Two Trekkers

Day 70

Wow, today was awesome!! We went to the bear park. It was a drive through park, so as we drove through the park we saw all the animals. We saw elk, deer, bison, moose, wolves, beavers and… BEARS!! Not just a few bears but about 45 bears! AND… 6 cubs!!!

Well needless to say Michael was in heaven! The bears got really close to the car. They park owners tell you to keep your windows closed and you have to keep the car moving, albeit very slow, to ensure the bears don’t use your car as a jungle gym. So we went as slow as we could go without stopping and some of the bears walked right past the car, so close you could touch them (if you were brave enough, which we were not).

After the drive through bit (which we did twice!) there was a small petting zoo. I think this was for kids but as Michael is a BIG kid it suited him just fine. We got to pet deer (including a baby), goats and a fat pig. There was also ducks, chickens, swans and a peacock.

We left the park, I had to drag Michael out, and headed south to Salt Lake City. It was a 3 hour drive with nothing to do on the way. We arrived in Salt Lake too late to do anything but tomorrow we will explore the Mormon town. Till then…

- By Nic

Day 69

We started our day early (6am!!) because we were told our chances of seeing a bear would be better at dawn. The only thing we saw at 6am was the sun rising!

We drove through the park some more and saw more Geysers. We also saw a shit load of Bison (the novelty wore off just like the Elk). Still no bears though.

We saw a couple of nice water falls on the way out of the park. We finally made it out of the park about lunch time. We entered the park in Wyoming but exited in Montana. 1 hour later we were in Idaho.

We went via a scenic byway to our way to a place called Rexberg, which was a stop for the night. We saw two quite large waterfall on the byway.

Tomorrow Michael will finally get to see his bears!! He found out about a bear park so that’s we are heading tomorrow

- By Nic

Day 68

On our way into Yellowstone National Park we saw loads of beautiful snow topped mountains. Once we got to Yellowstone we realised how massive it actually was. We will need 2 days to cover everything.

We drove about 200 miles (300 kms) today but at least we got to see stuff along the way. The first park of the park was higher altitude so there was still snow everywhere. In some places it was 3-4 foot deep! Other areas the snow just covered the ground in a thin layer but still enough to make it look like it was still winter.

We came across a lake which was covered in ice! It wasn’t thick enough to skate on but still looked pretty cool. We soon discovered a few of these on the drive.

We were in the Park for about 3 hours before we saw our first animal. Much to Michael’s despair it wasn’t a bear but 4 Bison. Even though it wasn’t a bear it was still pretty cool to see these massive creatures in the wild. We actually got quite close (although not too close!) to them. It was not long after that we saw our first Elk (we got excited but then saw hundreds of them so it lost its appeal).

We then stopped at a part of the park that was full of Geysers. Some of them looked pretty amazing (photos on FB). Apparently there are 10,000 in the park but most of them are tiny. Yellowstone is actually a massive volcano – I bet you didn’t know that!

We then saw a massive Geyser that actually erupted every 90 minutes or so. It was pretty cool to see hot water and steam shooting up about 50 feet into the air!

After all the Geyser excitement it was time to find out ‘home’ for the night. We stayed in an RV campground in the Park. We went for a little walk to discover some Bison munching on some grass near the campgrounds. We sat and watched them for a while before heading back to the van and going to bed.

Tomorrow we will continue our way through the park… maybe even see some bears!

- By Nic

Day 67

Today was a lot like yesterday… A whole lot of nothing! We are still heading towards Yellowstone which we should reach sometime tomorrow. But in the meantime the road through Wyoming is very uneventful, but plenty of deer at least.

Michael is very excited as he read that there have been recent bear sightings in Yellowstone so he is on a mission! Fingers crossed!

- By Nic

Day 66

Today was a massive drive day with very little to see. It wasn’t quite as boring as our drive through Nebraska but still very little scenery.

Our “home” for the night was a small town called Casper… at a Walmart of course. We are still another full day away from Yellowstone so tomorrow will probably be much the same as today. Im sure Yellowstone will provide us much to blog about!

- By Nic

Day 65

We left our motel about 10am and headed towards the Rocky Mountains. The Rockies are amazing. As the name suggests its mountains made of rocks. But there is forests of pine trees growing on the mountains.. not sure how that works but it looks amazing.

Michael was happy today cause we saw some more wildlife. We saw 3 male deer (although they were too far away to get a photo), chipmunks (so cute but can get a little annoying when they’re hungry) and a beaver! He is still waiting to see a bear but each day he is met with disappointment on that front. Im not sure what he would actually do if he was confronted by a bear… probably scream like a girl (edit – a very manly girl mind you – Michael)

We spent most of the day driving but unlike a week ago it was a scenic drive. Colorado, the west side of the state, is definitely one of our favourite states so far. It was would be our most favourite non beach state Id say. So beautiful.

I would love to do the Rockies drive during winter, although it would be freezing, the mountains would be magnificent covered in snow.

Tomorrow we head for Yellowstone Park. It will take us 2 days to get there but should be well worth it. Maybe Michael will get to see his bear finally!

- By Nic

Day 64

We left quite early today as we had a 3 hour drive to Aspen, our first stop for the day. However, half way to Aspen a sign indicated that the road to Aspen was closed!! We could have gone another way but that would have added another 100 miles so we decided against it.

We decided to go to Vail instead, which I had heard was very similar to Aspen. We got there and straight away fell in love with it (We haven’t fallen in love with a place for ages!!) All the houses and shops were built in log cabin fashion and most of them back on to a running creek, very beautiful.

There was still a fair amount of snow on the higher mountains (photos on FB) and looked beautiful.

After Vail we went to a town called Silverthrone, the poor mans Vail, but still very nice. We settled there for the night in a cheap motel.. over looking snow topped mountains! Yes, its a tough life

- By Nic

Day 63

Well, FINALLY something to blog about! We left Denver this morning and arrived in Colorado Springs an hour later. First up we went to a small park called Garden of the Gods. On arrival we finally saw some wild deer! After 9000 miles of signs saying “watch for deer” we had two run in front of the car (photo of FB).

So the Garden of the Gods was full of rock formations small and large that have occurred naturally over thousands of years. It was really beautiful (photos on FB).

After the Garden we went to some Cliff Dwellings. These are were indians used to live back in the day (year 1100!) – Old school! This is amazing. To see how they lived back then. They were small cave homes built into the cliffs of the mountains. (Photos on FB)

From here we went and saw a couple of water falls. One of them had stairs one could walk up to the top of the water fall – all 248 steps! Michael walked up, I did not. While he was walking up there I was busy feeding Chipmunks!! Very cute. However, I read the sign wrong and I wasn’t actually supposed to feed them…oops!

After a very full day we were buggered so we found our Walmart and settled down for the night.

- By Nic

Day 62

We left Stirling this morning and headed into Denver. Unfortunately the weather was shit all day, cold and rainy. So when we arrived at Denver we thought it was perfect movie weather so found a cinema. We saw The Avengers.. wasn’t too bad actually. Im not normally a super hero movie fan but they threw in quite a lot of good one liners which kept me entertained.

After the movie we found our Walmart home for the night. We didn’t do much else due to the weather. Tomorrow hopefully our blog will start to be less boring again as we head to Colorado Springs which should be quite scenic. Till then…

- By Nic

Day 61

We left the comfort of our motel room late morning and headed west towards Colorado. We made it across the boarder about lunch time. Ive always wanted to see Colorado so I was glad to finally make it.

The weather today was very different to yesterday. While yesterday it was a very warm 35c (maybe even warmer) today got to a chilly 18c (although it felt more like 13c). Its weird how in a 24 hour period we can go from one extreme to the other. Tonight was a two doona night and last night we needed the AC on! Very strange.

We settled for the night at a Walmart in a town called Sterling. We are about 2 hours east of Denver. Then the sightseeing starts! It feels like we haven’t really seen anything but a highway for so long it will be nice to see some sights again.

- By Nic