August 24, 2013 Redmond Oregon

Well I haven't added anything here since leaving Wyoming. We arrived at friends in Oregon and it seems we have been running nearly every day. Whether biking, hiking or 

geocaching we have been quite busy.

These guys are about to run our legs off.

We hiked a little over 3 miles around Suttle Lake, a natural lake at the crest of the Cascades.  

We've hiked Eagles Crest Resort along the Deschutes River. The Deschutes river is a major tributary from the Columbia River providing much irrigation for east of the Cascades.

WOW these guys are hard to keep up with at times.

Today we went White Water Rafting on the McKenzie River which is west of 

Redmond in the Willamette National Forest. The Mckenzie River is a 90 mile

tributary of the Willamette River in located in western Oregon. We all had

a blast, it was so fun. The water temperature was 42 degrees, so it was a 

little chilly when we were splashed, but still such a great time.

We also got to see Sahalie Falls on the Mckenzie River which has a total fall of 73 feet. It is the largest of 3 falls found on the Mckenzie River

August 14th Grand Teton's & Jackson Hole

Arrived in the Grand Tetons on 8/13/2013 and got an awesome site in the Gros Ventre park looking at the Tetons.

Shannon had arranged a Happy Hour and we got re-aquainted with Nancy & Dave, Jim and met Dave's son Justin who was here visiting from Bangkok.

Day 2 Bill and I opted to not take a 9 mile hike with Shannon for fear we might not be ready for such so we saw the small Village of Kelley which was wiped out in the early 20's by a damn that broke. As the story goes a large mud and rock slide had broke loose filling the valley floor with rock, mud and debris damning the river. A rancher near by felt uneasy and sold his home thinking the damn would break and there would be epic damage to ranchers

and the village of Kelley. No one would listen to him and for his families safety he sold the ranch and moved.

The dam broke a few years later wiping out his ranch and many others while doing significant damage to Kelley.

We then saw the field of debris created by the landslide, mangled trees, boulders and such that looked like truck after truck might have dumped at the site.

We drove to Mormon row where some of the 1st settlers settled at the Tetons, saw herds of free roaming Buffalo and Pronghorn err

Afterwards we drove toward the town of Jackson to find a geocache, to continue of streak of at least one cache a day. Walked around a bit while downtown and then decided it was time for a little lunch.

After eating we drove west out the Teton Pass Hwy toward Idaho where we picked up another 5 or 6 caches in the town of Victor, ID. The drive was nice and the road was a climb with great views ofJackson Hole, WY.

On the way back we drove threw Teton Village and we happened to catch a Moose roaming close to the Hwy.

It wasn't till today that we got an awesome sight of Moose with a nice rack right outside our 

campsite.

Today we will drive over to Jenny Lake where Shannon is working to check the lake out.

Hiked around Jenny Lake saw some awesome falls, awesome views from Inspiration

point. Even got to see a very large Moose.

We drove up toward Yellowstone today in hope of seeing additional wildlife and on our

return we had a huge black bear cross right in front of the car, unfortunately he was quicker 

than the shutter closed on the camera, we did get a nice road picture.

 

August 11, 2013 Medicine Bow National Forrest

We have spent the last week dry camping out on the plains of Wyoming in the Medicine Bow
National Forest with our friends Raymond, Steve, Kenny and Johnny. We traveled on the
Lincoln Highway, I80 out of Cheyenne to our campsite out in the plains. Along the way we
visited the only monument that is built along his namesake highway, the Abraham Lincoln
Memorial that was erected by the WY parks department. We learned that the Lincoln Highway traverses 3,389 miles from coast-to-coast from Times Square to the Golden Gate Bridge.

Everyday during the month of August we will be finding at least one geocache to complete our August challenge. Most days we will be trying to get more than the required one cache.
Since we have been out in nature with no immediate towns, we have spent some extra time outside.
I went kayaking one afternoon and saw a Bald Eagle sitting in a tree beside the lake. It was an awesome experience to get so close to the eagle and not have it fly away. Unfortunately, since I was out in a kayak, and have never been out in one, I did not take the camera out with me...bummer, so no picture. Another afternoon we all went on a flora and fauna hike and our guide was able to identify 38 different types of flowers and plants in three separate eco systems.
On another afternoon we visited the Ames Monument which is a 60' tall granite pyramid on the plaines. The monument was built in dedication to the brothers Oakes Ames and Oliver Ames, Jr., who financed the Union Pacific Railroad. The monument  was built in 1882 at a cost of $65,000.00. Terry and I thought it was unique to see a pyramid out on the plaines. There were no trees in the immediate area, so the pyramid was visible for a distance.

Today we moved to Curt Gowdy State Park to recharge our batteries, wash laundry and fill up with water. Tomorrow we will venture West to Rock Springs, WY and then onto The Grand Teton National Park to visit Shannon. Shannon has already got a "happy hour" arranged for our arrival!! How nice and we'll also get to meet again Dave and Nancy who we met earlier this year when we met Shannon in Tucson, AZ.

We keep moving right along on our traveling adventures.

August 5, 2013 Cheyenne, WY

We have spent a week here in Cheyenne and have seen several things that I am going to include
below.

The Buffalo and baby ostriches is here at our RV Park.

The Wyoming welcome center was modern with wind and solar panels that produces
50% of the centers energy, it was quite nice.

We visited the Historical Wyoming Governors Mansion and the State Capitol.

They also have a historical Train depot that is very attractive.

Today we went Geocaching with Raymond and Steve traveling some back roads where
we picked up about 34 new caches. A marathon of caches for Bill and I. We managed to get them done before the daily thunderstorm rolled in.