WEEK 5 --------
31st may
I am still in ....
More wolf action today as I had gotten up nice and early at 04.30am making my way to Lamar Valley around 5am ... And like the other mornings during this magical and unique "roadblock week" there were not too many cars and people around, so it was another great morning .. this time there had actually been a fresh kill. What happened was when I arrived to the Lamar Valley I quickly spotted the people that follow the wolves as the "leader" drives a big yellow 4wd and he actually has radio receivers for the chips that the wolves carry so he knows when they are around ... there were some folks there by the side of the road with their scopes, trough which you could follow it all up close, and this was pretty amazing stuff ... a wolf had killed a baby deer with the mom still hanging around, totally in shock. When it was too late she scared the wolf away, it came back later for it was far from finished eating. What a scene to witness ... makes you feel real tiny ! scopes dont take pictures, so you have to make do with the grizzly bear I spotted from far away (luckily as these are huge and you dont want to surprise one of them on your hikes .. you can see the bump they have on their shoulde, this distinguishes them from the black bear, apart from their colour, although most black bears are acually brown coloured .. uuuuuuh ....
After a couple of hours watching the wolves, deer, pronghorn antilopes
and some coyotes do their thing I went back to my bus for food and coffee, feeling very satisfied by what I had witnessed. Took a much needed nap and later that day I went for a great hike into the slough creek area, great colourful fields with loads of birds, a squirrel that walked the wrong way and ended up right in front of me and my camera
I even spotted this beautiful grouse when I was trying to get closer to an interesting looking spot in the forest.
After my hike and some food I made my way to the Lamar valley again for more pictures of the sunset
and more gazing trough my binoculars, made a short hike up the hill, spotted the bighorns !!!
yes, these are creatures you dont get to see from the road and even when you go out there, you hardly see these .. amazing stuff ... the sunset was magical from up there
and as light faded I decided it was time to head "home" for another relaxing movie and a cup of tea after a tiring and long day .. that's what happens in these places, you get up so early, and go to bed late because you want to see the sunset and then re-arrange some pictures and write a bit in your diary .. and before you know it it is midnight or even later, and there are only four to five hours left before nature will unfold itself again in all its beauties .. aaaah what a dilemma ... ha ha .... and then I haven't mentioned the stars that come out at night ...
1st june
Woke up nice and bright, the sun was out, it was going to be a nice day, decided to go for a hike around the lost lake since the road to the rest of the park still was not open and I did not feel like making the big detour to see more of the rest of the park. I'd rather enjoy the peace and uniqueness of being in a cutoff part of a place that is normally heeving with people.
So, on the trail again, starting with a nice waterfall and a deer that noticed me but did not run away when I passed by. Then I went off the trail as I made my way to a point high up, so I could have my sandwiches with a view too ...
I guess by the time I had made my way back down I was hungry again but hey, brought plenty of food and drink
I dropped by the ranger station on my way back as the ranger I had met earlier when I went to ask about the closed road condition had told me she would help me to let my parents know that all was ok by sending an email from her own mail address. I had not been able to communicate with my parents in any way for 10 days (no phone or internet there), which is on the edge of being not nice anymore cause I like to keep them updated when I am so far away, so I was pleased she would help me by notifying my parents. Then as I was at the ranger station the news came in that they had just opened the road that connected the tower area with the rest of the two loops in the park. This was an earlier "press release" about the rockslide
Yes, I thought at first, here we go ... but as I made my way to undiscovered areas over there .... it was strange, the feeling was different, there were a lot of ignorant people. And I mean that in many ways .. But I did see some amazing stuff again, and lots of snow indeed ....
Went to yellowstone lake and the fishing bridge area where they had a campsite with public showers and a place where I could do my laundry .. finally clean socks and underwear again .. yeah ... Check the snow levels here ....
Made the long drive back when the sun was setting, which was again a nice experience with this smoking surreal landscape gliding by as you make your way driving slowly because of the emerging wildlife at night.
You can not even think you have seen these parks when you have not experienced a sunset and - or sunrise .. I can easily spend hours before, during and after these daily events if the spot is nice enough and allows me to immerse myself in the "whole" that the inca's call hunabku .....
2nd june
Woke up all restless, since the road had opened up the day before I had to go and see new grounds I guess, I mean I had done all the hikes one could do in the rooseveld area and wanted to see new stuff. So I made the move from Yellowstone to Grand Teton National Park which lies just underneath yellowstone.
Had a marvelous drive with my friends the sun and the clouds ... wow, how they continously made the scenery change dramatically, it was at times hard to not just stop and watch it all go on and on ... Yellowstone Lake was still frozen and looking like a white wonderworld.
The mighty Tetons are also still covered in snow, but the area around it is blossoming with springfever, the greens are amazing, depending on the time of day, the same place changes a thousand times per hour ...
Drove on to Jackson a real "western town" with the "famous" antler arches
and cowboys for the tourists ...
some shirts that actually do sell ...
And I went to town to see if I could get aa much needed oilchange there, but no, that was impossible as the car was noty know in the exisiting systems .. all sorts of vw models, but not this one .. "need to do that in idaho falls or some other big place sir" .. ok ... I will . .. and then I gave them too a small demo of the bus as they were amazed to see this "spaceship" there with a folding roof ..... Then it was on to fidn a spot for the night outside the park, as these campsites were 25 dollars .. no way was I gonna pay that much being in such an area with loads of "wild spaces" But then as I drove into the national forest area I ound a nice spot, Atharton campsite,
outside a place called Kelly ( I happen to like the colour Kelly Green), and that is just outside the national park boundary, also it is national forest, making it again a cheap night as I get 50% discount with my NP pass. So for 6 dollars I get a room with a view, literally. No need to look on for a free spot in the forest when you have a place like this to make "yours" I parked the van so that I had the lake and the towering peaks in sight trough the backwindow, there were loads of clouds continously shifting the shadows and lit up parts, it was hard to stop watching and make diner.
3rd june
And another amazing morning, with the sun hitting the tetons from far away, what a sight, and I could not even see the "core" of the mountain range that came in sight as I turned the corner ... .
went to the ranger station / visitor centre for some info about the trails. The station was a great place, as was the case for all of the national parks so far ... it had a cool exhibition about the region and even free wifi to do some communicating with the outside world. So I did some much needed emails and equipped with some trail info and maps and a "glow in the dark" stargaze map i left the ranger station .... ha ha ready for the night skies later that day ... then I took off on the hike to the two lakes at the foot of the tetons, the hike was supposed to be passing some patches of snow but it was eventually leading me into deep snow with patches of green so to say, and later even the green patches disappeared completely.
Luckily you could stay on top of the snow for most of the time , and occasionally you sunk in, but never with two feet so it was ok, in the end it did make my feet soaking wet, even with my goretex hiking boots on as the snow was dropping in my boots from above .. mmmm .. no use for the goretex here ...
At the second lake I met a guy called Lee, who was on the road too and it turned out we had a similar preference for certain books (especially the beatniks) we swapped books, talked loads and exchanged travel stories .. decided to have dinner together, which was nice, I had my first dinner guest in the bus after eating all by myself all the time (the picture would have been perfect had he been a she and single ..) After dinner and a good cup of coffee we parted ways and I went to find a spot for the night. I camped at a free parking space between kelly and the official campsite
I guess it serves as an overflow for the busy summer as it also had a restroom (when the official campsites are full they need to place the people somewhere I guess... but they dont like you to go there when there is still place at the campsites that want revenue .. ha ha .. I prefer the free stuff ... ) it was ideal.
4th june
Today it was time to leave the Tetons and head west again, but not after doing a final hike in an area with less snow ..
when I spotted this squirrel I managed to get real close, and when some people passed they looked curiously but they did not see what I was seeing and I was not gonna tell them cause I did not want to chase this amazing creature away .. watched it for a good 20 minutes ...
Later when I left to head west again, I drove for hours, and after a while the huge open land I passed trough felt strange, and I guess I now know why, this piece of land has the most nuclear power plants in the world.
All underground ... there even was a museum close to a place called Arco, which was the first place on earth to be lit up with nuclear energy ... but I arrived too late for the museum .. ah well ... in Arco I spotted some american football going on, watched for a while and then asked some local policemen if they knew of a place to park for the night. They refered me to this dirt road going up into the hills right before you go uphill into the craters of the moon monument ... So, that is where I went, little did I know that the road would be so long .. but hey, once you pass a certain number of miles into the spot spotting .. I tend to go on ... I wont settle for a 2nd choice place when there might be this awesome spot just a little further ahead ... its all part of the adventure ... and boy did I find another amazing "bedroom" It was about 2 miles from craters of the moon, and in the end it was a cool 20km drive away from the main road .... It was on top of a mountain with an amazing view, so the madness of the long drive on the dirt road got rewarded ...
5th june
Woke up at first light of the sun hitting the car, after 4 hrs of sleep again, man ... how will I ever sleep 9 hrs in a row ... I guess not .. and actually it does not matter, feel great ... did loads of music refreshment yesterday. I finally bought some empty cd's to fill up with mp3's as the ipods are nice but so much work to update and change, stupid Itunes ... I hate that program ... But the music system in the car only knows how to communicate with specific models of the ipod series, so we have three old ipods , the 4gig and 6gig Ipod mini models that do the trick ... Anyway, made sure I was gonna be able to listen to some cocorosie, radiohead, deus and more non u2 music ... No I am not getting fed up with u2, no worries, but I needed fresh input for these long strips of highway that I am about to conquer along my way to Oakland. First thing today was more blog updating .. want to upload my first weeks travelstories today so ... need to make sure it is ready before it makes me restless, we cant have that on the road, only if it is to head further into the unknown, but not from unsorted business .. so to say ... so I am typing this in the middle of nowhere, on top of a hill, with the sun starting to colour the surroudings in nice green and yellows ...
it is gonna be another beautiful day, on to the craters of the moon national monument.
The craters were nice but after having been to the vulcanic islands at the Galapagos Islands earlier this year, this was a bit so so ... but hey .. enjoyable never the less .. the caves were cool, and made this awesome picture of a bird with blue wings, leaving its nest ....
Struggled with changing clocks ... drove into Nevada .. and slept somewhere along the way at a quiet area of a semi disused truckstop .. perfect for tonight in between two "days made for eating miles"
6th June
Finally found some place where I could do the much needed oil change, an official vw garage in Reno, on my way to Oakland where U2 was gonna play the next day. And at this garage too I had to give the guys a demo of the car, all the sales guys and mechanics came out for that ha ha .. it remains a miracle for them, the popup roof, the mieage, the chairs and the table hidden away ... what ? 30liter watertank, heater, airco AND 4 motion ? Had some taco bell after that, nice and easy, popped into the goodwill store and found a great book about the national parks for 2 dollars, it seems my antenna for these things still works ...
On to Oakland, driving trough real desert .... which gave me amazing colours again .. It was strange to realise that it had been exactly one month ago since I had left San Fransisco and here I was, heading back to that place after having seen so many amazing things and having traveled 8000km ... the first part was originally gonna be much smaller going from san fransisco to reno to lassen volcanic park (inlands as opposed to the coast) and then on to yellowstone and back to oakland ... instead I decided to follow the coast and and go all the way to seattle .. I am glad I did !
I arrived in Sausalito a quarter before 8pm which was just in time to see Nick and Fer (from south america) Fer had actually traveled together to Oakland with Arlette, a girl that I swapped tickets with last year in Amsterdam .. strange small world .. They were leaving at 8 that night to go to the line for the concert the next day .. they had started the line a day earlier so they had somewhere to go ... not me ... I am done with that lining up thing ... mad stress and people around you that dont sleep for days and are not very enjoyable after hours spend wating (ok not everyone, but most of them ... mmm ) ... not eating enough, not drinking enough ... ah well .... everyone does what they want to do ... I guess .... Nick insisted that I'd make use of his place when they were gone, so I did
I treated myself to a nice chinese dinner from a great place down the road, spotted the "usa-canada model of the vw transporter ... by far not as nice as the california model ..)
watched some telly after I figured out how to work all the remotes .. and even had a relaxing shower. Did not take up his offer to take the red mustang for a spin ... although I was tempted ... ha ha .. Then I went off to the harbour again, the same spot I used for the first night, one month ago ... There were more guests on their way from far away (Ireland and England) but these guys were driving down from Seattle and they were not to arrive untill after midnight, and that was too late for me ... I went to my little safe haven ...
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