Cross-Country Camping Trip, Part 9

On Thursday (9/14/06), we left Rocky Mountain National Park and headed across Colorado. We stopped for a late lunch somewhere between Maybell and Elkspring, Colorado, just off to the side of the road. It was really windy and dry, so dry that by the time you had eaten half your sandwich, the bread was already dried out and crunchy like light toast! I have never in my life been in a place that dry.



It was actually a really interesting place, considering it was just a roadside stop. There were some really pretty asters,



and some other plants that were extremely prickly. One species had beautiful rose-colored papery, prickly bracts on the tiny flowers:



and another species had wicked-looking maroon sandspur-like seeds.



There were several other species present, and out of the six plant species I counted in the immediate roadside area, five were covered with spines. Not a fun place to walk barefoot! There was also a colony of small chipmunk-like rodents there, though I couldn't get a good look at them, and at least one thirteen-lined ground squirrel. The ground squirrel was noticably larger than the other critters, and very cool looking. Their backs are both striped and spotted!

Later that afternoon, we passed by Dinosaur National Monument, a very interesting looking place. The colors in the rock strata were amazing. This picture shows the distinct gray and red layers. (you may have to click to enlarge.)



The cliffs and rock formations as we got into Utah were similarly incredible. This would be a fun place to explore.



We drove through rain for most of Utah, so not too many pictures from that part of the journey. This was another long driving day, as we wanted to get into Idaho before we stopped for the night. Finally, about midnight, we got to Three Island Crossing State Park, in Glenn's Ferry, Idaho, and put up the camper. This is a very nice campground, with wonderful hot showers.

In the morning (9/15/06), we went for a little walk on the campground path to the Snake River. It was quite nice, and it felt good to stretch our legs after the long day yesterday.



The town of Glenn's Ferry was an important crossing stop on the Oregon Trail, to get across the Snake River. We didn't have to worry about that, but did see lots of ducks, coots, gulls, and a couple pelicans on the river.



It was a very pretty walk along the shady, cool riverbank. The current in the river was very fast, and the coots kept drifting down with the current, the flying back upstream and drifting down again. Not a bad way to spend a morning!



After packing up again, we headed on through the rest of Idaho and into Oregon. The eastern Oregon hills are dry, and starkly beautiful. I think I still prefer a more temperate or coastal climate, but this rolling prairie/steppe/high desert/whatever-it's-called is quite beautiful.



It only took us about four hours of driving to get from the campground (a hour south of Boise) to La Grande. A short day, and the trip is over.

We spent the rest of the day checking in at the University, getting the keys to our house, getting some dinner, and trying to shift out of travel mode. It has been a wonderful experience, and I'm glad we did it.

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Thus endeth the monumental cross country trip. Thanks for sharing it with me! Now, back to your regularly scheduled blog........

Cross-Country Camping Trip, Part 8

Warning! Very long post, lots of pictures!

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On Tuesday (9/12/06), after leaving the campground in Nebraska, we kept heading west. We stopped at a truckstop diner in Odessa, NE for breakfast (yum!), and Emma was quite impressed at the pancakes they served.



Pancakes have been her breakfast of choice on this trip, but she's never seen one like that!

The scenery continues to be beautiful. This is just such an unbelievably diverse country. Sunflowers, Helianthus annuus, have been on the roadsides everywhere here in the Midwest. They're so pretty and cheerful.



Just before lunchtime, we saw the last license plate that we needed to get the "full set." Keeping lists of states seen on plates has been a game I've played since the first long family car trip I can remember. We've gotten all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and seven Canadian Provinces so far on this trip!

We crossed into Colorado at about11:30, and it was not what I was expecting. I thought it was going to be mountainous, but for a long, long time, it was still just flat, flat, flat.



I don't know why this surprised me so much, except that all the touristy things you hear about Colorado are in the mountains. Much like the perception that it "rains all the time in Washington State," when what people mean is that Seattle and some other parts of western Washington get a lot of rain. Washington is a big state, and much of it is high desert and sagebrush. Colorado is a big state, and much of it is flat.

We stopped at Pawnee National Grassland around midafternoon, and finally saw prairie dogs! We actually drove off on a side road for a while, and got out and walked around a bit to watch them. They're very funny, the way they pop up and look around, then squeak and scurry away. We also saw harriers hunting low over the burrows, and horned larks, western meadowlarks, assorted sparrows, pronghorn, and a coyote on our way back to the highway. A lovely rest stop.

When we got to the center of the state, we were finally getting to the mountains. We went through Estes Park, stopping to get some groceries, and continued on to Rocky Mountain National Park.



What do we see almost as soon as we pull through the entrance booth? (Using our Parks Pass again, so it's like we're getting in free!)



Elk! Really, really, big deer. They are to "deer" what bison are to "cattle." (Except deer aren't domesticated like cattle, I know, stop it. I'm talking size and attitude, here.) Very impressive.

We stayed at the Moraine Campground within the park itself, another beautiful campground. It got cold at night-when I got up in the morning, the mud puddles in the road were frozen!

The next day (9/13/06) was so relaxing. We didn't have to drive anywhere far away because we planned to stay two nights in the park, so we could just kick around and be tourists. We decided to drive up over the Old Fall River Road, which goes up to the Visitor's Center at the top of the pass. It leaves from a very pretty valley.



The road goes across the flank of the mountain in the right foreground, and winds its picturesque way to the big ones behind. The road itself is unpaved, one way, and closed in the winter. It is also very close to the edge. Yikes!



Along the way, we saw lots of pretty streams, waterfalls, woods, and breathtaking views.



I got out of the car at a couple points and poked around some of the streams (Emma was asleep, so Shaun stayed in the car) and managed to snap a picture of a new butterfly:



Hoary Comma, Polygonia gracilis. These beautiful critters were everywhere, especially as we went farther up the mountain.

The aspen trees were starting to change color, and where there were large stands of them, it was stunning. (I'm starting to run out of adjectives. You can just assume that everything from here on out is breathtaking.)



As we went up the road, the rock got more obvious and the trees shorter, until finally, we were above treeline. We saw golden-mantled ground squirrels, least chipmunks, lots of birds, and yellow-bellied marmots (above treeline on the alpine tundra). The view from the top of the pass, elevation 11,796 feet, was amazing.



Unfortunately, the elevation did not agree with Emma. She was asleep when we got to the top, and when she woke up and went walking around, she started feeling dizzy and sick. I could feel the altitude in my sinuses and the lack of oxygen in my muscles, but at least I knew what was going on. Poor Emma just felt miserable. She was white as a sheet, and we had her "safety towel" near at hand as we went driving back down. Her tummy doesn't like twisty winding roads under the best of circumstances, and adding 11,000 feet didn't help. Because of Emma and the altitude, we didn't go on the trail across the alpine tundra, but maybe next time. I still need to see a pika!

Back at the campground, Emma and Shaun had "naps" in the camper (though I don't think there was actually any napping) while I went off on my own for a walk. I went down the hill from the campground to the river valley, up the road, and back into the campground. All told, it was just over an hour, and I saw some birds, including mountain bluebirds (new to me), a very pretty river,



lots of elk grazing in the floodplain



and some gorgeous wildflowers:



Emma perked up once we got down off the mountain, and she really perked up when we had dinner and a birthday party that night. Emma's 3rd was celebrated with cupcakes, a present, beautiful stars in the cold air, and the sound of elk bugling across the valley.



The next day (9/14/06), we packed up and headed out of the park. We went up over the top on Rt. 34 again, but luckily nobody felt too icky this time since we didn't stop at the high part.



On the west side of the mountain, in the marshy ground of the Beaver Creek area, we saw another BIG mammal- a moose! Despite all the time I've spent in Maine, I've never seen one bofore this.



Actually, I may have seen one before. I have a vague memory from a family camping trip to interior Maine, of seeing a moose standing in a pond eating vegetation, but I was really little and it may have just been something that I saw on TV that got mixed up with other memories. This is the first time I'm sure I saw one.

Anyway, we're back on the road, and on our way to our last night camping, somewhere in Idaho...

Cross-Country Camping Trip, Part 7

Still with me? OK, here we go on several days of mostly traveling, starting with Connecticut to Philadelphia on Friday (9/8/06).



My sister and her boyfriend live in Philly, and despite the fact that we only gave them a few hours notice and they were leaving for vacation the next day, we spent a nice evening and morning with them at their new house. Sorry for the short notice, sis! Next time we’ll coordinate our plans better, and try not to visit the city with a trailer in tow…. I was a bit shell-shocked from being in the city at all, and glad it was Shaun and not me driving. Have I mentioned that I. Am. Not. A. City. Person? I literally feel like I’m starting to suffocate when I get around that many people and cars and buildings and narrow streets.

Saturday (9/9/06) we headed east to Lancaster, PA, to visit some friends from grad school. They have two kids now (and one on the way!), so it was good to see them and get all the kids together. We had dinner with them, then got back on the road and went a couple more hours that evening. We ended up staying in Burnt Cabins, PA at a little campground (Ye Olde Mill Campground) near a historic mill. I read on a historic marker sign on the way out the next morning that the town got its name from the burning of settler’s cabins by Provincial forces, in an attempt to placate the Native Americans in the area who were understandably upset at the white people’s ever-expanding western frontier. Strange to think of central Pennsylvania being uncharted wilderness frontier territory.

Sunday (9/10/06) was spent in traveling from Burnt Cabins, Pennsylvania to Jamestown, Indiana. We camped at another small campground, the Overnight Campground. Such original campground names! Nothing much to say about this place, except that it was the third night we slept in the new camper, and we are really enjoying it.

Monday (9/11/06) we traveled from central Indiana to Grand Island, Nebraska. We crossed both the Mississippi River and Missouri River this day. Here’s the Mississippi:



We saw lots of corn, cows, and trains on this leg of the journey, and Emma helpfully pointed out nearly every one. Do you have any idea how many cornfields, cows, and trains there are in Indiana, Iowa, and Nebraska???!!! She and Shaun were "Mooing Buddies" every time we saw cows.

We spent the night at the Mormon Island Campground, a Nebraska State Recreation Area and another very nice campground. It was within sight of the highway, but we heard an owl in the trees behind the campsite. Emma and I saw a toad on the path to the restroom, after which she refused to walk on her own. She wanted to be carried so she wouldn't step on the "little scary dinosaur."

Up (semi-) early the next morning and on to Colorado!

Cross-Country Camping Trip, Part 6

Monday (9-4-06) we left Vermont and drove to Maine to see my dad. I feel strangely uninspired to write anything about the part of the trip that was in Maine. It was like no other trip to Maine I’ve ever taken. I actually wasn’t looking forward to it. I didn’t want to be in my parent’s house without my mom.

Of course, it was beautiful. The rolling wheatfields of the Midwest may speak to my Kansan roots, but the forests, lakes, and rocky shores of Maine speak to me. It’s who I am; a northern nature girl.

Yet….the beauty of the setting couldn’t make up for the fact that when we got to the house, Mom didn’t come trotting out to meet us with a big smile like she used to. Anyway. Sorry. I wasn’t going to get maudlin. The first visit to Maine without her is over; the next one will be better.

I think this is the last fall that Dad will be in Maine, though. He’s starting to make noises about moving back to Kansas (where he grew up), and I think he really means it this time. You can just tell he can’t stand to be in that house without Mom, either. All motivation to continue the renovations and finish off the various rooms is gone. I think next summer, or when the legal stuff about the accident is wrapped up, he will be moving on. Actually, getting away will probably be the best thing for him. I’ll miss that house, though.



Tuesday and Wednesday (9/5/06 and 9/6/06) were spent doing nothing in particular, just visiting and doing laundry and such. We went into town on Wednesday to get the oil changed in our car, and were hit with a surprise when we discovered that the brake pads needed to be changed and the rotors turned. Four hundred dollars later, we escaped from the Subaru dealership with what was left of our bank account….. But it’s good, since now we’re safe again.

I went for a walk around Dad’s property a couple times, and saw a new butterfly, a White Admiral. It wouldn’t sit still long enough for pictures, but there was a cooperative Viceroy under the apple tree.



We did have one bit of excitement on the first night. I went to let Cobalt, our dog, out right before I headed off to bed, and since we accidentally left her leash in Vermont I just stood outside with her while she did her business. Usually she does what she needs to do then comes right back in, but this time she went ambling off across the yard. I lost sight of her momentarily (she’s very black) then spotted her near the barn, walking after an animal. At first I thought it was a cat or a fox, but it was too big and wasn’t moving fast enough. I ran over and got Cobalt, and when I got back to the house, saw that she had a muzzle full of porcupine quills!



Luckily, none of them were the really big quills, and they weren’t poked into her skin very deep. She must have just gotten a glancing blow from the side or head of the porcupine, not the tail. I never heard her yelp outside, and she didn’t even flinch when we got the pliers and pulled them out. This poor dog has been through so much in her twelve years. Hit by a car, giant bladder stones, heartworm (and the treatment, which was worse than the worms), bitten by a copperhead, stoned and drooling from licking a toad, a bout with pancreatitis, an inflamed brain tumor or stroke three years ago when we really thought we had lost her, and now a porcupine. At least it wasn’t a skunk.



Before we left on Thursday (9/7/06), we packed a picnic and went to Schoodic Point for lunch. This is a piece of Acadia National Park that’s on the mainland, just down the road from Dad’s. It’s much less overrun with tourists than the main park on Mt. Desert Island, but just as beautiful.



We ate lunch (including some yummy peaches from Dad’s yard) then had fun climbing around the rocks and looking in tidepools for a bit.



We didn’t stay too long because Dad can’t hike around like he used to, and we had to be getting on the road anyway. We drove the loop around the point, and on the way out we passed a big raft of eiders, gathering together for the winter.



After we went back to Dad’s house and picked up the camper and the cat and dog, we headed out, bound for Connecticut to see Shaun’s dad and stepmom again. It was just an overnight stop, but it was good to see them, and his dad looked a bit better than when we saw them in Vermont.

We got back on the road the next morning (Friday, 9/8/06) and headed down to Philadelphia.

Cross-Country Camping Trip, Part 5

Coming into New England feels like coming home. It just feels comfortable. The style of the houses, the look of the vegetation, the early-September hint of color in the woods, all remind me of growing up in Connecticut. I feel like I should be shopping for binders and pens and getting ready to go back to school.



On Friday (9/2/06) we got to Shaun’s dad’s vacation house in Vermont. We got in about 6:30 at night, just in time for dinner (good planning, that!) and spent the rest of the evening just hanging out with Shaun’s dad, stepmother, and friends of the family that are staying in the house while they finish building their own house. His dad is having some unidentifiable health issues right now, so it was a bit distressing and depressing to see him, but hopefully the battery of tests he had last week will bring some good news, or at least some answers.

Saturday (9/3/06) was spent mostly relaxing at the house. We did venture out for a couple hours to go to a craft fair (lots of beautiful things for sale, though there seemed to be more jewelry than anything else) and to view the house that the friends are building nearby. The house is going to be lovely, but it’s the land I’m jealous of- 10 acres of meadows and forest and a stream with a waterfall. The meadow that the house will be in was thickly vegetated with milkweed, and there were monarch butterflies everywhere...



There were also lots of caterpillars on the plants, munching away. They ranged from about an inch long to almost three, so it seemed to me that they were still hatching and there should be eggs, though I didn’t find any in my quick survey of the plants.



There were dozens of chrysalises (chrysali?) hanging from the plants, lumber, house foundation, and framing. A monarch chrysalis starts out by the caterpillar choosing a spot to metamorphose and assuming a “J” position to begin pupating.



The fully formed chrysalis is jewellike, all shimmery luna-moth-green, studded with gold buttons.



When the butterfly is approaching complete metamorphosis, the chrysalis turns translucent dark brown and the nearly complete butterfly is visible through it.



Then the adult hatches out, and it begins again. If only I had seen eggs and emergence, I would have the complete cycle!

It was a quick trip to Vermont, but we’ll be stopping overnight in Connecticut to see Shaun’s dad and stepmom again after we leave Maine.

Next stop- Maine.

Cross-Country Camping Trip, Part 4

Thursday, 8/31/06, was a totally driving day. We needed to be in Columbus, Ohio on Friday morning to pick up our tent trailer, so we did a big push and made it all the way from Hudson, Wisconsin (just over the border from St. Paul, Minnesota) completely across Wisconsin, completely across Illinois, completely across Indiana, and halfway across Ohio to a hotel on the outskirts of Columbus. Four states and 723 miles. Yikes.

I was driving for the part of the day that included Chicago, and unfortunately, we got there right at rush hour. It took nearly two hours to get from one side of the city to the other. I did OK, but was very tired and glad to turn the keys over to Shaun when we stopped for gas in Indiana. I am so not a city person.

Friday morning, 9/1/06, we went across Columbus to the RV dealership to pick up the trailer. It’s a cute little thing, a fairly bare bones model, which suits us fine. No shower or toilet or fridge or fancy cabinets; just two beds, a table (which can turn into another bed), a sink, some storage, and a two burner propane stove.

I am trying to come to terms with the fact that I am now an “RV person,” but I think this will be a good thing. With the trailer, we are far more likely to actually get out and go places than if we were tenting. I really like tenting, but it is undeniably less comfortable. Try not to be too disgusted with me.



The rest of the day Friday was spent in traveling across Ohio, a little corner of Pennsylvania, and partway into New York. We camped that night at the Darien Lake State Park. It was a very nice campground, through crowded with lots of families with noisy and annoying teenagers. This was the Friday of Labor Day weekend, and there was some sort of concert happening in the area the next day, and also a Six Flags park right up the road, so I think that accounted for the large numbers of shrieking, laughing fifteen year old girls who were carefully not noticing the too-cool-to-be-interested 15 year old boys. At 11:45 at night. Ah, well. They were having fun.

Saturday morning it started to rain about 6:00 am (remnants of Tropical Storm Ernesto), and we had to pack up the trailer wet. Hopefully the rain will have stopped by the time we get to Shaun’s dad’s house in Vermont so we can set it up and let it dry out.

Eight days and 3468 miles into the trip, the traveling has been pretty painless so far. Emma has been a fantastic traveler, and there haven’t been any meltdowns. The dog and cat have been great as well, though the cat is a bit tired of Emma wanting to hold him on her lap. We're trying to encourage her to use her alphabet computer or look at books instead...



Next, on to Vermont!

Cross-Country Camping Trip, Part 3

After leaving Glacier National Park on Tuesday morning (8/29/06), we left the Rockies behind and struck off across Montana.

Montana is a HUGE state.

Coming down out of the mountains was like running into a wall of flatness. When the mountains end, they end. All done. All that’s left is flat. Hours and hours and hours and hours of just FLAT. Going over a railroad overpass was exciting.



It is oddly compelling countryside. There’s a stark beauty in the freshly cut wheatfields that speaks to my Kansan roots of a couple generations ago.

It was also hot, in the upper 90’s, but that tired saying about how it’s not the heat, it’s the humidity? Well, I think it’s true. Though it was 98 degrees out, it almost felt comfortable, since the humidity was around 10%. When the temperature was 98 degrees in every other place I’ve ever lived (Connecticut, Maine, North Carolina, Washington State), the humidity was also so high that it was like trying to breathe through a sponge.

A funny sighting in Cutbank, MT were these signs:



Apparently the incredibly straight roads and flat countryside mean that minimal directions are all that’s necessary!

Near Hingham, MT, we saw some Pronghorn next to the highway- the first time I’ve ever seen this species. Hopefully we’ll see some more (and get a better look) as we go through Colorado/Utah/Idaho on the way home, because they are very cool-looking animals. Did you know they are the second-fastest land animal, only the cheetah being faster?

So we finally made it across the state, and into North Dakota. Toward the end of Montana, we had been seeing something that looked Suspiciously Not Flat.



This is looking south across the Missouri River to the beginnings of the Badlands. After we got into North Dakota, we turned south and crossed the Missouri River.



We camped that night (Tuesday) at the North Unit of the Theodore Roosevelt National Park, which is in the Badlands. Again, what a gorgeous place. Are you tired of hearing that yet? The USA really is a varied and beautiful country.

I had never even heard of the Theodore Roosevelt National Park, but I’m so glad we went. I have a feeling that this is one of the underappreciated parks in the system, but which definitely deserves a visit if you’re in the area. The campground was clean and quiet and practically empty, and only $10 a night. (By the way, the National Parks Pass is a great investment if you're going to be visiting more than one Park in a year. At only $50, it pays for itself after about two visits to parks requiring an entrance fee.)

In the morning (Wednesday 8/30/06) I got up early again and went for a walk on the nature trail that left from the campground. It was an easy walking trail that went through the cottonwoods and junipers and grasslands along the Little Missouri River. It was nice and cool, the birds were out, and I saw white tailed deer with fawns. The river was very pretty in its canyon.



I was a little freaked out by all the signs that warned people not to go into the underbrush because of the prairie rattlesnakes, but other than that, it was a great walk. (An aside: despite being freaked out about being potentially surrounded by poisonous snakes, I was disappointed that I didn’t see one.) On the way back to the campsite, I came across some very large mammals that inhabit the park:



Bison are immense. Not just tall, but bulky and solid and intimidating, with very sharp horns. I would not want to annoy one. As I was heading back after my walk, there was a herd of about 10 bison in the campground between me and our campsite. I certainly didn’t want to get too close, but at the same time I wanted to get to the tent and warn Shaun and Emma, who were still asleep, so they could see them too. So I circled around through the campground, risking the rattlesnakes in the tall grass and giving the herd a wide berth, and woke Shaun and Emma up in time to see the bison. Emma was not sure she wanted to be anywhere near animals that big and kept hiding behind my legs, but was talking about the “puffalos” for the rest of the day.



After we packed up the camp, we drove up the park road a bit, in search of the prairie dog town that the map showed. Turns out that you have to hike up a trail a ways to see them, so we didn’t go see them after all. Instead, we drove to the end of the park road, about 14 miles. We needed to be moving along, and I don’t think Emma would have been up to an hour long hike into the hills. We did, however, see some sharp-tailed grouse, another new bird for my Life List.

The park road goes up along the canyon on the prairie uplands, and had some magnificent overlooks. I’ve never been to the Grand Canyon, but after seeing the canyons along the Little Missouri, I totally get why people flock there in droves. The Little Mo canyon isn’t at all deep or wide or extensive in comparison, but it is impressive and the colors of the rock strata and the way the light plays off the cliffs and muted gray-green vegetation is amazing.



I can’t even imagine what the early settlers through this area must have thought when they were driving their wagons across the prairie and came across something like this. We take travel so much for granted now, with cars and roads (never mind airplanes and high speed trains), that we don’t fully appreciate the effort it used to take.

After we did the park road we headed back onto the highway, with one more sighting of a bison herd right by the park entrance.



They were quite close to the road, and as we watched from the car, they were moseying along in our direction. Very intimidating, and I told Shaun it was time to go when the big bull appeared to be heading directly toward the car. He called me a fraidy-cat, but I noticed he did drive on!



We headed east across the width of North Dakota, which is a very pretty state, and southeast diagonally across Minnesota, also a very pretty state, with lots of little ponds and lakes. We saw a largish flock of white pelicans in western Minnesota, which was fun because you rarely see them on the east coast, and when you do, it’s usually one stray at a time. They are gigantic birds- wingspan of 108 inches!

We spent the night in Hudson,Wisconson, after a long day of driving. We opted for a hotel this night, because we were all pretty desperate for a shower by this point and it was very late.

Next installment: on to Ohio and the new tent trailer….