Virginia and Nevada City Montana
Our last day here at Yellowstone had us visiting Virginia and Nevada City cause they’re now doing major road work on the upper loop of the park and that left us a day to something else since we’ve seen the great sights that makes Yellowstone a must on everyone’s list of places to visit.
Alder Gulch was the scene of Montana’s greatest placer gold rush, touched off by the discoveries of Bill Fairweather and Henry Edgar in the spring of 1863. Small settlements were so numerous and so scattered that contemporaries called the area “Fourteen-mile City”. Virginia City and its near neighbor, Nevada City, were the main centers of commerce. Earthquake Lake outside Virginia City was created and named after the 1959 earthquake that brought down the side of a mountain and created a natural dam across the Madison River. A spill was frantically dug cause they were afraid that the dam would fail and cause havoc down river.
Photos of Virginia City Montana
While visiting Nevada City I took the time to check out a Choo Choo club that runs a restored steam engine on the weekends. These train enthusiasts donate their time and sweat equity for the pure love of trains. I saw cars from over 10 states and a large group were here from New Mexico.
Check out the beautifully restored Baldwin Locomotive #12
There are more than ninety buildings along Nevada City’s streets. Charles and Sue Bovey began collecting buildings in the early 1940s. In 1959 Bovey was asked to remove his collection in Great Falls. Nevada City became a haven for those historic buildings and others acquired later. A few buildings are original, many have been carefully placed along the streets, and some are constructions. Nevada City is a treasure chest of gems from across Montana.
Photos of Nevada City Montana
The evening was topped off with a chuck wagon BBQ and music. The food was outstanding. It was some of the best chicken and steak we’ve ever had. It was a nice way to cap off a brief but lovely visit to the Yellowstone area. Like I said before … we’ll be back.
Photos of BBQ
Yellowstone National Park
Established in 1872, Yellowstone National Park is America’s first national park. Located in Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho, it is home to a large variety of wildlife including grizzly bears, wolves, bison, and elk. Preserved within Yellowstone National Park are Old Faithful and a collection of the world’s most extraordinary geysers and hot springs, and the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. What can you say except … Wow … I first saw Yellowstone in 1965 as a teenager and this is Karen’s first visit but it won’t be our last. Now that we have the big overview of the park from the tour we took we can look forward to coming back and spending a week or so just absorbing everything.
Here are some of the natural beauty of Yellowstone National Park
We never saw a bear or a wolf but then those are hit and miss these days. I kept looking for Yogi Bear and Booboo … course, we made sure to keep an eye on our picnic basket. We did however see a large herd of Bison and one large male who enjoyed playing with traffic a little too much. Me thinks that he’s done this many times before. I said Bison because that’s what they really are – not Buffalo. Word is that when the song “Home on the Range” was written, Bison didn’t rhyme so Buffalo was used. Go figure.
Here are photos of the traffic jam and herd of Bison
The Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone river was a major highlight of our trip. The canyon is up to 900 feet deep and a half mile in width. The present appearance of the canyon dates from about 10,000 years ago and since that time, erosional forces (water, wind, earthquakes, and other natural forces) have continued to sculpt the canyon. It is one of the most impressive features of the park. We’ve been to the Grand Canyon and each canyon has it’s own beauty but I think I favor this one. Check it out for yourself.
Photos of the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone River
While here in West Yellowstone we stayed at the Grizzly Bear RV Resort. I must admit that this is a high end park with excellent facilities. One drawback was the single hole in the men’s room. For such a nice park they could have sprung for an extra stall or two. The weather was unseasonably cold. At night, it got down to freezing and it was the first time that I was requested to disconnect my water hose for 2 nights to prevent freezing the pipes. They were serious enough to say that anyone not disconnecting their lines would be fined $50. I figure they know what they’re doing.
Photos of Grizzly Bear RV Resort
Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming
Our Grand Teton tour started with a visit to the Snake River and the Upper and Lower Mesa Falls. Found out that the Snake River starts at a natural spring and feeds 120,000,000 gallons of water daily to the river. Wish we had some of that water in California. One thing about tours is that you get to see and learn about things that you normally wouldn’t do. Our visit to Yellowstone and Grand Teton would not have included some of the sights we saw.
Photos of Snake River Mesa Falls
After enjoying the awesome beauty of Mesa Falls we proceeded across to Jackson Wyoming. Spent the better part of an hour visiting Jackson Square Wyoming. Course we saw the famous entrances to the square each adorned with probably thousands of elk horns. Heard a lot of things about the Million Dollar Cowboy Bar so we had to make an appearance and sit on the saddles they use for bar stools. Just as well that we only had the better part of any hour cause Jackson didn’t impress us much as it turned out to be a typical tourist trap. The town is Jackson by the area is Jackson Hole. The name “hole” derives from language used by early trappers or mountain men, who primarily entered the valley from the north or east and had to descend along relatively steep slopes, giving the sensation of entering a hole.
Photos of Jackson, Wyoming
Located in northwestern Wyoming, Grand Teton National Park preserves a spectacular landscape rich with majestic mountains, pristine lakes and extraordinary wildlife. The abrupt vertical rise of the jagged Teton Range contrasts with horizontal sage-covered valley and glacial lakes at their base, creating world-renowned scenery. The beauty of the Grand Teton National Park is just breath taking. Unfortunately we didn’t really get to see the Grand Teton which towers at 13,770 feet due to some cloud cover but we saw most of the rest of the Teton Range. The origin of the name is controversial. The most common explanation is that “Grand Teton” means “large teat” in French. However, other historians disagree, and claim that the mountain was named after the Teton Sioux tribe. Jenny and Jackson Lake provided a wonderful back drop for our picnic lunch. There are still 12 active glaciers on the Teton Range and you can see some of them in photos posted.
Photos of Grand Teton National Park
Salt Lake City Utah to West Yellowstone Montana
It never fails … We got most things ready last night and this morning were looking to get an early start. Diconnected everything and Karen started to bring in the slides. Main slide, entertainment center slide, and the bedroom slide. Oops !! bedroom slide won’t come in !*?&# The best laid plans of mice and men. I won’t bore you with all the details but we actually stayed calm and I started making some phone calls. First to our local dealer – Don’s RV in Ceres CA. Jeff started to explain to me how to manually retract the slide. I didn’t get a warm and fuzzy but he did give me the phone number of Glendale RV in Canada (the manufacturer of our Titanium 5th Wheel). After spending an hour on the phone troubleshooting it was ascertained that the slide controller was dead, it was initially wired wrong at the factury which probably caused the controller to fail, and that I needed to buy the appropriate square head screwdriver to remove the valence in the bedroom in order to use a cordless drill to manually retract and extend the bedroom at our next location. After an hour or so, we found the necessary tools but the cordless drill we bought needed to be charged. Borrowed a cordless drill from the staff at Pony Express RV Resort and finally got on the road 3 hours late. Check out time at Pony Express was noon and we made it by 1 minute but they were nice enough to let us know that they would not charge us if we were a bit late. I also called Grizzy Park RV in West Yellowstone to let them know that we might be late checking in. Made great time and the office was still open when we got to West Yellowstone. Glendale was unable to find a replacement part for us in Utah, Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming so we have to manually open and close the bedroom slider till we get home in a week or so.
Park City Utah
It’s funny how you come to learn something from a totally unexpected source. We were getting ready to leave Winnemucca, Nevada when I started talking to our neighbor as we were both breaking camp to head to our next location. Turns out that the couple next door were from Provo, Utah and I told them we were headed to Salt Lake City to play tourist. They suggested that we make a point to visit Park City, Utah and proceeded to explain the attraction of the city which is about 28 miles east of Salt Lake City. Park City was the Alpine Heart of the 2002 Winter Olympics. It was founded as a silver-mining town in 1869 and was a booming mining town with 10,000 residents and 100 saloons. Needless to say, it was not a Mormon community … It was the second largest silver strike in the U.S. and there are 1200 miles of mining tunnels under the city; the deepest mining shaft is 2600 feet. The elevation of main street ranges from 6500 feet to 10,000 feet and let me just say that at that altitude it doesn’t take much to quickly run out of breath. Many celebrities have homes in the area.
Here are some photos of the sights and sounds of Park City
As mentioned above, there is a ski lift that takes you from downtown to a couple major ski resorts. That sure makes it convenient – walk down from your hotel, hop on, ski … doesn’t get any better than that.
Check out our round trip ride on the ski lift. I must say that Karen was a true trooper cause this was definitely outside her comfort zone!!
During the 2002 Olympic Winter Games, Utah Olympic Park welcomed more than 300,000 visitors during 16 days of competition. It was the site of 14 events with 3 in ski jumping, 3 in nordic combined, 3 in bobsled, 3 in luge, and 2 in skeleton. This acclaimed facility is recognized for the fastest sliding track and highest-elevated jumps in the word. The mission of the Utah Olympic Park is to provide year round, world-class facility to develop athletes in winter sports.
Here are some photos of the facilities and a Ski jumper video
We topped off our visit to Park City with a driving tour of the mountain side residences.