Glacier National Park

Troisieme etape: Many Glacier Valley

Another day in the car. It's amazing where it can lead you. Little-traveled two-lane highways through national forests, through reservations and open range, glimpses of the peaks of your destination on the horizon for hours, it seems, teasing you to dare to get closer. The effort is ultimately rewarded with, literally, 12 miles of bad road, a glacial valley, and our first-ever view of, not one, but two grizzlies foraging on the slope above the road.

Lakeside room with a balcony. The interminable howling August wind stirs me to imagine it in mid-winter, in a blizzard. It must be quite frightening. Of course, it must be frightening anyway, even without so much as a gentle breeze, since this lodge is reputed to have been the inspiration for The Shining. Kinda creepy, n'est-ce pas?

Dawn arrived with one of the most amazing displays of sunrise color I have ever seen, viewed directly from the room's balcony. The opposing mountain faces were set on fire by the first rays of sun. This event marked one of the rare occasions where I was thankful to have awakened with the day. 6.10am, 40 degrees. (A noter: This holiday has already set me on a streak for the most consecutive days for me to function before 6.30am. Oddly enough, this behavior cannot be replicated during the work week when I still and always struggle to get up before 7am, quite laughable since I have to leave for work by 7.10 or 7.15am. On holiday, however, every second is precious and must be savored!).

At the boat dock, we're placed on the wait list for the 8.30am ranger-led "Glacier Express" boat ride to the Grinnell Glacier trail. No luck; everyone shows. We get tickets for the next day. I quickly make another day hike plan -- to the lower Grinnell Lake, a fairly flat, mostly lakeside trail past Swiftcurrent and Josephine lakes. As we near the trailhead, Ricky approaches a couple walking away to invite them to hike with us. They too had been on the Glacier Express wait list. Dan and Sara joined us in all of our bear safety silliness. Ricky with the spray; we walked along, clapping and singing and chatting a little louder than usual. We spied fairly fresh bear markings on a trailside tree. We caught the ranger-led, Grinnell Lake nature hike. We were amazed by the beauty of the lakes and creeks and falls and trees and flowers and valley.


It was all amazing and then even more so when we spotted a moose in Lake Josephine, grazing on aquatic plants, immersing her entire head and neck in the water. We named her Josephine, but Sara noted that those who know her best call her simply "Josie." Following a delightful late lunch with Dan and Sara, we retreat to our room for a much-needed siesta.

Buffalo, WY

Deuxieme etape: Buffalo, WY

With our departure from Colorado, and hours of Wyoming sage ahead of us, we soon lost count of (and, eventually, interest in) pronghorns, singing bad 80s songs and marvelling at the substantial snow fences towering alongside the highway.

Our two nights in Buffalo went something like this: Gorgeous scenery, fabulous hospitality, killer gin & tonics, loads of laughs, and a very sweet dog.



Marked also by lovely excursions to Crazy Woman Canyon -- Ricky quickly numbed his lower legs in the creek, while Tate and Patri seemed to have found it refreshing! -- and Tie Hack Reservoir



and a creek-side BBQ chez la tante in Story, with a little fly-fishing time thrown in for Ricky and Tate.

It's all so alien to me and Ricky, these snow fences, highway tire-chaining areas, being snowed in for days, steep grades, etc. A winter warrior must one be.

New Belgium At Last!

'Tis the season; alors, another road trip. thousands of miles, and hours - no, days - in the making.

So much, too much, to say, so this will require a bit of time and several postings.


Premiere etape: New Belgium At Last!

Such tasty samples, such a cool brewery.

Who wouldn't be ready to move to Fort Collins and work for New Belgium???

Of course, that's such an effortless utterance when it's sunny and 80, and everything's green. Perhaps planning a return in January would be in order before packing up the U-Haul. Perhaps it would be wise to feel what being buried in several feet of snow entails before calling it home!

Sadly came the time to depart with our freshly-filled jug of Trippel chilling in the ice chest. Our journey had just begun, and this stop had sufficiently whetted our appetites for more adventures (and brews!). Honestly, there couldn't have been a better way to launch our Rocky Mountain Road Trip 2008!

Westward Ho!

In a decision that was classified only as "insane"by numerous friends (including the one we were visiting!), NLBG loaded down the car with clothes, food, CDs, and bikes in order to do an 80 mph waltz across West Texas and Eastern New Mexico all the way to Albuquerque. Shouldn't everyone drive across Texas at least once? Shouldn't we?Austin-RoswellLeaving early on a Thursday morning, driving through Fredericksburg and catching I-10 near Junction, we began our westward trek. The land and sky opened up and traffic grew more sparse as we passed a wind farm and mesas and dusty, dried-up little towns. Through Pecos and into Eastern New Mexico, Carlsbad and Artesia. Dry lake beds,draws, scrubby, open land. Deer. Fewer birds. Check out the view from the car in Eastern New Mexico:

Roswell, Home of the International UFO Museum and Research Center.
There she was, five years later, our old neighbor from Baton Rouge, working in the UFO Museum! At first we couldn't believe. "There's no way," Ricky said, but I was nearly convinced that that was Kat who had passed us by in the entrance. We enjoyed the exhibits in the museum and the reunion with Kat! We would have loved to have lingered a while longer -- dinner with her and Rocky would've been really fun, but we still had another 3+ hours to Albuquerque and my head was beginning to pound after already having spent 8 hours on the road.

L'Arrivee: Albuquerque
Oh the joy, pulling into Ann's driveway, more than 12 hours after leaving ours, gaining at least 5,300 feet in elevation and losing about 20% humidity. The Sandias in view at the end of the street, the xeriscaped gardens, adobe-style houses, the swamp coolers, green chile on everything. Best of all, seeing Ann after all this time. And meeting her fiance. And finding out that he's cool and laidback and funny.

Camping in the Jemez

Fry bread with honey from a Jemez Reservation roadside stand.

 Through narrow, single lane tunnels in a gorge, onto a gravel road when the pavement ends, we found the best car camping site ever: in a bend in the stream, gorgeous trees, a beautiful tree-lined ridge in the background, black and yellow butterflies fluttering by the water, a super-happy camp dog, and lots of good food!

 Relaxation in a different form. It was sooo quiet, so tranquil, listening to the running water. 

The boys got in some fly-fishing practice while Ann and I chatted fireside, eating Tofudogs and Tings. 

Re-emerging on a paved road the next day, we had a delightful lunch at the Laughing Lizard Cafe in Jemez Springs before heading back to Albuquerque. All in all, a wonderful excursion!

Sunday Pedal

Well, as tired as we were, the need to move our legs led us to a great bike path alongside Tramway, near the foothills of the Sandias. Spectacular views of the mountains and the city and beyond. Ricky and I hung in there, even at altitude! It felt really good to pedal a bit before consuming even more of that gorgeous caramel doberge cake Ann had bought for my birthday!

Au revoir, Albuquerque

Suddenly, it was Monday morning, and suddenly we were saying good-bye, and suddenly, there we were cruising south on I-25 heading toward Hatch. I just had to see where all those peppers grow! Detour to White Sands well worth it.

White Sands

Small strips of white on the horizon, the approach to White Sands from Las Cruces gives little away. In fact, it takes driving in a short way to appreciate. Even more fun is getting out of the car and spending time on the dunes themselves.

Balmorhea Bathing
What a reward following hours of hot, dusty driving through West Texas! A true desert oasis, as they describe it, and fortunately for us, our Monday night layover, as I was not looking forward to 50 more miles of driving at dusk to Fort Stockton.