Buffalos, Bears and Snow-Capped Mountains

 Tuesday. A tidbit about West Yellowstone, WY.  The town doesn’t shovel snow in the winter. There’s no place to put it. So the snow is just tampered down and everyone uses snow mobiles or skis. They carve out u-turns if needed. Isn’t that interesting? Just stopped at entrance to the park and had group photo made   Now entering the park!  Seeing a lot of Lodge Pole Pine. They are conifers. I’m seeing little clumps of ice accumulating along the edges of the water   And steam is rising off the water.   Yellowstone was a super volcano. The caldera is 35 miles across    When it blew it didn’t have lava but a type of magma. It was that yellow stuff we saw yesterday. The dome fell back in on itself. Everyday there is seismic activity here and the topography is constantly changing.   I’m seeing so much steam coming right out of the ground. There’s so much coming out this morning that outside looks very foggy—-but it’s steam.  Just stopped at Upp...

 Monday. God answers prayers!!! I’m on the very front row of this coach as we head into Yellowstone.  Big ol’ windows all around! Just found out mtn at end of town is Rattlesnake Mtn. Just stopped at another mtn.—-Heart Mtn, thought to look like heart of a buffalo. After Pearl Harbor was bombed, over 100k Japanese Americans were arrested and sent to camps. Several thousand ended up in a relocation camp on the other side of this mountain. It was like a regular city, but surrounded by barbed wire. Two boys there became friends, Norman Mineta and Alan Simpson. Watch their story on YouTube. Also a book about Heart Mtn was written in 1988—Heart Mountain  Traveling thru Absaroka Mtns  Beautiful lake along this route   I’m so excited about today!!! Looking at overland wiring  What a job it was to build the electrical lines   Seeing donkeys in fields with horses  Learned this year that donkeys are used to keep away predators     Seeing houses bu...

 On the way to Mt Rushmore. Just passed thru Hill City—would love to return to this unique town with its unique shops.  It’s also home to Sturgis Bike Ride, whatever that is!  Seeing lots of spruce trees, dark colored.  Very tall and straight.  Seeing the occasional Aspen.  Guess what- —we are arriving at Crazy Horse!  Will be here 90 minutes.       Took a bus up to base of the mountain.  This project was started in the 1940’s.  Only a fraction has been completed and there is no deadline for completion, which in the end will be 541’ tall and 600’ long. Currently 12 men work 5 days/week year round.  The stone is granite with iron ore mixed in, which make’s working the stone extremely hard.  Currently what is finished is the head and parts of 4 fingers.  The finished project will be Crazy Horse on his horse.       Now going up a mountain to Mt Rushmore!   Again, the blue sky is amazing!   W...

 Sunday. 64 degrees. An 8 hour bus ride to Cody, Wyoming.  Wide open plains, rolling hills. Leaving the Black Hills and into the plains. Not many trees because the Indians would burn the plains every year. New grass would attract buffalo. Natural indentations in the land, called vores, were used to catch buffalo for kills. The Indians would chase the buffalo to the vores and the animals would jump in. Then they could kill and slaughter.  Passing thru Sundance. Sioux Indians held rituals here thanking a higher power for all the provisions given them. Rituals held in spring and summer. Also location where Sundance Kid was held in jail for 18 months. The Kid later joined up with Butch Cassidy. Lots of snow fences along the highway   On our right side of the bus we can see Devils Tower. People come to climb it every summer. We are seeing it from 90 miles away!  If you’ll remember Devil’s Tower was featured in Close Encounters of the Third Kind   As we traveled ...

 9/15/23.  Yesterday we rode all day from Denver, then Wyoming and then South Dakota.  If I could send mental pictures I would, for photos do not begin to see the beauty of this great country!  Not many trees at all.  Just mile after mile of mountains in the background, and rolling hills in the foreground. Not much green grass, mainly dried grass.  We would see cows, but never could figure out how they got fed, got water, or shelter.  We saw pronghorn sheep but I could never get a photo of them. In Colorado we saw oil wells and natural gas wells.  We even saw a fracking well at one place.  If I remember correctly, Biden stopped fracking.  As we got out of CO, we saw no mountains but still rolling hills and land that stretched for miles into the distance.  Because we were at a very high elevation and there were no trees blocking the view, the sky and clouds are spectacular.  The blue sky is gorgeous.  The clouds are very lo...

 Friday, September 15.  Yesterday I began a new type of adventure.  This one is different.  Although I’ve traveled solo before, this time it’s without Terry or family.  I’m with three women.  Since Terry died in January of 2022, I’ve moved to Perry.  I’m living in a 55+ community.  I’m trying my best to get involved.  It’s hard to break in but it’s slowly happening.  The women I’m with are ladies I don’t know all that well but hoping after this trip we will bond. Their names are Sue, Kathy and Franzie.   We landed in Denver yesterday.  Uneventful flight out— I slept.  We caught a taxi into town.  We were told to expect the taxi fare to be around $60. Instead it was $120!  We were taken advantage of for sure. Oh, well. On the way to the hotel we passed what appeared to be a relatively small homeless population.  From what I could see they were mostly young people.  Several tents, grocery carts, cardboard...