Lofty Heights– Lakeside Camperworld, Dusechne UT 6/30

At dusk last night three elk sauntered across the meadow by our camp ground. All of them had pretty big antlers and seemed nonplussed by the nearby campers. They hung out for about an hour grazing. It was beautiful to see their majestic silhouettes as the sun faded. We enjoyed the ranger talk, but felt a little sorry for all the kids in the audience. The talk about carnivores was quite academic, including graphs, and geared for an adult audience. What ever happened to the good old days when everyone sang “On Top of Old Smokey?” This morning we were thrilled to be greeted by absolute crystal clear blue skies knowing we would have quite an adventure driving over the Rocky Mountains. We first started at a Visitor’s Center and watched a movie about the park and then took the Trail Ridge Road up, up, up. We made several stops along the way taking in the different perspectives of the rocky ridge and valleys. When we passed the sign that said, “Two Miles above Sea Level” and kept going up I started getting a little altitude sickness. I think we peaked out at 12,183 ft. Some of the highlights for us were seeing the historic Ute trail knowing that people walked here 6,000 years ago, and the headwaters of the Colorado River. It’s hard to believe that this harmless little creek created the Grand Canyon! Our next destination was Steamboat Springs. After driving through the desert and modest little towns we were amazed at this huge posh ski village. Wow – the resorts, upscale condos and chalet homes looked like something out of architectural digest. Once you leave the town heading west, the poor desert towns begin again - ironic to see this wealthy oasis amongst this humble setting. Rather than staying at a desert state park in the middle of nowhere, we decided to push on. Ned was a hero and drove on and on. We are now settled in at a private campground and enjoying the amenities. We love camping at the National Parks and taking advantageous of this great American resource, but don’t love the lack of basic amenities – i.e. showers! Tonight we have electricity, showers and wi-fi!! How luxurious. Tomorrow we head thru Salt Lake City and in the name of research hope to find a Farr’s Ice Cream Parlor to verify that it is, in fact, worthy of the first place status.

Rocky Mountain Hi- Rocky Mountain National Park, CO 6/29

We sadly left Custer State Park under a gorgeous brilliant blue sky. We really enjoy the vibe and the surroundings of this place so it was hard to say goodbye. Wanting to avoid the interstate as long as possible we took the back roads out of the Black Hills and into Wyoming. It was fun to see the lush green long views into the distance after being in the evergreen forest. It became abundantly clear when we hit Wyoming as the landscape flattened out and the population was about one person for every 500 miles. We drove by several working ranches and saw cowboys rounding up the cattle, which helped break up the drive. As we left the flatlands of Colorado and headed up toward Rocky Mountain National Park we enjoyed the dramatic flow of Big Thompson River thru a scenic rocky gorge. We finally came into Rocky Mountain National Park at about 3ish and were lucky to get one of the last 3 campsites in the entire park! That’s the good news. The flip side is that we are camped at Glacier Basin Campground which has been devastated by the pine bark beetle. The campground has been completely cleared of every tree and we are basically in a basin, which feels like it’s been hit by a bomb. (See today’s pic). What a difference trees make! This is so unlike camping at most national parks. That goodness we are at a high elevation with a cloud cover or we would be cooked by now. The pine bark beetle is really changing the landscape of our forests. In Custer Park the devastation was also really noticeable by the vast amount of dead brown pine trees. The beetle has really hit this entire park hard. Thousands upon thousands of the dead brown pine trees mar all of the scenic vistas. Apparently, this is a phenomenon that happens about every 500 years. The specific forests of Rocky National Park that was first hit by this beetle, about five years ago, is beginning to reemerge with Aspen trees. We figure that by the time our grandchildren view this park it will look vastly different. Once we settled into our camping spot we jumped on one of the park shuttles and checked out a couple of the Visitor Centers. We were particularly impressed with the Moraine Park Visitor’s Center and enjoyed the interactive displays on the geology, weather and fauna of the Rockies. Unfortunately, we missed the movie that was playing at the Beaver Meadows Center, but hope to catch it tomorrow. There’s a program tonight at 9 pm at our campground entitled, “Large Carnivores”, which we’ll probably go check out. Right now chicken is on the barbie, a glass of wine is being poured and we’re hanging out with all our fellow bomb victims.

Biking in the Black Hills- Custer State Park, SD 6/28

It felt rather luxurious to spend two days at the same campsite. When we arrived last fall at Custer State Park we fell in love with the Black Hills and vowed to return and bike the George Michelson Trail - or at least parts of it since it’s 109 miles long! After driving into Hill City we took a dirt road for about 12 miles until we came to the Mystic trail head. The bike path was a very slight uphill grade for about 11 miles. We rode over several trestles, thru two tunnels and alongside a river. The rolling hills were bright green, the sky was deep blue and the wildflowers were still popping up everywhere. (See today’s pic). We took a break once we reached the abandoned town of Rocheford then had the best time riding back – since it was downhill almost the whole way! We ended up doing a little over 23 miles. By this time we were famished and decided to take a trip into town (Hill City) for some lunch and also to do some errands, like give the Winniemobile a much needed car wash and do some grocery shopping. We headed back to Sylvan Lake and just hung out for awhile on the deck of the general store enjoying a soft serve in the warm sun and looking at all our pictures. It was a fun, lazy summer day!

Wall to Wall Adventure- Custer State Park, SD 6/27

Ned here again. We woke to a beautiful morning on the Missouri River. The drive through western South Dakota was gorgeous, with lots of green rolling farm and pasture land. The constant Wall Drug billboards along the interstate kept us entertained as we approached Custer State Park, and eventually we agreed to partake in the Wall Drug experience. (We had purposely avoided it on our trip here last Fall.) It was WAY more than I had expected, including the extensive assortment of cowboy hats and boots, collectible historic rifle reproductions, homemade donuts and ice cream, and a roaring fiberglass T-Rex dinosaur out back, all populated by a frantic crowd of tourists. Despite all the chaos, we received two good things from our trip there: Two delicious buffalo burgers for lunch, and a couple of good sessions at the shooting gallery for Debi. (Did anyone know that Debi absolutely LOVES using a rifle at a shooting gallery???) Once we arrived in Custer State Park we were stunned again by the beauty of the place that had impressed us so much last Fall. We took the Needles Highway to our campground at Lake Sylvan, and loved every scenic turn of the road. To our amazement, two full size touring buses were making the same trip, even though one of the tunnels is about 8 feet wide, and 12 feet high. I don’t understand how they made it through, but they apparently did. After checking out our campsite, we walked a little around Lake Sylvan and the general store next to it. Both were absolutely buzzing with activity on this warm Summer afternoon, which was a far cry from how we remembered them both last October when almost no one was here. We retreated to our campsite for a short rest, before returning to the beautiful Sylvan Lake Lodge to eat dinner on their outdoor patio. Dinner was great, and our extremely polite waiter from Bali only added to the experience. Afterwards we stopped at Sylvan Lake again and made a complete hike around it as the sun cast wonderful light on all the surrounding granite boulders. (See today’s pic). The lake was completely calm, and only a few people were there, so it was a delightful after dinner stroll. We’re looking forward to biking the Michelson Trail tomorrow, followed by a possible dip in the lake.

Bushels of Fun– Snake Creek State Park, SD 6/26

We had a long drive today through southern Minnesota. Actually, this part of the state doesn’t look much different than Iowa with miles and miles of cornfields broken up by the occasional dairy farm. Our original plan was to camp at the western border of Minnesota at Lake Shetak State Park that boasted swimming and a 6-mile bike path into the town of Currie. After about 5 hours of driving we finally pulled into the park, but deliberated whether or not to camp for the night. The concern wasn’t so much the campground, but the 70 mph winds, hailstorm and weather warnings that were continually being broadcast on the radio. So far we were fortunate in that we hadn’t seen any rain, but knew it coming. Even though we had already done a lot of driving, we figured it didn’t make much sense to stay put and be in the inevitable storm that was heading our way. On the way out of Minnesota and into South Dakota we decided to stop by Pipestone National Monument famous for the red soft stone that was the preferred source of pipestone among Plains tribes. The Visitor’s Center had several Indian crafts men and women carving and creating stone pipes and jewelry and a nice museum. As we drove down the main street of the nearby town, Pipestone, most of the buildings were made from this rock. While the architecture was similar to many small towns across America, the colors were definitely unique. I’m glad we made the side trip. Once in South Dakota we drove thru the storm, impressed by the strong winds and sheets of rain pelting down, but were pleased that in half an hour we were driving out of the storm and into blue skies/ We heard on the radio that the place we were going to camp was being pelted with golf ball size hail stones. Good call Team Russell! The next stop was the world famous and only Corn Palace! See today’s pic of Ned looking corny but cute in front of the Palace. (bad pun, I know). We pulled into our campsite quite late, about 8ish, but were rewarded with the last campsite directly situated on the expansive Missouri River. It’s a gorgeous evening and we’re enjoying a glass of wine, playing cards and taking in the sunset.

La Familia– Arrowhead Campground, Wisconsin Dells, WI 6/24-6/25

Before we left the campground Ned suggested we check out Kitch-iti-kipi or “The Big Spring”. We had a short drive to these springs and were really surprised by the beauty and interesting geological phenomenon. We were the only ones there and took a short walk to a pier with a self operated raft. Ned wheeled us out into the middle of the small lake, and viewing into the covered opening in the center of the raft you could look 40 feet down into the clearest emerald green water and see the bubbling sands as the springs flowed up. It bubbles up at 10,000 gallons a minute and is a constant 45 degrees year round. The tiny spring lake is located in a heavily wooded area and the sun was breaking just as we entered it - a truly magical moment. Our next stop was Lake Arrowhead for the family reunion. After a six hour drive we pulled into the campground, circled around, went to the site where the family was supposed to be and even checked at the office for the Santos-Saar family reunion. Nothing, nada, zilch. At one point, as we were sitting in front of the campsite that we thought was our group, a very worried “dad” came on over and asked us if we needed help. Yeah, will you be my family?! After a few phone calls, it turns out we were at the wrong Arrowhead Campground!! Fortunately the other Arrowhead Campground was only about an hour away and we finally caught up with the real family or at least the ones that haven’t disowned us yet. We had a great two days with everyone. Ned and I loved playing with all 4 great-nephews and they loved us for our van, which they considered a really cool playhouse. (See today’s pic of all 4 boys on the top bunk of Winnie). In all there were 6 boys ranging from age 7-3. We swam, played bean bag toss games, biked, and generally were worn out keeping up with the little ones. Ned and I took a daytrip on the Elroy-Sparta rail trail. We biked 23 miles through two former train tunnels along a gorgeous trail under arched trees. Others took side trips either playing golf, riding “the ducks, or enjoying the waterparks and we all met up for a true Midwest feast. Gary and Dru outdid themselves grilling up brats, burgers & dogs, Brunswick stew, salads and even homemade ice cream. The highlight of the evening was watching 6 little boys taking whacks at a piñata that wouldn’t break open. There are some serious baseball sluggers in this little group, perhaps even a future Cubbie or two. Later in the evening a pretty impressive thunderstorm rolled through adding plenty of drama to the night. This separated the men from the boys. Almost everyone scattered for their cabins or campsites. A hearty few of us – Marc, Gary, Becky, Andy, Laura, Lane and I played cards doing “shots” or drinking mai tais under a tarp as the storm raged on. As I’m writing this, early on Saturday morning – no one is yet up! Ned and I are on the road again for our next destination, Minnesota, leaving behind hung-over, weary campers. A good time was had by all.

Poncho Villa Rides Again! - Indian State Park, Thompson, Michigan, 6/23

Today was just too much fun. We were hoping the big rainstorm that was headed our way would hit last night, but unfortunately I only saw stars every time I woke up. By the time we headed for Mackinaw City early this morning, the storm was definitely headed our way, the skies were clouding up and rain was imminent. We decided, “What the heck, let’s just head for Mackinac Island and take our chances”. We embarked on the passenger ferry, with our bikes of course, and had a great ride viewing the suspension bridge and other ferry boats with their huge sprays, like rooster tails, spouting behind them. Once we landed on the island we decided to ride the 8 mile trail around the island before exploring the town. Well, we got to about mile 3, felt a couple of rain drops, heard the huge thunder crack directly above and just barely managed to get our ponchos over our heads before the skies opened up. Oh and what a mighty storm it was!! We rode another half mile, getting completely drenched, then finally spotted a snack shack and ran for shelter. We were not the only ones there, and as the bike refugees huddled under the very narrow eaves, the water poured off the hillside and came in torrents around us. We soon found ourselves in ankle deep water wondering how long the storm would last. Some of the troops didn’t think it would abate so they abandoned ship and rode back to town in the pouring rain. Soon there was only a small contingent left, a dad with two daughters, and Ned and I. Our fellow band of brothers decided that it was best to retreat, so they headed off into the rain back to their dry hotel room once the thunder and lightening stopped - but not Ned and I. No, the fearless duo was in it for the duration and we were determined to bike around the island. Ned spotted a restroom sign through the woods and we made a mad dash for it. Once in the ladies room I stripped down and used the hand dryer to dry my clothes. After about 10 minutes of intensive drying two young girls came in and I’m sure I scared the pants off of them too! The last thing they expected was to open the restroom door and see a half naked lady in front of the hand dryer. Once somewhat dry, we threw on our ponchos again and damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead. As we rode off into the light drizzle we both yelled, “Poncho Villa rides again!” (See today’s pic). These brave warriors were rewarded with the road to themselves and calm skies. We rode triumphantly back into town the l-o-n-g way. Once in town, we thought it was a great time to grab lunch and reconnoiter. As we finished our lunch the owner of the restaurant came on over and said we looked like adventuresome folks so he showed us some other fun, more off the beaten path, places to bike. By this time the skies had cleared up and we had a great time exploring the middle of the island passing horse drawn carriages, grand estates, the tiny airport and historic battle places. By the time we landed back in town we had ridden 16.5 miles. We grabbed the 3:00 ferry and headed for Yooperland. Our first stop in the Upper Peninsula was at one of the many smoke fish shop joints that line the highway, a just reward for our valiant ride. We arrived at Indian Lake Campground and were thrilled to get a site right on the lake, including our own dock and bench. After spending a bit of time cleaning out poor Winnie (too many peanut shells and cherry pits), the sun broke and we took advantage of the warmth and went swimming. As I write this, it’s beginning to cloud up again and we are hearing the distant roar of thunder. Mmm – might be a good idea to start rounding up all our gear that is airing out and batten down the hatches.