Spending a significant time in the West is one of our family's favorite summer traditions. We've been doing it for 39 years and it goes back even further if you count my husband's childhood. Over the last few weeks, I've been chronicling our 2019 trip to the Wind River Range of Wyoming and the stops we made afterwards. You can read Part I here, Part II here, and Part III here. America's Favorite National Park After 8 days, we left our primitive camp in the Wind River Range to head north. Our two youngest had never seen Yellowstone which seemed unacceptable since they were practically adults now. So we pulled into a Yellowstone campground to spend 2 nights and a full day hitting the typical highlights of this unique park. One day is not near enough to see it all, but we had the perfect weather and made … [Read more...] about Heading West Part IV
Heading West Part III
Our family primitive camped in the Wind River Range of western Wyoming in June 2019. You can read Part I here and Part II here. Exploring We took a 4 mile hike on the Continental Divide Trail right out of camp in the Wind River Range. 4 miles was less than a drop in the bucket of the total 3,100 mile trail running between Canada and Mexico. First we had to cross the Green River on a well made and well worn bridge. Both Forest Service and private horsepack groups use this trail as well as hikers and backpackers. The horse shoes have worn down the center of this bridge. Life Slows Down Photo credit: LBS I'm usually in the back of our group, stopping to take pictures of course. You can't rush a photographer. ;) Photo Credit: LBS This hike did not gain much elevation until … [Read more...] about Heading West Part III
Heading West Part II
A Little Bit of Heaven Our family took a much needed break on the Continental Divide of the Rocky Mountains recently ~ read Part I here if you missed it! We started our trip with 8 days at the headwaters of the Green River in the northern part of the Wind River Range of WY. Bridger Wilderness was a stone's throw away, just on the other side of the river. We learned that this area was "home" to the earliest trappers and the Shoshone Indians (Sacajewea, who led Lewis & Clark through the mountains, was Shoshone). The Mountain Man Fur Trade Rendezvous was held 4 times in the 1830's along the Green River near this spot. As it was then, it is still a grizzly and black bear habitat area and visitors must be extremely cautious. Grizzlies or not, this was THE best primitive campsite we've ever had in … [Read more...] about Heading West Part II
Heading West Part I
Curve balls My apologies to readers of this blog for being absentee the last 3 months. I never envisioned having to lay this new venture of blogging aside so soon, albeit temporarily. Yet life brings the unexpected curve ball on occasion and more urgent needs do take priority. We've had 2 immediate family members with serious but not life-threatening injuries involving many doctor visits, PT appts, MRI's and an upcoming surgery in August, multiple trips out of state (one to sit by the hospital bed of a beloved mother/mother-in-law for 4 days), conference calls, out of state real estate problems, and the pressing task of used truck shopping under a time crunch. As it would turn out, we bought a "new" used truck the day before our current truck's transmission gave out. We call that a God-thing. "Normal … [Read more...] about Heading West Part I
“Yes it could be, it surely could be, something special just for me!”
That's a line 'little Winthrop' (aka Ronnie Howard) sings in musical The Music Man and it describes exactly how I feel about Spring. April and May are my #1 favorite months of the year. With late snows and cold temperatures in the 1st week of April, Winter has held it's tight-fisted grip on us for an extra long time but the final finger has been peeled back and Spring is finally bursting out. Even though the general landscape doesn't seem any different, if you look closely, you'll see little signs of a new season popping up here and there. What are the typical signs you look for? Spring beauties, crocuses, and daffodils blooming, bluebirds scouting out a nesting box and the sandhill cranes flying overhead are some of my favorites. See the bee in the photo below? The presence of insects is another signal … [Read more...] about “Yes it could be, it surely could be, something special just for me!”