the big male ripple as he moved; awesome! At the top of the rise above the bears were 2 very large elk with huge antlers. They were so majestic just sitting there watching over their surrounds.



We continued our animal spotting tour through the mountains and there was lots of snow up higher making it just beautiful on the eyes. Very early on we drove through parts where the mist was hanging low over some of the springs giving it a very eerie feel.

Later in the day after packing up our camp we ventured further driving around a mountain road and almost running into a bison, literally walking down the yellow line in the middle of the road, holding up the traffic behind it. We came to a very sudden stop and Kelly grabbed the camera as it eyeballed her through the car window. It was huge and taller than the car. Very funny. We just nervously laughed in amazement not knowing what it might do; but it just mozzied on past.

Later in the afternoon heading to see the Old Faithful geyser, we came to another sudden stop behind a long line of traffic...being patient and in holiday mode we just went with the flow for about an hour knowing there were some maintenance crews in the area, or maybe an accident. People were getting out of their cars taking photo's of the scenery along the way and some went for walks up the road to see what the hold up was. It was about another hour when one guy walking back told us the hold up was a herd of bison with mothers and their young meandering along, stopping every so often to feed their babies. There was no where for the cars to go so it was about two and a half hours before the bison eventually went off into the scrub. Consequently it threw our day out of whack and boson went to the bottom of our favorite list. Yes, we were definitely over bison! We went on to see the Old Faithful Geyser and of course had to wait an hour or so there too. Fortunately one of the other large geysers, the Castle Geyser was doing it's thing, and I actually thought it was more spectacular as it's eruption was very much longer although not as predictable, but you could be much closer to it and feel the power of the enormous force and roar emana ting from under the ground. It was also very beautiful.

Old Faithful & Castle Geyser

We camped that night at Grant Village in the south end of Yellowstone and it wasn't a very pleasant night as we got there late and were still setting up as the dark night closed in around us. The site was damp and had large mounds of snow still on the ground. We were not happy campers that night although once settled into our sleeping bags we were fine, it just wasn't pleasant for awhile. The camping ground had just re-opened that day and the next morning after complaining about our site, the Rangers said they'd close that tent site until it dried out a little.

Once into the Grand Teton National Park we made sure we got our next campsite early in the day. We set up at the Signal Mountain campsite which is on the edge of part of Jackson Lake and has wonderful lake views. We headed off to explore knowing we were organized for the night. Much happier campers that night!

Wow! The Grand Teton's are just the most grand and imposing of sites. Absolutely beautiful and awesome in there majesty. We missed out on a boat tour of Jackson Lake which would have been magical, so headed to the smaller Jenny Lake. We took the shuttle ferry across to the other side and hiked up to the falls and then back around the shorter southern side back to the jetty we had started from. The walk was only about 3 miles as opposed to the longer 5 miles on the northern side. A very beautiful spot in the park. We had a great time looking around and headed back to Signal Mountain for dinner in the restaurant. We roasted some marshmellows over our fire and had a really nice time; and a very comfortable night too!

We had seen all the animals except the wolves (which are hard to find anyway), and moose. The elusive moose! This was our last day before we headed back home to Denver and we tried so hard to find a moose. Up very early we went to all the most likely places recommended. After several hours of moose hunting we had to give up and headed down to Jackson where we had a late breakfast and did some shopping. A very helpful chatty shop assistant told us go back to the southern area of the Park and try a particular area as there are always moose there. Well, moose hunting was our mission for the day!! After looking around Jackson, (which is a fascinating town and famous for skiing and it's cowboy image), and also giving the shops some attention, we again went on our search. But still no 'moose' luck!

Next, we thought we may as well go to another area across the way to see a little village named 'Kelly' and decided we should see what it looked like before we leave.

Along the road which followed a river, (good moose country!), we saw a moose on the other side of the river. We were so excited and stopped and watched it disappear into the woods. No matter, we had accomplished our mission. High fives all round! Went into Kelly and took some pics and headed back toward the main road. Along the road a little way I saw just a flicker of movement and a dark patch so told Kell to stop and back up. Well, after searching along the river bank on the other side we spotted 'the' moose. It had huge horns. We were now just beside ourselves with excitement. It was laying down in the grass and after deciding that maybe if someone 'mooed' at it, (could that be me!!), it might stand up!!! Well, after repeatedly turning its head toward the sound, it did stand up and it was huge. Then another appeared and it was equally as large. Oh, how our patience and persistence had been rewarded and after only six and a half hours of moose hunting, we could now head home fulfilled!! I guess you had to be there, but we just laughed and laughed at ourselves.

Having been flexible with our time, we decided to change our route home. We headed more west then south down on Highway 25 and then it was plain sailing from there through Cheyenne, acrosa the Wyoming/Colorado border and on into Denver.

It was a very long day and 2.15am when we arrived back at Kelly's apartment. Kelly did a great job of driving the whole 3704 miles (5960 k's) of our trip. We had a wonderful time and Kelly, Kaiden and I have some really great memories together with some fabulous photo's. Kaiden was a little travelling trooper, and although we did have a few frustrating episodes with him, but it was a big effort for a six year old.

So many things we laughed at and so many times we said "Oh, wouldn't it be great to have Colleen here with us"...or "Dad or Simon. (Robert) would just love this country". When it comes to the bottom line....'family is everything' and we thought of everyone often.

It was sad to say goodbye to Kelly, Simon and Kaiden when it came time leave and come home, but it was such a great trip and of course it was nice to get home too. I had a really good flight home without any delays or hiccups and Robert there to meet me at the end of the journey I'm now spending this week just relaxing.

I hope you enjoy this 'post', which seems to have turned into a little 'book' and final chapter of my trip.
Love to Everyone, Fay xx

Thanks Mum. I am tired just reading it all and I was there. We had a great time and as Mum said, some great memories to cherish. xoxox