Colorado to Canada to Arizona to California

Day 505 of Lee and Irene’s Most Excellent Adventure

August 5, 2006

Dear Family and Friends,

Greetings again from Yosemite National Park where Lee and I are volunteering with the Law Enforcement Rangers in their Desk Officer Program which is geared to retired Law Enforcement Officers and their spouses. Before I go into what we are up to here in Yosemite, let me catch you up on our travels that eventually brought us here.

On May 23, 2006 we left El Paso, Texas, where temperatures were exceeding 110 degrees each day, and we headed north to search for cooler temperatures. As we traveled through New Mexico, the landscape started changing from brown to green and off to the west we started seeing snow-capped mountains. After spending a night in one of our favorite places, a Walmart parking lot, in Las Vegas, New Mexico, we arrived in Colorado Springs, Colorado. We stayed is a campground south of Colorado Springs with beautiful views of the mountains. We only spent 2 nights there because we had been there several times before, but we did something that we had never done. We rode the Cog Railway to the top of Pike’s Peak. Previously we had always driven to the top. It took over an hour for us to reach the top of the mountain, but we traveled through beautiful country and had marvelous views along the way. Once we reached the top we had about an hour to explore and take pictures, and of course, grab something to eat (like their world famous “high altitude” donuts) and check out the gift shop. It then took another hour to return to the bottom. The trip was narrated and all in all was a good experience, however, the train cars were configured with facing seats and they were so close that we were literally knee to knee with the people in the opposite seat. The close proximity did serve to encourage conversation, so we chatted with a couple who were “on holiday” from England.

Continuing north, we spent a Walmart night in Casper, Wyoming and then we spent 3 nights at a KOA in Livingston, MT. Livingston is about 45 miles from Yellowstone National Park so we spent a day driving around the majority of the park. We had last been there 24 years ago when Chris was a toddler and I was pregnant with Jenni. We found the cool weather we were looking for when we left Texas, but unfortunately, the day we were at the park was very cloudy and while we had lunch at the lodge that is near Old Faithful geyser, a snow shower blew through. Temperatures in the 30’s is a little cooler than I had hoped for when we headed north, but we still enjoyed our day at Yellowstone.

Day 583 of Lee and Irene’s Most Excellent Adventure

October 22, 2006

Sorry about the delay in completing this post. We were so busy during our time at Yosemite that I never got back to it. We are now back on the road and headed East. Anyway, when we left Yellowstone, we continued north to Waterton-Glacier National Park which straddles the Montana and Alberta, Canada border. We had beautiful weather when we were there, which enhanced our enjoyment of this beautiful park. Because it was only May, the “Going-to-the-Sun” Road wasn’t completely open. They were still working on plowing the 25 feet of snow that had accumulated during the winter. 14 miles of the road was open from the East entrance and 14 miles was open from the West entrance. To drive from one side to the other we had to go about 60 miles around the outside of the park. I wanted to go up the road to see the snow pile, but they didn’t let you get close to where the plowing was going on. The next day we crossed the border to Canada to visit the Canadian side of Waterton-Glacier National Park. That is where we saw several bears going about the business of refueling after a long winter of hibernation.

On June 2nd we arrived in Calgary, Alberta to spend a weekend visiting the Nichols family. We met them last year on our way to Inuvik, Northwest Territories, and we also spent some time with them in Dawson City, Yukon. The plan, on this visit, was for us to put Montey in their driveway. Unfortunately, Montey got out of hand and took a chunk out of the gutter on the side of their house and received a gouge in the side in return! Then to add insult to injury, when Lee was getting out of the motorhome to check the damage, he turned his ankle and landed on his butt in the street. Both Lee and I were terribly upset and embarrassed by Montey’s bad behavior (for those of you who are new to “Lee and Irene’s Most Excellent Adventure”, Montey is our name for our motorhome). Holly and William were extremely gracious and wouldn’t allow us to pay for the damage to their house. We spent a wonderful weekend with them. We were headed for Banff and Jasper National Parks and Edmonton, and despite our near destruction of their house, the Nichols invited us back the following weekend.

Our first destination after leaving Calgary was Banff National Park. The snow-capped mountains, the glaciers, the waterfalls, and Lake Louise, were beautiful. We saw elk along the side of the road. For those of you who haven’t seen elk up close and personal, they look like deer, but they are a lot bigger. You definitely don’t want to meet one with your car. After a couple of days in Banff, we headed north to Jasper. Along the way we came across Athabasca Glacier which is part of the Columbia Ice Field. Tours, via large track vehicles, onto the glacier were being offered so Lee and I took advantage of the opportunity to walk on a glacier. We spent a night in a Jasper National Park campground, where instead of bear warnings, we were warned about the female elk because it was calving season and they tended to be nervous and dangerous. After we got set up in our site, along came a female elk. She walked right by our coach and was as big as a horse! The next day we headed for Edmonton to visit the famous West Edmonton Mall. We stayed at a very nice RV Park just a few miles from the mall. The mall was pretty impressive. Along with a lot of stores, it has an indoor water park with a wave pool, a submarine, and a Pirate Ship (which can be reserved for private parties), an ice-skating rink, and a casino.

After our visit to Edmonton, we headed back to Calgary for another wonderful weekend with the Nichols family. The night before we left we stopped at a fabulous gourmet chocolates store (unfortunately I can’t remember the name). I thought that William was buying chocolates for Holly and the kids, but he also bought a wonderful box for Lee and I (which I devoured almost single-handedly). We really enjoyed our time in Canada, but it was time to head south again.

We returned to the US on June 12th and after a couple of Walmart nights, we arrived at Green River, UT and Shady Acres RV Park. From here we set out to visit Arches National Park and Canyonland National Park which are only about 20 miles from each other. The red rock formations at Arches were amazing, and while Canyonland isn’t quite the scale of the Grand Canyon in AZ, it is still beautiful. We did both parks in one day. We didn’t do any significant hiking, but if we had more time, there were some great trails available.

From Green River, UT we took a beautiful “Scenic Byway” that ran past Capitol Reef National Park. Almost the entire drive from Green River to Glendale, UT afforded beautiful views of amazing sandstone and limestone formations. Montey’s brakes got a workout when we drove around a corner and almost into a cattle drive heading toward us on the road! That was unexpected, even though there were signs indicating open pasture cattle grazing. We arrived safely at Bauer’s Canyon Ranch RV Park where we spent the weekend. It was conveniently located between Bryce Canyon National Park and Zion National Park. We spent Saturday, June 17th, at Bryce Canyon, and the next day, Father’s Day, at Zion. Temperatures both days reached over 100 degrees. We were able to drive the car all around Bryce Canyon, but at Zion we had to park the car just outside the park and take a shuttle bus (without AC) to see most of the sights. We could only drive thru part of the park. Shuttle buses are becoming more common at the National Parks. If it wasn’t so hot, we wouldn’t have minded taking the shuttle, but as it was, we were melting! We saw some people rock-climbing at Zion, which, given the heat and the sunshine, I found amazing. That rock must have been burning hot!

On Monday we headed for Las Vegas, NV. We opted against the most direct route because the most direct highway ran through Zion NP and, along with very steep grades and windy road, there was a tunnel that we would have had to be escorted through due to Montey’s size. Instead we went north about 20 miles before turning west and then south. Needless to say, the heat followed us to Nevada where we stayed for 3 nights. (Didn’t win any money, but had a great time.)

On June 22nd we continued south to Phoenix, AZ. Montey didn’t like go up over the mountains in 110 degree heat. After climbing some steep grades, warning lights appeared in the dashboard telling us that Montey needed to rest and cool off. Sheila Gerbarg, a college friend of mine, lives in Scottsdale, AZ, a suburb of Phoenix. We were able to spend a few days visiting with her and her husband Zach at their beautiful home. Our son Chris flew into Phoenix on Sunday and our original plan was to drive north toward the Grand Canyon that day, but we were so enjoying seeing our friends, who we had not seen for several years, that the three of us spent the evening with Sheila and Zach. We enjoyed Chinese take-out and played “Scene It”, which Zach won.

It was hard to say good-bye to Sheila and Zach, but it was not hard to leave the HEAT! We headed to cooler climes at the Grand Canyon where we stayed in a KOA campground just a few miles from the park entrance. We went up to the park after dinner to catch the sunset over the canyon, but unfortunately, there was a fire on the North Rim (we were on the South Rim) and smoke was filling the canyon. The sunset seen through smoke isn’t nearly as impressive as when there is no smoke, but it was beautiful just the same. Lee was wearing one of his T-shirts from the police department and a couple asked if we were from Fairfax, which we are, and they too were from Fairfax County so we had a nice chat with them before heading back to Montey for a game of Trivial Pursuit, which our cocky son won, though his win only survived until the next evening when I won. Then I got to be the cocky one. We spent the entire next day up at the Grand Canyon and it was a little clearer, but not much, so my pictures aren’t the best, but we still enjoyed our time there.

Sedonna, Arizona, was our next stop. It is a really nice little town, surrounded by red-rock formations. We only spent one night in town but we were able to do quite a bit of exploring and catch a beautiful sunset while we were there.

The next day, June 29th, we headed back to Las Vegas. This was an unexpected addition to our itinerary because the original plan. Originally, we were supposed to drop Chris off at a friends house in Phoenix and they were going to go to Las Vegas for the wedding of another friend. At the last minute, that guy said he couldn’t go to the wedding so Chris needed a ride to Vegas. Since we were on our way to Yosemite National Park in California, it wasn’t too much out of the way, and we got to spend more time with Chris.

Lee and I headed west early the next day. (I had been up all night playing blackjack with Chris at Harrah’s casino, while Lee got a good night’s sleep.) We spent the night at the Walmart in Fresno because we were due to “report for duty” the next day, July 1st, at Yosemite. We were scheduled to work as volunteers in the Desk Officer Program (for retired law enforcement officers and their spouses) from July 1st to October 7th. I will talk about our adventures at Yosemite in my next post.

Until next time…

Lee and Irene Williams
3700 S. Westport Ave #3193
Sioux Falls, SD 57106-6360
Lee’s Cell 703-402-1130
Lee’s Email leonzo@hotmail.com
Irene’s Cell 703-963-4665
Irene’s Email icw1015@hotmail.com