The Gateway to the Giants

Just a current update, we are currently in Benbow, CA. Stayed last night at the Benbow Inn which is on the national register of historic places. We will be leaving today and driving through the redwood groves along the "Avenue of the Giants". We should make it to Oregon today although I don't think we will make it all the way to Portland. We attempted to drive the Pacific Coast Highway or California Highway 1 yesterday. One of the dealers in Lake Tahoe told us most people don't stay on it for very long and at the time I didn't know why. It had enough twists and turns and dips and rises that we were both becoming slightly dizzy. Also, there was fog that was keeping us from any useful views of the coast so we bailed on the coast road and headed inland to take Hwy. 101 north toward the redwood forests. We loved San Francisco, I'm sure Susan will get to a blog post about all of that. We rented a little 3 wheeled motorized vehicle called a Go-Car for a tour of the city which was quite fun.

I'm having a blast taking pictures with my new camera. Still learning all the settings and how to try and get the most out of it. I took a class years ago about photography but I've forgotten most of it. Maybe I can find one of the ____ for Dummies books to help me out.

Only 10 days left until it's back to the real world and I start my new job in Bethel. I'm hoping I still remember some medicine after all these days off. Also looming  in the distance for me are my board exams to think about. Many changes coming up for both Susan and I.

The Loneliest Road in America

It was tough to top the John Schneider Suite, but we managed to see some more great sites on our way to Lake Tahoe. We decided to skip the Interstate and take an alternate route: the loneliest road in America. Yup, it was pretty lonely. Marshall just commented that it parallels the pony express route, so there is a purpose to the road. I still think the towns along the way paid for the moniker so that people would be forced to stop in them for gas and food. ;)

Lonely Road

Still Lonely

Thankfully there were some sheep to break up the monotony of the drive:

We also took a break to hike and check out some prehistoric petroglyphs. There weren't many but it was pretty cool to see something so old and still surviving in the elements. As some of you may know, I don't love hiking. But I have done as little on this trip and continue to do so on some of our stops. As evidenced below, I don't care for hiking in eastern Nevada. It was a tad hot.

The only petroglyph reminiscent of an animal

Thrilled with the hike

Marshall's full house

But we finally made it out of the desert again and into Lake Tahoe. Wow, is that a gorgeous place! Marshall has been a few times and knew I'd love it. After all of the desert driving, we decided to pamper ourselves a bit. I got a lovely massage and we had dinner in the steakhouse looking out over the lake. And we may have done a little gambling. We both hit big hands and left at the perfect time - before we could give any of it back! It was a so much fun, and Harrah's was very nice to us.

Lake Tahoe

I loved Lake Tahoe! I could see it being a great vacation in the summer or winter, and we definitely plan to return. Harrah's always has fabulous customer service and a great steakhouse, and there is so much to do in the area.

After a short, rejuvenating stay at Lake Tahoe, it was on to Yosemite. The weather was outstanding and the scenery beautiful again. The picture is a quick stop at Lake Mono. It was a sweeping vista, and you can see all of the bumper stickers on the railing next to me. The railing was covered in only that spot. Very odd. Oh, we also made yet another Starbucks and Best Buy stop on the way. That makes Best Buy stop number 6 and who know what number for Starbucks. But we finally have the camera lens we want and I'm getting my fill in overpriced coffee before we head to Bethel!

Lake Mono

Utah!

I saw Utah with an exclamation point on a license plate and loved it. It's got pizzazz! As the recurring theme of our trip, we were pleasantly surprised by Utah. Everyone we met was super nice and the landscape was quite pretty. I wasn't a fan of eastern Utah so much (very sparse and dry) but Park City was gorgeous. We started our day in Park City with breakfast on an outdoor patio; the weather was perfect. Then we hit yet another Best Buy to exchange our camera and equipment. The pictures are already better, though I'm still getting used to the new lenses. Then we stopped at the Great Salt Lake, which I've always wanted to see.

The Great Salt Lake

It's much bigger than I expected and much less calm. I don't know why, but I anticipated a shallow, glassy lake and it was anything but. There were swimmers and sail boats, lots of birds, and plenty of small waves. It smelled like the ocean and felt kind of like being on the coast, just smaller.

Marshall at the Great Salt Lake 

Another odd landscape/weather phenomenon is the quick change between mountains and desert. I understand why one side of a mountain range gets more precipitation, but it's interesting to actually see it (in our case over and over again). One moment we're going through mountains covered in greenery and trees, and the next moment driving through the desert. So after the cool weather and lush Park City landscape, we were back in the desert:

But there was one major treat in store in the middle of Utah: the Bonneville Speedway! It was truly like being on another planet. I though Death Valley was weird, but I think the salt flats beat it out. The salt flats seemed to go on forever, and were quiet and eerie. There were plenty of people driving around but no one even got close to each other. Marshall and I took turns driving the Tahoe really fast (and got it on film). Marshall will post the videos soon. It was beyond exhilirating! Marshall had to keep telling me to slow down that afternoon. :)

On the Bonneville Salt Flats

Then we saw some wild horses on our drive into Nevada. Which was pretty much awesome!

Wild horses. I never thought I'd see that.

(We saw more prairie dogs too, but they were too quick for pictures).

We stayed for the night in Ely, Nevada (pronounced Ellie). It is an old mining town and still feels like the old west. Very old, small, a few casinos and bars, in the middle of nowhere; we actually saw the Pony Express Trail on the way into town. We ended up at the historic Hotel Nevada, which is really a kitschy casino hotel, but it had good reviews and we took a chance. We got one of the last rooms: the John Schneider Suite. I kid you not. Here is evidence of our room:

It ended up being a great place to stay, though the casinos made us kind of sad. They didn't have the joie de vive of Vegas or Lake Tahoe, so we skipped gambling. Instead, we had dinner in the converted jail house across the street (our booth was in its own cell) and finished out the evening with some beer and table top shuffleboard.

On a random note, there were signs all over the hotel warning of the old pipes and rapidly fluxuating  shower temps. But that was the price of staying in the John Schneider room. :)

Living Animals and Extinct Dinosaurs

First, I want to say that my husband rocks; he dropped me off at Starbucks just so I could have some quiet time, drink a mocha and catch up on our blog. That's love. :) Anyway, we left Estes Park a few days ago. Marshall has been getting us up at sunrise almost every morning so that we can get a good start to the day and stop driving before dark. I don't love the early mornings but totally agree on the reason for starting early. However, we saw so many animals at dusk and figured we'd see a bunch in the morning, that we got up even earlier. We ended up getting to the park right around sunrise and it was worth it! First we saw a yellow-belllied marmot that was actually awake (see inset). Then we saw a whole herd of elk.

Elk!

Buck Elk

We saw a ton of animals on the way out of the park, so the early wake-up was worth the subsequent tiredness. The scenery quickly changed and I was really surprised by western Colorado. It was much more sparse and desert-like than I expected. I wasn't as much a fan of western Colorado and eastern Utah compared to the mountains. We saw a lot of this for the rest of the day and it got quite hot:

I was a bit crabby and over the drive by this point. The early wake-up and hot weather just weren't conducive to a fun drive. However, there was a saving grace in the midst of this drive: Dinosaur National Monument. We saw dinosaur bones! So cool! The bones are actually still in the rock and a building encloses the hillside to protect them from the elements. It wasn't a huge museum but worth the stop.

Entrance to the park

Some of the bones with a clear shot of a skull

My best T-Rex impression

We ended the evening in Park City, Utah and absolutely fell in love with it. It was gorgeous and back to cooler temps. We found a hotel at the last second that had a pool and hot tub. More swimming, soaking, and even a bit of time in the steam room. We were so tired that we ordered room service for dinner and loved every second of it. I even got some HGTV in. We thought we deserved it after a pretty long day of driving. Very good for the soul.

Rocky Mountain National Park, Part 3

Alternate title today: Back in the Saddle Again. :)

The Stanley Hotel

As many of you know, Estes Park is home to the Stanley Hotel, which was made famous from The Shining. We thought about staying there, but I was scared off by all of the ghost stories. There are enough that I didn't want to push the envelope. Yes, I am a scaredy cat. I am also not the best photographer. We passed the hotel numerous times and this was by far my best shot.

As I mentioned earlier, we loved Estes Park so much that we stayed a third night. We spent the morning of our last full day sitting on our patio, drinking coffee and watching the chipmunks. They are really too fast for good pictures though. On a whim, Marshall looked up one the horseback riding spots nearby and booked an afternoon ride for us. It was his first time and only my second (though I barely remember my childhood ride). We threw caution to the wind and did a 4-hour ride. It was so much fun! We rode through the park, of course, and it was a fantastic way to see the scenery. We even saw a family of wild turkeys walk across our path.

The horses were really friendly and quite used to novice riders and the path. Marshall rose Moses and I rode O'Henry. Moses wanted to lead the group so Marshall kept having to reign him in and wait his turn. O'Henry was notoriously slow so we were alway quite a ways behind. It got to the point that everyone was laughing as we finally ambled our way back to the group. He wanted to trot every so often, which was fun. Overall, horseback riding was a blast, but our behinds were really sore for a few days and we definitely earned the hot tub soak later.

Getting ready to leave for the ride

O'Henry and I bringing up the rear of the group

Marshall and Moses

Gorgeous view of the park on our ride

Not snuggling or kissing in this picture - they're actually thinking about nipping each other 

The only picture with Marshall on his horse

Rocky Mountain National Park, Part 2

Be prepared for a ton of animal pictures in this post! :) 

After we drove through part of the park in the morning, we headed back to the room to swim in the pool and soak in the hot tub a bit. That was lovely. Between the bit of hiking we did the night before and the altitude, it felt great. We decided to go back in the the park late in the afternoon in the hopes that the bigger animals would be out and about. We drove through the entire park, ending at Grand Lake. This was a great decision, as the elk and moose seemed to be hanging out on the other side of the park. The unfortunate part was driving back through the mountains at night, but Marshall did a fantastic job. 

First was more gorgeous scenery on the way through the park:

Alpine Visitor's Center in the late afternoon

Then we started seeing a ton of wildlife. Every time we came around bend there were more animals. They didn't seem to care that people were standing around taking pictures. And even though everyone was really quiet, I don't think the elk would have cared. They seemed pretty used to tourists.

Buck Elk

More Buck Elk

Moose

Another Moose

The really cool thing was that we would drive along the road seeing this landscape:

and then all of sudden see a field full of elk. It helped that there were usually a few cars lined up on the side of the road wherever there was wildlife to be seen!

More Elk

Elk

More Elk

Another Moose

This was probably the best picture of the day. It's like he posed for us! Two yahoos actually walked into the field to get a closer picture of him. People truly forget that these are wild animals. Doofuses.

Bull Elk

Top of the Mountains

And yes, there will be a part 3, maybe 4. We did a lot in Estes Park and enjoyed every second of it.