We did a complete rebuild of the original F-134 4 cylinder engine as part of our original restoration in 1976 (more details on this type of engine in the future).  It turned out pretty well, providing us 53,000 miles of relatively trouble free performance over the next 36 years as we drove the Jeep station wagon over most of the eastern United States from Maryland to Mississippi.

In anticipation of the demands of this summer’s tour we decided that a fresh engine was in order.  So as not to interrupt our use of the Jeep during the engine rebuild, we decided to search out and rebuild an engine with identical specifications to the original while keeping the car in driving condition.  We had decided that the rebuild would as well done as possible, as we intended the engine to not only weather our upcoming 10,000 mile trek across the western USA, but also provide reliable service for the foreseeable life of the vehicle.

We located a candidate engine through a post on the WillysTech parts board.  Mike Petersen, our trek pathfinder, and I drove to Staunton, Virginia to inspect and ultimately purchase the engine; bringing it home in the trunk of my Camry.  The rebuild was thorough with final assembly in our work room.

In addition to the basic engine, the distributor and carburetor were rebuilt and all other components checked over.  We are very pleased with the results.  We have logged 5,000 miles on the engine as break-in for the trip and it has been performing very well.  Of course, as any owner of an older car knows, we could always be surprised.

Our friend Lou and our grandson assist with removal of the original engine February 2012

Rebuilt engine being prepared for installation April 2011

Rebuilt engine installed May, 2012

 Finally got on the road at 10:30am today.  With all the personal and company organization to do in preparation for the trek, Jean and I actually did not start packing for the 2 month trek until this am.  Several folks asked if we had a list of things to do in preparation for the trip.  Actually, I did; the first item on the list as to make a list – well we never got that far.

Jean and Dan as they prepare to leave on their 10,000 mile trek (think they will still be as chummy at the end?)

Packed the Jeep with engineering precision; taking weight, frequency of need, and value of each item into account in determining its placement in the Jeep’s bed.  Just wait until day two… Decided to leave the rear seats at home for space and weight considerations.

 Strategic packing at the start of the trek (just wait until the first stop)

 Anyway, after topping off the tank at a local station we were on our way – well almost.  Just five miles down the road on NC 64, the wireless sensor for the GPS flew off its perch on the cowl in front of the windshield.  With uncanny accuracy, a car 100 yards behind us trampled the sensor as it slid down the roadway.  Must have been a skeet shooter.  Fortunately, Jean had a wired back-up which she got working with the DeLorme GPS software on our tablet within minutes.  Not that we needed it at that point, just that it prevented me from going ballistic in a confined space just 3 feet from her in the first moments of a 200 hr trip together.

Heading West on NC 64 near Asheboro NC

Stopped in Lexington, NC for some great local barbecue and proceeded northwest to challenge the eastern range of the Appalachians.  For those not familiar with the handling characteristics of early Jeep Station Wagons; well, it takes some finesse to maintain any level of progress on curvy, hilly roads.  With 72 hp, drum brakes all around, and marginal steering performance; one must continuously anticipate the next change in elevation (up or down) and change of road direction.  Fortunately, our wagon’s components, although authentic, are in pretty much top shape. A newly rebuilt engine, electronic overdrive and Planar independent front suspension, all stock, did their part to get us through in fairly respectable shape.

Tomorrow we tackle the western side of the range with Bowling Green, KY as our destination.

Willys Trek 1950 Willy Jeep Overland Drive Through Western NC

Drive through Western NC

Disaster turned Adventure

It is the wee hours of the morning of the 20^th of August, and it is only now that I have settled down well enough to reflect on the events the past four days.

While cruising at our usual mind-bending speed of 55mph down a 4-lane stretch of open road in eastern Kentucky Friday afternoon, the Jeep abruptly lost power for an interminable second and then cut back on again.  At that instant, there was a huge bang followed by the continuous roar of uninhibited engine exhaust.  It was obvious that unburned fuel vapors that had accumulated in the exhaust system during the power interruption had ignited explosively when the engine regained power and damaged the exhaust system components.  Traffic was light, the shoulders wide and the day was bright, so we collected ourselves and pulled into the paved entrance to an abandon side road to assess the damage and ponder its cause.  Sure enough, the muffler had been split down the length.  The internal construction of the muffler was fully exposed – quite a scientific marvel of acoustical engineering – but not so interesting to us at that moment.

Unfortunately, the engine continued to exhibit a continuous misfire at moderate rpm; not enough to cut completely out, but sufficient to cause concern that we might struggle to make it to “civilization”.  So, as cars and semi trailers blasted by, boy wonder pulled out his carefully packed emergency tool box and commenced his diagnosis of the problem.  Funny how different highways are when you are standing still beside them.  Presuming that the cause of the sharp power interruption was electrical in nature, I first checked for loose wires, then proceeded to replace the ignition coil and condenser – with no perceptible change in the intermittent engine stammer.

We tried to keep calm heads as I tried different remedies. The weather was mild, there were still several hours of daylight left, and no real personal harm had been done.  Shortly after we began this process, a Fish and Game officer pulled up with his skiff towing SUV to see if he could be of assistance.  Soon after, a member of the highway safety patrol pulled in to lend his support.  It was reassuring to have these friendly folks there, but unfortunately neither had the background to assist with the technical aspects of our plight.  Jean, all the while provided rock steady confidence and encouragement to me as she engaged in conversation with the gentlemen.

August 16, 2013 Recognize that butt?? – Dan attempting engine repair along KY80 shortly after the big bang

After 2 hours (in retrospect, probably only 45 minutes) of attempting various fixes, it was deemed prudent to attempt to proceed to Somerset, about 15 miles down the road, where there would be ample auto parts stores, repair shops and if needed, lodging facilities.  The safety patrol officer followed us in his van as we rumbled our way west – mostly trouble free.  It is amazing just how much noise a car (even one with only 72 hp) makes without a muffler.

We elected to settle in at a strip motel on the main drag where we could park the car conveniently in front of our room and continued working on the intermittent power interruption (stammer) problem. The location afforded ready access to several automobile support facilities.  How hard could it be?

August 16, 2013 – Dan working on Jeep in motel parking lot – smiling at this point

  The point ignition system on early Jeeps is extremely rudimentary, consisting of an ignition coil, a distributor with points, condenser, rotor and cap, ignition wires and spark plugs. Well, after bypassing the ignition switch and substituting all of the above items (with the exception of the spark plug wires which were, the very reliable copper stranded type), with new or historically proven components, engine roughness not only persisted, but got worse.

August 17, 2013 – Mike and Michael searching for lost screws as Dan attacks the fuel pump – not smiling so much

Getting a little panicky at this point.  Really want to have this solved and back on the road by Saturday morning.  Would then only be a day delayed in visiting my cousin and his wife in Washington, MO.

One nice thing about having an unusual vehicle is that it attracts on-lookers; incidentally, many of which, much to my pleasure, and my wife’s feigned consternation, are good-looking ladies.  Well fortunately, this time the car drew the attention of a soft spoken, local fellow with a sound practical knowledge of cars and a very kind heart.  After an hour of assisting me in my efforts to solve the engine roughness problem, he called in his dad, also a car nut, from his nearby home to assist.  There had been a perceptible change in the symptoms that I had completely overlooked in my lather to resolve the issue.  Now, instead of abruptly cutting in and out, the engine seemed starved for fuel, bogging down when the throttle was open.

Mike, the father, zeroed in on the fuel system; although, I was skeptical because I did not think that fuel starvation would have caused the abrupt misfire experienced earlier on the highway.  However, I had been at it for 3 hours of semi-panicked effort at this point and was desperate for a solution.  As Jean pointed out in calm, reassuring manner; let’s try to fix the problem now and worry about the theory later.  So we sucked and blew on the fuel lines – no apparent obstruction there.  Changed the fuel filter, even though the old one was relatively new and appeared clear.  Mike, Michael (his son) and I surmised that the fuel pump must be weak, and despite upon inspection of any evidence of wear or damage to the diaphragm or check valves, decided to call it a night and have me find a replacement in the morning (Saturday).  Needless to say I did not eat or sleep well that evening.  Jean, in her infinite wisdom (really), had summed up the situation arranged for a rental car Friday afternoon – such a realist.

After several phone calls to the local auto parts stores early Saturday morning (“sorry sir, but our books only go back to 1980” or “station wagon, is that anything like a CJ?”, or “only have “L” head listed, are you sure it is a “F” head?”) a prince at the local CarQuest located a fuel pump for a CJ-3 on Lexington, Ky, “just 75 miles north.  So, after talking to the folks in Lexington and without any real assurance that the fuel pump was the cause of our problems (the abrupt engine cut off on the highway still nagging me) we headed out on a 3-1/2 round trip to Lexington in the rental car to retrieve the replacement fuel pump. I was squirming in my seat the whole trip wondering if this tact was taking us in the right direction.  What if the pump was not the problem??

We got back around 4pm Saturday and I immediately installed the new pump and guess what —no improvement.  Now where to turn??  I could feel desperation building in me – for I could see us shipping our car back to NC and our whole trip going down the tubes.  Worst of all, my pride would be hurt; not having the ability to weather the to be expected “adventures” during the trip.  All the time Jean stood reassuringly by my side.  So, I call on my knights in shining armor from the previous day and they agreed to try to come by Sunday afternoon to see what we could do.  I am now starting to mentally calculate the chances of getting to Yellowstone by August 31^st to meet up with our daughter’s family that are flying in from Raleigh, NC for a 3-day tour of the area together.

Not much sleep or nourishment Saturday evening.  Attended Mass with Jean Sunday morning, but sadly, found no solution to the car problem in the hymnal or sermon.  After church, going on a hunch from Mike that it might be bad fuel, I purchased a 1 gallon fuel can and some fuel injector hose (we had opened up the freshly rebuilt and proven carburetor; immaculate, so Mike had suggested it might be a case of contaminated fuel).  Although we had not seen any evidence of dirt or water in the carburetor bowl, there really were not many alternatives left.  When we arrived home with the full fuel can, there they were, Michael and Mike, pouring over the engine.  What a relief that was.  To test the bad fuel theory, we ran a fuel line directly from the fuel pump to the 1 gallon can of fresh fuel I had purchased and started the engine.  After 2 minutes (seemed like an hour) — no improvement.  Took the lid off the carburetor (now for about the third time) and siphoned the fuel out of the bowl to be sure we had purged the allegedly bad fuel.  Buttoned things back up and started the engine.  It is now late Sunday afternoon.  It fired right up and ran very smoothly!!!  We laughed and hugged (man-style). Calculating that there were probably about 5 gallons of fuel remaining in my tank, Mike and Michael generously retrieved a 5 gallon container from home into which we siphoned virtually all for the fuel from the Jeep’s tank.  Mike instructed me to put the fuel conditioner, which they had purchased, in the tank ten make a couple of trips to the gas station to get some fresh fuel and then drive the Jeep to the gas station to fill it with high-test gas.

The car ran flawlessly to the gas station where I did as he instructed. On the way back to the motel, the Jeep started breaking up badly again.  I managed to keep it running well enough to drive it up and back a service road attempting to “clear” any bad fuel (the blown muffler accentuating the engine misfire).  In retrospect, the problem was more like the original intermittent power loss than the fuel starvation problem.  No luck, and I just managed to pull into out now familiar parking spot in front of our motel room door (Jean standing there sympathetically) before the engine quit for good.  Dark was approaching and I was tired, hungry and crestfallen (what is a crest anyway?), so we headed to a local restaurant for a little nourishment – don’t remember a thing.  When we got back to the room Jean encouraged me to call someone who might be able to give me some fresh ideas.  It is now Sunday evening around 8pm.  Fortunately, fellow Antique Automobile Club of America chapter member, Ted, was willing to walk through the events of the past few days with me and offer a methodical approach to diagnosing what now appeared to be an electrical problem again – back where we started.  Needless to say, not much sleep that night.  About 2:30am I laid out a flow diagram combining Ted’s ideas and mine for a logical approach to solving the problem.  Jean and I decided that we should once more replace the ignition coil and condenser – did I mention that we had replaced the points and inspected all wiring and insulation on Saturday?  Jean, maintaining a clear head and confident attitude, suggesting we should focus on solving the problem in the most expedient, albeit less economical manner.  We were running out of time and energy.

August 18, 2013 – Dan giving the Jeep repair one more try – not smiling at all

Early Monday morning I headed down to the NAPA store and purchased a new coil, condenser, set of spark plugs and analog volt meter and got back to work with as much enthusiasm as I could muster after about 15 cumulative hours of having worked on the engine over the past three days.  I replaced the coil and condenser (for the second time).  Started the Jeep up — the intermittent running problem persisted!  After a moment of self-pity and frustration, I began re-inspection of this really simple electrical system for the umpteenth time.  As I was rechecking the coil connection of the wire to the distributor – out slid the wire from the connector.  The connector fastened to the coil had lost its grip on the copper strands of the wire running to the distributor.  Was the wire always loose (been in use for 35 years) or did we dislodge it during all the component replacement activity??   I had checked and even by-based that wire a couple of times with no improvement –  but was that when the fuel contamination problem was causing the engine roughness???  No time to ponder that now.  Put a fresh connector on the end of the wire –problems solved.  Drove around the motel parking lot a few times to test out the solution and decided we were ready to go.  It was now 11am Monday morning.

Gave Jean a big hug – Called Mike and Michael to tell them problems (electrical and fuel contamination) solved and thanked them profusely for all for their help and support – I would never have guessed at a fuel problem on my own.

Take-Away

(Caution – mushy part)

With the disaster now turned into an “adventure” (although I am still recovering), I can see that the experience provided just what we were hoping to find on out trip.

1. Reminded us of our shortcomings and reliance on our fellow persons
2. Put life’s other little problems in prospective
3. Reassured our faith in the generosity of others as evidenced by State officers, the concerned folks at the Red Roof Inn, the supportive auto parts dealers and the many on-lookers that wished us well in the city of Somerset, KY; and especially Mike, and Michael who are really responsible for us being able to turn the disaster into an adventure.
4. And, most of all, it renewed and reinforced the admiration and love for my wife Jean, who reassuringly stood by me, providing support and encouragement throughout the whole “adventure”.  By the way – today, August 12, 2013, is our 48^th wedding anniversary.  Happy Anniversary Jean.  Love, Dan —ahhh

After discovering and repairing the loose ignition wire on Monday, August 19th, I set off to the local shop to replace the muffler that we had blown out the previous Friday evening (access Entry #5 if you would like the whole gruesome story).  The muffler replacement started with a reciprocating saw massacre of my exhaust system, but ended reasonably well considering what we had to work with.

Around 11am, August 19^th, Jean and I bid farewell to our motel hosts and on-lookers (we had been there for three days), grabbed some lunch in Somerville and continued our westward journey to Denver for the start of our Park-to-Park trek.

Jeep ran well.  We logged around 240 uneventful miles before deciding to settle in for the night at the State of Kentucky run Ken Lake lodge on the western edge of the state.  Price was reasonable, surroundings were peaceful, and food quite decent.

August 19, 2013 Jean at Ken Lake Lodge in Western Kentucky

August 20, 2013 – visit to cousin Walter and Judy

From the Ken Lake Lodge we drove approximately 300 miles to the home of my cousin Walter and his lovely wife Judy in Washington, MO; located about 50 miles southwest of St. Louis, MO.  The route took us past Cairo, IL and across classic bridges crossing the Ohio and Mississippi rivers.

Walter and I grew up on opposite sides of the Hudson River together; Walter in Teaneck, NJ and me in Yonkers, NY.  In those days one thought little of allowing early teens to take public transportation unescorted, so he and I routinely made visits to terrorize each other’s households.

We spent the evening catching up on family and reminiscing over our past antics.  Truth be known, we would repeat some of our feats again if given the chance – stunts that included things like cigars, fireworks, and old cars.

August 20, 2013 Map of river crossings at Cairo, IL

August 20, 2013 Crossings the Missouri at Cairo, IL

August 20, 2013 Driving Route 66 south of Washington, MO

August 21, 2013 – Washington, MO to Lawrence, KS

Left Walter and Judy around 11am after replacing some leaky wheel valve stems and having the wheels balanced.

August 21, 2013 Judy and Walter with Jean

Headed west once more.  Past through Jefferson City, Missouri’s state capital (they call it Jeff City) and settled in at Lawrence, KS; the home of University of Kansas.  Jeep died in the motel parking lot (could have been worse).  Popped the distributor cap (good at this now – after the umpteenth time) and found that some debris had found its way between the ignition point contacts.  Heard a clicking noise from the overdrive solenoid and discovered some loose wires and a loose governor.  Prolonged vibration takes its toll on everything.  Cleaned things up a bit and off we went for our 48^th Anniversary (seems like yesterday) Dinner at the local steak dive next door to the motel.  We were happy for having a reasonably uneventful day and having made some progress toward Denver.

August 22, 2013 – Drive, Drive, Drive

Logged another 300+ miles through Kansas.  Actually, the back roads route that we took gave us a good flavor for Kansas life.  There are other crops than corn grown in Kansas – a surprising amount of tobacco.  Decided not to complain about the ethanol laced fuel.  Bedded down in the small town of WaKeeney, KS.  Had dinner at the Western Kansas Saloon – surprisingly good chicken parmesan.  Discovered this day that the Jeep’s cooling system does not like sustained high speed cruising (steady 55mph for hours) when the temperature is in the 90’s.  Seldom gets that kind of use in the Carolinas.  Had to back off a bit on some of the long inclines to keep the coolant temperature within safe bounds.  The Jeep and we survived.

August 23, 2013 – Denver!

Another 300+ mile day and we reached Denver, CO.  The last leg to Denver was state route 83 running west to Denver.  As we entered State Route 86 at its eastern terminus, what lay before us was 100 miles of a sparsely traveled, narrow asphalt strip running over and around hillocks and gullies that were covered with a thin layer sod and sage brush.  OK, Mr. Jeep, don’t fail us now.  It was very picturesque once one got over the fear of being found in a stalled Jeep as a dried stack of bones by some hitchhiker.

August 23, 2013 Driving the lonely final 100 mile stretch to Denver, CO

Eventually (everything at you do at 55mph is “eventually”) we broke out into the suburbs of Denver and were soon longing for the serenity of the previous hours.  Reached our hotel with the help of our GPS, braved the Denver traffic for some dinner at a local mall and called it a night.

Saturday August, 24, 2013

As previously reported, we reached Denver, Colorado the evening of August 23^rd.  Following the suggestion of Lee Whiteley, the fellow who, with his wife Jane, documented the original Park to Park Tour in their book The Playground Trail, we stayed on the southeast side of Denver; out of the inner city congestion.  Saturday was to be a layover day for taking care of needed tasks.

First orders of business for me that Saturday were

1. Get the Jeep lubed – it had been almost 2,000 miles since I greased the chassis just before we left Cary, NC.  The recommended lube and oil change interval in 1950 was 1,000 miles.  I figure that with less dusty roads, and improvements in lubricants and metallurgy, 2,000 miles for a thorough lube job and 4,000 for an oil and filter change was perfectly sufficient.  Personal experience with the Jeep had shown this to be the case.
2. Get a haircut – I had meant to take care of this task before we left Cary, but it had fallen off the priority list.

The haircut came off without a hitch – just as handsome as ever. I wish I could say the same for the lube job.  Late Friday afternoon I spent a good hour trying to line up an appropriate place to get a 1950 vehicle maintained.  The only “service station” that I found within practical range did not answer the phone – found out later his garage door was broken, so he was not in a position to help me.  Although previous experience had not been good using a franchise auto repair establishment for this kind of work on an older car, in desperation I made an appointment to take my Jeep to one such place that Saturday morning.  Here is the scenario:

1. 8:30am: I apprehensively show up as arranged.  “Sorry, but we are shorthanded, and will not be able to work on your car until 10 or 10:30 when more technicians arrive.  Why don’t you come back then?”
2. 10:15am: I show up “Not sure how to enter this work request into our billing system, this could take some studying….”
3. 10:30am: “You cannot drive the car onto our service rack; one of our technicians will have to do it.”
4. 10:35am: “Sorry sir, but none of our technicians knows how to drive a car with manual shift on the column; but one of them is willing to try.”  Finally one of the old-timers from the parts department comes out to the service bay; and with a little refresher as to the proper lever position, gets the Jeep safely on the rack.
5. 10:45am: Technician “I have never used a grease gun before, but I think I saw someone do it once.”
6. Finally, a very courteous and patient young service person managed to scrape together the equipment to complete the lube job, check the transmission, overdrive, and differential oil levels; and through some creative manipulation of plastic parts improvised an oil dispenser to lubricate the generator and distributor bearings.
7. I was so happy to have accomplished the task without injury to the Jeep or myself that I actually drove off without paying (later called in my credit card number from the safety of our hotel room.

The balance of Saturday and Saturday evening was spent paying attention to unfinished personal and company business.

Sunday, August 25, 2013 – Starting the Park to Park Tour!

7:30am: Snuck down to the Jeep to disassemble and clean the carburetor’s idle circuit in an attempt to solve a rough idle problem.  Helped somewhat, but decided that I might have to wait until we returned to sea level before I could properly remedy the problem.  Denver is at 5,000 feet above sea level, which affects the air/fuel mixture ratio – something that is handled by carburetor modification for those who reside in the mountains.

9:30am: Packed the car and off we went to share a sumptuous brunch with Lee and Jane Whiteley, who as I mentioned previously, wrote the book that inspired the documentary that drove Jean and me to take this epic trek.  We had a great time sharing stories.  Lee presented us with a color copy of a rare map originally produced for the 1920 Part-to-Park Tour.  We presented to the Whiteleys a reproduction set of the early 1920 window decals for each of the 12 National Parks, which I had made using illustrations from the Whiteley’s website.  Lee also came armed with highlighted maps to guide us on the first leg of our journey.

Jean with Lee & Jane Whiteley after brunch in Denver, Colorado

Dan & Jean starting the Park-to-Park tour at Overland Park

After brunch, the Whiteleys escorted us to Denver’s Overland Park, now a public golf course, which as a camp ground in 1920, was the official starting point of the 1920 Park-to-Park Tour.  We said our good-byes, and off Jean and I went on the official start of our own Park-to-Park Tour.  The first part of the journey led us up Federal Avenue through the whole of Denver’s Westside.  It provided an informative view into the diversity of that city.  We enjoyed the experience, but welcomed the breakout into the suburbs and finally the countryside.

View of Denver looking east from Federal Avenue – Bronco’s stadium on the left

Lee’s suggested route lead us down lesser traveled by-ways and finally up a winding and undulating (often simultaneously) Route 7 which works its way circuitously up to the town of Estes Park, a tourist haven at the base of Rocky Mountain National Park.

We spent the evening in a ‘60’s era log exterior motel after having a tasty Nepalese meal that consisted of ground chicken and vegetables stuffed into wrinkled skinned “dumplings” that resembled Star Trek’s Lt. Commander Worf’s forehead and might well have been alien egg pods from some science fiction movie.  Anyway, they were very tasty.

Lodge in Estes Park

Monday, August 26, 2013 – Rocky Mountain National Park

Recalling a brief tour that Jean and I had taken of the Park when we were younger (the mountains were taller then), and noting that the Jeep struggled to make it up the grades to Estes Park the previous day, we stowed all for our luggage and electronic gear at the Lodge office before attacking the assent into the Park.  I also stopped at the local NAPA auto part store (never can pass one up) and purchased an extra jug of 50/50 antifreeze solution in case the jeep overheated on the way up and coolant needed replenishment.

We did quite well; electing to enter at the northern entrance to the Park as the least vertically challenging.  We made a big splash (small one actually) when we stopped at a lookout near the top of the climb and the resting engine emitted a soft mist which supplemented that of the surrounding clouds.  I had improvised a coolant overflow reservoir from a plastic pop bottle and some wire ties to catch any antifreeze escaping the coolant system.  No harm done – as long as no one mistakes the antifreeze containing pop bottle for a Mountain Dew.  Come to think about it, they are quite similar…

After reaching the Alpine Visitor Center at 11,796 feet above sea level (+ one’s own height) where we had a warm drink and looked at tourist stuff, we descended, leaving the Park through its southern entrance.  It was an exhilarating experience for both of us (more so for me, as I am aware of all the 63 year old parts on the Jeep that could fail without notice and send us hurling over the edge…).

Ernest Hemingway in the Himalayas – or maybe Dan at the Rocky Mountain National Park visitor’ center

Jean at a lookout in Rocky Mountain National Park

Road out of Rocky Mountain National Park with Long’s Peak in the background – note the sign

Anyway, we survived, gathered up our gear at the Lodge and headed north on a three day journey to Yellowstone National Park and our eventual rendezvous with our daughter Jeanette and family who are planning to fly out from Raleigh to join us for a few days in Jackson Hole and Yellowstone National Park.  Can’t they take the hint – we drove 2,000 miles in an old jalopy risking life and limb just to have some private time – – – just kidding.

Stayed in Laramie, Wyoming Monday evening.  I spotted this convenient motel on our way into town and suggested we check it out.  Was I proud of myself when I learned that they were having a special offer of a $49 rate!!  But when I returned to the car to inform Jean of my wise business transaction, she was less than pleased.  In my intense effort to close the deal I had failed to notice the dilapidated sign, the cracked entrance way, the stained carpets……; well you get the idea.  I could ignore all that for $49, but apparently she was not so forgiving.  We did survive, and to the best of our knowledge, have no strange insect bites or intestinal aliments – yet observed.

Tuesday, August 27, 2013

Left the hospitable confines of our $49 room (did I mention that the room was only $49??) and headed north and east to a scheduled stay in Thermopolis, Wyoming.  Not surprisingly, Jean made this evening’s accommodation arrangements.   The trip to Warm Springs covered a lot of rolling prairie with scrub brush and rock out-croppings.  We had lunch at a little restaurant in Casper, Wyoming with virtually no windows.  Not sure if that was to keep outsiders from seeing what was being served or to keep customers from displaying dismay at the food.  Wasn’t half bad, actually.

The highlight of the trip to Thermopolis was the 15 mile winding trip on Route 20 down Big Horn River Gorge with its tall craggy stone walls and railroad tracks sharing the route with the river and our roadway.  Beautiful trip in, and being down sloping, an easy ride in our power challenged vehicle.

Traveling north on Route 20 in Big River Gorge just south of Thermopolis, Wyomong

When Jean said that we would be spending the evening in Thermopolis I thought “hot dog – “Therm” means “hot” and “opolis” means “town” – so I was expecting there to be a hot time in the old time tonight.  No such thing; just a quiet town with some hot springs dispersed around the area.  Never-the-less, I will try to enjoy a night’s rest with semi-trailers cruising by the window of our “rustic” suite and the nostalgic sound of an occasional train whistle to sooth me to sleep.  Did I mention the room rate was…

Got up early and went out to the Jeep at our lodgings in Thermopolis to see if I could find the source of an annoying intermittent stumble in the engine at idle.  30 minutes later I was no closer than when I started.  The Jeep was otherwise running relatively well, so I buttoned things up and we packed up for the trip to Powell, WY where we had arranged to meet with Ms. Diane Martin at the Hinckley Library on the campus of Northwest College.  It is here that they maintain much of the archive collection of memorabilia from the original 1920 Park-to-Park Tour.

Left Thermopolis around 10:30 am after a sound breakfast in a Thermopolis downtown café.  The trip from Thermopolis to Powell traversed a lot of open prairie with rolling hills covered with scrub brush.  To keep the juices flowing we elected to take some lonely secondary roads through the Shoshone Valley for the last legs of the trip to Powell.  The remote locale was both awesome and a bit intimidating.  45 minutes later we popped out in downtown Powell, happy that we had taken the road less traveled.

Had a pleasant visit with Ms. Martin in the afternoon.  She and her husband are avid campers and as such she was able to share travel suggestions for the balance of our trek through the Parks.

Dan with Diane Martin at Northwest College’s Hinckley Library in Powell, Wyoming

That evening was laundry night.  While Jean remained back at the motel taking care of some company business, I made my way to the local Laundromat.  Did pretty well, no socks lost and most of the clothes ended up the same color as when they were before I washed them.

Jeep Trek Blog 8-29-2013 – First visit to Yellowstone

Once again got out early to work on the engine’s drivability problem.  Previously noticed prematurely pitted points, so I decided to file the points and change out the condenser for one of the three additional ones that I had accumulated.  After trying most of the spare condensers, filling the points, and replacing the rotor and distributor cap with ones that had previously performed well, I hit upon a combination of procedures and components that somehow provided good idle and power performance.  Still don’t know the root cause; but I ain’t touching a thing until/unless it starts acting up again.

Also installed a coolant recovery bottle that I had purchased the previous day as a precaution against losing too much coolant under the sustained high load conditions anticipated climbing hills in the upcoming Parks.

It was a short uneventful drive from Powell to Cody which is at the doorstep to the east entrance of Yellowstone National Park about 50 miles west.  During the Park season Cody caters to the Park’s visitors with an abundance of, albeit somewhat pricy, lodging, restaurants, and gift shops.  We passed through Cody and on to lodging that Jean had arranged for us in a cabin complex an additional 20 miles closer to the east entrance to the Park.

Jean at our cabin 30 miles east of the east entrance to Yellowstone National Park

  After unloading luggage at the cabin for weight reduction, at around 1:30pm we drove over to the Park with the intent of driving the full figure 8 road system to get a feel for the layout.

Well, boy we were wrong about that.  Between winding roads and stops for bison in the road and road construction projects, it was nearly 4:30pm when we reached the Roosevelt Lodge at the northeastern corner of the upper loop for a late lunch.  While we waited for our Bison burgers to arrive, we did a mental calculation of the time we would arrive back at the lodge if we continued on with our counterclockwise traverse of the upper loop of the figure 8.  With sunset estimated to be around 7:30pm – three hours being the same duration as it took us to get from the lodge to where we were, and my concern about any possibility of breaking down in the Park after dark, we elected have our burgers and steamed vegetable sides put in to-go boxes, topped off the gas (@ $4.19/gallon) and headed back out the way we came in.  We ate our “lunch” during one of the road construction delays, spent 15 minutes close-up and personal with a herd of Bison crossing the road.  We made it back to the lodge just as dark fell on the complex.  The Jeep ran sweetly throughout the whole journey back to the lodge.   After a glass of wine for jean and chocolate cake alamode for me, we called it a day – another  good day.

Coming up to the east entrance to Yellowstone National Park

Corkscrew Bridge in Yellowstone National Park –  The main Park road once passed across the top of the bridge and then down and through the tunnel

Roosevelt Lodge in the northeast side of the upper loop  of Yellowstone National Park where we stopped to grab a late lunch

The north rim of the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone

Approaching our cabin complex at the end of our first afternoon in Yellowstone National Park

Jeep Trek Blog 8-30-2013 – A day in Cody, WY

Knowing that our younger daughter and her family would shortly be spending 6 days with us visiting the Gran Tetons and Yellowstone National Park, Jean and I elected to go back to Cody, 20 miles east of our lodging to visit their expansive museum complex rather than go to the Park.  We had a grand time; first browsing some of the shops on the main street and then visiting the Buffalo Bill Center of the West which consisted of 5 separate but interconnected well appointed exhibition halls.  We spent about 3 hours just viewing the highlights – it would take a good day to do it justice.

Before traveling back to our cabin we visited the expansive Irma Hotel in Cody, established by Buffalo (William) Cody and named after his daughter.  We had a snack in the main dining room which houses an elaborate bar installed at the time of its construction in 1902.  We returned to the cabin complex, had a light dinner in the lodge and settled in to reflect on the events of recent days and the times ahead of us.

Had to take this shot of “then and now” on the main street in Cody, Wyoming

Dining Room with elaborate bar at the Irma Hotel in Cody, Wyoming

We left our cabin west of Cody, Wyoming and traveled 30 miles further west to the east entrance of Yellowstone National Park and then south down the eastern side of the lower loop road toward Grand Teton National Park.

As we proceeded southward through Grand Teton National Park we could see the Teton mountains off to our right – looked just like the photographs.  Huge walls of jagged stone seemingly jutting straight up out of the ground.  The sharp transition from relatively flat lowlands in the foreground to the tall peaks in the background accentuates their majesty.

Our younger daughter had arranged lodging in a house near Jackson, Wyoming, a few miles south of the Park.  She and her family were flying out from Raleigh, NC to spend 6 days with us exploring the Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks.

The last leg of the trip to our lodging took us down a narrow two lane road that deteriorated into a potholed dirt road for a couple of miles before returning to pavement.  I ordinarily enjoy driving this kind of terrain; however, being 2,500 miles from home I was a little uncomfortable with the thought that we might shake something loose navigating the bumps.

(I was happy that I installed an original type spring loaded float needle valve in the Jeep’s YF carburetor.  From my experience with the solid type needle, I think it would never have handled the bouncing around without allowing overfilling the carburetor bowl creating engine roughness or stall-out)

After some lunch in Jackson, Wyoming, Jean and I retrieved the house key from the management company, unloaded our luggage at the house and went into Jackson to buy some groceries for the incoming horde which includes 3 young growing boys.

Kids showed up around 6pm in good shape and hungry after a day’s drive from Salt Lake City.  Tacos and beans did the trick.

Jeep continues to run smoothly since I changed out the condenser for the third time and filed the points – not planning to even pop the distributor cap unless the engine acts up.

Approaching the Grand Tetons from the northeast

8-31-13 Approaching the Grand Tetons

8-31-13 Road less traveled to lodging near the Tetons

Explored Grand Teton National Park with our daughter’s family on September 1^st and 2^nd.  On Sunday, September 1^st we drove up to Jenny Lake, a 1-1/2 mile diameter lake bounded by the moraines left by the last glacial period.  Its waters are crystal clear and around 65 degrees F.  We first attempted to follow a trail around its perimeter to Hidden Falls and Inspiration Point, an elevated area from which one can view the surrounding terrain.  However; some distance in, the original trail was closed for construction and we got ourselves sidelined down a path that eventually led to nowhere.

We returned to the starting point of the trail at the Visitors Center and decided to take a ferry across to the base of Inspiration point.  Jean and I stayed on the ferry and returned to the Visitors Center to look around while the young’ns made the trek up to Inspiration Point after viewing Hidden Falls.  They returned on a subsequent ferry.

Nice day with great weather.  One of the grandchildren rode up to Jenny Lake with me in the Jeep from our lodgings and another rode with me on the way back.  On the return trip we elected to pass through the town of Jackson to stop for more groceries – those boys can eat.  The streets were filled with tourists in for the Labor Day weekend and we had fun blasting old songs on the Jeep’s radio as we passed slowly through the town’s traffic.

On September 2, 2013 we returned to the Grand Tetons National Park; this time stopping at a look-out along the Snake River and at the Colter Bay Visitors Center along Jackson Lake before hiking to the top of  Grand View Point approximately 7,800 feet in elevation.  It drizzled most of the day, which gave us a different perspective on the area.  The Teton Mountain Range was looming ever present to our west with strata of clouds running at varying elevations along its length throughout the day.

Returned to our lodgings with just the right level of tiredness and soggyness to make it a perfect and memorable day.  Off to terrorize Yellowstone tomorrow.

Elk antler arch in the center of Jackson, Wyoming’s tourist section

Home that we rented south of Grand Teton National Park – roughing it

Luke, Eli & Tommy in Grand Teton National Park

Jean & Dan in Grand Teton National Park

Jenny Lake with the Teton Range in the Background

Jeanette, Luke, Tommy, Mark, & Eli at Snake River Overlook with the Teton Range in the background

Luke, Tommy, Jeanette, Mark & Eli at Grand View Point – elevation 7,823 feet

View east from Grand View Point in Grand Teton National Park – elevation 7,823 feet

Good Morning!

It is 6:30am Sunday morning (for those of you that are looking after my soul, Jean took me to Mass last evening) and I am trying to sum up the three days that we spent in Yellowstone Park with our younger daughter Jeanette, her husband Mark, and their three pre-teen sons Luke, Eli, and Tommy.

We spent the three days terrorizing much of the Park; accumulating an over abundance of photos and movies in the process.  Everywhere we looked, Park visitors ourselves included, were taking pictures with equipment that ranged from an iPhone to some instrument that resembled the Mt. Palomar telescope.

The thought occurred to me that in the interest of preserving the moment “on film”, we may not be taking the time to actually embrace the experience “live”.  A sign of the times I suppose.  Another thought – what will become of all these photos?  Did you ever wonder what is going to happen when the world runs low on pixels?  People will be selling their pixels on line or hoarding them under their mattresses in case of a major pixel crises

Anyway, at the risk of being hypocritical here, I am going to rely primarily on our photos and videos to describe our last three days.  Here is a brief summary of our visit to Yellowstone National park:

Tuesday, September 3^rd we drove with our daughter and her family from Gran Teton National Park to Yellowstone National Park where our first stop was Norris Geyser Basin. This being our first experience with geysers, we were amazed by the the variety of colors and variation in clarity of the geyser pools. One could find a clear aquamarine tinted pool just a few feet from a brown muddy one.  We saw some bleached animal bones in the shallow water at the edge of one of the pools.  No idea if it was someone’s Fido or wild animal that strayed to close to the edge of the deceptively inviting pool of near-boiling water.

At the risk of exhausting all of our wonder on the first day – we next visited Old faithful, the iconic symbol of Yellowstone.  (No worry, there was much, much more to astound us in the following days).

We watched a couple of eruptions of Old Faithful (pretty cool if you don’t watch the guy turning the valve – just kidding), after which a lone bison bull casually meandered (being so big they do this a lot) across the front of Old Faithful’s base as if called in on queue for a photo op.

Dan at Continental Divide in Yellowstone National Park

Geyser Pool at West Thumb in Yellowstone National Park

It was dark (very dark) when we reached our lodgings north of the town of West Yellowstone that evening – more on the lodging “adventure” in a separate blog post.

Wednesday, September 4^th we traveled back into Yellowstone National Park to visit up close and personal a couple more areas of dramatic geyser activity including Lower Geyser Basin.  Again, we were struck by the variety of geysers – actually of the 30 or so bubbling mud pools, hot water ponds, spouting geysers and steaming fumaroles (openings in the ground that emit hot gasses) that we visited – no two were the same.

We capped off the day by visiting the Upper & Lower Falls in the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone on the east side of the Park.  The massive quantity of water that flows over the falls, their fall distance (the lower falls drop more than 300 feet), combined with the fact that they are deep in the Canyon, makes them a wonder to behold.

Proving that Yellowstone has something for everyone, we witnessed a toddler having the time of his life stomping around in a puddle in the Lower Falls parking lot, his mother encouragingly looking on.

Got back to our rural lodgings on the west side of the Park before dark – how simple it was to find the house in daylight – and enjoyed an evening around the fire pit viewing more celestial bodies than this mind can process.

Jeep at West Entrance to Yellowstone National Park

Grand Canyon of Yellowstone National Park

Falls at Grand Canyon of Yellowstone

Young Lad enjoying water sports at the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone

Thursday, September 5^th we traveled to the north end of Yellowstone National Park to first check out the Mammoth Hot Springs region.  The first thing that strikes one entering this area is (are?) the piles of massive white jagged boulders strewn across the landscape.

The geysers at Mammoth Hot Springs have formed a large hillside of colorfully stained white mineral deposits. The jewel of the formation is a set of aquamarine pools at the top of the huge mound from which spill sheets of steaming water over the edges of the serrated walls of the pools.

Next, we moved on to the Gardner River for a soak in an area where the hot water from an underground spring spills down the hillside into the rock strewn river.  By carefully walking (mostly crawling) among the rocks one can seek out a region of the river where the extremely hot water from the spring blends with the cold water from the river to enjoy a warmish soak.  Due to the strong flow from both the river and the hot spring, the situation can be more of experiencing continuously fluctuation water temperature from barely tolerably warm to chillingly cold.

Got to know the right places to sit.

On our way up the river path to the confluence (one of my favorite words) of the hot spring and the river, we passed a heard of elk being closely watched by flag waving Park rangers.  As we sat in our soothing pools of mixed warm and cool water, the elk slowly made their way up the river toward us; grazing on algae in the river bed and grasses on the river bank.  Soon we were face to face with these rather large but strikingly beautiful (please excuse the cliché –it’s early) creatures.  Bathers sat pretty much motionless as the mini-herd slowly ambled by.

It was late when we finished our soak in the river, so we decided to have dinner at the Mammoth Hot Springs Lodge before making the 70 minute journey back to West Yellowstone.  As we journeyed back down the winding two lane road through the Park on a moonless night, we encountered a bull bison standing directly in our path.  We came to a stop as he stood there seemingly sizing us up and deciding whether to punch a hole in our car with a casual swing of his head.  After a bit, he slowly ambled on with an expression that said “d—m tourists”.

End of another great day in Yellowstone thanks to the great preplanning on the part of Jeannette and Mark.

Approaching Mammoth Hot Springs in Yellowstone National Park

Bathers in Gardner River with Hot Spring Water entering on the left

9 -3-13 Bison in front of Old Faithful

9-3-13 Old Faithful blow No 1 at Yellowstone

9 3 13 Old Faithful blow No 2 at Yellowstone

9-3-13 Churning geyser at West Thumb Yellowstone

9-4-13 Heading toward Yellowstone from the Grand Tetons

9-4-13 Geyser at Norris Geyser Basin Yellowstone

9-4-13 Fumarole at Norris Geyser Basin, Yellowstone

9-5-13 Elk at Gardner River hot springs

Been a busy last few days for Jean and me taking in many of the experiences at Yellowstone National Park with our daughter Jeanette, her husband Mark and their three pre-teen boys. We will get you caught up on that shortly; however, there is one item that I wanted to share with you while I am at the scene – our West Yellowstone lodging.

First, a brief disclaimer. I am pretty much OK with the concept of hunting. For thousands of years we either individually or in small bands killed wild game for vital sustenance. And, in fact, we still rely on animals as a food source – plants also. With the exception of perhaps salt and a few other minerals, virtually all of our life sustaining nutrients come from killing or modifying some living thing (I really have not thought this through very much at 5:30am). Also, it is nice to have something else out there to kill so that we don’t use our primal survival of the fittest instinct to kill each other – more often.

OK, with that being said, we were all taken back more than a little when we arrived at our prearranged lodgings in a rural area near the town of West Yellowstone. We arrived at the vicinity of our lodging well after dark on the evening of September 3rd. It was a moonless, overcast night providing us little assistance in finding the location of our unlit residence among the fields and multi-acre home sites well off the major thoroughfare. However, after peeking down a couple of incorrect driveways; we found our home for the next 3 days.

We were all tired after our trip through the Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks and more than happy to have a place to bed down. As we slowly accumulated ourselves to our new surroundings we became aware that we were not alone. Within this nicely appointed home (modern-rustic-western??), were an abundance of animal remains. OK, OK, call them trophies. Let’s see – as I sit here at the breakfast bar I can see two mounted elk heads, one mounted deer head, and the bleached sculls of two long horn sheep and two deer. There are two chandeliers made out of elk antlers (a ubiquitous artifact in this area). If I peak around the corner in the living room, I find the fur pelts of a grizzly bear, two gray fox and a red fox. Bird feathers adorn walls and vases. We discovered at daylight that there are six additional bleached sculls some large animals outside the front entry.

Some of you are aware of my personal affinity for river otters. I envy their playful, seemingly carefree life slithering down the muddy or snowy banks of streams or winding their way playfully over the ground and within the water. I’m sure life is not all cherries and cream for them, but it looks pretty inviting to me for the most part. Well, you guessed it, mounted on the entry wall opposite what I believe is a wolverine, there is a stuffed OTTER. That hit very close to home, as that might have been me!

Ordinarily one of the boys would have bedded down on one of the couches in the living room while the other two shared a bedroom. However, due to the abundance of staring eyes on the walls of the living room (Luke called it a taxidermist office), he elected to sleep on cushions in boy’s bedroom instead.

The house was otherwise very comfortable and roomy; and we enjoyed the hot tub and fire pit under a clear moonless sky so full of brilliant celestial bodies that I could not identify any specific features.

More on our adventures in Yellowstone National Park to follow.

Jeanette sitting among the creatures in the living room of our West Yellowstone lodging

Mounted Otter in entry of West Yellowstone Lodging

Jean and I in the jeep and our daughter Jeanette and her family in their van all left our lodging outside of the town of West Yellowstone mid-morning on September 6^th.   Our paths diverged less than a mile from the house.  I accused them of wanting to get away from the old geezers just as quickly as possible. They did not comment.  While they started their journey toward Salt Lake City to catch a flight back to Raleigh, NC, Jean and I headed back into the Park for a final visit and to begin our trip north to Glacier National Park in Wyoming.

On our way through the park, Jean and I elected to travel the northeast section of the upper loop of the figure eight that roughly describes the road pattern within the Park.  We had planned to go as far as the Roosevelt Lodge, which we found (to the disappointment of my bladder) to be closed for the season.  A quick stop back at Mammoth Hot Springs for dewatering and we were ready to exit the north entrance to Yellowstone National park; passing under the famous Roosevelt Arch on our way out of the Park.

The Roosevelt Arch at the North Entrance to Yellowstone National Park

Predicting that we would not be getting on the road very early that day and knowing that we would be spending some final time in the Park, we booked the evenings lodging in Livingston, MT only about 50 miles north of where we exited the Park.

On our way north, we stopped at a nearly vacant primitive campground on the floor of a canyon for a picnic lunch.  We have found that having a peanut butter and honey sandwich mid-afternoon works out well from a time and expense standpoint.  Thus far, we have good luck finding lunch spots and the weather has cooperated nicely.

Lunch Stop north of Yellowstone National Park

Along the route we passed through the small town of White Sulphur Springs, MT (that’s how they spell it) which was documented pictorially as one of the stopping points on the original 1920 Park-to-Park tour.  We looked for the Sherman Hotel depicted in one of the original photographs, but unfortunately, according to one long time resident of the town, it had been torn down several years ago to make way for the widening of RT 89 through town.  Took a photo of Jean in front of the Murray Hotel which architecturally appeared to be of the same vintage.  Oh well..

Jean on the main street in White Sulphur Springs, MT

On September 7^th Jean and I left Livingston, MT for Choteau (pronounced choto), MT our next stop on the path Glacier National Park on RT 89.  Other than a brief detour to take a peek at a dam on the Missouri River in Great Falls, MT, the trip was rather uneventful.  For those of you who are keeping track, we did attend Mass in a small church in Choteau Saturday evening. Since the Jeep had been behaving quite nicely for the past several days, no Divine Intervention was solicited.

September 8^th was an exciting day.  Our plan was to reach Glacier National Park early enough in the day to visit some of its attractions before retiring in our “economy” accommodations at St. Mary Lodge on the eastern side of the Park.  More on the “economy” part later.  We were forewarned that there was some roadwork being done on RT 89 between Choteau and Glacier.  We elected to stay with that route, as it was the most direct route and closest to the one followed by the original 1920 tour group.  Well, we were not disappointed; we encountered 8 miles of unpaved and rutted road which coated our sweet Jeep with a layer of light grey mud.  Eight miles is a long way when you are enduring a jostling, mudslinging ride.

Approaching Glacier National Park from the East at Dusk

Anyway, we found ourselves at the southeastern edge of Glacier National Park around 4pm.  We decided to hit a couple of the areas in the Park that afternoon.  Living up to our philosophy of taking the road less traveled, we took RT 49 down into the Two Medicine area of the Park.  RT 49 lived up to our expectations; having curves, steep drop-offs, questionable footing, and beautiful scenery (if one dared to look).  We had our traditional peanut butter and honey sandwiches in the Jeep at the edge of a lake in the picturesque glacier carved valley and headed up to the Many Glacier area of the Park backtracking on the same RT 49 that scared the webejeebees out of us on the way in (this time we were on the uphill side of the road).

Entrance Sign for Glacier National Park

The Many Glacier area of the Park was similar spectacular to the one we left; in that it consists of a lake-filled valley floor surrounded by tall jagged mountain peaks.  It is more open, and the peaks more visible than at Two Medicine.  Here we saw the expansive Many Glacier Hotel on the edge of Lake Sherburne.  The hotel dates back to 1915.  We took a short hike to a lake that was purported to have frequent visits by moose and black bears.  Well, after 20 fun filled minutes waiting for something other than other spectators to appear, we decided to head back to our accommodations at the St. Mary Lodge.  At dinner we ran into a couple of fellows that stuck it out at the lake far longer than we did with apparent no luck viewing wildlife.  I just wonder if the wildlife was hiding on the other side of the lake quietly viewing the spectators and saying something like ”oh, look at the funny one with the green fur…”

Many Glacier Lodge in background.  Established in 1915

Anyway, now for the “economy” room thing.  So some of you may recall from previous posts that Jean and I do not make room reservations more than a day in advance, as we never know where the Jeep or our curiosity might leave us.  Despite my poor judgment in selecting a motel to stay at in central Kansas (did I mention it was only $49?), Jean left the arrangements for our stay at Glacier National Park up to me.  There really are not many motels close to the eastern entries to Glacier National Park, so I decided to explore staying at one of the Park’s lodges (they are actually run by an independent firm) knowing that they could be pricey.  Then I saw it, right on the computer screen before my eyes “economy rooms”.  Such a deal, how could I pass this up?  I casually mentioned to Jean that I had found economical accommodations at one of Glacier’s lodges; and she (probably not understanding the full ramifications of my suggestion) said “sure”.

OK, so we get to the Lodge, which is clean and nicely appointed, and I sign up for our economy room.  First, let me say that the room was indeed a good value considering it was clean and convenient to the Park’s services.  However, she was a little taken back with its basement location and limited maneuvering room.  So how much room do you need to sleep anyway??  However, the coup de grace was what I discovered upon returning to the room after a couple of hours of computer work in the lodge lobby.  There in one of the two beds was my bride under the covers cloaked in several layers of clothes.  Our sub terrarium abode had begun to take on the temperature of the surrounding earth and Jean had not discovered that the room was equipped with an efficient in-wall heater.  I turned the heat up and soon everything was nice and cozy in her bed (and mine).

Jean in cold room before discovering the in-wall heater – note the rustic furniture

9-6-13 Driving the northeast loop at Yellowstone National Park

9-6-13 Bison in northeast portion of Yellowstone National Park

9-8-13 Eight miles of road construction on RT 89 going north to Glacier National Park

9-8-13 Drive into Many Glacier, Glacier National Park

9-8-13 RT 49 to Two Medicine in Glacier National Park

9-8-13 Drive north to Glacier National Park from Choteau

Pulled ourselves together the morning of September 9^th, had a hardy breakfast at St. Mary Lodge on the eastern side of Glacier National Park, and headed for the Going-to-the-Sun Road which traverses the Park in a roughly east/west direction.  I say roughly, because it has a “few” twists here and there – both horizontally and vertically.  This was a most anticipated crossing.  Anyone who visits the Glacier National Park region will tell you it is a must-do experience.  It would also work out well for us, as the Road continues on as RT 2 on the west side of the Park, along our planned route to Mt. Rainer.

Typical Scene of Livestock Grazing alongside the roads in Glacier National Park

Within minutes of leaving St. Mary Lodge we were at the southeastern entrance to Glacier National Park and the start of the Going-to-the-Sun Road.  Feeling kind of like one leaving the loading point on a roller coaster ride, but with the added apprehension that we were the ones who had to control of our coaster car, we started the gradual assent through a nicely wood forest and river valley on our journey westward along the Road.  The Going-to-the-Sun Road did not disappoint, providing us with a variety of sensations ranging from spectacular views of the craggy peaks and verdant valleys left by preceding glaciers to total disorientation when visibility was fully obscured by a low cloud layer wrapping itself around the mountains as we negotiated the switch-backs at Logan Pass 6,600 feet above sea level.  Perhaps it is just as well that we could not see the sheer 1,000 foot drop-off on the side of the road as we felt our way along around (sometimes under) the stone out-croppings on our side of the road at a speed just fast enough to limit the risk of someone coming up behind us and pushing us off the edge.

Tunnel along the Going-to-the-Sun Road – Happy they didn’t decide to go around the outside of this particular out-cropping.

Looking into a valley along the Going-to-the-Sun Road below the cloud layer

The view of the mountains and valleys reappeared as we descended below the cloud layer, providing Jean with spectacular views of the adjacent mountains and valleys below as she clicked away with her i-phone – I was too busy concentrating on not creating the newspaper headline “two people die as their antiquated Jeep plunges off the edge….”

After a long decent (the Jeep’s 72 hp engine appreciated the recuperation time), we reached the Apgar Village visitor area on the southeastern edge of McDonald (not the hamburger guy) Lake.  There we found a picnic table near the water and enjoyed our traditional peanut butter (actually sunflower butter) and honey sandwiches.  This being Jean’s birthday, I treated her to a Moose Tracks ice cream sugar cone – what a guy.

Schoolhouse in Apgar Village on the western end of Glacier National Park built in 1915

We left Apgar Visitor Center and were shortly exiting the Park’s western entrance to continue our trek westward; our next destination – Mt. Rainer National Park in Washington State.  (have you been noticing my creative sentence structure and clever use of punctuation).

Leaving the western entrance to Glacier National Park

Incidentally, with the days all running together for the past month as we leapt from destination to destination with punctuations of “unpredicted adventure”, I had let the occasion of Jean’s birthday slip my mind (I know, I know “how could I”).  Fortunately, early on the morning of her birthday, as I sat in the lobby of the St. Mary Lodge blogging, it struck me.  In a panic, I ran 20 feet into the gift shop at the Lodge which was just opening, picked out a more-or-less suitable card (had a picture of a moose on the front), signed and dated it, and took it down to our economy abode to present it to her.  I later related the circumstances of the gesture to her – she was not surprised.

Among the folks kindly following our journey is an online group of avid Jeep enthusiasts called the Old Willys Forum.  Through this forum we have had the opportunity to chat with several interested and helpful followers.  We have actually been able to meet up with some of them, the first being Laurie who was kind enough to drive her early Jeep pick-up down to Evergreen, MT to visit with us for a while at the local  McDonalds (not the lake).  We had a pleasant time exchanging our Jeep experiences.  Really nice to see some likeminded folks – provides some reassurance that we are not totally bonkers – or at least the there are other folks out there that are equally as bonkers.

Dan and Laurie with her Jeep Pick-up in Evergreen, Montana

After leaving Laurie, we traveled west for a couple more hours through wooded rolling countryside dotted with lakes and small farms to our evening’s accommodations in Libby, MT.  Though a ~ 70’s era single floor motel, it was very clean, well maintained and the rooms fully equipped with conveniences.  The owner/proprietor was very accommodating, permitting me to use his facilities to wash the road construction grime off of our station wagon.

We are encountering many road construction projects along this portion of the trek.  With most of the roads being two-lane and twisty, this often included prolonged lane stoppages traffic was alternated through lane closures in the construction zones.  Winters are hard on the roads in the northwest.  The local joke is that there are two seasons up there – winter and road construction.

9 9 13 Starting up Going to the Sun Road, Glacier National Park from the East

9 9 13 Going over the top of Going to the Sun Road Glacier National Park

9 9 13 Continuing West on the Going to the Sun Road Glacier National Park

On September 10^th we awoke to another beautiful morning.  With the exception of a couple of short-lived thunderstorms in mountainous areas, we have only experienced one day of sporadic light rain in the last month on the road.  We are aware of this because our Jeep station wagon has vacuum driven wipers.

Wiper explanation:  Unlike the electric motor driven wipers of later vehicles, our Jeep’s wipers depend primarily on the vacuum generated by the engine to power them.  All other factors being equal, the engine’s vacuum level is inversely proportional to throttle position (i.e. the harder you press on the accelerator peddle, the less vacuum you have to drive the wipers).  So, just when you need windshield wipers most, such as accelerating to pass a semi-truck spraying sheets of water off of its many wheels, the windshield wipers come to a halt.  Only by momentarily lifting one’s foot from the accelerator peddle, will the wiper blades resume their sweep. So one has the choice of continuing blindly on in their attempt to pass the truck before becoming a speck on the windshield of an oncoming truck, or prolong the time in the oncoming lane by lifting one’s foot from the gas peddle.  Ascending winding mountain passes in fog or rain with limited wiper action is equally as exciting.  In all fairness to the engineers of that day, on our “up-scale” vehicle there is a vacuum pump incorporated in the fuel pump assembly on the engine that is “intended” to supplement the vacuum generated by the engine in low engine vacuum situations; however, its assistance is marginal, particularly if the total vacuum wiper system is not in super prime condition.

So, we generally remember when it has rained by recalling the moments of sheer terror we experienced navigating roads on those occasions.  Hope that the insurance company is not reading this.

Anyway, September 10^th was primarily a “getting from A to B” kind of day.  We set our sights on making the trek from Libby, Montana to Colfax, Washington.  We had anticipated a late start out of Libby, as Jean and I both had some maintenance items to take care of; mine being Jeep related and hers of the more personal variety.  The trip was uneventful (a good thing for the moment).  The Jeep is behaving well.  As we approached Colfax, WA, we witnessed a flurry of activity in the fields as the farmers worked to wind up the wheat harvest and ready the fields for planting.  In some instances, the farmers had set the fields alight to remove the remaining stubble.  We found Colfax to be mainly a no-nonsense farming town.  We ate dinner at a Mexican restaurant reported to be the best eating spot in town.  The food was good.  We ate and retired for the evening.

The morning of September 11^th, while Jean made final preparations for our departure, I visited a local auto parts and repair facility to beg the use of an oil can to lubricate the jeep’s generator and distributor bearings.  In my haste to get back to the family back in West Yellowstone, I had neglected to do this when I had last had the Jeep greased.  The auto repair folks in Colfax did not have an oil can.  Not a surprise to me after my previous servicing experiences.  However, the auto parts folks across the parking lot did and thankfully lent me their oil can.

Our objective for September 11^th was making the 5 hour, 250 mile trek to Packwood, Washington which lay just 11 miles south of the southeast entrance to Mt. Rainer National Park.  The most memorable part of this journey was traveling through the large rolling wheat fields of western Idaho and extreme eastern Washington State. Soon after, the scenery returned to semi-arid sagebrush covered hills with an occasional patch of farmland.

After having our traditional picnic lunch at a rest area just over the Columbia River, we again began to see more evidence of agriculture.  First there were apple orchards with farm hands hard at hand picking the fruit and tandem semi-trucks whisking along in both directions loaded with large stacks of apple crates. Then came the occasional corn fields and finally large plots of hops; their 10 foot stalks growing up vertical lines suspended from overhead cables.

The final leg of the journey to Packwood, WA included a 10 mile winding stretch of RT 12 where loose gravel had been spread over a bed of tar; relying on vehicles including ours to either embed the loose stones in the roadbed or throw them at oncoming vehicles.  Fortunately we made it through that section unscathed and coasted into Packwood in time to have a pizza dinner with some folks from Australia that we met at the lodge.

9-11-12 Crossing the Columbia River in Eastern Washington State

On September 12, 2013, Jeff, a fellow Old Willys Forum member and resident of Puyallup, WA, made the 1 ½ hour drive over to our lodging in Packwood, WA in his nearly as-original early 1950 Jeep station wagon to guide us through a tour of Mt. Rainer in our Jeeps.

Jeff with his early 1950 Jeep station wagon in Mt. Rainer National Park

Jeff early and Dan’s late 1950 Jeeps with Mt. Rainer in the background – illustrating the changes in the front end made mid-year

So, as Jeff and we traveled through Mt. Rainer in our respective wagons, we displayed a noticeable contrast in body style, power plant, and level of restoration to those who were interested.  Incidentally, while I tend to baby my wagon when it comes to pushing on it, Jeff is not reluctant to drive his wagon (which is his daily driver) hard when the situation is called for.  He had no problem outpacing us when climbing the mountain roads; although we both taxed our cooling systems pretty heavily on the long inclined stretches to the Visitors Centers.

The first place in Mt. Rainer that we visited was the Sunrise Visitors Center.  From there we were able to get a close up view if the mountain’s northeast face.  From there we backtracked to the Stevens Canyon Park entrance on the southeast boarder of Mt. Rainer National Park, stopping to take a small hike among the tall standing trees and huge fallen trees in which younger trees had taken root.  The trail took us across a suspension foot bridge on to a pristine island.

Dan & Jean on Suspension Bridge in Mt. Rainer National Park

We then proceeded to Paradise Visitors Center.  Although it was now mid-September, the parking lot was packed.  Can’t imagine what it is like during peak season.  Someone back in the lodge where we had stayed the previous evening said that the visitor profile shifted from families with children in the summer months to “the newlywed and nearly dead” in the off season.  Makes one stop and think where one fits in.  Anyway, Jeff and I climbed Alta Vista Trail to an elevation about 1,000 feet above the parking lot before deciding that the view was just fine from there (the trail continued on for a vertical distance of another 500 feet).

View of Mt. Rainer’s southern face from 6,300 feet on the Alta Vista Trail

Looking south down the path of receded Nisqually Glacier the Alta Vista Trail, Mt. Rainer, WA

Looking north toward the origin of the now receded Nisqually Glacier, Mt. Rainer National Park

After rejoining Jean at the Paradise Lodge, we had a light lunch and parted ways with Jeff who began his 1 ½ hour journey home.  We enjoyed our time with him and really appreciate his taking the time to show us around the Park.  Jean and I then commenced our two hour drive to Lacey, Washington (near Olympia) to spend the evening with our prior neighbors in Cary, NC.  Jeep continued to perform well and we arrived in Lacey, WA in time for a pleasant dinner with our friends Barbara and Herb.  Barbara and I were running partners for the three years prior to their move to the West Coast last year.  We would run before dawn with our headlamps on over a 3 mile course that we mapped through the Prestonwood Golf Course.  I am sure we were a source of entertainment for the first few runs as we fumbled our way around trying to find the right paths.  All and all we survived pretty well during those days.

9-12-13 Jeff in Rearview Mirror Ascending Mt Rainer

9-12-13 Following Jeff into Mt Rainer National Park Entrance

9-12-13 Ascending Mt Rainer

We arrived at the Lacey, Washington home of Herb & Barbara (former neighbors in Cary, NC) the afternoon of September 12, 2013 and had a nice meal with them after relaxing around the fire pit in their back yard overlooking the golf course.  Barbara is very active in this “55+” community promoting wellness programs and serving on the emergency preparedness planning team from the community’s very nicely equipped activity center.

View from Herb and Barbara’s back yard in Lacey, Washington

Herb & Barbara with Dapper Dan at their home in Lacey, Washington

Jean with Dapper Dan in Lacey, Washington

We got back on the road mid-day Thursday, September 13 for the trek to Corvallis, OR about 50 miles south of Portland, OR to visit our niece Deborah and her husband Oscar.  The 8 hour trip was quite tedious.  We attempted to travel I-5 for a couple of miles, but very quickly realized that we were going to die.  Our 55 mph Jeep was no match for the continuous onslaught of 70 mph semi-trailers.  We elected to take the circuitous route through city and township to reach our destination.

Deborah is a naturopathic physician with an active private practice in Corvallis.  Her husband Oscar is an accomplished woodworker who has designed and constructed several attractive large furniture pieces – mostly using reclaimed wood.

Corvallis places a strong emphasis on environmental responsibility and personal health.  Recycling, composting, exercising and use of organically produced food items is prevalent throughout the community.  Deborah and Oscar fit well in this setting, growing a variety of food items at the home – including 3 egg laying chickens.

Niece Deborah and Dan with hens in Deborah’s back yard, Corvallis, Oregon.  Can I wash my hands now?

Jean holding a hen in Deborah’s back yard, Corvallis, Oregon

Dan, Jean with Deborah & Oscar in front of their home in Corvallis, OR

Jean, Deborah, and Oscar with Luna, Corvallis, OR

We had a delightful variety of meals during our three day stay with them.  They had invited us to stay through Monday to get caught up on our paperwork (internet service in Mt. Rainer and Glacier regions was very sketchy), do laundry (always a good idea), and reorganize our clothing for anticipated colder weather at Crater Lake to which we will trek on September 17^th.

9-16-13 Driving to Sushi Restaurant with Deborah & Oscar

Jean and I spent the night of September 17^th in lodgings affiliated with the historic Prospect Hotel in Prospect, Oregon about 50 miles from the southeast entrance to Crater Lake National Park. Constructed in the 1880’s, the hotel was in existence prior to the 1920 Park-to-Park tour.

We drove through Crater Lake National Park using the west section of the rim road on our way from Corvallis, Oregon to our lodging in Prospect, Oregon.  The Rim Road was heavily fogged in.  We could see absolutely nothing of the Lake or the surrounding terrain (and little of the road).  We made the best of it by stopping to view a film about the Park at the Visitors Center.  There we were told that clear-to-partly skies were predicted for the next morning with a chance of isolated showers in the afternoon.

We elected to stay in the Prospect Hotel’s motel-like annex rather than the main Bed & Breakfast hotel, as we were hoping to get on the road to Crater Lake early the next morning.  We did not want to risk the opportunity to see the lake because of fog or rain (and yes, the room without breakfast was less expensive).

Historic Prospect Hotel, Prospect, Oregon

Not wanting to miss an opportunity to see the Lake, we skipped breakfast and headed directly for the Park.  With the morning cloudiness burning off as we headed for the Park, we decided to risk a stop at Natural Bridge on our way in.  We were surprised to find that rather than the traditional elevated stone arch of natural bridges that we had seen on previous Jeep outings in Virginia and Georgia, this one was an extinct lava tube through which a respectable size stream flows.  Except in heavy flow occasions when the tube cannot handle the full flow of water, a section of the otherwise aboveground stream is naturally channeled underground through the lava tube and exits back into the aboveground stream bed approximately 300 feet downstream.  The stream was running at a fairly good rate probably due to the rains of the previous day.  Seeing all that raging water disappear into the ground beneath our lookout vantage point and reappear just within our sight downstream was quite impressive.

As we traveled further up the slope of Mount Mazama toward the crater confined within, the skies continued to deepen in blue and the few puffy clouds remained scattered; so we decided to make a 12 mile side trip off of our counterclockwise drive around the rim road to see Pinnacles, a collection of mineral projections formed by the fusion of volcanic ash by superhot fumaroles.  It was worth the trip.

The Pinnacles in Crater Lake National Park

Now finally we were back on the rim road anxiously looking forward to our first look of Crater Lake.  But first we had to pay our dues.  What they don’t tell you in the brochures (speculation, since I do not read the brochures) is that the majority of the rim road snakes its way (snake being the operative word) along the outside of the crater’s rim – that is, the side away from the lake.  The crater walls are high and have steep slopes on both the inside (lake side) and the outside.  So, if one travels the rim road in the counterclockwise direction as we did, and naturally being on the right side of the road, one finds one’s self perilously close to the steep (and deep) downhill of the crater’s outer slopes.  Maneuvering the handling-challenged Jeep on this road with its abrupt elevation changes and sharp curves with the often un-guarded downward slopes (cliffs in some cases) on my right made this passage the most harrowing to me of any on the visits to five of the western National Parks thus far taken on this trek.  All the time, Jean was clicking off photographs and videos; I surmised either to keep her mind off of the imminence of death or to document its occurrence for the Accident Investigation Team – our own “black box recorder”.

Anyway, it was worth the near-death experience.  The view of the lake from the various overlooks was truly spectacular.  Surely, the mountains, waterfalls, geological formations, steaming and boiling features, and variety of animals that we had observed over the last month were awe inspiring; but the sight of that massive blue lake with its two islands was truly memorable.  Perhaps it is the combination of viewing from elevations that permitted on to see practically the whole lake from each vantage point, the contrast in “textures” between the glasslike flatness of the lake surface and the tall craggy slopes of the crater’s rim, together with the color contrast between the pure blue of the lake and the mottled shades of brown of the crater’s slopes.  Anyway, the views were so spectacular that even the photos that I took looked great un-retouched.

Jeep at Phantom Ship Overlook, Crater Lake National Park – same setting as photo from 1920 Park-to-Park tour

Dan & Jean at Phantom Ship Overlook, Crater Lake National Park

Crater Lake from Cloudcap Overlook

Panoramic photo of Crater Lake from Watchman Overlook, Crater Lake National Park

We capped off counterclockwise sojourn of Crater Lake National Park with a stop at Crater Lake Lodge to take a photo of the Jeep in a similar setting as one taken during the 1920 Park-to-Park tour.  Due to the conspicuous appearance of our vehicle, we ran into (not over) many folks several times during our time in the Park.  They recognized us, and I of course, had to be reminded.  Anyway, it was fun visiting with folks from places such as Seattle and northern England.

Jeep at Crater Lake Lodge, Crater Lake National Park – same setting as 1920 Park-to-Park photo

We left the park at around 4pm on the 18^th and having anticipated that we would not be up for much travel that evening, set out for our evening lodging in Klamath Falls, Oregon only about two hours from Crater Lake National Park.

9-18-13 Driving up the east side of Crater Lake rim road I think I deserve a T shirt

9-18-13 Crater Lake from Phantom Ship Overlook

We left Prospect, Oregon mid-morning on September 19^th on our trek toward our next stop big stop, Lassen Volcanic National Park in northern California.  A couple that met on a few occasions in the Crater Lake area suggested that we swing through Lava Beds National Monument on our way south.  It was well worth the diversion.  Lava Beds National Monument comprises a region that was engulfed in lava flows from a nearby volcano some 500,000 years ago (I take their word for it, as I was only a child at the time).  Anyway, the event left the region covered in huge jagged chunks of dark brown lava.  The geologists have a name for it – I just think of it as big pieces of chocolate brownies.  Another striking feature of this region is the labyrinth of underground caves (come to think of it – all caves are underground) formed by flowing lava.  There are several hundred of these hollow lava tubes throughout the park presenting a wide range of exploration difficulty.  Visitors to Lava Beds National Monument are welcome to explore the caves.  Equipment guidelines and flashlight are available at the Visitors Center in the Monument (I guess that a “Monument” is one step down from a “National Park”).

9-19-13: Entering California from Oregon

Jean and I selected “Scull Cave” for cursory exploration.  It was on our route through the National Monument and required little exertion, being close to the main road and having tall ceilings – no stooping required at the entrance.  After checking out the cave we proceeded southwest through the Monument and on to Glass Mountain which had be suggested as an interesting stop by the Monument’s ranger.  Glass Mountain, which sits at an elevation of 7,600 ft, is one huge, huge pile of chunks of both solid and foamed obsidian brought to the earth’s surface by volcanic action.  Very impressive to see layers upon layers of continuous and fractured material.

9-19-20: Jeep at side of Glass Mountain, northern California

We continued on toward our night’s lodging in North Station, 14 miles north of the north entrance to Lassen Volcanic National Park; making a couple of stops.  We had seen Mount Shasta peaking off to our right as we traveled generally southward.  We decided to get a closer look by taking a westerly side trip to the northern California town of McCloud.  From there we had a good view of the mountain from our lunch stop.

9-19-13: Mount Shasta from our McCloud, California lunch stop

We then gassed up and headed once again for Old Station.  Incidentally, what kind of gas mileage we get in the Jeep is one of the top five questions that we are asked by folks that are interested in the station wagon.  The answer is: 21mpg if mostly highway cruising at 55mph (we do not use expressways).  Probably does a little better than that; however, we seldom have a straight highway run for a tankfull of gas to know for sure.  Around town the mileage drops to around 15mpg.  Surprisingly, the first question asked by most folks is “is that a woodie?”  Being an all steel station wagon, and having no wood on it with the exception of the roof rack, it perplexes me a bit to have that question asked; however, I understand that the question is aimed more at the class of car rather than the materials of construction.  The second most asked when we describe our Trek is “does it have air conditioning?” to which we reply “yup, two door windows, a cowl vent, and a liftable back window.”

Back to the trip – the last stop that we made before reaching our evening’s destination in Old Station, California was MacArthur-Burney Falls.  There is an impressive waterfall just minutes from this State Park’s parking lot.  The falls drop from roughly the level of the parking lot to a lagoon some 130 feet below.  Perhaps the most striking feature is that some of water from above, in addition to that which is in the stream, emanates from the face of the stone cliff face on either side of the main stream, providing a veil like appearance.  We walked down a paved trail to the base of the falls in its canyon to experience the deep roar and fine cool mist of the falls.  Must be refreshing on a shot summer day.

The Jeep has been performing very well, negotiating major changes in elevation (often to 7,000+ ft requiring with sustained full throttle runs) without a hiccup.  Guess Jean, in her infinite wisdom, was right in advising me to keep my hands off of the engine as long as it was operating well.  One usually gets a few signals when it is time to do general maintenance, and with less than 4,000 miles since I got it tuned in, I feel confident in heeding her advice – a while longer.  Arrived safely in Old Station to rest up for our visit to Lassen Volcanic National Park (our sixth National Park in the Trek) the next morning.

9-19-13 MacArthur-Burney Falls northern California

Honestly, we had not heard of Lassen Volcanic National Park before it was brought to our attention as one of the stops on the 1920 Part-to-Park Tour; and we are pleased that it was.  Ironically, although Lassen Volcanic National Park was one of the scheduled stops on the 1920 tour, due to lack of roads to and within the Park, the Tour group did not actually visit this Park, but rather encouraged the construction of roads during their stop in Reading, California some 50 miles west of the Park.  Nevertheless, this was one of the intended stops (and besides, we had had a Park sticker printed for it), so Jean and I decided to spend half a day driving through and exploring the Park.

9-20-13: Entering Lassen Volcanic National Park

An important note of disclosure:  Although our original intensions had been to follow the route of the 1920 Park-to-Park Tour as closely as possible, we have since deemed that plan to be impractical and not well suited to our safety and enjoyment.  First of all, in several cases the roads used by the 1920 tour (Interstate-5 running through much of California, for example) are now high speed heavily traveled Interstate Highways.  At a prudent top speed of 55mph, we do not belong on such thoroughfares.  Often there are no closely paralleling byways; and if there are, they are very tedious to maneuver in congested areas.  Secondly, the Tour group went well out of a direct Park to Park route to visit municipalities such as Seattle, San Francisco, and Los Angeles to promote the construction of roads to the Parks – as well they should.  With those cities considerably larger now, and incorporating the Interstate Highways previously mentioned, it was just not practical for us to make every city stop on the Tour’s itinerary.  With the desire to avoid major thoroughfares, the elimination of the impractical stops, and to permit the inclusion of other interesting places, Jean and I at times selected routes that were different from those of the original Park-to-park Tour.

That being said, we are making our best effort (thus far successfully) to visit in prescribed order, all twelve of the National Parks originally mapped out for the 1920 Tour, and to experience the roads and points of interest in the Parks outlined in the original or actually visited by the Tour group.  Actually, with our recent visit to Lassen Volcanic National Park and our intended visit to Zion National Park (neither of which, for good reasons, the 1920 Tour did actually accomplish), we hope to make up for our lack of tracing the actual path by visiting all of the Parks laid out in the original plan.  So there..

OK, back to Lassen Volcanic National Park.  After a super, reasonably priced breakfast in the town of Old Station (population 51), we drove the 14 miles to the northwestern entrance to Lassen Volcanic National Park where at the Visitors Center we received very helpful directions to those features assessable to the day visitor such as ourselves.  At the Park Ranger’s suggestion, we started our tour of the Park with an easy ½ mile walk along the shore of Manzanita Lake to a point where we could see Crescent Crater and Lassen Volcanic Peak across the lake; jutting up above the tree tops some five miles distant*.  Great way to get the juices flowing.

*Do you like my use of varied punctuation to break up run-on sentences?

9-20-13: View of Lassen Volcanic Peak from Lake Manzanita

Then anticipating the consumption of a fair amount of fuel making it to the top of the 8,500 foot pass across the Park road, we topped of our gas tank we and headed out to our next stop – labeled on the Park map as “Devastated Area”.  This is where the circa 1915 eruption and resultant mud flow caused by the melting of the snow cap, wiped out the forest below for a distance of three or more miles toward the point where we stood.  We took a photo of the Jeep in the same location where Benjamin F. Loomis took a six photo sequence over a period of 20 minutes of the 1914 eruption that preceded the more devastating one shortly afterward.  The rich soil in carried down the mountain by the mud flow has supported hardy reforestation in that area.

“Devastated Area” Site of the 1914 eruptions photographed by Benjamin F Loomis

We next traveled to King’s Creek.  At an elevation of 7,400 feet, the creek meanders through a lush upland meadow bordered by mature pine and fir trees towering above.  Very peaceful setting with the light wind whispering through the branches.  Enough of that.  Jeep did well so far on the climb.

We continued our assent on the Park road to Bumpass Lookout at an elevation of 8,500 feet.  Not quite sure if that is pronounced.  Anyway, we made it up there without anyone bumping us in the _ _ _.  The spectacular view from up there helps one envision that the surrounding 8,000 foot to 10,000 foot peaks are mere remnants of a much, much larger volcano that resided in the Park.  Equally amazing is the existence of a megaton bolder perched on the edge of this Overlook – the bolder have been deposited there by a receding glacier that was thick enough to have covered that location.  Extremely windy up there.  Glad they had opted for stone restrooms and not Porta-Potties.  Please view video to get a sense of this stop.

Next stop on the journey down the main road in the Park (the operative word being “down”) was the Sulphur Works.  No halfway respectable Park in the west would be seen without at least something bubbling out of the earth and the longed-for aroma of rotten eggs.  Actually, this bubbly pit was quite impressive with its very energetic display.

Last stop on the trip through Lassen Volcanic National Park was the Kohm Yah-mah-nee (pronounced “kohm yah-mah-nee”) Visitors Center at the southwest entrance to (or in our case – exit from) the Park.

We had our traditional sunflower butter & honey sandwiches on wheat bread, took one last look at the peaks surrounding us, and headed off on byways to, of all places, Reno, Nevada.   Despite having portable hotspots for two different phone carriers, we had been suffering from feeble internet connectivity for the past several days.  Jean had some company “paperwork” to do that required strong connectivity to our server, so we elected to hold out in Reno for a couple of days to get caught up.  Will probably head out for Yosemite (pronounced “yosemite”) on the September 23, 2013.

Thanks for listening,

Dan

9-20-13 Passing thru volcanic rubble in Lassen Volcanic National Park

Jean and I spent Saturday and Sunday September 21^st and 22^nd in Reno, Nevada where good internet connection and comfortable accommodations permitted us to get caught up on company and personal business.

Monday morning, September 23^rd, after a good breakfast at a locally owned restaurant, Jean and I headed south toward our lodgings on the east border of Yosemite National Park.  Our destination was a “rustic” cabin in Lee Vining, a small town at the base of Tioga Road which winds its way up to the eastern entrance to Yosemite National Park by way of 9,500 foot elevation Tioga Pass.

Lee Vining resides on the western shore of Mono Lake, a large, extremely alkaline lake with a salinity level several times that of sea water.  Nevertheless, specifically adapted algae, water flies, and brine shrimp provide an ecological formula that feeds thousands of birds and water fowl that annually travel up and down the Pacific flyway.  We were there during the offseason; however, we did get to see ducks, geese, and seagulls preparing to make their way south for the winter.

Dan at Mono Lake, Lee Vining, California

Jean in front of a cluster of monoliths at Mono Lake, California

Sample of monoliths (~10’ tall) totally on dry ground at Mono Lake, California

Partially submerged monoliths on Mono Lake, California

The most intriguing feature of Mono Lake is the presence of tall monolithic mineral formations.  As recently as 60 years ago the lake level was 20 feet higher than today.  In the middle of the 20^th century, it was decided to divert water from the snow melt tributaries that normally feed Mono Lake, to supplement the Los Angeles water supply.  This resulted in the continual drop in the lake’s water level.  Before the lake level was lowered, underground springs would release water onto the lake floor.  When calcium compounds in the spring water reacted with the calcium containing lake water, irregularly shaped calcium carbonate formations were created on the lake floor.  Many such unusual formulations are exposed now that the lake level has receded.  As a side note, a compromise has been negotiated between the powers to be to increase the water supplied to the lake by reducing the amount of water diverted to LA.

View of Mono Lake, California with sun setting behind us (un-retouched photo)

Jean and I enjoyed exploring these monoliths up close and subsequently touring fresh water June and Grant Lakes on the June Lake loop road a few miles south of Lee Vining, California before settling in for the evening.  I should mention that prior to touring the region, Jean and I “sampled” the lower portion of the Tioga Pass and decided that due to its long, steep inclines, it was something that we would leave for the next morning.  I did not sleep well that evening thinking about the best transmission shifting strategy for the assault on Tioga Pass the next morning.

June Lake south of Lee Vining, California

Grant Lake south of Lee Vining, California

The morning of Tuesday, September 24^th was filled with a combination of excitement and apprehension; for me anyway.  Jean continued with her undaunted faith and trust in our ability to meet any challenge.  My concern was based on our pervious evening’s “sampling” of the Tioga Road leading to the east entrance to Yosemite National Park.  The eastern end of Tioga Road contains a 5 mile stretch of steep grade ultimately taking one through Tioga Pass at an elevation of 9,943 feet.  We had gained enough mountain climbing experience on this trip to recognize the challenges to our horsepower-challenged fully loaded station wagon (72 advertized horsepower).

We left our lodging earlier than usual, as we wanted to take advantage of the cool morning air to help keep the Jeep from overheating on the long climb (I usually let Jean sleep in until 8 am while I am up at 5 am to work on the blogs).  At 9:30 am while Jean was paying the breakfast tab, I was across the street topping off the gas tank, oil and water; and getting the business card of the local car towing service – just in case.

Sunrise on Mono Lake, California the morning of our departure to Yosemite National Park

So off we went westward toward the eastern entrance to Yosemite National Park, some 12 miles up the Tioga Road (“up” being the operative word).  So technically, we have 5 forward gears to work with.  Starting with the highest torque (lowest top speed) gear we have 1^st gear, 2^nd gear, 2^nd gear with overdrive, 3^rd gear, and 3^rd gear with overdrive.  Sounds complicated; however, we seldom use 2^nd gear with overdrive and the overdrive engagement in 3^rd gear is generally “automatic” being based on vehicle speed.

OK, so now we are sitting at the entrance to entrance to the Tioga Road looking at a sign that said something like “not advised for commercial vehicles towing trailers” (commercial vehicles towing trailers out-climb us all the time).  So we do our preflight check: oil pressure – good; engine temperature – good; generator charging – good; brakes – OK (as good as they get); seat belts – secured; doors – locked (sort of); and off we go.

Tioga Road starts off with a steep grade, but levels off enough for us to get all the way up to 3^rd with OD (at 40mph!).  Then, we hit the 5 mile continual grade to 9,900 feet.  Starting to lose speed – shift back to 3^rd without OD (36mph).  That lasted for a few moments until the speed drops to 28mph at which point we drop back to 2^nd gear without OD and continue the next 4.5 miles at between 25 and 28mph; when called for, pulling on to the right shoulder to let those show-offs with their new-fangled modern cars wiz by; and while continually scanning the gauges for any sign of impending trouble.

We are running at nearly full engine power with manifold vacuum at around 3 in Hg (close to full throttle).  The water temperature slowly rises to about 210F and stabilizes.  This is significantly higher than our usual 180F, but still tolerable (we hit 235F climbing in Rocky Mountain National Park a month earlier).  Oil pressure stabilizes at 30psi which is sufficient to maintain lubrication and cooling of internal engine components.  One thing that we do not have to watch as we negotiate the winding road is the speedometer.  No chance that we are going to exceed any speed limits any time soon.

Faster than imagined earlier we make it over the top of the pass at nearly 10,000 feet and drive on to the eastern entrance to Yosemite National Park, running surprising well considering our carbureted engine, unlike modern computed controlled fuel injected engines, has no means of compensating for the thinner air at this altitude.

Side note:  One thing that some of we old car drivers (that is drivers of old cars) dream of is the day when a solar flare sends an electro/magnetic pulse to the Earth that wipes out the solid state ignition systems ubiquitous on all modern cars – leaving us old car folks to carry on the task of handling transportation for the foreseeable future. Not true (the dreaming part), but with our strong dependence on solid state devices, it is something to think about.

The east entrance to Yosemite National Park on September 23, 2013 (notice the snow)

On September 24^th, after catching our breath from the traverse of 9,900 foot elevation Tioga Pass (see previous blog entry “Conquering Tioga Pass”) we we entered Yosemite National Park’s east entrance.  We then proceeded on to our first stop; Olmsted Point overlook – named after the famous landscape architect, who laid out plans for Yosemite National Park as well as New York’s Central Park and Raleigh’s Olmsted Park.

The Olmsted Point location, high on the east/west road bisecting Yosemite National Park, provides a long distance view of the impressive features to the south.  Although one cannot distinctly see Yosemite Valley from this vantage point, one does get an introduction to the magnitude and variety of features contained in the Park.

Looking south into Yosemite National Park from Olmsted Point overlook

OK, for the uninformed such as I, Yosemite National Park covers a large expanse of territory containing many impressive stone faced mountains, lush forests, verdant meadows, lakes and streams. Not unlike other Parks you might say.  Well, what sets Yosemite National Park apart is the close juxtaposition of the features.  This is particularly true in Yosemite Valley where the huge, steep faced essentially bare stone mountains are positioned on the edges of a 1 mile wide by 8 mile long flat bottomed valley containing areas of large trees, meadows, and the Merced River.  Unlike the Grand Tetons, Glacier or Rocky Mountain National Parks where one might trek miles off the main road to reach the base of a stone faced mountain, in Yosemite Valley, the walls of the mountains on either side of the Valley seem to be within touching distance as one travels down the loop road.

An extreme example is El Capitan which appears to jut straight up from the north side of the Valley floor within touching distance of the loop road.  It is not until one spots one of its many tiny climbers on its face that one realized it is perhaps a mile away from the road.  That is pretty close considering the base of the Grand Tetons, as impressive as they are, are perhaps 30 miles (I’m guessing here) away from popular viewing points.  Our cabin in Yosemite Valley virtually backed up against a 1,000 foot near vertical wall of granite.

A view of El Capitan as we entered Yosemite Valley

After taking the afternoon of the 24^th getting to know the “lay of the land”, we attended an evening Search & Rescue presentation put on by a 35 year veteran of the Search & Rescue team.  He provided real-life examples of situations requiring his group’s assistance and provided tips for increasing one’s chances of survival when trekking through wilderness areas.  Not that we plan any of that at the moment; however, we tried to remember some of his suggestions as we wondered about in the dark, trying to find our way back to our cabin on the unlit Valley floor – “the bears only come down to the cabins at night”.  Incidentally, our cabin was “primitive rustic”, but did have a bathroom with a shower.

On September 25^th we elected to take a 1 hour commercial open-air tram tour to get an overview of the Valley.  It was well worth the expense, as we were able to sit back and watch the scenery as our well informed Park Ranger guide pointed out the features of the Valley and took us to the Tunnel View overlook for a great (don’t want to wear out “spectacular”) view of the Valley and surrounding mountains including El Capitan, Half Dome, and Cathedral Rocks.

A view eastward into Yosemite Valley from Tunnel View overlook with El Capitan on the left, Cathedral Rocks in the right foreground and Half Dome the whitish peak on the center-right.

After lunch in the main dining room of the exclusive Ahwahnee Lodge (it was the least I could do for Jean after refusing to pay the $490/night fee to stay there), we left Yosemite Valley and headed south toward our evening’s lodging in Fresno, California.

Jean in the main dining room in The Ahwahnee Lodge in Yosemite Valley

The lounge in The Ahwahnee Lodge in Yosemite Valley

On our way out of Yosemite National Park we passed by the Wawona Hotel (circa 1915) and stopped in the Mariposa Grove where I got my first real look at the giant redwoods.  Jean, being a real woman of the world had previously seen the giant redwoods – but of course, the trees were much smaller then.

Wawona Hotel (circa 1915) at the south end of Yosemite National Park

9-24-13 Driving into Yosemite Valley with mountains just visible above the trees

9-25-13 Jean at the base of a large redwood in Mariposa Grove on the southern end of Yosemite National Park

We left Fresno, California mid-morning of September 26^th and headed toward Kings Canyon National Forest.

A note of explanation here:  As one of the 12 National Park stops on the original 1920 Park-to-Park Tour the participants visited what was then called “General Grant National Park”.  Today, as best as I can determine comparing the 1920 and current day maps, much of General Grant Park has been assimilated into both Kings Canyon National Forest and Sequoia National Park (the park boundaries look much like those of some of the gerrymandered electoral districts in North Carolina, with “fingers” jutting out into surrounding areas.  Can’t imagine why the deer vote is so important to them that they broke things up the way they did.  Because of these irregular boundaries, General Grant Grove (where the “Grant Sequoia” resides) is technically in a “thumb” of Sequoia National Park; and Hume Lake, which was in 1929 the furthest reach into what was then General Grant National Park and is now in Giant Sequoia National Monument district of Sequoia National Forest (or perhaps Sequoia National Forest district of Giant Sequoia National Monument) – oh well, just as long as someone keeps folks from turning the trees into toothpicks.

OK, back to the Trek.  So, we were merrily making our was east from Fresno to Kings Canyon National Forest on a nicely improved and well maintained route 180.  Then, I recalled that the original 1920 tour may have taken a route through the town of Dunlap which on the map appeared to be just a small diversion from the straight shot to the Forest that we were on.  So, we hung a right toward Dunlap and soon gained an appreciation of the contorted route the rural roads in this region take as they wind themselves through this semi-mountainous rural region.  The surface condition of these extremely winding (both horizontally & vertically) roads was reasonable – they just lacked such refinements such as shoulders, curve markers and guard rails in critical locations.  The other thing that we found humorous, if one dare break one’s concentration to think about anything else but the car that one might meet around the next blind curve, was the presence of a dotted yellow line down the center of the road for most of its length.  Having just turned off of route 180 where there were double yellow no passing lines in areas where one could have easily pass safely, we found it perplexing that they would have passing indicators on this road where the sight distance seldom expended beyond ones front bumper (slight exaggeration).  Fortunately, we were practically the only ones traveling these roads (the others either, a) knew better than to use these roads or b) were eliminated through natural selection; having gone over the edge or experienced a sudden stop against an oncoming vehicle).  While stopped at an intersection to confirm that we were generally headed in the right direction, a local gentleman politely asked us “what are you doing here?” explaining that route 180 was a much more convenient path.  When we explained our attempt at reenacting a prior route, he said the roads would eventually improve as we neared the Forest.  Sure enough, after a half hour or so, we were on a 2 lane road that felt like a super highway – no-passing lines and all.

We entered the “thumb” of Sequoia National Park from the west and drove directly to the General Grant Grove area of the Park.  There we had our first first-had exposure to giant sequoias.  They were really large!  Sequoias are generally shorter than their redwood cousins, but existing specimens may be twice the diameter and weight of the redwoods and up to 3,200 years in age (wonder who counted all those growth rings?).  The prince of the sequoias in the General Grant Grove is the General Grant Tree (reminds me of the old Groucho Marx the quiz question “Whose buried in Grant’s Tomb?”).  Anyway, the General Grant tree is the largest standing tree in the General Grant Grove region of Sequoia National Park.

Jeep at General Grant Grove in Sequoia National Park

Jean at Grant Tree at Grant Grove in Sequoia National Park

Disguised Yeti in front of giant fallen sequoia in the General Grant Cove

While in the General Grant Grove we experienced a situation that was duplicated several times during our Trek of the National Parks.  At some point when we were either leaving or returning to our Jeep, a tour bus transporting a group of Europeans (usually French or German) would pull in to the parking lot; their iPhones immediately aimed at surroundings.  However, once they noticed the Jeep, their attention would be redirected at the car; their iPhones, like miniature radar dishes homing in on the target.  We would have fun trying to communicate with each other regarding the age and lineage of the Jeep.  Many of the older folks were familiar with the name Willys Jeep from World War II and understood when I pointed out the bronze “Jeep” medallion in front of the diver’s-side door.  We enjoyed “talking” to them.

At the time of the 1920 Park-to-Park Tour the road into what was then General Grant National Park only extended as far as Hume Lake.  Jean and I decided to make the innocent looking trek to Hume Lake.  Well, it was worth the effort to be able to say that we had been there; however, the final 3-mile curvy stretch down (the operative word being “down”) to the lake and campground did not disappoint.  After some photo taking to document our achievement we clawed ourselves out of that depression and back-tracked our way to the Kings Canyon Visitors Center for some lunch before heading south to the adjacent (in some placed intertwined) Sequoia National Park.

9-26-13 Jeep at Hume Lake in Sequoia National Forest

We enjoyed a driving tour through the giant sequoias as we headed south (on average) on the extremely (you guessed it) winding Generals Highway.  In places the switchbacks were so tight that we could almost see our own taillights.  With ample examples of giant redwoods and sequoia visible from the car, and fearing any break in concentration as we negotiated the path south, we elected to be satisfied with viewing the trees from Jeep.  We exited Sequoia National Park at the southern Ash Mountain entrance and headed on to our evenings lodgings in Bakersfield, California.

Lower gear sign leaving Sequoia National Forest (what if you do not have a “PRND21”?)

9-26-13 Driving Generals Highway South out of Sequoia National Park

Most of Friday, September 27^th was spent driving from Bakersfield, California to Las Vegas, Nevada.  Las Vegas was selected as a convenient launching off point for Zion National Park in Utah; the 10^th scheduled National Park stop on our Trek. Las Vegas also provided decent internet connectivity and a selection of church service options.

Welcome to Nevada – View as we crossed into Nevada from the south

Looking eastward from our northern Las Vegas hotel room at sunset.  We often observed this coloration in the eastern sky at sunset throughout the West

Saturday, September 28^th we made the 45 minute drive from Las Vegas to Hoover Dam located at the terminus of Lake Mead to check out this wonder of the modern world.  If you like big and high and heavy, and powerful; this is the place for you.  After making the obligatory drive across the top of the dam we headed back to the Visitors Center with intension of purchasing tickets for a 2 hour full tour of the facility.  Unfortunately, they were not offering that tour, so we opted for the 45 minute tour of the generating system.  Everything about the dam is measured in tens and hundreds of thousands including tons of concrete, gallons per hour, watts of electricity, man-hours to construct and so on.  The thing that impressed me most was the fact that it was constructed in only 3 years!  One would assume that a lot of the design and engineering was well underway before the actual construction commenced; but still, the most massive structure of its time constructed in 3 years is incredible especially given all the manpower, materials and construction logistics challenges in what was then a very remote and rather stark region of the country.

Jean at Hoover Dam

Dan at Hoover Dam – Convenient Men’s Room on the top of the dam (wonder where the water goes?)

View upstream into Lake Mead from the top of Hoover Dam (water level was 60 feet below typical; but very seldom reached the top of the bleached border – talk about a bathtub ring)

View downstream into the Colorado River from the top of the dam

We wrapped up our visit with a tour of the exhibits at the old and new Visitor Centers and started back to Las Vegas for Saturday evening Mass.  That is when our “adventure” happened.  Our beautifully performing Jeep wagon developed a serious overheating problem.  Ever since I installed a fast responding mechanical engine temperature gauge and a new coolant thermostat for the Trek, I had noticed that when starting out with a cold engine, the engine temperature would rise slowly but continually past the normal thermostat setting and then suddenly drop back to normal.  I concluded that this was due to a normal lag in the opening of the coolant thermostat, and something that I had just not seen previously with the slower responding original electrical engine temperature gauge.  However, as we left the Hoover Dam parking garage and started up a long uphill climb out of the canyon, the engine temperature continued rising to a point where the cooling system began boiling over.  We pulled over into a turn-out and waited a few moments for the temperature gauge needle to drop to normal and proceeded back to Las Vegas with no further problems.  Like many unpredictable issues and despite my superficial attempts to diagnose the problem – this one would rear its ugly head again at a later date.

Saturday evening Jean and I went to 5 o’clock Mass at a small, modestly appointed church nestled in the uptown casino district of Las Vegas; where I sought spiritual guidance on our overheating problem.

9-28-13 Driving Across Hoover Dam

9-28-13 Looking down into Downstream Hoover Dam

On Sunday morning September 29^th we left Las Vegas on our Trek to Zion National Park.  As far as we could determine, much of the 125 mile stretch from Las Vegas, Nevada to Littlefield, Arizona used by the original 1920 Park-to-Park Tour group has been covered over by I-15.  We usually avoid Interstates; however, since there did not appear to be any other reasonable route from Las Vegas to Zion National Park, we decided to take I-15.  We tried our best to stay out of the way of the faster vehicles (basically everyone else on the road).

We stopped off at Valley of Fire State Park, just a few miles east of Interstate I-15, which was on the 1920 Park-to-Park Tour route (called Red Rock Canyon at that time). Turned out to be another memorable experience for us.  The Park is filled with a unique collection of large vivid convoluted red sandstone mounds amidst course sand rolling hills.

Then proceed to our lodging in Springdale, Utah at the southern entrance to Zion National Park.

Jeep in Valley of Fire State Park, Nevada

Valley of Fire State Park, Nevada

Valley of Fire State Park, Nevada

We arrived at out cabin in Springdale, Utah Tuesday evening, September 29^th; settled in and walked down Springdale’s main street to have some dinner at one of the many interesting cafés and restaurants.  Springdale is nestled in and directly adjacent to the south entrance of Zion National Park.  The town has managed to maintain a high quality, non-glitzy appearance despite the high volume of activity concentrated on its main thoroughfare.  Shuttle busses run on a very frequent schedule between the motels, eateries, and shops up and down the main thoroughfare.  The northern most stop on the Springdale shuttle route is a very short walk from the entrance to Zion National Park.

View from our cabin near Zion National Park as the sun set

Driving of personal vehicles within the Park itself is strongly discouraged by the Park Service during the lengthy tourist season.  However, a very convenient shuttle system within the Park makes one totally comfortable with leaving the driving to someone else.  So, Saturday morning we boarded the Springdale shuttle for a five minute ride to the Park entrance, picked up some Park literature at the Visitors Center, and headed off to the Zion Canyon shuttle stop.

The Zion shuttle stops at eight locations within Zion Canyon.  As suggested by the Zion shuttle driver, we elected to start our tour of the Park by taking the shuttle to the furthest stop, a 15 minute ride to the north end of the canyon – The Narrows.  At this stop one can take a non-strenuous one half mile walk up the canyon to a point where it narrows sufficiently that one must wade up the North Fork of the Virgin River to continue further.  We found it sufficiently impressive just looking up the narrowing canyon and at those wading further up stream.

Jean on The Narrows walk in Zion National Park

Approaching The Narrows in Zion National Park

Looking up-stream into The Narrows in Zion National Park

Panorama view from the front of the Zion Human History Museum

It is interesting to compare the Zion Canyon to the Yosemite Valley.  Whereas, as reported in a previous blog entry, the shear stone walls of Yosemite Valley are light grey granite and quite smooth, the walls of Zion Canyon are coarse sandstone and multi-colored.  Zion Canyon is much narrower than Yosemite Valley and the base of the walls even more accessible.  Each location has its own special attractiveness.

After visiting the upper end of Zion Canyon, we proceed back south toward the mouth of the canyon on the Zion shuttle, soaking in the views of the canyon as the shuttle made its designated stops at places such as “Big Bend”, “The Grotto”, “Court of the Patriarchs”, and Zion Lodge.  We stopped at the Zion Human History Museum” where we saw exhibits of and watched a video presentation of the history of inhabitants in Zion National Park throughout the ages.  Life was difficult for late settlers in the canyon; with alternating periods of drought and raging floods.  Few stayed.

After taking the Springdale shuttle back to our cabin, “we” decided that it would be “interesting” to drive 15 miles out of Springdale and up Kolob Terrace Road (operative word being “up”) as far as we could before having turn around and return back to the cabin before dark.  We chugged our way up Kolob Terrace Road (mostly in 2^nd gear) to an elevation of about 7,500 feet – 3,500 feet above Springdale in about 12 miles.  The sights were striking, but I was too worried about the stress on the Jeep (particularly with engine overheating tendencies) to enjoy the view.  Jean, on the other hand, with her unflappable confidence, loved every minute of the drive.

Traveling up the Kolob Terrace Road into Zion National Park

View from Kolob Terrace Road in Zion National Park

We concluded our stay in Springdale with an evening meal consisting of turkey sandwiches and roasted almonds on the lawn of our cabin complex as we watched the shadows grow on the red canyon walls.