Yellowstone and Grand Tetons

Home at last...

We are now happily home after more than seven weeks away. We drove more than 10,000 miles and spent... well, I really don't want to add it all up! Tabette is all covered up and put away for the season, waiting for our next outing next spring perhaps. (That's Tabette on the left.)

Tuesday, October 9, 2007

We left the cabin and drove through Yellowstone, this time through Canyon Village and Yellowstone Lake. Here's a colorful view of the Yellowstone River near Mammoth Hot Springs and the sleepy bison at the lower terrace.

We stopped to view the lower falls near Canyon Village and had lunch at Yellowstone Lake. It was finally a lovely, warm day so we took full advantage. We found one of the few picnic tables still accessible on the lake. Lots of the access roads were covered with snow since it had snowed quite a bit over the weekend. As a matter of fact, two of the roads through the park were still closed.

When going south out of Yellowstone National Park, you drive right into Grand Teton National Park in the Bridger Teton National Forest. The sun was just perfect to show the colors but unfortunately this picture does not really show the gorgeous yellows. But here's one of the first views you get of the Grand Tetons from the north from Yellowstone. We stopped overnight at Jackson, Wyoming and then drove home the next day. Here's one shot taken just south of Jackson.

Monday, October 8, 2007

We took a ride to Bozeman to check it out and have lunch. Then we took a ride up north and east of Bozeman. As you can see, the area is very beautiful.

Sunday, October 7, 2007

On Sunday we finally got to go into Yellowstone to see Old Faithful. Of course it started snowing so we couldn't get any good pictures of the geyser. But we had a great tour of the Yellowstone Inn and we saw a few lazy bison on the roadside.

Here are a couple of photos of the upper and lower terraces near Mammoth Hot Springs. Not very appealing.

Roxie meets skunk

While at the cabin, the dogs were quite funny. Both being terriers, they each thought they were the only dog in the house. They'd walk past each other and pretend they didn't see each other. One night, I opened the front door to let Roxie outside. Thankfully, I had her on the leash because the skunk that was getting into the garbage, wasn't about to give it up. (The person who put the garbage bag temporarily on the front porch shall remain nameless.) Roxie immediately jumped on the skunk while I tugged on the leash as hard as I could. After what seemed like an hour, I was able to drag Roxie off the skunk and pull her back into the house. I slammed the door just before the skunk left its mark on the front of the house. For the next few days we had to live with the skunk smell in the front rooms and Roxie had to have another bath when we got home.

Thursday, October 4, 2007

We followed I94 through North Dakota and stopped at this rest area near Medora. It's a view of the Painted Canyon in Theodore Roosevelt National Park. It reminds me of the Painted Desert in Arizona. The national park is in Little Missouri National Grasslands.

Then it was into Montana, the final leg of our journey, for a few days anyway. We were joining my sister Bonnie, her husband Alan, and their dog Jasmine. They had rented a cabin just south of Livingston, right on the Yellowstone River.

This picture shows the view from the balcony at the cabin. The next two days were rainy, snowy, and windy so I hung out in the cabin enjoying the view.

Touring Northern Ontario and Northern Michigan

Wednesday, October 3, 2007

We're in Bismark, North Dakota. What a trip it's been these past four days driving from Maine! I thought the roads in Nova Scotia and PEI were bad but Quebec and Ontario win the prize. They also win for worst signage.

Tomorrow we'll meet my sister Bonnie and brother-in-law Alan in Yellowstone and we'll continue the party for a few more days. It's an unexpected but delightful way to end my trip.

Sunday, September 30, 2007

We left Cindy and Jim’s on Sunday morning and drove to just south of Montreal. We took route 91 from Vermont to Canada and then went west toward Montreal, then south to the KOA. Taking that route was a big mistake it turns out, not only because the roads made you seasick, but also because the KOA was right on route 15, which I could have taken from New York (instead of going through Quebec). Long story short, on Monday morning I must have wasted about 2 hours following the directions they gave me to get to Ottawa without going into Montreal (how many constructions zones can one province have anyway?). I ended up going through the border crossing at Elvira NY and then back into Canada at Cornwall.

Monday was a very long day driving (13 hours) and we only got to Sudbury, Ontario. The last few hours were horrible. The roads were all torn up and under construction. It was raining and pitch black. Impossible to see. We drove around Sudbury for a couple of hours trying to follow directions to the campground but I couldn’t see the signs. Finally found it at around 9:30. I had a huge surprise waiting inside Tabette. The curtains were on the floor, the cabinet with the clothes had opened and the clothes were on the bed. The knob to shut the ceiling fan vent was on the floor and I couldn’t reattach it without taking the entire assembly out. The vent cover was stuck open too. All in all, it was a very bad day. Probably the worst day of this entire trip.

Tuesday was a better day. We drove across Northern Ontario and into Michigan at Sault Ste. Marie. Then we drove along the southern shores of Lake Superior on route 28. Most of the time the drive was very scenic and the road was pretty good. Here are a couple of pictures taken from the highway around Espanola in Northern Ontario. From Sudbury to the western border was very nice; lots of lakes and lots of folks with canoes on top of their cars.

Northern Michigan is also very beautiful. They have lots of places to stop and view Lake Superior.

We stopped at a lovely campground just outside Michigamme. Roxie had a good walk and we relaxed before it got dark. The time change is tomorrow at the Wisconsin border. It poured all night and even though the vent cover was stuck partially open, it didn't get wet inside Tabette.

It’s interesting the different questions asked by the border guards at the border crossings. My first crossing into Canada was at Port Huron; the guard asked if I had any guns or other weapons like mace or pepper spray. He wanted to know if I was taking any alcohol into Canada too. When I crossed from Ontario into NY at Cornwall (the first time), the woman basically read from a script, wanting to know if I had made any purchases in Canada and what was my place of residence. When I crossed into Canada at Campobello Island, the guard asked where I was going in Canada and why. He also asked about weapons. I was asked to pull over and a female officer looked in the trailer, checking for people being smuggled in I presume. We had a delightful conversation about the size of the trailer and she said to have a great vacation in Canada. Coming back to the US from New Brunswick, the US border guard asked where I had been and if I had made any purchases. Then he said “Welcome home.”

When I crossed into Ontario from Vermont on my way home this time, the guard asked if I had any guns, rifles, or automatic weapons. I said “No.” Then she said, “Do you own any guns, rifles, or automatic weapons?” After hearing my response, I noticed a trace of a smile and she sent me on my way. By accident, the next day I crossed into the US again at Cornwall. The Canadian guard was very helpful, telling me how to get going back toward Ottawa without backtracking, but it meant I would have to cross back into the US. The young lady at that crossing (which was only several feet away from the Canadian crossing) was very friendly, but she opened the back of my car and took the keys to Tabette. She opened the door and peaked in but didn’t make any comment. I suppose she was looking for illegal aliens, weapons, or undeclared purchases, but she didn’t explain her reasons.

Today was my last crossing into the US, at Sault Ste. Marie, over the big bridge. The crossing guard asked where I was from, how long I had been in Canada (that was hard to explain), and what I had purchased in Canada.

It seemed that the Canadian guards are concerned about weapons and alcohol, while the American guards are concerned about what you purchased. I don’t remember that any American guard asked about weapons. It was kind of surprising.