The Adventures of Go-Butt (2025)

28/08/2024

This year I've been to so many places: Arizona, Nevada, Utah, Florida, scenic Western Michigan, Chicago (Architectural Boat Tour and Wrigley Field), Alberta Canada and British Columbia Canada. It is the year of a milestone birthday for me and I wanted to spend it with people that I love and care about, as well as spoil myself just a tiny bit. I decided about mid-year to give myself one more "gift" - a solo trip to Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons. It is one of my favorite places, and I still haven't seen that grizzly bear that I have been chasing after the last 9 years.

Flying into Jackson Wyoming's airport is truly at treat in itself. I always tell people "sit on the right side of the plane by the window". When the plane starts to descend to the runway at the only airport in the US that is located inside a National Park, you are rewarded with a view of the Grand Tetons right outside your window! It's looks like you could just reach out and touch them. It's an experience I just never get tired of.

My first day I grabbed my rental car and spent a lazy day driving north first through Grand Teton National Park (GTNP) and then Yellowstone National Park to Gardiner, Montana. Gardiner is where the North Entrance to Yellowstone is located, and it was the first Yellowstone entrance. The historic Roosevelt Arch is located there, dedicated by President Theodore Roosevelt in 1903. Gardiner is also close to the gateway to the Beartooth Highway, which I planned to drive the next day. I spent most of my day just enjoying the scenery and looking for wildlife. I headed first to Leeks Marina in Moran, WY to have pizza out on the deck of their restaurant, which overlooks Jackson Lake and the Tetons just behind it. It is an absolutely magnificent place for lunch; the pizza is good but the view is spectacular. My plan was to drive the eastern side of both the Lower and Upper loops of Yellowstone and then head west to Gardiner. During my drive that first day I saw elk, eagles, bison, deer, a moose, and prong antelope.

I got up before sunrise on Saturday and headed out to Lamar Valley to try to view wildlife on the way to the Beartooth Highway. It was an absolutely beautiful weather day! I saw many bison, prong antelope and deer on my journey to the "Top of the World". The Beartooth did not disappoint; while I didn't see much wildlife on my way to Red Lodge MT and back, the scenery was spectacular and the ride as exciting as ever (switchbacks, hairpin turns, narrow shoulderless roads). If you have never been on the Beartooth Highway, which runs through Wyoming and Montana, it is considered one of the most beautiful scenic drives in the US. At the end of my drive, since I was already somewhat close to Interstate 90, I decided to head west to Bozeman, MT to see the Museum of the Rockies, managed by Montana State University and the Smithsonian Institute. Located in Bozeman, the museum has an extensive collection of dinosaur fossils, and is an active research facility in addition to being a museum. I love fossils, so it was right upo my alley! It also houses the Taylor Planetarium, where I watched a show about inhabiting and mining hydrogen on the Moon. After spending two hours there, I traveled back to Gardiner for a quick meal. At dusk, I drove back out to Lamar Valley with my binoculars to search for wildlife.

Sunday was my day to travel south again to eventually reach Jackson WY where I would be flying home from on Tuesday. I decided to take the western side of the upper Loop of Yellowstone, head east where the two loops meet, then drive south again on the eastern portion of the Lower Loop which goes through the Hayden Valley. I try to avoid the western Lower Loop because it is where some of the most visited tourist spots are, such as Old Faithful. My drive did not disappoint; there was plenty wildlife to see, especially when I passed through the scenic Hayden Valley. The Yellowstone River runs through that area, and it is one of the places that herds of bison are found (and where idiot tourists misbehave). I also stopped at the Upper and Lower Falls of Yellowstone before I hit Hayden Valley; I think that is one place I could never get tired of visiting.

I spent Monday traveling all through the Grand Teton National Park ... just enjoying the serenity and the quiet of being there. Tuesday morning I got up early and did a float tour with Solitude Float Tours down the Snake River from Deadman's Bar to Moose Junction. We didn't see a lot of wild life (birds, a few American Bald Eagles, and a beaver) but it was heavenly to just float lazily down that river, with the Tetons in full view from our raft. It was the perfect way to end my stay in Montana and Wyoming. And again, if you haven't been here, I would highly encourage you to come. You will not regret it, it's a very special place. Until next time ...

24/07/2024

The Icefields Parkway is considered to be one of the most scenic drives in the entire world, and I had the opportunity to finally explore it this summer. It runs from Banff to Jasper in Alberta. I knew I wanted to tour Canada, from Banff to Jasper, from the first time I saw photos of Lake Louise. I had made reservations last year to go there as the tail end of my Oregon vacation; unfortunately, my passport didn't come in time so that portion of my trip to the Pacific Northwest was cancelled.

We (my sister and I) flew to Calgary, Alberta, Canada, rented a car, and made the 1 hour 15 minute drive along the Trans Canada Highway to Canmore, Alberta, which is about 20 minutes from Banff. Canmore was a really good choice: while Banff is very beautiful, it is also very crowded with tourists from all over the world. Traffic can be congested. Canmore is a bit more laid back, and has its own beauty and charm. It is a town of approx 15,000 people just south of the entrance to Banff National Park. We spent six glorious days exploring not only Banff and Jasper National Parks, but Kootenay and YoHo National Parks which border Banff NP but are actually in British Columbia.

We hiked, kayaked on the Bow River in Banff, took a float trip on the Bow River in Canmore, and wandered around the four parks in our car. The scenery was magnificent! Photos don't do it justice. There were mountains on both sides of us as we drove, some with glaciers clinging to their peaks. The waterfalls and glacial lakes were many and also quite beautiful. Peyto Lake, Bow Lake, Lake Louise and Moraine Lake were spectacular. There were so many beautiful lakes and waterfalls it was difficult to keep them all straight; it didn't help that both of our Iphones decided that almost all of our photos were taken in Lake Louise. Of course, this made it a bit difficult for us to pinpoint where we were without doing a bit of homework.

I met people from all over the world, what fun it was! In addition to tourists, many of the summer workers in Canmore, Banff and Jasper are young people from all different countries looking to broaden their horizons before "settling down to real life" as one young man told me. Our one day tour stopped for lunch and there wasn't much room to sit and eat; my sister and I invited a couple from Australia who were on our tour to share our table and eat with us. Whether it was kayaking, hiking, rafting, or exploring, it was a joy to get to share the experiences with so many different folks.

While exploring YoHo National Park, we came on the Spiral Tunnels; these are an amazing feat of engineering that designed a way for rail travel to ascend and descend the Kicking Horse Pass which had a very steep 4.5 percent grade. We stopped to watch the trains climb down the mountain, and while I parked the car my sister explored a bit. She found a bear den not too far from our parking area. She said "I want to show you where it is!" and I said "oh no, we're not going NEAR it." I did walk over far enough to see that it did indeed look like a bear den (and I looked it up later - yep) and announced once more that we were not going any closer. Although I've been wanting to see a grizzly bear, that was NOT the way I want to lay eyes on one. Luckily for us, no bears appeared.

We also took the Banff Gondola up to the top of Sulphur Mountain - the views were breathtaking. I had seen photos of the view from the Sky Bistro, one of the four restaurants up on the mountaintop. They were booked well in advance but we took a chance, walked in, and got seated. Great place for lunch or dinner. Our hotel offered "Breakfast to Go" which consisted of a croissant, jelly, a slice of banana loaf, an orange, and a bottle of orange juice. It was so convenient - many of the breakfast places are not open at the crack of dawn when folks want to get a head start on hiking or driving to trail heads, or to just see if they can find wildlife. We also found a wonderful place called Chez Francoise that was recommended to us by our hotel staff that had a wonderful breakfast.

Would I go back?? Absolutely. It is truly one of the most beautiful places in the world. If you choose to go ... make reservations early, and know that just like some of the US parks, some sites are packed with tourists and parking is scarce (Lake Louise, Moraine Lake). Get out early to see the most popular ones; you may also be rewarded with wildlife sightings due to the animals being mostly visible at dawn and sunset. Bon Voyage!

07/03/2024

One of the great scenic areas of the United States is the American Southwest; it has spectacular landscapes and scenery like no other. A friend and I had lunch last year and I mentioned that one of my next trips would be going to the Grand Canyon. She commented that she also wanted to go sometime, so I told her I would let her know when I was ready to go. As luck would have it, we were both able to get the same days off and flew to Las Vegas this past weekend to begin our adventure. Our flight landed at 11:45 pm so we headed to our hotel to crash and get some sleep before starting our whirlwind tour of some of the great sights of the Southwest.

Our journey took us to Hoover Dam and Lake Powell, the Grand Canyon, Horseshoe Bend, Glen Canyon Dam and Lake Mead, Marble Canyon, the Vermillion Cliffs National Monument, Zion National Park, and the Valley of Fire State Park in Nevada.

I was in awe of Hoover Dam - what an incredible engineering feat! I was unaware that tourists have to go though a security check point to visit the dam; I was a bit surprised to see a security check point we had to pass through to get to the viewing area. We passed the security inspection and headed out to see this famous landmark. It is located right on the border between Nevada and Arizona because, of course, the Colorado River makes up part of the southeastern state line between the two.

Our next stop was the South Rim of the Grand Canyon, and it did not disappoint. The day we happened to be there is the same day that huge storms and high winds were moving through California, Nevada, Utah, and Arizona; Las Vegas had wind damage and many flights were delayed or cancelled that day due to high winds. There was a bit of a wind chill at the Canyon and we were glad we had brought our winter coats with us. It was truly spectacular and we walked the rim for a bit until we couldn't take the cold any longer. Near the end of our walk, at the edge of the canyon we could see a rock column with ledges that had no railing to keep tourists back, and there were actually people out on those ledges climbing down to smaller ledges below. I wondered if we would hear about them on the news the next morning "Tourist gets blown off ledge at South Rim of the Grand Canyon." (I did check the next morning, no news reports.)

Third stop of the day? Horseshoe Bend, sometimes referred to as the "east rim of the Grand Canyon." This beautiful meander of the Colorado River is located about 5 miles downstream from the Glen Canyon Dam. It was a 0.7 mile hike down to this very beautiful horseshoe shaped bend of the Colorado River. Still very windy, I knew coming back was going to be a more tiring hike as the trail to the river was all down hill. The wind was pushing against us and at times we actually had to lean in. It was SO worth the hike! While there were no kayaks down on the river, there were two tents pitched down at the bottom on the inner shore. I was amazed that anyone would even consider camping there! We stayed for a bit and then decided to head back. As luck would have it, the wind was at our back for the return hike, at times really giving me that extra push I needed when I was getting tired.

I found a hotel in Page, Arizona, a town in northern Arizona that we really liked when we actually got to see it the next morning (we arrived after dark). I hadn't realized that it was right across the street from the Glen Canyon Dam, so that was a nice little surprise for us! I had told my friend when I made the reservation that I wondered what the "lake view" was; well, it was the Colorado River/Lake Meade. After we checked out we walked across the street and took pictures of the dam, then drove across it before heading north to some of the scenic drives: we drove through Marble Canyon, the Vermillion Cliffs, and ultimately Zion National Park. I wanted to tour Bryce National Park too but the winter storm that was passing through was still dumping snow there and it was removed from our itinerary. I had read that the Zion-Mt. Carmel road (Highway 9) was scenic and a great entryway into Zion National Park, so we headed that way. It was very pretty, as only desert and rocks can be. The road through Zion National Park from the east entrance to the south entrance was spectacular; I was so spellbound I hardly took photos, I was too busy looking. After Zion we headed to Moapa Valley to spend the night and visit the Valley of Fire in the morning before heading to the airport.

Valley of Fire State Park, located in the Moapa Valley of Nevada was also amazing; I think it was one of my favorites. It consists of 40,000 acres of bright red Aztec sandstone outcrops nestled in gray and tan limestone. Valley of Fire State Park also contains ancient, petrified trees and petroglyphs dating back more than 2,000 years. So many different rock formations, desert sand, bighorn sheep. I found it all fascinating. There were so many different colors of rock; cream colored, pink, red-orange, grey, brown. I have to admit though, I'm glad I went in March. After all, it IS part of the Mohave Desert; I can only imagine what it would be like to drive through or attempt to hike there in the late spring/summer months.

We never did experience the Las Vegas Strip. We could see the Sphere, the Allegiant Stadium where the Super Bowl was held, and some of the famous hotels while driving to and from the airport. Maybe some other time? Nah ... I still have National Parks to see!

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